Expect Jesus to Save You

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A sermon by Adam Barcott

March 24 2019

So let’s pray together the prayer of confession saying; Most Merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against thee in thought word and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone. And then recieve, the assurance of God’s ordained minister saying, Almighty God has forgiven you for he has given you his son to die for you. And it’s for the sake of Christ. You are forgiven.

Lord, we thank you and want to read from Psalm 85.

Psalm 85You were favorable to your land. You restored the fortunes of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people. You’ve covered all their sin. You withdrew all your wrath. You turned from your hot anger. Restore us again. Oh God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us. Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? Will you not revive us again? That your people may rejoice in you? Show us your steadfast love, o Lord and grant us your salvation. Let me hear what God the Lord will speak. For he will speak peace to his people. To His saints, but let them not turn back to folly. Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him. That glory may dwell in our land. Steadfast love and faithfulness meet. Righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs up from the ground and righteousness looks down from the sky. Yes, the Lord will give what is good and our land will yield its increase. Righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps away.”

It’s the reading of God’s word. You may be seated.

That’s the Old Testament reading for today.

We can turn in your Bible to Luke Chapter 13.

It’s page 509.

Luke Chapter 13 verse one through 9.

Luke 13:1 – 9There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood pilot had mingled with their sacrifices and he answered them. Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those 18 on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them. Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No. I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. And he told this parable. A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard and he came seeking fruit on it and found none and he said to the vine dresser, look for three years now I’ve come seeking fruit on this fig tree and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground? And he answered him, sir, let it alone this year also until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good, but if not, you can cut it down.”

That’s our reading of God’s word today.

Interesting passage. I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about these words of Jesus. We’re going to think about them today and they’re actually really encouraging you will find out some things about God, especially during lent. We find out things about God because lent is the time we’re preparing. We’re entering into a season of preparing to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. And so, preparing means looking at yourself and considering what it is you’re doing. Some things mindlessly, something’s mindfully. And, and trying to line them up with Jesus, with God and who we say we are and who we want to be. And, and it’s a time for that. So what we’re calling this season is the series is what to expect when expecting. It’s the title of a famous book. I know Troy and Tiffany, you haven’t been here. They’ve been out of town. So, surprise! I’m calling the series what to expect when expecting. Now that you have a baby and have no doubt used the book, what to expect when expecting.

Once you know you’re pregnant, you’re like, what do we do now? And this book tells you everything. And so as Christians, once you’ve got this hope of life, that Jesus Christ raises from the dead and we’re going to rise from the dead, that’s awesome. So what do we do now? Well, here’s what you can expect now. Your identity will be attacked by Satan. Satan will say, do you think you’re a Christian, you’re a hypocrite. You think he even did it to Jesus. If you’re the son of God, then do this. So expect your identity to be hacked by Satan. But we learned and we trust Jesus defends you. Jesus will fight Satan. We ask Jesus to defend us. So we expect Jesus to defend us when our identity is up for grabs and we’re confused. Cool. And last week, expect opposition that every time the word of God comes, a prophet comes to the places of God.

The people then kill the prophets. If you can remember, the reason they kill the prophets is the same reason you block a sales call. You don’t want to hear their incessant requests anymore. Block, get away, don’t call me anymore. That’s what they do to the prophets. We don’t want to hear what God has to say. Kill him. Except the problem is Jesus comes to town as the prophet. They don’t want to hear what Jesus has to say anymore because he says, by the way, God doesn’t live in that house anymore. I’m just telling you there’s a way for him. But he doesn’t live there anymore. They’re like, kill him. They did kill him, but he didn’t stay dead. So even after he dies, he still speaks the word of God and they’re like, get them out of our heads. Shut him up. Shut up all the followers, which is also why Jesus says, when they persecute you rejoice. Why? Because when you’re being persecuted, you know you’re speaking the words of God because they hate the words of God. They hate the son of God. And if you’re actually on the right side of things, they will probably hate you. So rejoice. You’re not one of the the fools who are protecting a forsaken house.

Jesus gathers, he says, I wish I could have gathered you. So the expectation is that Jesus will gather you to his word, to his cross, to himself, father, son, and Holy Spirit into baptism at the Lord’s table. He’s gathering you to himself. The expectation is Jesus has gathered. That’s awesome. Today there’s this interesting expectation and it’s really the expectation of the world, which is everything dies.

