The Danger of Moral Reformation
Notes
Transcript
Opening Illustration
Opening Illustration
Beloved, this morning I would like to start by talking about the origins of one of the most famous schools in the world...
The school was named after a Christian minister and it’s motto was “Truth for Christ and the Church.”
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Additionally, this school’s “Rules and Precepts” read as follows:
(1) Every one shall consider the main end of his life and studies to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life.
(2) Seeing the Lord giveth wisdom, every one shall seriously by prayer in secret seek wisdom of him.
(3) Every one shall so exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day that they be ready to give an account of their proficiency therein, both in theoretical observations of languages and logic, and in practical and spiritual truths …”
At one point, 52% of this schools graduates became ministers!
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Today that school is Harvard University!
Yes, that Harvard...
And it has turned its back on its Christian roots.
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In fact, in the twentieth century, Harvard removed “Christ” and “Church” from its motto, and the present day motto simply says “Truth.”
This all started as the school permitted freedom in matters of theology and made no religious requirement of college officers.
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Although, at one point Harvard as a school understood God’s truth...
They did not surrender to that truth in their hearts...
And today you have an Ivy League school that has a great name in this world...
But in the eyes of God...
They have fallen very short!
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To see how far Harvard has fallen, consider this...
Just a few years back, the group of interfaith chaplains at Harvard elected Greg Epstein as their leader...
Unfortunately, Epstein does not believe in God at all and is noted as the “humanist chaplain” at the school.
So, an atheist was elected as the leader of the chaplaincy at Harvard.
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It is so sad to see a country or an institution or a church or an individual...
One day seem so faithful...
And the next completely lost.
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Often times we as humans put our faith in our own morals...
Thinking if we fix our bad habits we will be okay...
But the reality is that our vain efforts can’t save us...
Only saving faith in Jesus Christ leads to long lasting perseverance.
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So, please turn your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke.
We will conduct our study in Chapter 11 and focus on verses 24 through 26.
Our message this morning is titled, “The Danger of Moral Reformation”
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As you are turning to our passage...
Keep this in mind...
The message today will focus on the reality that cleansing from sin must be followed by obedience to God’s word, not complacency...
We can’t earn righteousness by our “noble” efforts...
We can only rely on the saving work of Jesus...
Which leads to His righteousness being imputed on us...
Meaning we put on His righteousness like putting on a pristine coat over our filthy rags...
In fact, His coat is His blood that washes our filthy rags and makes them brand new!
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So, this morning we will cover three main points:
1) The Unclean Spirit
2) The Return
And...
3) The Worse Condition
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Before we consider our text, please join me in prayer...
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Heavenly Father...
You are the Sovereign One...
You are the Perfect One...
And You are the All-Powerful One.
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We pray for Your will and desire to be accomplished...
We pray for Your holy Name to be honored in both Heaven and Earth...
And we pray at the perfect time, Your Kingdom will come in it’s fullness.
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Give us the supplies we need to survive...
Give us the tools we need to serve You...
And give us hearts that prioritize righteousness like Yours.
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Help us in our times of need...
Help us when we are being attacked by the enemy and his minions...
And help us when this world persecutes us for trusting in Your Name.
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Thank You for Your saving grace...
Thank You for Your patience...
And thank You for Your Son.
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And it is in Jesus’s name we pray all these things...
Amen.
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Let’s turn to our text for today:
Reading of the Text
Reading of the Text
24 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’
25 And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order.
26 Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.”
So, let’s look at our first point...
1) The Unclean Spirit
1) The Unclean Spirit
Verse 24: “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’
In order for us to understand our passage...
We need to look at the historical context...
We need to think and understand certain concepts like Jesus’ original audience.
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This leads us to particular beliefs about demons held in that time...
You see Beloved, demons were often associated with waterless places...
Apparently this was due to the fact that deserts were lacking rainfall and abundant crops...
And being devoid of those things meant that deserts are devoid of the blessing of God...
So, that is what came to mind to Jesus’ hearers when they heard Him say, “it passes through waterless places seeking rest.”
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Next, with that understanding, let’s look at what verse 24 is saying.
Jesus is painting a scene for us where a demon is exercised from a person...
