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.