Bring Children to Jesus

let's go ahead and have a seat this time we'll go Ahad and dismiss kids to little district for their class and for the rest of us let's go ahead and grab our Bibles and open up to Luke chapter 18 Luke chapter 18 we're going to be looking at three verses today and when I read these three verses uh you're going to be wondering why did we not preach this last week when we had baby dedication and um I'll explain that in a minute but uh Luke 1815 through1 17 this is our passage for today now they were bringing even infants to him that he might

touch them see what I mean this would have been perfect for baby dedication um and when the disciples saw it they rebuked them but Jesus called them to him saying let the children come to me and do not hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom of God truly I say to you whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it uh even more ironic is I'm going to be connecting last week's message with this week's message because uh in in kind of their similarities they're saying the same thing and so um but as I kind of was preparing

this and walking through this and even just knowing thaty I'm going to be preaching on it this week instead of trying to connect it to last week uh the preaching calendar was set way in advance but before baby dedication was set last week so I'm just going to trust that the Holy Spirit knew what he was doing um versus what sometimes I'm doing um when it comes to that but we are going to be looking at a comparison of the fery and the tax collector that we looked at last week in the Parable with this uh story that Jesus is talking about with the disciples

today in other words if you were to compare literally verse 14 of last week with verse 17 of this week in essence they are preaching the same idea they're saying the same thing and I want to show you that for example for everyone who exalts himself will be humble something that we looked at last week in verse 14 is the same as whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it and then also vice versa everyone who humbles himself will be exalted is the same as if you receive the kingdom of God like a child you shall enter it

and so the physician Luke is continuing this train of thought and he's connecting these two Parables that at the end of the day pride is a hindrance to you receiving salvation to you receiving the kingdom of God also pride is a hindrance in you allowing others and in this context namely children to also receive salvation or receive the king kingdom of God and so we must have a plan to deal with any form of Pride or selfishness that keeps us from Jesus or that also keeps or causes us to keep others from Jesus and then similarly we need to have a plan for what gets

us to Jesus and what also helps us get others to Jesus as well because at the end of the day like that's our that's our mission statement like that's why we exist as a church is to get to Jesus and to help others get to Jesus as well that's why we say as a district church we treasure Jesus and help others follow him like that's the whole mission of who we are I mean that's the mission of every Church really is some type or form of loving God with all your heart soul and mind and loving others as well loving your neighbors it's loving God

because he has given us salvation and it's then helping our neighbors get that same salvation so that they can love God so that they can treasure Jesus Christ as well and what we're going to see here is there are certain types of sins there are certain types of motives of sin that then hinder that mission that keep you from loving God keeping God from loving you that keep you from also helping others come to know God love God as well and the two primary sins that we're going to be looking at are the sins of Pride and selfishness in regards to the Pharisee of last

week um and in this regards to the disciples I mean the disciples who are actually falling and keeping people from coming to know Jesus and so um with dedicating our children last week as we did and with more children to dedicate in the weeks to come we want to do a deeper dive in what Jesus is teaching us when it comes to children and how we make sure that we do not hinder them from coming to Jesus so look at verse 15 again now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them and when the disciples saw it they rebuked them now

side note here I always want to just kind of put like a star next to a verse uh as one of those verses that continues to show that the New Testament scriptures were inspired by God to be written because if we as men are just trying to create our own religion in the first century we're not going to write in our own mistakes like we're just not going to do that if we want people to fight follow us because we're setting a great example and model and we want others to see how awesome we are we don't include our own mistakes when we do that

but God being wiser than us showing that hey the gospel is um a a kingdom that transforms people and takes them from uh mistake ridden and mistake driven to ultimately being multiplied and transformed into the image of Christ then you need to see the mistakes to see what you become when you have the identity of Christ formed in you and so again this is just one of those Graces to us that allows us to be able to see that hey you know what we make mistakes and the gospel is for us like the gospel is working in us it's transforming us and this is one

of those moments where the disciples are making a glaring mistake and Jesus providing them Grace leveling uh lovingly corrects them and course corrects them and rebukes them to be able to see hey guys this is not what I've called you to do this is not the right way let me show you the right way by having you check your heart and so that's the first thing that I want us to do is we need to check our heart that's what Jesus is rebuking these disciples with when you look closer in this first verse there were wise parents bringing their children to Jesus in hopes that

