The Healing of a Boy With An Unclean Spirit

amen all right how we doing this morning guys great just two people great all right that's fine um at this time we'll go ahead and dismiss all of our three to five year olds to the little District uh for those of you who don't know me my name is Josh I'm one of the lead pastors here at the district church and it is always a joy and an honor to be able to open up God's word with you guys if you have your Bibles go ahead and open to Luke chapter nine we're going to be in verses 37 through 45 this morning and as you're

opening there I just want to give a couple quick announcements um we as Grant Just prayed for as well as what you'll see in the upcoming email we just had our second Nations night where we were able to interview and talk with Manuel Sanchez who is a church planner and missionary down in the Dominican Republic that we support and so for those of us or for those of you who weren't there we are going to send an email this week or in our weekly email we'll send a link to be able to follow his story and follow what their church is doing and how God

is growing the kingdom in the Dominican Republic maybe it'll spur you on to just even become a part of the email list pray for them to just go out let me make sure that I'm not messing up the wire okay so you'll be able to see and follow along pray for them and then if your heart does stir you to give you you can do that through that link as well and so be on the lookout if you're not getting our emails weekly emails and whatnot please come see me or the hunters will make sure that you guys will get signed up and you can

also check maybe your spam or promotional folders of where it's going to moving on to those promotion or Spam folders if you did not see as a member of our church we sent out our member email reminding us of our third quarter member meeting July 9th for everyone who didn't see that but it also has some details about building updates and things like that and so if you haven't seen that check your spam check your promotional emails I've seen that go there and if you didn't see it at all or want more information on come see me and I'll be happy to to update you

on that and then finally we have a celebration coming up in in August August 6th we will be celebrating our seventh anniversary where God has blessed us as a church grown us and and continues to work in growing his kingdom through us and so we will be celebrating that with a service on August 6th and it'll look much like Sunday mornings but as we have had throughout the years we will be also celebrating afterwards with pie and that will be a sweet and savory pie and so if you've never been a part of that we we celebrate the anniversary with people making whether it is

sweet pies or bringing Savory pies and it'll be afterwards after church it'll either be at a park or if it's raining we'll figure out how to get into a building and so location wise it'll be updated in the email but mark your calendars for August 6 we will have our celebration for our seventh year as a church in here in Indianapolis and so again I hope that you guys can make out or make your way out to that and come celebrate with us it is going to be a great event where we again are celebrating what God has done so if you have not made

your way to Luke chapter 9 by now we are going to be again in Luke 9 verse 37 but as we continue this series we come to the passage today that I think most of us can resonate with when it comes to a Mountaintop experience and a valley low experience how many of you have been on a vacation or you've gone to a concert especially a Christian concert where you're worshiping the Lord you you feel like you're experiencing the goodness of God uh in song or maybe you've gone to a Bible study and you've just left and have felt that Holy Spirit just continue to

convict your heart and move in you and you you have this Mountaintop experience now I asked last week for those of us who are here we we have moments of Glory that we've experienced and if you can remember those things that often you don't forget like how often do you think about that and think about those moments of Glory are foretists of what's to come and we can as Christians call those experiences just Mountaintop highs right but similar to those Mountaintop highs similar to the grace that God shows us in communing with him how many of you have walked into your house after a concert

or a Bible study or you come home from a vacation that you feel blessed by and and all of a sudden you get a dose of reality that you live life in a fallen world whether it is coming home from vacation getting to the airport and seeing that your car is now dead and the battery has died and all of a sudden the vacation's over or maybe you are at a conference and you're praising the Lord and you get a phone call that your loved one has been diagnosed with cancer or even worse they've passed away my poor sister actually experienced something very similar to

this about 10 years ago actually 13 now she got married on June 18th and about three weeks later coming back from her honeymoon she got a call that I was in the hospital diagnosed with cancer so three weeks into her marriage the Mountaintop highs of finally being married as all of a sudden comes crashing down because of the reality of sin and life in this world you see much like our own examples that seemingly bring us back to this reality of life in this world and the sin that Mars it so deeply we see the disciples again having a very similar experience as they're in

this valley low right if we remember from last week God has shown his glory he gives them a foretaste of what heaven is going to look like and now we step into a scene that is disastrous and and a valley low in which the disciples have entered into and so this is what I love about the Gospel of Luke if you've been following along with us what we see more and more is the disciples experiencing life very much the way we experience life and we see Jesus in it all whether it is the Mountaintop high or the deep valley low we see Jesus entering into