Everything you do is going to run out. It’s going to die. That’s how the world lives. And so you have to do something about it. You have to prepare for it. You have to answer that question and go out and do something about it. If, if the business is going to die, if your bank account’s getting empty, if your relationships are waning you must do something about it, because it’s all going to end and Jesus breaks in and says there’s a different way. So here’s the story. We can start with the question. Why do you, have you ever asked this? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do bad things happen to good people? And it’s an interesting question. I’ve been thinking about it because I have this iPad and I’m reading, I’m doing my bible reading every morning. And then there’s a news thing. It says your morning briefing that pops up and every morning briefing that pops up is awful. 47 dead in a shooting, a plane in Ethiopia goes down. Politicians are all liars or are they? Who knows? It’s like bad, bad, bad. And it’s competing. I’m trying to read about are unintentional sins and the book of numbers, which is fascinating. And you’re telling me about how awful the world is. I’m like, why would I want that first thing in the morning? So that I just know what’s going on?

And so it’s an interesting, the world is always saying, here’s death, but what are they doing with it? Why is it even interesting to us? Because we’re all trying to figure out who to blame because we believe bad things happen to good people and we don’t know why. And so if we can figure out why, maybe we could stop it. But look at Jesus. This is so fascinating in our passage. Jesus answers questions. He’s having kind of a let down with his, with some people and they said, hey, you know, in Galilee the Galileans were basically good people, we don’t really know much about this historical event. All we know is what’s said in the scripture, that there was some kind of horrible mixing of blood with sacrifices and the Galileans suffered greatly. That’s a bad story. That’s something that we’ve heard about. So Jesus what do you think? What they’re thinking is bad things happen to bad people. So they must have done something bad to deserve that because bad things happen to bad people, right? And Jesus says, no, no, it’s not because they were bad.

Then there’s another story and where this tower fell in Salaam 18 people dead 18. That’s what it says, right? We read that 18 people died in a, wall that just fell and killed him. Is this because they were bad and Jesus says, no, they weren’t, they didn’t deserve this. They didn’t do anything to deserve this. And so what is your thought process? Well then why did it happen? Why do bad things happen like that? It’s a good question. Well, what we learned is from Jesus’ response, we learned that even our questioning is not always set up right. Because we’re thinking why did it happen, then is it because God is bad? He’s not loving or powerful or did they do something to deserve it or is everything out of control? And Jesus’s response, did you catch what his response was? He says it twice. So it must be a little bit important. Jesus was very clear about his response. Why do bad things happen to good people? Jesus. And he says, repent, unless you likewise perish. All right, let’s try another story. So the wall and what? Why do bad things happen to good people and Jesus lovingly responds with repent or you will Likewise, perish.

That’s what it says. Is that what you expected Jesus to say? It’s not what I expected. Because what do you expect when you hear about a preacher or a religious person saying, repent, repent. Is that a positive thing? Do you think that’s probably a good sermon when the guy’s yelling, repent or else you’ll die? Or do you feel like he’s using scare tactics and that’s not right? You should tell him about the love of God. I agree with you except that Jesus says to this story, repent or else you’ll perish. What are you talking about Jesus? So that’s why we don’t really use this story. People just don’t like to use it because we know other people yell repent repent! And we say…Well, where do you get that man, you should tell people about the love of God. And this ficticious character says, Jesus says it! And I’m like, where? Where? And then he shows me this passage and I’m like, I don’t like you right now. It’s all confused who’s right, who’s wrong? So this is what we’re looking at today and uh, here’s how we handle repentance. Here’s what Jesus says, let’s break down what Jesus is talking about.

First of all, when bad things happen to good people, Jesus says, you don’t need to worry about the cause.

I’ll explain the cause. Why does it happen? What you need to look at is the response. When a bad thing happens anywhere in the world or to yourself, your response is to repent. That’s what you have control over. That’s what you’re called to do. Repent. But I think we need to look at what do we mean by repent? Because when I say repent, I think you all have the idea of like, I’m nailing you on a certain sin. “Y’All went dancing last night repent, don’t dance no more,”

right? Yeah. I had to the character,

it’s character because we have characters in our minds about the word repent. You don’t have me saying repent. You wouldn’t say, come to the church you guys and expect me to be yelling repent! That’s a character who says, dance no more. That’s not me. That’s not Jesus, who lovingly says, repent. Or else you will likewise perish. So what does repentance mean? And it doesn’t just mean you’re doing something bad. Stop it. That’s what we all think it means. That’s why we don’t like to talk about repentance, but what it actually means is simply turning away, turning, going this way, and then going that way. So like, I’ve walked down a road, an ally, and I’m walking and I see something that I don’t feel safe about and I go, I think we’ll go the long way

