Be the Church: Faithfully Bold

Pastor Fletcher concludes our sermon series with a message about evangelism from Acts 2:42-47. Discussion points: God still works to add people to his family, evangelism is not something we do just to make God happy with us, we must see evangelism as people to love rather than arguments to win.

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  Scripture reader: [Acts 2:42-47] And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

  This is the word of the Lord.

  Preacher: Hey, it's good to see everybody. Thank you for being here. My name is Fletcher. Hope to get to know anybody who's new. We're finishing up our series on be the Church from Acts chapter 2. This one passage that we've preached 4 times now, so you should be pretty familiar with it if you, you've been here through the whole series. And the passage ends: and the Lord added to their number day by day. Those who preferred the worship style of this church over that one. The Lord added to their number day by day. Those who wanted the best speaker that they could find in town. Which is probably not here. The Lord added to their number day by day, those who are being saved.

  Is that not the cry of our hearts? Is it not what every believer wants in this room? For more and more people to experience the reality that we have experienced, that the Lord has saved us from our sins, that though we were once enemies of God, now we're friends with God, that we know him, that he loves us as if we were his own children. This is the cry of my heart. It's what I most desire. It's what my wife and I moved to Boston 14 years ago to see happen is to see a church where people can come to know the living and true God, where we can experience the good news of who that God is.

  Not as some sort of like Christian colonialism, you know, I think that sometimes we think about winning people to the Lord or winning them to the church as if we're just increasing our tribe and decreasing our opponent's tribe, but that's not what we're going for here. We want people to actually experience the truth of who Jesus is. Because that is transformative and joy filled, and we know that when people experience the gospel, that actually leads to flourishing in their lives. We long for the day, for the Lord to add to our number, day by day.

  And so here's my big question for us today as we ponder this passage about what it means to be the church one final time, is, can this type of church exist today in 21st century Western world? Can this type of church, where people have all things in common, and where no one is in need, and they're having their, they're receiving their food with glad and gracious hearts, can this type of church where the Lord is adding to their number day by day, exist today? Can the Lord actually take people from their secular worlds, where they're fully content to continue to live in their secular worlds and actually move them in to a church family where they can experience the love and kindness of God as we have experienced the love and kindness of God. Does this still happen? Absolutely. It absolutely can. It absolutely does. It happens.

  There are churches, it, it happens here to a small extent. It happens all over. The Lord is still in the business of adding to his our number. The Lord is still in the business of releasing people. From there, Passed from their issues, he's still in the business of saving. But how, how can God add to our number day by day? And how did it happen in the early church? It didn't happen through the normal church growth strategies that you might read about online or that you might hear about, but rather, I think that the way it happened was through a simple one, the spirit of God moving in an incredible kind of way. Let's just be very clear that God did it. In fact, when you read this passage, it says, the Lord added to their number, day by day. It wasn't that they added to their number, but it was the Lord doing it.

  But how did the Lord do it? How does the Lord add to the number of Christians, but through this really scary word that's almost a bad word now, evangelism. Now, I know that when many of us hear the word evangelism, what comes to mind are really awkward interactions that you may have been forced into at some point in your Christian life. I was once visiting a hospital, and it takes a lot to make your pastor cringe from being bold about your faith, but someone achieved it,. I was visiting this hospital and this guy was really sick, and the, the nurse came in and she, and he had done something kind, and she was like, oh, that's a good way to earn good karma, and this guy was from the south, and he said, karma. I don't believe in that crap. And she's like, oh, OK, you know, she's just doing her job, dude. I, and she's like, all right. He's like, I believe in Jesus. And I'm like, bro, probably not the best evangelistic method here is to like shame your doctor for trying to be kind to you, your nurse to be kind to.

  We've all had these negative encounters, and we're afraid actually of evangelism because oftentimes in our society, if we're not only afraid of evangelism, some of us are afraid about coming out as a Christian. Like, because in our society, if you are known as someone who's a Christian, you are afraid, and although I found this to not be so true, OK, all of my neighbors know I'm a Christian, it comes up very quickly. You know, what, what do you do for a living? I'm a professional Christian, like that's. It's very easy to come up. But I've rarely ever experienced someone who immediately thought, well, you must be a bigot. That doesn't happen. Maybe once in a run club, I told someone I was a Christian and they started running a little faster than I could. If that's all the scorn of shame that I have to withstand, I guess I'll take it.

