Jesus sends the Twelve

good morning everybody we're doing things a little different today oh yeah that's later yep don't do this all the time so the order of operations is a little lost on me sometimes so bear with me um but normally we would have someone from the band do the lament but um the spirit is good and he has separately guided Josh and I to basically say the same things so I'm going to still do it twice but I'm also going to the lament and then we'll get into the sermon um so today is Mother's Day happy Mother's Day everyone that's here but for all the praise and

thankfulness that we have on Mother's Day for many of us today is a reminder of a loss and a feeling of Shame a day that brings heartache and for a long time the church has done a bad job of entering into the muck and the mire of those realities but the beauty of the Gospel is that scripture doesn't shy away from the harsh realities and the facts of sin and as a church neither should we for those who have lost a mother to cancer or the shame felt the shame of infertility the pain of a miscarriage or a child who feels betrayed by their mother

these realities remind us that sin still has its effects in this world days like this can bring pain shame and tears for a lot of women and as a church just like we Rejoice for the good mothers that God has blessed us with we also want to lament with those who are hurting today Paul tells us this in Romans 12 15 when he says Rejoice with those who are rejoicing and mourn with those who mourn so let us rejoice for all the good Mothers we have and let us mourn with those who are hurting today follow along as we read the prayer and then go

ahead and read the underlying portions oh Lord stir up our hunger and thirst after Heaven above here we can have the world there we shall have you in Christ here is a life of longing and prayer there is Assurance without suspicion asking without refusal here are gross Comforts more burdened than benefit there is Joy without sorrow Comfort without suffering love without unfaithfulness rest without weariness help us to Know that heaven is all peace where Heir Pride Rebellion passion raise no head help us to Know that heaven is all joy the end of believing fasting praying mourning humbling and watching oh second page soon let's take

some time to rejoice and more in this morning um oh my God you are good you give us good gifts but you also recognize that there is pain in this world because of sin we have joy for those good gifts you've given and we also have joy in the pain because we know that it is temporary but that one day you will come and you will restore all things and make all things new and all of that pain and anguish and suffering and loss will be gone we just thank you for that gift and we thank you for that reminder in your word and we

thank you for our mothers today it's in Jesus name we pray amen okay um so today is Mother's Day and now you get to hear my version um but first let's send the kids um I'm not going to forget that one the threes and fives you guys can go ahead and head out to your classes and then we'll get started we've also switched we used to do announcements at the end of the service but we do them here at this point and so um just a reminder for everyone we have our night of Ebenezer on May 26th at 6 PM it's a worship night where

we come together to just remember God's faithfulness and to worship him together and that will be here on that Friday um then there is a women's walk that is happening on Mondays that is about all of the information that I know on that but if you want more information check with Miranda um so she'll help you get plugged in with that and then on June 2nd we're starting a women's discipleship uh there'll be an eight-week study through Titus 2 and you can sign up for that through the church Center app that we have so yeah all right morning everyone happy Mother's Day um I hope

you all have opportunities today to celebrate your moms and remember your own mothers and grandmothers but also for the moms in this room that you'd be reminded today of the blessing that your children are to you and how that can be an Ebenezer of sorts even like we're going to celebrate in a few weeks of how God has sustained you in your work to love and minister to your kids um so I just pray that that will be a reminder for you guys as well um and I know there are people here struggling with a lot of different things with related to Mother's Day and

it can be very difficult um and we read Romans 12 15 in the lament but I want to read the parts that come before it as well because I think that is helpful as well so if you start in 12 Romans 12 verse 9 uh Paul says let love be genuine abhor what is evil hold fast to what is good love one another with the brotherly affection outdo one another in showing honor do not be slothful and so you'll be fervent in spirit serve the Lord rejoice and hope be patient in Tribulation be constant in prayer contribute to the needs of the Saints and seek

to show Hospitality bless those who persecute you bless and do not curse them Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep this is a challenging space for us to live in as believers celebrating when you yourself are mourning and mourning when you are also celebrating for the sake of your brother before we get into the passage and the message today I did want to acknowledge these things and just for some context with myself um long before well not long but before I was born my parents had a full-term stillbirth um and while I wasn't around for that [Music] um my sister's death

