The Kingdom First Legacy | Josh Leake

Let me just welcome you to Allison Park Church this weekend. My name is Josh, and I'm the lead pastor here at Allison Park Church. And can we welcome God Behind Bars over in Somerset as well? So happy to have you guys joining us. And we're celebrating a lot of things this weekend, but I wanna let you know about an event six days from now. So my dad was the lead pastor here for 35 years, Pastor Jeff, and he helped start an organization called Network of Hope decades ago that exists to better the community and to help those who are struggling in a need. So we have done an event with them called Walk for Hope for years now. And they have decided to rename this event the Jeff Leak Walk for Hope 5K. So just a huge honor, and I would love to have you join us for that. I'll be there on Saturday at the Jeff Leak Walk for Hope 5K. Would love to have you join us. And again, we're celebrating 60 years of legacy and God's faithfulness and stories. And already this weekend, it's been fun talking with people of the stories that have been around here for a long time. So I've grown up here. I've been alive for over half of the existence of Allison Park Church. So there's been a lot of fun stories of remembering kids' ministry back in the day

with people that I grew up with. Or there's always the kind older ladies who were like, I changed your diaper, which I have not figured out the response to that totally yet of like, thank you, you know? I'm just kidding. Listen, if you're one of those people, I'm not making it funny, I totally get it. You've been around. When you're saying that, you've been around to see the history of my life and the history of Allison Park Church. You've been able to see what God's done. And if you're new at Allison Park Church, what we wanna do is show you the legacy of what you get to be a part of. Because there's a rich history at Allison Park Church. And so we're gonna study what is that legacy? There's a lot of things we could talk about that are a part of the Allison Park Church legacy. So we could name specific leaders and we could name certain ministries and people that have been around. We could name church planning. But I think there's a deeper thing that's part of the legacy of Allison Park Church. And that's what we're studying this weekend. Matthew chapter six, if you wanna turn there. This is actually gonna close out our foundation series as well.

It's a great end to it. We've been in this summer, studying the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter five through seven. Matthew chapter six, the end of it, is a great summary of where Jesus is leading. So it's gonna put a really great cap on the foundation series. And also, it's sort of the theme passage of the legacy of our church. So as we get into this, here's the important thing to understand here. Is that Jesus is addressing people who want to follow him. So we've talked about this in the foundation series up to this point, but if you've missed it, or let me just remind you, Jesus is not addressing people to say, here's how you live better, or here's some good wisdom for your life. What he's saying is, if you want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, here's how you do it. So this is important because he's the master giving insight to his disciples, which includes us. Because sometimes what has happened is we've created a weird middle religious category in American Christianity, where you can be religiously a Christian, but not actually follow Jesus. Where you can show up to church,

and you can believe in God, and you can pray, but you don't actually follow Jesus and give him your whole life and surrender. And Jesus was an all-in master, and still is. So here's why that's important. He's gonna give some framework and worldview of how to view our lives. And here's why this is important. Disciples adopt the worldview and priorities of their master. So Jesus is the master talking to us as disciples who are saying, we wanna be like him, learn to live like him, learn to see like him. Disciples adopt the worldview and priorities of their master as we come and follow him with everything. So Matthew chapter six, here is the passage, verse 25. Therefore I tell you, here's his command, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or about your body, what you will wear is not life more than food, in the body more than clothes. Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying, add a single hour to your life? That's a convicting verse for every single one of us. Let's just pause for a second there. This is our tendency to stress and obsess

about things we have little control over. If you're taking notes, that's worth writing down. That's not on the screen, but that's a good thing to recognize of what Jesus is commanding us to steer away from. This is our tendency to stress and obsess about things that we have little to no control over. It's important things, needs, but we can spend our emotional energy constantly fixated on this. So let's continue on. Here's what he says. Verse 31, do not worry, saying, what shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear? Verse 32, for the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them. So pagans, non-followers of Jesus who spend their life distracted by, obsessing over, worrying about needs, money, food, pleasure, clothes. And Jesus says, if you're gonna be my disciple, these things matter. It's not like they're unimportant, but they cannot distract you from your higher calling as a disciple of Jesus Christ. What's the higher calling? Verse 33, ready, read this one with me. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

