The Wisdom Of Words

good morning friends good morning we are extra thankful that we get to worship this morning no matter how much sleep you got no matter how much sleep you didn't get we're real glad that you're here so as we prepare to praise god through song let's rejoice in knowing that we have living hope in jesus peter points us to this as he says in first peter 1 3 3 3-6 blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ according to his great mercy he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of jesus christ from the dead to

an inheritance that is imperishable undefiled and unfading kept in heaven for you who by god's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time in this you rejoice and we rejoice in that this morning that we're born again to a living hope through the resurrection of jesus he is our living hope not some dead martyr in a grave but a living risen savior who is seated at the right hand of god who has defeated sin and death once and for all for who would call on him for salvation this is the risen savior we worship would you

stand and would you worship with us this morning [Music] is decree jesus you delivered me by your fear it set me free to follow you i was [Music] jesus you delivered me [Music] by your fear it set me free to follow you jesus you have taken hold of me and in your grip of grace are finally free jesus you delivered me find your fears [Music] jesus you delivered me by your fears amen [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] just from jesus [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] is is [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] jesus jesus [Music]

[Music] i'm so glad i learned [Music] [Music] and i know that thou art with [Music] [Music] his own betrayed the sin of man and wrath of god has been on [Music] jesus silent as he stood accused [Music] and scorned [Music] he took [Music] my salvation [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Applause] [Music] my salvation [Music] hallelujah [Music] it is by the precious blood that might jesus build now the curse of sin has no hold [Music] it is [Music] has no hold on set free [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hallelujah [Music] see the stone is [Music] [Music] [Music] and now my soul cries out [Music] [Applause] [Music] and now my soul

cries [Music] [Music] lord thank you so much for the chance to lift our voices in worship to the one that deserves all the praise and all the honor thank you lord for your unending grace that just keeps coming and coming and coming it's in your precious son's name we pray amen you guys may be seated for a time of confession this morning we're talking about um in our time of confession where we find our righteousness when you're not leaning on jesus what are you looking to to find your worth what are you leaning on of yourself your abilities maybe it's your family maybe you are

rocking the parenting game and your kids are angels and so you've got it maybe it's theology maybe you have solid doctrine and therefore you are a righteous person maybe it's in how you extend mercy you care for the poor the disadvantage the way that you should and therefore you are righteous maybe it's in legalism you know that you obey all of god's commands and definitely more than those around you maybe that's financially maybe you're managing your money really well and you're staying out of debt and therefore you have righteousness it can be so easy for us to put our righteousness in ourselves and our works

or even in others around us when we aren't leaning on jesus and the righteousness that he has given to us paul reminds us in romans 10 it says for christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes it is by christ's righteousness that we are freed from having to find our identity in our counterfeit righteousness that only leads to continued emptiness and a lack of joy so this morning let's take some time to confess our pride in trying to find righteousness in anything but christ knowing that this pride it just robs us of the fullness of joy that we can have

knowing that we have received christ's full righteousness poured out to us let's take that time to confess and give it up to the lord father this morning we just want to offer up to you our pride god we confess that there are times that we try to find our worth in our abilities and even in good deeds things that you've called us to do but when we're leading into our own ability in doing those things we're missing the fullness of joy jesus christ gave him of himself so that we may receive the full righteousness of god god just pray that you would help our hearts

to be mindful of where we're seeking that worth and value from and if it's not in your fullness god would you just turn our hearts away from that and point us towards you again we know that the good works that come out of us are an extension of the holy spirit moving in our hearts and without that they are empty god we want to give it all to you we thank you for your continued mercy and grace as we navigate the path we love you i'm so grateful for you here i pray amen amen good morning church how are we awesome one or two of

you are doing fantastic if you're between the ages of three and five uh right now we can dismiss you and so you can go ahead and head on out towards the back there so if you were three four or five go ahead and get up and head to the back there and this is not a time for you to identify as three four or five uh but those who are three four and five can head out uh for their class we're in james chapter one we're going to be in verses 19 through 21 as we continue in our series throughout the book of james where

