Hallelujah, Jesus is my life. 1 Timothy 1.12 I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointed me to his service. Though formerly I was a blasphemer, we were running our hell-bound race. Though formerly we were blasphemers, persecutors, and insolent opponents. But I, but we received mercy, because we had acted ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord overflowed for me, for us, with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am, who we are, the foremost. But we received mercy for this reason, that in me, in us, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the king of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Amen.
Let's take our seats. For the kids, you can head out to Church of Ministry. And to start this morning, start this portion of the service, is Ben here today? He's out there? Well, Ben's out there serving, which is what he does so much. And if we just take a second, we had a wonderful trunk retreat here on Friday night. It was so much fun. He gave out a lot of candy. So if we can thank, if we can give a round of applause to thank Ben, show our appreciation for him, for leading that for us. Also, Chris was huge with that. We had a lot of help, but Ben really took the pointed spear on that one and led that. So we really appreciate him for that. I think that's what I got for right now. And we do have our potluck after we'll give directions towards the end of the service for what to do. And we'll let you know how the flow is going to work and all that.
So let's get into our message for this morning. So we're going to be talking 1 Timothy 4, 6 to 16. 1 Timothy 4, 6 to 16. The title of today's message is Keep a Close Watch. Keep a Close Watch. So rinse your cottage cheese. Rinse your cottage cheese. Probably not the statement you expected today's sermon to start with. Let me explain. If you've read the book Good to Great, you know where I'm going. In the book Good to Great, Jim Collins dedicates Chapter 6 to discussing what an organizational culture of discipline looks like. Ultimately, to promote business success, within the chapter, he recounts the story of a world-class triathlete named Dave Scott. Dave Scott. Who won the Hawaii Ironman competition six times. So this is a quote from Good to Great. In training, Scott would ride his bike 75 miles, swim 20,000 meters, and run 17 miles on average every single day. Dave Scott did not have a weight problem. Yet he believed that a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet would give him an extra edge. So Dave Scott, a man who burned at least 5,000 calories a day in training, would literally rinse his cottage cheese to get the extra fat off. Now there's no evidence that he absolutely needed to rinse his cottage cheese to win the Ironman. That's not the point of the story. The point is that rinsing his cottage cheese was simply one more small step that he believed would make him just a little bit better. One more small step added to the other small steps to create a consistent program of super discipline. Super discipline. Reminds me a little bit of Mr. Hegarty over there. If you know his burpee routine.
So Dave Scott certainly kept a close watch on his diet, on his exercise routine, on his physical progress. He's a picture of effort and self-discipline and ambition for driving results. And he did this to win the Hawaii Ironman, not an unimportant accomplishment. Today, however, we're going to be discussing an infinitely more important topic. An infinitely more important endeavor. Keeping a close watch. Keeping a close watch on ourselves. As we run the Christian race. Our faith. Our beliefs. Our spiritual pursuits. We will see just how vital. Watching and disciplining ourselves will be for our own joy in God. And the good of others. Each other. Our brothers and sisters. In the Lord. We won't be stressing the stewardship of our physical bodies to the lengths of rinsing our cottage cheese. Through physical training. Though physical training will be encouraged. Rather, we're going to examine how we can care for our souls. In a way that will help us reap as much God-honoring fruit as possible for this life and eternity.
So let's get into it. For today, to start, I'm going to walk us through the first part of our passage with some brief comments. About a few of the key ideas. Then for the bulk of the message, we're going to be focusing on verses 15 and 16. As I really think those verses are going to be, or we're going to mine, the most value in learning how we can keep a close watch on ourselves.
Before we go any further, though, let's read the passage and pray. 1 Timothy 4, 6-16. If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. Being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather, train yourself for godliness. For all bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way. As it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end, we toil and strive. Because we have our hope set on the living God. Who is the savior of all people, especially of those who believe. Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example. In speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things. Immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch. On yourself. And on the teaching. Persist in this. For by so doing, you will save both yourself and your hearers. Let's pray. Dear God, you are the king of the universe. And you are our father. We thank you for that. We thank you for opening that door for us through Jesus. For you to be our father. And Lord, you are worthy of our lives, as we were just saying about. Father, help us to listen now. Help us to commune with you through your word. Help us to understand and apply this. May your spirit brood over this message. May it empower this message. Because apart from your spirit, we can do nothing. So please, bless this time now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.
