For Heaven’s Sake – Come & See Confidence

This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason and Liz Burns in Access Church in Lakeland and Bartow, Florida.

For more information, visit Access.tv.

For heaven's sake, what is this series about?

We're wrestling with one question for literally three weeks, and it's this how do we care about what heaven cares about?

Like, how can how can the stuff that matters to God be stuff that matters to us?

And so today I want to wrap this series up.

We've been talking about what matters to Jesus, Jesus Himself over 130 times in the four books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John called The Gospel said that the point of all of this is to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth.

And I want to try to show you one thing that I think matters to God as much or more than anything else you could ever begin to imagine.

When my wife and I first started dating and we got engaged and married, uh, one of the big trips that I got to take as a the boyfriend is that I needed to go up to the area just south of Charlotte, North Carolina, just across the South Carolina border, to visit her grandparents.

And I was told when I was dating there were three levels of men that I had to get their approval of in order to actually secure the bag, if you know what I'm saying, to get the girl to win her heart.

Had to impress her dad, I had to impress her Uncle Danny, and then there was a man that she called Gramps.

And um the pictures I saw of Gramps, he looked like if if an actual um grizzly bear turned into a human, that's what he looked like, just this big intimidating man.

And I had heard stories that he had run off boyfriends of my wife's sister in the past, so I was nervous about meeting this guy.

And one of the first times I met him, we were up there in the Charlotte, North Carolina area visiting them, and I noticed that this man, he was a routine man.

Like every day he did the same thing.

He ate the same thing for breakfast, lunch at the same time every day.

And every night he would sit down in his chair and watch his TV, and he watched two shows every night.

One was a lady, a commentator, Susie Orman, I think she does some financial conversations.

And the second one is this beautiful show, maybe you've seen it before, called Cops.

Anybody ever see Cops?

Remember this?

I don't even know if it's still on anymore.

But one time we were there with Gramps and we were watching Cops, and I'm on the edge of my seat watching this, and there's this moment where a police officer who's on camera, uh, you know, an announcement comes over his radio and he says, Um, there's a potential drug deal going down.

The suspect is wearing no shirt, no shoes, and baby blue pants.

So this police officer is just driving around town and he sees a person who matches this description.

No shirt, no shoes, baby blue pants.

So he turns his lights on, drives up on this person, and the person says, Sir, sir, what do you what do you even need from me?

He goes, Well, I need to put your hands behind your back, you match the description of someone we're looking for.

He goes, Do you have anything illegal on you?

He goes, Absolutely not.

He goes, Well, I'm just gonna go ahead and pat you down.

So with his hands handcuffed behind his back, the police officer literally pats his pants, reaches into his pants, and pulls out a massive bag of cocaine.

And the man said this thing, and it's one of the funniest things I've ever heard.

He goes, What?

What?

And then he said these words.

He said, These aren't even my pants.

Isn't it funny how fast when we're confronted with something, we just make an excuse.

Isn't this weird?

How about this one?

I was looking at the news this week and I saw this headline.

It says, Florida woman blames cocaine in purse on windy days.

I don't know how it got there.

The wind must have blown that bag of cocaine into my bag.

Today's message is brought to you by cocaine.

How many times can I say that word today?

Isn't it wild?

I want you to see this.

Okay, get with me for a second.

Isn't it wild that when we're confronted with truth or the reality, we have one of two options.

We can either accept something as true or we can do what most people do and we can make excuses.

And we're really good at making excuses, if I could just be honest for a moment.

Like we're really good at excusing our bad behavior.

Did you ever notice this?

We judge other people on their actions, but we judge ourselves on our intentions.

Have you noticed this?

When someone goes flying by you on the interstate, you think, what an idiot.

What a more who drives like that?

But when you're the one having to drive really fast, it's because you've got good intentions, you've got a reason, right?

We do this.

And we're very quick to make excuses for our own behavior.

And I want to get all up in your business today.

Let me let me tell you what we're gonna do.

I'm gonna get all up in your business, and then we're gonna take communion together.

That's how we're gonna end today.

It's gonna be a special day.

That's the whole message.

