Sunday Service - 2026-07-05

Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.

If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.

Thank you for joining us today.

Good morning, everybody.

I don't know if I'm supposed to...

Should I wait for the parents to come back in or am I good to get started?

Good morning, Lansdale Life.

How are we feeling this morning?

Good.

Happy 4th of July.

Hi, Chris, thank you so much for having me.

Such an honor.

Whenever I get the chance to be here, so thankful for you and Jill

and just what you guys have meant in my life.

Look up to you as a father, not only as a father-in-law, but as a father

and just so thankful for you, the way that you raise your kids

and just want to honor you.

And I want you guys to realize what an amazing pastor that you have.

In Romans, it tells us...

In Romans, it tells us that there's one thing that we're supposed

to outdo one another, and that's honor.

And so I think I always imagine what would the church be like

if we honored people better.

And so something that I want to challenge y'all to do.

We are in Acts 7.

So if you have your Bibles open up to Acts 7,

we're going to be in verse 51 through 60 as we close out chapter 7.

I've heard that you guys have been going through Acts,

which I love the book of Acts.

And it's exciting because we are actually at my church

going through the entire book of John right now.

And so it's just such an easy segment into Acts.

And today we're going to come across a super powerful part in Acts

where we see Stephen become the first Christian martyr.

And what we're going to see is that Stephen doesn't die

because he committed a crime,

but he dies because he faithfully proclaims Jesus.

And we find ourselves in this point where the church,

the early church is rapidly growing.

Thousands are coming to know the Lord and believe in Him.

Miracles are happening.

But as the gospel is advancing, so is opposition.

And that's really what we see here.

And this is something that we should know and not be surprised by

because in John, Jesus actually promises this.

He says, if they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

That's in John 15 verse 20.

And so we see really the end of Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin.

And he is walking them through their own history,

which you guys went through last week.

And we're going to see something that is shocking to them.

And something that shouldn't be shocking to us,

but I think if we really look at it in our own personal lives

in the church today would be shocking.

And it's that the problem was never a lack of revelation.

The problem was always a resistant heart.

And we're going to look at that today and dive in.

And so if you have your Bibles open up,

and I'm going to read starting in verse 51, it starts off super strong.

He says, you stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears.

You are always resisting the Holy Spirit.

As your ancestors did, you do also.

Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute?

They even killed those who foretold the coming of the righteous one

whose betrayers and murderers you have become.

You received the law under the direction of angels,

and yet you have not kept it.

When they had heard these things,

they were enraged and gnashed their teeth at him.

Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven.

He saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

He said, look, I see the heavens opened

and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

They yelled at the top of their voices,

covered their ears, and together rushed against him.

They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.

And the witnesses laid their garments

at the feet of a young man named Saul.

While they were stoning Stephen, he called out,

Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

He knelt down and cried out with a loud voice,

Lord, do not hold this sin against them.

And after this, he fell asleep.

We're going to answer this question today.

How does a spirit-filled believer respond

when following Jesus becomes costly?

And the answer is going to be this,

and we're going to walk through it.

But they respond by courageously telling the truth,

confidently fixing their eyes on Christ,

and graciously forgiving their enemies.

Let's pray.

God, would you speak to us?

Would your Holy Spirit move in this place?

Would you speak to our hearts and our minds?

Would you help free us from distractions, Lord,

that maybe we brought something in here

and we can't stop thinking about it, Lord?

Would you help us set that aside

to focus solely on you?

As we dive into your word, Lord,

would it reveal to us more about your Son Jesus

and what it means to follow Him?

Pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

We are up here from Florida,

and I thought we were going to be

escaping the heat a little bit.

And so that was a shock when we got up here.

I was asking Morgan as we were packing,

what should I pack?

Because I thought, you know,

like a 75, like, get some nice weather.

But she said it was going to be 100 degrees,

and I was shocked by that.

But we're up here celebrating

not only the 4th of July,

but my son, Coast, our second son,

was born on the 4th of July.

So he's a little, yeah, little Captain America.

And he just turned two,

and he is rambunctious, crazy.

He probably saw his brother do

a lot of things that he wasn't supposed to do.

And so he just has this boldness.

But they couldn't be more opposite.

Kingston, our almost 4-year-old,

is very cautious, very like,

we have a pool in our backyard,

and I'll be standing it.

And he's still scared to, like,

jump into the pool.

He'll look around, see everything.

He gets scared of everything.

And I have to convince him

to look at me and just jump.

But Coast, our second one,

he just dives in and will jump to me

no matter what.