Jesus might touch them which was a way of granting them Grace granting them Mercy granting them favor uh which was known as a blessing so it it's also a little bit ironic that the disciples they should know this they should already know that whenever there was a rabbi in the area and if people have children they want the rabbi to bless their children and so they would bring their children to the rabbi so this was custom it wasn't like they were trying to do something that was um not normal not ordinary but these disciples and this is where again you got to have to check

your heart maybe um they were distracted by the success of Jesus's Ministry and were only focusing on very specific forms of ministry and this was one of those ones where they're like we don't want to spend time on that so like right now what he's doing that's really great is he's Healing The Sick he's helping the blind see like he's helping the lame walk he's bringing dead people back to life like he's doing incredible things he's his teaching min Ministry is is so profound that he's stumping the lawyers and the Pharisees and the scribes and the Sadducees like he's stumping those who are considered to

be the highest of the high when it comes to this like we want to focus on those Ministries and we don't want to focus on the family Ministries right now so we're rebuking those we don't have time for you we have time for these other things and maybe that's something that the disciples were a little bit frustrated with if the disciples which to be honest if Jesus is being kind of the celebrity Pastor in this moment and the disciples are the hospitality team they're not very they're not being very hospitable in this moment this would be like if we saw a family pull up to

our church we run to lock the doors and say no no no no we we don't want you to come in here right now because we have other more important things to deal with and so these disciples need to have their heart heart checked because again I believe they're looking for different types of Ministries to utilize for Jesus's time than allowing him to interact with these children and doing a bit of open heart surgery on us what is our view of children are they exhausting like little menaces that you hope to avoid um when you see a child behaving like a child do you think

they should be uh behaving like many adults and just sitting there quietly and maturely um what is our heart towards children how do we view them because our heart towards children will either be a heart that is in beat with Jesus in his view of children or contrary in beat with Satan in his view of children one is let them come to me for such belongs the kingdom of God the other is let me convinced culture to murder them like that's that's what we're looking at here what is our view of children one that leads to life flourishment and eternal life eventually the other is

let's get rid of them and you got to see that this is a play that has been running since literally the garden if Satan receives a message that is Through The Offspring of the woman will come one that will bruise your head that will basically kill you then guess what Satan's number one strategy is going to be let me kill all The Offspring what does he do with Cain and Abel immediately like one generation he's already putting in the play of let me kill Eve's children and that play has been run and continued to be run for the next several thousand years and to this

day the way that I can get to killing anything that would be the IMO day anything that would become saved let me kill them as early as possible and what the disciples don't realize in this moment is they're entering into that Spirit they're entering into we don't want them to have Jesus and Jesus is saying no no no no if it's just as good for the lame to walk and for the blind to see and for those who were possessed by demons to be free from that and for us to uh interact with the Pharisees and the tax collectors if it's just as good for

them to receive this grace that I am bringing to Usher the kingdom of God for them it's just as much as good for me to do that for these children for these children and so Jesus is pushing this to the disciples and saying that hey this is this is not just for you now this is not just for you to help adults be converted and come to know Jesus and and let's build this big Adult Ministry for the next 20 to 30 years no Jesus is thinking what is the next 2,000 years going to look like and it's not just going to be for adults

who die but it's going to be for their children and it's going to be for their children's children we're going to be building a culture of Christianity that is Legacy driven so that we're not just investing in the adults but we're investing in the children we want them to grow up knowing the gospel so much that they never knew a day they didn't know the gospel that they didn't know Jesus that they didn't treasure Jesus that they didn't receive blessing and favor and grace and mercy from Jesus and so what is our view then is our view similar to the disciples where we don't have