is still something that's mourned in our family and it's a tough space to live with the morning and accelerating but God is glorified I'm going to do that well yeah so I feel that for those of you who are mourning today um even though it's not my kid but it's something my mom goes through so um okay uh yeah I'm gonna reset a little bit because that was tough um so with that being said um we're going to move into our message for the day um so you guys go ahead and turn to Luke 9 1-10 it's gonna be a bit before I actually get

to reading it but just so you have it ready um and I think it's prudent to give a recap of the past probably three sermons um so I'm going to try and not make this too long but all of those sermons culminate with this week and then the next two weeks scripture is not shouldn't read it in isolation it all fits together very well so a few weeks ago Dwayne preached on Jesus calming the storm which is a very familiar story for many of us and in that story Jesus was sleeping and a storm came that was big enough that the disciples thought the boat

would sink but Jesus rebukes their lack of faith and also calms the storm um if at that time they truly understood who Jesus was and what he came to do they would have known that storm meant nothing because he had to live to fulfill all of the Old Testament prophecies but the disciples didn't fully understand who he was yet but instead of of that they get to see a display of God's sovereignty over nature um the next week we see Jesus's Exorcism of the Garrison demoniac which is a fancy way of saying a guy that was had a demon he was a Garrison um when

it says the disciples traveled to the gerasenes but it wasn't necessarily A Place in the in Israel but rather a people group of um like of Greek and Hellenistic peoples that were living in Israel um which when I have a sidebar about that and this is a long sidebar so lots of apologies for that but I think it's important but how many people thought that in Jesus day Israel consisted of Israelites and Roman soldiers and that was it until about a year ago that was where I landed I never thought anything of it um but there were many other Greeks and Gentiles living in Israel

at the time I think a lot of that for me comes from watching VeggieTales and there's some old cartoon series that had a bunch of like white Jews that all spoke English all talking to the Romans and that was the entire context and so like very bad theology from that perspective but it's been ingrained in my mind until relatively recently so there are many Greeks and Gentiles living in Israel and geographically Israel occupies a really thin strip of land that um the very Coastal and middle parts of Israel are are effective for traveling over land and the and west east of that east of Mountain

Dew for you guys it's all mountainous and difficult to travel through so this is narrow strip that they could trade through and live in and move through from the Northern parts of the Roman Empire through to the northern African parts of the empire um and a lot of the conflict that Israel experienced in the Old Testament and the period of time between the Old and New Testaments likely stems from the value of that geographical space with the large number of Gentiles living in Israel and with the Roman occupation the many Jews would have likely spoken Greek in addition to Aramaic and may have used what

we know today as the Septuagint which is the Greek Old Testament um fascinating thing about that that I also learned in the last year or so the Greek Old Testament was not translated for the apostles I always thought it came about after Jesus but it was actually translated two to three hundred years before Christ um it was trans it was uh let's see yeah it was it was requested from a Greek descended pharaoh to add to his Library as he was looking for knowledge so it wasn't an Egyptian pharaoh it was a Greek that was ruling as Pharaoh over Egypt pre-roman Empire um at this

point you guys were probably thinking answer what what's going on this is absurd um personally I think all of the historical context and everything is is really an amazing display of God's sovereignty not only does the Septuagint provide an additional Source manuscript for us to have confidence in the authority of scripture and the accuracy of scripture but by the time Jesus came to bring the New Covenant there was already a copy of the Old Testament ready for the disciples to use to take to the Gentiles um and I mentioned that the guy was a Greek descended Pharaoh if you want to look it up his

name was I'm going to butcher this but it was Ptolemy to Philadelphia was his name if you're curious uh but he was ruler of Egypt because of the rupture and power after Alexander the Great's death his massive Empire helped set the stage for the context in Israel during Jesus's day but Alexander spread Greek culture and language throughout the Empire which established a Common Language or the term lingua Franca if you're familiar with that that really helped spread the gospel early on having a business language that was used throughout the world gave a base language that the gospel could spread very rapidly at one point in

time Greek was the official language for Libya Egypt Arabia Judea Syria Persia Greece and Asia Minor in the Roman Empire so I had a very widespread um so like I said long side track sorry for the length but I think it's relevant later on um but all that started because we're talking about the Greek man with the demons that Jesus cast into the bigs so we saw Jesus display his sovereignty over nature and in this story Jesus chose his disciples his authority over demons but also his care for the well-being of that man um and then the next week after that last week Josh preached

