What Made Jesus Rejoice?

man good morning church at this time we're going to go and dismiss our three to five year olds and so three to five year olds if you can head off to your class and for the rest of us if you've got your Bibles go ahead and open them up to Luke chapter 10 21-24 and my name is Dwayne I am one of the pastors here at the district and so again just want to welcome you to the district and and also again just to say that it is good to be back with you I was on uh sabbatical for about three months and um and

last week was my first Sunday back it was also the Sunday where we celebrated uh seven years now as a church plant here in the city and am looking forward to just this next season of ministry in the life of the district um with you and so we we are excited to just continue uh doing what we're what we do and and one of the main things that we do is we open God's word and we let them speak to us and we let them change us and transform us and that's what impacts all of our lives and so let's do that together this morning

and as we're there in Luke 10 21-24 again I mentioned this last week one of the things that that I want to continue to kind of implement and do in the life of our church is is not only just pray for you but pray the scripture over you and so I want to start off with that before we dive into Luke 10 and so the scripture that I'm going to pray over you is Colossians 1 9-14 and so one of the things that that we also do whenever we travel to be with some of our Network churches and a lot of times in kind of

conference settings where you get a bunch of the pastors together and we just learn and we kind of help one another and encourage one another is when we pray for one another we open our hands up and we just kind of have a posture of receiving what this prayer is and so as we bow our heads I'm going to ask that you just kind of open your hands up and that you just receive this prayer over your life this morning so let's pray together from the day we heard we have not ceased to pray for you asking that you may be filled with the knowledge

of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord fully pleasing to him bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy giving thanks to the father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the Saints in light he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son in whom we have Redemption the Forgiveness of sins it's in Jesus name we pray amen all

right now as we dive into Luke 10 and as we read that together one of the things that I like us to start doing as well or may we continue doing is to stand as we read the word of God because again you might have come in here weary and broken and just heavy and whatever you're walking through in your life and we stand on the word of God and so just kind of as a posture of doing that I want us to stand as we read Luke 10 21-24 and it says this in that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said

I thank you Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to Little Children yes Father for such was your gracious will all things have been handed over to me by my father and no one knows who the son is except the father or who the father is except the son and to anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him then turning to the disciples he said privately blessed are those or blessed are the eyes that see what you see for I tell you that many prophets and Kings desired to see what you

see and did not see it and to hear what you hear and did not hear it this is been breathed out by God for our training in righteousness so you may be seated we're walking through the Book of Luke for those who are maybe new here and we've been walking through it for I believe this is the 53rd week walking through the Book of Luke and so we're going to continue and probably have another 53 weeks as we walk through it because again we don't want to just I went to a race last night at the speedway we don't want to do that through the

Book of Luke what we want to do is just meditate through the Book of Luke we want to study the Book of Luke we want to study the heart of God and what it is that he is teaching us and what he is doing to mold us and to shape us and so sometimes it's going to be three verses or four verses that we cover sometimes it might be bigger chunks but but for the most part what we're praying the Lord does is just continues to get the word of God that he breathed out ingrained into our heart and our minds so that it changes

and transforms us to become more like his son and this is one of those things that we're going to see today is is a transformation how God uses his word and what he does in in order to make a transformation in someone's life and so what he starts off with here is in that same hour well what hour is he talking about here Luke is making reference to what just happened and what just transpired so this passage what we're looking at today is not another thought but it's a continuation of what Jesus had just shared with them or what we covered last week and so

if you weren't here in a nutshell last week we looked at we looked at the 72 disciples that were sent out by Jesus they were returning from that mission and they were returning with joy it says from going and proclaiming the good news about Jesus they were healing people they were calling them to believe in Jesus and when they returned they were filled or really thrilled that the demons primarily were subject to them in the ministry that they were engaging in I mean they went ahead went away maybe kind of fearful of it but when they came back they were like these Van Helsing demon

