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Welcome to Mariners Church Weekend Message Podcast, inspiring people to follow Jesus and fearlessly change the world. Discover your purpose and get connected by visiting MarinersChurch.org or click the link in the show notes.

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Jesus, we have gathered for you and because of you, you are worthy. You are the lamb, the one who was slain, sacrificed. You offered yourself for us so we could have life. I pray that you'll meet your sons and daughters here today in this moment. Lord, some are filled with anger, some grief, some confusion. But Lord, you are the God of peace and comfort and clarity, and I pray you'll overwhelm us with your presence as we look at your word, as we hear from you. It's in your name I pray. Amen. So glad you're with us. You can grab a seat if we haven't met. My name is Eric. I'm the senior pastor here. I'm glad you're with us. I want to welcome all our congregations and also outside who is are watching now. I want to spend a couple of moments in prayer at the beginning of our time together. And then I'm going to take teach God's word, believing that the spirit of God is able to take the word of God and apply it to every single one of us, wherever we are in this moment. And then we'll end our time together taking communion. And so I'm going to take you on a journey over the next 35 minutes, but I want to begin by praying for our country and events and the implications of those events. On Wednesday, our hearts were broken over the brokenness and evil in the world. A school shooting, footage of crime on our phones, and the murder of Charlie Kirk, who would peacefully go to college campuses to dialogue with people, including sharing his Christian faith, as he was doing that day. I got home from the office on Wednesday to talk to my daughters and told my oldest, please don't watch the video of Charlie Kirk's assassination. Dad, I have already seen it. It is everywhere. She said, I'm so sorry that you've seen it. The soul is not supposed to see that, especially at 17. The soul wasn't designed to behold such evil. 24 years ago, K and I were overwhelmed with the evil and the brokenness of our world, with the evil attacks on our country on September 11, 2001. Those were evil attacks from outside of our country. Now we are seeing attacks from within our country. So this is a very heavy time as we're confronted with the evil and brokenness of our world. How do we respond as Christians? This is how we respond as Christians, which is different than how the world responds. First, we should not be surprised. Jesus told us that we would have trouble in this world, that there will be trials, there will be persecution, there will be hate. Jesus said, the world's gonna hate you because it hated me first. So take heart, though. Jesus says, I've overcome the world. So there's two truths that Jesus tells us. There's going to be evil, there's going to be hate, and trials and tribulation. But take heart, I've overcome the world. So as a Christian, those two truths impact how we grieve, even how we're filled with righteous anger. We grieve, but we don't grieve without hope, because we hold two truths together at the same time. We hold these two truths that the world is broken and that evil at times seems to win. And we hold the promises of our Savior. So first, we do hold to the truth that there is evil in the world, that there is brokenness. And the evil actually points you to God, not away from God. Now an atheist will say, look at the evil. Where is your God? CS Lewis responded by saying, you are only able to recognize that a line is crooked because you've seen a straight line. The only reason that you know to call that evil is because you know deep down, even if you don't realize yet, that you were created by God. The reason you're able to call that evil is because you were created for more than this broken world, more than this evil. And so even the brokenness points us to God. So we hold that the world is broken in evil, and yet at the same time, we hold the promises of God, promises that he is able to make good come out of evil, which he's already doing, is he's bringing people to himself through this evil. Listen, Christians, we hold to this belief. We believe the greatest evil in human history was when Jesus our Savior was crucified on a cross. He was the truly innocent one. And God used that evil to bring salvation to us. And so God is able to work good even from the worst kind of evil, to quote Diedrich Bonhoeffer. In fact, some of you are here this weekend because you've been rocked to your core. And you're. You're here. And I want you to know God's pursuing you. He wants you. He loves you. We're really glad that you're with us this weekend, that all of our congregations, we're really glad you're here. So we have brokenness, but we also hold to the promise that he can work good from evil. And we hold to this promise that as Christians, we believe that one day Jesus comes again, that he returns and he rights every wrong. He does the crooked lines and makes them