The Fear You Can't Overcome On Your Own

we're facing in battle language. You ever notice how much language, kind of warfare language, makes its way into just normal everyday conversations? Have you ever heard someone use a phrase like this? Man, I feel like we're just fighting for our marriage. Maybe you've heard someone say, I don't know, he's battling an addiction. What is it? That's war language. That's battle language. We say things like, I got to hold the line on this one. I feel defeated. Is this a hill we're willing to die on? What is it? That's all battling. There's all sort of ways of describing a fight that we feel like we're in. And my point is that we all know, every single one of us, we all know what it feels like to go through this life and feel like we are in a battle every now and then. Like we're in a fight. And as we've been seeing in this series, the reason that you and I feel like we are in a battle every now and then is because you are. You are in a fight. You are in a battle. Except the battle that we are fighting, the one that matters most, is not the one that we can see with our eyes. It's a spiritual battle that is raging all around us, even at this very second. We've actually been walking line by line in this series, Bill for Battle. We've been walking line through line, line by line through a passage from the New Testament that was written by one of the very first leaders in the church. He was a pastor's name was Paul. And Paul writes a letter to followers of Jesus living in the ancient city of Ephesus. It's in modern day Turkey. He can still visit it today. And in this letter, he's trying to explain the real battle. He's trying to put in words and articulate where the battle truly is and who the real enemy is. And most important, he's trying to encourage them. And I would say encourage us that they are built for battle. You are built for battle. This is how Ephesians 6-10 starts. Listen to this. Now, I did this a couple of weeks ago. Anytime we see these highlighted black words, I just want you to say them out loud with me. Why? Because I want you to feel this. I want this to get in us. All right. So let's try this. A final word. Here we go. Be strong, Waynesboro. Let me hear you. Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Here we go. Put on all of God's armor so that you would be able to what? Stand firm against all the strategies of the devil. Be strong. You need some strength today? You come in here weak in the little bit because of some things that you've been battling. Be strong. Put on God's armor. Stand firm. You come in shaking today, knee shaking. Stand firm. Now, this is one of those good news bad news passages in the Bible. There's good news bad news in this thing. You want the good news or the bad news first?

Where are my bad news people? You want the bad news first? All right. There's all the pessimists. Take a look at them real quick. They're hands up. All right. The last half empty. I'm going to give you the bad news first. Here it is, right? You have a spiritual enemy. Every one of you. Every one of us. You have a spiritual enemy who the Scriptures refer to as Satan, the devil, the accuser, the father of lies, also different ways of describing him. And he is intent coming at you. Listen, you were created, every single one of you, you were created by God on purpose, for purpose. There are no accidents in this room right now. There are no accidents listening in his words. The Bible says you were stitched together in your mother's womb. He knows everything about you. And he created you on purpose. And let me just, some of us are like, man, I don't know what I'm here for. I don't know the meaning of life. Let me just tell you what the Scriptures say that you were created to know God. He wants a personal relationship with you. And you were created to walk with God. What does that mean? To walk in friendship and intimacy with God. And you were created to join him in his mission in this world. He has a mission for you. He has designed you for good purposes. He has deployed you for action to bring hope and love and healing to this world. And you are the object of God's relentless love. His eye has settled on you. And he has called you into a life that is rich and full and satisfying in him. And because of that, here's what I'm telling you that, because all of that is true. Satan is intent on driving a wedge between you and God. He is intent on destroying your family, wrecking your integrity, robbing your peace and stealing your joy. And our enemy has designed strategies. We just read it. Remember we just read? He has actually designed strategies to take you out, to sideline you. You felt it. Everyone else has felt it. Maybe if you're not even a Christian today and you're still just exploring this, you've still felt it. You don't You didn't even know how to give words to it. You felt it in the fight against anxiety and depression that is weighing on some of us right now. You have felt it in the fight for your marriage, the fight for your kids, or your home. You have felt it in the fight for your integrity, where you know the right thing to do, but something in you is pulling you away from that, and it's a struggle. You have felt it in the fight against bitterness, struggling to get over the thing that was said to you or done to you years ago.