In your business, communion.

And um, and here's one of the things I want you to see.

When it comes to the things of God, you're gonna have two options.

You can obey and do it, or you can make excuses.

You ready?

This is gonna get all up in your business.

Jesus said, in one of his final things he said to his followers and his disciples in the book of Matthew, chapter 28, Jesus said, Therefore, go.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

Don't stay home, don't sit on your hands, don't fritter your time away on Instagram and TikTok.

He says, Therefore, go and make disciples or followers, students of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey, not to make excuses, but to obey everything I have commanded you.

And then Jesus, he ends that challenge with a promise.

He says, And surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age.

And when it comes to Jesus' words, the truth is we have an option.

We can choose to obey or we can make excuses.

And I just want to tell you, I refuse to pastor a church that's an excuses church.

Like if you just want to be a church that makes excuses, you do you, I'm moving and I'm leaving.

I've committed my life to leading people to make progress, not to make excuses, to attack the kingdom of darkness, to fill up heaven, to make heaven really crowded, and to plunder the gates of hell.

Like I have committed my life to doing this, and I'm not an excuse guy, and we're not going to be an excuse church.

So Jesus says this.

He says, I want you to go.

Okay, now this is kind of a hard thing for us to hear because Jesus says, Go into all the world, and we read that, and sometimes it feels like we're like, well, I'm not a missionary.

You know, I'm an accountant, I'm not a missionary, I'm a school teacher, I'm a barista.

No, no.

Jesus says, go.

And I want you to see this.

Um, one person, one scholar I read said that phrase go is a good phrase and it makes sense.

But it really makes sense if you were to translate Jesus' words, maybe even a little bit more literally.

It means this.

It means in your going, in your life, at your job, in your neighborhood, with your friends and your family members, wherever you go and whatever you do in your going, your responsibility as a follower of Jesus is to go make disciples.

And I want you to see this.

Jesus's words were a command, not a suggestion.

It wasn't like a, hey, if you're feeling it, if you're vibing, if you're feeling good, if you're if if it's good, go.

No, no.

If you're a follower of Jesus, you are on mission, and it's a command, not a suggestion.

Well, what is the command?

Well, Jesus said over 130 times, my mission is to be a kingdom bringer, to bring the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God from up there to down here, from heaven to earth.

And how do we do it?

And how do we spread the kingdom of God?

Well, Jesus took that and he made it so undeniably crystal clear in the book of Luke.

Jesus said, For the Son of Man, talking about himself, came to seek and to save the lost.

Okay.

Jesus seems overtly concerned, not by who he has, though he loves every person, but what has his heart and what has his attention is who is lost.

And I think we understand this in most parts of our life, don't we?

Like one time I lost my wedding ring, and it it was like only gone for just an hour or two, but I'll be honest with you, this matters so much to me.

It's a symbol of my love and my commitment to my wife of 20 years now, and I didn't know where it was.

I didn't put it in my normal place.

And for like an hour or two, I was freaking out.

For an hour or two, I thought I lost the ring.

And I my wife's Italian, she's probably got mafia connections, you know.

I'm like, end up with a horse head in my bed.

I don't even know what that means.

Couldn't find it.

And can I tell you what I didn't do when I lost my wedding ring?

I didn't walk around and go, there's my refrigerator, and there's my couch.

Woo! There's my TV.

I didn't do any of that because I wasn't focused on what I had.

What had my attention and what got my focus was what on what was missing.

Jesus said that the Son of Man came for this undeniable purpose to seek and save those who are lost.

So here's the excuses we make.

And I want you to see this.

Excuses are just lies.

They're lies we tell ourselves.

Let me give you some of the excuses we use to not really share our faith.

We think things like, well, my faith is a private matter.

Let me tell you the truth.

The truth is, actual beliefs can't help themselves.

They come out in action.

Here's another lie.

Well, imposing my beliefs on others isn't love.

We as a culture have royally misdefined love.

We think love is letting people do whatever they want.

Love isn't saying, oh kids, I love you so much.

You're my kids.

Why don't you go play in the highway?

That sounds fun.

It's like a life-size game of frogger.