He doesn't care what's around.

He just jumps.

And it's just so cool to see them growing up

and get to be around their cousins.

And so such a fun time being up here.

But any time that Chris asked me to preach,

it is an honor, and I don't take it lightly.

And I always try to get a gauge of,

hey, where is the church at?

Like, not just this church,

but what's the church look like in Philadelphia

in the greater surrounding areas,

in Lansdale, in Bucks County,

whatever that looks like.

What does the church look like?

And really, when you say, like,

the church, you're talking about the people.

And so I try to get a gauge of

just the regional church in this area

to understand, okay, Lord,

what are you trying to say to us

through the scripture?

How can we understand this for ourselves?

What does this look like in our own lives?

And what do you want to speak?

And so praying through it

and diving into it,

we're going to dive into a lot.

But I want us to, to one,

let our guards down

for the Lord to speak to our hearts

and not get defensive.

Because I think sometimes

we can get defensive and think,

oh, well, you know, that's not me.

And we'll get defensive,

and we can very easily miss out

on what the Lord is trying to say to us

because we're defensive in the first place.

And we'll see that

in the scripture as well.

But then two,

hey, how do I respond to this?

Like, what does this look like

to actually take an outward response?

Because we'll dive into this

and I love that they actually hit on this.

But there is this thing going on

and I would say the national,

maybe even the worldwide church.

And it's this thing

that is taking place in the world

and it's called vicarious achievement.

And what happens is

because we watch something

or because we hear something,

we think that we've actually done it

and our brain doesn't know the difference.

And so we can sit in a church

and we can hear all of this knowledge.

It's the reason that we're obsessed

with content and podcasts

because we'll hear and see

all of these things

and we will actually think

that we've acted on it

even though we haven't.

And so my challenge would be,

how do we take the knowledge

in the revelation

that's going to take place

and not just settle for knowledge

and for itself,

but actually the obedience

to act on it in our own lives.

And so as we go through this,

those are my challenges.

What do we need to learn?

Don't get defensive,

but then how do we actually

put it into action?

Let's dive in.

Acts 51,

very first part of this scripture

and we're going to break it down

into three movements

that we'll work through.

But Acts 51,

he starts out with incredibly

direct, strong words.

He says, you stiff-necked people.

Went into modern ears.

That might sound harsh,

but really what he's doing,

he's not insulting them,

but he's actually going back

to an agricultural term

that is used for an ox

that refuses the yoke.

He's saying, hey,

this is a picture of people

that won't submit

to the master's direction.

He said, you stiff-necked people

with uncircumcised hearts.

What we'll see is not only

is this an agricultural term,

but it was used many times

throughout the Old Testament

of God speaking to Israel

saying that they were stiff-necked.

And he continues on,

he says, you are always resisting

the Holy Spirit

as your ancestors did.

You do also.

He's saying, hey,

you won't submit

to the master's direction.

You're doing exactly

what your ancestors did.

You say, hey,

God's people are doing

the exact same thing

over and over,

repeating history.

So when we hear this,

we have to understand

how important it is

as God's chosen people,

as believers in Jesus Christ

that we do not repeat history

because this is something

that happens over and over again.

He says, hey, you are uncircumcised

hearts and ears.

And what he's pointing out

is he's saying, hey,

you are outwardly Jewish

because you have gone

through the process of circumcision.

But what we are seeing

is that their hearts

remained unchanged.

And Jesus,

and what God is showing us

is that he never merely wanted

external religion,

but he wanted

internal transformation.

That as we approach this

and as we see this,

he's saying, hey,

the goal is not to be Jewish

on the outside.

It's that your heart

would be transformed.

And for us as Christians,

it's that we wouldn't be Christian

and just say we're Christian

and appear Christian

from the outside,

but nothing show

on the insides of our heart

that we have experienced

the transformation.

And we see that this is something

that God points out

throughout scripture.

We see it in Deuteronomy 10.

God calls his people

to circumcise their hearts,

showing that he desires

inward surrender,

not just outward religious identity.

See it in Jeremiah 4.

He warns that unless God's people

remove the hardness of their hearts,

his judgment will come

despite their religious heritage.

In Ezekiel 36,

God promises to remove

his people's heart of stone,

give them a new heart,

and put his spirit within them

so that they can truly

obey them.

What he is continually saying

is that hey,

your heart is way more important

than what you say

and what you do externally.

And I think it's so important

that we hear that

as the church today

because if we're not careful,

what will happen is

we will be a group of people

that say we are Christian,

but nothing in our hearts

actually point to it.