So there's our theme verse for our church. It's been our theme verse really for our entire existence. Let me just read verse 34 to close it off. Therefore, do not worry, again that command, about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. So when he addresses those who wanna be followers of Jesus Christ, those who are all in and are saying, Jesus, I wanna learn to be like you. I wanna learn to see like you so that I can live like you. He focuses on one of the biggest barriers. And what's the biggest barriers? It's worry, anxiety about the future, about needs and about important things, clothes, food, money, those are important things. But it's worry about everyday needs that can bring us down to this level where we miss our higher calling. But when we seek first God's kingdom, when we put first what matters to him, his priorities, there is a promise attached to it. And this has been the through line of the legacy of this church. So we have a great video that's gonna just talk about our history, especially as it surrounds this verse. It's a little bit of a longer video, it's about seven minutes long, but it does such a good job

painting what God has done here and what we're gonna continue to lean into, so go ahead and check this out. ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh ♪ We heard about a couple that was wanting to start a church in Allison Park. The first Bible study was held in Gladys Aud's home. I think only about four or five people were at the Bible study. Gladys got the Aud Fellows Hall and then more people came in, more families came in. We had 13 members that were, had transferred over. We just advertised by mouth and so forth and it just kept on growing and growing. And when we went from the Aud Fellows Hall into the Presbyterian Church and from the Presbyterian Church on Duncan Avenue, we built the first church on 2326 Duncan. We mostly wanted people to hear about the Word and become believers. The Lord provided and brought people in that were hungry for Him. And I can remember how happy we were that we reached 200. To think how much we have surpassed that now. Pastor Ron was very adamant about the missionaries and so forth and so on and that was our theme was to evolve into different churches. And when God began to raise up this church

and the Lachanskys and the Buckleys showed up that Sunday, God was answering prayer. And there is value in longevity and value in prayer. It was always a plan of Pastor Juan's to plant churches. I believe that was his heart. When Pastor Jeff said, I believe God said, we're gonna plant five churches in five years, we did. And then we just kept growing and doing more and more. We didn't know where. that they were going to plant, God was providing in ways that we couldn't even imagine. And now to think how we have hundreds of church plants and we've got campuses and we've got missionaries all over the world. And I think a lot of people, when they walk in, they say, there's just something different about this church and I believe it's the power of the Holy Spirit. Not only is the Spirit just within our whole church, but it's in people. We love God and we love people. And I believe that will continue on even for the next 60 years. I started thinking as I looked out on the street, all these kids running in the street, who's gonna reach them? We got VBS in two weeks. We bought supplies for 1,200 kids. And we only have 200 kids signed up. So now I'm worried. I'm not going home until I hear from you.

What are we gonna do? So I prayed quietly. He goes, first of all, I don't want you to worry about the 200. I don't want you to worry about the 1,200. He said, I don't want you to worry at all. I just want you to care for the one. What one? He said, the one that people might have to go the extra mile to bring them in. Care for them. The one that's in a wheelchair. If you could rent her a bus, no matter where, the one, the people would go out and bring them in. And I got it. I said, so each one's special? He said, yeah. And it was amazing. We didn't have 1,200, but we had over 1,100 little ones running all through the church. And that became our mission statement, reaching the one. In 1997, here we are. Jeff is new. He's in, you know, about five years and we're starting to grow. And we outgrow the parking lot. And so he's praying about it.

He's like, God, what's going on? You know, like, you know we have a parking problem and you know we're supposed to care for the one and all these people are coming in and then they're leaving because they can't find a space. He felt like God said to him, have you ever considered that I have a problem? The idea that there were so many people who live all along the rivers in Pittsburgh who didn't have an adequate understanding of Jesus and the whole verse, Matthew 6, 33, that's really where we began to stand on that verse. We recognized the power of coming to God in prayer, of getting a word from him and then stepping out in bold faith. That's where it really started, back with Pastor Cal through those moments in the nineties up until today. I love the fact that Allison Park Church has always been about the kingdom of God, not just building our own church and our own ministry, but heavily investing our resources, our time, our finances, our support to ministries outside of ABC. We believe in radical generosity. And I think this mindset actually positioned us to make a significant impact on our world. Matthew 6, 33 says, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. We could come up with a lot of good ideas

and there's a lot of great opportunities, but seeking first the kingdom of God grounds us in the fact that God has an assignment for this church. And the way that we step into that assignment is by learning to see with his eyes and saying, God, where do you want us to build your kingdom? And it's valuing the individual, valuing the underdog, not just valuing the numbers or expansion. It's been cool to watch God uniquely plant a dream to reach the one in various people that I don't think would have come about in any other way. Thinking back on how faithful God has been to lead this church and to provide for our church so many times and bring us through challenging season after challenging season over and over again, gives me so much confidence in the future. I believe that as we trust God's vision and as we lean into what he's doing and what he wants to do, he's gonna come through every time. Seek first the kingdom of God. That's the part we do. And that triggers an all these things clause. God will bring everything that we need to fulfill his purpose for our life at the right time, at the God moment. Amen. Thank you. Amen.