these experiences with his disciples and ultimately with us and I love how what we'll see today is this compassionate savior who bears with his disciples even in their ignorance even in their faithlessness even when they don't trust that he is going to do what he says he's going to do he bears with them in their values and I think that's good news for the disciples but also good news for us because God is and Jesus is the same yesterday today and forevermore and so in our Mountaintop High experiences and in our deep valley low experiences Jesus is there and so I want you to see

this wonderful truth from our text this morning that Jesus is Sovereign over those highs and lows and he calls his disciples to live with true faith faith that keeps their eyes fixed on him no matter the circumstance so I'll say that one more time Jesus is Sovereign over our Mountaintop highs and our deep valley lows and he calls his disciples to live with true faith that keeps our eyes fixed on him no matter the circumstance and we're going to see this through two different scenes this morning and I've kind of entitled them true faith and true vision because we see in both scenes a true

faith that comes from the father who who Longs for his son to be healed and we see a true Vision that Jesus is trying to give to his disciples as they are in awe of his majesty and marveling at his glory so let's take a look at this valley low scene as Jesus comes down from the mountain with Peter James and John starting in verse 37 Luke writes on the next day when they had come down from the mountain a great crowd met him and behold a man from the crowd Cried Out teacher I beg you to look at my son for he is my

only child and behold a spirit seizes him and he suddenly cries out it convulses him so that he Foams at the mouth and shatters him and will hardly leave him and I begged your disciples to cast out but they could not and Jesus answered o faithless and twisted generation how long am I to be with you and bear with you bring your son here while he was coming out the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him but Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy and gave him back to his father and all were astonished at the Majesty of God but while

they were all marveling at everything he was doing Jesus said to his disciples let these words sink into your ears the son of man is about to be delivered into the hands of men but they did not understand the saying and it was concealed from them so that they may not perceive it and they were afraid to ask him about this saying this is the word of the Lord let us go to him and ask him to illuminate his word for us this morning so that we can know more of who he is let's pray Lord you are good and you show us grace and

mercy daily and Lord it is in those Mountaintop experiences that we can behold Your Glory but Lord help us to know and believe and trust that even in the valleys that you've allowed us to walk through that you are not leaving us on our own but that you are with us and that your purpose in them is for us to know you at a deeper level Lord help us to see that those valleys are making us into the image of Christ or give light to our text this morning help us to have the ears to hear and the wisdom to receive your word so that

we may have Assurance of faith and have certainty that you are who you say you are as your servant Lord used me this morning speak through me let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight O Lord my rock and my redeemer it's for your glory and our joy that we praise you this morning in Jesus name amen so if you remember from last week Jesus had just taken Peter James and John up to the Mountaintop to reveal who he was and we see that his glory is shown as he is communing with the father in prayer

Jesus shows in all his majesty his glory he shines brighter than the sun as Matthew and Mark tell us the voice of God even comes down and says this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased this is a moment of Glory that John even opens up his gospel account with and Peter at the end of his life could not forget it was and excuse the pun a true Mountaintop experience now as we read today as they are coming down from this mountain into a disaster as I said earlier we see them enter into an experience that we can be all too familiar

with we see as Luke writes in verse 37 on the next day when they had come down from the mountain a great crowd met him Mark's parallel passage actually tells us the surrounding circumstances of what's going on he tells us that the disciples are actually arguing with the Pharisees and the scribes he tells us that tempers are flaring that the the crowds are making fun of the disciples all of this tension is building up because a father who had been pleading for his son to be healed brought his son to the disciples and they could not heal him it's a mess it's a valley low

this Mountaintop Retreat that Peter James and John just experience with Jesus is all of a sudden over in an instant but what Luke teaches us here in this passage is that Jesus is Sovereign over both Jesus is Sovereign over the glory that he revealed through the experience on the Mountaintop and he is Sovereign over this valley low and what I want us to see today is that that truth that Jesus is Sovereign over the valley and the Mountaintop is same for us today that truth is the same for us this is the wonderful reality of the Incarnation of Christ that he came and dwelt among

us so that in your experiences of mountaintops and Valley lows you can know that you have the author of Life saying I know your experience I know what it's like to live in a world marred and broken by sin I know everything that you have gone through and I am with you as the author of Hebrews tells us since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens Jesus the son of God and let us hold fast to this confession for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but one who is in every

respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and Grace and help in our time of need because we are united to the one who put on flesh who experienced this life the highs and lows of it and he says draw near to me come to me with confidence in your time of need because I know what that experience is life like and I am Sovereign over this life and we know through the scriptures that Jesus uses these Mountaintop experiences and these valley low experiences in our life

to help it grow us into his image we know like the disciples beholding Jesus in his glory that that's where we can also Behold Him in his glory not losing focus on who he is what we can also know and believe that in the valley lows he is Sovereign over them and he is sovereignly with us in them and we can trust that he is good and he has allowed these experiences for our good and the growth of our lives the growth of our Christian Life to be made more into his image and he calls us to draw near to him in faith as we

walk through these valleys not in our own strength as we see the disciples doing but by trusting in who he is and who he's called us to be but how easy is it for us to fall back into a pattern where we trust in our own strength where we get away from our spiritual disciplines that have grown our faith that has led us to these Mountaintop experiences how easy is it to fall back into the pattern of trusting our own flesh relying on our own self instead of living in faith and obedience to the father you see apart from faith we cannot please God and

we can't bring him glory and it is through faith perfect faith that has been imputed to us because of Jesus's life death and resurrection that we then can glorify God so when we offer up our prayers when we offer up our works when we offer offer up our praise it is only through faith that they are perfected and received by God and when this true faith is present in our lives obedience then follows it is that faith-inspired action of obedience that God loves from his children so I want to show you through three different responses to this healing that we see true faith we see

one person showing true faith and then two groups of people showing indifferent faith and a distorted faith Luke kind of breaks it Down For Us in this first scene so let's take a look at the father's true faith in trusting Jesus to heal his son go back to verse 38 with me and behold a man from the crowd Cried Out teacher I beg you to look at my son for he is my only child and behold a spirit seizes him and he suddenly cries out it convulses him so that he Foams at the mouth and I begged your disciples to cast out but they could

not now this should bring up stories that we've already heard through the Book of Luke right I mean how many times have we seen through these last nine chapters somebody bringing their child whether it's a daughter or a son to Jesus to be healed and on the surface what we would appear to see what is wrong with the sun would be that he's just having epileptic seizures but the good Dr Luke actually tells us that it was a demonic spirit that was causing these seizures that it overtaken him and caused him harm Matthew and Mark also give us an Insight of how bad it was

for the Sun Mark 9 tells us a spirit would make him mute and whenever it would seize him it would throw him down and he would grind his teeth to where they would become rigid Matthew 17 would show that he often fell into the fire and in the water harming him as he's just going about his day so the father is coming for healing now we know that Jesus is on this Mountaintop with Peter James and John coming down and so whether the father brought this son to the disciples the day before or even in the morning time he comes to the disciples seeing that

Jesus is not there believing that they could do probably what they said they could do if you remember from chapter nine the disciples had actually been given this power and authority to heal demons and cast them out and so maybe the father heard these stories maybe the father even was convinced by the disciples that they could heal him and so he brings them to him and his son is not healed they could not cast out this demon and the father becomes restless and we see this scene begin to develop this crowd and the scribes who are asking questions and getting into arguments with the disciples

because they could not do what the father asked them to do and so as Jesus comes down from the mountain there must be relief from the father that Jesus is here and he begs him to heal his son in desperation he's begging Jesus to show compassion and mercy and Grace by just looking upon his son and we know from Mark 9 this is the same father who cries out I believe help my unbelief and so he is showing faith he is acting in faith believing that Jesus could heal his son it may not have been perfect faith but it was true faith that trusted in

Jesus and believing that he could do what he has said he could only do showing compassion and healing his son from this demon possession and we see Jesus do it once again Jesus shows compassion he does what his disciples could not do and he heals the son he says while the while the sun was coming the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him but Jesus rebuked this unclean spirit and healed the boy and gave him back to his father what's interesting about this particular event most commentators would describe this is Satan's last-ditch effort to keep the boy away from Jesus and much like

our own experiences maybe you remember a time in which you were not saved and then you got saved and in between that you saw Satan's last-ditch effort in whatever he could do to keep you from trusting in Jesus and so I hope you find Comfort even in this story that this is what Satan will do he will try to keep those who are coming to Jesus with anything and everything he can in his last ditch effort and yet Jesus is more powerful Jesus is greater Jesus's compassion and mercy and Grace heals and brings true healing that only he can bring and the father in this

