Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Have you ever had that experience when you're in an environment like this and you're hearing the word of God read and taught, where something happens inside of you and you just say, I feel like they are talking directly to me.
[00:00:15] I know that I've had that kind of experience many times and I've kind of been on both sides of that equation where not only have I felt that, but I'll talk to somebody afterwards and they're like, dude, I. I feel like you are reading my mail. Like that was totally for me. What we observe is that God's Word is living and active.
[00:00:37] It's like what the author in Hebrews 4:12 says. The word of God is living and active. It is sharper than a two edged sword. It cuts even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
[00:00:56] God's spirit works through His Word. And we can just feel like they are talking to me.
[00:01:04] I share that because as we get to this next section of the book of Ephesians, at the beginning of Ephesians chapter three, it's almost like Paul takes a break from the things that he's been writing and he starts to make it a little bit of a digression and he starts to talk about how does this impact me, all this theology that I've been talking about in Ephesians chapter one and two. This is how it impacted my life.
[00:01:32] I want to remind you really quickly kind of where we've walked through the first couple of chapters of the book of Ephesians. In Ephesians chapter 1, Paul is primarily trying to help us understand who we are and whose we are as a follower of Jesus, that we are in Christ.
[00:01:51] If you remember, he told us that we're things like we're blessed, we are chosen, we're adopted, we are redeemed, we're forgiven.
[00:02:01] When God looks at us, we are holy and blameless in his sight. We are seated with Christ in the heavenlies.
[00:02:11] Everything that is now true of Christ is now true of us because we are identified with Christ.
[00:02:21] And Paul, when he gets to the end of chapter one, then he prays because he wants more than anything, he wants this church in Ephesus to get this.
[00:02:30] I don't want this just to be theology in your head. I want this to be theology that goes to the deep places of your heart.
[00:02:37] Because when our heart feels it and we experience it, it actually changes the way that we live our life.
[00:02:45] And then Paul gets really specific when he gets to Ephesians chapter Two, he wants to remind us that there was a time that you were spiritually dead. Every one of us were always at a place at one time in our life where we were spiritually dead.
[00:03:00] But then he says, but God.
[00:03:02] But God made you alive with Christ. He breathed life into. Into us as we put our faith and our trust in him.
[00:03:12] And then when we get to Ephesians 2:8 and 9, Paul just explains really clearly how do we grab a hold of this gospel message? And if you were here a couple weeks ago, I shared this diagram to kind of give you a picture of what it is that Paul is trying to communicate.
[00:03:32] In Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, Paul says this. He says, for it is by grace that you have been saved through faith.
[00:03:42] This identity, this picture of who we are and whose we are in Christ comes because we place our faith and our trust in what Jesus Christ accomplished for us on the cross. And it is a gift of grace. Paul says, for it is by grace you've been saved through faith. And then he says, it is not of yourselves.
[00:04:04] It is a gift of God. You didn't do it.
[00:04:09] And then he says, not of yourselves. It is a gift of God. Not by works.
[00:04:16] It's not because you did something to earn God's favor or to earn this identity.
[00:04:22] Then when he goes to Ephesians 2:10, he says this, that we are God's handiwork or God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.
[00:04:34] But we don't do good works in order to gain our identity. Our identity comes to us by grace.
[00:04:41] And then out of gratitude, out of gratitude for what it is that God has done for us, this gift that he's given to us. We actually walk with him. We do works.
[00:04:53] What Paul says at the beginning of Ephesians chapter 4, Live a Life worthy of the calling that you've received in Christ Jesus. That we live that kind of a life. This is the gospel of grace.
[00:05:08] That's what Paul is reflecting on when he gets now to Ephesians chapter three.
[00:05:14] Here's what Paul says, starting at verse one, he says, for this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles.
[00:05:24] And then you see, the translators put in a dash, some different translations actually put brackets around this next 10 or 11 verses. Because Paul steps out of what he's saying, and it's almost like he just digresses. And he starts to talk personally about what this gospel message has done to him in his life and how it has changed him. As we Continue. In verse two, as Paul changes his train of thought, he says, surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you.
[00:05:58] That is the mystery, the mystery made known to me by revelation.
[00:06:04] As I've already written briefly in reading this, then you will be able to understand my insight into. Into the mystery of Christ. There's that word again, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets.
[00:06:27] Then he says, this mystery.