Hunters I mean they were just excited and thrilled that whatever they went out and did the demons listened and were so subjects but Jesus encouraged them not to rejoice in that not to rejoice in that Ministry activity that they were engaging in but to rejoice and stay humble that their names were written in heaven that ultimately what they should be rejoicing in is not what they're doing for Jesus but the fact that Jesus has done something for them that Jesus has ultimately saved them rejoice in your salvation not rejoice in the activity in which Jesus is engaging you in and that's exactly what happened but

then what this is now saying is not only did Jesus want them to rejoice in Salvation but here it says that Jesus is also rejoicing that Jesus is rejoicing which I always found it interesting when Jesus rejoices or Marvels because it's only recorded twice in scriptures where Jesus rejoices or Marvels so it's it's it's not common and I always wondered well then what causes this well what happens that makes Jesus Rejoice because again Jesus knows what's going to happen when he shows up on the scene he's God okay he's never surprised like when we Rejoice or when we Marvel at something it's because we we

might expect something good to happen but but we're experiencing it for the first time we we're seeing it in real time like we we don't know what's actually going to happen and so we're surprised by it and therefore we also then rejoice in it but Jesus here he he knows what's going to happen I mean it's kind of like thinking about um a football game you have a coach that calls a play so you know what play you're going to run you know what routes the players are going to run you know who's going to get the ball you have a goal of scoring you

believe you're going to score and then ultimately you score and everyone is excited because they scored like this is in kind of that retrospect Jesus is doing that he he knows the play that's going to be run he knows he's going to get the ball he knows what he's going to accomplish and yet at the same time he's marveling that it's happened he's marveling that he's actually rejoicing in this moment as well Jesus knew all of this before the foundation of the world and yet here he is in the moment of time that he created running the plays that his father called in and is

in real time rejoicing and experiencing what he knew was going to happen Jesus knew this already he's experiencing the Eternal plan in real time John Piper says that this is that this that his rejoicing involved the full connectedness of the trinity Jesus is rejoicing but it says that he's rejoicing in the Holy Spirit Piper takes that to mean that the holy spirit is filling him and moving him to rejoice and then at the end of the verse it describes the pleasure of the Father the NIV translates it yes Father for this is what you were pleased to do this is what you rejoiced to do

now that's just one component of the rejoicing is that Jesus rejoicing over the saving work of God in writing their names in heaven but but he elaborates a little bit on his rejoicing what's causing him to Rejoice it's not just the fact that God is saving Sinners but it's also what he is revealing and also who he is saving what he's revealing and who he's saving look closer at it Jesus says I thank you Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children yes Father for such was your gracious will now

before I get to the the who Jesus is revealing these things to I want to look at what these things are that Jesus is talking about and it's in the next verse all things verse 22 all things have been handed over to me by my father so the things have come ultimately from the father and have been given to Jesus on Earth and so what are they what are these things here it is no one knows who the son is except the father or who the father is except the son so these things are not little things they are not little things it's not how

to become a better Jew overnight that's not what he's revealing and rejoicing over it's not how to solve the Jewish Roman political crisis going on in the first century it's not how to become um or to solve the Jewish Gentile relations crisis during this time these things that he's referencing are the subject of God's identity he's revealing who God is who the son's identity is and who the father's identity is Jesus is saying no one knows who the son is except the father and you actually see this played out in a conversation that Jesus has with his disciples in Matthew chapter 16 verses 13 through

17. here's what he says when Jesus came into the District of caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples who do the people say that's that the son of man is and they said some say John the Baptist others say Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets he then said to them but but who do you say that I am who do you say that I am and Simon Peter replied you are the Christ the son of the Living God so there were people in this time who heard about Jesus maybe witnessed some of Jesus miracles maybe seeing Jesus do some things witnessed him perform

some stuff but yet they didn't know who Jesus was they didn't know who Jesus was they didn't know his true identity but when he asked the disciples Peter knew who the real Jesus was you are the Christ the son of the Living God and that's it that's the identity son of the Living God is his identity and his role is the Christ which means it's not his last name Christ is his role and it means anointed one why does identity matter well if you're being called the son of the Living God and you're being called the anointed one which in the Old Testament it's always