it's really just looking at god providing wisdom through james the half-brother of jesus as he is encouraging admonishing edifying instructing uh the jewish christians who were dispersed and scattered throughout jerusalem judea samaria kind of those those areas of the first century and so james 1 19-21 is where we're going to be today and so we're going to just dive right into it and so starting in verse 19 it says this know this my beloved brothers let every person be quick to hear slow to speak slow to anger for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of god therefore put away all filthiness and

rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls let's pray over this word as we continue father we pray this morning that this word would be living and active in our lives and our minds and our hearts that it would that it would transform us and we know that that is the work that you are doing in our lives as we read your word and as we study it as we preach and proclaim it as we declare it over our lives it is doing something in us and that's what we're going to be looking at this morning is

what does this word do in our lives when it comes to producing several things for us this morning so father i pray that we would just avail ourselves this morning to hear your word and to let it speak over our lives let it condem some things in our lives let it declare forgiveness over our lives as well let it again just transform us and conform us more and more like your son jesus for it's him who we are worshiping it's him who we are becoming like and it is him who ultimately we submit to as our lord and savior that's in christ's name we pray

amen all right so right out of the gate the first thing that i want you to see here and and it's not necessarily a first point really it's more of a prerequisite for what we're going to be looking at today and it's kind of sandwiched in these verses 19-21 and it's this idea of knowing and receiving the word of god that's the prerequisite that we need is to know and receive the word of god you see this in the beginning here know this my beloved brothers and then you see it down in verse 21 receive this with meekness the implanted word and so that's the

first observation that we need to take away from this is that james is commanding us he's instructing us to know this to receive this to learn this to study this to meditate on it to memorize it as it says in deuteronomy 6 4-12 listen to this this is what he says hear o israel that is kind of listen up know this what we're about to declare to you hear o israel the lord our god the lord is one you shall love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind we talked about that a couple of months

ago this idea of what does it mean to love the lord you god with all your heart with all your soul with all your might what does it mean to worship him in everything that we do and he says these words that i command you today that shall be on your heart you shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes you shall

write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates what he's basically saying here is that the main word that we're trying to get to you is that your entire life is to be all about the lord and that's what the word of god is declaring is that your entire life should be about god and the reason why he's telling us that you should remind yourself about all of those things that god has provided for us is because in deuteronomy 6 10 when the lord your god brings you into the land that he swore to you to your fathers to abraham to isaac

and to jacob to give you with great and good cities that you did not build and houses full of all good things that you did not fill and cisterns that you did not dig in vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant and when you eat and are full then take care like rest enjoy all that god has just done for you i mean think about th this is just a huge illustration for god's salvation or of the people all right it's it's really not about the promised land it's really not about the houses that they're going to receive or the food that they're

going to be provided or or the the vineyards and and gardens that they did not plant it's really not about those things they receive it's all just a huge metaphor for the salvation that they are receiving that they did not do themselves and he's saying i'm reminding you of these things because take care lest you forget the lord lest you forget the lord who brought you out of the land of egypt out of the house of slavery so one thing that james is instructing us here is know this and receive this because at the end of the day we're just prone to forgetfulness we're prone

to forget the things that the lord has done and is doing in our lives that's why the apostle paul in first corinthians 15 says let me remind you of the gospel in which i preached to you let me remind you of something you already know but yet are prone to forget let me remind you of what god is doing every single day in your life what he's done once and for all for your salvation for eternity and what he is continuing to do in that salvation with the word of god on a daily basis as deuteronomy instructs when how do we know this how do

we know and not forget well by making ourselves available to the word of god as much as possible by making ourselves available to the word of god as much as as possible as deuteronomy instruct us is when you're in your house talk about the lord talk about the word of god when you go for walks when you lie down for bed when you wake up in the morning spend time in god's word reading it and knowing it put reminders around your house go on etsy and and buy some hand-lettered wood signs that have scripture on them and yes it's a shameful plug for my wife's

