Nehemiah: No One Is Anonymous
Pastor Fletcher preaches about belonging from Nehemiah 7:1-73. Discussion points: You matter to God and he already knows you completely, we are totally vulnerable to God and beloved anyway, the church should be a place where we can know and love others as brothers and sisters.
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Scripture reader: [Nehemiah 7:1-7a, 61-73] Now when the wall had been built and I set up the doors and the gatekeepers, the singers and the Levites had been appointed, I gave my brother Hanani and Hananiah, the governor of the castle, charge over Jerusalem, for he was a more faithful and God-fearing man than many. And I said to them, "Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot. And while they are standing guard, let them shut and bar the doors. Appoint guards from among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, some at their guard posts and some in front of their own homes." The city was wide and large, but the people within it were few and no houses had been rebuilt.
Then my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles and the officials and the people to be enrolled by genealogy, and I found the book of genealogy of those who came up at the first, and I found written in it. These were the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of those exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had carried into exile. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town. They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah.
And now on to verse 61.
The following were those who came up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer, but they could not prove their father's houses nor their descent, whether they belonged to Israel. The sons of Delaiah, the sons of Tobiah, the sons of Nekoda, 642. Also, of the priests: the sons of Hobaiah, the sons of Hakkoz, the sons of Barzillai (who had taken a wife of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite and was called by their name). These sought their registration among those enrolled in the genealogies, but it was not found there, so they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. The governor told them that they were not to partake of the most holy food until a priest with Urim and Thummim should arise.
The whole assembly together was 42,360 besides their male and female servants, of whom there were 7,337, and they had 245 singers, male and female. Their horses were 736, their mules 245, their camels 435, and their donkeys 6720.
Now some of the heads of the fathers' houses gave to the work. The governor gave to the treasury 1000 darics of gold, 50 basins, 30 priests' garments, and 500 minas of silver, and some of the heads of fathers' houses gave into the treasury of the work 20,000 darics of gold and 2200 minas of silver. And what the rest of the people gave was 20,000 darics of gold, 2000 minas of silver, and 67 priests' garments.
So the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the temple servants in all Israel lived in their towns. And when the seventh month had come, the people of Israel were in their towns.
This is the word of the Lord.
Preacher: Alright, good morning everybody. My name is Fletcher, I'm the lead pastor here. It's a joy to be with you and to be able to preach God's word. I love preaching God's word. I love reading God's word. I've loved Nehemiah. It has been a great series for us, but you know when you're preaching every week, this is our seventh week in Nehemiah. It's the seventh week that I've been preaching in Nehemiah. I don't really get too far ahead, I just kind of like open the text on Monday and say, OK, what, what am I speaking on this week? And this past Monday I opened the text and I said, oh no. Because I was like, another list of names. What am I gonna do with this one? I've already used my list of names sermon in this series.
And so, here we are, here we are. And if this is your first time visiting with us, I hope that you appreciate the fact that we believe that all scripture is inspired by God, and that we teach through it, even when it's not the most exciting passage that you might come to. Many, many of us probably haven't read this chapter very carefully. But I will say that as I have been praying through this passage, and praying for what the Lord would have me speak on this morning. It actually came to my realization that many of the themes in this passage are things that I've been praying for our church, and things that we even, I even led our elders this past Monday, in praying about these themes for our church, and it just seemed so divinely inspired, so divinely providentially placed here in the life of our church. I think that it's really a good thing for us to be focusing on these passages. And so. Don't worry, I'm gonna try to make it as interesting as possible.
There's a lot that's going on here, but I do think that the Lord has a word for us, alright? So are we ready? Let's dive in. OK, verse one. Chapter 7. Now when the wall had been built, and I'd set up the doors and the the gatekeepers and the singers and the Levites had been appointed. Alright, so what happens in verse 1 is the wall is finished. Hey, the wall's finished! We've been working on the wall, for the past seven chapters, and basically the entire story of Nehemiah is a story about how God led one man to come and lead the people of God to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem after they had been destroyed by invaders.
And the people of Israel were pulled out of their homeland, they were set into exile, they were actually forced to go live in a foreign land. it would be like Canada taking us over and then making us move to Canada so that we're all dis disregulated and discombobulated and everything in Canada and don't know where to, how to work and how to live. That's kind of what happened. It was like an ancient form of controlling your people. And so what happened is now the people are returning back, and they come back and the temple is destroyed, the walls are destroyed. Ezra's already led a group of people to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, but there's no walls, and so Nehemiah is leading the people back to create safety for the city here.