6 · The pastor unpacks verse 6 by recapitulating earlier themes from 1 Timothy: guarding against false teaching, embracing the gospel, praying, upholding gender roles, qualified eldership, and receiving creation with thanksgiving
All right. Our passage today begins with the following. If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. So this opening encouragement serves as a wonderful opportunity for us to begin today by remembering, by remembering so much what we've learned throughout the letter of 1 Timothy to date. So let's do a quick flow through what we learned to date. Paul is calling Timothy to put these things before the brothers. So let's remember. So he's calling Timothy to warn the brothers to watch out for false teachers, for those who would teach myths and endless genealogies that promote speculation, not stewardship from God, those who would boast in their family lineage, especially in particular Jewish heritage. He's calling Timothy to encourage brothers to fully embrace the gospel of our salvation, which we read about after worship. He's calling Timothy to encourage brothers to pray vigorously, to embrace our God-given gender roles within the church, to ordain only those qualified for ministry, and to receive God's created gifts like food and marriage with thanksgiving. For this is obedience that flows from gospel doctrine. This is how the household of God is to function.
7 · Word study on "train" (gymnazo) in verse 7
Following that, if you follow along, verse 7, Paul strongly commands Timothy to avoid irreverent silly myths and rather train himself for godliness. Train himself. So the Greek word for train, being gymnazo, which our word gymnasium comes from, signifies that Timothy was to work hard at godliness, that he was to exert effort, as we'll see later in the passage, truly practice gospel behaviors in line with godliness. If you're familiar with Allen Iverson, this is not practice who needs practice. This is practice. Truly practice gospel behaviors in line with godliness. So for now, imagine an Olympic gymnast who day in, day out, with extreme devotion, trains their body, their mind, and their will to perform amazingly difficult feats. That is how Timothy was called to train for godliness.
8 · Brief personal testimony about physical fitness
I've enjoyed my full body Friday workouts at Planet Fitness with some of the guys. It's been good. It's been good for me. Obviously still have some work to do.
9 · Exposition of verse 8's comparative claim: bodily training has value, but godliness has value in every way
All right, Paul goes on to comment that bodily training is of some value, but he also emphasizes that godliness is of value in every way. So now as alluded to earlier, exercise and physical fitness is certainly important and good and commendable. Physical fitness has so many benefits. It makes you stronger. It empowers you to be able to do things that you couldn't do if you weren't in good shape. It helps you think better. It's truly a good thing to do. However, for Paul, who's writing on behalf of the Lord, physical training pales in comparison to godliness. As full-orbed godliness holds promise for this life and for the life to come. For him, physical training, for Paul, physical training was important, but godliness was of the utmost importance. And we're going to spend time about how we can train for godliness.
10 · Exposition of verses 11-14
All right, finally, last kind of initial point. In verse 11, follow along. Paul instructs Timothy to command and teach these things and let no one despise him for his youth. However, Paul commands him repeatedly to consistently, fully, boldly, to lay out the gospel and the right behavior that flows from gospel truth. He was not to neglect the gift that he had, which was most likely a teaching gift. He was to use it, to develop it, to grow it faithfully, to serve his congregation and ultimately the Lord. So that's the beginning of the passage. It's a highlight of the first paragraph or so.
11 · The pastor announces his focus on verses 15-16 and extracts three imperatives that will structure the remainder of the sermon: (1) practice and immerse, (2) watch yourself and the teaching, (3) persist
Now we're going to focus on verses 15 and 16 and really spend the bulk of our time here in verses 15 and 16. Because there's just so much truth and personal application that we can mine from these verses. So let me read them again. Practice these things. Immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this. For by so doing, you will see both yourself and your hearers. All right, three major commands. Here's the three major points for today. Practice and immerse yourself. Watch yourself in the teaching and persist in this. Practice and immerse. Watch closely and persist.