Yeah, yeah, I'm a Christian.

Yeah, yeah, I go to church on Sundays.

Yeah, yeah, I know the scriptures.

I know the knowledge.

Well, then why?

Why don't you forgive others?

And I think this is something

that we have to be extremely careful for

and I hear it all the time

because we get it in our church

and they're like,

well, we want deeper.

We want you to go

like really deep theologically,

like are you not going to speak

on this topic or this topic?

And it's like,

well, before we go deep,

when was the last time

you loved your neighbor?

When was the last time

that you actually

for yourself made a disciple?

When was the last time

that you served the poor?

Like we have to be careful

that we don't want deeper

because what will happen

is if we get consumed

with knowledge

and want more

and more knowledge

so that externally

we can say we know

all of these things

and say that we're Christian

but not act on it.

What will happen in this world

is we will become

what I like to call spiritually obese.

We will consume,

consume, consume,

but we will never actually

contribute to society

in the way that the Lord

has asked us to contribute.

And that's exactly

what Stephen is calling out.

He's pointing back.

He's gone through their heritage.

He's saying, hey,

hey, your ancestors

and he makes three accusations.

He says, one,

you've resisted the Holy Spirit.

He says, you are always

resisting the Holy Spirit.

Notice he's not saying

occasionally he's saying

you have always resisted it.

The Holy Spirit

had spoken through Moses,

had spoken through the prophets,

through John the Baptist,

through Jesus,

now through the apostles

and yet they continue

to resist it over

and over and over again.

And Stephen points this out.

He's saying, hey,

you've always resisted

the Holy Spirit.

And then he says,

his second accusation,

he says, you have persecuted

God's messengers.

He asked the question,

which of the prophets

did your ancestors not persecute?

And we see every prophet

pointing towards Christ

suffered rejection

and was persecuted.

And he just continues

to point back to history

repeating itself.

And then he says,

and you murdered

the righteous one.

Said they even killed

those who foretold

the coming righteous one

whose betrayers

and murderers

you have now become.

You received the law

under the direction of angels

and yet you have not kept it.

That we see

throughout scripture

the title,

the promise messiah is coming.

And this is what

these people are supposed

to be looking for.

And instead of

worshiping him,

instead of surrendering to him,

they killed him.

And he points this out

and he makes it very clear to us

that religion

cannot save a resistant heart.

That these people's hearts

are so resistant,

one to the Holy Spirit,

two to the word of God,

and three to the people of God.

But it also makes it very clear

that knowledge cannot replace obedience.

And I think that that,

I would say if we did a research study

on the American church

would be one of the things

we have all of the knowledge.

We know so much in the church.

I don't think there's a shortage of it.

Like I work with primarily young adults

ages 18 to 35 years old.

And most of them know the scripture.

They have the knowledge.

But if you ask them,

hey, what has held you up

in your walk with faith?

Is it, oh, I've seen people

that know the Lord

that don't actually act like him.

I've seen people

that can repeat scripture

over and over.

I've been a part of churches

that know the gospel,

that they have great knowledge,

but they don't actually

act like Christ.

And it holds up a lot of young adults

from even coming to know the Lord

or wanting to be a part

of the body of Christ

because they're like,

hey, why would I want to be

a part of the body

that's not moving?

Why would I want to be

a part of a body

that just wants to consume,

consume, consume

and never contribute?

We have a purpose driven generation.

We have a purpose driven.

They want to be a part

of a purpose.

And we as the church

should have the greatest purpose

on this side of heaven

to let them,

to bring them in

and to be a part of.

But they're saying,

no, no, you guys talk about purpose,

but you never act on it.

And it's the exact same thing

that Stephen is pointing out.

He's saying, hey,

your knowledge cannot

replace obedience.

That there is orthodoxy,

which is right knowledge,

right knowing,

knowing the word of God,

coming to know

the right theology behind it.

And a lot of times

we get so obsessed with orthodoxy

that we forget about

the call to orthopraxy,

which is the right practices,

actually walking it out

in our day to day lives.

And what he's pointing out to us,

and this will challenge

I think a lot of thinking

is that we think,

I think sometimes

that the greatest danger

is ignorance.

I can't believe

people would think that.

I can't believe

people would act like that.

They would do that.

They would live a lifestyle

that way.

Right?

I hear it all the time.

By that group of individuals,

I can't believe them.

Stephen is pointing out

that the greatest danger

is not ignorance.

They don't even know

the gospel yet.