straight. He wipes the tears from the sons and daughters of God and he makes everything right and new. A day is coming when Jesus returns and evil is done away with forever. Evil may have a short period, but evil does not win in the end. Our conquering king, our Savior, Jesus is the one who wins in the end. Jesus is so as Christians, we grieve, but we don't grieve without hope. But I do want us some. I want us to spend some time praying. And I will lead us. Gonna pray for those who are brokenhearted. I'm going to pray that God would restrain evil in our country, that he would be gracious to us. Will you pray with me now, God, I hold to your word in Psalms 34, verse 18 that you were near the brokenhearted. I want to pray for the brokenhearted right now. That you will overwhelm them with your peace that transcends all understanding. I lift up Erica Kirk and their two children to you right now. I ask that you will bless them, that you will meet all of their needs according to your riches and glory. That you will overwhelm them with your presence. Even as we're praying. I pray for the families that were impacted by yet another school shooting, that you will overwhelm them with your peace. In this moment, Lord, I want to lift up our country. I'm asking God that you will be gracious to us, have mercy on us as a people. I pray as you taught us to pray, Lord Jesus, that your kingdom would come and your will would be done. I pray that your will would be done in our country, Lord, turn our hearts towards you, that what you value would matter to us. Lord, I am overwhelmed in moments like this, the evil, the brokenness in our world. And I pray as the book of Revelation ends, come, Lord Jesus, and fix this broken place, Lord, return and make everything right and new. Lord, how long will you wait? How long will this go on, Lord? Fix this world. We pray. We beg you to make all things right. And new Lord Jesus, expand your kingdom. Continue to push back the kingdom of darkness with your kingdom, Kingdom of light, Lord. Restrain evil from our country, Lord, we beg, we pray. It's in your name I pray. Amen. I do want to celebrate. And as Christians, we can hold both of these moments together. One of the reasons I have hope is that the kingdom of Jesus is expanding the kingdom of Jesus is also the kingdom of light. And so we live in a world that is dark. But as Jesus enters any space, the darkness flees. And the kingdom of light, the kingdom of Jesus, is expanding. Last weekend, at all of our congregations Throughout Southern California, 478 people stood up, confessed faith in Jesus that they believe in him. 478 people. Yes. Massive. It's huge. Many of you at all of our congregations, Many of you. And I've been praying for you. Our team has been praying for you. And I want you to know, you may not have realized this because you received his forgiveness, but you also now have entered his kingdom, his everlasting kingdom. And you are now, according to Jesus, the light of the world. And so the reason I have hope is because the light of the world is expanding. And we then go into the darkness, and we bring his light, and we bring his hope. So you are the light of the world. All right. I now want to transition us. Can you make a turn with me to the Scripture and then I'll transition us again when we take communion? One of the things that makes you and me the light of the world in a dark world is our relationships are different and should be different than the world's relationship. So we're in a teaching series called Proverbs for your love life. And we're taking down some proverbs that the world hears. And by the way, the proverb that the world speaks to you impacts more than just your relationships, and it brings great damage. And I'm going to expose that here in a couple of moments. But the love lives of many people is not going the way that they planned. We often have plans for how everything is going to work in our lives and including our relationships. And they don't always go the way that we would plan them to go. Here's a metaphor of that. This couple planned their wedding. And like you, if you've planned a wedding, you wanted every detail to go exactly as you would hope. But things did not go as they planned. Take a look. It's a metaphor. It's a metaphor, maybe for your relationship. Things haven't gone as I have planned. In fact, Americans would say many that my love life has not gone as planned. You may not have known this, but marriage rates in America have declined to the lowest rate in American history. This is from the latest Census Bureau. In 1971, more than 70% of households were married. Now in the latest, it's 47% of households. Marriage rates are declining. This is the lowest they've Ever been in American history. Here's another study. Ipums people who are 18 to 55, the share of adults who are single without children. For the first time in American history, households single and childless adults outpaced households that are married with children. This has never happened before. And so if you are single and you're desiring to be married one day, you look at that chart and that