12 · Pastoral framing of application
Now to service today, by focusing on these two verses, I'm going to draw most of our application to personal, family, and friend-based ministry. If we were a group of pastors, I'd preach this message differently with a different focus aimed at encouraging gospel ministry and leadership within the church. But while we're not all overseers of a church, we are, we are all overseers of our own hearts and lives. Some of us are overseers of families, of wives, of children, and therefore, we all have an active ministry, either over ourselves or beyond, into our families, our discipleship relationships, our community groups, and beyond. And we've been talking a lot about this at men's meeting. On Wednesday night, we've been talking about this. Man, a prophet, priest, and king in their home. We talked about this at the men's retreat, and hopefully this will be a good review for the ladies as well. I'm sure you've heard a lot about what we've been talking about. But again, we all have a ministry. Let's make sure we're keeping a watch on ourselves for our ministry, the fruitfulness of our ministry.
13 · Word study on "practice" (meletio) in verse 15
So, all right, first command, practice and immerse. Practice and immerse. Practice. The Greek word here for practice, meletio, literally means to care about, to meditate on, to ponder deeply. Care deeply. It's related to the Greek, melo, but it also means to care about. It's used in 1 Peter 5, 7. 1 Peter 5, 7, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. We can cast all our anxieties on God because he cares for us. Same word, care. Related word, care. So just imagine how much God cares for you. He made you, he sustained you, he sacrificed his son for you. Truly God cares for you, he cares for us. It's with that earnestness, that zeal, that dedication, that we are to practice, that we are to practice these things. To hold fast to and cherish the truths and behavioral implications of the gospel. We are to ponder them deeply, to meditate upon them, to hold them dearly.
14 · The pastor brings in Philippians 4:8-9 to reinforce the command to practice — both through meditation ("think about these things") and imitation ("what you have seen in me, practice")
Consider what Paul writes to the Philippians in Philippians 4, 8-9, familiar verse. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there's any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, here's that word, practice these things. Only God of peace will be with you. And not only are we called to wholeheartedly practice the gospel and its implications, but Paul, and by extension, God, this is God speaking through Paul to the letter of Timothy, to us, he calls us to immerse ourselves in gospel teaching. Immerse. Great word.
15 · Word study on "immerse" (isti) in verse 15
So immerse comes from the Greek isti, which is related to the word amy, which literally means to be occupied in, to give oneself wholly to, to be absorbed in. So consider, what occupies your mind and heart? What are you giving yourself wholly to? here in this passage, Paul is calling us to be occupied and to be absorbed with, to give ourselves wholly to the truths and implications of the gospel. Coupled with the word practice, he's instructing us to make these things first in our lives. Priority one. We're to seek them first and foremost.
16 · Concrete application of "practice and immerse
So what does that look like? It's all very kind of ethereal and theoretical. Let's get practical, let's get nitty-gritty to ponder the church to be absorbed by these things. Well, in our pursuit of godliness, we're not just to nibble on a verse here or there once in a while. and as good as Sunday morning is for spiritual nourishment, we should not just rely upon a weekly meal of sermonic truth. It's just not enough to feed our souls day in, day out with the wear and tear of our daily responsibilities. We need more than that. We are to immerse ourselves in the truths of the gospel and its implications. We are to devote ourselves to church, absorb ourselves in the word daily. This can take the form of daily devotions or dedicated time to study, listening to sermons or podcasts in the car or on a walk, talking about the word with our friends, our spouses, our children, and others, verse memorization. In addition to the public spiritual disciplines we enjoy through church, small group, and Bible study attendance, we've got to keep ourselves practicing and immersed in the word and truth.
17 · The pastor unpacks the purpose clause of verse 15: "so that all may see your progress
Now, why should we do this? Why should we do this? The verse is very clear. Verse 15, so that all may see your progress. Verse 15, so that all may see your progress. we don't progress in our faith to show off, to make a big, long, impressive prayer or to make the perfect point a community group, right? We don't, it's not why we do this. But we should be running toward the Lord, we should be practicing and immersing ourselves in the truths of the gospel and its behavioral implications in a way that people see our growth. That over a month or three months or six months people sense, wow, this guy is serious about the Lord. And wow, she's growing and maturing. He isn't the same person he was a year or two ago. She loves the Lord. He's grateful for the gospel. He's sharing good wisdom. He's making godly choices. She's rubbing off on others in a good way. She's a godly influence. She's investing in others and they're growing too. Again, we don't do this for our own glory. We're to show off. But people should be noticing our growth in godliness.