time for that or is our view let us do whatever we can to get them to Jesus to get them to Jesus which is what verse 16 says but Jesus called them to him saying let the children come to me and do not hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom of God in other words Jesus tells them don't be foolish don't hinder them don't keep them from me instead let them come to me actually disciples do whatever you can to get them to me as much as possible because to such these children belongs the kingdom of God and so Jesus makes the disciples check

their heart and I want to get practical with that for a moment here the pride and the selfishness of the Pharisees kept themselves from coming to Jesus it's also that same pride and selfishness of these disciples that were keeping these families from coming to Jesus you see pride and selfishness which again we're in a month right now that is celebrating something um pride and selfishness must be killed in Us in order for us to come to Jesus and it must be killed in Us in order for us to help others come to Jesus since we are doing a bit of open heart surgery right now

we need to cut out the sin in our heart so that Jesus can sew us back up and we can be faithful in the ministry he has called us to do now why do we need to cut out the pride and selfishness in our hearts listen to Psalm 10 3-4 for the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord in the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him all his thoughts are there is no God you see selfishness and pride are the forms of sin that cause a person to renounce the

Lord or even further decare that there is no God at all there's no God at all so selfishness which gives way to self-righteousness is what leads a person to Proclaim I don't need God I don't need God and to the extreme of not needing God is also not needing others which essentially is just narcissism the kingdom of God is literally built on the need for God and the need for others and so what selfishness is going to do is it's going to rear its ugly head and say how I'm going to combat the kingdom of God is I'm going to combat the very thing that

they need which is a need for God and a need for others I'm going to convince them that they don't need God and they don't need others and that they can do everything on their own selfishness gives way to self-righteousness which eventually gives way to a form of narcissism and the gospel has absolutely zero room for this type of sin Pride then which gives way to self- sovereignty is what leads a person to Proclaim ultimately there is is no God and to the extreme of believing there is no God is what we know as atheism to do ministry According To Jesus there must be absolutely

zero Pride because if there is any Pride that we or any pride in us then we may drift in life and Ministry to the point of not relying God relying on God at all not relying on others at all because we believe we have the strength and power to do it ourselves that's what pride is I don't need God I can do it myself I don't need others I can do it myself I have the strength and power to be able to perform this but again that gives way to self- sovereignty and there's nothing more crushing for your spirit in the long run than believing

that you have all the strength and power to do it yourself the actual greatest form of rest and remedy for anxiet is when God tells you you don't have to do it yourself I provide all the strength and power that you need in order to help you in your Christian Life and Ministry and so you want to know what it's like to be patient I'm going to help you with that you don't have to like pull that off the shelf of your life and your strength I grant it to you in the form of the fruit of the spirit you want to be able to

love others well guess what I provide that love for you you don't need to pull this out of your your own self sovereignty I give it to you in order for you to do this and so when God calls us to something we don't have to wonder whether or not we have the ability to do it ourselves he grants us with that ability therefore we are able to say he is Sovereign and then gives to us what we need in order to do what he has called us to ultimately do what does that do it eliminates Pride it eliminates pride and selfishness but left unchecked

and unrebuked our selfishness and pride will not only keep us from God but it'll keep others from God as well and at the end of the day is there anything that is more anti-gospel than that is there anything that is more anti-gospel than those realities I mentioned it two weeks ago in the parable of the unrighteous judge the unrighteous judge did not fear God and he treated others with contempt that's literally Antichrist believing there is no God no reverence of God and then treating others with contempt that is not loving God with all your heart soul and mind and loving others as yourself but that's

what the gospel calls us to is to love God and love others the only way we are able to get to loving God and loving others is if selfishness and pride are are literally carved out of us because of the the work of the gospel and then forms in us something that we actually need which is humility and helpfulness instead of selfishness we are to be helpful instead of prideful we are to be humble if you know anything about the values of our church this is why one of this is one of the reasons why we say we serve with humility and helpfulness we serve