And they moved on, but you haven't. You're still fighting, and battling, and it's weighing on you. That's the bad news. Ready for the good news? Here's the good news. It's right here in this little passage that we just read. You and I are not helpless in this battle against Satan. We do not have to live scared. You are not alone in this fight. We have been given everything we need in Christ to what? Be strong in this fight and to stand firm against all the strategies of the enemy. And the key to standing firm in the face of the attacks of our enemy is found right in the middle of that little passage we just read put on all of God's armor. That's the key. That's the key. I told you last week, that's the cheat code for everything right there. I told you a couple of weeks ago, I told you about Contra. When I played Contra and we had a cheat code, you wouldn't believe how many 45-year-old men emailed me the last couple of weeks. It's like, I got a brother. Yes, you do. Cheat code. This is it. This is what we're going to do. We're going to put on all of God's armor. This is how we stand firm. This is how we live strong in the face of the battle. Paul is saying, yes, you are in a battle. Yes, you have an enemy who is intent on destroying you, but you are not fighting on your own and you have been given everything you need to stand firm in this fight. You were built for battle. So armor up. Armor up. Which begs the question, okay, so how do you do that? What does that mean? And what is the armor of God? And right after Paul says to put on the armor of God, over the next few verses, he begins to paint a picture of the armor that we have been given in this fight against our spiritual enemy.

This is what we've been working through the last few weeks. Feels you to 614 says this, he says, so stand your ground and now he starts working through the armor. He's like, okay, I'm glad you asked. Here's the armor. Put on the belt of truth. Let's start there. No soldier goes in battle without first putting on their belt. Put on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness for shoes. Put on the peace that comes from the good news so that you will be fully prepared. We've talked about this over the last few weeks. He starts by saying, put on the belt of truth. But why? Because the enemy will lie to you. And this world is full of lies right now. And he's saying, the enemy is going to lie to you about who God is and who you are. You've got to stand on truth. Guys, listen, that's why we've been giving these little cards out every single week with scripture on them. We've been doing this last three. We're going to do this every week of the series. And so we just put a little piece of scripture on there. And why? Because we need the truth of God's word in us. We actually made it small like this so that you can carry it around. I've been carrying it in my pocket. I'm trying to memorize them. I'm just trying to memorize this. Why? Because I need truth in my life. I don't need to base my life on feelings. I've got a lot of lies that come my way.

I need truth. You need truth. And so we're just memorizing that and we're saying, man, I want to stand. I want to put on the belt of truth. In fact, today on your way out, cards are all out there. You can grab one for today as well. And take that if you've missed any of the other weeks. Grab them right there. But Paul doesn't end there. He says, not only put on the belt of truth. What does he say next? He says, put on the body armor or the breastplate of God's righteousness. Why? Because the enemy is going to accuse you. Not just lie to you. He's going to accuse you. He's going to shame you. And he's going to condemn you telling you that you're not worthy of God's love. Not after what you've done. Then he said, and then put on the shoes of peace. You're not going in a battle without shoes on. He said, put on the shoes of peace. Why? Because the enemy is going to try to rob you of peace. Filling your thoughts with anxiety. But we have peace knowing that our eternity is secure in Christ. And that a life of surrender to the ways of Jesus will always bring peace. That's what we talked about last week. If you missed any of those, go back and check them out. And then Paul goes on to describe three more pieces of armor that are available for us to

take up in this fight. So he goes on and he says this. He says, in addition to all these that we just talked about, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery errors of the devil. Put on salvation as your helmet and take the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. So each week of our series built for battle, what we've been doing is we walk through each piece of armor and what it means for us today and how to activate that piece of armor in our lives. So here's the piece of armor that we're going to camp in on today. We're going to camp out on this one right here to hold up the shield of faith. We're going to talk about the shield of faith. Hold up the shield of faith. Why? To stop the fiery errors of the devil. You know, one of the most important pieces of armor that a Roman soldier possessed was their shield. We have a drawing, sort of a rendering of what a first century shield would have looked like that Paul would have seen all around him when he was writing this. Now, you don't have any scale on this. The shield that you saw out here was, it's actually a body-sized shield. They were typically four to five feet tall, two to three feet wide, so that they shielded the entire body. You can get behind the entire thing. And they would take their shield and they would actually wrap them in leather, and then they would soak them in water before the battle. Why? Because they knew that at some point, they were going to be on the receiving end of arrows that were actually lit on fire. It's happened all the time.