And so now the, the walls are finished, but there's several more chapters left in Nehemiah. The work is not done. Because it's not just walls that need to be finished, but it's actually the society and the, the hearts of the people that need to be rebuilt and restored to right relationship with God. And so that's what we see through the rest of the story. There's a lot of work left to be done. Verse 4, it says that the, the city was large and wide, but the people within it were few, and no houses had been rebuilt. They've been focusing all their attention for the past 52 days on rebuilding the walls, and they haven't even touched where they live. They've been on guard against enemies that might come and invade. They've been rebuilding and focused on making sure that the walls are safe.
So there's a lot of work left to be done. They have to rebuild their homes, they have to restore civilization, but where does Nehemiah start? What does the Lord prompt him to do? But verse 5, then my God put it into my heart. Before I assemble the nobles and the officials and the people, before I assemble them, or as I assemble them, but I need to enroll them in a genealogy. So what can be more exciting than. You know, a, a ancient history, but an ancient genealogy. the, a genealogy is just a description of the people who lived there and their heritage.
Luckily for Nehemiah, as he was getting ready to enroll these people in a genealogy, which the Bible is full of genealogies, genealogies play different purposes throughout the Bible. In Genesis, genealogies are often used as time gaps. And so it'll be, the author will be telling us a story, and then it'll have a genealogy, that's to show, hey, hundreds, maybe thousands of years have passed since the. Last event, I'm gonna give a genealogy. And in the Gospels, we have genealogies for a different purpose. They're to show the true lineage of Jesus, tracing back to Abraham and, and Matthew, it goes to Abraham, and Luke, it goes all the way back to Adam. And so they're tracing the lineage is very important for the authors to be able to show that. So genealogies have different purposes. This one also has a different purpose.
And as he was looking to enroll everybody into a genealogy, what he actually found is that the work was basically already done for him. Because Ezra, Ezra was a scribe, his job was to write stuff down. And so he was like, I know Ezra's probably already done this, and he goes and he looks at Ezra's recordings, and lo and behold, Ezra chapter 2. He had already written down all these names, and Nehemiah chapter 7. Is virtually an exact copy of Ezra chapter 2. It's the same thing. Now I don't know about you, but when I'm reading my Bible, or when I was first reading my Bible, cause there was a time before I was a pastor, a time before I was theologically trained, when I would read my Bible, and then I would be reading it, and I would get to a section, I'm like, I feel like I just read this before.
Has anybody ever had that experience? Where you're just like, this, is this not what I just read? And that's because it might be. Sometimes the biblical authors will quote one another. They'll spend long periods of history that just get repeated, and that's because the Bible isn't just like a chronological story, but it's a collection of all these different books that we found, and, and they come together to form one cohesive story, but sometimes they repeat one another. And that is OK. It should just reaffirm your trust that these are historical events, these are things that are documented by multiple people. And we have this going on here with Nehemiah being basically an exact copy. I can't help but wonder what my 7th grade English teacher would have to say about Nehemiah's plagiarism, blatant. But from my perspective, I think it's OK.
So as we get to Nehemiah 7, we see all these names, we, we need to think about, here's what I want you to think about. I don't want you to necessarily think why should I care about a list of names. But I want you to think maybe a deeper question, which would be, why should Nehemiah care about a list of names? What provoked him to write all this down and what was so important about it? And here's the deal, when we get to a list of names, we're reminded. That the people who rebuilt this wall, they're not just numbers on a spreadsheet. Anybody ever feel like a number on a spreadsheet at work? Well, sometimes, sometimes. They're just not they're not just numbers, but it's a community of people who are known. They're not anonymous. These are real people with real lives who did real work to rebuild the walls. They're people with families and stories, image bearers of God.
And here's the big truth for us today. That no one is anonymous to God. No one is anonymous to God. Before I was a pastor, I did just attend local church, was a member of a local church. And I went to seminary back in, the, the late 2000s. That's when I was cool back then. And we, I, I moved to Louisville, Kentucky, to attend seminary where I, I lived for four years, met my wife there. It was great. I visited a few churches, and here's the thing, Louisville is like, The church center of the world. There are some big churches in Louisville, Kentucky. And if you're from Louisville, I apologize. It's Louisville, and I know that. I know that's how you say it, but no one here understands Louisville. That just sounds like you have marbles in your mouth, OK. it's Louisville. OK.
