Sermon 09 17 23

and you guys can go ahead and have a seat at this time we're also going to go ahead and dismiss our kids four and up four and up you can head to your classroom and for the rest of us if you have your Bibles go ahead and grab them we're going to be in Luke chapter 11 as we continue on throughout the Book of Luke we're walking through it verse by verse and it brings us to chapter 11 we're going to be looking at verses 24 through 28. and before we jump into that I want to pray for us father you're so good you're so

gracious and loving father it is your desire to reveal yourself to us through your son Jesus you get excited about that and you want us to know you and treasure you Above All Things and so my prayer is as we open your word this morning that you would do that very thing continue to reveal yourself to us so that we would know you treasure you and love you Above All Things father if there's areas in our hearts or in our minds that are distracting us away from you or tugging on us or pulling us away whether it's our our own sin or circumstances of life

God I just asked right now that you would just alleviate those distractions and allow us to see you clearly to be able to hear your word and keep it show us Jesus so we may treasure him and help others follow him as well it's in your name we pray amen Luke 11 24-28 I know I just had you sit but now I'm going to have you stand uh stand back up we're going to read these verses and um and let the Lord speak to us when the unclean Spirit has gone out of a person it passes through waterless places seeking rest and finding none it

says I will return to my house from which I came and when it comes it finds the house swept and put in order then it goes and brings seven other Spirits more evil than itself and they enter and they dwell there and the last state of that person is worse than the first as he said these things a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him blessed is the womb that bore you in the breast that which you nursed but he said blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it you may be seated before we go by

rosaries and crosses and hang them up all over our house because of a passage like this let's just let's just calm down a little bit not overreact um to to this seemingly horror film of a passage that we have here but in all honesty it um it is a horrific Passage um this is this is not a passage that we would look at and just kind of uh sweep on by it and just think well that's not a big deal this is a big deal and in reality it's actually greater than any horror film that we would ever see um because this isn't Hollywood that

we're dealing with here this is real life these are real demons that are evil and and seek to disrupt they seek to destroy they seek to torment they seek to ultimately drag people away from any opportunity of being able to know Jesus and to love him they don't want that they won't want us to find true healing and live peacefully for eternity with Christ and so instead they want to drag us with them on their way to an eternal damnation in hell and it's really an eternal nightmare that anything we produce here on Earth from an entertainment industry Pals in comparison to that comprehension so

just like there's nothing here that can adequately display the Beauty and the glory that heaven is going to be there's nothing here that we can create that adequately displays the Agony and brutality of hell but it's a reality and we've talked briefly about this over the last couple of weeks we talked a little bit about Satan but we really looked more at his schemes last week than we did his his identity and his origin and what the Demonic realm really looks like and so before we kind of jump into this verse and and figure out what's going on here with this I wanted to spend

a little bit of time addressing Satan and and identifying Satan so that as we continue to look at Jesus we are built with confidence in our Christ as the stronger one than this other in an essay by Thomas Sappington he explains Satan is a personal spiritual being who was created by God but rebelled against God and leads a spiritual Kingdom composed of demonic Powers who oppose God's purposes through various schemes that are designed to keep men and women out of God's kingdom and to render Christians immature and ineffective in reaching the world with the gospel of Christ that's kind of a nutshell version of what

who Satan is and what he is all about Satan and also that we saw last week is considered the prince of demons in John 12 he's also considered the ruler of this world and although Satan Bears those titles of Prince and ruler it is not to be confused or mistaken as having any type of equality with Jesus any type of equality with God and in my kind of upbringing which wasn't in the church I shared with our community group this last week like my first kind of teaching or learning about Satan and Jesus was via Celebrity Death Match and so if you don't have no

idea what that is that's a deep dive into like um culture if you will of back when I was in Middle School of this show that was on TV I think it was MTV that was these like Clay figurines that would essentially enter into like a wrestling match with one another and so they would do all kinds of different people from um like Bob Saget fighting against like other TV personalities and um but there was one scene where it was Satan versus Jesus and they had Satan like you know in his little clay figurine was this big red monster looking built Jack dude and then