[00:06:30] Here's that word again. This mystery is that through the Gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus, Paul talks about a mystery, something that was previously not understood, not known, but now God has made it clear. What is the mystery that Paul is talking about here?
[00:07:00] For one, he's talking about this diagram, this idea that right standing before God actually comes by grace through faith. That was a very new thought, a new framework for Paul, because Paul understood how do we become righteous before God. In his mind, it was more about religion and in specific, the law. When we talk about the works, he here Paul is thinking about the Mosaic covenant, these laws that God has given us to think about what it looks like to become righteous before God. So Paul thinks about we do works and then that works create this identity.
[00:07:48] The fact that we go around the other side of the triangle, that it is about by grace through faith was a mystery. It was a new thing for people to understand.
[00:07:59] And then Paul says, it's a brand new thing to think about. These promises of God, this covenant of God, this new covenant of God isn't just a covenant made with the nation of Israel. That had been the history, that had been the story. The Abrahamic covenant, the Noahic covenant, the Mosaic covenant. Now there is this new covenant. And in this new covenant, it's not just about the nation of Israel, but it is about the whole world, Jew and Gentile.
[00:08:29] All people can be part of this covenant. All people for all time, Jews and Gentiles.
[00:08:37] So Paul is reflecting on this reality of this gospel of grace.
[00:08:44] Here's what Paul knew.
[00:08:46] He knew that he was a recipient of that grace.
[00:08:51] And then he also understood that as a person that received that grace, that made him a servant of that grace to the world, he knew to receive that grace meant that he was going to be a conduit of that grace to all of the world. This is where he continues.
[00:09:11] In verse seven, he says, I became a servant, this gospel, by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. Again, Paul is so understanding. There wasn't anything that he did. It was God's power in him. Because here's what Paul knew. Although I am less than the least of all the Lord's people, Paul is probably reflecting there a little bit when he. He thinks about his past.
[00:09:41] What an enemy of God. He was trying to stamp out this new way, this new covenant. He was killing Christians.
[00:09:50] So Paul knows that he is less than the least of all the Lord's people.
[00:09:56] But then he says this. This grace was given to me.
[00:10:01] And what's the grace that was given to him? The grace to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ.
[00:10:12] Sometimes when we think about the grace that's given to us, we think simply about salvation.
[00:10:18] Here's what Paul wants us to understand. When we receive that gift, when we receive that gift, that identity, that identity actually brings with it.
[00:10:33] A responsibility.
[00:10:35] Identity begins responsibility.
[00:10:41] The gift, the gift of God brings responsibility.
[00:10:46] That grace that we talk about, it not only connects us to God, it not only connects us to each other, but it actually connects us to the mission of God in the world.
[00:10:57] I said it last week and I said it again. This idea of this union in Christ is what's true of us when we put our faith in Christ.
[00:11:06] Everything that's true of Jesus is now true of us. All the rights and privileges of being a son of God. But it's not just that. It is also the responsibilities of being a child of God.
[00:11:22] Jesus came to this earth with a mission to bring this message of reconciliation, of redemption, this message of grace to the world. And when we grab ahold of that grace in our own life, what comes with that is the responsibility to be a part of that kingdom mission with Jesus going forward.
[00:11:45] We're to be a conduit of God's grace. We don't just receive God's grace and collect it. We are meant to be a conduit.
[00:11:54] Grace to the world. That's God's plan to change the world.
[00:11:59] That's his plan A.
[00:12:02] And he doesn't have a plan B.
[00:12:05] He entrusts that to his people. And so Paul is saying, this is what has changed in my life. And he's saying to this group of people that he's writing this letter to in Ephesus. This needs to change for you, too.
[00:12:20] And if Paul was standing here today, he would say, you, Journey Church in Bozeman, Montana, if you are A follower of Jesus, if you've received grace, it is your responsibility to take that message of grace to the world.
[00:12:34] How far into the world?
[00:12:38] Paul says this as he continues and to make plain to everyone, everyone, the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God who created all things.
[00:12:55] Everyone who does God want to understand this message of grace? Every one.
[00:13:06] Here's what happens with me, friends. When I sit back and I think about the incredible scope of this mission, it starts to get a little bit overwhelming. It's like, everyone, everyone on the planet. How, how in the world are we gonna do that?
[00:13:24] Jesus wants us to understand that his mission is always to everyone.
[00:13:30] But what we need to do as individuals is think about every one, every individual, every person that we have access into their life.
