Traditions: The Bible

Hi family. How are you?

Hey, happy Mother's Day, mothers are important. I don't know if you know this, but without a mom, you wouldn't be here. So celebrate your moms today. If you can, um, celebrate them, you can celebrate them. Um, we have a long way to go today. So are you guys ready to get to work? We're going to be talking about the Bible and, uh, why we have it, what it has in it, how we should understand it and kind of some big questions around the Bible. Because here's the thing, when you say yes to Jesus, you want to give your life to him, follow him, live his way and all that stuff. The Bible is a piece of that, and you get handed this really big book. It's intimidating! There's a lot of words and not very many pictures, right? Like, it's an intimidating book! It is, and there's all these different genres of literature and there’s, you know, like Leviticus, which we all can't wait to read, (sarcasm) and there's revelation, which nobody understands. And there's apocalyptic and law and letters and narrative and poetry, and all these different parts are intimidating! And it's written over this massive span of time, with all different kinds of educational levels writing it. So, the vocabulary for some is easy, some of them are better writers than others. Yes, they're all under the inspiration of the Holy spirit, but it’s just, it's a complicated book. So how do you even begin? Right? With the Bible. For a lot of people, what they do is they just slap it open and say, “I'm going to read that”. Now here's the deal, every word, every word, of the Bible, not even the letters, but the spaces in between the letters are dripping with the presence of God.

So, the good news is God can work that way. He did, and the Holy spirit can meet you there in that space. But I would suggest that maybe a more strategic approach might be better. Uh, I'll give you a funny story. So, this guy, new to his faith, gets a Bible and he's like, I'm just going to open it and put my finger down and whatever it says, I'm going to read, I'm going to do. I don't know anything about the Bible, just whatever it says I'm going to do. So, he opens it up, puts his finger down and it says, “and Judas went out and hung himself”. And he goes, okay, well, whoa, whoa, whoa! But that can't be right. That cannot be right. So he closes, it, opens it again, puts his finger down. It says, um, “go thou and do likewise”. He said, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, no, no! So, he closes it again, opens it, puts his finger down and it says, “whatever thou doest, do it quickly”. (Pastor laughing) So, um, maybe a more strategic approach. Right? But I want to be clear at the onset of this. There's not a wrong way to read the Bible. Like there's some less gooder ways, um, but there's a myriad of Bible plans out there for you to choose from. There's a myriad of Bible plans to choose from. Download a Bible study app. They're free. Get the YouVersion Bible app, there's thousands of Bible reading plans on there. If you're like, I don't know what to read, pick one and go, there's not a bad way to read the Bible every day. We want to take some of the word of God into our hearts. Here's why because I don't care what book you carry. You make decisions by the book that's in your heart. And that's what's important is that the Bible doesn't become just a nice thing that we carry, but that it becomes part of our very human nature that we'd make decisions and live by it. Right? But it's intimidating! It's hard. Like what do we do with it? What, is it and how do we handle it? And all those kinds of things.

 I want to begin with Hebrews chapter 4:12. Here's what it says, “for the word of God is alive and active”. I don't know if you know that, but the word of God lives. That's why there's not a bad reading plan. Just get in and open the Bible and start reading, and the Holy spirit will speak to you wherever it's at. Because it lives. It meets you, right where you're at. “Sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart”. So, this is the great thing about the word of God is that it is a way for us to live, it charts our course. Proverbs says, “your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path”, right? So if I'm walking, God wants me to walk this way. The word of God is like a big lantern that I wear like a headlamp on my head that shows me where the twists and turns are in the path so that I can stay on the path. That's what the word of God does. But beyond that, it's not just that. For some of us, it’s like we're walking the path, but we’re like, I don’t want to walk the path. (Pastor talking in a begrudging, resistant voice)

I have kids. Can you tell? That's how I went to bed when my kids were younger. (Congregation laughing, Pastor making sounds pretending to take his kids to bed, struggling with each step)

The word of God sifts even that. It sifts even our attitudes, even our heart, even our way that we see the world, the approach that we're taking, it's sifts even that, and it lives! And it hits us always right where we need it. Right? Like I had a stinky attitude about this thing that was happening. And I read the Bible and it spoke right to it. I don't even know. I can't even tell you how many times somebody has said to me. Um, you know, I didn't even know how to handle this situation. I opened the word of God and it spoke right to it. It’s the weirdest thing. Here's another thing that the Bible says in 2 Timothy 3:16. Here's what it says, “All scripture is God-breathed”. So let me ask you a question. How much of scripture is God-breathed? (Congregation responds, all scripture)