in reference to who the king is what Peter is saying ultimately is that Jesus who some believe is just a prophet or a good teacher or maybe John the Baptist resurrected like when he says that he is the Son of God he's ascribing to him deity and then at the same time when he says that he is the anointed one he's also ascribing to him Earthly Authority as their King so he's the son of God he is God incarnate and he is the awaited anointed king of God's people it's all wrapped up in this statement from Peter now when Peter says this Jesus doesn't award

him 100 on the quiz and say good job Peter you nailed it no he actually instead tells him that he's blessed to be able to know this Jesus answered him blessed are you Simon barjona for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you you didn't learn this in grade school you didn't learn this anywhere else except my father who is in heaven has revealed this to you my Father in Heaven has revealed this to you so follow me here what the father is doing is revealing the identity of his son Jesus who is the Christ two people in order for Jesus to become their

King their savior in addition Jesus is also revealing the person of the father to Those whom the son chooses to reveal as it continues on to say in verse 22 of our text and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him this is so that not only do we get Jesus as king but we get God as father and we get the strength and power of the holy spirit in whom we rejoice and now live the surrendered Christian Life under the rule of King Jesus that's what's happening in the these things and so when you read scripture and you read stuff like he is

revealing these things to us it's important for us to dive into just what those these things are because it's easy for us to just skip over that to maybe the context of how dare him reveal this to maybe some and not others we start getting caught up in that rather than the simple fact that he's actually revealing who God is and rejoicing in that now I said I was going to talk about the who because Jesus rejoicing was also tied to who was receiving these things look back at verse 21 I thank you Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that you have hidden these things

from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children Jesus is rejoicing Jesus is thankful that the father has hidden these things from Wise and understanding and has revealed them to these little children now I don't get to decide who God Saves I don't get to decide who God Saves despite the fact that I was at a funeral one time for a member of my family and my aunt came up to me one time and and believed that I had the power to decide where people go heaven or hell and I think I let her continue thinking that for a little while a little

while longer but I don't have that power regardless of of how it's all set up and even when Jesus says in Matthew 16 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on Earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on Earth shall be loosed in heaven that does not mean that we possess the power to play duck duck goose and choose who is in and who is out we don't have that power we are called to Proclaim and preach the good news of Jesus Christ Living the perfect life on our behalf dying of death we

deserve and resurrecting three days later to show that his work is finished and that his sacrifice was accepted by God the Father for our sins to be paid that's what we preach and that is what we Proclaim we preach this message and then it is up to God to reveal it to some and not others it's it's what he does to us it's a mystery but one thing Jesus does point out in the passage is that God doesn't reveal these things to those who consider themselves to be wise and intelligent but rather to those who are vulnerable like children it does not mean that those

who happen to be wise and intelligent can't be saved if that were the case the Apostle Paul would have not been saved it also doesn't mean that everyone who is vulnerable will be saved either John Piper goes on to say the point of this is not that there are only certain classes of people who are chosen by God the point is that God is free to choose the least likely candidates for his gift of Grace the least likely candidates for his gift of Grace it's as if God is choosing what would be counter-cultural to our way of understanding our way of how we structure life

he's revealing these things first to the person who is usually picked last and to be honest that provides us a bit of a strategy if you will why not save all the world leaders first why not save the CEOs and the owners of businesses with hundreds and thousands of employees why not save presidents first why not save those who are influential over hundreds of thousands of people on social media would that not fast-track the gospel and spread the message that much quicker well honestly that just would not be Christian it's not the way God has designed it because simply put as First Corinthians 1 27-31

says God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong God chose what is low and despised in the world even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God because of him you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God righteousness and sanctification and Redemption so that as it is written let no one or let the one who boasts boasts in the Lord it would not be the counter-cultural design of God if he just

saved all the wise and intellectual and influential people to spread the message quicker and faster what is Christian is that God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong God chose what we would deem impossible and made it possible by means of his wisdom his righteousness sanctification and Redemption so that we can't boast in anything that we came up with or we were able to do in our eloquent speech but only in the Lord in his will only in that so that as we go out and we preach we are in that moment kind of surprised as well that someone got saved

that's why Paul who was wise and intellectual and influential does not exercise his own abilities but instead says this in First Corinthians 2 1-5 when I came to you Brothers I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom he was capable of doing that but he chose not to I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified and I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and Power so that your faith might

