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.
All right, so you guys ready to open up the word?
We're going to be looking at Hebrews chapter seven, just a few verses,
and then we're going to have communion. So it's going to be a great morning, continue to be so.
And today, as we look at that title, I know I must have used it at least two or three previous times.
It's just so simple and to the point, but blessed by the best. We're singing songs about
being blessed as well. And I believe that, well, let's pray. I believe that we should pray.
Father God, we ask you Lord, to use your word, to do a mighty work in each one of our hearts.
And to Lord, we want to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so we can prove the good,
acceptable and perfect will of you. And so we thank you Lord, speak to us through your word
in Jesus name. Amen. So blessed by the best, we truly are, you know, we're all blessed. And many
times, I think sometimes we, unless we realize we're blessed, okay, we could become people who
aren't a blessing to others. In other words, if you ever notice, if you feel like you're owed
and you're a victim and God's holding out on you, where you just don't get your right
miserly, you can become stingy, okay, with your time, with your love towards others,
because you're owed so much, you don't want to give anything to anybody else. You know,
if you've ever even been there, I think I've been there at least a couple of times where I just
felt like I was wronged so I can't extend grace to someone else. And yet if we realize how blessed
we are, I think it would just free up our generosity towards others in all of the capacities we can be
generous. And also, it doesn't keep us like shackled with insecurity, with victimhood, with
fear. There's so many things that when we feel that we aren't blessed, we hold back from others,
we hold back our lives from God. Did you ever notice? And so today's message really speaks to this
because we're going to see a time that Abraham was blessed and we don't even know if he even knew
who this guy Melchizedek was. So I'm going to tell you the brief story and then we'll dive in.
So if you can recall, Abraham was sent to Canaan by God and he brought with him others as well
as his nephew Lot. And over time, they both became extremely wealthy. I mean so wealthy that
the land couldn't support both of their herds. The herdsmen were getting in arguments and so forth
and there started to become a division between Lot's camp and Abraham's camp. And so finally,
Abraham wisely said, look, we're family, we can't have this division. We need to just
give ourselves some space apart. Why don't you choose the land you want and I'll choose the other.
I mean, that's how generous Abraham was because he realized he was blessed. He said, you choose the
land for yourself. And so Lot looked upon the valley of what's known as the Dead Sea now.
And as he looked down, it was lush. It was a land that looked like the Garden of Eden.
You know, it was just lush with greenery and everything. Now you go there today and you
like, it was what? Because it's actually the lowest part on earth below sea level.
And it continues to cave in. It's amazing. It's a salty, dry, dead zone just between Israel and
Jordan. And it's like, it's just, there's nothing that grows there. And it's just barren. It's
beautiful. It's surreal. If you've ever been there, it's so cool. Should have had a picture
to show you, but, but still there's nothing living there, right? Well, back then it was lush.
It was a, it was just a forest and it was fields and, and Lot's like, I want to go there.
So he went there and then over time Lot got drawn more and more into Sodom and Gomorrah.
You've heard that word. Even if you never read the Bible, you know what Sodom and Gomorrah is.
It was a very sinful city and area and they were sinning against God, the word says. So in
the Lord knew who they were. And yet Lot found his himself making a life there. And as you see,
his life gets more and more drawn into the town and he became part of the culture of Sodom
and Gomorrah. And so over time, Sodom and Gomorrah at the time, they were allies with
three other Kings. So those five Kings and they, you, and they were required to pay tribute
to this man named Keterlomer, Keterliomer, which was another King. And they were paying tribute
because they were afraid of him. And finally, after 12 years, okay, they finally rebelled and
said, we're not going to pay him anything else. That's it. There's five of us. There's four of
them, no more, right? And so with that Keterliomer came down and attacked them and he took all their
stuff and many of their people away. Okay. So meanwhile, Abraham is back at the trees of Terribith
hanging out in his land, which isn't, which isn't filled with sin and he's there. And someone
comes to him and says, you know, the land was attacked. And by the way, your nephew was taken.
So with that, Abraham mustered up a lot of courage and he took 318 of his trained men,
these soldiers that were trained for battle. And they went down and they chased after these
four Kings and they, and they won the battle. It doesn't say about how much happened,
but they slaughtered many people of these four Kings armies. And with that, he rescued
Lot and his wife and also all of their stuff. And he brought it all back. And this is where we're
picking up right here, because as lot with 318 men, and maybe there was a few others of
some of his allies, but there wasn't many. And he just defeated four Kings who were wreaking havoc
over all these other areas over the Amorites and those five Kings. I mean, they were powerful.