  We're afraid that if we come out as Christians or if we share our faith that we'll be put into that same box as the Christians that people view as bigots. So we prefer to hide our faith, and what we actually end up doing is maintaining a strict sacred secular divide among our friends. And so we have our Christian friends, we have our non-Christian friends, and we hang out with our Christian friends sometimes and our non-Christian friends sometimes. We have this kind of Hulk and Bruce Banner lifestyle that we live where we just don't have the two interact. They're two different lives that we might live, dissociative identity disorder in some ways.

  But what if evangelism didn't have to look like this awkward judgmental thing? What if we could share our faith in a way that was compelling? And not totally based upon what people think about us. We need to rethink evangelism, if the Lord is to add to our number, day by day. We need to rethink this thing and think about how in 21st century Somerville, Massachusetts, can we be mobilized for evangelism. Because while I have nothing against necessarily sending people out into the streets and having conversations, I just don't know if it will be the most effective method. For you or for the people you're talking with, but I think that there are methods to win people over to the faith. And we need to think about that together, how the Lord might add to our number day by day.

  And so as we finish up this series, next week we're actually going to start a series in the book of Colossians. I'm excited about that. We're gonna be studying Colossians through the rest of the summer, all the way through the summer in Colossians. Today as we finish the series in Acts chapter 2, I want us to consider three shifts that we need to make in our mind about evangelism, about sharing our faith. All right? You guys ready? Three shifts that we need to make in order for our evangelism to be effective.

  And the first shift is this. That we need to shift from seeing evangelism as a moral responsibility. To seeing it as an overflow of our experience with God. We have to shift from seeing evangelism as a mere responsibility, something that we have to do to be a good Christian. Did anyone grow up in this type of situation? Where in order to be a good Christian, you had to go out there and evangelize. Anybody? A few. OK, I see, I see it, I see it. All right, you're not proud, only Michael's proud in the back. To have grown up in that, but it feels awkward. Many of us know that we should be sharing our faith. We know the great commission, we know that Jesus has sent us to share with the world who he is. We understand that we are a city on a hill because we go to City on a Hill Church. We understand that we should be evangelizing, but this word evangelism, we cannot hear it without feeling guilt. Guilt is the word that is provoked in our hearts when we think of evangelism.

  But have you ever even just thought about how we got the word evangelism? Where does it come from? Evangelism, like, it seems like a made up word because it is. It is a made up word. The word for evangelism comes from the word gospel. It merely means gospelizing. You see in the New Testament, the word for gospel, cause when the Bible was first translated into English by William Tyndale, he translated euangelion to euangelion. I'm gonna say it right eventually. Sorry, Alexis. The, he translated it to say God's spell, which is like the story of God. The spell is story, so it's the story of God. And so we've slowly changed that word plus it takes the word for gospel, euangelion. And it says, euangelizo. And so it turns it into a verb. So literally a better word might be gospeling, that you're telling people the gospel, that you're gospelizing in such a way. And if the if evangelism is all about the gospel. And the gospel is about what God has done for you. It is not about what you can do for God.

  Let me make that really clear. The gospel is good news about what God has done for you. It is not about what you need to do for God to be happy with you. And so if the if evangelism is all about the gospel, and the gospel is about what God has done, then we strip evangelism of its power when we make it something that makes God happy with us. It's not just something you do for God to be happy with you. It must be an overflow of what God has done in your life. That you have experienced the goodness of God, that you have tasted and seen that you come and receive communion on a Sunday morning, and you're reminded that his body was broken for you and his blood was shed for you. That you have felt conviction of your sin, and then you felt the comfort of the Holy Spirit layered on top of that. This is what mobilizes us for evangelism. It is what powers us for evangelism.

  Let's imagine this, that there's a new restaurant opening up over in Davis Square. And it's, it's a new American restaurant, and the, the owner knows that he has good food, and he wants to get the word out about his new restaurant, but there's always restaurants in Somerville. It's a, it's a competitive area in Somerville. And so, what does he do to get the word out about his restaurant, but he goes and hires a whole bunch of people to hand out flyers and make posts online about the new restaurant. And so as they do that, they're not actually able to answer any questions about the restaurant because they've never actually eaten in the restaurant. They're just doing their duty. They're doing what they're supposed to do so they, they can get their paycheck and go home.