It goes to roam in the desert seeking to some kind of rest but can’t...
So, the demon looks to repossess it’s original victim.
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In fact, look at what this verse says...
The demon calls it’s victim it’s home.
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This is so sad...
For after the person had the demon extracted from him...
He did not surrender to the Lord...
He did not genuinely believe...
And never became a born-again follower of the Lord...
For if he had...
The demon would have no empty house to go back to...
Just look at what it says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20:
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
We who hare born-again have the Holy Spirit in us...
And no demon can occupy that space in us for God now lives in us!
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Unfortunately, for the poor soul in this story...
He did not occupy his house with the Holy Spirit...
So, he left an open invitation for the demon to come back.
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As the New International Commentary on the New Testament on Luke says:
“Here the Lord uses the simile of a person from whom the demon has been cast out but who has not let the Spirit of God take possession of his vacated heart—in other words, one who desires to remain neutral.
Such neutrality is, however, impossible—the human heart is inhabited either by Christ or by Satan, and cannot remain empty.”
A stance of neutrality will no work!
Acting like a “good” person without surrendering to God is pointless!
Even if Jesus Himself cast out the demon...
If the formerly demon possessed will not humble himself and follow Christ...
He is in danger to find himself back in bondage.
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So, the point Jesus is making is that exorcism alone is not sufficient.
Exorcism only benefits when one then responds to God.
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Furthermore, this point that is being made here may help to evaluate a later miracle in Luke 17:11–19 which says:
11 On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.
12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance
13 and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”
14 When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed.
15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice;
16 and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan.
17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?
18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”
19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
You see Beloved, only one of the ten healed lepers is commended for having faith.
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So, someone may experience a magnificent miracle from God but that does not mean it will lead them to a life of faithfulness...
Only one of the ten healed praised the Lord...
It is not about the exorcism or the healing...
It is about what you are going to do after God has mercy on you!
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For the man who was previously demon possessed...
He cleaned up the outside of his life...
But not the inside...
And this takes us to our next point.
2) The Return
2) The Return
Verse 25: And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order.
When the demon returns to it’s original victim, it finds the him or the house clean and ready to be reoccupied.
So, nothing has been done to prevent reentry of this evil demon.
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You see, the man only cleaned up his act a bit...
He only improved his morals for a time...
But a relationship with the Lord he did not have!
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Beloved, this is what happens when you try to improve you life without the saving work of Jesus...
This is moralism...
And it can’t save anyone!
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As Albert Mohler once said:
“[Moralism is] the belief that the Gospel can be reduced to improvements in behavior.
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Moralism...promises the favor of God and the satisfaction of God’s righteousness to sinners if they will only behave and commit themselves to moral improvement...
We sin against Christ and we misrepresent the Gospel when we suggest to sinners that what God demands of them is moral improvement in accordance with the Law.
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Moralism produces sinners who are (potentially) better behaved.
The Gospel of Christ transforms sinners into the adopted sons and daughters of God.”
So, there is a major difference if we simply promote a message of moralism versus a message of the life giving work of Jesus...
There is a difference between moralism and the Gospel.
Moralism was never the message of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Old Testament prophets, or the New Testament apostles.
On the contrary, Jesus reserved His most scathing denunciations for the outwardly moral scribes and Pharisees, characterizing them as hypocrites, destined for eternal punishment in Hell.
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Beloved, pay attention to this truth...
Morality does not produce salvation...
Salvation produces genuine morality.
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The good morality one sees in the life of a believer is a byproduct of saving grace...
The good morality one sees in the life of a believer is a byproduct of genuine faith...
Yet morality without Jesus is a train with no engine...
It is a car with no fuel...
A plane with no wings...
A horse with no legs!
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Simply put, it is impossible to have real positive eternal changes without Jesus!
That is why the demon talks about the house, which is the person, as if he still owns it.
The major problem is that the evil spirit found the house “unoccupied.”
The man has cleaned up the exterior of his life but nothing more.
His inner life is empty and therefore open to even greater influence by evil demons.
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In fact, Jesus says that the new condition of this man is now far more devastating than when he was first possessed...
And this takes us to our third and final point.