that’s repentance. I just decided that’s not the way I want to go. That’s kind of scary. Yesterday I’m driving on my motorcycle Kaley Ave. it’s like neighborhoods. I was on Kaley Avenue and there was a car, like a little blue car on fire, like flames up to here, 20 people all standing around. I’m sitting there, I’m like the third car back going, that car’s on fire. I’m on a motorcycle. I’m like, I don’t want to get hurt, that thing could blow up waiting for the police to show up, you know what I mean? Like it was full bonfire. I’m sitting back watching like just far enough away. People are all there. There’s someone laying on the side of the road that is being tended to, so everything’s under control. I’m like, dear Jesus, help these people. And at this point. I’m like, I just want to watch and see what happens because the firemen came.

The firemen came, they’re all suiting up. They take out this long pole and he shatters one of the windows and they spray this stuff and it’s like all the smoke and while they’re doing that fire truck is across the intersection. There’s like 10 feet maybe to get around the intersection. All these cars are being detoured, right? Except right during the moment when I’m like this car, this the fire man looks scared. This guy in a truck decides he wants to go straight on Kaylee and he’s going to sneak around up on the sidewalk and as he comes around the fire truck, there is all this happening and there’s a fireman like standing six feet away and he’s just like, what are you doing? Like this thing could blow and you’re just driving into it. And of course the person like puts down their phone and goes, oh wow. And then it keeps driving and we’re all sitting there like that could have been a disaster.

Repent. There are things you don’t see. You’re coming around a firetruck because you figure it’s just in my way when they say stop, go a different way. It’s not because you’re making us feel bad.

You see repentance isn’t, God doesn’t like it when you have fun and it just bothers him and he wants you to only be with him and he’s so upset with you for those sins, they just bug him. That’s not repentance.

“Stop dancing!” because God doesn’t like it. No. God is saying, you are this far from an exploding car. I actually love you. Turn this way. That will hurt you. Please don’t come this way. I know it’s a hassle. It’s five minutes out of your way. Or this could be a year of rehabilitation or possible death. I would prefer five minutes out of your way. Repent. Go this way, please. It’s because He loves you. That’s why he’s telling you to turn this way. It’s like a child playing with fire. Have you ever seen a kid with a sparkler and it starts going wrong. They’re like, forget they have it and you’re like, whoa. They don’t turn and say, “don’t tell me to change. I wanna burn to my hair!” They don’t do that. And so the idea of repentance is God saying you’re playing with fire. You don’t realize how dangerous everything is.

So this leads us to our point we have to understand is that sin is a condition. You wake up in a condition of sin. What I mean is you’ve got your own personal sin, choices to do whatever you want, but I mean things are broken. You live in a world where people are off, where they do bad things. You live in a world where you get sick. So I woke up Monday morning sick. It was a condition. I didn’t say to myself, Adam, repent. I didn’t say, am I sick because I’ve sinned, Lord, are you punishing me? No, I could have thought those things, but I’ve thought I’m enough in my life to know, okay, that’s not it. And I said, Lord, if you could heal me, that’d be great. But I know I live in a broken world, so what do I have to do today to get better?

Because I am sick. Take meds. I tried to show up and I did talk to some people. It’s probably a mistake I tried to push through and it was like, you can’t, you have to change what you’re doing. You’re sick, but I’m not getting anything done. But “its a waste”. You have to repent and do something different. So I got rest and I’m mostly better. Take some time. This is our idea of repent. So when Jesus says repent or you will likewise perish. He’s talking about different levels of repentance. He’s saying, yeah, of course, search yourself if you have sins, if you’re lying, if you’re hiding, if you’re, I mean, the most absurd example would be let’s take like a drunk driver. If you drink for a long time and then you get in a car and then you get in an accident, bad things happened because you made bad decisions, right?