18 · Two illustrations of visible progress: (1) men at the men's meeting expressing desire to pray and read scripture more, and (2) the pastor's experience running a 5K, where the collective momentum of other runners helped him finish
What an encouragement to see guys at the men's meeting Wednesday night, evidence of grace, digging in, saying, I want to pray more. I want to read scripture to my family more. That's progress. What an encouragement to my soul to say, yeah, I need to do that more too. And it's so great to see other guys doing it. It's a run. I ran a 5K back in like April or something. I hadn't run a mile, like straight up mile in years, but there were like, what, thousands of people around me running together? I ran that first mile with that 5K and I did it. And I could keep on going because other people were progressing around me. That helped me to progress too.
19 · Exposition and application of verse 16's command to "keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching
So practice and immerse yourselves so that all may see your progress. all right, second key command for today's message come from verse 16. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. here, Paul calls us to watchfulness, to watch closely, to healthy self-awareness, to notice, to pay close attention to how you are doing. We watch our lives. Are we growing spiritually like we just talked about? Are we stewarding our body? Are we shepherding our family? Are we investing in the local church? Are we excelling in our vocational callings? If so, praise God. Praise God. God. That's awesome. But if not, why not? Is there a weakness, a distraction, a pursuit, a sin that is hindering our walk with the Lord? And we must especially watch our teaching. Now listen to this. We are constantly teaching each other through our example and through our words. What are we teaching with our lives? What's coming out of us, our choices and our words? Are we demonstrating everyday godliness? Everyday godliness. In the mundane choices and statements and tasks of our lives. And if you thought studying good doctrine was simply for pastors, well as we're seeing through this series, good gospel doctrine affects our lives. It affects our behavior. It affects our priorities. It affects our choices. Good, sharp, clear, biblical doctrine clarifies our thinking, gives us the proper life perspective, aids our prioritization. it's a lamp to our feet. Remember 2 Timothy 3, 16. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training, for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but we must be studying scripture, all of its teaching, all of its doctrine, whether it be systematic theology, which can be challenging, but also amazingly valuable, amazingly valuable, or practical, applied theology, like a good marriage or parenting video on something like Canon Plus or right now media. You've got to be discerning, but even watching a video of someone teaching throughout the week can be helpful. But if we're watching our lives and teaching, making sure it is aligned with the Bible and with the gospel, we must be studying what the Bible teaches.
20 · The pastor addresses the purpose clause of verse 16: "you will save both yourself and your hearers
Why? Again, the scripture speaks clearly to the why in this passage. It's to save yourself and your hearers. To save yourself and your hearers. And that sounds kind of strange. Didn't Jesus save us? This is what Paul's saying. Imagine your child is allergic to bee stings and a fortune gets stung by a bee. You immediately pull out the EpiPen and administer its medicine. Yes, I've been told to take your child still to the hospital. After that, just get checked out. But at that moment, are you saving your child? Well, in a sense, yes. In a sense, no. Truly, the medicine is saving your child. But in that moment, God is using you to administer that medicine. To serve as an instrument in the hands to save your child. To save your child. Remember, like I mentioned earlier, we all have a ministry. We're all, all influencing each other. Husbands, you have a wife to lead and invest in and cultivate and care for. Wives, you have a husband to help and support. Fathers and mothers, your children are listening to you, watching you, learning from you. what are you teaching them? Intentionally and not so intentionally. What kind of a friend are we? What does our ministry look like? What do people hear from us when we open our mouths, when we make choice, when we live our lives? Do people love the Savior more because of us? Are people increasingly thrilled to be saved because of our words? I know, high bar, but isn't that what God is worthy of? Do people cherish the gospel more because of our actions? Do people make better gospel-informed choices because of our examples? To do this, we must watch our lives and teaching closely. So let's watch our lives. Let's watch closely.