Every word. Every word. Even Leviticus. Even numbers. Have you ever read numbers? Whew. That's the thing. If you're an accountant, you're like, I love the book of numbers. What's the problem? Everybody else is like, uh, I , uh, you know, it kind of makes the vein in my forehead pop out. I can't, it's crazy the details, but I love it. Because God is a God of detail, right? Like, we need to know that. If you didn't know that God cares about every detail, read Numbers. You will know, after that, all scripture is God-breathed and is useful. It's useful. All of it. So, you should know all of it because it's all useful. The number one mistake that we make with the Bible is to kind of cherry pick and hop and skip through the Bible at our leisure. And we find the verses that say the words that we want to have them say. And literally the Bible has got so much to say in it that if you want to approach the word of God that way you can make the Bible say anything. That doesn't mean that you're representing what it says accurately.

But all scripture is useful. This is bonus material; the other two services didn't get this. There are rules for how you interpret scriptures called hermeneutics. Okay? One of the laws of hermeneutics is the synthesis principle. Here's what that means. That means before you make a decision on what the Bible says, you've got to take everything that the whole Bible says on the subject before you make a decision on it. All of it, right? So, we can hold to our truths, but it's not just about owning our truths and beating people up with our truths. It's also about loving people well, and how we talk to people about our truths. Like we live in this tension. By the way, number two, mistake that we make in trying to read the Bible is that we try to solve everything. The Bible fundamentally isn't a solutions-based book. And if you ever get to the point where like, yeah, I have that passage nailed. I know everything there is to know about that passage. Then your God is too small.

By the way, the Bible is an Eastern book. It was written by Jewish people. I don't know if you knew that, but, um, it was not written by 21st century Americans. It was written by people with an Eastern mindset. The fundamental hermaneutic of the Bible is tension, not resolution. So, the Bible is written to force you into tension, not away from it. And you're like, I don't like that. Well, but it forces a decision. Where am I going to stand in the tension? Which is way better than, well, we got it all solved, and here's our five-step plan and blah, blah, blah, and I put a little tiny little bow on it. I think that the number one mistake that preachers make is they'll read a self-help book or a leadership book or a business book, and there's nothing wrong with those. I read them. But then they'll read it, build a sermon outline around it and then cherry pick scriptures out of the Bible to support what they're trying to say. That is not how we should read the Bible. The Bible is what it is. Like, the Bible says the Bible should unsettle you. It should wreck you, like, it should destroy your worldview, tear it down to its foundations and then rebuild it as something better. The Bible isn’t there to proof text what I think about life.

If I do that with the Bible, I’m misrepresenting God himself. By the way, what that does is create religious baggage. And I don't know about you guys, but I don't need any more religious baggage. I’ve had plenty of that. All scripture is God breathed, and it's useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. All scripture, all of it, you should read all it.

Even the genealogies, you should, you should memorize the genealogies. (Congregation laughs)

Uh, that wasn't a joke. (More laughing)

Do you know what Matthew is doing with his genealogy? Do you even like, do you know that it's not just a list of names. He starts off as Jewish gospel to a Jewish audience with three sets of 14. Why? Because the Messiah is supposed to be the son of David. You know what the numerical value of the name David is? 14. So he has three confirming witnesses. (Pastor makes sound with his mouth, like slam dunk! Congregation laughs) ,Now, all of a sudden, the genealogies matter! But you don't know. (Pastor pretending to talk for congregation, grumbling that genealogies are just a list of names) No! There's more, there's more, there's more, there's always more.