about Jesus healing the man or the woman who'd been bleeding and then Jairus daughter um raising her from the dead which shows his authority and power over sickness and death um so all that brings us to today's passage so if you want to go to Luke 9 1-10 drink in the water we'll start all right it says and he called the 12 together and gave them power and authority over all demons into cure diseases and he set them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal and he said to them take nothing for your journey no staff nor bag nor bread nor money

and do not have two tunics and whatever house you enter stay there and from their depart and wherever they do not receive you when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them and they departed and went through the villages preaching the gospel and healing everywhere now Herod the tetrarch heard about all of that was happening and he was perplexed because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead by some that Elijah had appeared and by others that one of the prophets of old had risen Herod said John I beheaded but who is

this about whom I hear such things and he sought to see him on their return the apostles told him all that they had done and he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethesda let's pray God you're good please thank you for your word um and just the the beauty that we have access to to see in your scriptures we just pray that you would speak um through the sermon this morning and through through the Bible just to soften our hearts to what you want us to hear and just ask that you would be glorified and that we would be stirred up to

make you famous and to glorify your name it's in Jesus name we pray amen okay um so here is what I hope to convey to you guys I don't know if we have the points or not but I have six points so they're not all crazy long but um the first four are grouped together with the sinning of The Twelve the fifth point is about the passage section with Herod and then the six is overarching everything but the first one is Jesus calls us to meet needs and preach the gospel Jesus cares for our human needs Jesus provides what we need to do what he

calls us to do there's urgency in sharing the gospel Jesus is the Christ the son of the Living God and the Bible is truly beautiful so that's what I'm hoping to convey to you guys today um yeah so we'll get into it um no that should be a surprise so hopefully it's just a reminder for everyone so um recapping the past few weeks um already but uh in those stories Luke is showing us how Jesus Was preparing his disciples we see him give them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases leading up to that moment they got to see Jesus display exactly

how that looked to display that power and authority and those weren't the only times they had seen him exercise his power but I believe Luke sets them up in this order in his story so that we can see specifically how Jesus Was preparing them from that could be that we we should prepare before we go out to do ministry and we should but as we see later on in the passage the disciples weren't even close to being fully prepared um and yet Jesus still sends them out so prepare yourself study your Bible read books listen to sermons have coffee with people anything you think that

will help you grow in your understanding of the Gospel but don't let that keep you from sharing the gospel you will never fully arrive with your understanding of theology it's it's one of the beauties of this life that we live is that we will continually be learning more and more and growing closer to him but we'll never get there so if you wait till you get there to share the gospel you will never share the gospel with anyone so don't let that don't let that be your your roadblock um and if you aren't sharing the good news because you don't feel prepared enough then you

should be praying for the courage to overcome that and maybe the humility to say you know I don't know can I get back to you later it's okay to not have the answers I think being honest with people that you're sharing the gospel with goes a long way with that um so um yeah it's okay then I have the answers but it is not okay to fail to share the gospel that's what we are called to do but Jesus didn't send them just to proclaim the gospel he sent them out to to meet needs he sent them out to heal and to cast out demons

which are very real needs that the people had um some commentaries I read suggested that the meeting of needs so that the disciples could Garner affection from the people they're preaching to and hopefully win some with their message and while I think that's a probable benefit I don't believe that's the reason Jesus genuinely cares for the well-being of people he knew who would receive the Gospel from his disciples and who wouldn't and so it didn't matter that they had the right affection from those people as we see many times throughout scripture Jesus had compassion and so he changed what he was doing for the sake

of people that he felt compassioned for with the The Garrison man with the demons he was compassionate because he was hurting himself he was physically in danger he saved that man from those things and also to New Life in him um so um and the message that the disciples were bringing wasn't wasn't just about salvation after you die but it was of Salvation now and real change now and that's the same message that we have for us Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit who works in our lives to sanctify us and shape us to be more like Christ over the course of Our Lives the

freedom that we have in Christ knowing that the only thing we contribute to our Salvation is the sin that we need to be saved from and that the Holy Spirit guides us and sustains us such an amazing gift as if that were not enough Jesus provides for our physical needs and sets the precedent for us to provide for each other in Matthew 22 37-40 he outlines this says Jesus replied love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and all your mind this is the first and greatest commandment preaching of the Gospel aspect um and then the second is like love