story unlike the two groups that we're about to see acts in true Faith by trusting in Jesus's healing power that he can do what he says he's going to do and that is healing those and saving those from their sin when they have faith and trust in him so let's take a look at the disciples and there's this second group and and honestly as we're reading through this narrative we should be asking what why aren't the disciples acting in true faith you see this would have most likely been the nine other disciples who were left down on the Mountainside and and as I said earlier

the father is bringing to them his son with an unclean Spirit most likely he has heard that the disciples have the same power and authority to heal to cast out demons so he brings them he brings his son to them and if we're reading through this story maybe for the first time or if you have been following along the last couple of weeks we should have this question of why couldn't they why would the response be from the father to Jesus that the disciples couldn't do this Matthew actually tells us that it's because the disciples had little faith Mark tells us it's because this demon

could only be cast out through prayer and fasting and Jesus In this passage says you faithless and twisted generation he's talking to the disciples because they are acting faithless and through these three accounts we are able to see that the disciples had a distorted faith that trusted in their own strength so somehow between chapter 9 the beginning and now we see the disciples have begun to trust in themselves they are no longer praying and fasting they are no longer having faith in the power and authority that Jesus has given them and they're trusting in their own flesh and this is why Jesus has frustration with

them because he he knows I've given you this power and it is only through my power that you can heal this this son who is possessed by a demon and yet you are acting faithless you have a distorted and twisted faith you see the disciples had succumbed to the faithlessness that was around them Luke doesn't tell us how long between the beginning of chapter nine to now that time had elapsed but we do know in that period the disciples had stopped trusting in and practicing the spiritual disciplines that allowed them to practice the power and authority that Jesus had given to them now again and

I may be asking this question a lot this morning because I think we if we are properly reading the scriptures can can see our lives through the disciples experiences because how many of us have been here right is this is this not the picture of a Mountaintop experience in in the beginning of chapter nine that that Jesus gives his power and authority to the disciples they go out and heal they cast out demons they bring the kingdom of God to Earth they're on this Mountaintop high and then the next time we see the ability for them to practice that power and authority they can't because

they lost sight of the one who they are supposed to behold can this not or is this not true of us at times when all is good in our lives we begin to rely on ourselves instead of the power and authority of Jesus but what I want you to see in this passage is that Jesus doesn't just show compassion to the father and the son he shows compassion to even his faithless disciples you see Jesus asks this question how long must I bear with you I love how the NLT puts it how long must I put up with you but then what does Jesus do

he bears with them he does it in their unbelief and their failure to cast out this demon he does it in their distraction as we'll see at the end of this passage he does it in their pride as we'll see next week and he even does it in their lack of dedication as we'll see in the coming weeks he bears with his disciples so brothers and sisters if Jesus can bear with these ignorant prideful and faithful disciples in all of their faults and failures will he not do the same with you whenever you feel like Jesus is not bearing with you or or you feel

like he is condemning you he is not the scriptures prove and show that there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and this passage here shows that he bears with his disciples even when they are not acting in faith and it is because our Union with Christ that we can know and trust that this is true and furthermore as J.C Ryle puts it let us bear with the ignorance of other believers or other brothers and sisters as they deal patiently as let me start over let us bear with the ignorance of other brothers and sisters and deal patiently with beginners in

their faith if Jesus could endure so much weakness in his disciples then we may surely do likewise guys how often can you find yourself impatient with other believers who other brothers and sisters who don't seem to be getting it I have to confess this this quote hit me like a ton of bricks this week because and I've already confessed and repented to my wife but this was my week there were times where I was acting impatient because of her growing in her faith and I'm over here like can you just get this and Jesus is saying the same to me can you just get this

I'm patient with you why can't you be patient with her and yet I think this is also an experience week in half with other brothers and sisters in Christ we are called to bear with them as Jesus bears with us even in our ignorance Even in our growth Even in our lack of faith at times to trust him so let us practice this finally we see the third group The Crowd and as we remember through the Book of Luke the crowd or the the crowds are those who are just unconvinced of who Jesus truly is and we see as verse 43 tells us after this

miracle they were astonished at the Majesty of God now I don't want us to get hooked on this word astonished as if their hearts were transformed because Luke shows us they weren't their their minds were not convinced their hearts weren't transformed that Jesus was who he said he was all they were focused on is marveling at the miracle but not seeing it as a sign that God in the flesh is among them and if you're here today and if that describes you I'm begging you don't just marvel at what Jesus has done don't just be astonished at his works of healing a boy or the