 I want to wrestle with something this morning. Um, at least one piece of why the Bible is so important and why we should read it. And that is this. The Bible teaches us a ton about God himself. And here's what I know to be true. Who I really believe God is ,like really, not the words that come out of my mouth, but who I really believe he is, and who I really believe mankind is, dictates every decision I make. And I would give you hundreds of examples of that, but here's a simple one. If God is a generous, abundant, God, who's lavishly good to his people. Then I have no reason to be stingy, because the more I give the more God gives to me because that's who he is. If I really believe that, right? If I really believe that God is a tyrant, rule controlling, hard taskmaster, then I'm going to really hammer people about keeping the rules. Even if I love them, I'm going to really hammer them about keeping the rules. Why? Because I don't want them to get spanked by the school master. Who I really believe God is dictates a ton of the decisions that I make. And the Bible talks about who God is a ton. It does, good news. It shares with us about who God really, really is. Look at this. God is a creator of heaven. That's what the Bible says, heaven and earth. He's the, he creates the beast of the field. He creates the fish of the sea. He creates the birds of the air and he created men and women. And when he did, he wasn't mad about it, which at the time that it was written, that was the revolution. That God wasn't angry when the earth was created, he created it as a good world, full of good things and created us good and full of potential, and when he did, he stepped back and he was like, Oh, people, they're really good, not just good, but Tov, Tov Meod. You should stand in front of the mirror every day and look at yourself and go Tov Meod.

Every morning, I look at my wife and go hey baby, Tov Meod. And she goes, um, too many biscuits. (Pastor breaks out laughing) I'm joking. I’m joking. She doesn't say that. She just thinks it. I can tell in the way she rolls her eyes, (more laughs) but you’re, you’re created, you’re, like not a mistake! (Pastor fumbling over the words, trying to communicate the gravity of God creating us and how he feels about us). And we live in a world that's going to try to convince you that you're the sum total of your mistakes. And that's not what the Bible says that you are.

That's probably an important message.

Here's another thing that we learned about God. “God so loved the world that he gave his only son”. That God wasn't angry. He wasn't up in heaven going, oh my goodness, what am I going to do to fix these people? (Pastor blows air out his mouth in pretend frustration) I keep having to, I keep giving them good things. They keep messing it up. What am I going to do? God's not up there going, Oh my goodness, how do I react to them? No, no, no. He's like, I love you. What, else would love do? “That whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”.

Here's another thing that we learned about God, “every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of the heavenly lights”. That's what the Bible teaches. So anything good in your life. That comes your way is a gift from God. “Who does not change like the shifting shadows”. Now, another thing that the Bible teaches us is what is God like? And in the Psalms alone, we can learn all kinds of things about what God is like. Um, here's from Psalm 18. It says, “as for God, his way is perfect”. That's important to know, because the way that he invites you to walk his way for you, it's not second rate. It's perfect. “The Lord's word is flawless. He shields all who take refuge in him”. Psalm 50:5 says this, “gathered to me, this consecrated people who made a covenant with me by sacrifice”. That God is a covenantal God, he wants to have a covenant relationship with you and I, which is not a distant relationship, that's a connected, personal relationship that God wants with us. Psalm 1:16 says this, “the Lord is gracious and righteous. Our God is full of compassion”. And that's actually significant. Has anybody in the room this morning needed a God this week that was full of compassion?

Good news. That’s what the Bible says he's full of.

Where can we find God? This is another question that we wrestle with in where do we find him? “I don't see God anywhere. I don't see him at work. Is he working?” Here's what Jeremiah 29:13 says, “you will seek me, and you'll find me when you seek me with all of your heart”. And when I said the reference, if you're savvy in the Christian culture, you were like, okay, wait a minute, Jeremiah, 29th something. So, the number five, most misquoted verse in the Bible. I'll give you the first four in a minute, five most misquoted verse in the Bible, Jeremiah 29 11. “I know the plans I have for you to prosper you, to help you and not harm you, to give you a hope and a future”. We’re like, yeah man, like, God is awesome, but here's the deal. What he also goes on two verses later to say is, “but if you won't seek me with all your heart, you'll get nothing”.

Not because he doesn't love you, but because God's gifts are worthy of the relationship. Here's another thing Proverbs 8 says, “I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me”. And I know that as soon as I say this stuff, somebody's going to be like, “Oh, it's the Holy Spirit's job to waken your heart out of the elimination, blah, blah, blah”. (Pastor speaks really fast here and makes noises rather than words, making a rhetorical statement) But I have a part to play. Yes, the Holy spirit works in my life. Yes, the Holy spirit wakens me up to spiritual truth, but I have a part to play. The Holy spirit doesn't take my free moral agency. I get to choose to chase after God with my whole heart or I get to choose to be distracted. I choose that.