your neighbor as yourself all the law and Prophets hang on these two Commandments that love your neighbor as yourself isn't just about being in relationship with people and being kind to them but loving one another is caring for each other's needs meeting them where they're at providing for them and then them providing for you as well um he also gives the disciples instruction for her how to carry out this task he says said to them take nothing for your journey no staff nor bag nor bread nor money and do not have two tunics and whatever house you enter stay there and from there depart wherever

they do not receive you when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them oh this entire passage this one was the most difficult for me to prepare there was a lot of different opinions that I read about how people interpret this and what it could mean and um I think I've got a pretty good grasp on it at this point but it was a lot of work to get to there so um but the different thoughts um one reason is why why he restricted what they could take with them was so that he could rely on them

and this is I think the most correct we see that clearly in Luke 22 right before he and the disciples minus Judas head out to Gethsemane Luke 22 35-38 read and he said to them when I sent you out with no money bag or knapsack or sandals did you lack anything they said nothing he said to them but now let the one who has a money back take it and likewise a knapsack and let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one for I tell you this the scripture must be fulfilled in me and he was numbered with the transgressors for

what is written about me has its fulfillment so even though in this story in Luke 9 the disciples went out with nothing they had everything that they needed but after the crucifixion Jesus clearly gives them a different instruction he has them take what they needed with him so he will we know that Jesus will provide what is needed we see that clearly with him asking them did you lack anything they said no even though he had them take nothing so we see that he he provided for them and sustained them through that but then later on he also said that they should take what they

need with them um so I think I think the takeaway from this is that regardless of our circumstances whether we are prepared for a situation or not God will provide what you need to do to share the gospel he will give you everything you need so that you can make his name famous um another theory that was read was that there were certain rabbinical rules for people to enter the synagogue specifically regarding clothing um and there was the idea that Jesus didn't want them to be hindered by rules that might keep them from accessing somewhere that they could preach the gospel um so they weren't

to take those things with them the Jews had a very very reverent attitude towards the synagogue that persists even to today when I was looking it up I found that there are like rules on etiquette for how to carry yourself in the synagogue now and this one was the most shocking to me but you were not allowed to kiss your children in the synagogue because it shows affection for someone other than God with the exception that if they're crying and disrupting you can kiss them to silence them very strange to me um but yeah so the synagogue has a very high place in the mind

of the Jews they wanted there to be no implication that you were there for any other reason besides to worship and participate in Temple activities taking a money bag or a staff or extra tunic could have been associated with uh downtrodden and homeless people or even Merchants begging or trying to sell their goods um and I think a more realistic reason for those restrictions was the urgency of the need to spread the gospel they wouldn't be weighed down or bothered by going and preparing things but he wanted them to go then and there to spread the gospel so don't take anything I'm going to provide

everything for you just go do it quickly because this needs to get done um in sending that Jesus also knows who who is going to be receiving the gospel and who won't receive it so he prepares the disciples further by giving them instructions for how to handle that um shaking the dust off was a Jewish practice that was done after often after traveling through Gentile cities David guzik puts it this way if Jews had to go in or through a gentile city as they left they would Shake the Dust off their feet as a gesture saying we don't want anything from this Gentile City with

us essentially Jesus is telling him to regard a Jewish City that rejects their message as if it were a gentile City that is a massive insult to Jews they are very proud people and if you are regarding them as being a gentile a non-jew that would be a deep insult but that's essentially what Jesus is telling them to do is if you're not receiving this gospel if you're not receiving the message of the Messiah I don't want anything to do with you and move on to a new town um I thought this was also interesting when compared with the narratives that we've heard over the

past few weeks the Jews as a people were not ready to hear the gospel yet almost every time Jesus performs a miracle he tells the Gentiles to go and Proclaim and he tells the Jews to tell no one it's not always the case but it's often the case um in Luke 8 56 we see Jesus told uh Jairus the synagogue leader they charged them to tell no one what had happened but earlier in 839 he told the Garrison man returned to your home and declare how much God has done for you and we see with the Samaritan woman at the well she was not fully