So I lived in, I lived in Louisville. I visited this church, and I actually attended this church and became on staff eventually. And but when I first started going, it was like 800 people. And here's the thing with mega churches. That it it grew to like 2000 people in the 4 years I was there, went from 800 to 2000. And mega churches, they're great, for lots of different things. I'm not gonna, I'm not a hater of mega churches. They have lots of really great resources, that they have great programs, there's things to appreciate. But even in that 800 person church, and I, many of you might come from large churches like this, but I couldn't help, but when I attended the church to feel, feel completely anonymous. Like have you ever felt this way before? Like you can come, sit, and you just ask yourself, does anybody care if I'm here? Or what would it matter if I wasn't here?
And some of you, even though this isn't a mega church by any stretch of the imagination, some of you might have some of the same questions. Like, is this a place where I can belong? Does anyone care if I'm here? Much of our Western American Christ idea of Christianity leaves us feeling anonymous to one another and to God. And so for people who feel anonymous to God and anonymous to one another in the church, when we get a list of names. It doesn't quite have the same effect on us. Because these people, they knew one another. And for us, God is calling us to know one another and to know him, to not be anonymous.
That's why Nehemiah wrote down the genealogy. He documented all these people, and it's because people matter. And you matter. The work that you do, it matters. You are a person who matters to God. I think we just need to pause on that for just a moment. God wants to know you. You matter to him. In fact, He already does know you. God knows you. He knows your name. He knows where you come from. He knows your childhood and your background. He knows your issues. He knows what makes you tick. He knows you. He knows about your best days and your worst. He knows your preferences, and here's the even better fact. He cares. He cares. In fact, God knows you even better than you know yourself. No one is anonymous to God.
So let me ask you, how does that make you feel? I think for some of us, it might feel rather comforting to know that God knows us and that he cares. But I think for some of us, and maybe even most of us, the fact that God knows all of us, down to our deepest desires and hidden faults, is a bit of a scary thing, that there is no hiding with him. Many times we're like the 4 year old playing hide and go seek. If you've played hide and go seek with your chil with a young child lately, they find the most obvious places to hide, you know, just like big lump under the covers in the bed. And it's like, oh I wonder where Rowan is. And it's like he's right there, it's very obvious.
And we're playing hide and go seek with God. Pretending like we can hide from him, but he knows he knows us better than we know ourselves. And I know that if God knows me better than I know myself, then he knows all my secret and selfish thoughts. He knows when I've sinned against him. He knows my deepest fears. I am completely vulnerable to him, despite what I try to show.
One thing I've realized this week. And you know, this is just a guarantee for me that as I learn spiritual lessons, I end up sharing them, with you all. But I, I realized this week that some that I experienced this thing like three times that I absolutely hate. And it's feeling embarrassed, because, and I can feel embarrassed by being silly as long as I feel like I'm in, I'm kind of in control of that. I don't mind talking in front of people and making myself look silly, but I don't like looking, feeling stupid, like being surprised to feel stupid. And I was telling my wife this and she was like, who likes feeling stupid? And I'm like, no one, but I like have a visceral reaction, like I want to run away and hide if I feel stupid. And which is just a really important thing for me to think through because what she reminded me of in that moment, she was like, well, you know, everybody's pride gets hurt sometimes. And I was like, oh dang, it's pride. Like I had not, I had not realized that it was just like pride that was living there in my heart. I just thought I didn't like feeling stupid.
The biggest example of my pride getting hurt was I, my, my wife and I a few years ago, we went to France. And to go to France as an English speaker who doesn't speak any French,. I didn't realize how stupid I would feel. In fact, I think it's like the French national pastime is to make English speakers feel stupid. Like, we chose to go to France. Like, that's like what they get their jollies out of. And I felt so stupid the entire time. I like broke out in a rash. I was like so nervous. And, and this is how viscerally I responded to that. I came home and said like, I'm gonna learn that language. Like, I don't want to feel stupid anymore. And so like I'm still taking French lessons. My French is terrible, but at least I'm trying. And that's how far I'm willing to go to preserve my ego though.