And here with just a little army, Abraham destroys them and returns all the stuff. He probably took
extra plunder, right? And so here he is coming back from this battle. And as he's approaching
Sodom and Gomorrah, the King of Sodom is coming out to meet him, okay? Now, in the meantime,
this guy just drops in on the scene named Melchizedek, okay? And he comes in and it says
that he's a priest and a king. And he shows up and this is just before Adam comes upon
the King of Sodom. Adam, I said, Abraham. And suddenly Melchizedek comes and we're gonna read
in Genesis chapter 14, then Melchizedek, King of Salem brought out bread and wine. Yeah,
if you could keep that one, bread and wine. He was the priest of God, Mosiah. And he blessed him.
He blessed him, meaning he blessed Abraham and said, blessed be Abram, which his name was then,
of God, Mosiah, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God, Mosiah, who has delivered
your enemies into your hand. And he, meaning Abraham, gave him, meaning Melchizedek, a tithe
of all, a tenth of all. So Melchizedek blessed him and Abraham was so overwhelmed with gratitude
that he gave him a tenth. You know what the interesting part of that right there,
those couple of verses, this is the first time you actually see bread and wine together, okay?
It's the first communion, in a sense. And we're about to learn how Melchizedek really is a picture
of Christ, maybe even a pre-incarnate, you know, a Christophany of Christ. But here is the first,
in a sense, communion, pre-Jesus Christ. But it's also the first tithe, the first tenth.
And this became a thing throughout Israel's history, is the tenth, the tithe. But notice that first,
Melchizedek blesses Abraham. That's when suddenly something was released in Abraham
to give him a tenth, to let go, right? And also, he was reminded that you didn't just win that
battle, God won it for you. You know, I think sometimes in life, we just think it's me,
you know, I'm so good at my job, that's why I keep getting promoted. That's why I keep on
getting raises. That's why everyone just loves me, because it's me, right? When we don't realize,
no, that's God's favor, you know? We're praying for God's favor on Ezra, not for him to have
to work for favor, but to God to pour his favor and grace upon him, that everywhere he goes,
the doors just swing open, okay? And everywhere he goes, the laying gives him the ground beneath
the soles of his feet. That's what we want. We don't want to have to be good, we want to be
graced by God, right? And so he told him and he warned him, you didn't win that battle,
the Lord won your battle, right? So it's interesting, because as he leaves Melchizedek
and he comes to King of Sodom, we're going to see the next couple of verses.
Now the King of Sodom said to Abram, give me the persons and take the goods for yourself.
But Abram said to the King of Sodom, I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High,
the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will take nothing from a thread to a sandal strap,
and that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, I have made Abram rich.
So you see this? Melchizedek had to tell Abram, you didn't win those battles.
That isn't your stuff. I'm the one who provided all that. And with that, Abraham was able to be
released from the seduction, the evil ways of King of Sodom, because who knows what
might've happened, you never know. He might've gone to King of Sodom and King of Sodom said,
man, you're warriors, I'm giving you a position, something a lot always wanted,
but I'm giving you, you don't know, he could have been so celebrated and become like a king
within a kingdom, right? But the Lord intervened to protect Abraham, thinking that it was him
who did it, him who won. And I think that's a reminder to all of us when we get so filled
with ourselves and our own accomplishments and the things that we've done, we have to realize,
no, no, it's the Lord who's done it in my life. It's the Lord who has blessed me with it.
Because if I have that attitude, I can let go of it just as easy, right?
I can give it to others. I can give it back to the Lord. I can let go,
because possessions don't possess me, right? And it's also interesting how Sodom,
it's almost like Satan himself, give me the people, you take the stuff, you know?
I mean, the devil is still wreaking havoc on humanity. Like you can have so much stuff if
you just release your children to me, you know? So many parents have their priorities off track
on getting wealthy or on other things, having no offense against two incomes or anything else,
but it becomes a rat race of having more and more and more at the expense of those living
in your household. It's just something to consider. So we have to realize that, hey,
the Lord wants us to be aware of the enemy's tactics. And so now Abraham was fully aware,
no, no, no, no, no. You aren't giving me anything. The Lord gives me everything that I need,
according to his riches and glory, right? So let's dive into Hebrews
chapter seven. And we'll just read right through those 10 verses.
For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God,
who met Abram returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him to whom also Abraham gave
a 10th part of all, first being translated king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem,
this is Melchizedek, being king of peace, without father, without mother, without genealogy,
having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the son of God,
remains a priest continually. You know, we should just stop there for a second.