No, that doesn't work.

Why?

Because you understand that like there's something that matters more.

Real love protects and speaks the truth in love.

Here's another lie.

It's not my job or my gifting.

And let me say this to you: if you relegate the ministry of telling people about Jesus just to preachers, we're gonna be in a lot of trouble.

It was the great command for all of us to do, not a suggestion.

Here's another excuse or a lie we make.

We'll say about some family and friends.

Well, they're already too far gone.

Let me correct that lie.

If they're breathing, there is still hope.

It's a big deal.

Here's another one.

Well, if I do it, I'll be called a hypocrite.

And can I tell you the beauty of the gospel message of Jesus?

The power is in the message, not the messenger.

Like I have to say that to myself all the time because I get up and I talk about the perfect word of God from my own broken frailty.

But you need to understand this.

The power of the message of Jesus is in the message of Jesus, not in who's sharing it.

And here's one last one.

Another lie is, well, I don't know what to say.

Can I teach you something?

Sharing your faith and sharing your hope is a lot easier than what you think.

Let me show it to you like this.

We don't defend the things we love, we just share them and we invite others to celebrate with us.

Isn't that how it works?

Like, like yesterday, my two sons, Joey and Gavin, for the first time ever, ran a half marathon.

I think that is the dumbest thing ever.

We spent so much money for them to run.

Running is free.

Anyways, they ran a 13.1 mile.

It was unbelievable.

Both of them looked like they were gonna pass out the moment they crossed the finish line.

But it was such a fun experience being there and celebrating them and cheering for them.

And here's the thing: I posted about it on my Instagram.

Now, my boys are teenagers, they're in high school.

And there's a big difference if you have Instagram, you know this, between a post and a story.

A story's temporary.

You can post anything on a story and it's gonna disappear.

But a post, my boys stress about their post because it's it's permanent.

Like people are gonna see it forever.

And I posted about them running this half marathon, and my son Joey came to me and he said, Dad, why you didn't need to post all that.

Why did you do that?

I said, I'm I'm proud of you.

Like, I if someone said to me, Oh, wait a rub it in our face, us non-runners, think you're better than us with your kids running half marathons, I would politely and in the name of Jesus punch you in the face, right?

Like because we share the stuff we love, we don't defend it.

And it's funny because if Jesus has changed your life, it should be the thing you share so, so naturally.

So today I want to spend all of my time talking about two stories Jesus told.

They're called parables.

They're stories that everyone would understand but have a heavenly meaning.

The first one is one you've probably heard, the second one probably not.

Luke chapter 10, verse 25.

Luke 10:25

On one occasion, an expert in the law, someone who was really smart, stood up to test Jesus.

Teacher, he asked, What must I do to inherit eternal life?

This phrase in Greek was this phrase Olam Haba, which means like an afterlife or eternity with God.

And this was what everybody thought about.

Jesus said, Well, what is written in the law?

And how do you read it?

And he answered, Well, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, to throw back to the Old Testament, and love your neighbor as yourself.

You have answered correctly, Jesus replied.

So do this and you will live.

But this made the guy feel weird, so it says that he wanted to justify himself.

So he asked Jesus, Well, fine, if I'm to love my neighbor as myself, who is my neighbor?

Like who's the person that I'm to share my faith and my life with?

And then Jesus, he tells a story.

Jesus did what he does, and he said, A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, about an 18-mile walk northeast.

But the reason it says go down is Jerusalem's like 2,000 feet higher geographically than Jericho.

So he's gonna go down to Jericho.

And on the way, he was attacked by robbers.

It says they stripped him of his clothes and beat him and went and went away, leaving him half dead.

Pause here for just a moment.

Can I show you something really quickly?

This story Jesus is telling about a person, but I think this is representative of the world around us.

They have their way of doing things, and it looks beautiful and fun, but the truth is living for anything other than God is gonna leave you beaten, broken, and left half dead inside.

Goes on to say that three people passed by.

A priest, a pastor, a religious leader, happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he literally made this decision to step to the other side and he walked around him.

It says, So too, a Levite, and a Levite would have been a person who like served in the church.