you had Jesus in his kind of like humble like big white robe and um everyone's putting their money on Satan and he was going to be the one that won and essentially Jesus just like spoke and Satan died um and and I was like oh they actually like got it right as far as the theology goes behind that but I was always viewed that it was just Satan versus Jesus that they were on equal terms but it's just not true it's not true sabbington goes on to suggest that the description and depiction of the king of Tyree in the Old Testament is in fact the

story of the fall of Satan and his followers and so I want to read this for you to kind of help give you a depiction of of who he is how God created him what happened and ultimately what his end is going to be moreover this is from Ezekiel 28 11-19 moreover the word of the Lord came to me son of man raise the lamentation over the king of Tyree and say to him thus says the Lord God you were the Signet of perfection full of wisdom and perfect in Beauty you were in Eden the Garden of God every precious stone was your covering sardius

and topaz and Diamond Barrow Onyx and Jasper Sapphire emerald and carbuncle and crafted in Gold were your settings and your Engravings on the day you were created they were prepared you were an anointed Guardian cherub I placed you you were on the Holy Mountain of God in the midst of the stones of fire you walked you were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till unrighteousness was found in you in the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence in your midst and you sinned so I cast you as a profane thing from the Mountain of God and I destroyed you

o Guardian cherub from the midst of the stones of fire your heart was proud because of your beauty you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your Splendor so I cast you to the ground I exposed you before Kings to Feast Their Eyes On You by the multitude of your iniquities and the unrighteousness of your trade you profaned your sanctuaries so I brought fire out from your midst it consumed you and I turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all who saw you all who know you among the peoples are appalled at you you have come to a dreadful end and

shall be no more forever so you go from having Satan be depicted as the most beautiful of God's creation to essentially being consumed by the fire of gods where everyone's appalled by him and it's all because of this unrighteousness that was found in him this sin that he gave himself over to as an Angelic being that ultimately was cast down to earth and once he was cast down he had one thing on his mind first Peter 5 8. tells us to be sober minded and Be watchful for the adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour as all satan wants

to do is seek to devour because he ultimately knows that's what's going to happen to him he knows his end the demons know their end that's why I always love it every single time Jesus shows up on the scene where a demon is present the demon isn't like rolling up his sleeves being like all right let's go they're like have you come to destroy us is our time up like is our leash no longer a leash anymore like are you are you coming to to deal with us and they plead asking him not to in order for them to have a little bit more time

so that's Satan and the Demonic realm a created angel who became prideful and sinful and led a rebellion in heaven convinced a third of the angels to follow him they were all cast out of Heaven to Earth sometime but between the creation of the world and Adam and Eve this Cosmic Rebellion happened and they entered into our Earth and began deceiving as we see with Adam and Eve and that kind of gives us some of the more context as we talk about passages like this one today and so what I want to do is kind of walk through it unpack it a little bit for

you and then kind of show you at the end of it how Jesus has handled the situation and how we can rest assured that when we look at a passage like this we're not like can Jesus heal someone and cast out a demon and yet then seven more evil ones come and take it over because that would terrify any one of us if that were true so I want to look at it so that we can continue to have confidence when the unclean Spirit has gone out of a person it passes through waterless places seeking rest and finding none it says I will return to

my house from which I came if there was ever a verse that was like stranger things I feel like this versus is pulling that out when an unclean Spirit goes out of a person now it was interesting because there's a distinction between the phrasing of an unclean Spirit coming out of a person versus an unclean spirit being cast out of a person so there is some type of Distinction here between the the nature and activity of what Jesus and the apostles were doing when casting out demons versus what is happening in this situation with this evil spirit who is coming out of a person if

we if we try to address it with the context in which we are in verse 19 Jesus also gave an accusation to the sons of the Pharisees by whom are you casting out the demons are you casting them out by the Finger of God or are you casting them out by some other power because if that were the case and it's not the Finger of God that you are actually using to cast out demons then it is and essentially a false exorcism or an incomplete and inefficient exorcism and I think and believe that that is what is really going on here in this situation is