There's another one. “When is God at work? I just don't know if it’s God working or if it's not God working. If it's just me”. (Pastor making sounds rather than words, asking rhetorical questions, as if speaking for someone else). A couple of things that we can know. 2 Chronicles 16:9. Here's what it says, “for the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him”. So the strength that you feel to get through the day, it's a gift from God. It's a gift from God. Here's another one. This is from Acts, “the God who made the world and everything in it, is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples, built by human hands, and he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else”. So, you want to know if God's working in your life? That breath you just took, God gave it to you. Did you wake up this morning? God gave you life. He gave you life. Oh, and by the way, did you go to your closet and pick out clothes that you're wearing right now? Yes. Thank you, and the breakfast that you ate, and the food that you're planning in your head right now, because it's 12:13 PM. God gave that to you too, because he gives you life and breath and everything else. Everything else is all a gift from God. We learned that from the scripture. So you want to know if God's working in your life? Yeah. Yeah. He is, but he's doing that with non-Christian people too. Yeah. Guess how much he loves them too? As much as he loves you. So, Jesus says, “God causes the rain to fall on the, just, and the unjust”.

Another thing that we wrestle with is, “how do I follow God? Like, what does it even mean to follow God?” There's the one from Matthew 4, “As Jesus was walking beside the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother, Andrew. And they were casting the net into the Lake for, they were fishermen”. So it's a good thing to do when you're a fisherman is fish. Um, you don't work on cars.

“Come follow me, he said, and I will send you out to fish for people. And at once they left their nets and followed him”. That's how you follow Jesus, no hesitation. “Now, how do I know how to follow?” (Rhetorical question) Then I'll tell you how to like, immediately how you can immediately start following Jesus, cut out distractions.

Don't let anything compete. When he calls you, move! Here's another one. John 13, Jesus says, “A new command I give you, love one another”. Right? We've talked about this passage before. “As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you're my disciples, if you love one another”. But here's the thing. What culture has done is tried to redefine love. So when we say love, like Jesus loved, we don't understand what he means when he says love somebody. What love in our culture is it's just blind acceptance. I just have to accept you for where you're at. I just have to be okay with it. Here's the deal, I can love you. Love is intentionally doing what's in your best interest without concern for what I get in return. That's love, what's in your best interest. Think about this if you're a parent. Like, this notion of how we treat love in our culture, doesn't make any sense at any level. Think about this as a parent, we have four kids, awesome kids, they remembered Mother's Day today. Um, which made my life a whole ton easier.

Um, when they were toddlers and they were playing in the front yard and a ball went in the street and they just went out into the street after the ball, I didn't stand in the yard and go, I mean, I just have to be okay. I just have to accept them where they're at. (Laughing) That's not love! That's case for child protective services is what that is. Like, love doesn't let somebody destroy themselves. Love doesn't do that. If you've got a child, that's an addict, you know, like, it's so hard when they say, “you don't love me”, or they say, “you’re kicking me on the street”. No, no, I will not let you destroy yourself on my watch. Like, it's not loving to just accept people where they are now. On this swing, at the other end, you don't get to be a jerk either. Like, that doesn't make you a truth bully. Like, too many Christians brighten the room by leaving it. (Laughing) Like, they don't handle loving well. They don't love well, because all they care about is that you straighten up and fly right. Because their Christianity is about behavior modification, which is not the goal of Christianity. The goal of Christianity is a relationship with the God of the universe. We’ve got to treat love well, like, we’ve got to steward the call to love correctly. The Bible  tells us how to love right. “Love is patient, love is kind, love is gentle. It doesn't envy. It doesn't boast. Love doesn't rejoice in the wrong but rejoices in the truth”.

That's what the Bible says, and there's lots of other things it says about love too, but just in that one simple passage, 1 Corinthians 13, we see, this is what the Bible says. This is what love is. So we have to do it correctly. Love doesn’t mean no boundaries. We have to make sure that we use the Bible correctly. Let me give you some examples. 1 Timothy 6-10. Here's what it says, “Godliness with contentment is great gain for, we brought nothing into this world, and we can take nothing out of it, but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that”. Now, I don't know how you square that verse with the American dream, but that's what the Bible says. “Those who want to get rich fall into a temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs”. Now here's the thing, that passage does not say that money's evil. Now, where we came from was a big college area. About 50% of the population was college students, and that 18- to 23-year-old age range in our life is very idealistic. And so, they would read this passage and they'd be like, “We're selling all our possessions. We're going to abandon the system, and we're going to go up in the mountains and live like a hermit in a cave”. And like, that was their answer to that passage. And here's the deal if the Lord calls you to that, go like, go do it. But that's not what we see the early church doing with this teaching, right? There's got be a way for us to understand that money itself is benign. It's the love of money that's the problem. When we pursue money to gain money for ourselves, rather than pursuing money to make other people's lives better. And that's not, by the way, that's not socialism. That's Christianity. They're not the same thing. This is a voluntary, like I've been given this gift and I want you to make millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars. That's what I want for you. In Jesus' name, take it.