So in our context, everybody who serves on Team Access, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, he did the same thing.

He like stepped around him and passed on the other side.

It says, but a Samaritan, this is hard for us to understand, but Samaritans and Jews in Jesus' day, it it wasn't like this unspoken dislike for each other.

It was an all-out hatred they had towards each other.

And as he traveled, he he came where the man was, and when he saw him, he did what?

He took pity on him.

Three people passed by this man.

The first two are our leaders in the church.

They're religious leaders.

And it's easy to read this and to want to vilify them, but the truth is, I don't think that they were mean or badhearted.

I think they were probably just busy.

So busy in their life, in their world, in their little sphere of influence that they couldn't see the man.

They're just busy.

And we get that way, don't we?

We get that way when we're in our car and we pull up to a stop sign and there's a person begging for money.

And we pretend to not make eye contact and we look the other way and we saw them and we keep an eye on them because if they get too close to our car, we don't know what to do.

And the truth is, if we're not careful, we will treat people in our lives like this.

And so, one of the three challenges I want to give you today, if we're gonna get this right, if we're gonna be the kind of church that elicits the blessing of God because we're so on mission with Jesus, is number one, we have to be compassionate, not callous.

We can't allow our hearts to get so callous that we don't see the people in our lives.

It goes on to say this.

He, talking about the Samaritan, went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring an oil, pouring on oil and wine.

Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.

Like he he literally went out of his way to help him.

It says the next day, he took out two denarii, like two days worth of wages, and he gave them to the innkeeper.

So I want you to see this.

A lot of people, they they feel something and they feel sympathy, but they do nothing about it.

The Samaritan sees the need, and in spite of the cultural and the social differences, he does something about it.

David Livingston says it like this.

He says, Sympathy is no substitute for action.

And we need to be a church of action.

Here's what it means.

I want you to see that that literally he took action.

It says that he took this man to his house.

He literally said, I can't allow what I'm seeing to dictate what I've got to do something about it.

So as a church, if we're gonna change the world, we've got to make this decision that we're contributors, not just consumers.

Like we don't just come to church saying, What's in it for me?

No, no, we come to church and then we go out into the world asking, what can I do and what can I bring and how can I bless and how can I serve.

So he takes this man to the hospital, to the to the inn, and it says this he says, Look after him, and and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.

This doesn't make sense in our selfish world.

Our selfish world is me first, me-centric, it's all about me, it's all about number one and looking out for me.

And this man, he he literally takes this guy who was beaten and left half dead, and he says, I don't care what it costs me, I'm gonna do something about it.

And if we're gonna be a church to change the world, it means we gotta commit, even when it's costly.

A lot of us, we're really good with a relationship with God as long as like it's good for us and as long as we get our needs met, and as long as we're feeling the blessing of God.

But the moment it costs something is the moment we want to like let go and step out.

And I just want you to see this.

If we're gonna be a church that changes the world, if we're gonna be a church that's literally on mission with Jesus, we're gonna have to commit regardless of what it cost us.

And let me say this to you in that story, it costs him money.

For us, it may have nothing to do with money, and it may have everything to do with our own pride.

It means you're gonna invite somebody and they're gonna say no.

Funny story, I was out walking my neighborhood this week and I saw a neighbor.

And I we just, hey, how are you?

How's life?

How's the fam?

We did this back and forth with each other.

And he said, How are you?

How's the church?

And I told him it's going great.

He asked about Bartow, and I said, It's been an unbelievable start so far, and I'm so excited.

And I said, Hey, by the way, Easter is just like, you know, a week and a half away.

You should come.

And as the words are coming out of my mouth, he literally goes, That would be cool.

And he walks away.

He literally left the conversation, and I wasn't even done inviting, and this is how it goes sometimes.

It may cost you something, but heaven and hell are realities.

So Jesus tells one more story, and here's the thing I love about this story that you're gonna see.

Jesus uses the language that we used in week one of the series.

He's gonna talk about the kingdom of God.

If the first story didn't make sense, here's the second one.

Jesus says this says, When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.

Jesus replied, A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests.