3) The Worse Condition
3) The Worse Condition
Verse 26: Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.”
Here Jesus describes aftermath of what happens when someone in vain attempts to enact moral reform without ever being indwelt by the Holy Spirit...
Not only is it useless and ineffective...
But reform apart from regeneration eventually reverts the person back to a condition worse than one’s pre-reform behavior.
As John 5:14 says:
14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”
Likewise, look at what it says in 2 Peter 2:20-22:
20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.
22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
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The truth is, pursuing holiness only by divesting one’s life of sinful thoughts and actions creates a vacuum...
And that vacuum must be filled by either the Father’s gift of the Holy Spirit or it will be filled by the devil...
And in this case, the demon brought along seven more evil demons to wreck havoc on this man.
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Now, the number seven is significant here...
You see Beloved, the number seven is linked in Scripture with completion or perfection, here perhaps signifying the completeness of demon possession once the demon returns.
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As the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament on Luke says:
“The picture is of a person who has experienced a great act of God, but has not responded to it, since the occupied house is left empty.
The person has learned nothing and is still subject to the same demonic influence.
The tragedy is that, by not responding, the opportunity for a permanent reversal is lost.
Failure to have God enter in has left the person in peril.”
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Now, in chapter 12 of the Gospel of Matthew, we find a parallel account of this same illustration...
However, Matthew’s account reveals one more comment that Jesus made while sharing this vivid picture...
So, look with me at Matthew 12:45 which says:
45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.”
Notice the very end of that verse...
Jesus says, “So also will it be with this evil generation.”
The meaning here is that if this evil generation continues to reject Jesus, even after witnessing his divine authority over demons, their condition will be worse than if they had never seen him.
So, this parable warns against such stubborn disbelief.
By rejecting Jesus, the generation will become even more vulnerable to the forces of darkness.
In fact, this could also refer to the fall of Jerusalem, which occurred about 35–40 years after Jesus’ ministry in 70 AD.
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Again, as the New International Commentary on the New Testament on Luke says:
“From the context it is clear that the Saviour by means of this figure gives an earnest warning to the Jewish people.
Through being preached to under the Old Covenant, and also especially under John the Baptist’s baptism of repentance and through Jesus’ purifying influence during the time that He spent among them, many members of the Jewish nation had been practically freed from the presence of demoniacal powers.
Now, while He is still with them, they stand before the inescapable choice of believing in Him and letting Him enter completely into their national life, in order permanently to free them from evil, or of becoming the prey of the entry of Satan, thus to become more subject to his domination than ever before.
We know, alas, the wretched choice that the majority of the people made, and how bad, in the sequel, their “last state” truly was.
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This simile also refers to all other persons or nations who receive the opportunity of accepting Him in faith and who, instead of availing themselves of the opportunity, try to remain neutral and thus fall into the power of the Evil One.”
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Beloved, we talked about this during our last message...
We talked about it earlier in this message...
There is no avoiding it...
One can not be neutral when it comes to spiritual warfare...
We are either with Jesus...
Or we are a pawn of Satan.
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We are either free in Christ...
Or in bondage to the Devil.
As Ephesians 6:12 says:
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Spiritual warfare is the most savage war that we will ever be a part of...
We are not battling flesh and blood...
If we were we could at least see where our enemy was coming from...
No!
We are battling against evil spiritual forces...
We are battling against rulers and authorities...
We are battling against dark cosmic powers...
And if we don’t have the Holy Spirit in us...
We are going to get overrun!
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So, we must have biblical discernment...
We must not be seduced by the doctrines of this evil world...
As 1 Timothy 4:1 says:
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,
And in Hebrews 6:4–6 we find a warning for those who know the truth yet still knowingly reject God even until the very end:
4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit,
5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come,
6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
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It is one thing to be lost and then hear the truth and then follow Jesus...
It is another thing altogether to know that truth very well and knowingly reject allegiance to Jesus...
The consequences are eternally devastating.
Closing Illustration
Closing Illustration
So, as this message comes to a close...
I would like you to consider this:
In the 2012 Democratic National Convention (DNC), the Party removed the word “God” from their entire platform.
Realizing that it created an image problem, there was a motion to return the word “God” to their narrative.
