A Life Pleasing to God: The Beauty of Christian Living
Pastor Fletcher preaches from 1 Thessalonians 5:15-22, read for us in Hindi. Discussion points: Following Jesus allows us to consistently do good in a world filled with evil; forgiveness involves paying the debt of someone else; we can live in gratitude by looking for the things around us that are good, beautiful, and true.
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Scripture reader: Today's scripture reading is taken from 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 15 to 22. I will be reading from the Hindi Standard Bible. At the end of the scripture reading, I will say this is the word of the Lord. Please respond with thanks be to God.
[See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.]
This is the word of the Lord.
Preacher: Good morning. Good to see everybody this morning. My name is Fletcher. I'm the lead pastor of the church here and it's my joy to continue our First Thessalonians series. We only have one more, week after this one. we've been going through this series and now we've, we've entered the lightning round mode that you find at the end of many of Paul's books. what he does when he writes letters oftentimes is it's, it feels like you're leaving the house with your mother at home where he just starts listing off all the different things that you're supposed to remember before you leave the house. Like, did everyone remember to encourage every, encourage one another? Stay holy, keep the faith, rejoice always, pray all the time? OK, I think we're ready to go. All right.
So that's, that's kind of the way that all of his letters end, and that's certainly the way that this one ends. And this little list of commandments that we have at the end of First Thessalonians is interesting because when you first read it, it looks as though most of these commandments don't really have a lot in common with one another that it's just a laundry list of different things that you're supposed to do as a Christian. But I think that if you dig a little bit deeper into this little laundry list of things that you're supposed to do as a Christian, what you actually find is this beautiful vision for the Christian life. This beautiful vision for the Christian life.
Because if you actually lived up to all of the things that are described here, you would live a life that is attractive to all of your neighbors and friends. In fact, have we not experienced that? Those of us who have been around Christians long enough, maybe we don't feel like we always embody it, but have you never been around other Christians that you just say, wow, that is the good life. There's something beautiful, there's something true, there's something good about how this person lives their life. And that is the vision that we have from First Thessalonians today, the beautiful life of the Christian life, the absolute beauty of the Christian life.
Unfortunately Christians are far too often known for our political positions, our judgmental attitudes, God forbid our conspiracy theories, and we're not well known enough for the way that we live out what's described here in First Thessalonians, this beautiful story and way of living. If you're here this morning and you're not sure about the existence of God, as I described the way that Christians are allowed to live because of our belief in God and because of our faith and who Jesus is, I hope that you leave here thinking, you know, even if I'm not sure about God, I sure hope that he is real. I sure hope that he's real because this seems like a beautiful way to live.
So I have 3 beautiful realities about Christian life. Following Jesus gives you the ability to do these 3 things. First, the ability to consistently do good in a world full of evil. Following Jesus gives you the ability to consistently do good in a world full of evil.
Verse 15 first. See that no one repays anyone for evil, but always seek to do good to one another. And to everyone. And then also just to tag on at the end because it's similar, verse 21B through 22 it says hold fast to what is good, abstain from every form of evil. Now, no matter who you are, where you are, what part of the political spectrum that you're on, we all agree that the world is full of evil. Now we might not agree about what that evil is, but we do all agree that the world is broken and full of evil. Oftentimes we oversimplify the world though, and we, we like to think about the world as being like the good guys versus the bad guys that half the people in the world are the good guys and. The people in the world are the bad guys, and we really just need to do our best to be the good guys so that we don't continue to perpetuate the evils that we have in the world.
But this is really an oversimplified view of how the world is. Here's how I know. I went to a very bad movie one time called. The the the the Rise of Skywalker. I don't even remember the title. What's, what's the Star Wars Episode 9? The last Skywalker, The Rise of Skywalker. I got it right, called The Rise of Skywalker. I went in there and, you know, when you go to the Star Wars movies, they depict the world like there's good guys and there's bad guys, right? But here's what I noticed when I was leaving the movie theater. I didn't get the impression that anybody was like, you know, I really wish that the emperor would have won. That would have been better, you know, it, it, no one is in there rooting for the dark side. We're all in there rooting for the heroes. We're all in there hoping that good wins.