21 · The pastor introduces the third command — "persist" — and asks what hinders persistence
Last major point. Finally, again, verse 16, persist in this. Persist. If we're going to be fruitful Christians, if we're going to advance God's kingdom, we must persist in these things. It's one thing to talk about. It's one thing to start them. Have a good Monday. Have a good Tuesday. What about Wednesday? Thursday? Friday? We've got to persist. Now, what's going to stop us? What's going to stop us from persisting in these things? I've got four that I want to call out. Four that I want to call out. I'm going to throw some jabs here. So just follow along with me. Come along with me for this ride. We're all going to get a little bit, a little bit jabbed up. All right. The first is hindrances persisting. Is laziness or sloth? Laziness or sloth? Just consider the warnings against sloth in Proverbs. Proverbs 12.24. The hand of the diligent will rule while the sloth will be put to forced labor. Proverbs 12.27. Whoever is slothful will not roast his game, but the diligent man will get precious wealth. Consider. Do you want to rule spiritually? Rule over your own flesh? Rule over your own sin? Rule over the temptations of the world? Or do you want to be a slave to these enemies that bring only sorrow and death? Also, there's precious wealth. There's precious wealth. Spiritual gold to be mined by studying the scriptures, by practicing Paul's teaching, by immersing ourselves in the truths of the gospel. Spiritual gold. May we diligently set our pickaxes into the mind that is the word of God and go after that gold. So, don't be lazy. Don't be lazy.
22 · The second hindrance is apathy or indifference
Second hindrance to persisting is apathy, sometimes minor indifference. You're not going to apply this message today. We won't persist if we don't care about our own souls. If we don't care about our wife's soul, our children's soul, our friend's soul. And I know this is not the case for the majority of us in this room. We care about the things of the Lord for ourselves, our families, our church, and the generations to come. But just consider, is your heart warm toward the things of the Lord? And are you willing to put in the work to keep a close watch on yourself for your own good and the good of those around you? Be willing. Care. Don't be apathetic about your spiritual state. Care.
23 · The third hindrance is blatant sin
All right, third. Blatant sin will keep you from persisting in the commands of this passage. Dwight O. Moody is credited with saying the Bible will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from the Bible. Is there a blatant sin? Are you harboring coveting? Is there any kind of sinful anger? Are you looking at anything on the internet that's not serving your soul? Are you gossiping in any way? Whatever that sin is, cut it off. Confess it to the Lord. Bring it to light with a trusted friend or two. But do whatever you can to cut it off because it is hindering your ability to watch your life and doctrine closely. It's a distraction. Cut it off. Seek the Lord with all your heart.
24 · The fourth hindrance is busyness
All right, last endurance. Simply busyness. Busyness. So many of us are just so busy. We're seeking to fit in family life, school and the kids, church life, take care of the house, contributing to our jobs. Who has time for a gospel-centered marriage book or even crack open the grist of systematic or even just personal devotions. Church, we need to prioritize to make the time. What are the good things in life that we are pursuing that just may not be as essential as the things that will help us to tend to our souls and strengthen our souls? Frankly, if we have time, I love to shift around my fantasy football team, if I got five or ten minutes for that, I got five or ten minutes to read a psalm. If we have time for youth sports, if we have time for another movie or a daily ten-minute scroll on Instagram, we've got the time. We've got ten or fifteen minutes to do our devotions, to read the Bible, to pray for our spouse and children. What's our time? How are we investing our time? Guys, this is a life or death, eternally impactful call. Where we invest, our time will reap fruit. It will reap spiritual strength or spiritual weakness over the days and weeks and months and years. Where are we planting the seeds of our time? Where are we investing? our lives. For ourselves, for our marriages, for our children and our friendships and think even generationally. Even for the generations. Make that investment. Prioritize that time. Use your time to immerse yourself in the things of God. And also remember Deuteronomy 6. You can do all these things as you're walking along the way. As you're driving to the next upward practice. As you're going to Boy Scouts. Put on a podcast. Put on a sermon. Do it as you're going along the way. It's not either or. It can be both and. But we have to be intentional. We can't go with the flow. We can't coast. We've got to make these choices. Put the stakes in the ground and say I'm going to listen to some scripture on the way to work today.