And those wet shields would extinguish the arrows as they hit. In ancient warfare, those fiery arrows were launched at the very beginning of attack, typically the very beginning of attack, and the idea was not only to injure the enemy, listen to this, but to start fires all around the soldiers, which would then require them to give their attention to putting out fires instead of fighting the enemy. The flaming arrows weren't intended to always kill, but to distract, to confuse and to create panic. You and I have an enemy. You and I have a spiritual enemy, Satan, who is constantly firing flaming arrows our way. What are they? I'll tell you what they are. I'm going to make it real simple and just tell you two flaming arrows that can send our way all the time. The flaming arrows are the persistent efforts of Satan and the forces of darkness to weaken you through fear and doubt. The flaming arrows of fear and doubt. These come our way all the time. It's all about fear. You know, there is nothing that will sideline us and keep us from moving forward into the life God has for us more than fear. Have you ever felt nudged by God? Compelled by God to do something, to step out in faith, to act in faith on something he's asking you to do, to leave something behind that you know is destructive, to move forward and obedience to him and his leading. You feel it. You feel nudged. You feel convicted. You want to step forward. Only at very next second you get paralyzed by fear. You want to have a spiritual conversation with your kids. You feel nudged by God. Man, you know what?

I want to take spiritual responsibility for my home. I want to lead my kids. You feel compelled by that. You feel nudged by God. I want to start reading the Bible with my kids and I want to start praying with them. And so you grab one of our kids' Bibles here and you know that you're going to start reading with them. And then the moment before you get to that first day reading the Bible with them, fear hits. You're not qualified for this. You're not qualified. You don't have the answers. Where does that come from? I'll tell you, Satan just launched an arrow your way. You feel prompted. You feel nudged and compelled to speak up for what's right at work. You know something's off and in the arrow, fear comes. Keep your mouth shut. This is going to cost you. Just stay quiet. You're hiding something. Come on, man. You got a secret. And you have felt nudged and you have felt compelled. It's time to bring that out and open because you know, man, hiding, you'll never heal. You know God is nudging you to confess this thing. And you feel that and yet the fear comes real strong. Don't you dare bring that out in the light. Because if they knew the truth about you, they would never look at you the same. And that arrow is shot. Or how about this one? Maybe some of you, you know that your next step is to get baptized.

You know God's been nudging you. Get baptized. It's time to go public. Your life changed by Christ and then the fear hits. Arrow comes. You're not put together enough for that. That's for put together people. Besides, your family is not going to understand because they raised you in another faith tradition. You don't want to disappoint them, do you? Fear. Fear. Fear. These are flaming arrows at fear. You have an enemy in Satan who will attack your confidence. Listen, that God's presence will be with you when you step out and following him. That's what he's attacking. God's not going to be with you. So say small. Don't act. Don't step out in pursuit of where God is leading you. But fear is not the only fiery arrow he sends our way. See, if our enemy cannot paralyze us with fear, you know what to do? He will shoot the fiery arrows of doubt our way. You know what doubt sounds like, those fiery arrows? This is what it sounds like. God cannot be trusted. See, if fear gets us to call into question God's presence, doubt calls into question whether or not we can trust God's promises. You have prayed, and you have prayed, and you have prayed, and nothing's happened. Still no baby.