That video gets me every time, oh man, and now I have to preach after that, that's great. Just messes me up. I'm so proud to be part of this church. Man, I'm so grateful to have grown up here and to be able to lead here now, and as I look around the room, so many other people that I've grown up alongside, and I'm excited for the future, because my story is one of thousands from this church of how God has transformed our lives because of people who said we are committed to seeking first the kingdom of God, and we believe that's going to be the story of the church moving forward as well. It's about disciples of Jesus Christ living out that verse, living on assignment, trusting the promise of God, and what's the promise of God? Here's the main point of the message. God always takes care of those who prioritize what matters to him. So yes, this is about God taking care of his people and his church, but it's also about stepping into our higher purpose. It's our purpose as a church and our purpose as individuals. It's more than just religious behaviors. It's about full devotion of the heart. It's a shift in our identity to say we are going to be kingdom first to disciples. And it is a shift in how we view ourselves as a church and as people, because disciples spend time with Jesus so they can become like him, so they can live like him. They adopt his worldview, his priorities, they see like him. And what happens is, again, like we were talking about, legitimate needs can start to claw their way to the top of our attention so we can miss our calling, our purpose, what God is asking us to do as a kingdom first church and as kingdom first disciples. So 60 years of God's faithfulness is what we're celebrating, and 60 years of us saying we're going to be kingdom first disciples and a kingdom first church, but this is going to be a re-upping moment now of commitment. So I'm not going to ask anybody to sign a commitment form or to fill something out. This is a re-upping of a commitment in your heart.

No one's going to hold you to this personally, but you've got to walk out of here with a decision to say, am I going to be a kingdom first disciple or not? So I want to talk about what does it mean to be a kingdom first church? What does it mean to be a kingdom first disciple in terms of commitments? There's three commitments that I think it takes to live this way. Kingdom first disciple and a kingdom first church. Here's the first commitment that we have to make. Number one is I will trust God to provide. So not everybody remembers Matthew 6.32. It's the way less popular younger brother verse, Matthew 6.32. Matthew 6.33, seek first the kingdom of God, but verse 32 sets up what it means. So verse 32, if you'd put it back up for me, it says for the pagans, right? The people who don't believe in God or don't follow God, the pagans run after all these things and your heavenly father knows that you need them. So all these things comes from verse 32, everybody else in the world spends all their time running after money, food, clothing, pleasure, success, all these things is what that is. So when we, like my dad said in the video, when we activate the promise of we're going to seek first the kingdom of God, it triggers the all these things clause in verse 33. And what's the clause that Jesus will fulfill? It's that God is a provider. It's who he is. It makes me think of Genesis chapter two, 22 verse 14, where Abraham identifies God as a provider. God provided for him and he identifies him by the name Jehovah Jireh, which God is a provider. So that means when you and I step into the mindset of a kingdom first disciple or a kingdom first church, there will be legitimate needs, money, food, clothing, jobs, school, all of that, all of that will be there. But when we're in that mindset, we preach to ourselves. And what do we say?

The Lord will provide. Say that with me. The Lord will provide. Listen, if we're going to be the kind of disciples that he's calling us to be, and if we're going to be the kind of church that he's calling us to be, we have to start to preach this to ourselves on a regular basis. Because there are needs that are going to claw their way to the surface of your attention. And our tendency is going to be to lean into self-reliance or stressing and obsessing. But when we're staring in the face of need, maybe you're in the room and there's a financial situation or a job situation, whatever it is, a real need in front of you, what Jesus calls us to do as a kingdom first disciple is stare that in the face and say, the Lord will provide. I seek first the kingdom of God. I'm gonna look for where God wants me to be like him, to live like him, to see like him, and I'm gonna trust him with the rest. This is why Jesus calls God the father too, because we trust him like a parent. So with my kids, I have three kids, nine, seven, and five years old, and my kids are never asking me about when taxes are due. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, they don't know that. It's funny, because now my oldest is nine years old, Ben, and sometimes he has enough knowledge about things where when we talk about taxes, he's like, are we running out of money? Because he just doesn't understand how the world works. But for the most part, kids are not asking about those kinds of things.