business but put scripture as the background to your smartphone screen so that when you open it for the hundredth time throughout the day you're seeing god's word and it's it's ingraining itself in your minds and in your heart you're availing yourself to the word of god that's james's prerequisite for what he is about to teach these jewish christians know and receive the word of god because the word of god is producing some things in your life this is the why behind the what why should i know and receive the word of god why should i be in the word of god on a daily basis

because according to james it is doing three things in your life the word of god and these are the three points you can go and write them down if you want but we're going to hit each one of them the word of god number one is producing righteousness the word of god is producing righteousness and the big idea here is that the word of god informs us how to live righteous lives it does not make us righteous only jesus can do that all right the word of god does not make you righteous only jesus can do that in his saving work jesus is the one

who declares you forgiven of sins and declares you righteous by giving you his life by coming to live inside you only jesus declares you righteous a better way to say it might be jesus christ produces the righteous saving work of god while the word of god produces the righteous living work of god it's the guide it's what's leading you into this idea of living a life that matches up with jesus how do we do that the word of god declares that for us it instructs us how to live these lives and just like an infant who has all the components and body parts to operate

as a human being they still have to grow into their legs and their arms and their hands and their feet and their mouths they are fully human but have to grow and learn how to be human this is the same for the christian when jesus saves us and forgives us he declares us righteous we are at that moment saints we are at that moment declared holy ones yet we are now to learn and grow in our new identities and this is where the bible comes into play the word of god is what leads us to live out our new righteous identity in the form of

a righteous life and james's first instruction for these jewish christians to live righteously this is not the only example of how to live righteously you see that all throughout the entire bible but for james here one of his first instructions that he gives to these jewish christians to live in a righteous way is to be quick to hear slow to speak slow to anger quick to hear slow to speak slow to anger so what's the current mantra of our culture is it this no or is it rather the opposite be slow to hear quick to speak quick to anger i mean i feel like if

you were to just sign on to facebook like that should be the notice that you get when you sign on is that you're going to interact with people who are slow to hear or quick slow to hear quick to speak quick to anger proceed with caution like that's what facebook should tell us because that's what our society is operating in right now that's how they think that's why relative moralism is such a danger because what it is stating is that i don't need to hear your side of things because my opinion my world view is all that matters and if you disagree with it then

i'm allowed to judge you with anger i mean that's how we operate right now as a culture i don't need to hear you out and if i give you a little bit and i start to see that you're disagreeing with me i'm going to be quick to shut you down and not only that but i'm going to judge you with anger i'm going to unfringe you or i'm going to bad talk you or whatever it looks like i'm going to disown you and unfortunately that's not the way god has ordered the world to function nor is it how he is reordering the world through the

gospel so god provides us a better way and here's how the word of god informs us to live a life of righteousness hear each other out hear each other out listen to others listen to one another listen to what others have to say and listen to all that they have to say all that they have to say don't interrupt them because you're ready with three points in an illustration like be good listeners that's what the bible is instructing us through the gospel of jesus christ to be quick to hear quick to hear listen i'm not i'm not nervous about having my mind changed by hearing

people out i'm not nervous about having my mind changed by hearing them out because at the end of the day my mind is not made up of my own thoughts and opinions that sounds weird my mind is not made up by my own thoughts and opinions rather i've simply adopted or received the thoughts and opinions of god from the word of god that are not going to change as a believer of jesus christ i am trusting in jesus's thoughts and opinions i'm placing all of my weight of my worldview on what jesus says it should be because there are things that based on my experience

and my upbringing and the the interactions that i've had with people in society there are views and thoughts and opinions that i have been molded and shaped in that do have inconsistencies with what the word of god is declaring over us and so those things i have to put away and let the word of god shape me and mold me based on what god says is a right view of the world around us and a right view of others and a right view of how we are to live in such a way that glorifies and honors him so i'm not worried about having my mind