with humility and helpfulness because this parable is exactly what we don't want to happen we don't ever want to be accused or guilty of hindering others from coming to Jesus because we were prideful or selfish we don't ever want to be accused or guilty of this type of sin so therefore what we are cultivating is a culture that says we serve with humility and helpfulness we don't think we are above meeting any need need that may arise and also we want to be quick to meet that need rather than sitting back counting the cost well how much time is this going to take of me

how much money is this going to take of me how much energy will I exhaust how how frustrated will I get if I serve in this type of capacity well again if we look at Ministry with those types of questions that's the best recipe for Burnout and church hurt it's just is true it's the best recipe for Burnout in church hurt is if we're viewing serving as something that is serving us because we're viewing it as a prideful thing and a selfish thing what do I get out of serving in little District what do I get out of serving in Hospitality well then we're just

left frustrated because it doesn't actually serve us it doesn't serve us when I think of someone who served with humility and helpfulness I think of a man named Chad Morgan there's a good chance that nobody in this room knows who Chad Morgan is and and will likely never know who he is because that's how Chad Morgan would have wanted to be but I get to ruin that because I'm telling you about Chad when I was 14 years old and a very young unrefined Christian Chad was 27 years old he drove this Crew Cab Chevy truck which is why I probably thought he was the man

um and he was a farm boy grew up on a farm but this man like when Jesus talks of John the Baptist as being the greatest born of woman like that's how I view Chad Morgan like I just view him as someone that is just such a model example of just serving with humility and helpfulness and Chad could have done anything I mean 27-year-old single guy in my hometown he could have started his own business he could have expanded his family farm he could have he could have done anything he wanted to but what he chose to do was live a simple life that created

for himself a ton of capacity and a ton of time sorry I know I wear my heart on my sleeve but um but he wanted to create space so that he could invest in four young guys and so when it was like the weekend was rolling around and my football buddies were like hey let's go party and let's go drink Chad was like hey let's go camping and let's talk about Jesus or like when Monday rolled around and the guys were like hey let's let's go hang out at Sonic and like let's go Cruise town around Walmart because it's White House Tennessee like that's what

we got that's what we were able to do uh he was like no man let's start let's start a a prayer gathering on Monday nights like let's get together at the park and like let's just invite people and let's just pray over this city and so like Chad just took time out of his life and just invested in these four guys and three of those four guys 20 years later are still in full-time Ministry and it's just amazing because again he was willing to just say look I there's so much that I could do but what I want to do is I want to be

helpful I want to humble myself and I want to be helpful to others because it's about them not about me and I just want us to so organize our lives that what we do is we create so much capacity for ourselves to not just serve what we need but to be able to look at others and not hinder them but enhance their ability to get to Jesus to be able to know him if your heart is in beat with the heart of Christ then you will position your life that in humility you're able to help bring others to him I like how RC Ro uh

would stated if you trust Jesus without hesitancy like children do their parents that is childlike Faith but if you disobey Jesus due to Pride or selfishness that is childish sin is your heart childlike or is it childish it's a good thing to just always think about and the second thing here is because Jesus is telling these disciples let these children come to me and he's showing the wisdom here of these parents that are bringing their children to Jesus the second thing is we need to check our home we need to check our home because this Parable talks specifically about children not being hindered from coming

to Jesus as Ephesians 64 commands fathers do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord come August we will have already reached the halfway mark with um our oldest Ezra which is just crazy to believe um if we typic if we Sorry you get to cry this time um but if you get 18 years with them under the influence of your roof like he's turning nine in August we're halfway there with him which again like I feel like we just started but and and again to an extent your influence over them will continue on after

they leave vanesse like that's a reality but this is like the intentionality time that you have these 18 years I followed this comedy account called dude Dad where he posts funny videos about Dad life um one of them is regarding home projects where he's like I bet you're wondering why I haven't finished these you know this rail on these steps or or this hole in the roof and he's like the answer is I'm going to I just need a couple more days and so he has these shirts that are literally couple more days construction and it's so true because Kelsey can tell you right now