So, you know, some believe that this is a Christophany. Did you ever hear what that is?
It's like a pre-incarnate Christ. And the Lord did show up to people in that way that it would
be difficult not to say, yeah, that was pre-incarnate Christ. One is Hagar, when he met with Hagar,
who was running from Sarai because she was mistreating her because she was pregnant with
Ishmael. And she was by the well and the Lord actually met her and spoke this angel of the
Lord spoke not on behalf of God, but as God, and said things to her and promises that encourage
her to go back to her master and endure for several more years, right? And another time was
Jacob. Remember when he was on his way back to Canaan from living with his four wives and 12
children and 12 sons and one daughter actually, and he was leaving Laban and he was about to meet
Esau and remember he wrestled with God and God renamed him right there, Israel, right?
And he even said, well, I just wrestled with God and didn't prevail, survived. Okay.
And so the Lord gave him a new name there. That was God. And, you know, Jesus is the image of
the invisible God. So it would not be God, the father coming down in flesh form or even in
angelic form. It would be Jesus Christ, the word of God. And then Joshua, when he was just before
they fought with Jericho and this man came forward and Joshua said, are you with us or
against us? And he said, neither I'm the commander of the Lord's army. Are you with me? He didn't
say this, but it's in other words, I don't serve you. You serve me, right? And so that was another
example. And then Gideon, when he was threshing wheat in the wine press and the Lord came to him
and said, you mighty man of valor. And Gideon spoke to him as if he was speaking to God.
And so you see these different aspects. There's all the theographies, which are where God speaks
to people from heaven and so forth. But these are the times and you usually see that it would be
Christ because first of all, this person or image or character claims divinity, divine authority.
The next thing is they allow worship. In other words, Joshua fell down on his face before the
commander and worshiped him. Now, if that was a normal angel, he would have said, no, no, no,
get up, get up, get up. You know, you don't bow before me. I'm just a messenger, right?
But he did accept worship. And then again, finally speaks as God as opposed to on behalf of God.
You know, so anyway, so this Melchizedek, no beginning and no end. And you know, it's weird.
Someday we're going to get up there and say, so, so was that you Jesus or wasn't it, you know,
or was it just a type? Well, we don't know, but no beginning, no end. Now, there's many
who did not many. There's two that did not have an end. Remember Enoch walked with God and then
he was no more cause God took him and Elijah was taken up in the chariot of fire. Okay.
Some say those are the two witnesses that show up in revelation 11 someday breathing out fire.
That must, that would be cool to watch. But anyway, against all the bad people, right?
They're like fire breathing dragons, but only two men. But anyway, so these are,
they didn't have an end, but they had a beginning. They have parents, but Melchizedek
had neither. So we'll talk more about him in the coming weeks,
because Jesus is a high priest in the order of, of Melchizedek. And so let's read on.
We'll finish up verse four. Now consider how great this man was to whom even the
patriarch Abraham gave a 10th of his spoils. And indeed, those who are of the sons of Levi,
who received the priesthood have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the
law. That is from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham,
but he whose genealogy is not derived from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him
who had the promises. Now, verse seven, now beyond all contradiction, the lesser is blessed by the
better. So when we say we bless you, Lord, we're merely saying we acknowledge that you have blessed
us. And we want to express our thankfulness and our blessing because we are so blessed,
but we can't give anything to God that he hasn't already given to us, right?
And verse eight here, mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them of whom it is
a witness that he lives. Even Levi who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak,
for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. And actually, this
history really of tithing continued again to the Levites. All the Israelites would pay a 10th
to the Levites, but then the Levites would actually turn around and give a 10th of what
was given to them to the Lord as well. So it's just passing it on. Now, we are according to
grace. So do we have to live according to the 10% rule? No, we have to live according to the
100% rule. That hurts, doesn't it? Right, Jim? You love that. Your bank account must be empty.
You ever notice the less we have, yeah, they should be given at all. Uh-oh, I got some.
But we could be, again, sometimes the more we have, the less we're willing to,
here, Lord, take it. You can have it. Well, you can have some all, Lord. We don't necessarily want
to give it all, right? But sometimes we realize that we're under grace. That means we can just
give more and more of everything. It's not just money in those little blue boxes.