data and it can feel really saddening because it, what is happening? What has happened? Marc Regeneras, he is a professor and a sociologist and an author as well. He did a long research study where he interviewed young adults throughout the US and his conclusion is this. He published this in his book Cheap Sex. He concluded the route to marriage, something the majority of young Americans still assert as a goal is, is more fraught with years of failed relationships than in the past. So he's saying to young adults who are single, I know many of you want to get married. That's what you're telling me. But it's harder now than it's ever been. Why? Why is it? What's happened? Some sociologists are saying that this message which you have heard, which impacts everything about your life is really impacting relationships. Not only marriage rates, but also marriages America. And here's the proverb that the world has told you. You're going to be able to finish the sentence, follow your heart. I mean we live hearing that. We have a steady diet of follow your heart, follow your heart. But maybe you haven't thought, how does this impact marriage rates and marriages? Well, here's how it's impacting marriage rates. It's causing marriage to be perceived in our culture as something that will stop you from following your heart. And as if you're gonna get married, you're gonna be less happy. Cause you're gonna have to give something up to be married to someone else. Brad Wilcox, he wrote the book Get Married to try to combat this. This is a recent research based book. He's a sociologist at the University of Virginia and he writes his book Pleading with Young Adults. Listen, I know you've heard that marriage will make you less happy, but I have a whole bunch of data that says marriage will make you more happy. But his message is met with a lot of resistance. In fact, he says that whenever he posts a video or gives a talk that a lot of people will say I don't wanna get married, it's gon me. Including Craig, who responded to a video that Brad Wilcox posted. And here's Craig. You're probably not going to like him that very much, but let's listen to what he has to say. Craig says, I would rather buy a $75,000 condo by the beach in Florida, working 10 to 20 hours a week with plenty of time and money to relax at the beach, sail, play golf and tennis as well as hang out with friends than marry a 30 year old woman and take care of her into old age by working 50 hours a week at a job I don't like. The fact is, my six pack abs have gotten me three far more sex with high quality women in their prime than a man's six figure income ever will. The sex is passionate and did not require begging like married men often have to do as the women are physically attracted to me rather than just interested in my ability to provide. You go Craig. You're awesome man. You and your six pack abs. And so Craig has heard a lot of hey Craig. Hey man. Follow your heart. Follow your heart. If you commit to someone, it's going to stop you from being you. It's not only young men, though. Young women also often are saying the same thing. This is from a New York Times article recently, is marriage a prize? This is written from a woman and she concludes, no, it's not a prize. She ends by saying, that's not to say I hate the institution of marriage or I'm morally opposed to it. I just don't feel like there's any need for it in my life. So follow your heart. Sociologists are saying this is actually hurting marriage rates. It's also hurting marriages. So half our church is single and half our church is married. So you who are married, if you listen to a lot of messages about follow your heart, it can hurt your marriage. Barbara Whitehead, she's a researcher and she wrote the book the Divorce Culture. She found in her research that one of the reasons that America has high divorce rates compared to other countries is we live under what she calls the movement from an obligation to others towards an obligation to self. That our preoccupation with ourselves has caused marriage to be viewed as a tool that you use to make you happy. And therefore, if marriage is no longer meeting your needs, you don't think about how dissolving the marriage or walking away from the marriage impacts others. You're only thinking about yourself. From this term sociologists have coined is a new term, expressive divorce. Essentially saying if divorce helps you better express your goals and your identity, then you should get we see this in an article like this in the New York Times. Divorce can be an act of radical self Love. And the author of the article says, my spouse was actually a great person. There was no adultery, there was no abuse. My spouse was great. My marriage just didn't serve my career goals any longer. My marriage just didn't serve who I want to be. I want you to see married couples how follow your heart is a dangerous message for your marriage. There's a research study done last year by Hebrew University, 100,000 people interviewed, and the researchers concluded that if you grow up in a culture that has a communal sense, where you think of the