The reality is that because we're made in the image of God, every single person on this planet longs and hopes for good. We want good. Yes, we may disagree about what good looks like, but we all want good we all seek good and in the same way that we're created an image of God and we support good and we want good, even though some of our ideas of good become twisted and self-centered, we also, because we, we long for good in the same way, we're also made the image of God and we long for justice also. Because our God is not only a God who's good, we're made in this image, so we long for good, but we're made in his image so we long for justice. We want to see retribution happen to those who deserve it. I mean, if someone punches you in the face, what's the first thing that most of us want to do? Punch them back, or, you know, if you're a little bit smaller than them, hope someone bigger comes along to punch them, you know, hope that they get theirs. You, you want something to happen to the person who punches you in the face. Because our God is the God of justice. We have justice written on our heart. We have an eye for an eye written on our heart.
But when we seek retribution, what the Bible actually tells us is that we're not acting in the image of God. But we're trying to step into the shoes of God Himself. That we've stepped too far. So Romans chapter 12 verse 19 says, beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. Now, this is why Christianity is beautiful though. Because Christianity says. And the life of a Christian is, gives you the ability to do good in the face of evil. That when someone wrongs you, you are able to do good despite being wronged.
And how is this possible but through this amazing thing that we talk about all the time and we don't really understand it completely called forgiveness and forgiveness is an amazing thing and I think that we just brush on the very tip of forgiveness to forgive. is to Exemplify the way that Jesus lived. Even while Jesus is being slowly tortured and executed. He prays, Father, forgive them. For they know not what they're doing. While these men are in the middle of what many might consider the most evil act in history, slowly torturing. And executing a man who truly did not deserve it, the only one who is truly innocent, he prays for their forgiveness.
My favorite illustration about forgiveness I've shared before, but I'll do it again, because I, I need to think about it pretty often. I borrowed it from or modified it from Tim Keller, many years ago and, he says that to forgive. is to absorb debt. So it's to take on a debt. So we know that from understanding forgiveness of debt. If someone forgives your debt, they absorb it, so they pay your debt on your behalf. It's not that it just disappears, but it's actually absorbed someone else is paying for your wrong. So for example, say you and I are down at the Market Basket, OK, down here in Union Square, that's my best Boston accent. You won't get it again. I'm sorry. I'm obviously Southern.
You're down at Market Basket, you know, just getting those deals and if you've been to Market Basket, you know that that place is wild, all right? Anybody, anybody been there? I mean like there's like sometimes fights going on in the aisles, OK, because like who can do without the coupon book, you know, we, we need to, we need to get our Market Basket on and say we're in the Market Basket and I'm backing my car out and you're just sitting in your parked car and I'm back into your car. And so, you know, we both get out of our cars we're like talking it over, people are screaming the F-bomb at us as we're blocking traffic because the parking lot's crazy and. You say, you know what, pastor, don't worry about it. I'll get my car fixed. It's all good.
It's not that you just forgave me and said it's nothing. It's that you actually absorbed the debt and decided to pay for me. Because you're having to get your car fixed, so I did a wrong to you and you are paying for my wrong that is forgiveness and so when we forgive a friend, it hurts forgiveness hurts. You can't forgive someone without paying for their debt. And that is the beauty of the Christian life, that Jesus has done that for us, and we are now empowered to do that for others. And isn't it beautiful? What a much more beautiful way to live. To be a forgiving person. Because even though we're made in the image of God and we want vengeance, we also understand and appreciate when we see someone truly forgiving. That can truly let go of a debt in that way. We have the ability to choose to live with forgiveness.
Now a couple of disclaimers and I'm gonna move on. Just very briefly, just because you forgive someone does not mean that someone's actions should not and and will not have legal ramifications. I think about Rachel Denhollander and Larry Nassar and the way that he abused so many young girls and how she was able to communicate forgiveness and also say, I hope the state comes down on you with the hardest penalty possible. While it's not our responsibility, it's still the responsibility of the state, and sometimes people need consequences. So it doesn't mean that you, you don't have any consequences. It doesn't mean that you let go of everything. There's still time where retribution from the state and retribution needs to happen in that way and and from God, God Himself, unless it falls on Jesus because Jesus paid the forgiveness for us.