Oh, by the way, it was funny. I was talking to someone the other day, and they said,
you know, so listen, I want to start tithing. How do you tithe? Like, where do you give it,
right? And I'm like, well, now we do a very poor job, I'll just say, in this church,
promoting tithing. And it's kind of a thing, because Calvary chapels aren't about asking for
money. I don't know if you ever noticed that. You know, because we believe it's the Lord who
brings the increase, the Lord provides. When you start guilting people, manipulating them for money,
it's not how the Lord works, you know? He really doesn't want to, like, squeeze you.
In fact, I don't know about you, but I've been at, in situations, conferences, this and that.
And I'm sitting there, and all of a sudden I go, oh no, here we go, the plug. And they come up,
and it's like a sermonette before the sermon. And they start off like, no, no, I paid a lot of money
to be here. I'm not going to give it. I mean, I paid to be here. No, I'm not going to, like,
you know, I give it my church. You know, I'm good. I'm good. By the 30th minute, I'm like,
writing out a check, getting out a checkbook, or I'm getting my credit card, because they just
wear you down. Okay? And I don't know about you, or that's your experience, but like,
you know, that's not what we want to do here at Calvary Chapel, that's for sure, because we believe
that the Lord provides. So Calvary Chapel, and especially us, we're very poor at telling people
even how to give. And we're not going to tell you right now either. You'll have to figure out where
those blue boxes are, or how to pay on PayPal and so forth, because this is not what this
message is about. It's really about having a soul that's ready to just release. You know,
in fact, the word says, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth does not eat,
rust does not decay, right? And thieves don't break in and steal. You know, that's the kind
of treasures you want, residual treasure that goes on and on and on. And you can't buy that kind of
joy with anything anyway, right? In fact, Jesus said to his disciples, anything you give up,
okay, I will repay you a hundredfold, okay? And you know what he means, you know, maybe he will
give you more in this earth, but what he means is more treasure in heaven that you could ever have
purchased down here on earth, because you can't, right? So that's the idea. And so,
so here's this Melchizedek, and you know, he's a priest, and he's a king. Now,
that was not permitted by God. So Melchizedek is definitely a picture of Christ,
because as we've been learning, who's our high priest, right? Jesus Christ, who's the King of
Kings and Lord of Lords? He is King and he is the priest, right? Those pictures of Aaron and all the
Levites, they're all picture of Christ, and so was the King. But in a human, they cannot be brought
together, because there's dangers is in having religious authority, as well as governance
authority, because eventually a king can become prideful, and all of them to one degree did,
all of them, you know, you know, to some level, maybe you could make an exception to Josiah and
a couple others, but most of them caved into the weight of pride, ego, rulership, power,
you know? So this was not permitted by God, because of those things, right? And yet,
in fact, there was one King Josiah, we don't have any slides or anything for it, but King Josiah
was a very good king, and the Lord gave him so much victory over their enemies, and he was just like
so grateful in the early beginning, just like Solomon was. But over time, Josiah became more
and more about, look what I've done, look at this, look at my kingdom, right? And he became
so overwhelmed by his own arrogance that he went into the temple one time to actually offer up
sacrifices to the Lord as the priests would, thinking that, look, if I could be king, I can
do whatever I want, I can also be a priest, right? And so there he was about to offer sacrifices,
and all the priests poured into the temple to stop him for his own good, and they're like,
no, no, no, King, do not do this awful thing. And as he was about to do this, he got so mad at them,
and he started to swear at them, and as he pointed to them, and told them to stop and to cast them
out of the temple, leprosy just started breaking out on his forehead. You can read this in
Second Chronicles, and eventually he died of leprosy, he just stayed a leper the rest of his
life. And so this is how strongly the Lord says, no, no, you can't be king, and you can't be a priest,
and yet Melchizedek was. But you know what's so cool is we are called in Revelation,
kings and priests. In fact, Revelation 1, 6, and 5, 10, and he has made us kings and priests
to his God and father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen. The Lord
can do that with us, and in a sense, now are you gonna be a ruler over some nation? No,
but you have dominion in this world. Do you realize that? In the spiritual realm,
and thereby very often in the material realm, you have Lordship and kingship over the spiritual
demonic realm, because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.
Where you go, the enemy cannot have you. You have a repellent spirit around you,
and he protects you, and he empowers you to go and do all the things he wants you to go and do.
He empowers you to do it. So in that sense, we have kingship in this world,
but we're merely tetrarchs. We're only mini-kings of the king. We're only stewarding his kingdom.