[00:13:43] That's what Jesus wants us to understand. It's everyone, but it is every one.
[00:13:49] And Jesus in Luke 15, he tells this series of three famous parables to help us get our mind around his heart for the One.
[00:13:59] But before I talk about those parables, I want to give you the context for those parables in Luke 15, starting in verse one. Here's what it says.
[00:14:11] It says, now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus, but.
[00:14:21] But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, what does it mean to mutter?
[00:14:32] Speak low, kind of grumble.
[00:14:36] There's disdain in your voice.
[00:14:40] There's frustration in your voice.
[00:14:44] Here's what the religious leaders muttered. This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.
[00:14:54] Can't you just almost hear the disdain in their voice?
[00:15:00] But before we get too judgy, it's pretty easy to mutter, isn't it?
[00:15:08] Can we mutter about the things that are happening in the world around us?
[00:15:12] Things that we don't like in this world? We can think. That's the problem. Those people out there are the problem.
[00:15:21] The thing is, for every one of us, who those people are, are different, but it's always somebody else. They're with the problem. They're the enemy. And we can tend to want to make distance, not move toward every one.
[00:15:37] But Jesus wants to make it clear.
[00:15:40] The mission is everyone, but it is every one.
[00:15:44] Because Jesus wants us to get it right. He doesn't want us to mutter, he wants us to matter.
[00:15:52] Because your life can mutter. You can complain about things, but your life needs to matter.
[00:16:00] And it doesn't matter until we grab ahold of Jesus heart for every one. And so he tells these three back to back parables. One is about 100 sheep and if you lose one of those sheep, what do you do? He says, you leave the 99 and you go after the just, the one.
[00:16:19] Because every one matters. Everyone is made in the image of God. You leave people that are found to go after one that is lost, because everyone matters. He talked about a lost coin.
[00:16:33] You might have 10 coins, but you lose one.
[00:16:36] What do you do? You light a lamp, you sweep the floor. You do everything you can to find the One, because every one matters.
[00:16:46] Then he tells the story about a lost son.
[00:16:51] One kid gone, one kid lost.
[00:16:56] The black sheep.
[00:16:58] What does he tell about the story? The heart of the Father is that he sits.
[00:17:03] He sits on the porch and he waits for that son to come home.
[00:17:09] Because one person matters.
[00:17:13] And every one of those parables at the end, Jesus says, there is more rejoicing in heaven over one.
[00:17:19] One sinner that repents.
[00:17:23] Because every one matters.
[00:17:28] Friends, we don't want to be a religious people, because religious people mutter and complain about the lostness in this world.
[00:17:40] But people whose lives are changed by grace, they don't mutter. They matter.
[00:17:46] Because in the forefront of their mind, they're walking through this life, looking at all the people that they come across, knowing every one of these people matters to God. There's not one person that I will ever see in my life for whom Jesus did not die. Every one matters.
[00:18:06] Don't mutter, matter.
[00:18:11] The question we always got to ask though, is like, who's the one in our life?
[00:18:18] Who's the one that God has put in my path?
[00:18:23] This sheep, this coin, this son that matters to him, who is My One?
[00:18:33] And here's what I want you to hear. Friends, when we look at the scope of our mission, it can be overwhelming when we think everyone on the face of the earth.
[00:18:45] But think about this. Just do for one.
[00:18:48] Just do for one what you wish you could do for everyone. Just focus on one.
[00:18:56] That's the heart of God. That's the heart of Jesus. That is the heart of Paul.
[00:19:01] Everyone starts with one.
[00:19:06] As Paul continues, he wants us to understand that we are to be that conduit of grace to everyone.
[00:19:14] And he wants us to understand that it is the church, it is us as a collective.
[00:19:21] That is the conduit that God intends to use to change the world that we live in.
[00:19:27] Here's what Paul says as he continue.
[00:19:30] His intent was that now, through the Church, through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus, our Lord, how's he going to do this?
[00:19:54] Through the church.
[00:19:58] That's us.
[00:19:59] That's why this whole letter of the Ephesians, this vision for how the church is intended to live is so important because the very presence of the church and how we live as a church, living very distinct lives from the culture around us, the way we relate to each other should be very different. The way that we relate to the world around us should be very, very different.
[00:20:27] And what Paul wants us to understand is that how we live that out is either going to point people to the reality of God or not.
[00:20:38] What's it going to be?