a false exorcism and I'll show you why I believe that here in a moment but where does the spirit go once it has come out it says it passes through the waterless places seeking rest seeking another place to reside John MacArthur believes the waterless terminology here to kind of I mean he kind of dives into a little bit of a stranger things uh upside down plot where he believes these are just spiritual nether regions as he refers to them that are going on where there is the Physical Realm that we have and that we reside in ourselves but there is also this spiritual realm that

is interacting with our Physical Realm um and and one of the ways that we believe that that is a reality are verses like Colossians 1 16. where God says that through Jesus by him all things were created in heaven and on Earth visible and invisible so there are visible things that we can see and hear and touch and smell and and then there are invisible things that we can't see hear touch and smell but we may still perceive them sense them and experience them to a degree and in some situations angels and possibly demons have the ability to manifest themselves into the Physical Realm you're

like what Hebrews 13 2 do with this verse what you will but it's an interesting verse do not neglect to show Hospitality to strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unaware do what you will with that like seek to show Hospitality to those around you for in doing you might have actually entertained an angel unaware so there is some way in which the invisible interacts with the visible and things are happening things are going on so this demon that is wandering around in this nether region as MacArthur calls it the spiritual Realm because he's just came out of the physical from this person as he's

watering or going through these waterless places it's essentially referring to him as like a Barren Wilderness he's going around he's not satisfied at all with what he's finding and what he does find in satisfying is essentially residing in or feasting on or or not feasting on but just interacting with and and being housed in an individual a person a possessing of that person and so as he goes around and doesn't find a place to reside he says I want to go back to the house that I came out of I want to go back to the person that I came out of and it says

when he comes it finds the house swept and put in order it seems as though there has been some sort of successful exorcism this was a person with an unclean Spirit what we know from people who are possessed by demons that they disable they disrupt they torment usually their life is not showing anything of vibrancy it's nothing but hindrance and this person has now put their house in order they look clean like they've behaviorally modified themselves like they they're doing well it appears their life has been cleaned up and they've established some healthy rhythms or disciplines however we'll see down in verse 26 it's an

incomplete process or an inefficient one the Holman Study Bible notes cleansing from sin must be must be followed by obedience to God's word not complacency The Exorcism of a demon is incomplete ultimately if Christ does not enter by faith and indwell that person it's incomplete otherwise there's nothing to prevent the demon from re-entering and making things even worse than they were before because that's what it says next it goes and it brings seven other Spirits more evil than itself they enter they dwell there and the last state of that person is worse than the first like you think you've had tough days that's a tough

day from what we've gathered throughout the Book of Luke and other books of the Bible demon possession is not a pleasant experience to put it lightly as I said they torment the mind they disable the body they possess your choices they cause physical harm to you and others a picture of the man who was possessed across from the Sea of Galilee when Jesus jumped into a boat with his disciples as he's going across jesus takes a nap the storm comes the disciples start freaking out and Jesus says like they wake him up and he's like why are you bothering me well you got to remember

he gets in the boat he goes over the other side and then he comes back there was only one reason why he went to the other side and put his disciples through the storm it was to get to a man who had who had evil spirits that referred to themselves as Legion a multitude of evil spirits that were within him and it says in Mark 5 2-5 this is what his condition was when Jesus stepped out of the boat immediately there met out met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean Spirit he lived among the tombs and no one could bind him

anymore not even with a chain for he had often been bound with shackles and chains but he wrenched the chains apart and he broke the shackles in pieces no one had the strength to subdue him night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones I mean that's just awful that's just an awful existence not only did our man in Luke 11 have a demon that went out of him but went and gathered seven more demons even more evil to come and possess him now how is this possible because again I believe like if a

demon leaves a person they're good to go right you would believe if there's a casting out there's an exorcism you would believe that they're good to go but I believe it depends on the source of the healing it depends on the source of the healing in this case and as we observe in our context of this passage this may have been an exorcism by the sons of the Pharisees and not one by Jesus and it appears to be again activity or disciplines that allow this man to clean his life up for a bit but as JC rile says it well let us observe how dangerous