25 · The pastor frames the choice between four vices (laziness, apathy, latent sin, busyness) and four corresponding virtues (diligence, care, holiness, biblical prioritization)
So. Laziness. Apathy. Latent sin. Busyness. Verses. Diligence. Care. Holiness. And biblical prioritization. Which will you? Which will I? Which will we choose? Those choices will determine whether or not we're hearers only of this message or truly doers and truly persist in the teaching of this passage again over the days or the weeks or the months or the years. The choices we make today will in large part determine the people we will be six months from now. May we be stronger. May we have progressed in the faith for the glory of the Lord.
26 · The pastor summarizes the sermon's call: avoid false teaching, train for godliness, practice, immerse, remain in sound doctrine
In conclusion we must remember the instructions of 1 Timothy. We must avoid false teaching. We must train for godliness. We must practice. We must immerse. We must remain in good doctrine. Biblical doctrine. Gospel doctrine. Then and only then will people see our progress will we save ourselves and our hearers will God receive the glory that he is so worthy of. Dave Scott that cottage cheese guy he was diligent. He cared. He prioritized toward his goal of Iron Man success. don't we have an infinitely greater call. May we press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3.14 so it may be so amongst us here may we live and speak and act in accordance with the truth of the gospel. The gospel that set us free from guilt and condemnation and eternal death and opens up for us a life of holiness and freedom and day by day moment by moment communion with the Lord. Is there anything sweeter? May we be willing to work hard to put in the time and effort to grow in godliness. May we do it all with a heart that desires to live lives worthy of our great God and Savior and a heart that loves each other with a depth and vigor and truth that will continue to sharpen one another so that all inside and outside the church may see our progress and give glory to the Lord.
27 · Closing prayer after the sermon body
Let's pray. Dear God as we said in the beginning we'll say again you are king of the universe and you are a father that loves us. We thank you for being both. You are worthy of so much and we thank you that you also in your worthiness you love us because Jesus died for us forgave us all of our sins and has now put his spirit your spirit into our hearts spirit of the resurrection to empower us to live out these commands. So we thank you that we don't do it ourselves we thank you that we don't do it for ourselves we do it for your glory and your power and your strength. So I pray that you'd fill us with your strength. Give us all a new fresh power to obey your commands in light of the fact that we are totally accepted by God by you because of what Jesus did for us. So we thank you God I thank you for this precious people Providence Community Church I just pray that you bless our church this morning and this week and in the months and years ahead. Praise in Jesus name. Amen.
28 · The pastor transitions from the sermon to the communion liturgy, signaling that he will return to 1 Timothy 1:15-17 to frame the sacrament around the gospel
Alright. So for communion this morning I want to bring us back to 1 Timothy 1 15-17 to the gospel.
29 · Communion exhortation
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost but I receive mercy for this reason that in me as the foremost Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as example to those who are to believe in him for eternal life to the king of the ages immortal invisible the only God the honor and glory forever and ever amen Jesus Jesus is king of the ages and he came into the world to save us to cancel our guilt to cover our shame like we sang about and to make the great God of the universe our loving father praise God and he did that for sinners for people like you and like me who haven't trained for God and godliness like we should who haven't practiced and immersed themselves in the truth like we should and who just haven't loved God as we should but thank God all that sin of omission and commission all that sin has been forgiven wiped clean but once we were red with our sin stained red now we are white as snow in Christ so now we can walk forgiven justified and adopted so now we can walk empowered empowered by the spirit to fulfill this great call in our lives to watch our lives and teaching closely guys we have the spirit of God inside of us so let's come to the table freshly amazed that Jesus Jesus died for us that we are now God's children that there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and inspired afresh to live lives worthy of the king of the ages immortal invisible the only God who alone deserves honor and glory forever and ever
30 · The pastor reads the institution of the Lord's Supper from 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 and invites the congregation to partake
1st Corinthians for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread and when he'd given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this remembrance of me in the same way also he took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes let us come and partake of the table and partake skill skill