not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God in the power of God it is this strategy that Jesus rejoices in he loves it he loves that God is saving Sinners he loves that God is revealing the identity of Jesus to Sinners so that that they may see and that they may Savor Jesus Christ as king and savior and Jesus loves that the way God implements this is by means of his power alone and not any Earthly strategy it's all God doing the work and we are the recipients of this grace and Jesus loves that Jesus rejoices in that and that's

why Jesus then says in verse 23 as you look at our text then turning to his disciples he said privately to them blessed are the eyes that see what you see for I tell you that many prophets and Kings desired to see what you see and did not see it and to hear what you hear and did not hear it again don't Rejoice that you can now cast out demons don't rejoice in your Christian Mission and activity Rejoice that your names are written in heaven he's he's nailing that one down here Rejoice that you are one of the ones that see and one of the

ones that hear and that you responded by faith in his message that came to you believing in whom you now see in here because you can see Jesus the Christ the son of the Living God the only appropriate response to God's saving work in your life is rejoicing it's it's gratitude it's gratefulness it's humility it's boasting in Jesus alone and not anything that you think you contributed because we didn't contribute anything but the sin that was necessary to be paid for that's the only thing we bring to the to the table of Salvation and ask God how can we solve this problem we bring our

sin and he says I've got it I'm going to take care of the whole thing and I'm going to redeem you with the work that I accomplish and you're going to be a recipient of it blessed blessed so you can't you can't give more to earn salvation you can't serve more to earn salvation you can't live the American dream and earn salvation can't be a good person there's no moral compass or moral Authority in order to earn God like look how good I am God saved me that's the wise and intelligent that's the wise and intellect that's that's those who think they have earned salvation

out of their Earthly abilities and Earthly in intellect and what God is saying is those who come to the table vulnerable like children saying um I don't know what to do I I can't feed myself I can't work I'm lost I don't know where my parents are like you start thinking like a child like if if we let our kids I've got three boys that are eight now eight happy birthday Ezra today um eight five and three if I let them go on their own for a week I don't think I have children anymore they will not survive we come to the table of Salvation

in that mindset like children we will not survive if you don't do something God and Jesus gets excited he gets excited in that posture because he basically tells us watch this watch what I'm going to do for you and this is going to bring great glory to God and the angels in heaven are going to be celebrating when Jesus scores that touchdown they're celebrating they're going wild and that's what Jesus is rejoicing in In This Moment In this passage is that God is revealing himself AKA our Salvation through the identity of Jesus and he's revealing it to those who are humble and vulnerable to come

to the table saying we need you as our King and our savior because we can't do this ourselves and he saves us he forgives us of our sins that kept us away from him I heard a story from Trevor Atwood who's pastor of City Church in Murfreesboro Tennessee which is also the town in which I went to college and this story it's really two stories um about two men both of these men are named John so just so that you're not confused in here the first John was born in 1725 in England his mother died just about two weeks before his seventh birthday when he

was about 11 years old he began a life as a sailor with his father on a sailing ship and when he turned 18 he was forced to go into the British Navy he was caught trying to abandon ship one day so he was then stripped down to his waist tied to the Mast of the ship and then was beaten with a hundred lashes by the crew just I mean just humiliated humiliating beating following that he then devised a plan to kill the captain and take over the ship but before he could do that the captain transferred him to a different ship that was heading towards

Africa this ship ended up being a slave trading ship and so while he got to Africa he then actually didn't see eye to eye with uh that ship captain either devised a plan to try to take over it but that Captain ended up sailing or selling him into slavery once he got into Africa his father then sent out a rescue mission uh to get him got him found him in Africa brought him back to England rescued him out of that but he had then seen the financial profit of the slave industry and then engaged in it himself and for the next nine years lived a

financially profitable life in human trafficking selling and trading slaves additionally from some of the journals that he left we know that he treated women poorly and that he outwardly rejected just any sort of moral Authority in his own life in short John lived a hard life John lived a very dark life and in a lot of ways lived a wasted life that we would probably look at now I want to tell you a story of another John that actually lived around the same time as the first John also in England he married his childhood sweetheart named Mary shortly after their marriage John and Mary adopted