it is to be content with any change in religion short of thorough conversion to God Martin Lloyd Jones also points out we must always remember that there are other powers beside that of Christ which can give the appearance of results it is impossible for men and women to get relief from many of their ills and troubles apart altogether from the gospel the gospel is that not what our world is doing it is seeking healing in anything and everything but Christ but Christ Michael Andrews adds is a well-behaved sinner any better off than a demon-possessed one when it comes to entering the gates of hell because

they don't cuss are they better off than one who is foaming at the mouth because they build houses for Orphans are they better off than one who creates chaos in villages as Andrews asks is there any advantage to entering a christless eternity sober rather rather than drunk this person's house was swept and put in order they got their act together they cleaned up their life it's possible to have what appears to be repentance or doing the right thing and yet still not have Christ in you again I was born and raised in the Bible Belt Tennessee everyone there to a degree believes they're a Christian

you'd be hard-pressed to find someone that didn't believe God is great beer is good people are crazy that's the South and that's also lyrics from Billy Currington a country song but being morally upright without Christ has the ability for you to end up worse off than before according to this passage in some ways the harder person to reach with the gospel is the one who behaviorally is morally upright after all Jesus seemed to have greater success reaching prostitutes and murderers and thieves than he did the morally upright Pharisees there has to be not only the deleting of sin but the replacing of that identity for

the tech gurus in here it's kind of like if you're deleting data from a computer it's still there in some form unless it is overwritten with new data if I didn't say that correctly you can correct me later the only way to protect someone from demon possession is if Jesus the stronger one enters the house and takes up residence that's it that's the only thing that that helps in the situation and so as he's saying this as he's communicating this to the people because there's a group of people around him as he said these things verse 27 a woman in the crowd raised her voice

and said to him blessed is the womb that bore you in the breast at which you nursed but he said blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it have you ever met those people who give a comment in a discussion that just kind of misses the point a bit like if there's someone like that in your community group don't nudge them or look at them they're probably also thinking you might be like that as well where like they just say something you're like this is awkward like I know what you're trying to say but this is actually the better thing

to say I think there's a couple of different things that maybe this woman was trying to say it is true that blessed is the mother of Jesus I mean God says that of her blessed are you you have favor I'm giving you Grace I'm selecting you to be the mother of Jesus that's a blessing for sure the song of Mary talks about how she is blessed but also think there's a little bit more to this that Jesus is drawing on where it's not just physical ties or natural ties that bless a person what I mean by that in other words is that just because of

your lineage or where you come from or your family your Bloodlines it does not ultimately resolve for you being a believer in Jesus being a believer in Jesus what Jesus is getting at here and what this woman is yelling out is essentially like blessed are you because of where you came from and not only that but because of how you turned out also then blessed is your mother how lucky is she to have you but if you were to go just based off of where you come from in Bloodlines and and kind of your own works and what you have done then there would be

no and more blessed than the Apostle Paul and that's why he goes on that rant that like if anyone were to boast In the Flesh if anyone were to boast in natural ties and where I come from or who my mother is or anything along those lines he's like I have all the reason to to boast in myself if that was enough to be able to get myself to heaven of The Tribe of Benjamin Hebrew of Hebrews circumcised the eighth day I mean he just gives you a list of all the reasons why someone would look at him and say you have all of the

credentials in order to earn the salvation and righteousness from God and so blessed are you and Paul eventually goes on to say that is not what actually blesses a person he consider considers it all rubbish which in Greek means poop he considers it all done in exchange for the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ treasuring Jesus Above All Else he wants to sweep his house clean of all of what he has come from and all of his credentials and allowed Jesus to take up residence that's essentially what Paul is saying and so Jesus here and I love this on how he kind of corrects this

woman he doesn't publicly just rebuke her in the moment and say don't be talking about my mom it's not about her right now instead what he does is he says blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it in a way he is saying you're right my mom is blessed because of me but rather greater than that are those who hear the word of God and keep it so how do you know if the spirit of Christ has come to dwell in your heart you're the one who has heard of the word of God and every fiber in your being desires