  Now that's one method. But there's a totally other method that he could use where he just invites his friends and family to come and experience the food, the atmosphere, the experience of the restaurant. And then what do they do? Well, that's free publicity at that point. They just go out and they tell all their friends, this was a great time, you should go to the restaurant.

  You see, the best way to invite someone into an experience is to experience it yourself, and then evangelize and tell them about it. And so for us, on Sunday morning, our evangelism has to start with our personal experience with God. As we open the scriptures, as we experience him, if you're not motivated to share about that, to share about who Jesus is, it all has to start there.

  Have you encountered Christ? Do you know him? Have you received forgiveness for your sins? Have you understood God's story? That God came in a manger. The the the Lord of the whole universe was made incarnate for us. He was led to the cross, Jesus, paying our penalty for our sins on the cross, penal substitutionary atonement, just the justice of God on our behalf on Jesus. And now he's the king, he reigns and rules, and he is creating his kingdom. Not through power, but through humility. Through a counter cultural witness. This is the good news, and if you haven't experienced that, none of the rest of the sermon's gonna make sense to you.

  And so I just wanna make that really clear, like, this is your first step. Experience that before you ever try to share it. You would not be a good witness for us if you hadn't experienced it, truly. Evangelism flows from experience. I love this quote from Dan Strange, and he mentions how this is connected for him. He says, if my whole life is connected to the gospel. And if I'm growing as a disciple in every part of my life, then the task of connecting the gospel to other people's lives becomes more natural because we all face common struggles. If I'm applying the gospel to my life, so that I have a full rich relationship with Jesus through all the moments of mundane everyday life, then I'll be able to minister to others.

  Number two, the second shift that we have to make for our evangelism to be effective in the 21st century world is that we need to shift from arguments to win, to people to love. We need to shift from arguments to win to people to love. Generally there are two potholes that people fall into when it comes to evangelism. On the one side of the spectrum, they might share all truth, no love, and they might actually see people as projects. So instead of seeing a person in front of you to love and to get to know, they say, I see a soul to win. And they don't actually invest any time or love or care. They don't actually care about the person. All they care about is adding to their number.

  On the other side of the spectrum, we have people who might do the Saint Francis of Assisi approach. Do you guys know that quote, the Saint Francis of Assisi quote, where he says, share the gospel at all times, use words if necessary. Have we heard that one? I love that quote. I think that's, I think that that's good. I have two problems with it. One, Saint Francis never said that. Like it is not, not in any of his writing. It is not, in any of his biographies, nothing like that. And second, it's just wrong. So like I love it, like I think that that's the way, that's the way we should live, you know, like as if we're sharing the gospel with our actions.

  But also, just so you know, church, you can't actually do that, OK? Because the gospel is a message, it's good news. How do you share good news just by acting that like it's true. You have to speak the good news for it to go home to people, to actually share it. And so you have two sides. On the one side it's all truth, no love, this person's a project. I'm just gonna have this argument to win so that God can add to our number. The goal isn't actually to love the person, but it's to win the numbers. Bad, OK? On the other side of things, you have, I'm just gonna love people like Jesus loves them. And that's it. Also not good enough. Like it's like you should start there for sure, but the gospel requires words.

  Romans chapter 10, just to prove this to you, Romans chapter 10 verses 14, 15, it says, how then will they call on him whom they've not believed? And how are they to believe in him whom they've never heard of? And how are they to hear when, without someone preaching to them? And how are they to preach unless they're sent as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. And so, let's just make this really clear, the best way to share the gospel with someone is to love people. And in fact, if you just look at the life of Jesus, how did he live? He didn't walk around just trying to win every argument. Jesus had no problem letting people walk away from him. He didn't feel the need to drive home every argument. Instead, Jesus loved people with compassion and with care. And when we have that mindset of loving people with a compassion and care, our evangelism feels much more like it was meant to feel. That we care for people, that we genuinely love them.