You've prayed for a spouse and still no spouse. You've prayed for healing and no healing, and that arrow of doubt comes your way. Your child walks away from faith and that fiery arrow comes your way. You failed as a parent and God let it happen. You love your kids more than God does. You start giving, you start living generous and after you live generous and after you start giving, it doesn't go all up on the right. You actually experience financial hardship and that fiery arrow of doubt comes your way. You thought God was going to take care of you. See how foolish for you. Something painful happens that you never saw coming and the doubt comes. If God were really good, he would have never let this happen. You fall into the same sin again and again and again and again and again and again and the doubt, the fiery arrow of doubt comes. God has got to be tired of you now. All this Jesus stuff, it sounds good, it does not work. What do you think those are, those thoughts, what do you think those are? Those are arrows shot straight to your heart to drive a wedge between you and God and some of us are here today and we have been bombarded, we're coming in today bombarded with fiery arrows from the enemy as of late. Fear and doubt have been landing all around us, man, there's brush fires everywhere right now in our life and we're wondering what it all means and we're discouraged and we're like, what does all this mean, all this fear and doubt that's been flooding me? Let me tell you what it means, right? It means you're in the fight. It means that you are seen as a threat to the enemy. Listen guys, one of the things I hope you get through this series is that the second you take a step towards Jesus, you should expect opposition. Don't be surprised by it. See sometimes people think following Jesus is going to, you know, it's like that should

make life easier. Who said that? Jesus said it's going to be like picking up a cross but it will always make life better. Not easier but we don't want easy, man, we want what's best. So don't be surprised when you face opposition. Why? Because you have stepped out of darkness into the kingdom of light now and as a result, you got to target on your back. Where's the badge of honor? I got fear and doubt coming my way, I'm in the game. Look, man, we had a hundred. We got a hundred and sixty-two people getting baptized this week. You almost, not have heard me. I said we got a hundred and sixty-two people getting baptized this week going public with her faith. I want to talk to you, a hundred and sixty-two people, I'm talking right to you right now, who are going public with your faith this weekend. You should expect fear and doubt to hit you this week. It's coming. Be ready. Why? Because you just told the world, you just went public. You told everyone around you that God can be trusted. You told everyone around you that Jesus can change lives. You told everyone around you that your past does not have to define you that Jesus can save you and Jesus will forgive you. You just announced that for the world. You don't think the enemies worked up about that? Look, man, the fiery arrows are coming for any of us who want to move even an inch closer to Jesus.

So armor up, armor up, how? He said it. Hold up the shield of faith. How are we going to fight these? We're going to hold up the shield of faith. What are we going to do in the face of fear and doubt? We're going to take up the shield of faith. Let me ask you a question. How would you define faith? Somewhere to ask you, like what is faith? How would you define it? See, I think in our culture today, most people think of faith and define faith as optimism. I actually think that's what most people mean by faith. When they say just have faith, they just mean just stay positive, just be optimistic. We have faith. The Eagles are going to thrive in this new offense. We have faith. We have faith. We have faith. The cowboys are going to implode. Actually, that's not faith. That's just facts. But listen, listen, listen. In the Bible, here's what you need here, in the Bible, in the Scriptures, faith is not just positive thinking. You never find that in the Scriptures. That's not what faith is. It's not optimism. In fact, the word faith is used almost 200 times in the New Testament. In almost every single time you see the word faith appear in the New Testament, it is connected

to action, to behavior, to moving. There are things that I believe, listen, there's things that I believe, but it does not become faith until I act on it. This summer, I flew several times, I got on several planes this summer. By the way, it was real fun. I got to meet LCBCers all over the country. I met LCBCers in Charlotte. I met on flights from Chicago. You ever see me out in public? Don't just stare, please. Like, I'm not a zoo animal, all right? Come talk, I wanna talk to you, right? I wanna meet you. So anyways, this summer, as I was planning these flights, I believed that plane is gonna get me from point A to point B, but it does not become faith until I do what? Board the plane, get on that plane. Why, because I've now acted on that belief. See, faith is the deliberate choice we make to act in a way that demonstrates our trust in God. That's faith. So we take up the shield of faith by doing what God has asked us to do. Not that complicated. No matter how challenging it might feel, and no matter how unpopular it might make us, simply put, faith is acting and living, and living as if God is telling the truth about what? About everything.