community, you're less likely to divorce. And if you grew up in a Western culture like the US where it's all about the individual and follow your heart, you have a higher proclivity to divorce. See, the reality is to be married, you need to become an expert to be healthy in your marriage. To have a healthy, happy marriage, you must become an expert in self denial. And if you're not married, you might think, well, that doesn't sound very fun. Deny yourself. And that's what Craig was saying. I don't want to deny myself. But to actually have a healthy marriage, which research is saying can actually bring greater happiness in your life, you have to be, as a married couple, experts in self denial, which is completely contradictory from what the world teaches. But as Christians, we should fully understand this because Jesus tells us the way to have real life is to deny yourself and find that the way for you to have a fulfilled life isn't to go down the path of self fulfillment. If you try to go down the path of self fulfillment, you never will actually be fulfilled. How has following your heart actually worked for you? It hasn't really delivered. CS Lewis said it this way. If you are looking for yourself, you'll never find yourself. But if you look for him, you'll find him and you'll get your real self thrown in. So you look for him, you go after him. This is really the message of the Christian faith. You deny yourself. You stop thinking that you're the one who can satisfy you, and you see that you have a savior, Jesus, who loved you, who entered this world for you, who died on a cross to remove your sin and your shame. And you follow him and he gives you real life. And so it's an upside down kingdom. This kingdom Jesus invites us to, it's a very different kingdom, but it brings true joy when we deny ourselves and follow after him. And, and for you to have a healthy marriage, it has to be you placing your spouse as more important than you, his needs, her needs as More important than your own. You esteem your spouse more than you esteem yourself. See, the vision that Scripture gives us for marriage is a very high vision. That marriage is not only about you, it's not a tool for you. That marriage is a beautiful picture that shows the world that God makes himself one with people. See, singleness shows the sufficiency of the gospel. This is not. Marriage is better than single. They both have a place in the kingdom. Singleness shows the sufficiency that Jesus is enough, that you don't need somebody else to complete you. But marriage shows the shape of the gospel. Two becoming one as God makes himself one with us. And so follow your heart is hurting. Listen, follow your heart is the source of a lot of evil in our world. Follow your heart is the source of a lot of relational pain. Follow your heart hurts people and it hurts you. Now, when we say follow your heart here in the US we typically mean your feelings. You hear this often. You may even be wrestling with a career change right now. And you're asking a buddy, hey, man, they're both great options. Which one should I go? And your friend says, how do you feel? Follow your heart. The problem is how I feel changes all the time. I wake up tomorrow morning and I feel like I want to live healthy. Kay makes these green smoothies, and I recommit every morning. I'm going to drink a green smoothie. I recommit my life to the green smoothie every morning. By the afternoon, I want ice cream after lunch. My feelings, they change. They change now. When the scripture speaks of your heart, the scripture's not only speaking of your emotions. The scripture's speaking of the center of who you are, the totality of who you are. But the scripture is saying you have to be careful if you really want to follow your heart, because your heart can lie to you. The prophet Jeremiah said it this way. The heart is more deceitful than anything else. It's incurable. Who can understand it? So if your heart is not being changed by Jesus, if your heart is not sensitive to his grace in your life and his truth, be very careful. Because your heart can lead you to places you don't really want to go. Your heart can lead you down paths of destruction. The heart is incurable unless Jesus is the one who rules and reigns over your heart. Jesus entered this world in Matthew 5. 8. Jesus said, Blessed are the pure in heart, they will see God. So if you surrender to him, then Jesus is the faithful shepherd who will guide your heart. And he always leads you in passive righteousness for his name's sake. He always leads you for your own good. But you want to be careful that you're only thinking. I can trust what's going on if Jesus is the one who's guiding me. So the world tells you, follow your heart. It's bad relationship advice, but it's bad advice in all of life. The proverbs, the word is different from the world. Let's look at what the word says. Here's a proverb for you. Proverbs, chapter 4, verse 20. My son, pay attention to my words. Now, the reason the passage says, my son is the book of Proverbs was the parenting manual for God's people in the Old Testament. So parents would use this among the Jewish people and, like, pull the kids up. My son, I need you to listen to this. Pay attention to my words. Listen closely to my sayings. Don't lose sight of them. Keep them within your heart, for they are life to those who find them and health to one's whole body. Very different from follow your heart. Notice. Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of. Notice. It is the source of. I want to say the 8:30, they did better in that moment than you guys did. Follow your heart. It's no. Follow your heart. Guard your heart. I'm gonna start over right now. I'm starting over. Here we go. Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life. Notice it's not only the source of your emotions, it's the source of your life. So the heart in the Hebrew understanding in the scripture is that your heart impacts everything about you. Your heart impacts the trajectory of your life, the totality of your life. So listen, my son, above everything else, you've got to guard your heart above everything else. Like, this is the most important thing you're going to do. You have to guard your heart. The word for guard in the original language carries the connotation that you're watching over something that is extremely valuable. This summer, I took my family on vacation, and Kay and I were walking with our daughters behind us. We stayed in, like, a vrbo. And we were walking down this busy street to get dinner, and Evie took. My youngest took this picture, and she sent it to Kay. And Kay loves the picture. Kay's like, look at it. I love this picture. You're watching over me. You're guarding me. You have me on the inside of the road, and you're there ready to take cars for me. I'm like, yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. Yeah. Now I will say, men, this is not princess treatment. That's bare minimum. That's bare minimum. You should guard the wife. You should watch over and protect your wife. Evidently, Kay tells me, I do it intuitively. I don't even think about it. I do it and I should do it. Because she's of extreme value. I should protect her. Listen, if you're the kind of guy who puts your woman closer to the car, you need to look yourself in the mirror and ask, what is wrong with me that I became this kind of guy and stop being that guy and become the guy, whether you're dating or marrying, that you're going to treat a woman with great care and respect and cherish her and honor her. That's how you should treat a woman. So I guard her because she's of great value. Now, what I don't guard is my trash cans when I put them on the street. So, Kay, on the street I guard trash cans. I don't guard. On Wednesday when I bring them out. I don't even think about which one goes in what order or if they're perfectly positioned. I know some of you are like, really like that. I'm just kind of put them out. I don't care if a card nicks them or backs into them or sideswipes them. I don't care. It's a trash can. Your heart, the wisdom writer says, above everything, that's what you must guard. Okay, how? Let's see how. Let's keep reading. Let's see how you must guard your heart. Don't follow your heart. Guard your heart. But how? Verse 24. Don't let your mouth speak dishonestly and don't let your lips talk deviously. Let your eyes look forward. Fix your gaze straight ahead. Carefully consider the path for your feet and all your ways will be established. Don't turn to the right or to the left. Keep your feet away from evil. My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Listen closely to my understanding so that you may maintain discretion and your lips safeguard knowledge. Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her words are smoother than oil, in the end she's as bitter as wormwood and as sharp as a double edged sword. Her feet go down to death, her steps head straight for Sheol. She doesn't consider the path of life. She doesn't know that her ways are unstable. This is God's word. Let me pull several points from this passage about how to guard your heart. I'm going to talk to you real quickly about Watch Your playlist. Watch your playground and watch who you play with. This is how you're going to guard your heart. Watch your playlist, your playground, and who you play with. Number one, watch your playlist. Look at verse 20. My son, pay attention to my words. Listen closely to my sayings. Don't lose sight of them. Keep them within your heart. Be really careful who you're listening to, where you're getting counsel from. If you're single and you're listening to podcasts or music or you're with groups of people and you constantly are hearing conversations or you're hearing lyrics that cause you to look at women as if they are property or as if they're something that should be conquered or a conquest. You aren't guarding your heart. You're filling your mind with trash instead of truth that seeps down to your soul and impacts who you are. So you need to watch your influences. Watch your playlist. If you're married and you're reading a book or you're listening to a podcast and you hear people say things like, if your spouse is no longer helping you