  I wish that I could just teach a class, in fact, maybe one day. I haven't quite named the class, but. The, the best way to teach people how to do evangelism is to teach Christians how not to be weird. Like, Just don't be a weirdo. Love people, be normal. Like, be interested in what they're interested in. Actually, that's an amazing thing. I was talking to someone the other day, and, it was another pastor, and he, and he, I was just listening to him as one does, like he had stuff to say. I was just asking questions and listening. He said, you know, Fletcher, man, you listen really well. Can we talk more often? You do have to speak it to them, but maybe try listening first. What's going on in their lives. Because when you sit back and you listen, all of a sudden, you start to hear the way that they view the world. And you start to be able to enter it in new kind of ways that doesn't feel like they're just a number to win.

  Best way to share your faith might go something like this, OK? If you're, first of all, if you're seated next to someone on an airplane, you know you're never gonna see some, see them again, go for it. Just like, like the, some of my best evangelistic encounters have been on airplanes, because we both know, hey. Let's just get to it, you know, like, like I'm never gonna see you again. I don't really care what you think of me. I'm just gonna, and again, like I said, it's easy to talk about faith, when you're a pastor. But if it's a neighbor or a co-worker or a friend, maybe try this model: Coffee, dinner, gospel. Like coffee, dinner, get to know them, love them, and then, like as you do that, there will be opportunities to talk about it. There will be opportunities to bring it up in a non-threatening way. What do you think about God? Do you think that there's a higher power? What do you think about who Jesus is or people that go to church? Have you, did you grow up going to church? Any of that stuff is so easy when you just listen to people and care for them. OK, off my rock with that one.

  Number three. We need to shift from a long, from a long. That's a personal typo, sorry, from a lone ranger. Approach to a community project. That's what it says in my notes, Long ranger. We're gonna shift that to Lone Ranger. Sorry about that. Thank you. When I, when I was a kid, I don't know if anybody grew up like me. I grew up, playing backyard baseball. Anybody grow up playing backyard baseball? All right, we got some backyard baseball supporters here. but I was an only child. Hard to play backyard baseball by yourself. So my cousin Joey would play, and it was just the two of us. And so what do you do when you play backyard baseball with just two people? One person's pitching, the other person's, batting. And when you get a hit and you get to base, you say ghostman on first. And then you walk back to the, to the home plate to bat again.

  You guys familiar with ghostman's? Ghost men? OK. And so, and then as you go back to, to bat, you get another hit, and then you run to first, you get to first, you have a ghostman on second, ghostman on first, and you can go back and bat again. And then your goal is to continue to advance the runners around the bases until you start scoring goals. It's just scoring goals, scoring runs. They're not points in baseball, they're runs, OK. Until you start scoring runs. Now I always played with my cousin Joey, who cheats, and so I lost it every time. Some reason, Joey can tag out all my ghost men. But I can't tag his. I don't get that.

  This is the way that we oftentimes think about evangelism, and it's the way that I was taught in seminary that evangelism counts. That it's like cheating if you don't advance the runner around all the bases by yourself. That you need to start the conversation with them, you need to have the 2nd conversation with them, the 3rd conversation with them, and you need to bring that guy all the way around the base until he accepts Christ. But guys, there's a better way than this. And it's called. Be the church. Because just a a quick plug. A quick plug here, we have a church league softball team, all right? You can join it. We'll put out signups before too long. I'm not gonna feel very, I'm not a heavy hitter on the base softball team. I don't even play the softball team, but if I got out there to get my hit, I would never be swinging for the fences. You know why? Because if Skyler's batting behind me, or if Jared is batting behind me. They're gonna knock me around the bases. All I gotta do is get on first. And then I've got someone else that has a better bat than me, that's gonna be able to bring me all the way around.

  This is how it is with evangelism. What if we shifted from seeing this as I need to win this person in Christ by myself, to saying, what if I introduced this person to some of my Christian friends. And then all of a sudden, maybe they see something from them or hear something from them that they didn't previously. It's also a plausibility thing. Because if I'm the first Christian friend that someone's ever met, you know, a big goal for me in in Somerville is that every person in Somerville, everybody in Boston, I would love to see this. This is a vision of a city on a hill, that every person in the Boston area knows at least one Christian that they respect. That we've been outward about our faith and that they can say, actually there's a Christian that I respect.

  But what if they knew that one person and then you could invite them to a barbecue, and they could meet other people from your church community that they respect. Have those honest conversations with. This seems like what the early church was doing. They were doing, they were living their lives together. The Lord was adding to their number, but he wasn't doing it by sending out lone rangers to go and win. They weren't coming into the church as finished products. They were coming in and exploring with the people there. And being won over.