That Jesus is telling the truth when he said, it is better to give than receive. So faith is giving. Faith is living generously, as if it's true. That Jesus was telling the truth when he said, it's better to forgive than to hold on to bitterness. So faith is choosing to forgive. That's faith. It's not just agreeing with Jesus. That Jesus is telling the truth when he said that a life of honesty and open integrity is better than lying and hiding. Faith is choosing them to tell the truth. That's acting in faith. This is how we hold up the shield of faith. We choose again and again and again to bring our lives, our behaviors, our decisions, our thoughts, our lifestyle into alignment with what God has asked us to do. Without needing to see evidence that it's all gonna work out in the end, by the way. And some of you hear that and you're like, yeah, Jase, but well, that's hard. That's hard to do, yeah, it's hard. Especially, listen, especially if you're trying to fight on your own, then it's exponentially more hard. And the reason some of you keep getting hit with the arrows of fear and doubt is because you're fighting all alone right now. Listen, those shields that we just talked about

in the ancient world, they were real effective at blocking the arrows that were coming right at you. You know what I mean? Like if you can crouch behind it, it's real effective. Any arrows that are coming straight on, it can block that, but let me ask you a question. What about the arrows that are coming from the sides? Not that effective. And the soldiers in the first century knew this and they had a technique in battle that is critical to understanding this passage that we read. In fact, when they would get close to where the arrows were being shot, they would actually huddle up and they would link their shields together. This is a description of what it would look like. And now you're guarded. And now you're protected on all sides. And then as a unit, they would actually inch, take new ground. We're taking new ground. We're not holding back. We're not staying where we are. We're moving forward now together as a unit, protecting each other. Listen, you want me to tell you what I think this means? We don't just need armor in our fight against the enemy. We need an army in our fight. Satan is gonna attack you in isolation, always. You know what it describes, Matt?

And one of the first leaders named Peter, he writes a letter and he says that Satan is like a prowling lion looking to devour you. Let me ask you something. That's an interesting word picture. How does a lion end up getting its prey by separating it from the herd? That's the first step in a hunt. You separate it from the herd. You get it alone. You isolate it. A little over a year ago, I felt God inviting me into trusting Him in some deeper ways. But in the midst of that, like I knew God would, remember what I talked about sometimes you just feel those nudges, you feel like God, I know this is the right thing to do. I know you're inviting me into this and I knew that. And in the midst of that though, I felt all sorts of fear and doubt beginning to hit. The arrows were coming. And one day, and I didn't share this with anyone, and one day I just sat in my office and I just started writing down all of the fears and the doubts that I was getting hit with. This is the note right here from July 7th of last year. Now I told the camera guys, I said, do not zoom in on this. I don't need you to even know in my business. But I'll tell you what's on here.

This is two pages of fiery arrows. That I was receiving. And for months, no one knew about this. Fighting on my own. Well, that's fear. You're a fraud. God's disappointed in you. Those are the light ones, but something happened when I finally wrote it down and I just kind of got it out and I just put it all down on paper and I just got honest about it. It was out of my head now and once it was out of my head, I could share it with a few trusted people who I knew would remind me of truth. So I started doing that and they started reminding me of God's presence and His promises. The very thing, fear and doubt are attacking in the midst of my fears and doubts. They reminded me because I began to tell a few trusted people, I got some people with some shields around me and I said, I need to tell you this and they started reminding they said, God has not given you a spirit of fear and to many, but of power and love and self-control. They just told me second Timothy one, I need to hear that, I need truth. They said, Jesus, God has chosen you and He has set you apart for good purposes in this world, good works. That's Ephesians two. They said, Jesus, God has not left you, He's not abandoned you, He is closer than her brother right now. That's Hebrews 13. They just reminded me of God's presence and His promises in the face of fear and doubt and all of a sudden I had some shields around me. And some of us are here today and we are fighting battles and we're trying to fight on our own. And we're trying to fight in our own strength at the temptation, the addiction, the secret, the attitude, the anxiety and it's whipping you. You can't fight on your own, you're not strong enough and can I just say this because some