I have unfinished projects at home because I just need a couple more days but if we have this mentality when it comes to family worship and intentionality of discipling our children and bringing them to Jesus if we just say things like well I'll get to it or when they're able to read I'll read scripture with them when they're able to form sentences I'll pray with them them whenever you know fill in the blank what's going to happen is you're going to wake up one day and you're going to be like oh no they have their driver's license and now I'm trying to like pull them

in and say well let's have this family devotion time let's read scripture together and let's pray and what they're going to say is Mom Dad why are you being so weird like go back to being your normal you like this is awkward this is and the reason why I know this is because for the seven years that I was a youth pastor and I would spend time with with anywhere from 60 to 100 Youth and and um their parents would come and their parents would again wonderful compliment they would say thank you so much for what you do with our students and I would say

I would always respond like thank you at the same time like I get them for like maybe two hours out of the week you get them from 40 to 60 hours out of the week under your like in your home time that you spend with them like what does discipleship look like what does Family Worship look like and they're like no no no we don't that's your job you're the youth pastor like we bring them to you I say no no no no no like that's not biblical that's not biblical it doesn't say youth pastor train up the children in the way that they should

go and when they're older they will not depart from it it does not say youth pastor do not provoke them to anger entertain them make them have a lot of fun so that when they're older they can then be entertained by something else that pulls them away like that was not what the Bible taught and so so I would then start working on like okay I'm going to shift from the students to now working on the parents like just how do we get these parents to start opening up the scriptures with their children and it was I mean again it was it was a train

wreck for lots of them because they're like my kids now like resent me because they never like they just they don't know this is just so awkward and weird which was actually one of the motivations for us entering into church planting was because we looked at the stats and the types of of groups and people that were attracted Ed to or connected to church plants and it was what we call dinks which were dual income no kids and so we were like if we can get the dinks which has been true if we can get the dinks who don't have kids yet and then start

cultivating and working in that hey when you start having children guess what when they're in womb read the Bible to them pray with them when they start making those little ABA you know just start teaching them scripture start reading it to them so that as they grow up they'll never know any difference to the point to where if you don't read the Bible with them and you don't pray with them they're going to be like Mom Dad why you being weird this is what we do this is what we do I mean it literally makes me think of Abraham and Isaac like Isaac asked the

question dad where's the burnt offering because he knows what their custom was he knows what their rhythms were he knows what they're going to do when it comes to offering a sacrifice to the Lord and worshiping him and so when something was different he was thinking hey this is not right something's off here Abraham did a good job with family worship with teaching them what they needed in order to grow in the gospel and so the question I have for us is what is our plan do we have a plan for family worship and for those that are working in the king's table our Men's

Ministry that needs once a month on Sunday nights we're working through this right now so if you missed the last one the last one was husbands what is your plan how are you going to create and cultivate Family Worship so that we are not hindering our household from getting to Jesus but we are enhancing our household to be able to get to Jesus and so the first point I got two points for you when it comes to check your home the first one is prioritize the family of God prioritize the family of God I'm just going to be bold and say this prioritize your children

being at church where we as the body of Christ gather to receive Jesus what we need for the Christian Life and Ministry because there is something that the spirit of God does in the gathered Body of Christ that is different than what he does anywhere in everywhere else like it's hard to work that into like exactly what what it is but there is a reason why God has organized the church to be a gathering of the Saints so that when you come together you participate in the Lord's communion that's why we don't just encourage you to say hey on your Tuesday when you're just hanging

out with you and your spouse take communion together no it is a gathering of the body of Christ who come around this Mill for something that the holy spirit is doing among us that he does not do when we are individual and separate and so we need to gather the body together so that the spirit of God is working in the preaching of the word in the praying of the word in the teaching of the word in the singing of the word that he does not do separate an individual I want to give you um these are going to be quick so don't be scared

of this I'm GNA give you nine benefits of why gathering together as Saints around the word of God is beneficial for us number one and and I'm going to say Church attendance don't hear that as I we're not about church attendance we're about we're about discipleship guys I get it but I'm going to use Church attendance for this you being here is importantance it's not just a body in the room Church attendance pleases and glorifies God When We Gather when we sing when we pray when we hear from God's word all of these are forms of worship to God which is our chief purpose in