become the best version of you, you should consider cutting your spouse out of your life. You should be really cautious about what you listen to because what you listen to impacts your heart and you want to guard your heart above all else. So watch your playlist. Now. What I'm about to say runs the risk of sounding judgmental and But I really feel compelled by God's spirit to say this. None of us are perfect. None of us have perfect marriages. None of us. But sometimes it seems to me like people who are spouting out relationship advice, whether friends or people who even jump on TikTok or a podcast, that some don't have great relationships themselves. I think it would be wise for you to ask before you listen to someone, do I want this person's marriage? Be wise about who you listen to. Be wise about what goes into your mind and your heart. Number one, watch your playlist. Two, watch your playground. This is where you go. Verse 26 the Wisdom Writer says, carefully consider the path of your feet and all your ways will be established. Be careful where you put your feet, careful what path you go on, careful where you go. And so there's places you go that stir your affections for Jesus. And there are places you go that hurt your affections for Jesus. And the reason that's important is because you know this. I really believe you know this. I think you believe that if Jesus is running and ruling over your heart, it's Best for you. Don't you believe that? Don't you believe that? He knows better for you than you know for you? So if you believe that, then as you follow him, he always has your best in your mind. And so you want to go to places that help your affections for him grow. So, young men, if you're constantly invited to a party or to a club or to a bar, and in those places, it's not that those places themselves, but in those places, you are constantly confronted with conversations that demean women or cause you to look at women lustfully. That's not best. Where you go for you to go married couples, this happens. You get invited to a Bible study group or a life group or a small group or a prayer experience or a book club, and you go the very first time. And instead of it being what it's supposed to be, it's a group of people getting together, complaining about their spouse. It's not best for you. Don't go there. Don't go to a place where the collective understanding is, let's get together and complain about our spouses. This is not best for your heart. So watch your playlist, your playground, and watch who you play with. These are the people you spend time with. Now, the Proverbs is the dad talking to the son. I have daughters, so I speak differently to my daughters. I say things like, listen, I want you to be careful. I want you to always care about the guy's integrity more than anything else. Listen, listen. Kay and I, we believed that we wanted our kids to come to us as early as they possibly could about dating and marriage and sex and relationships. And so we've had lots of conversations around the dinner table for lots of years, as they are now 17 and 15. And as a dad to a daughter, I would speak differently than what this passage is. As a dad to a daughter, I talk about, listen, I want you to integrity to be the most important thing for you. I want you to choose someone who loves Jesus, loves people and works hard. That's what I want for you. That's what I want for you. I want you to stay away from the players, the serial daters, the guys who are always bouncing from one relay. Stay away from those guys. They're not good for you. I'm asking you to stay away. You know I love you more than any other person in this world, girl. I love you so much. I want what's best for you. Well, the wisdom writer does too, but he's speaking to his son. Verse 3 and 4, though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey, and her words are smoother than oil. In the end, she's as bitter as wormwood. He's warning his son about the woman who on the outside looks great, but her integrity is bad. She has really sweet words, but she doesn't have strong, strong character. When I was a high school guys life group leader here at our church, I did for four years, took a group of guys from ninth grade all the way through 12th grade. It was really fun for me to see how their interest towards Girls changed from 9th grade to 12th. 12th grade. 9th grade, they were kind of interested. They would talk about someone who they thought was attractive. 