Why? Because they trust their parents. What kids need to do is obey. They don't worry about all the different needs. They trust their parents and they obey. So what Jesus is saying is, stop worrying about all this. It's not that it's not important. It doesn't mean that you don't need to sink time into it. It means that so often we stress and obsess and it gets us away from our higher calling to build the kingdom. I believe that God has called the people in this room and this church to build the kingdom more than he's called us to worry about our own little lives. So the first thing we're gonna preach is, the Lord will provide. Say it with me again. The Lord will provide. We preach that to ourselves when we start to feel anxious and worried. So that's the first commitment we have to make, is I will trust God to provide. Here's the second one. If we're gonna be a kingdom first church and disciples, is number two, I will value who and what he values. God is not a force. He's not like the wind or gravity that we just know about, but we can't relate to. He is a person that we can know. And there are ways of speaking and praying and giving

and using our time that are precious to him and that honor him and that show him love. And likewise, there are people in situations around you on a daily basis that the Lord wants to empower you to transform them. And this is what it means to start to seek first the kingdom is that we get our eyes off of what we see and think and we tune into what God's doing. There's a great verse, 1 Samuel 16, verse seven. Here's what it says. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. What does this tell us? God has a different frequency of operating and seeing than we do. This is what it means to be a kingdom first disciple is we start to tune into what he's doing. I tried to find this old piece of technology to make this illustration. I know as soon as I talk about this, a million people are gonna come up to me after service and be like, I had this. It's the little like a spherical boom box that was a CD player cassette combo with a radio. Do you know what I'm talking about? What an interesting piece of technology to try to explain to my kids the combo of what those things are. But I was just thinking about this

because the one I had that I was listening to, there was a band called Jump Five when I was 10 years old. I was listening to the CDs of Jump Five. There was a radio dial on it, not like one that you would scan and press a button and it would show you with a screen. It was one of those like dials that you would turn to see the number of the FM radio station that you were on. The image that I love of this is Jesus is saying, you can tune your whole frequency all into your needs and worries. You can spend your whole life and all you hear is me, me, me, my needs, what's right in front of me, my world. What Jesus is saying is, you are going to miss the higher purpose of your life if you stay on that frequency. So learning to know God enough to spend time with him, to be his disciple means we tune into his frequency so we see who and what he values. This is living every day on your toes to say, okay, God, I don't wanna miss it. I don't wanna be so tuned into my frequency that I miss what you're doing. And life becomes an adventure. Every day where you're saying, today the Holy Spirit has an assignment for me. I'm not just gonna live down here in my own world, I'm gonna live up here to say, I have a higher calling to build the kingdom of God.

Guys, I feel pumped about this because this has been the story of our church. And this has been the story of what I've seen my dad living out for 35 years as the lead pastor. Seeking first the kingdom of God. He embodied this so well of being tuned in to see with Holy Spirit eyes. And he cared about those who were overlooked or struggling or hurting. And one of our kingdom builders projects that my dad, Pastor Jeff, was planning for this year was the canopy that was gonna go over the sliding glass doors. So this was a big project, but this was gonna be about $300,000 to complete. And this is what was supposed to have come with the... building originally. So we'll throw up a picture here. This is an architectural rendering that we'll put on this screen. This is originally what it was supposed to look like, but we had to eliminate it when we cut costs. But this is something that Pastor Jeff, my dad, was so excited about doing this year because he embodied caring for the one. He noticed our seniors and he walked people into the building and he worried about those in wheelchairs getting drenched in the rain. And so he was excited about this Kingdom Builders project

for those reasons. So when I think about this canopy project, it feels like a picture of my dad, Pastor Jeff's life, that he spent decades providing spiritual covering for this church and welcoming and encouraging and praying and caring for people. And so I would like to make this canopy a project in his honor. You know, my dad wasn't like, build a gold statue of me. That was not my dad's style. But I think my dad would feel so honored knowing and seeing this. So here's what we're gonna do this weekend. Anything that is designated to Kingdom Builders or that isn't directly designated for something is gonna go towards this project. And I'm so looking forward to walking, when this is finally built, walking in and remembering the legacy of my dad and what God has done in this church. So again, being a Kingdom First church, Kingdom First disciple means we trust God to provide. It means we learn who and what he values. We tune into his frequency. Here's the final commitment we have to make. Number three, I will live life with an open hand. Kingdom First disciples and churches are postured differently. Because Jesus is saying the way that everybody else lives