changed because at the end of the day if someone asked me what's your opinion on xy topic i'm going to say well i might have personal opinions but at the end of the day my personal opinions i hope are matching up with the opinions that are found in scripture and so i want to look to see what scripture has to say about this because i care more about what god's thought is in this regard rather than ever anything that i think of myself and i'm hoping that as i'm growing in my relationship with christ and as i'm growing as a believer in jesus that those

two things are aligning more and it's not that i'm pulling his to align with mine it's that he's pulling mine to align with his that's important in addition to developing your listening skills james is encouraging us to be wise with our words be slow to speak proverbs 10 19 wisely states when words are many transgression is not lacking by transgressions he means sin when words are many sin is not lacking but whoever restrains his lips is prudent that is just patiently wise have you ever met a person who doesn't let you get a word in don't be that person don't be that person like by

the end of the conversation your mind is just exhausted from them talking about themselves the bible calls that sin it calls it sin we can never get to know someone else if we are doing all of the talking think about that this demands you develop the skill of self-awareness and a bit of communication skills one phrase we often use for cultivating a gospel-centered community within our church is we want you to know and be fully known by others like that's that's a part of gospel community is to know and be fully known by others if you only focus on the being known by others then

you've missed out on half the idea of biblical community you need to know others know their story know their interests know what they're going through in their life rather than you being the only one who's talking about yourself to live righteously is as paul describes in philippians two three through four when he says do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but in humility count others more significant than yourselves let each of you look not only to his own interest but also to the interest of others when you speak to another person think about how they benefit from the conversation how do they benefit from the

conversation another way to put is how do they experience you when you're interacting with someone how do they experience you that's a good diagnostic question to think of i love what proverbs 16 24 says gracious words are like a honeycomb sweetness to the soul and health to the body do people receive your words like honey i and i love honeycomb cereal when you speak to me i'd like to be experienced as if i'm eating just a bowl of honeycomb cereal all right and think about it in that way like when you're when you're talking to someone is it are they enjoying it are they enjoying

it by the words that you have to say the few words that you have to say here's a diagnostic question is is the reason why you talk too much because you're trying to be cool and find acceptance still and i was talking to jordan earlier today he just i'm aging you i'm sorry but he he just had his 10-year reunion in school and and we were kind of talking like there's there's still even at that 10-year reunion this idea of cliques getting together and people interacting with one another based on this idea of like wanting them to validate you or accept you or think that

you are awesome or whatever it looks like and and at the end of the day like that's just sinful it's just sinful proverbs 17 27 says whoever restrains his words has knowledge and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding like you want to be cool you want to be accepted restrain your words be wise with your words listen when necessary and speak when necessary with words that are pleasing both to the lord and to those who are listening if we don't know this if we don't pursue this we may fall into the temptation of sinful speech as psalm 36 3 describes

the words of his mouth are trouble and deceit he has ceased to act wisely and do good i mean you see how the the word we receive transforms the word in which we speak and at the end of the day it's going to land in two categories you're either going to be wise or a fool you're going to be wise and speaking good words of truth that are that others enjoy or you're going to be foolish and speaking words that are evil and deceitful and no one's going to enjoy that if you're receiving anything that is outside of the word of god it's going to

land in one category but if what you're knowing and receiving as your ultimate absolute truth is the word of god in your life it's going to transform you to be a wise person who speaks wise words and others are going to receive those like honey and it's going to be good and that's why all of our resolution should be as psalm 19 14 says let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight o lord my rock and my redeemer so one way the word of god is producing in us a righteous lifestyle is by training us to

be quick to hear and slow to speak and the second point is that the word of god produces repentance the word of god is producing repentance in our lives verse 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of god therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness now as a christian and what that means is little christ it was kind of it was actually in first century a derogatory term that the secular society referred to is kind of mocking look at these little christ running around christian there is a way to live that is righteous and christ glorifying and then there is