Jew but they were considered half Jews and they had a different perspective on how worship was done but they viewed the Messiah as being one that would come and save them from themselves more than the Jews who viewed the Messiah as one that would come and save them from Rome they had different perspectives and so when you read the story with the Samaritan woman at the well Jesus gives her the message about living water and how he is that living water but he doesn't do that for any of the Jews that he runs into because that people was more ready and more softened to the

gospel and I've completely lost my place um yeah so the Holy Spirit had not yet softened the hearts of many Jews and they could not receive the Gospel yet the events of the Cross had to happen the way that they did so God hardened their hearts so that we see in Luke 9 22 the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised um there are some who interpret the phrase and wherever they do not receive you um the part leading up to them shaking off

the dust to Simply regard Hospitality but the Greek word for receive here means both to receive or Grant access to a visitor as well as to receive the thing offered in speaking teaching or instructing and those are both under if you're really into dictionaries they're under the same sub definition so it wasn't like one of those was ranked higher than the other but the act of physically receiving something both of these are outlined at the same the same level there um and so if we look at parallel passage in Matthew though we see it more explicitly stated um it's a Matthew 10 14 says and

if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town so Matthew extends it to not being just receiving someone into the house but also the people in the town receiving the message so it's it's both if people are inhospitable towards you or if they um if inhospitable towards the disciples specifically or if they don't receive the message they were to shake the dust off um and I think the the thing for us there is like we are called to go and spread the gospel but we are not the ones that

do the work to save people's hearts God is the one that does that work we are just gifted with the privilege of being part of that um and so if if you are pining after someone to hear the gospel and to be saved and they are just not receiving it pray for them be diligent in your ministry to them but don't take it on yourself as you've done a bad job and you've not done what you're going what you should do you're planting seeds and God might not ever let you see that fruit grow but he might we just have to trust to him and

leave it at that but it's not something that you should take on yourself as oh I'm such a horrible evangelist because this person is not getting saved and I've been preaching to them for years um maybe it's not yours to do we're just called to go and to spread the gospel so at this point we're getting to the end of the part about Jesus sending the twelve so the first six verses today so just to kind of recap the I don't think we have on the sides but the uh the first four points that I gave were in that section with Jesus cause us to

meet needs and preach the gospel going healing and casting out demons for us that might look like providing people with food helping them with their kids taking them to doctor's appointments whatever their needs are there's a wide array of what needs we can meet but also taking the gospel with that um and Jesus cares for our human needs he provides what we need to do what he calls us to do and there's an urgency in doing all of this and ensuring the gospel so now verse 7 start looking at who Jesus is um it says now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening

and he was perplexed because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead by some that Elijah had appeared and others thought one of the prophets of old had risen Herod said John I beheaded but who is this about whom I hear such things and he sought to see him there are two things um that I had never realized before preparing for this um but uh here it says John I beheaded but who is this about whom I hear such things um it's like he's considering that John the Baptist has risen from the dead um each possible explanation maybe it's Elijah

maybe she's on the Baptist maybe it's some other Prophet like Moses or someone each one of those required Herod to believe in a supernatural event that one of those men had been raised from the dead because a few chapters ago he's beheading John the Baptist himself so he knows he's dead but he's in this question he's questioning sorry In this passage he's questioning could this be John the Baptist um the other aspect is that each of those possible explanations is specifically some religious leader that had that would have been raised up but Herod wasn't a religious leader um he was a tetrarch which meant he

ruled over a quarter of the area and so he was for an analogy he's like mayor of the city and then Pontius Pilate was the governor over everything so Herod was a tetrarch of one quarter there were other three other tetracks that would have ruled and all of them were under Pontius Pilate um so that meant he had a considerable amount of authority and he would have had the power to summon Jesus to meet him for whatever his intentions were but the texture says and he sought to see him so he was unsuccessful this could have been out of a curiosity from the stories he

was hearing or perhaps out of perhaps out of a rivalry rivalry with someone that was garnering attention and fame in his territory or maybe even out of fear of getting rebuked again if it really was John the Baptist raised from the dead um One Way or Another hair just curious but ultimately he doesn't know who Jesus is um and Josh will likely cover this in a few weeks so I don't want to do too much here but further further on in the passage Jesus asked the disciples the same question that Herod is asking but who do you say that I am to which Peter applies

the Christ of God Herod had all the information he could have wanted about Jesus and even believed there was something Supernatural about him but he didn't know him knowledge was not enough he saw all the Miracles and the fame and attention Jesus had but couldn't see him for who he really was and Luke sets up a sort of parallelism here where he shows herod's questions about Jesus lacking answers then he repeats that same question with the same assumptions from the crowds but then answers both of those with Peter's correct answer of the Christ of God and this is this is why I wanted to highlight