  And then all of a sudden if you know more than one Christian. It increases your plausibility. Like maybe Christianity is something I should consider. These people seem fine. Only a few of them are weird. Because the other ones went through Fletcher's class. I'm probably not the best person to teach that class, let's be honest. The church itself is the best evangelistic tool that we have. Tyler quoted this Francis Schaeffer quote a few weeks ago, and I, I just think it's great. He says this, our relationship with each other is the criterion the world uses to judge whether our message is truthful. Christian community is the final apologetic.

  My favorite illustration for evangelism comes from the book Total Church by Steve Timmas and Tim Chester. It's a really helpful book if you are interested in that. I'll give you this picture. And it's the, the center rope is the main rope, but it's supported by these other two, which are building relationships and introducing people to community. Can someone become a Christian without the supporting parts? Yes. But it is so much easier when you are building the relationships and introducing them to community. If you're interested in learning more about evangelism, I'm gonna tell you a little bit more about what I think with this. But I have a few books, and I'll just leave them up here by the donation box if you're interested in a book. This is called Evangelism in a Skeptical World, How to Make the Unbelievable News about Jesus More Believable. Very helpful book. In my life, the time when I, and I had to bend like an old man, sorry.

  The time in my life when I have experienced this, this illustration here, the introducing people to community, building relationships, sharing the gospel. There was one time where I experienced it more than any other time in my life, and it was probably about 10 years ago. And my wife and I were living in Jamaica Plain at the time. We lived in JP for 4 years. Anybody lived in JP before? Whoop whoop. All right, JP, there we go. there's like all 3 of us. But we were living in Jamaica Plain, and we didn't know a lot of Christians in the area, but we started a community group, a City on a Hill community group back when I was a pastor in Brookline.

  And we got several people to come. There were several committed believers who came to our group. Mark and Kristy Schmeissing were in our community group at that time. He's currently an elder at our church, and, we had several others who were a part of that group. But one thing that we did. Is that every 6 or 7 weeks, we would just throw a party. And we'd say, hey, we're not gonna do a lot of conversation this week, invite a friend. We'd do a Friendsgiving, we would do just a cookout, we would just do a potluck, tacos, whatever it might be, and say, bring friends. And people did. We invited our former neighbors, Isaac and Sarah. And Their lives were a mess, and we were able to speak into that. And at the end of every party, we were, we would just say, hey, we meet every week for a Bible study and prayer if you wanna come. And people came.

  My friend Luke, very solid Christian, one of my best friends in the world, he brought his, his co-worker Ricardo. And they had had lunch a couple of times, and he said, hey, you wanna come to my group? And he came and. Ricardo Asked the most annoying questions in the world for like 6 months. Just like hammering every week was just like, why do you believe this? What do you believe? And I'll tell you the truth, Ricardo, as far as I know, never became a Christian. But his perspective on who Christians were changed so much through that time. Brian, on the other hand, was interested in a girl in our communion group. And she said, if you want to get with me, you gotta get with my friends. And she brought him to community group. He did become a believer, and then they broke up. But he kept being a believer because when you meet Jesus, it changes your life.

  There was a man who was the most baby Christian that I'd known, had just barely a Christian. Mark and I met with this guy for coffee for like 4 years, every week. And now he's one of the most mature men that I know in his faith. I could also tell you about, Martha Sparkles. that's not her real last name. I don't remember her real last name. She was in musical theater school, so she was Mar Martha Sparkles. And she would bring her Boston Conservatory friends to our group. And we got to know them, and now they're like singing in the operas, and, but we were able to share the gospel with them over time. I think when it was all said and done, that we had baptized at least 6 people from this group over the course of like 3 years. So it was like slow. It wasn't quite day by day, but I felt like we were just a real tangible presence of Christ in the neighborhood.

  Not to mention. They're like dozens of people that we had met and talked to and had a different perspective about who Christianity was, what Christianity was, who Jesus is. My wife would go on walks with people. there's one woman that I think of named Lauren who would walk with my wife, and she said, wow! She like literally said like, wow, you're like a pastor's wife. Like you like really believe this stuff. You might be the first like Christian in that way I've ever met. And then over time, her idea of what Christians were changed. Changed a ton. Again, I don't know if she came to Christ, but enough to where now, she has a much different perspective of who Christ is.