You see, that's how far I'm willing to go to keep myself from being seen for what I really am. Because the problem isn't That I'm that I'm ignorant. The problem isn't that I look a little silly, the problem is I don't want to be exposed as being ignorant. I don't want other people to know, if I do something stupid in my own backyard while no one's watching, I don't care. But if someone sees me, And then all of a sudden, the fear of man sinks in. And I feel exposed and vulnerable. But here's the reality, when we believe in a God who exists above everything, is that all of us are already exposed. You're already vulnerable. He sees you in the best parts and the worst parts. And how does that make you feel to know that there's no version of yourself that you can present to God that he doesn't already see through? Because all of us kind of put on the mask with different people. We present a a version of ourselves, but God knows who you truly are.
Here's the good news. Even though God sees us in all of our brokenness, and our sin, our shame and our selfishness, he doesn't feel disgust. But what he feels is compassion. And in his compassion, He sent his only son who had lived in triune, perfect relationship with God throughout eternity. He sent his own son to bear our shame upon the cross. That all of our sin, the consequences of our sin, all of our shame was poured out upon Christ on the cross. And in that moment, he satisfied the consequences of sin for us. And if you place your hope in Christ, that means that I don't want you to just hear like hope in Christ and therefore you go to heaven. It's like hope in Christ, and then you're united with Jesus, and it's not just that you become a child of God, but you are hidden in his only begotten Son. And so all the privileges of what it means not just to be one of many children of God, but what it means to be the Child of God, what it means to be Christ. You are hidden in Christ and you have all the privileges of relationship with God as Christ has relationship with God. This is way bigger than, hey, we're all children of God. It's like you are known for who you are, yet you are covered by the one who came to pay your penalty. You're covered by Christ, and therefore you come, and though you are completely exposed, you're completely covered at the same time.
This is the wonder of the gospel. Without Christ, you're left to defend yourself before God. And friends, there is no hiding. You will be found out. No one is innocent. We deserve the consequences for our sin and our selfishness. But in Christ, you are beloved. In Christ, he has lavished upon us the riches of his love and kindness.
Let's get back to Nehemiah for just a moment. There's a group of people in Nehemiah 7 who can't prove their ancestry. This seems like, not a big deal to many of us, but it was a huge deal for them because they couldn't prove their ancestry, so they weren't allowed full participation. Look, verse 61. The following were those who came up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer. But they could not prove their father's houses nor their descent, whether they belong to Israel. So verse 64, here's the consequence. Though they sought their registration among those enrolled in the genealogies, but it was not found there. So they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean.
OK, so this feels really irrelevant to us, but look, this is a huge deal. These people couldn't prove that they were actually part of the family of God, and so they weren't allowed full participation into the family of God. This is actually what like half of Paul's New Testament letters were written about, is this issue. This is a huge issue in the New Testament. It might not feel that big to us, but it's huge in the New Testament. Because in the New Testament there were many people who said, in order to be considered a child of God, you need to be, you need to be Jewish. And so there were this group called the Circumcisers, there were lots of people saying that you needed to adopt the Jewish customs. But Paul comes along and Jesus comes along and he says, no, no matter who you are, no matter your background, no matter your past, no matter your ancestry, you're allowed full participation with the people of God. It's an incredible, scandalous reality, honestly.
Ephesians 3:6. Paul says, this is the mystery, the mystery of the gospel is this. This is the amazing thing about the gospel is this, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs. That it's been extended, that the privileges of what it means to be part of the people of God extends to. Anyone who would call upon the name of Christ. This is an amazing reality. That the Ephesians 3:6, sorry I got distracted and didn't finish the verse. The this mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Paul says anyone, regardless of heritage or background or past or ethnicity, evil they've done or good they've left undone, anyone can be a member of the household of God.
So the people listed by Nehemiah, they weren't only known by God, they were known by God, but they weren't only known by God, but they were known by one another. When Nehemiah lists these people, he's basically, anybody ever visited like a rural area, and my mom does this, we're we're gonna go visit my mom this week. She's probably watching right now. But anytime I talk to my mom or someone in my family, they'll like mention someone's name, like Jimmy. And I'm like, yeah, I don't know Jimmy. She's like, yeah, you do. His mom is Anita, and his grandmother is Catherine. I'm like, and she just keeps going though, she won't stop, you know, and she just keeps going until I'm like, yeah, OK, I know Jimmy, that's fine. Anybody, you've had that experience, right?