of you are newer to church, you know, you just started coming out in the last several weeks, a couple of months, maybe the last year or so. This is why church is so incredibly important, what we are talking about right now. This is why you need to be here and prioritize this. And this is why we do whatever we can to encourage you to get into a group here. Don't let what we do when we can stop there. Find a men's alliance group, to get some brothers around you, a women's, you can find a women's group, grief share, divorce care, celebrate, recovery. And we got so many ways for you to get connected here. Here's why because if you try to fight the devil in the dark, you are fighting on His home turf, you are going to get your tail kicked. We don't just need an armor, we need an army. And I know that some of you, you've been listening to this today and you've been thinking, "Man, Jase, that sounds good, all this faith talk. I don't have a lot of faith. I don't have a lot of faith." You think, "Man, I struggle with faith like that. I wish I had bigger faith, but I don't have a lot of faith." Can I encourage you something? Did you know that Jesus said you don't need a lot of faith to move forward with Him? This is one of the most encouraging things I find that Jesus said. He said, "Actually, if you have faith, even the size of a mustard seed." You know how small a mustard seed is? If I was holding it right now, you couldn't see it. And he says, "Even if you only have faith that small," he goes, "I can work with that. That's good enough. You just come to me with it. See, here's the point, it's not your faith that needs to be big. It is the object of your faith that matters most. And he is the object of our faith, and he is bigger than anything you are facing in any

battle. If you are struggling to move forward and obedience to God, you don't need bigger faith. You need a bigger God. And the fiery darts of fear and doubt are coming, but we will not be sidelined. We have been built for battle. We're going to take up the shield of faith. We're going to act on faith, and God's promises that they are true, and His presence is real. My feelings do not determine reality. The trustworthiness of God and His promises and His Word are more true than any fears or doubts that come my way. Are you coming in here today, having taken some shots? Fear and doubt have been hitting you. You don't need more faith. You need to bring your small amount of faith to the one who is worthy and bigger than all of your battles. So let me remind you today of the object of your faith, Jesus Christ. Listen to His strength. Listen to His power. Listen to His greatness. This is how it's described in Colossians, chapter 2, he says, "He, that's Jesus. He canceled the record of the charges against us." Man, that is good news for someone today. All that that you've been carrying that shame, the guilt, the weight that you've carried from years ago, spring break, years ago, but you know, college, the way you treated your ex, all those things that come with all the ways that we have messed up. Man, He took it away, and He canceled it, annealing it to the cross. I love this. He disarmed. He defeated spiritual rulers and authorities of this world. The enemy shamed them publicly by his victory

over them on the cross. He is the object of our faith, the one who has defeated all the forces of darkness already. Recently, someone I work with, because I want to help you understand what this means for you. Someone I work with here got an injury that could have been disastrous. Now, I'm not going to tell you his name, but his initials are Dwight Kreiser. I love this dude. I love this man. He is an incredible man. And Dwight is actually our executive team. He's our executive director of finance. And one of the things that Dwight likes to do in his spare time, when he's not crunching numbers, is he hunts rattlesnakes. It's my man. I love what we're working with the kind of people who hunt snakes. And a few weeks ago, Dwight was doing his thing. And he picked up a rattlesnake. And he's holding it. He's got the tools for and all that. And as he's doing that in a second-- I mean, like a split second, that thing comes back and bites them on the thumb. And so he's a smart guy. He heads to the hospital. It's about an hour away. He's in the middle of nowhere.

He calls them up and goes, do you guys have an an event? And they're pumped. This is the most action they've seen in like seven years. They're like rattlesnake bites coming in. Let's go. They go, we got any venom. We've been waiting 40 years to use it. So he gets there. They're all ready for them. They put them in the-- they get them back to the room. They get the an event in them ready. And then they realize they don't need it. And we need to give them any an event in them. Because somewhere along the way, the snake had expended its venom so that when it bit Dwight, it was a dry bite. All bite, no venom. Some of you are tracking. You listen, if you are in Christ, Satan will bite. But he carries no venom for the believer. Satan knows that he cannot destroy you. Not now, not if you are in Christ. It is too late for that. When you place your faith in your life into the strong, loving hands of Jesus Christ as your Savior, Satan has lost all real power over you. And he cannot rip you from his hands. But he will now work with everything he has to make your life here on Earth-unproductive, filled with discouragement, bombarding you with fiery darts of arrows of fear and doubt

so that he robs you of the power that is now yours. But listen to me, if you are in Christ, I'm trying to remind you today that greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. All bite, no venom, no venom. So what are we going to do? We're going to armor up. We're going to armor up. We're going to armor up. We're going to take up our shield of faith by choosing to live with unwavering confidence in the presence of God and his promises to us. We're going to link shields with others. We're not going to fight alone. And we're going to walk forward in step with God's directives for our life, even when it's hard. Because we know his presence is real and his promises are true. And so to wrap up our time, I want us to put our eyes on the object of our faith. To wrap our time up. To turn our hearts attention and affection to Jesus, who he is and what he's done. We're going to do that by taking communion together. If you want to grab the bread and the juice that you were handed on the way in, communion is just a symbolic way of remembering what Jesus has done for us, on that cross, where he disarmed all the powers of this world. And to help us remember what he did for us,