to keep it to obey it and live your life in Glad submission to it like it's not just cleaning your life up and doing behavioral modification it's exchanging that old Heart of Stone and getting a new heart of Flesh that beats for Jesus that like it it is pumping blood that that goes out to all of your being that just lights you up for Christ you want all of Jesus you want to treasure him and you want to be all about what he is all about that's why we are saying treasure Jesus and help others follow him because that's what Jesus is all about that's

what he's getting at that's why he says in John 14 15 if you love me if you love me which is the Heart of Stone has been removed that can't love me and a heart of Flesh has been given a heart that is alive in Christ the spirit of Christ has come into you if it comes into you you will love him and so if you love me keep my Commandments well how do we know if we've heard and believe and love how do we know that we need kind of like equations we love equations right we love to be able to explain things Romans

10 8-17 puts it this way what does it say the word is near you in your mouth and in your heart that is the word of faith that we Proclaim because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved if you confess with your mouth that Jesus Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved for with the heart One Believes and is Justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved for the scripture says everyone who believes in

him will not be put to shame for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Lord as Lord of all bestowing his riches on all who call on him again that's kind of saying like he will bless whoever he wants to bless regardless if you're Jew or Greek it doesn't matter your natural Bloodlines it doesn't matter if you've never been a part of the people of God because you're Gentile you're Greek he will bless those whom he chooses in addition to that the word of God is what brings us into it for the same Lord as Lord of all bestowing his riches

on all on all who call on him for everyone who calls on the Lamb of the Lord will be saved anyone who cries out to the Lord essentially believing in their heart he is who he is speaking with their mouth he is who he is it says you will be saved so then I love it goes on asking these more questions how then will they call on him and whom they have not believed how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard and how are they to hear without someone preaching and how are they to preach unless they are sent how

beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news they have not obeyed the gospel for Isaiah says Lord who has believed what he has heard from us faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ so the the the the system that God puts in place in order for us to hear the word of God and keep it is by giving us the word of God Jesus Jesus being the visible representation of the invisible God he's the word of God walking at the same time he is inspiring through the spirit for all of the prophets of old and the apostles to

write down the word of God that represents Jesus if Jesus is the visible representation of the invisible God the word of God is the written representation of Jesus to know Jesus know the word to know the father know Jesus they go hand in hand here and so what he says is the way in which God Saves people is by taking that written word of God which is why we preach expositionally it's why we preach through books of the Bible because if I just come up and give you topical sermons and just say here's how to live a birdie life in a bogey world and that'll

give you a bunch of golf analogies and then just every once in a while try to attach some scriptures to it it's not going to help you it might allow you to be able to sweep up and clean up your house a little bit but it actually doesn't do anything for you it might allow you to have some behavioral modification and to live a good life but it is not providing for you the word that you need to hear so that by faith you believe it and confess it and then keep it you long to obey it and in Glad submission you surrender your life

to it and you live it out you start walking in step with the spirit of Christ because at the end of the day when you've heard the word which is testifying to Jesus you treasure him because you see what he is doing you see who he is and you see that there is nothing greater in all of the world that would satisfy us in a way we're kind of like that unclean Spirit that's out wandering the waterless places of the barren Wilderness of the world looking for a place to reside and and lay our head and rest and we're not finding any satisfaction because we

need a temple we need a house we need somewhere to lay our head and Jesus is that for us is the only place that we will actually find rest and that's why he says come to me all who are weary and are heavy-layed and I will give that to you rest in me as I take up residence in you as well that's why John 14 as he talks with his disciples he tells them I'm going to go and prepare a place for you in that place there's going to be many rooms the terminology for room is an abode which is where we also get the

root word for abide when he says I go to prepare a place for you and there's going to be many rooms we're always like that's heaven give me my mansion Every Good Deed I'm just sending a brick up there I hope I have something more than a shack you know it's going to be a great place that's not what it is I'm not saying there won't be mansions and the and the the roads of gold and all of that beautiful stuff it's going to be fantastic but we're going to abide in Jesus he is our house that we reside in we don't love him and