Uh, nobody waving their hanky, nobody testifying on that one. Come on now. (Laughing) I mean, I want that blessing for you, but not so that your life is protected. I want that blessing for you so that we can change our culture. I want that blessing for us so that we can make everyone around us better so that we can bring everybody up. That's the kingdom.

Here's another one. Number one, most misquoted verse in the Bible, you're ready? Philippians 4:13. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”. And we've watched people quote that when they're like, “I got to get juiced up for the game”, or “Woohoo! I’ve got a tough conversation at work!”. And then they slap themselves in the face like football, and then they fail because “God can do all things through Jesus who gives me strength”. That is not what that verse is talking about. Context matters! If you can learn one thing from me and my time here at Southeast, however long it is, and after this week it may be this week. Um, but one thing learned, one thing from me, context matters. Exclamation point. Learn that one thing. Put that verse back into its context and just read the passage. What Paul says is, “I've learned the secret of being content in any and all circumstances, whether hungry or well fed, whether richer or poor, in plenty or in want, I can do anything in Christ”.

The goal of it isn't about getting juiced up for one big event. The goal is, I enter into the world in a state of peace because of who Jesus is. Number two, most misquoted verse in the Bible. Are you ready? I told you I was going to give you the top four. Number two, most misquoted verse in Bible. “This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it”. (Laughing)

And we use that to beat people up for having a bad day, right? Like don't you dare have a bad day. This is the day the Lord has made. “Oh, I guess I’ve got to rejoice in it. You know, like I don’t have a choice now you quoted Psalm 22” (Pastor speaking in a sarcastic tone), Psalm 22. Hear me. Psalm 22, you ought to go wait a minute, “Where have I heard Psalm 22 before? Where have I heard it? That sounds an awful lot like Jesus and his death passage”. This is the day the Lord has made I will rejoice. Do you know what the verse is right before that? “The stone the builders have rejected has become the cornerstone”. Jesus uses that verse as a prediction of his impending crucifixion. The next verse is, “this is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it”.

Not because I want to be rejected, but because in the being rejected, I become the cornerstone.

Context matters. Exclamation point. It is never a good idea to cherry pick scripture because you're going to make it say what it doesn't say. Right? Number three, you ready? “God won't give you more than you can bear”. (Pastor and congregation laughing because Pastor uses sarcastic voice while saying verse)

 I can't even say that with a straight face. Here's the deal. Let me just be real clear. If you've been walking with Jesus for a while, you know this, God will give you circumstances in your life to crush you. He will. Here's why, because in doing so, I learned to surrender. I learned to live with an open hand. Right? I learned to live with an open hand. And when I do that, then God can put something better in there. He'll provide a way of escape. Like, it's not going to consume me. This isn't going to end me. If I'll surrender, it's not going to end me.

I don't have time for number four.

You guys are like, this is the best part of the whole sermon. You haven't said Jack, until now. Here's the thing. If you don't know what the text says, then you don't know what it doesn't say. And that's just as important. And I have people come to me all the time that are trying to, um, like, “I read an article on the internet and it must be true. Right?” because they read it on the internet, “And they said this. Is that accurate?” Well, what's the Bible say? “I don’t know”.

Like just manifest, just manifest. Right? Just manifest your destiny, put vibes in the universe, right? The reason you don't get what you want because you're putting the wrong kind of vibes in the universe. Or because there's a Sentient being, who's actually in control of this that loves you more than to give you a “C” blessing. He only wants to give you “A” blessings and you keep trying to sell yourself short.

That's what the Bible says.