Jesus actually gave us instructions. He tells us to take the bread and to take the drink. And the bread is to help us remember his body, to remember the fact that he gave his life for us. The drink is to help us remember his blood, because it's through his blood that our sins are covered, and removed from us. But before we eat and drink, I want to give you a quick word of caution. God actually causes us in the scriptures and tells us that before we eat and drink, we ought to take a moment and we ought to make sure that we're coming with a clean heart. Just come in honest before God. In other words, before remembering what Christ has done for us, just ask God right now to show you that there's anything you've been keeping in the dark, that you need to bring out before him and confess. Ask him to forgive greed, worry, the way you've spoken to people, the way you've spoken about people, using people sexually, jealousy, pride, I don't know. I know what it is for me. Whatever it is, God said, take a moment, just bring it before him, bring it out in the light. That's where healing happens, that's where forgiveness happens. And for some of you, you've never responded to the invitation of Jesus to trust him and follow him. And you've been running from God, but today can be a defining moment for you

that can change today. Today you can place your faith in Jesus by just saying this right now, have to say that loud. He hears you say, "God forgive me for the sin in my life." Tell him. Say, "Jesus, I believe that on the cross you defeated my sin and forgave me completely." Tell him right now, just say, "Jesus, I receive your grace and I'm choosing to follow you today in the rest of my days." He hears you. Just talk to God. He hears you. So here's what we're going to do. I'm going to pray. And then I'm going to give you some space. Just going to be quiet, music playing. It's just for you to give you a second just to talk to God. Come clean if there's anything you need. Come clean and just hold onto your bread and we're going to take the bread and juice. We're going to do that together in just a moment. But right now, let's just take some time. Let's ask God. Show us where we need His grace. Show us where we need His mercy. Just be honest before. [Music] Jesus, we are so grateful that we can come openly and honestly before you. There's no shame in your presence because you have already taken that shame from us on the cross. Bring out to you and we confess sins that we need forgiveness and cleansing from and we rely right now on your grace and mercy and thank you for it. You can go ahead and you can open the wrapper for the bread and pull that out as we eat the bread. Remember what Jesus Christ has done for you. Remember that He was wounded for our healing. He was pierced for our sins so that we might be restored to God. And on the night before He died, Jesus took the bread and He said, "This is my body which is given for you. Eat this in remembrance of me." And as we drink, we remember that Jesus shed His blood in order to make it possible to call you His Son, to call you His daughter. And so on the night before He died, Jesus took the cup and He said, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Drink this in remembrance of me." So Jesus, that's what we do right now. We remember you. We remember your grace. We remember your mercy. We remember your forgiveness. We remember your power. We remember your strength. We remember your sacrifice that you gave what we would never give. You went the distance for us. You climbed up on that cross. That should have been me. That should have been us. But you took our place. And in turn gave us new life and forgiveness. We are so grateful. We are so grateful that you have called us into new life. And that you've made it available for

every one of us, no matter our past, no matter our history, no matter what we've carried with us. You are greater than all of our shame and all of our sin. And we say thank you for that. And reminding us that the object of our faith is strong and solid and can always be trusted. We pray all of this in your name, Jesus. Amen. Thanks for joining us today with LCBC on YouTube. We are so glad that you took time to join us today. And it's still not too late to be known as a part of our online community by checking in and sort of do that text YouTube to 20022. And if you're doing that for the first time, check in with us for the first time. We're going to send you a coffee gift card just as a thank you. We're so glad that you joined us today. Now we can't wait to see all the ways that God can work in your life through this LCBC community. But until next time, thanks for being here.