keep his Commandments in order to get the mansion we get him we get him and we treasure him above all and so he's saying abide in me those who love me will keep my Commandments because I've taken up residence in you and you are experiencing true rest and true satisfaction where your heart is there your treasure will be also and I want that to be Jesus I want that to be Jesus that then allows me to categorize everything else out in my life I'm able to keep his Commandments by how I Steward my finances because he instructs us how to Steward our finances in a

way that Treasures Jesus continues to help others follow Jesus as well continues to manage our household allows us to be able to save up for an inheritance for our grandchildren that's biblical Proverbs all of it allows us to be able to Steward it in a way that we are not bound to it looking for satisfaction from it because why we treasure Jesus above all in Christ to have all that I need think about it in this way when it comes to the relationships that we have and what we expect from our friends sometimes we put savior complexes on our friends when we're going through a

problem you better answer you better be there for me at all moments you better do this you better fill in the blank and what do we do we put on them the weight that we are actually dependent upon Jesus to provide for us in Christ we have all that we need now he does allow us to Steward our relationships in a way that we spur one another on to loving good deeds and that we encourage one another and we edify one another and we provide for one another and we pursue one another we we do all we serve each other in order to lift one

another up absolutely that is a part of the process but we are called to do that not necessarily expect that and as if they are our savior Jesus is our treasure Jesus Is Our Savior and so we keep his Commandments because we treasure him and love him above all and it allows us to Steward those things in a beautiful way and so the word of God is preached it's shared it's taught in some way for you to hear it upon hearing it you either believe in Jesus or you don't for those who do believe in Jesus we receive new affections in the form of love

for Jesus and love for his Commandments and his mission for those who don't believe in Jesus you might have cleaned up your house for a little bit and it might not be in the form of seven more demons coming to take over but it might be the sins that you had already committed that now you're kind of taking a break from because you're cleaning yourself up a bit that Temptation that comes towards those sins might be stronger than it was before and you actually find yourself deeper in the Sin than when you were before because you have no source to get yourself out of it

you don't have Jesus who's actually already put those things to death and has power over it in order for you to actually be able to say no to those things and yes to him to actually stop sinning and saying yes to worship we're worse off before if Jesus is not abiding in us if he's not taking up residence in our lives and so then he says in John 15 12-14 and this is where I'm going to bring us into communion here this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you so part of that keeping his Commandments is the pursuit of

Love towards others just as Jesus has pursued us and loved us this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you greater love has no one than this that someone would lay down his life for his friends you are my friends if you do what I command you and you're like well that sounds like it's very conditional you're my friends if you do what I tell you to do was the same thing with if you love me you'll keep my Commandments it's it's the indicative that is the prerequisite for the imperative it is the fact that he has loved us that

he has saved us that he has forgiven us that he is allowing us to treasure him that fuels us being his friends and pursuing him and obeying him we don't obey him to get salvation from him we obey him because he's already given salvation to us freely that's why the the hymn says all to him I owe we don't owe it in order to like pay him back for the Salvation that he's given us for free is not alone he gives it to us freely and it fuels us to then take that salvation and invest it in how we Steward our lives and how we

pursue others with the same free love and grace that he has given to us you are my friends now hear the word believe it love Jesus and love others by helping them hear the word so they can believe it as well because our passage is a reality there are people that are bound by sin shackle to it there are people that might not you know we we might not see them in the way of this passage being demon-possessed in our culture and context but it's not to say that that's not happening around the world it is real it happens and the only answer we have

is not trying to um memorize different Harry Potter spells in order to help somebody and figure it out and let's try some things instead it's preaching and proclaiming the word of Jesus so that they hear it the demon shudder is it our time to be destroyed cast out whether that's demon whether it's sin flesh cast out so that Jesus Takes up residence and you experience transformation that's the only hope we can give the people around us and so God says do it like let's proclaim the word to those around us I don't know why we get fearful of that I don't know why we're scared