  You see, when we change our goal from hitting a home run to getting a base hit. It changes the way that we think about evangelism. If people aren't falling on their knees saying, brothers, what must we do to be saved? That's OK. Think base hits. How can you get them around the bases? How can you introduce them to some Christian community? Because it might be someone else's job, this whole Paul planted Apollo water, but God gave the growth. That is true when it comes to sharing your faith.

  And so friends, I just wanna put this vision out there for you. And I know it's like not necessarily the most exciting thing for everybody to think about having responsibilities. But as the church, This is. The vision that God has for us. That we're not just gonna grow by having better music, we're not gonna grow by having better preaching, I hope. We're not gonna grow. I'm giving it all, my God, OK. we're not gonna grow. Through just normal, better advertising. I mean, we might. But the best way and the biblical way is for us to be open about our faith.

  And so, maybe you're considering a friend, maybe you have a friend, maybe you're thinking about them. Here's just a sequence. That you might think about. Make Christian friends. If you're not in deep community with other Christians, you can't do that graphic with the building relationships, introducing people into the community. You can't do it, because you don't have the community. We have to be the church in that way. And then, so some of us have that deep Christian community, but we don't know any non-Christians. Some of us have a ton of non-Christian friends, and we're just barely making our way into the Christian community.

  But friends, the perfect thing is when I can introduce some of you with a lot of Christian community, with some of you with a lot of non-Christian community, and we can like somehow introduce those people. That we share our faith with our non-Christian friends, we invite them to spend time with our Christian friends casually. I think that our groups, Lord willing, our groups grow faster than our Sunday morning worship gathering. I would love for people to come to faith in our community groups and then start coming to church because they've met Christians and that they've heard a test a testimony, they've heard something that they can believe.

  And friends, I know right now that there's people in your life who seem and who are far from God. And this might all just feel impossible. But weren't you also once far from God? And we can march person after person up here to share their testimony. About how they were living for themselves. They were far from God. But one day a friend spoke a kind word. Or maybe you just ran into someone and they had a moment of peace for you. Or maybe you've had a family member that's prayed for you for years. Or maybe you had someone who took a genuine interest in you, as I did. My youth pastor loved me as a father. And took me under his wing and cared for me.

  We could march person after person. Of the Lord Who could tell stories of who of the Lord who saves. Cause he still saves, he's still open heart, opens hearts. He still uses ordinary Christians and so friends. The early church, it did not grow because they had cultural power. They had none. It did not grow because they were socially approved. They were not. And it did not grow. Just because they had a better show. The early church, it grew because ordinary people experienced extraordinary grace. And the Lord added to his number through weak people. Through loving communities, through trembling words and the beauty of Christ.

  And so I just want you to consider as we prepare our hearts to take communion. What might the Lord be challenging you with? To be open with your faith. And to win others to Christ. Maybe you just want to pray for a friend or two. Or to consider a way that you might need to be, you could be more faithful in these steps. So as Jared makes his way up here, I'm gonna introduce communion and lead us in a prayer. And as we prepare for communion, we, we're reminded that the Lord does this thing for us, that the Lord adds to our number. And so even as we feel maybe convicted, guilty, just know that it's the Lord who does it. And so we can pray and trust in him.

  And on the night that he was betrayed. Christ took a loaf of bread and he broke it, and he said, this is my body, broken for you. Take this in remembrance of me. And he took a cup and he said, this is the cup of my, of the new covenant. This is my blood. Do this in remembrance of me. And so each week when we take of, of this meal, the bread representing the body and the wine or the juice representing his blood, we're reminded that Christ's body was broken for us and his blood was shed for us. And so if, if you're a Christian here this morning, we we we encourage you to come and receive this meal. I just want you to search your heart and consider what Christ has done for you. And as you receive this meal, know that his work is enough. And so as we prepare our hearts to receive this meal, I'm gonna encourage you to stand if you are able, as we pray.

  God, I pray that you would take this meal and bless it. We thank you for the body of Christ broken for us, and the blood of Christ shed for us. And God, we ask that you would take my small words and multiply them. To work in our lives, help others to hear from you, not just from me. God, even this morning, I, I pray that the message of the gospel would be very clear to all those who are here joining us, that they would understand what it means to be the church, and what it means to follow after you, and, and that you would motivate us to share your good news. in Christ's name we pray, Amen.