is like this, close-fisted. God, what are you gonna ask of me? Because I'll do it, I guess. If this is what I have to do, I'll uncurl a finger so I'll give you this. Kingdom First disciples say, I can't wait to build the kingdom of God. There are people who are hurting and struggling. There are people who need to know Jesus Christ and be transformed by his power. And so I can't wait to give of what I have to build the kingdom of God. Somebody say amen to that. This is the commitment, is saying I will live life open-handed. There's a great story of somebody who embodied this recently. So Pastor Greg Jacobs is our Butler Campus pastor. And he's running a food bank out there that is serving over 600 families a month. It's awesome. I was talking to somebody from the Hampton Campus because they woke up one morning and they said they were halfway in between a dream and sleep and they felt like God said to them, you need to go serve at the Butler Campus food bank. So this is Joe Schaefer Sr. If you know Pastor Joe, who's been a pastor on our staff for over 20 years, this is his father.

So he woke up one morning and heard that. And he was like, I don't even really know when that is or what that looks like, but I guess I'll make that happen. So then I talked to Pastor Greg. Joe told Greg, he said, I have no idea why I'm here, just that I'm supposed to be here. So then Pastor Greg was telling me he started showing up every Wednesday for food banks. And he was talking to every person, caring for people. And he started leading people to Jesus at the food bank. People that are in line, they're giving their lives to Jesus. He starts inviting people to church. People are coming to the Butler Campus, giving their lives to Jesus because Joe gave his yes to God. He lived life with an open hand. Kingdom first disciple, this is what this is about. Part of the reason I say this is I wonder if God is going to launch people from Hampton on mission to the communities of need in the North side in the Butler Campus. It's something to be praying about. But again, what this is all about is making the commitment to say, I'm going to live life like this saying, God, everything I have is yours. And I can't wait to build what you're doing. It's a privilege. It's an adventure.

Not to just build up my own life and bank account and family and job. I can't wait to partner with what you're doing. This is what it means to be a kingdom first disciple. It's because of Jesus Christ that I'm alive. It's because of Jesus Christ that I have hope, that I get to step into a higher purpose, that I get to see my world transformed. I get to live for something better and lasting and more important. So I'm going to look for every opportunity to bless others, to tune into his frequency, to see with his eyes and to be investing in the construction of God's kingdom. Let me say one final thing. The seek first legacy of this church is not just a thing of the past. Let me just prophesy now about the future. This is who we're going to be, a kingdom first church and kingdom first disciples. And as we commit to being a kingdom first church, we are going to see more moves. God, just like we've seen in the past, I believe there's greater things ahead, and I don't know what they'll be, and I don't have to know. We're gonna plant 10 million churches. I don't know what it's gonna be, but the beauty is I don't have to know, because our job is seek first the kingdom, and then God's gonna move.

It was never about a person or an initiative or a ministry, it's about the kingdom. We say we're gonna seek first the kingdom of God, and then he's gonna move, and we wait for the wave to come, and when it comes, we ride that wave. But it's not our job to make things happen. What do we do? We trust him to provide. We tune into his frequency, and then we live life with an open hand. Kingdom first disciple, kingdom first church. So here's what I wanna do is we get ready to close. Would you close your eyes with me? Bow your heads across this room. If you've never given your life to Jesus, we're gonna make this real simple today, okay? This is a commitment of the heart. I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hand or stand up from your seats, but I am asking you if you've never given your life to Jesus to say, I wanna be your disciple, Jesus. I need to be forgiven for my sins. This is what it means to follow Jesus. This is what it means to someday when you die to spend eternity in heaven with him, is you've given your life to him. And I believe there's some of you, you've been in the religious middle ground where you believe in God, you attend church,

you read the Bible, you pray, but you've never asked Jesus for forgiveness, and you've never surrendered your life to say, I want to be a kingdom first disciple. Remember, Jesus is an all in master. He gave his life for you on the cross because he loved you. He wanted to make a way for you to be free, to have hope and an eternity. And the response that's required of you is yes. To say, Jesus, I need to be forgiven. I repent of my sin. I wanna give my life to you. I wanna follow you. So everybody in the room, let's pray a prayer together. If this is your first time, remember, it's a commitment of the heart to say, Jesus, I wanna follow you. But let's all just make this commitment fresh again, together in the room, repeat after me. Say, dear Jesus, thank you for dying on that cross. Thank you for bleeding in my place. I'm so grateful for your sacrifice. Lord, I need you to forgive me. Forgive me of my sins. I wanna follow you. I give you my life. I wanna live my life with an open hand. So I surrender to you in Jesus name. Everybody said, amen, amen. Awesome.