[00:20:41] That's why this book and I think this series is so important, what Paul is saying that we need to become who we are as the church.
[00:20:52] And as we continue going through this, Paul, when we get to chapters four, five and six, he's gonna get a little bit more specific and granular about what does this actually look like? How do we actually live this out in practicality?
[00:21:05] What does it look like for us to bring heaven to earth? What does it look like for us, for us to be this small working group of the new creation that will one day be in heaven, bringing that heaven kingdom to this earth? What does it look like?
[00:21:23] I want to just read one chunk of the teaching of Jesus because it becomes really, really clear at least one way, at least one way that our lives need to be very, very different from the world around us. Jesus wants us to understand that if you are my sheep, if you belong to me, if you've received my grace, one thing that will be true of you is that you care about the vulnerable and the marginalized in this world. You care about the needs of people. Listen to what Jesus said. I'm just going to read through this scripture from Matthew 25, because in so many ways it is so self explanatory.
[00:22:08] Starting in verse 31, when the Son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.
[00:22:18] All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another. As a shepherd Sep separates the sheep from the goats.
[00:22:31] He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
[00:22:36] Then the king will say to those on his right, come, come, you who are blessed by my Father, Take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
[00:22:51] For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you Clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me.
[00:23:15] Then the righteous will answer him.
[00:23:18] When I read this, it almost sounds like they're confused.
[00:23:23] Lord, when, Lord, when do we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink?
[00:23:30] When did we see you a stranger and invite you in or needing clothes and clothe you?
[00:23:36] When did we see you sick or imprisoned and go to visit you?
[00:23:42] The king will reply, truly, truly, I tell you, whatever you did for one, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.
[00:24:08] What are the characteristics of a church that matters?
[00:24:13] There is a heart.
[00:24:15] There is a heart for the vulnerable and the marginalized. Anyone, anyone that needs help.
[00:24:21] And we need to understand we're not only to be a conduit of this message of grace, we are to be a conduit of grace in very practical, visible and tangible ways. That's what Jesus is telling us.
[00:24:37] That's how we relate to the world around, around us.
[00:24:42] I try to imagine a little bit of what it might have been like to be this little house church in Ephesus reading this letter that Paul has written to them.
[00:24:52] I mean, sometimes I, I can be a little glass half empty kind of a guy and I wonder if I'd be sitting there being like, Paul, you're talking about us changing the world and reaching everyone.
[00:25:08] But Paul, we got no numbers.
[00:25:10] Paul, like the, the Roman Empire is huge and we've just got a few hundred of us scattered all around in these little house churches.
[00:25:18] Paul, we have no money, we don't have wealth. How are we going to make this happen?
[00:25:24] We don't have any power or influence. And by the way, Paul, the people that do have power and influence, they are persecuting us. They are killing us.
[00:25:35] Oh, and by the way, Paul, you've already told us as you're writing this letter, where are you?
[00:25:41] You are in prison.
[00:25:43] Because of you taking this message to the world.
[00:25:49] If I was in that group, wouldn't it be easy to mutter, Paul's too hard.
[00:25:57] What are we going to do?
[00:25:59] We don't have what it takes.
[00:26:02] But they did have what it takes.
[00:26:05] Because what they did have was a message of power. A message that has the power to change a human life from the inside out.
[00:26:16] They had God's power, His Holy Spirit living in them, speaking to their heart, speaking to their mind, giving them courage when they had none.
[00:26:27] And they had a willingness to just take Jesus at his word.
[00:26:31] Let's just do the things that Jesus said. He talked about the values of his kingdom. What if we just did it? What if we just lived these things out? And they did.
[00:26:40] They didn't mutter and they mattered. And they turned the Roman Empire upside down.
[00:26:49] What did they do?
[00:26:51] Jesus told them, love your enemies.
[00:26:53] So even in the midst of incredible persecution, did they retaliate against their enemies? No, they loved their enemies because Jesus told them to do that.
[00:27:04] They cared for the poor and the vulnerable around them. Why?
[00:27:09] Because everyone mattered.
[00:27:13] There's a quote that just. It's almost kind of laughable from Julian the Apostate, one of the Roman emperors. He hated Christianity and he hated that it was gaining ground in the Roman Empire. Here's what he said. Christianity has been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers.
[00:27:38] He goes on. He just. He's muttering.
[00:27:42] It is a scandal. It is a scandal that there is not a single Jew who is a beggar.