That is operative. So yes, sometimes bad things happen because you’ve done something bad. So like let’s not pretend that doesn’t happen. So it is legitimate. Did they do something bad? And Jesus says, no, they didn’t do something bad. That’s not the case here. But that does happen. Be aware of that. But in those moments, if you are that person, you asked Jesus to forgive you and he forgives you, great. But what we’re talking about is this middle one where drunk driver gets in a car, makes bad decision, he’s got to pay for it. Oh, but he gets in an accident with somebody who did everything right. Right. The person he crashes into did everything right, put on their seatbelt, followed all the laws. They did everything right, but now because of the action of one, their life has changed. If not that whole day, if not months of recovery, if not death, one person’s bad decision has affected another person’s and we’ve all seen this work. Somebody has made a mistake or purposely done something wrong and it has affected you.

Then there’s just nature. Why do people get sick? Why does the healthy guy who runs every day get cancer? He never smoked and the smoker. The old English guy who drinks a couple of pints of beer and smokes two packs a day and runs marathons, lived to 120 where’s the justice? Nature is broken. Jesus is saying, we live in a broken world and the cause is… We can go, whose fault is it, Adam and Eve, but I didn’t sin! Right. Adam was the drunk guy who slammed into you and all your DNA and radically broke your line. See how that works, how one person can affect you. Yes, it was against you and now you wake up every day in a condition of brokenness. And that broken condition and this broken world is awful, and then you start to realize why bad things happen to good people?

My question is who are the good people? What good people? Are you the good person? Am I the good person? why are bad things happening to good people? Have I done everything right? Which is a lie we like to tell ourselves. It’s called self righteousness. I did everything right, but he ran the stop sign. Great, your car is still bent up and you still have an injury you got in the car. Maybe that was your mistake. Maybe you should have done something different. Maybe there’s something we can find that you did wrong. Who is the good person? What Jesus knows is bad things happen to bad things. Bad things happen because things are bad. That’s why he came.

There’s only one good person. In fact when the rich man goes, good teacher. Jesus says, who’s good? God alone is good. And what we have is Jesus intercepting this story saying, look, you’re trying to figure it out, but your only response is to say, God have mercy on me when I sin, and he does. He saves you. You call out to him in repentance. He saves you from your own sins, but he also saves you from the sins of others.

God, I hear about these tragedies going on in the world shootings and awful things, but God protects you from them. He says, I’ll protect you. How?

What about sickness? How am I going to be protected from sickness or from natural disaster? And the answer is repent. Cry out and say, God, I’m just following you, but how does that work?

Here’s how it works on your own. You will fear death. That’s it. That’s all you do. So I fear death. And so then you stop doing something. You’re limiting everything you do. For instance, when I ride a motorcycle, every one of you, you all love me and you gently rebuke me and make me repent, be safe, be safe. And I go, I’m always very safe. And you go, it’s not you. I’m worried about Adam. It’s everybody else. I hear you. And I agree, but I’m saying it back to you. It’s not just on a motorcycle. It’s your whole life. It’s everybody else.

It’s everybody else. So what did we do? Never ride the motorcycle. Never live your life. You have to live, but you have to exchange the fear of death. That’s what the world gives you. Fear of death. And you now are people of repentance, which means you’re turning from fear of death into faith for life. So you turned from here. I have to control everything. We have to figure out why. Into faith into Jesus Christ who saves you from your own sin, who can save you from the sin of others who can protect you and bless you. Or if you are hurt or killed, he’ll lead you into life everlasting. He’s overcome death, sickness, and natural tragedies and earthquakes and all that. Jesus has overcome the earth. So he saves you. So when he says, I want you all to repent.

He’s like, anytime you hear or see anything bad, we are the people who say, “I’m not gonna just sit here and go, oh, we’ve got to be scared about the future. America is not going to last and we’re all gonna die. And there’s terrorists and everyone’s full of hate, so they say, I don’t know what’s true. Ah!” Instead, we turn in faith to Christ and we say, “but God you, I turned to you God of life. I’m just turning and I’m going to trust that your son, Jesus Christ, the all good took all the bad for me.”

Why do bad things happen to good people? To save you. Bad things happened to Jesus, the only good person to have ever lived, to save you and give us now, as we repent of this mentality, he gives us the ability to grasp. He gives us faith to grasp life. So that we can live in a world that is so crazy and messed up as beacons of light. We can actually not be scared and trust the Lord, but it’s daily repentance. It’s not just for your sin, it’s repentance for the brokenness. “God, I’m turning to you to protect my newborn baby in this world.” “God, I’m turning to you to heal my body.” That’s repentance.