a way to live that is unrighteous and sinful and one of the areas we are growing in is the work of training ourselves training our minds training our hearts training our bodies to daily repent stop sinning or as this passage instructs us to put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness i love what john owen said in his book overcoming sin and temptation he has this to say do you mortify and what that means is to subdue or to restrain do you mortify do you make it your daily work be always at it while you live cease not a day from this work be killing sin

or it will be killing you be killing sin or it will be killing you as a christian one of the desires of a christian is to hate sin and kill it and so what's the first practical step to killing sin in your life it's confessing it it's confessing it listen to what the apostle john has to say about it first john 1 9 if we confess our sins he referring to god is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness how do you clean a child that has been playing outside in the mud you wash them with

clean and pure water that's what you do you wash them with clean and pure water when we confess our filthiness god is faithful to wash us by the blood of jesus christ to cleanse us from all of our sins our filthiness our rampant wickedness whatever it looks like by his mercy and his grace he's faithful to do it paul tells young titus in titus 2 11-12 for the grace of god has appeared bringing salvation for all people that's that's amazing i mean that's that's what we declare the gospel is the grace of god has appeared and it has brought salvation for all people it's also

doing something else not only has it forgiven you but that grace that has appeared in verse 12 is also training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled upright and godly lives in the present age it's not only helping you to repent of sin but it's also helping to train you in the righteous living that he's called us to do we confess sin to god that's why we offer a time of confession almost every sunday because we want to develop and train you to not only confess on sundays but to confess daily and this confessing daily is not for your salvation you're

saved you're forgiven the daily confession is for the training in righteousness and the throwing off of anything that is ungodly and unrighteous because as we are just like little infants who are working out our salvation who are growing in our new identity there's going to be a couple of steps in a fumble and a couple of steps and a fumble because we're working it out we're growing in it we're not going to do it perfectly and we're not going to do it perfectly until we're eventually glorified but what we are doing on a daily basis is looking at our lives observing our lives and being

able to see where are we still wrestling with some filthiness and rampant wickedness and how can we cast it off how can we put it away and trust this new identity that we have so that we can live it out on a daily basis well the word of god is doing that for us the word of god is revealing the filthiness in our life and the word of god is revealing the righteousness that we can walk in as we are walking in step with the spirit of god that's why we offer confession i love what john owen again says sin is tenacious but by god's

grace we can hate it and hunt it we can hate it and hunt it i love that the more you love christ the more you will hate sin and you will seek it out not for pleasure but you will seek it out to hunt it and kill it to put it away from your life so that's the second point the word of god produces repentance and that leads to my final point the word of god produces restoration the word of god produces restoration listen to this verse 21 therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able

to save your souls now for sure this is talking about saving your souls in the eternal sense where we are declared forgiven we are declared righteous we are forever adopted into the family of god absolutely that's what it is talking about but it is also representing a saving of your soul in the present sense or daily sense as it brings about the redeeming and refreshing of your souls listen to acts 3 19-20 repent therefore and turn back that your sins may be blotted out that's salvation verse 20 so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the lord that times of refreshing may

come from the presence of the lord repent put away your filthiness stop sinning by accepting jesus as lord and savior once and for all and that will bring about times of refreshing now that you are in the presence of him here's the truth sin destroys and decays that's what it does god's grace and his presence in your life is bringing about life and increasing wholeness well-being and refreshing again look back at titus chapter 2 verses 11 through 14 as we completed out here the grace of god has appeared bringing salvation for all people you're saved it's training you to renounce ungodliness and world worldly passions