That's like kind of what's happening here is basically the people of Israel, they're known to one another. They're like, it's these people's son. You know, this person's son. We know these people. There was no anonymity within ancient Israel, within the people of God in Jerusalem. Which leads us to our final point, the people of God shouldn't be anonymous to one another. The church should be a place where you are really known. And look, I just wanna say thank you. And I really, I have to say this from like the bottom of my heart, that it's a privilege that not many pastors have, but I feel known here. Thank you. Like, that's a huge, huge, huge benefit. In fact, when other opportunities come that are like bigger or seem better, it's like, no, I feel known. Like, I don't wanna go anywhere else, because this is my family. Like, I feel known by these people and my kids feel known. And they have a place where they can be authentic in their faith, and people can know them, and it's a wonderful thing.
And so I think that we do have this at our church. I'm so grateful for this reality that our church is a place where you can be known. It's meant to be a place where you can belong. And, but I just, I know also that there are some of us who come in this room and we don't necessarily feel that way. And I, I think that it's, it's tough. You might be asking yourself, is this somewhere I can belong? And here's the thing with that mega church that I mentioned earlier that I went to throughout seminary. I showed up and yeah, I felt super anonymous. But like the room was full of other twenty-something white people that listened to indie rock music. And so it was really easy to feel known, honestly. Like I was able to meet a few people and it's like, oh, you like Radiohead too? OK, I think we're good here.
That's not the case in a church like ours, needless to say. I mean, our church is super multi-ethnic, super multinational, we have people from all over the world. In our church, we have such different backgrounds. I think it's a lot harder to feel like someone belongs here, but so much more richer to be a part of a community that's diverse like that. So amazing to not only feel known by people who have a similar background, but to feel known by people who come from way different places. It just expands what I understand reality to be like. It it it it improves who I am to know so many of who you are. And so, I think that it's the thing that keeps us together is really this idea that not because of any cultural thing, do we remain together, but because we have a common face. And that we are all found in Christ. And so we know God. We are a people where strangers, and we once were strangers to one another, have become family. And we pray that more of you, as you are newer to our church, would feel welcomed by our family here.
The biblical idea of church is a place where people know one another and are investing into one another's lives. There is no such thing as anonymous church attending in the early church. To be a Christian meant that you were risking your life. And so to show up, it was a huge deal. And that's one reason why we practice something in our church called meaningful church membership. And we do this just not because church membership is, we have like a membership class, and then you have a conversation, then you're welcomed into like formal membership. And the reason why we do it like that isn't because membership is for like the super qualified. Any Christian. That we set the bar pretty low. Like if you're following Jesus, we're really happy to have you join our membership in that way. It's just so a way for you to say these are my people, and I'm theirs. And for the elders to know who's committed to the mission that we have here. It's for ordinary Christians committed to following Jesus.
Another aspect of this that helps us with like this anonymous aspect of, of church attendance is the City on a Hill network of churches. There's five City on a Hill churches, and we're doing it really like this intentionally, so that you can have a church that you live close by. The majority of the people who go to our church are not driving in from like hours away. The majority of us live very close to here. And that's intentional, so that you can have community around the corner on my street. I have multiple. People who go to our church, who just live on like my block basically. And I run into some of you as I'm walking around the neighborhood, and, and living my normal life. And it's just a beautiful thing to have community so close.
And so our vision is to be able to start churches that can be community centered in that way. And we're start, we just started a church in Lower Mills, Dorchester, and we're looking to start one in Newton. And honestly, I think that, we would love, I'm gonna, you know, we're gonna name this right now so I can have this vision moving forward. But I would love for the seventh City on the Hill church, since we already have sixth in plan, but the seventh to be sent from our church. We would love to to plant a church somewhere within relative distance, maybe north of the city. otherwise, all the City on the Hill churches are gonna be south of the Charles River, and we're all gonna have to travel for stuff. And then that's just gonna be bad. So, let's, we're gonna plant one. North of here at some point. And we'll just have to, I don't know when that's gonna happen. We're gonna pray that the Lord would raise up a church planter who can take a group of people, maybe from our church to reach a neighborhood that we're not currently able to reach.
All right, so let me just bring this down to some application, and then we'll wrap things up. If you're newer to our church. If you're newer to church in general, or to our church, You're probably asking questions like, do I belong here? Who is this place for? Maybe you're new to Christianity. Maybe you're someone who has a past. Maybe you just feel different for a variety of reasons. Friends, we want you to be known by God and by the rest of our church family here. And so we encourage you to maybe take that next step.