[00:27:50] And that the godless Galileans care not only for their own poor, but for ours as well, while those who belong to us look in vain for help that we should render them.
[00:28:07] They lived distinct lives in a culture that was trying to oppress them. They loved and they cared for people. During epidemics, the Romans would just cast people out to die on their own. The Christians, that early church, would grab ahold of those people and take care of them to great risk to their own health.
[00:28:28] But they did it because Jesus told them every one matters.
[00:28:34] They lived in a culture that would just dispose of unwanted children. They'd just throw them into the trash heaps to be exposed and to die. The Christians would scoop up these little lives and raise them as their own because they knew that every one mattered.
[00:28:51] They did everything they could to break down any kind of divisions, social divisions between people or status divisions between people, because they knew that before Jesus, we're all on the same plane. Every one matters.
[00:29:09] And they took the message to the ends of the earth.
[00:29:13] They took the message forward, even in the midst of great suppression and persecution.
[00:29:20] They didn't mutter.
[00:29:23] They mattered.
[00:29:26] And it changed the world.
[00:29:29] It turned the Roman Empire upside down.
[00:29:33] Think back to that little group of people in Ephesus listening to this charge of Paul.
[00:29:43] They would never know that 250 years later, because of the faithfulness of a few living out the realities that everyone mattered, that Emperor Constantine would one day make Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Could they ever have seen that coming?
[00:30:05] And imagine if you could take that same group and teleport them right here, right now.
[00:30:15] They'd be like, 2,000. You guys are not going to believe this. 2,000 years later, there is a bald man on a stage telling hundreds of people about that letter that Paul wrote us. Guys, it worked. It worked. It made a difference. We were just taking one person at a time. They didn't mutter, they mattered. And it changed the world. Friends, that is what the church is called to do.
[00:30:45] And let me just say this. I think there's an important lesson in this for us. The early church, they sought to change the surrounding culture, but they did it by becoming a distinctive culture. They just lived differently. Their lives were shaped by the will and the word of God and by the message of Jesus and by the life of Jesus. They didn't try to acquire the power in the culture that they lived in in order to change the culture because they didn't need it.
[00:31:17] They had God's power with them.
[00:31:22] Now, I wanna say something, and I want you to hear me really clearly. You may or may not realize this, but we got an election coming up, the beginning of November.
[00:31:32] November 3rd.
[00:31:34] Follower of Jesus, here's my encouragement to you.
[00:31:38] Vote.
[00:31:40] Vote.
[00:31:42] Vote biblically. Vote prayerfully. Think about the values of God's kingdom and. And how can you express your vote to bring those values to this earth? Vote.
[00:31:54] Don't just mutter about things that you hate in this world.
[00:31:59] Matter. Your vote matters.
[00:32:04] Okay, I'll get off my soapbox for just a minute, but here's what I want you to remember on November 4th.
[00:32:12] I want you to remember our hope, our hope in this life and our hope for the church has never, never rested on who's in Washington.
[00:32:24] Our hope in this life has never rested on who's in Helena.
[00:32:32] Our hope in this life has never rested on who is in City hall here in Bozeman.
[00:32:41] Our hope has always rested and will only rest on the one that is sitting on the throne in heaven. And Paul is telling us we are seated with him on November 4th. Regardless of what happens, the role of the church is the same. Don't mutter matter.
[00:33:01] Make a difference.
[00:33:03] That's what we're called to be as the church. Jesus is our king. He is our hope. God. Don't mutter matter, don't mutter matter, because everyone matters.
[00:33:21] Just want to share with you a story that over the last several weeks has just been doing amazing things at my own heart.
[00:33:30] I have a friend of mine that he just wanted to make a difference in the lives of people that were around him. And he spends a decent amount of his life and work around a construction site.
[00:33:44] And so he's like, I'm gonna lead a group and I'm gonna invite people to be a part of that group. And every once in a while, he would just share with me about different guys, and I'm just praying that they will come. I'm just praying about all the things that are happening in their life. And just by name, he would ask me to pray for these different ones.
[00:34:02] There was one guy that he was just so encouraged that this guy was attending his Bible study.
[00:34:09] And then one day he got a call from that guy.
[00:34:15] He was in jail.
[00:34:18] He'd done something that, you know, for you and I, it probably would be absolutely no big deal. But for him, it broke his parole.