Law of attraction. Well, I don’t have an attraction worker working for me. I'm just this good looking. That's funny. That's funny. (Pastor cracking himself up, lots of laughing) I got totally flustered there. Sorry. What we do is we, we cherry pick scriptures all throughout the Bible that seem to uphold these points of views. “See the Bible says right here”, but context matters. Exclamation point. It's one of the reasons why I think it's so important to, um, go to Israel. If you're a Christian, you should go to Israel. Because context matters. Like, seeing the story in its context, it actually really matters. It changes our understanding. It changes our perspective. It gives us a bigger and broader picture of the message of the Bible. 2 Timothy 2:15 says this, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth”. It's not just about handling the word of truth. It's about correctly handling the word of truth.

Now, this correctly handling is, uh, what it literally means is to cut straight. Some translations, translate it to rightly divide. It's a military term that talks about when a soldier knows how to use a sword. Okay? So, here's the idea, is that a soldier is trained to cut straight with a sword. They're trained to know how to handle it, they correctly handle their sword. Now, if his son picks up the sword, he can swing it around. You know, he can swing it around the room, he can do all that, but he's not correctly handling it. He’s handling it, he’s just not correctly handling it, Right? So do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth, this is our goal. And it's important because when we don't correctly handle the word of truth, we mishandle our relationship with God. And that has ripple effects into the people around us.

I have some implications for us this morning. Number one, solving the Bible should not be the goal of reading it. That doesn't mean we don't work towards understanding but solving the Bible should not be the goal of reading it. Holy spirit meets us right where we are to empower us to move forward in the truth of God. The goal of reading the scriptures isn't to solve it. The goal is to meet the Holy spirit. And so, what I always tell people, they're like, “I don't even know, like, what do I read? How long do I read?”. Read until something speaks to you and then stop. That might be a verse. It might be a chapter. It might be a couple of chapters. I don't know. But read until something speaks to you and then stop and journal about it.

Number two, answers about the nature of God are all over the scripture. The more scripture we know, the more that we know about who God really is. And here's what I really believe. I really believe that if people could see God for who he really is, they would love him. Like what's not to love? God’s for us, he wants the best for us. He wants, and he has like, this infinite power to control and manipulate and distort, and yet, he gives us freedom and uh, all kinds of like good blessings. Even for people that don't acknowledge him.

Number three implication, proof texting is not a great way to handle the Bible. Can we all agree with that? Have we all been brow beaten with the Bible enough? Proof texting is not a good way to handle the Bible.

Number four, every day is an opportunity to commit to know one more line of God's inspired word. Again, I go back to all the way back to where we started. It's a lot, it's intimidating. It is. You don't have to know the whole book tomorrow. One more line, just one more line. And at the end of the year, you'll have a lot of lines. If you, every day, just commit to one more line of scripture, one more line, and then

you'd be like, “I’ve got to know more, two lines”. Pretty soon, you're going to have a lot of scripture again, because I go back to this, it doesn't matter what book you carry. You make decisions by the book that's in your heart.

And so, as we move to communion time, um, communion is this reminder of this covenant that we've chosen to engage with Jesus. And I would just offer that sometimes we wind up, um, kind of taking our part of the covenant for granted, and we get lazy. We get lackadaisical on, um, how we approach our end of the relationship.

This reminder for us is a call back to the truth of the covenant. And so, I would just ask you to sit with that for a minute. Like, how are you going to be better in this part of your part of the covenant with God? Sit with God and talk with him about that as we get prepared and prepare our hearts for communion.

On the night Jesus was betrayed, he took bread, and he broke it and he said, this is my body, which is given for you. So, whenever you eat this bread, do it in remembrance of me.

And then after the dinner, he took a cup and he said, this cup, this is the blood of the covenant, which is shed for you. So, whenever you drink this cup, do it in remembrance of me.

Let's pray. Lord, um, thank you for this incredible gift that you gave us of your word so that we can know you. Um, we can understand your heart for the world and Lord, uh, I would just ask that, um, you would hear our desires to know you more, even in the fact that we have not taken it seriously enough, Lord, we repent of that and Lord we’re thankful for your grace, teach us your ways, oh God, in your name. Amen.

So, I hope that, um, we can leave here today, a little more determined to spend time with God's word it's living and active and real and penetrates our own hearts, and it gives us a life in the places where we need it most. If you're struggling with something this morning, we have prayer partners up here in the front that would love to pray with you. Uh, you're welcome to come up here as soon as services are over or head back to the prayer room, you can do that there with somebody or by yourself. Wherever you're at, may we be people this week, people of the book, people who understand God's word lived out rightly and how that changes things. Thanks for coming. Have a great week.