it's producing in you repentance and it's also training you to live self-controlled upright and godly lives in the present age that's the producing of righteousness in your life verse 13 while we are waiting for our blessed hope our lives now experience hope when we were once hopeless and hope is a refreshing thing is it not i mean has there ever been a moment that you're experiencing a situation and you feel hopeless in that situation and then something happens that helps get you out of that situation and that now newfound hope that you have that you're going to get through it allows you to breathe allows

you to be refreshed in that moment that's what the lord is doing waiting for our blessed hope the appearing of the glory of our great god and savior jesus christ who gave himself for us listen to this to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify this is that idea of redeeming and cleansing to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works zealous for good works he's restoring us and purifying us which causes us to be zealous for god and for his work it's like you've experienced for the first time a vacation or a day at the spa

or a good night's sleep and when i talk about vacation i'm not referring to like a vacation where you didn't need a vacation from that vacation i'm saying like a true restful vacation this is what we are experiencing in the lord that after we've experienced this and we wake up or we come back refreshed and filled with this sense of zeal or passion and fervency and eagerness to pursue jesus and to pursue the work that he has called us to the word of god is producing restoration it's producing godly ambition within you a newfound dedication a newfound desire that used to not be there that's

now there to live lives that are righteous and holy not in a smug kind of way but in a humble way because we know ultimately that is this is not our efforts that actually grow us but it is the work of god and his word in our lives that this is what it's producing in us on a daily basis remember first corinthians 3 6 when paul said i planted i did some work apollos watered he did some work but god gave the growth god gave the growth what we are doing on a weekly basis we are planting and watering the seed of the gospel and

god's word in you week after week through songs through prayer through preaching through district equipped through institute classes through all kinds of different things all we are doing is trying to know and receive the word of god that's it like that's the the number one job of the church of jesus christ in making much of jesus is getting his word out getting his word out the good news of the gospel how do we know what the good news of the gospel is what does the bible say it is getting the gospel getting the bible into you getting the point to where we know and have

received the word of god so that god then as we are planting and watering god is giving growth to us by producing in us righteousness and repentance and restoration for our lives so as james instructs us today he's telling us to know this word and receive it daily as you read it when you wake up as you memorize it from the screen saver of your smartphone as you meditate on it through prayer and stillness as you consider it and wrestle with it through community discussion know it and receive the implanted word of god in your lives because god is using it god is using it

it will never return void it will never return void every time you read a scripture every time you memorize a verse you may not see it immediately but god is taking that word that is as it is planted in your mind in your heart and in your soul and he is sprouting it and he is literally forming you into jesus christ himself your thoughts become his thoughts your words become his words your compassion becomes his compassion all of these things are flowing out so that as people experience you they're tasting the honey the sweetness of jesus of jesus rest in the work of our good

shepherd jesus as psalm 23 1-3 says the lord is my shepherd i shall not want in christ i have all that i need i'm satisfied i'm satisfied and therefore the desires of the things of the world and they fade they fade in christ i have all that i need i'm not going to look for anything else therefore i can repent of those things i can throw them off because i now see that i don't need them i can see that they're they don't taste as great as i thought they tasted jesus is better jesus is better he is my shepherd i shall not want anything

else he makes me lie down in green pastures he leads me beside still waters he's restoring my soul that's what he's doing he's making me lie down he he's going to make you rest and he's going to lead you beside still waters and those those still waters might be in the midst of a storm who knows but he's going to lead you in times of peace and refreshing and restoration and he's also leading you in paths of righteousness his word that he has sent out to us is leading us in paths of righteousness and it's all for you no it's all for his namesake for

his namesake as we grow in the gospel and as we become more and more like jesus the renown of our life will be he must increase i must decrease he must increase i must decrease that also changes the way that we look out at others i'm going to be quick to hear and slow to speak and when it's appropriate and necessary for me to speak i will speak i'm going to be speaking on behalf of the lord not my own thoughts or opinions and whatever those words that i do speak out man they're going to be so saturated and and and so marinated in the