And also just one other disclaimer before we move on, is that reconciliation and forgiveness are two different things. you can forgive someone without ever reconciling with them. Because to reconcile with someone would mean that that person recognizes that they did wrong, and that they ask you for forgiveness, and that they want forgiveness. But if they never, and you know it depends on how serious it is sometimes you can just drop something if someone's wronged you, and you can forgive them and you can move on and be reconciled without needing this, but sometimes reconciliation requires much more of a process than forgiveness does. And so I just want to emphasize that just because you forgive someone doesn't mean that everything's cool and then you're gonna move on. Sometimes it, it does take a little bit more. It takes this process, this beautiful process of reconciliation.
And the second thing that describes the beauty of the Christian life though in this passages just keep moving through. The second thing that describes this beautiful Christian life, not only do we have this ability to forgive other people. But we have the ability to rejoice always, pray always, and give thanks always. Now, I don't know about you, but there is almost nothing more annoying than someone who is literally rejoicing always. It I can't handle it. we had this older woman at one of our previous churches, and she was one of these people that just took this verse rare really literally and, man, she just always was rejoicing and I can look back on it and say, there's something beautiful about that but also like want to like grind my teeth and and like snarl at her at the same time.
I just remember one time she was washing dishes after a service. She, it was two little old ladies, so it was very sweet. They're probably both in their 60s and, you know, little old ladies, 60s, uh. They're probably in their 70s. I was in my 20s at the time. I, I'm coming up on 40 now, so, but there were two little old ladies and they were washing dishes. She just said, Betty, praise the Lord. Look, we have everything we need to wash these dishes. We've got soap. We've got sponges. The Lord's giving us water and I'm like, woman, if you do not close your mouth. I cannot handle this anymore. You were too cheery for me.
There's something about life that looks at people that are always positive and thinks they must be fake. It's this cynicism that's built within us, but I think that what the gospel actually does is empowers us to have a rejoicing and a prayer and a thanksgiving that is deeper. Then this outside facade that sometimes we put on. It's certainly the Lord's timing that I would preach this verse this week. It's been one of those weeks where prayer hasn't been hard. But rejoicing's been hard. Thanksgiving's been hard. But in the midst of difficult situations. The Lord is gracious. And I can't rejoice. Though my rejoicing might not look like my friend washing dishes.
Because there's this biblical category of lament. Do you guys know lament? lament means deep sorrow. And when you read the Psalms, what you see is that nearly half of the Psalms are Psalms of lament. 66 of the 150 Psalms, Psalms of lament, and that means that what's happening is that the psalmist. It's praying to the Lord. And he's saying, God, where are you? Why is life so hard? And all but one of them, and I think the one has some poetic liberty that they do it, but almost all of them, all but one. And with some type of resolution, but, but I will praise the Lord still. I will sing your praises. I will give thanks, and that is the Christian life that we're people that are able to see behind the curtain and know that God is active, even when we don't know and don't see that he is. That he is moving.
And so even when life is hard and we don't even see what's behind the curtain, and we can't tell what's behind the curtain. We're people that have confidence that something's going on behind the curtain. That we have confidence that God is up to more than what we can understand. And so we can still give thanks. We can still pray without ceasing, we can still trust in him. In no way is this commandment ever meant to be a bludgeon. If someone in this church. Ever looks at someone who's sorrowful and says, well, the Bible says rejoice always, just call me, OK? We'll take care of it. We'll take care of it. This is an invitation. To slow down and to enjoy life with God, to trust your life with Him.
I've been meditating on this this week. That the God of the universe. The one who created everything, who reigned supreme overall. Wants us to talk with him. And not only wants us to talk with him, wants us to talk with him unceasingly. I have children. Unceasing conversation with their father is not what I'm longing for. But our Father longs for unceasing prayer. Longs for us to trust in him. And he's eager to show us his love and so the reason why this has just been so profound to me this week is because if the God of the universe wants to be so near to us, how many of us intentionally zone him out. And look for ways to ignore him. And look for ways to not give thanks and not always rejoice because it might just be too much.
There's a way of life available to you where you can live in constant rejoicing and constant thankfulness because you can know the God of the universe. And so one thing that I've just been doing, just a quick application point here, lately is anytime I see something that's good, beautiful or true, those three things. Good, beautiful or true, I'm trying to vocalize it. Because I eat good food all the time, do you guys know how privileged we are to live in the 21st century where good food is like on every corner from all over the world just cultures come right here to us and we get to eat good food all the time, but how many of us just eat it. And move on with our lives. We have some of the most amazing art ever made to man streaming on our televisions. We don't even have to get up. Many of us don't pay for it. We just, we just stream it and we don't ever say that's beautiful.