That's all we're doing. He is the emperor. We are the mini-kings stewarding his empire, right? That's
our role, but we're also priests in that we intercede on behalf of God to others. So we're
that intercessor. We're mediators on behalf of the Lord. He, again, is the high priest,
the chief mediator. Does that make sense? And so as the worship team comes forward,
we're going to have communion together. And, you know, as I was thinking about this, how
Abraham had a had a generous heart towards God, right? Because he was reminded how blessed he was,
right? If you know how blessed you are, you're so much more generous to others because there's
plenty more where that came from, you know? You know, that's what the Lord does when he
blesses you. You always have more than enough. And I have experienced that. I've experienced that.
I've gone through drought times, times where it was getting a bit scary financially. And I realize,
you know, I can make do, I can get through this. Like you always think you need more than you
than you have. Or you always think you need what you do have. And then you realize when you go
through times of less, lesser, you know, just like Paul said, you know, I've been, I've abounded
and I've been abated. In other words, I've had a lot and I've had a little, I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me, right? When you realize how I blessed, you really are,
it's so much easier to be releasing. And so the Lord spoke to Israel through Malachi one time,
and as he spoke to them, you know, the Israelites realized that they were
they were not, they weren't sensing God's blessing in their lives. They're noticing that
they're in turmoil, they're in conflict with one another. And the things that could take for
granted before from God all of a sudden seem in jeopardy. And this is also, of course,
when other nations are always ominously approaching their border. And so they were pretty fearful.
And so the Lord spoke to them through Malachi. And we read Malachi three, eight and nine.
And these aren't usually the verses that we read when it's time to tithe.
Okay. And he says, will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me.
But you say, in what way have I robbed you? And the Lord says to Malachi, in tithes and offerings.
Oh no, can you keep that one verse before that, Tammy? You are cursed with a curse,
for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. So this is our serious rebuke.
Now, again, this is not a rebuke to anyone here like you haven't been giving to the church,
but really do an accounting of your life and your lifestyle. Because I promise you,
if some things are preoccupying your finances that are not necessary for the kingdom of God,
it's time to just release them. You know, there's so many things that like,
when you release things that are possessing you, in a sense, how more restful you can be
in what the Lord is providing, you'll find that you don't have to buy many things
because the Lord's given them to you. I'll never forget we were in youth pastors, you know,
and we had youth group always at our house and was tons of kids. And it was through a tough
time financially for us. And I started saying, you know, we should buy a pool table for the
kids down there, you know, and I was looking on Facebook marketplace and this and that,
and I'll never forget Jesse said, dad, like, aren't you tight with money? I'm like, yeah,
he was, well, why are you going to buy a pool table? And I'm like, nothing like being
rebuked by your son, right? And I said, you're right. That's pretty stupid, right? And so next
time in youth group, we're in the small groups and the kids are like, so when you get in the
pool table? And I'm like, well, let's pray for a free pool table. Okay, because it's not in
the budget right now. So we did pray. And wouldn't you know, it was within a week,
within a week, and you're like, you're kidding me. A realtor called me and said, do you know anyone
that would hold on to a pool table? Like, are you kidding me? Like, yes, right here, right?
And we went down and we got it was down in South Philly. It wasn't easy to get it was in this
basement of a row house. And, but it was brand new. They were moving, they just had to get rid
of it, you know? And so cost a couple hundred to move, you know, if you don't want to break
the pool table, if you know anything, but, but it was brand spanking new. It was beautiful.
The ones I was looking at were two, three times as much. They were used also much more beat up.
And I'd still have to spend a couple hundred bucks to get that moved. If it's going to be
right when it gets where it's going, right? So the Lord just, but he's done that so
many, I would bore you with the rest of the morning. How many times
when I just gave it up to the Lord, I don't need that. Suddenly there it is like, well,
like free, you know, that's what happens. You know, even this building, we just,
we're searching for buildings all over the place. All right, here's what we're going to do.
We're going to, we're going to find a house that we could do ministry. Okay.
Probably to spend four or 500,000 for that thing in this town, right? This was about
eight years ago, seven years ago, six years ago, somewhere in there when we were really
talking seriously, but we'll keep renting the catering hall or wherever Christopher dock.
And, you know, because at least we have a big venue, but we can't afford like a church, right?
And we don't want to go into debt, you know? And so as we're praying and praying and praying and
praying, suddenly we get a phone call. Like, you know, yeah, this church is closing down.
You know, we purchased this whole, I call it a compound for the price of a house.
The whole thing well under, well, under 500 grand and we've rehab it. No debt debt free.