They haven't even heard it.

The greatest danger

is hearing God's voice repeatedly

and refusing to respond.

To it.

Throughout scripture,

it talks about,

hey, you will be held accountable

for what you know.

We want to act like,

hey, let's hold these people accountable.

This group of individuals,

the unbelievers

that don't even know

the gospel accountable.

Yet we're not even

holding ourselves accountable

and we have all the knowledge

in the world

about the word.

And so I would say

that that is something

that we need to be careful

about.

Because Stephen makes it very clear

the greatest danger

is not ignorance.

The greatest danger

is hearing God's voice

and not responding to it.

And Stephen in this scripture,

he's not trying to win an argument.

There's not really

an argument to be had.

He's saying,

hey, here's the truth.

You need to repent.

Because truth without application

is incomplete.

I think that's a tough pill

to swallow

because we know the truth.

We love talking about the truth.

We love pointing to the truth,

but truth without application

is incomplete.

And what we see

is that the truth divides.

Some people receive it

and others reject it.

And we can see that

because it continues on.

It says in verse 54,

when they heard these things,

they were enraged

and gnashed their teeth at him.

They were enraged,

which literally means

that they were cut to the heart,

which is the exact verbiage

that points back to Acts 2.

And we see in this

that they were enraged

and they were cut to the heart.

And in this,

they choose anger

and they get mad

and they end up what we've already seen

and we'll continue on.

They end up killing him.

But in Acts 2,

they have the exact same response

that they were cut to the heart.

But instead of anger,

they actually chose repentance.

And people came to know the Lord

and the difference wasn't the message.

The difference was the condition

of the heart when they heard it.

So when we start this off

and we say,

hey, hey, I want you

to prepare your heart to hear it.

It's intentional

because the scripture is very clear.

Hey, there is the same message

being preached in Acts 2 and Acts 7.

The only difference is

there was a group of people

that their condition

of their heart was prepared

and the others,

the condition of their heart was hardened.

There was a group

that had a soft heart

to receive the gospel

and there was a group

that had a hard heart to reject it.

And so it's so important

that we come into a place like this

and condition our heart

to be soft to receive

because what can very easily happen

on a Sunday like this

or a Sunday when Christ preaches

no matter who it is,

you can come in with a hard heart

and completely miss

what Jesus is trying to tell you

because you were not

in the right place to receive it.

And so we must prepare our hearts

and we see that this group,

they get mad and it says,

in verse 55,

Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit,

gazed into heaven

and he saw the glory of God.

And Jesus standing

at the right hand of God.

He said, look,

I see the heavens opened

in the Son of Man

standing at the right hand of God.

And instead of looking at the angry faces

of the people around him,

he looks up,

filled with the Holy Spirit.

And I think Luke,

as he's writing this,

wants to intentionally remind us

of where Stephen's strength comes from.

It's not from his personality.

It's not from courage.

It's simply from the Holy Spirit.

And it says, he gazed into heaven

and everything changed.

Everything changes

with what you have your eyes set on.

The crowd was below

and Jesus was above

and he looks up and says,

Jesus was standing

at the right hand of God.

Stephen sees Jesus standing

and it's a lot of times

when we see Jesus

at the right hand of God,

we see him seated.

And so we ask the question,

why is he standing?

And theologians will debate this,

but a lot of scholars suggest

that Jesus stands

to welcome his faithful servant.

Some believe that he's standing

as Stephen is advocate

before the Father.

But either way,

what we see is that Stephen knows

that he is not alone.

He sets his eyes on his father.

Everything else fades.

The distractions fade.

It's important to understand

what you set your eyes on

will determine the way

that you respond to situations.

My son Kingston,

if he looks around the pool too much,

he'll be scared.

Because the water is deep.

There's toys in there.

There's bugs sometimes.

But the way that I get him to jump

is by getting him to lock eyes

with me and ignore the rest

of the things around him.

When you lock eyes

with the Father

and you know that he's there

with you,

everything changes.

Your circumstances

that seem unmanageable

are soon manageable

because when you set your eyes

on Christ,

he becomes magnificent

and everything else fades.

Locks eyes with Jesus

filled with the Spirit

and he looks up.

We have to understand this

that fear grows

when Jesus becomes small.

Faith grows

when Jesus becomes glorious.

We see it throughout scripture.

We see it when Peter

walks on water.

When he was locked eyes

with Jesus,

everything was fine.

But when he looked around

and noticed the waves

in the wind,

where your eyes rest,

your heart will follow.