This week I, we got pizza down at Ernesto's in Assembly. And it's not like I'm a big Ernesto's aficionado or pizza aficionado, but, this is the first of two pizza illustrations for today. And so, as I, as we were eating the pizza last Friday, I just took a bite and I said this pizza is really good. And then 2 minutes later, both of my boys were like, oh my gosh, this pizza is the best. There's something contagious and wonderful about people who can rejoice. And recognize when things are good. So that's my challenge to you. We live in this cynical world, you know, where we see through everything except for we can't see through the curtain that God's doing something. Why don't you just take a step back and recognize and appreciate when something's good, beautiful or true. And it might be a helpful way to reframe the way that you live, so that you can live always praising, always rejoicing and praying always.
The third thing that this passage describes the beautiful Christian life with is this the ability to always live with the Holy Spirit, the ability to always live with the Holy Spirit. So the verse here, verse 19, do not quench the Holy Spirit, do not despise prophecies, but test everything. And you know, this might be the most beautiful thing about being a Christian. Is that we don't only believe in a god, we believe in a God who has revealed himself, and we don't only believe in a God who has revealed himself, but we believe in a God who lives with us and among us, and we don't only believe in a God who lives with us and among us, but we believe in a God who loves us and cares for us and wants to be near to us.
Isn't that an amazing truth? Our secular society is completely dismissed the idea of a personal God. Even those who might admit to theism oftentimes fall short of this personal God. And where has that gotten us? As a society, as we've written God out of our lives, where have we gone? You know, I think that anxiety rates are higher than ever, depression rates are higher than ever. I don't think that we can say, you know, we got rid of God and we finally found happiness. I think that we have to say, I think that we're missing something here.
If you're here today and you're not sure about the existence of God, just consider this for a moment. If the claims of Christianity are true, and you could actually have a relationship with God Himself, if you could live with him day by day, wouldn't that be amazing? If you can just set aside your hesitancies for a moment, wouldn't it be amazing? It's just an awesome opportunity if that could be true. But I can't help but think that many of us who are Christians, can't help but feel a little disappointed in our relationship with the Holy Spirit and our experience thereof.
Our experience of the Holy Spirit is oftentimes like frozen pizza night in the Lang family. Where I say, hey, we're gonna have where the kids are looking forward to Ernesto's pizza and they come home and I've got the oven warming up. And they're like, I thought we were getting the good stuff. And I'm like, what are you talking about? This is good. Same thing, cheese, bread, you know, some little sauce. They're like, not the same thing.
How many of us would give up our entire experience of the Holy Spirit for one face to face with Jesus Christ? I mean, that sounds pretty awesome, right? To be able to look at Jesus in his eyes, to have a face to face conversation with him. How many of us would give up our entire experience with the Holy Spirit for that? But yet Jesus says that. He has to leave so that the Holy Spirit can come, because our experience with the Spirit will be better than our experience with Jesus himself.
John chapter 16 verse 7. Nevertheless, I tell you, this is Jesus speaking. It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. Do you hear that? He's saying, it's actually to your advantage if I go back to heaven, because then you get the Holy Spirit. And if I don't go, you don't get the Holy Spirit. And so, what is he saying? He's saying the personal. The aspect of your experiencing God will be superior with the Holy Spirit than it is with Jesus himself. But that's hard to believe, is it not?
And then we come back to our verse, do not quench the Holy Spirit. How much of our lives, I think, and I experience, and I do as well, do we spend quenching the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The word quench here is the same word that is used to put out a fire. So to quench the Holy Spirit, it's, it's like you're, you're dousing the fire in water. in Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit came with what seemed to be tongues of fire. And the spirit brings warmth and light to the Christian life. So what does it mean to quench the spirit in your life? To quench the spirit would be the Pour water on the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart. To quench the spirit can be when you choose to sin or pursue your own idea of truth, instead of listening to and following God. You can quench the spirit when you refuse to joy to receive the joyful comfort of God.
A few years ago I was working with someone at the church who was going through a difficult spiritual time, and he had been going through it for several years and not several years, several months, and we've been walking with him and he was just, where is God? Where is God? And then he told me a story one day where he said he was sitting in his living, his bedroom and he finally felt the comfort of God. And he said, you shut up. I'm done with you. So God finally did speak to him, finally did give him that comfort, and he said, I don't want it. He quenched the spirit at that moment. He didn't allow himself to experience that truth.