the beauty of scripture today from this passage why it's important to read all of the Bible and to read scripture and its context if you were to just read Luke 9 by itself you would miss seeing Jesus preparing his disciples for the ministry that happens without an understanding of Hebrew literature you might miss the parallels between Herod and the crowd's questions because that's a very common rhythm in Hebrew poetry through the Psalms and proverbs in their prayers but yes you might miss that those parallels but we are also blessed to have unfettered access to the whole of scripture we can see Jesus alive through four

distinct perspectives in the gospels that complement each other but speak to different audiences we can see God's sovereignty in setting up the historical events to pave the way perfectly for Christ to come and die in our place for our salvation the preparation of a Greek Old Testament that could then be readily used by the apostles after they were called to preach Christ to the Gentiles even down to the efficiency of the Roman Road Networks the political system and oppression of the Jews that led them to believe the Messiah would come and save them from Roman oppression and how that paints the perfect picture of Jesus

coming to save us from the oppression that we get from our sin and that's what he the the actual oppression that he came to save us from um all of these things were set up perfectly for this message to come to the world and to come to us and so what do we do with all of this we've seen that Jesus calls us to preach the gospel to meet needs and that he will be he will enable us to do this work and that he cares deeply about both we've seen that he is the Christ and that the Bible is beautifully woven together to tell

us all of this and so what do we do I think very simply all of this points us to the Great Commission in Matthew 28. so now the 11 disciples went to Gala and this is this is after Jesus has died risen from the dead and is appearing to the disciples before he ascends to Heaven um says now the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had directed them and when they saw they when they saw and when they saw him they worshiped him but some doubted even after everything they had already seen some still doubted um and she just came to

them and said all authority in heaven and on Earth has been given to me go therefore and Make Disciples of all Nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold I Am With You Always to the end of the age we have confidence that Jesus is with us we need to take the gospel to our neighbors our families co-workers whomever we interact with everyone needs to hear the gospel even Believers need to be reminded we may fear that we'll say the wrong thing or lose

relationships But ultimately anything we could come up with is inconsequential in the end um am I hurt now but ultimately in the end does not matter God is Sovereign over everything and I believe that God is so powerful and Sovereign that he can't we cannot harm his will he's going to save who he's going to save we cannot harm that but we are blessed with the privilege of being part of that process we get to see people be saved we get to Rejoice with that we get to witness God's glory and be active agents in that um and that's a wonderful thing there may be

times where we need to shake the dust off and keep going and taking the gospel to other people that are are more receptive to it but regardless we need to go and Proclaim him and we need to meet people's needs as we are going about um Jesus came to live the perfect life that we are called to live but we have woefully failed at it he died in our place taking our shame and guilt on the cross as our substitution so that his righteousness can be imputed to us and we can be free from the weight of our sin and welcomed into his presence in

heaven when we die if this is news to you or if you have questions about what that means um please reach out to Josh or myself I know we would we would love to talk to you about that today um but um all that all that being said we're going to come to communion now and just remember the gospel that God has given us and the the joy of the knowledge of the Salvation that Christ brings with his substitutionary death on the cross for us um and if you guys want to go ahead and come down and get the elements I'll keep talking um but

communion is something that we we do as Believers so if you guys are not Believers I do want to ask that you refrain from participating um but um this is an act that we do to symbolize remembering Jesus death and Resurrection the wine and the bread his blood and his body that were Broken and Spilled for us on our behalf in our place foreign so um just take take a few minutes and um I want you guys just to sit and and to think about what was said today what that means for you and what change you might need to take with you out into

the week but also just celebrate remember the goodness of God and his mercy and his grace and his free gifts to us and that sacrifice on the cross that that we are so thankful for um First Corinthians 11. um see a pretty good explanation of this but for what I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed he took bread and when he had given things he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me let's go ahead and eat the bread 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 you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes so go ahead and drink oh God you're good we're so thankful for your Rich mercy and Grace that you give us we thank you that you sustain us and you provide everything that we need to do what you've called us to do that you then send us out so that we get to be a part of your

Harvest that you have readied the fields with people that are are ripe ready to hear the gospel and that we are sent out to to be a part of that we just thank you for that thank you for that reminder today and just pray that you would stir our hearts and motivate us to go and Proclaim your name to make you famous and to to reach out to our neighbors and friends and co-workers we love you Lord and it's in Jesus name we pray amen