I’m turning to you to solve these problems and that’s why this weird parable that follows, did you catch that parable? The fig tree. There’s an owner and he says that fig trees dead cut it up and the vine dresser says, let me put manure all around it and see what happens next year. At this point in the sermon, I thought manure might wake you up and rejuvenate you. The way manure does… interesting.

The owner of the field is God, this is a parable that Jesus tells and he says, it’s just not working out. It’s all broken. It’s not producing fruit. Let’s just tear it up, but Jesus comes to your defense. Jesus saves you, and he says, let me dig around this. Let me put some poop. Let me put some manure, from death comes life. I like to imagine and think of it as repentance. We don’t like to think of repentance as the first place we go, but it’s actually the stuff of life that as you enter into repentance, you’re like, God, I’m not in control. You are. Forgive me. Forgive the people around me protect me, bless me. You start to rejoice in the fact that death is not the end. Death is the middle. Life is what comes next and that’s the lie we’re trying to break because the world says death is the end.

What Christ says, is death is just one step closer to life and we are now the people who are being tended to by Christ. He’s like, I’m going to tend to you. I’m going to save you. I will see what we can get and we’ll check again next year. Jesus saves us from ourselves. He saves us from others, saves us from nature.

So the end of it, all the stuff we read, what would happen if we were just the people that decided to every day just repent from the fear. Not going to let what these people say dictate how I feel. What I do. I’m going to turn from that and I’m going to say Jesus, help our country.

That’s more than anything and more powerful than anything you could possibly do for yourself and for the country. For your neighbors. God help my neighbors. Instead of just talking about them and getting angry, because we want to feel like we’re not the cause. We’re good. I’m did everything right. Instead, repent and go, “my neighbors are wreck, God would you help them. I am like that. There’s parts of me that are like that. God help him help me.” See, you can expect every time you repent, every time you turn, Jesus will say, I’m with you, I’m helping you. So repentance becomes a way of life for us. That’s what Jesus means. Whose fault was it? Repent, or else you’ll perish.

Bad stuff happens to all of us because we are in a bad and broken world, but Jesus Christ has come to bring us into a world that your heart longs for. A world where there are no mass killings. There is no sickness or death. There is no divorce. There is no mosquito bites or sunburns. (Those are my two big requests for the next world.) He’s offering that, and that makes sense to us. And so it’s by faith in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. He took all the bad in exchange for the good and now he gives it to you and we grab it by faith. So expect every time he will save you.

Let me pray. Father, thanks for your word. Thanks Jesus that we don’t have to spend our lives defending or trying to justify ourselves or, or get justice from all the people who’ve hurt us or solve puzzles. You’ve solved the puzzle. You’ve sent your son to die, to walk through all the sins we’ve committed and all the sins against each other. You’ve walked through, you’ve experienced the isolation, the mockery, the pain, the death, poverty. You’ve experienced it for us so that I can honestly say, Christ forgives you. So we, all we have is your holy spirit putting it upon us to repent. We turn towards you and say, Lord, we want life under you. Thank you for the assurance that you’ve given us your Son Jesus Christ.

I pray that your Spirit would lead us into faith that hopes in life. Lord, bring it to our minds that you know what work we’re looking towards. Fear that leads to death. Jesus, you give us faith, promises life. We ask this in the name of father and the son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

So in an effort to, to confess together. I’ve been talking for a while, you get a chance to say together what it is you believe. That’s why I like saying the confessions together because it’s like we are the people of faith to life. And so on page B, we have the Apostle’s creed. It’s what the church has always confessed. It’s our basic beliefs in the creator, God, the redeemer, Jesus and the work of sanctification, by the Holy Spirit. Those are the three parts of the apostle’s creed.

So on page B, if you can, let’s say it together. What is it you believe Christian?

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day, he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From there, he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

Amen.

Before we partake of the Lord’s supper, we have a chance to thank God for all that he’s given us. So as we pass around the offering plate, this is a chance for you to recognize that God provides everything for you and you give back to his work on earth as it is in heaven. That we are the people about the word of God, that Jesus Christ is the word made flesh. And this is what we’re committed to in this life. It’s where we find life in the word of God, surrounded and surrounding ourselves around it. So take this time to give

and then as we partake of the Lord’s supper. After you partake of it or before. Remember, we have a prayer board. I haven’t been mentioning that lately, but if there’s anything in your life that you want to move from fear of death into faith of life, put it up on the board. We’ll pray for it during the week. There’s a reason Jesus says, repent to us. Oh, I forgot to even read you that verse where Jesus says, I didn’t come for the healthy. I came for the sick. I came for those who need repentance. And so the more we need faith for life, the more he makes himself available to us. So use that prayer board.