You quench the spirit when you approach life with a perpetually skeptical attitude toward God. You quench the spirit when you reduce God to a set of doctrines as opposed to a real all powerful being who cares for you. I think that we need to just be reintroduced to the Holy Spirit pretty often and reminded of who he is. You know, they, they did a survey not that long ago. Where they said, true or false, the spirit is an impersonal being like the the the spirit is like a force in the world. An impersonal being like a force. And 60% of those who claim to be Christians said true. When the scripture clearly describes The Holy Spirit as a person. As the third person in the Trinity. As our wonderful counselor, as God Himself.
And his fantastic book that I often quote, it's on the Trinity, Michael Reeves says these things, and he says this about the spirit. He says the Spirit is about drawing us into a divine life. The Father is eternally delighted in the Son through the Spirit and the Son and the Father, the spirit's work and giving us new life then it's nothing less than bringing us to share in their mutual delight. Just one second more on that one. Can you just, just, just one more sec. The spirit is about drawing us into a divine life. This is what the gospel is. It's not just the forgiveness of your sins. The gospel, yes, you get forgiven of your sins, but more than that, the goal of the gospel is to be drawn into the divine life of God Himself, that he wants to share himself with you. He doesn't just want to forgive you of your sins. But he wants to share himself, that he is eternally delighted in the Son through the Spirit, and the Son and the Father and the Spirit's work is in giving us new life, then it's nothing less than bringing us to share in their mutual delight.
Here's another one from from Reeves. He says the spirit gives us his very self, that we might know and enjoy him, and so enjoy his fellowship with the Father and the Son. That we get to know and enjoy the spirit and enjoy the fellowship that he has among the Godhead. And lastly, the spirit's personal presence in us means we are brought to enjoy the spirit's own intimate communion. With the father and with the son. Now this might all sound really abstract, maybe lovey-dovey to some of you all. But don't quench the spirit.
What if this is the invitation for you? What if this is the invitation for each of us? That we get to experience the divine life. Don't pour a mountain of water on your heart and resist the nature of the love of God. The fact is that God cares for you. Right where you are. He wants to embrace you and share with you the love that he's enjoyed throughout eternity. Many of us, we might think that God, you know, he might have saved us, but that doesn't necessarily mean he likes us, OK? That like Jesus came and he died on the cross more as a duty than a delight. I mean, who would wanna do that? Why would God do that? Sure, he might save me, but that doesn't mean he's got time for me. But this shows our, our faulty understandings of who God is. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit blows that to pieces. Not only does God want to save us, he wants to live in a relationship with us.
Now, he's, this verse says something else, and it says, do not despise prophecies, but test them. that's interesting. prophecies, that's something that, you know, some people approach this, this type of thing with skepticism, but we don't have to be, we have to be open to the Holy Spirit speaking through other people and using his word to speak through it. At the same time, Paul wants us to test everything. And just because someone says I have a word of prophecy for you doesn't mean that they actually do have a word of prophecy. We are called to test this. Let me give you two examples, OK? 11, a good, a bad example of prophecy and one a good, OK, bad example. When I was in college, my best friend had a girlfriend. I won't tell you her name, just in case, you know, 20 years later she's, she's tuned in this morning on YouTube. He broke up with her. And she said, but God told me we're gonna be together. And he said, that's funny. I didn't get the memo. And he still broke up with her. Bad use of prophecy, you know. No evidence in the scripture, no, encouraging thing. It's just kind of like using the Holy Spirit to manipulate someone else to get what you want, right?
Let me give you a good illustration, and I've shared this with you guys before. one of our members here, his name is John Pardine. I'll just share him. John lives a different kind of life, you know, like modern day John the Baptist in many ways, um. John lives a different kind of life. If you know him, you know that's true. And, one day at our retreat this past year, he said, Fletcher, I need to talk to you. And he pulled me aside and he was like, I was out in the field with the flowers. That's how it started and. And he said, I was just praying. I started praying about you and I started telling God how disappointed I am in you. I was like thanks John. And I, I was saying, God, I, I just don't think that Fletcher has enough margin in my life. To to be the pastor I need. And at that moment God confronted me. And he said, Fletcher has exactly what you need at this moment. And also, I just felt like God was impressing upon me that I need to tell you. That he has equipped you with everything you need for life.