his two orphaned nieces and eventually he would go into the ministry and become an Anglican priest he was well known for his just pastoral care and his work among the poor young people who were struggling with their faith would seek out his advice he would write letters back to them they ended up collecting those letters and put them into a publication that you can still buy today that is going on and just continuing to encourage and give advice to people in their Christian faith and Mission influential political leaders would come to this John with their moral dilemmas seeking his wisdom in 1788 he actually wrote

a pamphlet decrying the evils of the slave trade uh enjoying the efforts of William Wilberforce to abolish slavery altogether in England the law to abolish slavery passed just before he died in 1807 just before he died in 1807. now that John that's that's a beautiful story that's a well-lived life a man who did what was right and fought for what was good right up unto his death so that's two John's two two very different people one a life wasted and one a life well lived but there's one more thing I want to tell you about these two Johns he's the same John he's the same

person the first John is very much the second John even though the second John is very much not the first John you see it wasn't until while on one of the ships a storm came threatening the sinking of the ship and John Newton said that he prayed for God's mercy and experience the spiritual encounter where Jesus revealed himself to John revealed himself to him the storm ceased and when he got back to land he considered that the beginning of his conversion experience his conversion to Christianity knowing who he was and knowing who Jesus is he etched these words on paper Amazing Grace How Sweet the

Sound that saved a Wretch like Me I once was lost but now and found was blind but now I see towards Grace that taught My Heart To Fear and fears Grace feared my fear is relieved how precious did that Grace appear the hour I first believed Trevor went on to ask a question if you looked at John Newton when he was 30 years old making a fortune off of human trafficking using using women for objects of his own pleasure denying that he had any more responsibility to anybody at all he asked could you have seen it could you have seen the second John could you

have seen the transformation if all you saw was the first I believe one of the reasons Jesus rejoices over his father's strategy is because it is the most radical and counter-cultural transformation this world can ever Witness and it's impossible for us to do it ourselves that's why Jesus says in Matthew 19 26 with man this is impossible but With God all things are possible all things are possible it allows us to be able to see John Newton in the first half of his life and be able to have conversations and say this is what Jesus can do this is what Jesus can do and again

that's why Paul said in First Corinthians 2 1-5 when I came to you I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with the lofty speech or wisdom we're not going out and sharing the gospel and trying to help just counsel people on how to do their life better but instead I decide to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified it doesn't matter your neighbors it doesn't matter how good their lives are or how broken their lives are if they don't know Jesus they're broken they're broken and if Jesus has not saved them and forgiven them of their sins they're

lost and have not been found they're blind and have not yet seen and we have to share that message we preach and Proclaim Jesus Christ who is the son of God the Christ we Proclaim that message and we Proclaim him crucified crucified We Don't Preach or Proclaim Jesus my homeboy Jesus is a good moral compass that you should follow and listen to we preach Jesus Christ crucified for a specific reason because it's only by what he does at the cross that gives us any possible chance to be in relationship with him and his father we we don't get there if Jesus Lives the perfect life

on our behalf and then just goes back to heaven we don't get him if he doesn't pay for our sins at the cross because they have to be dealt with that's the power that's what made the difference in John Newton's life and also in your life God revealed to you that you were a sinner broken and unable to save yourself from his judgment and wrath don't believe me and this is what Ephesians 2 1-9 says you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world following the prince of the power of the air the spirit that

is now at work and the sons of Disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and we're by Nature children of breath like the rest of mankind that's everyone who lives is that if they are not saved by Jesus who is revealing the father to us and also the father revealing Jesus to us we are all verses one through three of Ephesians 2. until God steps in in verse 4 and it says but God not you not your church not your religion not your acts of ministry not your abilities not

your intellect wisdom any of those things but God being rich in Mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses he made us alive together with Christ by Grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the Heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable Riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus for it is by Grace you have been saved through faith this is not your own doing that's what Jesus is rejoicing in this is not