He's gonna have this big dinner party and he invites lots of people.

And in Jesus' day, the way this would work, it just would have been playing well in advance.

It would have been something where people had come together for this moment.

And it goes on to say, at the time of the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, Come, for everything is now ready.

Now listen, I grew up in a home where when dinner was ready, you made no excuses, you got there as soon as you could, but it says this, it says, but they all alike begin to make excuses.

The first said, I have just bought a field and I must go and see it, please excuse me.

And I would be like, It's still there tomorrow, eat today.

Another said, I have just bought five yoke of oxen and I'm on my way to try them out.

I don't know what that means, everybody.

Try them, please excuse me.

And then the one that makes the most sense is still another said, I just got married, I can't come.

All the married men get that one.

And it says, Um, the servant came back and reported this to his master, and I want you to see this.

Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, he said, This, go, here's that word again, go out quickly into the streets and the alleys of town and bring in, I want you to see this, the poor, the crippled, and the blind and the lame.

Bring the people who feel like they would never get an invitation to something like this.

Sir, the servant said, What you ordered has been done, but there is still room.

Then the master told his servant, Okay, fine, here's a third time.

Go out into the roads and the country lanes and compel them to come in so that my house will be full.

Like Jesus is telling the story from the perspective of God, and God wants his house to be full.

And he says, I tell you, not one of those who are invited will get a taste of my banquet.

In this story.

That Jesus is helping us to understand how God works.

He says that this person throws a party, and the party had a certain amount of seating capacity.

Now you understand how this works, don't you?

Because like everything in your life has some sort of seating capacity.

Your car can only hold a certain number of people legally, your house can only seat a certain number of people, your table can only hold a certain number of people, your house can only sleep a certain number of people, there's a capacity to it.

If we think even bigger, like Raymond James Stadium, where the Bucks lose often, they have a seating capacity.

It's a Cowboys fan.

I come in peace.

I have no judgment, okay?

There's a seating capacity of 69,218.

The largest football stadium in America is where Michigan plays.

And Pastor Isaiah hates Michigan, so I hate them.

Two, I'm with you.

This one holds 107,600 people.

The largest seating capacity that I can find for a stadium in America is in Indianapolis, where the Indianapolis Speedway is, which holds over 257,000 people, and it's over 300,000 if they seat the infield.

It's unbelievable.

Does heaven have a seating capacity?

I want us to understand that heaven has no seating capacity.

The story Jesus told is like, I want my house full.

I want heaven packed and loaded with people.

I don't know if you've ever just heard something somewhere and it stuck with you and marked you.

A few years ago, I was on Twitter when it was still called Twitter, and I saw this post from a man, and like I've seen thousands of posts, and this one all these years later stuck with me.

He uses the sports analogy.

He says, I collect baseball pictures.

These are the kind of pictures like this of what's called a walk-off home run.

This is when a person hits a home run, and that home run wins the game.

And he says, I collect these pictures, and I get chills thinking about this.

Because I think this is what heaven is going to be like.

Rounding third.

Back to the question does heaven have a seating capacity?

The answer is no.

And if we're gonna be the followers of Jesus, the kind of people that literally change the world, then we gotta get on mission with Jesus.

Heaven has no seating capacity.

I want to use that illustration of a seat for just a moment to show you this.

Between our three locations of our church, we now have um over eighteen hundred seats.

It's like metal fabric cushion.

I'm thankful for a seat.

The older I get, the faster I look for them.

I love a good chair, supportive, lumbar support.

But when I come to church, I see a chair differently.

It's not a chair, it's an opportunity.

It's not metal, foam, fabric.

It's an opportunity for a person to come and hear the message of Jesus.

It's an empty seat, it's an open opportunity.

And I just want you to see this.

If we're gonna be a church that's on mission with Jesus, you need to know that an empty seat is a serious matter.

At all of our locations, like here in South Lakeland, for example, we have sent hundreds of people out to North Lakeland and Bartow, and we now have not a lot, but some empty seats.

At all of our locations, in every location there every Sunday, are some.

Some services are full, some services have room, but there are lots of empty and open seats.