word of god that whoever is listening are going to be receiving life life because that's what the word of god is providing for us and so we thank jesus we thank jesus for what he's doing and we look to the cross for ultimately the work that he has accomplished i mean we talk about someone who was quick to listen slow to speak and slow to anger i mean think about the cross jesus had every right to come and be slow to hear you're a bunch of sinners i don't need to hear your side of things you're a bunch of sinners you've broken every law that

we've given you you you don't love my father you you don't love me you don't know me he had every right to come and just declare word afterward after word afterword condemnation over us he had every right just to come with righteous anger and just annihilate every single one of us that's not what he did that's not what he did instead he practiced what he preaches and he came and he was quick to hear this is their situation father do not hold this over them but forgive them we are listening to their situation they're sinners in need of a savior and we're here responding by

providing the only option for them and that is not exercising our holy anger and righteousness or wrath against them but instead let's put it on jesus at the cross giving them an opportunity for life and forgiveness and so as we enter into this time of communion this is what we are proclaiming is saying thank you jesus for not holding over us what we are condemned by our sin and thank you jesus that that you were quick to hear and slow to speak and slow to anger and you were patient you were patient and in your patience you took our sins and placed them upon yourself

and you died you took the wrath of god and you died so that we have the opportunity to receive the good news to receive the word of god as it is going forth and every single one of us in this room who proclaimed this who are team jesus you're here because somebody in your life was quick to hear and slow to speak and slow to anger they listened to your story and when it was necessary they spoke into your story the need that you had which was jesus christ and it was received the sweetness of honey and jesus tastes so good and so as we

partake of this communion this morning we want to receive it in that in that way let the let the bread as stale and and non-flavorful as it is let it be sweet like honey [Music] and let the juice be sweet like honey as we think of jesus and what he has done for us and then as we leave from this place today let us just remember that the word of god as we know it and receive it as we ingrain our lives into it on a daily basis it's producing some things in us god's using it to make us more righteous in our living it's

also allowing us to understand better how to say no to sin and yes to jesus and it's also just helping us find times of refreshing as he's leading us besides still waters so let's be encouraged by that today i want you to go ahead and stand and if you don't have the elements i want you to go ahead and go back and grab them as you come back to your seats we're going to then pray over these elements and pray for just our hearts and our minds this morning as we receive this word as we receive this communion these elements as we receive jesus may

we receive him like the sweetness of honey this morning for i received from the lord but i also deliver to you the lord jesus on the night when he was betrayed he took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and he said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me and in the same way also he took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and you drink this cup you proclaim

the lord's death until he comes father i pray that as we partake of this communion this morning that this is a moment for us to receive [Music] the implanted word of god we receive jesus we receive it like the sweetness of honey and that it matures us and takes us a step further in our righteousness it's growing us it also is is increasing that desire in us to hate sin and to hunt it and kill it in our lives and that it's also bringing times of refreshing it's restoring our soul feel that right now in this moment let there just be a sense of peace

come over our anxious hearts and our anxious minds whatever it is that we're dealing with right now let us be encouraged by what your word is doing in our lives and let us remember jesus now because we are so prone to forget what he has done for us it's in jesus name we pray amen let's partake together now and then we will continue in worship so so [Music] freedom could be found through death [Music] would take the cross [Music] oh [Music] what can make me [Music] is nothing strong enough to stand against what love has done without stretched hands for now salvation [Music] and whosoever

calls upon his name [Music] nothing [Music] and [Music] nothing but [Music] and redeem [Music] [Music] bringing peace [Music] [Music] yes [Music] me [Music] [Music] oh the blood of jesus [Music] lord thank you for the blood of jesus thank you that he chose to die to give his life for us to pardon our sin and that we know that it crushes every enemy and brings healing and freedom and peace and praise for that truth god thank you so much for this time this morning to learn from your word that is living and active i pray that we would be quick to listen slow to speak and

slow to become angry and always remember the truth of who you are and what you have done it's an impression son's name we pray amen before you