stories you may know of who Jesus is let this passage humble you to repentance of your sins and to trust in Jesus as the Messiah and savior of the world that he is who he said he is that he has come to save Sinners Like You and Me by dying on a death that we so rightly deserved and raising from the grave three days later defeating sin and Death on our behalf don't just marvel at his works trust in him as Savior as the marveling was going on Jesus had a different intention for his disciples and what he was trying to do here is refocus

their attention back to him and why he came and I want us to see this morning in this second scene of this passage Jesus is trying to give his disciples there and us today a true vision of why he came verse 43 says but while they were all marveling at everything he was doing Jesus said to his disciples let these words sink into your ears the son of man is about to be delivered into the hands of men but they didn't understand saying and it was concealed from them so that they may not perceive it and they were afraid to ask him about this saying

you ever watch those videos of teams hitting a jumper with like five seconds left and their whole team is celebrating and they're excited because they think they're about to win but there's time on the clock and the coach is like you guys need to get back on defense something could happen and then we watch the other team just take a three-quarter shot nail the Hail Mary and the game is over and that team who thought they were going to win is now crushed what we what we see in the coaches he's trying to get them to pay attention to the important thing that the game

is not over and what we see Jesus doing here is the same he's trying to get his disciples to pay attention because they were distracted while the cross while the crowds marveled at the Majesty of Jesus the disciples were getting caught up in that now if you put yourself in those shoes I mean you'd probably be like a child as well right Jesus did something that we could not do and so now we're marveling once again at his power and authority and maybe even having the knowledge of knowing who Jesus truly was outside of the crowd knowing this they probably began to think oh man

this Messiah again is going to have power and he's going to reign because they did not truly know why Jesus came and they were distracted and what Jesus was trying to do here is he was trying to get their attention to not be distracted by this miraculous work but remember the point of his ministry and that is the cross Luke tells us that they were even confused and didn't understand what Jesus meant when he said that he would be handed over to the hands of men it even LED them to be afraid to ask him because I mean you just assume like they've heard this

before and they were still confused about what is happening now think about this for a moment because I I do think that's so some Scholars will say that Jesus actually not Jesus God actually um held this knowledge back from the disciples but I think when we look at The Human Experience and if we're trying to understand the disciples in that moment which is what we should do when we're reading a passage like this we have to think about it from their perspective they had not seen the cross yet they had now been told the second time that Jesus was supposed to die but even in

this vague announcement they they still don't understand what he is saying because they didn't have the full knowledge of the Cross and the resurrection and so it confused them and I think honestly if we were there today we we would be confused like them because again we we don't have the perspective like we do now of the Cross and what it meant and so the disciples are confused by what Jesus is saying but what the point of what he's saying is to draw their attention back to what was to come you see in the next couple of weeks Jesus's Ministry shifts it shifts from healing

it shifts from being with people and crowds to focusing on the cross and so Jesus is preparing his disciples again for what is about to happen as he sets his face towards Jerusalem and the reality of where his life will end up again how easy is it for us to be like the disciples and get distracted how easy is it for us to even see in the scriptures a moment of majesty and just marvel instead of having our hearts transformed how easy is it for us to be distracted in the valleys it's easy right it's easy to look at our circumstances around us and not

fix our eyes on Christ and be distracted by those circumstances asking the question when is the season going to be over or when will I get to the next place in my life or maybe we're even tempted to be deceived that we in the valleys are not actually loved by God isn't this the first Temptation that we see in Luke 4 when Jesus comes or Jesus goes into the Wilderness and Satan comes to tempt him if you if you go back to Luke 4 what we see is Jesus gets baptized and God says this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased and

the very next verse is Satan asking are you really the son of God he's trying to deceive him and trick him that in the wilderness God is not really with you and you are not who he says you are as his son and daughter and so in the middle of our valleys it is easy to become distracted or even worse to distract ourselves and forget that the Lord is Sovereign over all things in our life and that he is sovereignly in all those things with us he's using those valleys to grow you he's using those valleys to encourage you to draw near to him with

confidence and reminding you that he will never leave you nor forsake you so the valley lows are not just a place of despair but a refining process that will eventually end up in pure gold as Paul reminds us in second Corinthians 4 17 and 18 He says for this light and momentary Affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of Glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen But to the things that are unseen for the things that are seen are transient but the things that are unseen are eternal so let us look to our valleys and not be