I think there's something powerful and special when you start to see that seat as more than just a chair, when you start to see it as an opportunity for that family member or that friend of yours to come and to hear the message of Jesus changes things.

Let's go back to the first story, the story of the good Samaritan.

Jesus ends his story with these two verses.

He says, This which of these three, the priest, the Levite, or the Samaritan, do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?

And that really smart guy, the expert in the law, responded, the one who had mercy on him.

And so Jesus said, This good.

Here's what I want you to do.

You get it now go and do likewise.

Get ready.

In your going, live your life in a way where your eyes are open to the brokenness of the world around you.

In your going, in your life, share your faith.

In your life, begin to see that you need to have a strategy for how to get your friends from where they are into a relationship with Jesus.

And let me be very clear, this isn't the only solution, but I think a part of the solution is start to see the seat next to you that's empty as an opportunity for you to share your faith.

You bring your friends and we'll tell them about Jesus.

And here's what's happened.

For the whole history of our church, we have been on mission with Jesus.

Our church has had this season of explosive growth.

It's it's crazy.

In just a few years, we've gone from a thousand to three thousand people, and pastors are like, How does that happen?

I'm like, we're just on mission with Jesus.

They're like, okay, yeah, but what is your marketing strategy?

I'm like, cool, be on mission with Jesus.

People are like, okay, but certainly you have a secret sauce, or maybe it's the preaching or your music, and I'm like, whatever.

No, no.

We're on mission with Jesus.

So here's how I want to end today.

I want to give you this personal challenge.

I want to challenge you this week to see the empty seat in your life as an opportunity.

And here's what we're gonna do today.

We're gonna end with two things.

On your seat when you came in was this cart.

Would you grab this?

And hopefully, as I've been talking about our church reaching people who were lost and reaching people who are far from God, hopefully a name came to your mind.

Would you do me a favor right now, as an act of faith, if there's a person in your life who's far from God, I want you to write their name on the card.

Maybe for you it's one name, maybe for you it's front and back.

Maybe for you you need to dig through a purse next to you and find a piece of paper and write more names down.

And as an act of faith, how we're gonna end today is I'm gonna pray over these names with you in a few minutes.

Then we're gonna leave them on our seats because an empty seat is a serious matter.

And what we're going to do as a church is this week our staff is gonna take all of these cards and we're gonna pray with you because we want to see your friends and your family come to faith in Jesus.

Let me offer you one last story, then we'll be done.

I started at a gym like five or six years ago, and it was like the best thing in the world for me.

Um, I needed exercise, I was kind of on a bad personal path.

Uh that was good.

The best part was I got out of my very Christian world.

I got out of my Christian circle where I like I work at a church, I work with pastors and leaders who are hopeful, hopefully most of them are Christians.

I don't know for sure, but hopefully most of them are, right?

A lot of my friends and the people I hang out with are Christians.

But all of a sudden I was exposed to some people who weren't.

There was a group of people that for years I invited.

And one day, after years of inviting, I got a text on a Saturday that said, Hey bro, what time are services again tomorrow?

My wife and I and a couple people from the gym are coming.

Can I tell you what happened?

Two things at the same time.

I got so stinking excited.

And I got so freaked out.

And I'll tell you why I got excited.

I got excited because they were going to come and finally be in the presence of God around the most amazing people I've ever met.

Can I tell you why I freaked out?

Because I thought I said I thought I hope everything's perfect for them.

Like if you want to understand why we do church the way we do church, just bring someone who's far from God.

I thought to myself, I hope the parking lot's amazing.

I hope they're greeted warmly and people love them.

I hope the check-in experience for the kids is the best ever.

I hope their kids come out screaming, I love this place.

I hope that.

I hope the message connects with their heart.

I hope the songs make sense.

The reason we do church the way we do church is because you have family and friends who need to come.

Because an empty seat is a serious matter.

The reason we do church the way we do church, and I catch some flack for it, and I'll take those shots every single day of my life, is because of this.

I want you to have what I call come and see confidence.

The kind of confidence that if you can just get your friends to come and see, we won't embarrass you.

We won't make it weird.