All right, here's what we're gonna do to close the service. We're gonna take communion together. Great way to just anchor ourselves in the 60 years of this church on what this church is all about. It's the death, sacrifice, resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's God's covenant commitment to his people. So the ushers are gonna begin to make their way forward now and distribute the elements. The only requirement to take part in this part of the service is that you have surrendered your life to Jesus and ask for forgiveness. Okay, you don't have to be a member here at this church. That's all it takes. If you're not sure, you're like, I don't know if I've really given my life to Jesus. You can just let the tray pass you by, no pressure. The band's gonna lead us in this song. You can stay seated and I'll come out in just a minute and lead us in communion. ♪ You are worthy of it all ♪ ♪ You are worthy of it all ♪ ♪ For from you are all things ♪ ♪ And to you are all things ♪ ♪ You deserve the glory ♪ ♪ Oh, you're worthy, you're worthy of it all ♪ ♪ You are worthy of it all ♪ ♪ For from you are all things ♪ ♪ And to you are all things ♪ ♪ You deserve the glory ♪

♪ Oh, you're worthy, you're worthy of it all ♪ ♪ You are worthy of it all ♪ ♪ For from you are all things ♪ ♪ And to you are all things ♪ ♪ You deserve the glory ♪ Let's sing this, I will trust in you. ♪ So I will trust in you ♪ ♪ For you know just what to do ♪ ♪ In my weakness you are strong, Lord, you are strong ♪ ♪ I will trust in you, Lord, you are strong, Lord, you are strong ♪ ♪ For you know just what to do ♪ ♪ In my weakness you are strong God you are strong ♪ ♪ And I will trust in you ♪ ♪ For you know just what to do ♪ ♪ In my weakness you are strong God you are strong ♪ ♪ I will trust in you ♪ ♪ For you know just what to do ♪ ♪ In my weakness you are strong God you are strong ♪ So as we prepare to take communion, this act ties us back to the moment when Jesus established his covenant with his people, with the church. So at the last supper, he's seated around the table with the disciples and he's about to give his life for us on the cross. And he's establishing now his commitment to us. So we're remembering, we could have had the worst week in the world, we could feel like we're doing horrible, but the blood of Jesus Christ,

his sacrifice is what brings us into his family, nothing that we do. So as we get ready to partake in this moment, would you just take the bread in your hands and hold it up and let's pray before we take part in the bread together. Lord, we're grateful for your sacrifice, your body that was broken, how you suffered in our place. Thank you for your commitment to us, even unto death. You knew your people that we didn't deserve it, we hadn't earned it, we were sinful, we had rejected you and yet you loved your people so much that you suffered, you took our place on that cross. We say thank you for your sacrifice in Jesus' name. Everybody said, amen, amen. Let's take the bread together. Okay, now take the cup in your hand and hold it like this. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your blood that was spilled on that cross that represents the forgiveness of sins. That all the things we've ever done wrong, including in the past couple of hours, are forgiven not by anything we do, but by the blood of Jesus Christ that was the final sacrifice for our sins. So we remind ourself, we are forgiven by your blood. Lord, we ask you to forgive us anew for anything we've done wrong, for any way we've been thinking wrong, acting wrong, living wrong, forgive us, make us like you. In Jesus' name we pray, everybody said, amen, amen.

Let's take the cup together. Awesome, now just stretch forth your hand like this. Let me pray over you. I pray that this week, God would give you Holy Spirit eyes as you tune to his frequency, to see the world the way that he does. That you would begin to step into every day with a sense of adventure, waking up ready to build the kingdom, ready to follow him, and trusting that every need will be provided by the Lord. I pray that his grace will rest upon you, that it will bless you and your family. In Jesus' name, everybody said, amen, amen. Awesome, guys, thanks for being here. Enjoy the concourse. We'll see you, have a great weekend.