[00:34:27] And his parole officer happened to be in that restaurant where he was got up to leave, and there were officers taking him to jail. But he called my friend, that was his call, called the guy leading his Bible study, and he said, I got one question for you.
[00:34:47] You gonna stick with me?
[00:34:50] My friend said, absolutely.
[00:34:53] Absolutely, I'm gonna stick with you. Why? Because every one matters.
[00:35:00] Now, his friend, while he was in jail, as he described it to me, the first few weeks that he would visit him almost every week, his friend was muttering, complaining, like, why am I here?
[00:35:13] I didn't do anything that bad. I didn't hurt anyone.
[00:35:17] Why am I here? And he was frustrated with God.
[00:35:20] But during that time, he started to read the Scriptures.
[00:35:26] Then he would come, and my friend would meet with him at the jail, and he would ask him questions.
[00:35:32] Fast forward a few weeks. He just came to the place where he was ready to surrender his life to Jesus. And so with my friend, he said, I'm putting my faith in Jesus.
[00:35:42] I'm gonna trust him. I'm grabbing ahold of him with my life.
[00:35:48] You know what happened?
[00:35:50] Really interesting.
[00:35:53] He stopped muttering.
[00:35:55] And my friend was telling me, as he would meet with him in the jail, he would come and he'd be like, how do I make a difference in the lives of other people that are here?
[00:36:08] He's like, there's a guy in the cell right next to me. He's facing charges for a murder in downtown Bozeman. He needs help.
[00:36:15] How do I reach out? Will you show me how to reach out?
[00:36:21] Muttering to mattering I hear that man's story, and I think, I want to be like that when I grow up.
[00:36:31] I want to be the. Whatever the circumstances are in my life.
[00:36:35] That I would look at God and say, I want to trust you to make a difference in the lives of other people.
[00:36:41] I'M imagining a little bit that's probably what Paul was feeling like in prison, but wanting to extend the grace of God not only to this church in Ephesus, but to the world.
[00:36:53] Don't mutter matter because everyone, friends, every one matters.
[00:37:06] I love it that we get to celebrate the Lord's Table today. Communion and the Lord's Table is that opportunity for us to be reminded of this gift of grace that has been given to us.
[00:37:23] We have that righteousness before God not because of anything that we've done, but because of what Christ did for us. His broken body on that cross, his shed blood on that cross. Take taking the penalty for our sin. He took our sin and he gave us his righteousness. We are in him.
[00:37:45] And as we come to the table, what God intends for us to do is to remember that.
[00:37:51] Remember what it is that Jesus did for us. And we say thank you, thank you for the gift of grace.
[00:38:01] But friends, as we reflect today, could we take it just even one step further?
[00:38:06] Because Paul said that this privilege of grace also comes with a responsibility.
[00:38:15] Who's the one in your life that matters? Who's the one has God put in your path in your life, where you work, where you live, where you go to school, where you play? I don't care where it is whose. Who's in front of you?
[00:38:31] That one that needs to hear the message of grace, that maybe needs a tangible expression of grace in their life. Who is the one.
[00:38:43] And ask God for an opportunity to be a conduit of grace into their life.
[00:38:50] As we come forward to receive the table, what we do around here is that we take the cracker and we dip it in the juice or the wine.
[00:38:59] We're dippers, not sippers.
[00:39:01] Remember that.
[00:39:03] We've got gluten free on the ends and there's plenty of time. Just come down the aisle, use all of these stations and go back down the aisle. You got plenty of time. I want you to reflect.
[00:39:14] I want you to reflect that at one point you were the one.
[00:39:20] You were the one that Jesus came for.
[00:39:23] Say thank you that he did that, and then ask him who's the one?
[00:39:30] That I can take the gospel of grace to them.
[00:39:35] Let's pray.
[00:39:44] Jesus, we acknowledge that your heart is for the world and your heart is for the one Jesus. We just simply want to do for one what we wish we could do for everyone.
[00:39:59] Show us who that one is.
[00:40:02] Give us eyes to see. Give us compassion to move toward those that desperately need your grace.
[00:40:13] Jesus, as we come to the table today, we're reminded that you gave everything.
[00:40:20] You gave everything. You sacrificed everything for the One.
[00:40:26] And we are that one, Jesus. We love you.
[00:40:30] We trust you.
[00:40:32] And it's in your powerful and resurrected name that we pray.
[00:40:36] And all God's people said, amen.