You know, praise the Lord, right? Because once you just say, Lord, I'm not going to go into debt.
I'm not going to, we're not going to like burden ourselves just to have what we think we deserve.
Lord, we're giving that to you. You're going to find it for us. We're just releasing that
that what we think is a need and a desire. And he will provide it for us. He will do it.
And we're evident to this. But you know, one, one warning is a lot of times we can say,
because I've heard this, somebody says, well, yeah, I was going to give it to the church.
But somebody told me, oh, they don't even have a debt on the building. They don't need it.
Well, how did we get this building for cash? It's, it's, you know, we have to give. We all,
I tithe more than mine, you know, would be required, you know, because that's how we bought it.
Like, so if we're going to continue to go where God's bringing us to, we need to just still be
generous to the Lord. Then we can make clear minded decisions and not have to be encumbered
by the world's debt system, you know? And so this is something that the Lord just has shown me
personally, us congregationally. We don't have to stress the things in this world. He already owns
it. He owns a cattle on a thousand hills, right? Thousand hills with cattle on it, one of them,
right? But, and then he makes this promise. Thank you, Tammy, you're way ahead of me.
By the way, let's give Tammy a little round of applause. First day doing PowerPoint.
He did an amazing job. Thank you. But anyway, nice distraction. But, but he promises this,
you know, when we start to stress it, stress it, and the Lord just says, will you just stop,
stop. And he says, bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house
and try me now on this, says the Lord of hosts. If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be enough room to receive it. Don't
you want a bank account like that? Don't you want a life of relationships? We're not just talking
about money. Don't you want joy like that? Don't you want health like that? And the Lord is saying,
look, just give what is meant to be mine, which is our entire lives. And I will give you my life
in you. Amen. So we're gonna have communion now. And if there's anyone here who has never received
the Lord, it just, it's time. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart like you did
in all of the days up to this point of rebellion, but surrender your life to the Lord. It's time
to surrender to the Lord. And you can do that. You can experience these abundant blessings that
he gives you. And all you have to do is say, Lord, I want to be part of your kingdom. I want
to belong to you. I want to surrender my life to you. Today, I give you my life to receive yours.
Today, I recognize you as the son of God who died on the cross for my sins
so that my sins could be forgiven. And Lord, I realize that you shed your blood
and without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins. Thank you, Lord, God.
Today, take my life so I can have yours. Fill me with your Holy Spirit and forgive me of
all my sins, past, present, and future. In Jesus' name, amen. If you've prayed something like that,
the word says that you are saved, Romans 10, 9, and 10. And so let's have communion together.
Father God, we thank you that your body was nailed to the cross as our sins.
You became our sin on the cross, Lord God. And as we eat this bread, you are the manna from on high,
Lord God. You provide our nourishment. You are our life. And as we eat this bread,
we remember that you willingly died on the cross for each one of us, knowing each one of us by
name before the foundations of the world. We thank you for that in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's eat.
And Lord, as we remember, Abraham meeting Melchizedek for the first time,
the first communion representing even what we're doing here today.
Lord, we thank you that we have victory only because of you. We haven't won any battles on our own.
You've won them all, Lord. And it's because of your precious blood that our sins are forgiven.
So we can move forward and face any opposition in front of us, knowing that you have blessed us.
We thank you for the shed blood in Jesus' name. Amen.
And let's all stand. And as I was thinking, I think a great thing to end this morning would be
the blessing of Aaron. I met a young man. He's not here. I don't see him here today. And
I was hoping he would be, but I was sharing Jesus at the first Friday with him.
And I blessed him with the blessing of Aaron. And he's like, wow, that's so cool. I'm like, yeah,
that's your name. His name's Aaron. And I said, someone in your family knew the Lord when they
named you. And he said, yeah, my grandmom and mom did. And I'm like, how about you? So,
you know, we'll see. We'll see. I mean, he said he did, but hopefully we'll see him in here
someday with the blessing of Aaron. So let's lift up our hands and receive from the Lord.
May the Lord bless you and keep you. May he shine his face upon you and be gracious to you.
And may he lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Father God, we thank you that those are the promises. Your face shines down upon us.
And you're a proud father, looking at your children, reaching up right now to you, Lord.
And we ask you to just pick us up and give us a big hug, Lord God. And we thank you, Lord,
that we have nothing to worry about, Lord, because you are a good, good father, a perfect father,
a father, a giver of every good and perfect gift.
Lord, we thank you for all of your blessings in Jesus name. Amen. Let's give the Lord a round
of applause. 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!