distracted or distract ourselves with things that are not eternal guys we can't just look at the power and the glory and and the Miracles and and the majesty and the Mountaintop experiences in our life to confirm that God loves us and calls us his own we have to know and trust and believe that even in the valleys that truth is still the same that he loves you that he calls you his own that he cares for you and that comes because of Christ because we are united to him in faith and that means that even in those valleys when the communion with God doesn't feel

like it's there when we want to numb ourselves of the pain when we want to distract ourselves of the reality of the circumstance we're in we feel like we are separated from God our Union shows us that that relationship is not broken you are still United to God in Christ and he is sovereignly with you the beautiful reality of this Union with Christ means that we do not have a God who is far off but a God who is put on flesh and he understands the weight of this world and draws near to us in our time of need so as hard as it may

be in those Valley lows fix your eyes on Christ pursue this true Vision to trust him even when you can't feel his presence and to know the glory of Jesus and that the cross the cross is the place in which God has shown and poured out his perfect love for us it is the place that God shows his greatest love for you and for those who have put their faith in him because that is where he sent his son to die and to take on his wrath in order for his righteousness to be poured out onto you and for your relationship to now be restored

and reconciled back to him and it is because of Jesus's death on the cross when he looks upon us he Delights in US and he calls us his own to end the balance fix your eyes on him remember his goodness to you I don't know where you're at this morning but in my life experience you are probably one of these three groups you could be the disciples who have a distorted faith that have put their faith and trust in their own flesh and their own strength and have not kept sight on Jesus maybe you're the crowd that you're just unconvinced that Jesus is who he

says he is or he's going to do what he says he's going to do or maybe you're the father maybe you are the father that has trusted Jesus in any and every circumstance and you are believing that he will heal that he will save that he will show his majesty and Glory and you are waiting on him but I pray that wherever you're at this morning that you would fix your eyes on Christ that you would practice true Faith no matter the circumstance whether you are on the Mountaintop beholding his glory or you are down in the valley low struggling to trust in him I

pray that you would fix your eyes gaze upon his glory and trust him in faith a faith that trusts him at all times a faith that humbles ourselves in prayer and fasting and recognizing that we are not God and that he is only capable of doing the work that he says he would do in us as well as those around us trust in the power to defeat the temptation of sin that seems to be nagging us holding on to us as Phil reichen says we can come with UPS we can come up with so many methods to try and manage our sin but the real

transformation only comes by trusting in the gospel to change our hearts and Minds and it's the faith in God that he can truly restore relationships through the power of the Holy Spirit it is faith in God who can sustain us in our Valley Loaves and know that he is present in them with us it is faith in God who can transform the heart of a sinner to redeem Saints and we only need to be obedient in evangelism it is faith that in our efforts of discipleship we will not transform anyone but by the power of the Holy Spirit there will be fruit and if you're

here today and you don't consider yourself a disciple of Jesus if you've never put your faith in him as Lord the offer to you this morning is here to trust in him a savior hope that you would take up this call and trust in him with this faith and it may not be perfect but that's okay none of us have ever come to Jesus in perfect Faith it's actually his faith that perfects us it is he who cleans you it is by his perfect obedience that God now Delights in you and saves you and it is in him that you will be transformed as you

trust in him daily as you bear your cross daily as You Follow Him daily so if you have not trusted him in faith pray that you would I pray that you would trust in him as a savior and as a loving father suffering servant who has come to die and redeem you and his brothers and sisters in here let us be people of faith true faith that trusts in him no matter the circumstance keeping our eyes fixed on him the founder and Perfecter of our faith as the author of Hebrew writes who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising shame

and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father let us fix our eyes on him so as we close with communion this morning I want us to do just that as we come to the spread in this juice let it be a reminder of what Jesus has done for us on the cross and that every time we take this I hope that you're not taking this means of Grace for granted because it is something that should remind you and it is something that should help you fix your eyes on Jesus and the purpose of why he came to die a sinner's death

and to be raised three days later defeating sin and Death on our behalf so I'm going to invite you to the table and I'm going to give us some instructions on taking communion this morning but as you come I pray that it would be that reminder that thing that helps you week in and week out fix your eyes on Christ as you go out into this dark and Dying World bringing the light of the Gospel to them remembering that you were once and God has brought of it and called you back into it with this same life so would you come and grab the elements

this morning