life like that's why God created you was to worship Him was to enjoy him forever and this is is one of the forms in which we are able to do that number two Church attendance is an act of love to your neighbor Martin Luther once said God doesn't need you to go to church but your neighbors do like that's important because what is happening here is shaping and transforming and conforming you to the image of Christ so that when you do go home your neighbors get to interact with Jesus that's what's happening number three Church attendance can make you smarter it's true like in hearing

from God's word the holy spirit is literally increasing your understanding number four Church attendance can make you healthier we are equipped to live wisely with our bodies with our finances with our lives like literally it is forming you to be good stewards of all that God has provided you and that includes your body and your lifestyle to include your finances and resources all of those things so that if you were just left to your own devices of pride and selfishness and start stewarding your lives based on those motives you wreck yourself but if you start stewarding your lives in your bodies based on the wisdom

of God and and growing in that understanding you actually live a life that is flourishing when it comes to those things number five Church attendance can make you happier I'm just going to say it it's true it's true like sometimes we're always like no no no we're about Joy not happiness yes we are but at the same time God also loves to delight and when God is a delightful God and the more we are with him the more that rubs off onto us and we also become delightful people number six Church attendance can make you more generous through scripture we are taught to do good

to be rich in good works and to be generous and ready to share 1 Timothy 6:18 like it's just teaching us to not focus on ourselves but to and also not to hinder others from coming to Jesus but position ourselves to be generous so that others come to Jesus number seven Church attendance can protect your marriage as Earnest Believers hear sermons exhorting husbands and wives to love one another to keep their vows to forgive one another to reflect God's grace in their marriage the holy spirit is doing a sanctifying work work it actually is improving Us number eight Church attendance can lead to society flourishing

faithful churches lead members to love God to love each other to love their communities and to love um their enemies when you do all of those things what does that create the cumulative effect is that sin is limited and worship of God increases When sin is limiting and worship of God is increasing that that brings flourishing flourishing and therefore society as a byproduct begins to flourish as well and then point nine Church attendance can protect your family from secular indoctrination or delusional thinking again very interesting month that we're in right now according to Romans 1 when a culture reaches a certain level of moral Rebellion

God's Wrath comes in the form of delusional thinking and then it says he literally gives them up to what he refers to as a debased mind rather we want our families to be based in the pillar and butress of the truth which is 1 Timothy 3:15 we want us to think with clarity about God's design and how he made male and female and how he made us to relate with one another for the flourishing of us for the flourishing of society and when we when we rebel against that design which is what we're seeing in society and culture God gives us up to a debased

mind and delusional thinking because what he and and in a weird way it's actually a grace to the world to let them crumble and crash and burn in sin so if you were to actually walk through 20 years of history since this was written in scripture you see the rise and fall of sexual revolutions it's just running the same plays over and over and over God's design flourishes and the gospel is running rampant and it's one working beautifully and then you get a generation that assumes they believe it and then you get a generation that doesn't believe it and then they're debased in delusional thinking

and then that pride is running rampant and everyone thinks it's well and then God gives them over to it and then they crash and burn because guess what it doesn't work and then they're like well it's not working everyone's now um not thriving and not flourishing and not vibrant and so what do we do oh and then guess what Christians come in again and they start preaching the gospel again they start believing the gospel again and then Society starts Rising again and it starts flourishing again and then people assume that they believe it and it just continues going this route again we're in one of

those valleys right now where it is heading down and it's coming to a reality that you know what maybe this is not working it's not working and I'll just be honest I think the next 10 years are going to be another thriving of gospel opportunity for our culture and so we need to prioritize the family um of God and then lastly we need to prioritize our family around God we need to prioritize our family around God again do you you have a vision for your family like what's your plan for it um the men and so this is this is I'm going to say this

to the wives in the room um because you get to hold them accountable for this if your husband has not mentioned to you hey guess what we're building out Visions for the families right now then say hey bud you've had several weeks what are you doing like do you need a couple more days no like let's let's talk about it because they were charged to hey go home talk to your spouse and say what do we want to cultivate here like when you think about when you got married and you had vows those vows were leading to a type of culture that we want in