of it I mean think about it you would not be here if you did not hear the word of God preach and Proclaim to you you want it I have the utmost love and respect for Clint Lamberth who is a fifth grader when I was over there being that seventh grader next door to his house watching my celebrity death match a fifth grader walked me out shared like we're looking at a bush and he says look at this bush right here he's like do you think you can create it and I'm no I can't create this bush he goes I know who did he goes

but you know what this bush actually doesn't really look like what it's supposed to look like because of sin in the world it breaks everything it fractures everything so it's not as beautiful as it could be he says the same way with us we're broken we're fractured we're sinful again this is why we have a little District we're training our kids to treasure Jesus to love Jesus and to share Jesus I'm a product of children's ministry and he shares the gospel with me and lights turn on I see for the first time that I've actually been a really bad influence on him as the seventh

grader next door trying to expose him to a bunch of things and I apologize and I confessed Jesus as Lord and I turn and I get saved and then guess what I run in my mom's throwing a Hot Pocket in the microwave because we're from Tennessee and and I immediately just start sharing the exact same thing that he shared with me did you know that this microwave is broken and she's like what'd you do but I just start sharing the good news because all of a sudden I have affections for Jesus and I want others to know him like where where do we stop with

that we don't we don't expect the professionals to do it we don't expect the teachers to do it we all share this good news that has transformed Our Lives and has actually allowed our state to be better than it was before it's opposite here our state is better off than it ever was before because Jesus has taken up residence in US man let's get that news out in your families in your neighborhoods and I mean just go door to door if you want it's not weird just go door to door ask people have you ever heard about Jesus what do you think about him and

that's what Jesus did with the disciples who do the people say that I am some say you're John the Baptist resurrected some say you're Elijah some say you're like the prophets well who do you say that I am well you're the son of God all right ask people who Do You Think Jesus is what do you think about them have you ever been to church what's your experience been with church oh Church hurt your D church or deconstructing church you're you hate Church you oh well let's talk about that why was that your experience I mean every church I've been a part of has hurt

me Jesus has not Jesus builds his church Jesus is who we treasure we know we're broken we know we're going to Fumble through on this thing we know it's going to be messed up at times but Jesus is who we hold on to and we're trusting that he continues to build his church as the gospel is proclaimed and the word of God is taught people hear it and they believe it and they get transformed if we're not doing that then what are we doing what are we doing Let's help people become better off than where they were by coming to know Christ and being transformed

by him I want you to stand as you stand I'm going to invite the band up here as well the only reason why we're able to be in this room and treasure Jesus is because Jesus laid down his life for us as I said there in John 15. Greater Love has no one than this than someone would lay down his life for them that's exactly what Jesus did Jesus didn't come in the form of of like Satan as Prince ruler he come and he humbled himself in the form of a bond servant and he served and he sought out those who needed a physician he

came to those who were ill and he said I'm going to take your illness in order for you to be healed we were sick and we were dying and he said I'm going to take your sickness and I'm going to take your dying and I'm going to die for you in order to defeat it so that you don't have to and I'm going to give you my righteousness I'm going to give you what you need in order to be back into a relationship with the heavenly father for all eternity so that you become Sons and Daughters of him and therefore you receive an inheritance you

get to then co-rule with Jesus for eternity better off than where you were thank you Jesus for that and if you believe that if you've heard that you believe that and you treasure Jesus you love Jesus then we invite you to come and just remember the sacrifice that he gave for us by breaking his body and shedding his blood in order to remove your sins and because that price was paid in full God gives us the receipt of that with the resurrection of Jesus three days later that his wrath is satisfied thank you Jesus so I want to invite you down front to grab the

elements bring them back to your seats and we will partake together as we remember Jesus for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus from the night when he was betrayed he took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and he said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me in the same way also he took the cup after supper saying this cup is the New Covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me as often as you eat this bread and you

drink the cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes let's continue on in worship I want to thank you for worshiping with us today um and we love you guys we we actually had a phenomenal weekend we got our ministry team together to go on a little bit of a retreat and just to talk about mission and vision and values of the church and so those are going to be some things that we're going to roll out a little bit more as we get into October so I just want you to look forward to that because it it is something that is not just

going to be like a hey here's some good ideas uh what do you think but it's rather much more on leaning