This is what we're praying about with our elders this past Monday. We realized that there's a group in the church, they're really well connected. And then there's seems to be like another group of the church who seem committed, but maybe not as well connected. And we would love for you to be more well connected. And some of you are already doing these things, and it just takes time, and you develop safety, and it just takes a while. But. As any relationship in your adulthood does. you can't expect the same type of turbo relationships that you got in college if you're younger, OK? It takes time as an adult to make friends. I've got a lot more history than a 20 year old for you to, to learn about.
But for some of you, you just need to take that next step of what it looks like. The CGs, you could, you could visit a community group, that, that's a really great way to meet people and learn more about them. We have membership class coming up. You could just stay a little longer, or something as simple as the chili cook-off tonight. We'd love to have you. You could, you could build some relationships with people around. And that's what we're saying. We want to see those two groups to kind of like become one group, so that we are able to, to know everyone.
Second, if you've been here for a while, if you're already in a CG, if you're already well connected, I have two encouragements for you, OK? And the first one is this, to be connected and committed is not the same thing as being vulnerable and known. And you, it takes time to feel safe enough to really let yourself be known. But I'm gonna tell you that you can't expect someone else to do that for you. And that sometimes you have to take that step of disclosing things so that you can have that level of intimacy and your friendships that we long for. And so I'm, I'm making a call for more vulnerability. And it doesn't have to be like public vulnerability. It can be, hey, I got together with two people from my community group, we're gonna, we're, and I told them something I haven't told many other people. And that allows you to feel known and supported in a way that's really powerful. So that would encourage you to take a step of vulnerability if you are someone who has been waiting on that. And that's really what allows you to develop a depth of friendship.
And the second thing that I would encourage you if you've already been around for a little while, is that you need to recognize that you have a certain amount of relational power. And what I mean by that is, as newer people come into the church, it's way more intimidating for them to build a relationship with you than it is for you to build a relationship with them. Because you already have this relational power of, you know people. And so keep an eye out and care for people and help them to feel known and valued. in, in the church. So friends, as we close, let's stop hiding. Let us allow ourselves to be vulnerable with God. And with one another. Because through Jesus God has made us family. We don't have to hide from God. We don't have to live our Christian lives alone. We are fully known by God and fully loved by Christ.
I'm gonna take a, take a moment to lead us a prayer of confession as we talk to the Lord about these things. And then we'll have a chance to respond with communion in just a moment. But would you pray with me? You can bow your heads.
Gracious father, you know us completely. Yet we confess that we often try to hide from you and from one another. We care more about how others see us than about who we truly are. We conceal our sins, protect our pride, and resist the vulnerability of being known. We've failed to love our brothers and sisters, to welcome those who feel like outsiders, and to make room for others in our lives. Forgive us for trying to earn your favor and for living as though we must face this world alone. Have mercy on us through Jesus Christ who bore our shame, died of our sins. Amen.
Church hear this assurance from Ephesians chapter 2. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens. But you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Amen. Through Jesus Christ our sins are forgiven, our shame is covered, and we are welcomed into the family of God. We do not have to hide our proof or our worth. Or prove our worth. In Christ, we are known and loved by our Father in heaven, and united to one another as brothers and sisters.
In just a moment, we're going to participate in a sacred meal, where we're reminded that Christ's body was broken for us and his blood was shed for us. As we do this, we will, be reminded of the night that Christ was betrayed. When he took a loaf of bread and he tore it. He said, this is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And he took a cup and he said, this is my blood shed for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And so when we take this, we're being reminded that we're known by the Lord. That we're not anonymous to him, that he cares for us, and that his body was broken for us so that we might be known for him. So if you're a believer, we encourage you to come and receive this meal. If you're not sure you know where you are with Christ, or maybe you haven't followed Christ through the the ordinance of baptism yet. Maybe this is something you hold off on. But anyone who calls Christ their savior is permitted to come. We encourage you to come and receive. As we prepare to receive this meal, would I invite you to stand if you're able, as we respond to God this morning.
Father, we thank you for, for knowing us. And for loving us still, for welcoming us through Christ into relationship with you for lifting us up into the highest places, for giving us life and meaning and purpose. And Father, I pray for anyone here who's still seeking out that life and meaning and purpose, who's still seeking out what it means to be known by God. Would you help them to hear from you today? Would they hear your voice and hear you calling them as a beloved child? Would they hear their name spoken by you and trust that you care about what they're going through? Prepare us to receive this meal. To be reminded of your broken body on our behalf, and to be made new in a, in a sanctified kind of way today. We ask this in Christ's name, Amen.