What are you constantly looking at?

I can tell a lot of times

what people are constantly

looking at

based on what they're scared of.

You're scared of what's

going on in the world.

You're probably looking

at the world more

than you're looking at Jesus.

You're scared of what's going

on in your city.

You're probably looking

at your city more

than you're looking at Jesus.

You're scared of what's

going on in your kids' lives.

You're probably looking

at your kids' lives

more than you're looking

at Jesus.

Charles Spurgeon has this quote

that I love.

He says,

little faith will take

your soul to heaven.

But great faith will

bring heaven to your soul.

And I think it's

a phenomenal reminder

in a world that is full of,

like, I don't know

if you know this.

We have a pastor friend of mine

that he is outside

of Washington, D.C.,

and he was a journalist

for 15 years

before he became a pastor.

Like, was one of the top journalists.

His name is Jonathan Moynihan.

He is one of my favorite communicators,

but we are sitting down

at dinner and we're like,

hey, what's one of the things

that you like,

that people don't realize

about the news?

He's like, I mean, he's like,

I think people realize it,

but I don't think

they really realize

how deep it goes.

That the news makes money

off of your fear.

Like, that is how they set,

like, that is how

they capture attention

is by your fear.

And so if you're scared

of the world,

stop looking at the world.

Stop watching the news.

Look at Jesus.

Read your Bible

more than you read the news.

Looking at Jesus

transforms your life.

But not only are we to look like,

or to look to Jesus,

but we are to become like Jesus

and we see Stephen

do exactly this.

So they yelled at the top

of their voices,

covered their ears,

and together,

they rushed against him.

They dragged him

out of the city

and began to stone him.

And the witnesses laid their

garments at the feet

of a young man named Saul,

which becomes Paul.

And you guys will dive

into that.

And it's going to be amazing.

So I'm not going to touch on it.

It says,

while they were stoning Stephen,

he called out,

Lord Jesus,

receive my spirit.

He knelt down

and cried out with a loud voice,

Lord,

do not hold this sin against them.

And after saying this,

he fell asleep.

The crowd rushes him,

no trial,

no defense,

no appeal.

They dragged him out of the city.

They stoned him.

But he died looking like Jesus,

with forgiveness in his heart.

And the way that he responds,

you never know how big

of an impact your response

to situations might have.

Because I believe

that this situation

was a massive seed planted

in Saul's life.

The church's greatest persecutor,

who would end up becoming

the greatest missionary.

I imagine that this had to be

a seed that was planted.

Because he saw somebody

that knew Jesus,

believed in Jesus,

and acted like Jesus.

And that's what I'm going to say.

I think it's a lot of times

we'll ask the question,

how do you respond

when persecution comes?

And if we're being honest,

most of us,

and I would have,

I would,

I'm not like a betting man,

but I would bet 99,

maybe 100% of us

will never experience

that level of persecution,

to where you're stoned.

If that happens,

God help us.

But we'll look at a story

like this and be like,

man, wow,

the way that he responds

when persecuted.

It's like, yeah, yeah.

What about the way

that you respond

just on the daily?

Like, what's the greatest level

of persecution that we face

in Western civilization?

Somebody disagreeing

with us on Facebook?

Yeah, probably.

Maybe your employer,

not being happy about you

spreading the gospel

in the workplace, maybe.

And we look up to people

like Stephen,

he responds while being stoned

with literally repeating

almost the exact same things

that Jesus repeated

on the cross.

We're like, wow,

I want to be like that

when I'm persecuted.

You don't even act

like Christ on Facebook.

You don't even act like Christ

when your neighbor

doesn't like you.

There's like this old saying

when you squeeze an orange,

what comes out?

Like juice from an orange.

But when you squeeze a Christian,

what comes out?

Most of the time,

not Christ-likeness.

But what would happen

if that were the case?

Like Stephen is a perfect example.

Stephen, when persecuted,

when crushed,

what comes out of him?

The words of Jesus.

Why?

Because he didn't just have

the knowledge of Jesus,

but he had the obedience

and acted and became like Christ.

And it's a call

that we all have as Christians.

The word Christian

literally means a little Christ.

So would the word of God,

not just be something

that we settle for knowledge,

but would it be something

that transforms our hearts

from the inside out?

Instead of saying,

hey, we want to see people

act like Christ.

What if we said,

well, we want to see

people's hearts change first.

Because I think sometimes

we as the church

can create people

to almost be like,

well, hey,

you got to start acting like it.

But it's like, no, no,

we need revelation.