The moderator asked for a verbal vote.
Those who witnessed the event saw three verbal votes, each time voting “No” to return the word “God” to the Democratic Party platform.
In a courageous attempt to please the moderates in the party, the moderator declared the motion “passed” and was booed by the crowd...
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Yes, the crowd actually booed God!
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How sad...
And while the DNC is not a religious institution, it illustrates how attitudes effect action in regards to falling away from God.
It sad to see one of the two largest political parties in our country openly reject God...
It is so sad because the only hope any of us have is found in the Son of God, Jesus Christ...
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For it is only through Him that we can make it to the Father and experience eternal life...
For He laid down His life for us...
He took the place of sinful rebels...
He took on the whole wrath of God while on the cross at Calvary.
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And it is now about Christ’s sacrifice that we bring our attention to.
Communion
Communion
As we begin our communion service, I want to invite every genuinely born-again believer in the room to partake in this act together.
If you do not yet know the Lord and do not have a relationship with Him...
Or if you are under church discipline from this church or another church...
Then I will ask that you wait until you have resolved your issue before participating.
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As you came in you should have picked up a communion packet if you are joining us.
This has both the bread and juice in a convenient package.
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If you have not received one of these, please raise your hand and someone will get you one.
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Before we join in communion together, I would like us to consider Ephesians 2:1-8:
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
As you are meditating on that, please consider this:
At a comparative religions conference, the wise and the scholarly were in a spirited debate about what is unique about Christianity.
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Someone suggested what set Christianity apart from other religions was the concept of incarnation, the idea that God took human form in Jesus.
But someone quickly said, “Well, actually, other faiths believe that God appears in human form.”
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Another suggestion was offered:
What about resurrection? The belief that death is not the final word.
That the tomb was found empty.
Someone slowly shook his head.
Other religions have accounts of people returning from the dead.
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Then, as the story is told, C.S. Lewis walked into the room, tweed jacket, pipe, arm full of papers, a little early for his presentation.
He sat down and took in the conversation, which had by now evolved into a fierce debate.
Finally during a lull, he spoke saying, “what’s all this rumpus about?”
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Everyone turned in his direction.
Trying to explain themselves they said, “We’re debating what’s unique about Christianity.”
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“Oh, that’s easy,” answered Lewis.
“It’s grace.”
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The room fell silent.
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Lewis continued that Christianity uniquely claims God’s love comes free of charge, no strings attached.
No other religion makes that claim.
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After a moment someone commented that Lewis had a point, Buddhists, for example, follow an eight-fold path to enlightenment.
It’s not a free ride.
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Hindus believe in karma, that your actions continually affect the way the world will treat you; that there is nothing that comes to you not set in motion by your actions.
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Someone else observed the Jewish code of the law implies God has requirements for people to be acceptable to him and in Islam God is a God of Judgement not a God of love.
You live to appease him.
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At the end of the discussion everyone concluded Lewis had a point.
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Only Christianity dares to proclaim God’s love is unconditional.
An unconditional love that we call grace.
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Christians boldly proclaim that grace really has precious little to do with us, our inner resolve, or our lack of inner resolve.
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Rather, grace is all about God and God freely giving to us the gifts of forgiveness, mercy, and love.
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So, Beloved...
Let’s all take a moment right now in silent prayer to thank the Lord for all He did for us...
(MOMENT OF SILENCE)
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Tom will you pray before we partake in the bread:
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The Word of God says in Luke 22:19:
19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
(TAKE THE BREAD)
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Adrian will you pray before we partake in the cup:
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The Word of God says in Luke 22:20:
20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
(TAKE THE CUP)
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With that we conclude the communion portion of our service.
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer
Let’s pray...
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Heavenly Father...
If anyone hearing this message right now does not know You in a saving way...
Please, give them a Damascus Road experience...
And renew their minds.
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I appeal to Your Name’s sake!
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For those hearing this message who already know You...
Remind us that when You saved it it had nothing to do with our ability...
For we were saved by the free gift of grace.
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Again, I appeal to Your Name’s sake!
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It is in Jesus’s name we pray all these things...
To God be all the glory.
Amen.