our home hey in sickness or in health we're together you know in Rich or poor we're we're together like we're we're sticking this out we're going to pursue one another we're going to love one another we're going to encourage one another and so family Vision like it's not gospel for your family it's not this or nothing but what it is saying is is what is our plan all right like just like every single day you eat dinner it doesn't just happen it you don't just sit down at the table and you're like who who put this here how did it get there no like you

thought about it like I need to go to the store I need to buy something I need to then prepare it and make it and cook it and then I need to put it on something for us to be able to eat off of it so that we're not just eating it off the floor like there's a structure and there's a plan to your life for your physical nourishment is there a structure and a plan for your spiritual life so that when Jesus looks at your home he's saying yeah there's no hindrance here I have full access because they're hearing the word of God they're

praying to me and they're committed to me they're seeking my face what's our plan in our church most of us have anywhere from nine to 18 years to go and so put something together the men are supposed to present it at this next King's table in two weeks so you got two weeks to figure it out let the children come to me and do not hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom of God let's take Jesus at his word and let's bring our children to him for such belongs the kingdom of God let's pray father we thank you for your word we thank you

for the grace that you give to us that when we are stuck in our pride and in our selfishness and that we are seeking our own gain we are seeking our own um satisfaction or temporary satisfaction whatever it is I thank you for the grace that through your son Jesus and his death that he paid for that sin he was tortured for that sin therefore I'm able to bring that sin of my own pride and my own selfishness I'm able to bring it to you because because in Christ it's and so I'm able to confess it to you and you are faithful and just to

forgive me of that sin and cleanse me from all unrighteousness so that I can love you and love others well and not hinder them from coming to know you God for our parents in here who are figuring this out I know they say the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago the second best time is to plant it today and we might not have been doing this yet it's never too late to start we start today Father help give us a Clear Vision for our homes that bring us closer to you so that we love you cherish you treasure you every single

day and in that we receive fullness of Life flourishing and vibrancy and that also then flows out from us to not hinder those around us from coming to know you but actually enhance and be effective in helping them come to know you it's in your name we pray amen as you go ahead and stand and we enter into this time of communion we come to the Lord's table and as I mentioned earlier there's something that God does in this moment that he does not do outside of this he is gathering us together around a specific meal where he fuels us as a body and so

it's similar like if you cook a healthy meal in your home and it's bettering the health physically of your family when we gather around this meal and we look at the bread representing his body broken for us and the blood representing his his blood shed for us the blood it's not blood the juice it is showing us again all that Jesus Christ did for us that you don't have to do you don't have to break your body or shed your blood to remove your sins that's what he did so when we think about yeah there were things this week that in my pride and selfishness

like I I sought my own gain instead of the gain of my family or the gain of others around me I considered my own interest instead of considering the interest of others because I was prideful and selfish well again we get to look at Jesus and we get to say man like if he would have been prideful or selfish he would have never left heaven but he came to the Earth to consider our interest and our interest were we need a savior even though we didn't realize it we need a savior and so he was willing to Humble himself and helpful in providing us forgiveness

like he served with humility and helpfulness in ways that when we think about serving and wiping some diapers you know or helping out in children's ministry or Hospitality getting here earlier or whatever like when we think about serving with humility and helness I mean obviously Jesus took it way further but that is what fuels us to be able to serve with humility and helpfulness because we see his humility and he did on the cross for us and so let that fill you up let that serve your your soul and your spirit in this moment so that when we walk out of this place we're able

to not be prideful and selfish but instead look to Jesus and say man with the humility that he had yeah I can I can humble myself I can humble myself I can consider the interest of others because of what he did for me and so if you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross in your place to forgive you of your sins because the wrath of God was satisfied and that he cleansed you of those sins and that he brought you into his fold into his family and he has saved you and forgiven you if you believe that message then I invite you down

grab the elements bring them back to your seats and we will partake together as a family