We need transformation.

Let the heart change.

Let somebody change

from the inside out.

When somebody changes

from the inside out,

what happens when they're crushed?

They look like Stephen,

which what did

Stephen look like?

He looked like Jesus.

We see Stephen says,

he knelt down.

He cried out with a loud voice.

Lord, do not hold

this sin against them.

So close to Jesus'

words on the cross.

Of Lord, forgive them.

For they know

not what they do.

Stephen's death points

to something far greater

than Stephen.

And it's Jesus.

Stephen's death points

to the death

that changed humanity.

And he forgives them.

But it's the death of Jesus.

Stephen forgiving these people

is one thing.

It's amazing.

But the forgiveness

that was brought

by Jesus on the cross

changes eternity.

When you've experienced

that level of forgiveness

for your sin,

for every wrong

that you've done

or doing will do.

And you fully understand it.

It makes it that much easier

to express it.

But if you never have fully

understood the forgiveness

of Jesus dying

on the cross for you,

it is going to be extremely hard

for you to forgive others.

And if you have trouble

forgiving others,

then I would also

challenge you.

Try to understand even more

the forgiveness

that was given to you.

Forgiveness

isn't easy.

But I think sometimes

a lot of us

will carry around unforgiveness

and make an excuse

for why it's okay.

And I would say

that that is probably

a very likely picture

to the religious people

that miss the whole point.

If you can't forgive,

you don't understand it.

And so I want to ask

three questions

and then we're going

to take communion.

And so I'll invite

whoever's doing communion

can come,

start passing it out

and I'll ask these questions.

First question

is am I resisting

the Holy Spirit?

Have I substituted

religion for surrender?

Second question.

Is where are my eyes?

What am I paying attention to?

Are my eyes on the problem?

On the world?

On my fears?

On my enemies?

What are you looking at?

And then the third question

is who do I need to forgive?

Who in my life

do I still hold bitterness towards?

Because the clearest evidence

that you've experienced grace

is that you can extend grace

to somebody else.

When your eyes are fixed

on Jesus,

you can stand for truth

and endure suffering

and extend grace

because Christ is greater

than anything the world

can take from you.

And Stephen is a perfect picture

of that in this story.

A man that experienced

a death that he didn't deserve

and still had grace

and forgiveness in his heart.

But why was Stephen able

to do that?

Because he didn't settle

for knowledge of Jesus Christ,

which makes us smarter,

but he settled for revelation

of Jesus Christ,

which made him more like Jesus.

The man who ultimately suffered

the death that he didn't deserve,

innocent, blameless,

yet went to the cross

and shed his blood

on behalf of you

and me.

I don't think Jesus shed his blood

on the cross

so that we could become smarter.

I don't think he shed his blood

on the cross

so that we could gather

in a church like this

and consume knowledge

every week.

And then leave feeling

like we've accomplished

something simply

because we heard about

what he did on the cross for us.

Jesus died on the cross

so that we could have new life.

But the dead is the old

is dead and gone

and the new is here.

And so that we could walk

in obedience

to what he called

and so that we could be

contributors to society

that will point

to who Jesus is.

And Jesus commands us in scripture

and I don't know if we had the,

oh, thank you.

If you have the elements

commands us in scripture

to take communion

and remembrance of him.

To not do it lightly.

So if you're not a believer in here

and you haven't professed

your faith in Jesus Christ,

we are so glad that you are here.

But taking communion

would mean absolutely nothing to you.

So we would ask

that you wouldn't do it.

But if you are a believer

and you professed your faith

in Jesus Christ,

would we take communion

in remembrance of his body

broken on the cross

and so if you have your bread,

would we take this together

in remembrance of his body

broken on the cross

for you and me.

Then he had wine.

And he told his disciples

to do this in remembrance

of his blood that was shed

to cover our sin.

So before we just take the blood,

would we do it in remembrance

of him covering our own sin

what is the sin in your life

this blood is covering.

We take the blood.

Lord, would you speak to us?

Lord, would you move in this place?

Would you move in our hearts?

Would you move in our minds?

Would your Holy Spirit overflow in this place?

Now we thank you for your son, his life.

Would we never take it for granted

and would we never settle

purely for knowledge

of what he did, Lord?

But would we have revelation

of who he is?

Lord, change our hearts.

Pray this in Jesus' name.

Thanks for joining us

at Lansdale Life Church

as we praise God

and discuss his word.

Don't forget to join us

for worship live Sunday mornings

at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.

Be blessed and have a great day.