We’ll prepare ourselves for the Lord’s supper as we’re invited to the table. Traditionally being invited to someone’s table met fellowship, that you’re with them, you’re for them. That’s why Jesus got in trouble eating with tax collectors and sinners because you were saying there was fellowship there and that was bad. So that adds significance that God has set up this table through his son and he says, I invite you by faith to come and eat with me, eat my body and my blood to be unified to me and to one another. So it’s no small thing, but I think the biggest practical thing of it all is, I don’t know where else in your life do you hear someone say you are forgiven? How often does that happen during the week? Does your wife, husband, your boss, you’re forgiven? I don’t hear it very often. That’s one of the great benefits to coming to the Lord’s table is to here on his authority. It’s from his book. It’s from his son, not for me, Matt. He says, I forgive you. That’s huge.

So the night that Jesus was betrayed, he’s reinstituting. He’s reminding everybody of the Passover and how God delivered them from slavery because God doesn’t want slaves. And he says, now I am the lamb. I’m the sacrificial lamb, the blood on the door that saves you from the angel of death. So we’re changing the Passover meal to where Jesus becomes the Passover meal. And he says, this is my body, which is broken for you. And the same way he takes the cup blesses it. He says, this is my blood, as he pours it out. It’s a new covenant, a new promise of God for the forgiveness of sins. And that this forgiveness allows you access to God, the father that you are cleansed, you are pure. You’re also his child. The DNA has been restored. They did the DNA test now and you have Christs Dna. You get my inheritance son, and I forgive you. And now you’re authorized to carry the word of forgiveness wherever you go.

And then when we judge people, he’s like, I didn’t give you the authorization to judge people, you’re a sinner just like them. Why are you judging? No, you can only say I forgive you in the name of Jesus. I judged, some people, Lord. So you come to the table here, forgive me, I forgive you. So as we prepare, search your hearts. If there are sins we did unintentional sins, if there are sins you know of, Lord, forgive me and then hear him say through his people through his word, you are forgiven. That’s the word of God.

Father, we thank you for these things. We know it’s just wine on the outside and grape juice in the middle. We know it’s just bread, but your word makes it something else. Just like Manna. What is this? Just like Jesus. What is it? The bread of life. Is he all human? Is He all God? Yes. And by faith we apprehend it. And so we set apart these elements as the body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Forgive us father and now draw us into fellowship with you and your body on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

All right, well while you’re standing, Jesus says as often as you eat of this bread and drink of this cup, you proclaim his death and his coming again. So by what we’ve done today, you proclaim that death is not the end. There is a resurrection. Jesus is coming back for you. So that’s why we’re kind of happy today. All right, now you can be seated.

I don’t mean to be like the choir director who always says… “smile, smile”. But it is kinda funny because I know how it is. I’ll be singing and you’re just kind of thinking about the words but your face is serious. Sometimes its just an effort to smile while your singing. Let me just tell you, its great when your up front hearing the voices singing, but its even better when your singing with a smile. Its good times.

For announcements this week we’re doing pretty much everything. Tuesday night we have a game night here, six 6 30. We’ll start probably around seven. Get here at 6:30 and we’ll There’s a game night. If you like to play games, let’s hang out on Tuesday night.

Snacks and drinks up to you.

Awesome.

Wednesday night we are back on with youth group 6:30 to 8 so come to youth group ! And next Sunday we have potluck. It’s the last Sunday in March. So bring something good after church. We’ll go next door, eat and have a great time.

Aslo another announcement is that next week we will be recognizing and blessing our volunteers who work with childrens church. We are so thankful for the ministitry that you all give to passing on the grace of God to our children and want to celebrate what God has done in you and through you!

So if you’ve worked with the kids, make sure you’re here next week because we’re going to honor you.

Oh that’s the end of April. But

On April 13 we will be running a charity 5k at Sea World for Dawn Branchau. You can walk it, it is a lot of fun. Do something different on a Saturday morning come hang out with us after ward for breakfast. Sign up on line, there is more information at the back by the prayer borard.

Receive God’s blessing. You are His people.

And he told his priest to say this blessing,

May the Lord bless you and keep you, May the Lord Make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May The lord look upon you with Peace Now and forever. Amen.