your own doing it is the gift of God not a result of works so that no one may boast we boast in Jesus and that's what Jesus is also boasting in Jesus isn't going back to Heaven saying look which ones I just saved they're awesome they're going to help our team out a lot like this I'm trading this guy I'm sending him to the other team I'm going to go with this quarterback like Jesus isn't doing that Jesus is saying and I'm sorry but this is the category you're in if you believe in Jesus he's saying look how weak they are look how sinful these

ones are look how damned they are but I love them and I'm going to do a work and I'm going to save them and I'm going to take them from sinner to Saint and they're going to boast in US because we're all they have we are all they have Jesus gets excited about that and in return that's what we get excited about that's what we get excited about Christ did all of it that's why Romans 5 8 by God but God shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners Christ died for us Christ died for us and that's why at the

end of every message that we preach and Proclaim we come to the table of him breaking his body and shedding his blood because we know that when we come to this table there's nothing that we can bring to it we preach in a way for you not to walk away saying let me tighten up my tie let me clean myself up let me do better what we do is when we come to the table we're continuing to acknowledge he does all the work and we are just participants we engage in it we rejoice in what work he is doing now yes there is a combination

of a responsibility once you become a Believer where like if I just sit back and never read the word of God it's going to be really hard to grow in my relationship with Jesus if I don't communicate with him in prayer it's going to be really hard to abide in Jesus in a relationship but he has done all of the work to save you that then fuels you for your Christian Life and Ministry that's why we come to the table is because we know that there is Christian Life and Ministry there is Christian Life and Mission that he calls us to participate in and to

engage in there is work for us to do if you keep reading the Ephesians 2 it goes on to say that we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works so when he saved you he made you a new creation and you as a new creation the old is gone the new has come you as a new creation have you have work to do the fuel that keeps fueling our work is coming back to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ if it was the Cross of Christ that saved us it's the Cross of Christ that continues to sustain us and Empower us for the

ministry that we engage in every single day every single day and so that's why we end every sermon or every service coming to the Lord's Supper coming to communion so that when we get to the table we're continuing to proclaim the same thing it was not me that did any of this I'm not boasting in myself but I'm remembering I'm looking back I'm remembering all that Jesus did for me in his life and his death and his resurrection he broke his body and he shed his blood by getting tortured beaten and nailed to a wooden cross publicly humiliated and in that place he forgive me

of my sins because he took my sins and placed them on the cross he became my sin so that I might become his righteousness II Corinthians 5 21. and then his resurrection three days later is the receipt it's a confirmation you know when you go online and you pay a bill and they receive a confirmation code back the resurrection is his confirmation from God that God's Wrath is satisfied nothing left to pay nothing left to pay and because he rose Jesus from the dead Jesus having power over death while we were dead in our trans trespasses and sins no longer we are now alive in

Christ resurrected with him because our sins have been paid for this is everything that we remember and hold on to by faith and we rejoice in and so let us rejoice in this and remember this by breaking bread together and so I'm asking you to stand if you will please stand for those who um for those who believe this truth for those who live under the banner of Jesus saving them coming to the table like a child vulnerable there's nothing that I can do to earn this there's nothing that I can do to keep this there's nothing that I can do but Jesus has done

it all for me for those who live under that and believe that we invite you to partake of communion remembering all of the work of Jesus and let it be the fuel that continues to empower you for a Christian Life and Mission so when you wake up tomorrow and you're like man I really haven't been reading God's word in being able to have that opportunity for him to communicate with me like I should or I haven't talked to him I haven't prayed I haven't spent time with him like I should when we start having those kind of inner dialogue and wrestling going on let's just

remember man you know what that feeling that I have of that shame and that guilt Jesus Paid For That on the cross so I don't need to let the enemy belittle this new creation that he's already done a work in but rather let it be an invitation and an opportunity for me to not just complain about myself and Naval Gates but look up to heaven and say God I want to hear from you so let me open your word and dive in God I want to communicate with you I want to pray to you and I don't think there's any magic number of how often

I pray or how long I pray but I just desire to pray I want to be with you I want to be with you and Jesus rejoices in that he rejoices in that and so let this be the fuel that continues to drive our spirituality as we engage with him in relationship so come grab the elements come back to your seats and we will partake together