10th grade, they're building up the courage to ask someone on a date. Junior year, they're going on a couple dates. Senior year, some of them are dating. And so I would always ask when they would talk about a girl. Hey, what about her attracts you to her? Like, what in her do you love? You would be surprised. I mean, it was awesome. Sometimes they would have really awesome things. They would say, I love how she treats people. Her faith inspires me. Sometimes they would say really shallow things like, she's hot. I mean, but. And so I would tell these guys, I'd say, listen, listen, man, I don't believe. I'm not saying you're gonna marry who you go with to prom or homecoming, but I do think you're training your heart about who you're gonna be attracted to. Now, this is controversial. I'll talk more about this next week. Cause some people say you can't help. The heart wants what the heart wants. You can't help. By the way, that was Woody Allen speaking about being attracted to an underage girl. So you have to be careful what who you quote. That wasn't in my sermon. I have no idea why that made its way there. You have to be careful. I have to be careful. I. I should look at my notes, which is one sticky note. I have one sticky note. I think you actually, you can train your heart on who you're attracted to and what you're attracted to to. And so if you're single, you want to be around people who help you think the right way. You want people in your life, if you're considering dating, who ask, really, you're going on a date with him. Tell me about his relationship with Jesus. Oh, you're thinking about pursuing her. What do you know about her? Tell me about her character. And if you're married, you want people in your life surrounding you who have a high view of Marriage who don't view marriage as a tool for self fulfillment, but understand that marriage is self denial. To give a beautiful and glorious picture to the world of how Jesus unites with us. And so be be really wise about who you play with. The reality is none of us have guarded our hearts perfectly. Adam and Eve were told to guard the Garden of Eden and they failed. We have all failed to guard our hearts. I have failed, all of us have. None of us have done this perfectly. The good news is we have a perfect Savior, Jesus, who entered this world and he is perfect and he changes our hearts, give us a new heart, and he doesn't, then give us the burden to guard our hearts on our own. He moves into our lives and if we follow him, he guards our hearts with us. In fact, Jesus said this. He was really quoting from Proverbs, chapter 4. The one who believes in me, as the scripture has said, will have streams of living water flowing deep within him. So Proverbs says, hey, guard your heart, source of life. Jesus says, all of you have failed. I've entered this world. You believe in me. I will enter your life and I will be the source of life for you. I'm the one who will bring streams of life to you. So guard your heart means you allow Jesus to be the one who rules and reigns over you. And you can, because he entered this world to be with you, to remove all of your sin and shame, to help us remember what Jesus did for us. We're going to take communion together. Jesus, I pray that as we take the bread and take the cup, that we with a sense of reverence and awe will be thankful for what you've done for us. Your sacrifice for us, Lord, use this time to refresh our hearts, to guard our hearts, to keep us to yourself, to encourage us. In your name, I pray. Amen. If you will peel the first layer, you can get to the bread. The second layer, you'll get to the cup. Go ahead and peel both, and then I will lead us to take communion together. We're taking a sacred meal that Christians have taken for the last 2000 years because of the death of Jesus. His death is the death of death, which means when a Christian dies, it's another reason that we have great hope in an evil and broken world. The Christian didn't die. The Christian just transitioned from this broken world to everlasting life. Because Jesus death was the death of death. For those of us who believe, the night he was betrayed, Jesus took the bread and he said, this is my body and as we hold the bread, we remember that on the cross Jesus absorbed all of our sin and our shame to give us everlasting life. As you look at the bread, you can remember that your sin's no longer on you. It's on Him. This is his body. Take and eat. Jesus then took the cup and he said, this is the new covenant of my blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins. You were forgiven if you believed in Jesus, not because of your goodness, but because of his grace. That he went to the cross for you, that he loved you before you ever thought of loving him, that he did not wait for you to try to make things right with him, that he made things right with you. He. He loves you. Your sin is forgiven if you're His. This is his blood. Take and drink. The first disciples after they took communion, they sang and we should as well. We should join what Christians have done for 2000 years. After we've taken the cup and the bread, we should sing, let's stand and confess our love for our Savior, Jesus, the one who was sacrificed for us. Let's sing to our Savior and our King Jesus, the one who satisfies and gives us real life. Let's sing to Jesus. All right, extend your hands, please, and let me pray a prayer of blessing over you as we go. Jesus, I pray you'd bless your sons and daughters this week, that you would remind them that you are gentle and approachable and that you love them. Cause your face to shine on them. I pray they will experience your mercy and your joy this new week. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Go in peace. Have a great week.