Which was just such a powerful moment, like I just swept at that moment. Because there's no way he would have known this. I was just so overtaxed with life. Being a parent of 3, being pastor, just like trying to make it through life, just overtaxed, and the Lord gave him a word of encouragement. And, and it wasn't, it wasn't anything extra biblical. Like any of you could walk up to any of you and say the same thing that he said to me that day, and it would be true. But it was a word for me through John at that moment. Does that make sense? I think that that's the way a prophecy works. It's truth personalized, so we do not quench the work of the Holy Spirit and friends, I think some of us despise prophecy because we're skeptical and we're skeptical that God might be laying something on our hearts to share with someone else, but I encourage you. Just, just share it. As long as you're not emotionally manipulating and it's founded in truth, you can be tested, maybe you test it first. But we do not despise this.
When we consider these three beautiful aspects of the Christian life, one, the ability to consistently do good in a world of evil, two, the ability to continually rejoice, pray and give thanks, and three, the ability to always live with the Holy Spirit. What we realized as we read those three is that though the Christian life gives us the ability to do these things, how many of us actually do them all the time? We're quite the failure at rejoicing always. We're quite the failure at forgiving always. We're quite the failure at walking with the Holy Spirit, always.
But Jesus never did. He never failed. He constantly did good, even when those did wrong to him. He always rejoiced in his own kind of way. He prayed unceasingly, finding time to talk with his father. He rejoiced and gave thanks. Jesus walked lockstep with the Holy Spirit every day of his life, understanding the love. That he had with his father and with the Holy Spirit. He constantly did good. Though he was a man of sorrows, he lived in continual rejoicing. He was sensitive to the spirit and never quenched him. Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith.
And so when you feel weary from the weight of the world, look to him. And of all these things, here's the most beautiful thing about the Christian life. The most beautiful thing about the Christian life is that if you don't live it perfectly. You still have it perfectly. If you don't do it perfectly, Jesus is still given you His perfect life, that you still are perfected before God. The beautiful thing about the Christian life is that no matter how well you live it. It's never about how well you lived it. But about how good Jesus is.
Hear this from Hebrews chapter 12 as I close. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. That is the Christian walk, that is the Christian faith. I encourage you to receive the faith from Jesus. That you don't quench the Holy Spirit. And today the Holy Spirit might be working in your heart. I wanna give you an opportunity to allow him to do that.
As we move into this next aspect of worship, we're going to receive a a sacred meal, but also I wanna encourage you if the Holy Spirit is doing something in your heart, don't quench it. If you need someone to pray with you, you can go and pray with one of the the prayer counselors in the back. If you need to sit and pray yourself and just talk with God about what the Holy Spirit is doing in your heart, do that. If you need a journal for a moment, do that. If you, if you need to speak a word to someone else of encouragement. Do that. This is an opportunity to not quench the Holy Spirit in your life. Whatever he's leading you to, whatever big steps. We're also gonna be practicing a sacred meal, and this is a sacred meal is a reminder of what Jesus has done for us.
Each week we participate in a communion meal, and it's a way that we recognize what Jesus has done and worship him, and what he has done. And if you're a believer here with us this morning, we encourage you to receive this because of Christ completed work on your behalf. But if you're not a Christian here today, we encourage you to receive the gospel of Jesus, the good news, and then you can receive communion with us next week or get baptized in the coming weeks and and receive it then, but we would encourage you to come and receive communion if you're walking with Christ as an opportunity for you to evaluate your life and to put aside any sin, because if you're not willing to put aside your sin, you need to think very hard about this. Jesus tells us to evaluate ourselves, before we receive it. So if you would join me in standing as we pray and prepare our hearts to receive this meal.
Our Father in heaven, we give you praise once again. We pray that you would help us to love you, that you that we would not quench your Holy Spirit, but that we would be open to his work in our life this morning. God help us just to experience it more. We, we don't need huge personal changes as much as we need a huge understanding of who you are and what you've done for us and would you continue to move in us and through us and God in this meal, would you encourage us. Father, we pray that you would delight in our worship to you and whatever work you're doing in someone else's heart. God, we pray that you would, that you would, that we would not quench it, that we would just be open to what you have. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.