There's not going to be weird stuff that happens at church.

Because we want you to have the kind of confidence that if you'll fill the empty seat, the confidence says that we will help people to see Jesus for who he really is.

Today, I want to end in a different way.

When you came in today, you should have received a communion cup.

If you have it, would you grab it?

If you don't have it, would you raise your hand at any of our locations right now?

Just raise your hand.

We have ushers who will get them to you, but grab that with me.

And after you grab it at all of our locations, would you stand with me, please?

Today we're going to end with communion.

And here's what I want you to remember when we take communion.

Communion is a reminder, it's a symbol.

And here is the reminder, and here is the symbol.

By the way, if you need one, raise your hand.

We'll get you one.

There's some over here.

Communion's a reminder of what Jesus did for us.

That he shed his blood and his body was broken for us.

I think it's easy as followers of Jesus, particularly if you've been a follower for a long time, it's easy for this to become common and to miss it.

It's easy to forget that you were once lost, but now you're found.

And as we remember his sacrifice on this Palm Sunday, my prayer for you is that also you will be reminded that there are people who have not yet experienced what it feels like to be found after being lost.

I'm going to invite you to bow your head and close your eyes for just a moment.

Paul says this in one of the epistles, I think it's 1 Corinthians.

He says there is an unrighteous, unworthy way to take communion.

And it is to take communion, but not to be right with God.

And if you're not right with God, I just want to give you an opportunity.

We're not going to embarrass you.

You don't even have to raise your hand.

If you want to make a decision to follow Jesus and to get right with God, would you just say, Jesus, today, would you save me, change me, make me new?

Jesus, I believe you're the Son of God.

I believe you gave your life for me.

Now I give my life to you, and I'll follow you all the days of my life.

I confess that I'm a sinner and I need your grace.

I receive your forgiveness, and today I choose to follow you.

In your name, Jesus, I pray.

Amen.

Would you do me a favor, everybody?

Would you take the cup and take the top piece, the part that represents the bread?

Jesus gathered his disciples that week of his crucifixion.

And he said, guys, when you come together and you break the bread, remember my body that's broken for you.

And they must have been like, What are you talking about?

It's because of the broken body of Jesus that our bodies can be made well and whole.

So, Jesus, today in this place, we take this bread and we remember your body broken for us.

We thank you for your love.

Would you break it and would you eat it with me?

Would you open that juice?

Sometimes it takes an act of supernatural strength to get it open.

And Jesus took the wine for the juice and he said, When you drink this, remember my blood spilled for you.

As you drink this, I want you to remember that it was for you.

But also John 3 16, for God so loved the world.

The verse doesn't say, For God just so loved only you, he loved the world that he gave Jesus.

So Jesus, today as we drink this and we remember your blood spilled for us, may we be reminded and may our hearts be so full of gratitude that our gratitude turns to action.

May we be so reminded of your great sacrifice and may we not keep it to ourselves, but instead, Jesus, may we turn it around to the world around us and may we live lives that influence people.

We thank you for your love, Jesus.

We drink in your honor.

Would you drink this with me?

Hold on to that if you would.

Let me pray for us.

So, God, today I pray for you to give us a dose of supernatural courage.

God, my prayer is that this week that you will open moments of divine opportunity.

God, may we not be like the priest or the Levite who gets so busy and consumed in our world that we miss the brokenness around us.

But may we be like the Samaritan who says, I don't care what it costs, but I'm gonna leverage my life in a way that makes a difference.

Thank you for that.

Jesus, thank you for that second story that you told.

My prayer is that what you hoped for would be the mission of our church, that your house would be made full.

God, may we see every empty seat as a serious matter because we do believe that heaven and hell are realities.

So, God, this week, would you do what only you can do?

And would you open divine moments of opportunity for us?

And may we have moments where we invite people, may we fill your house, may we do whatever it takes because your word, your mission matters to us.

God, my prayer is that this church will never get off mission, but will always be about what you're about, Jesus.

We love you and we thank you for it.

In Jesus' name.

Come on, if you believe it, would you say amen and would you put your hands together, everybody?

Amen, amen, amen.