Repent or Perish! Luke 13:1-9

Repent or Perish Luke 13_1-9

Tue, Feb 04, 2025 8:47AM • 35:33

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

repent or perish, sin and tragedy, broken world, Jesus' sacrifice, eternal purpose, Galileans' tragedy, Tower of Siloam, Hurricane Katrina, Sutherland Springs, air crashes, sinfulness consequences, godly repentance, worldly sorrow, Lord's Supper, urgent repentance

Preacher Josh Slater

Gist

Josh Slater reflects on the question of suffering, referencing historical tragedies like 9/11, the 2004 tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and recent air crashes. He emphasizes that while bad things happen due to sin, accidents, a broken world, and our own sinfulness, Jesus offers hope and purpose. Slater outlines four reasons for suffering and stresses the importance of repentance. He explains that true repentance involves confession, contrition, and a change of heart. Slater concludes by urging the congregation to examine their own hearts, emphasizing that repentance is necessary for salvation and that the Lord's Supper is for those who have accepted Jesus.

Examine your own heart and confess any sins.

Turn away from sin and repent, trusting in God's grace and mercy.

Participate in the Lord's Supper as a time to reflect on Jesus' sacrifice.

Amen, go ahead and have a seat. Real quick. We're going to read some scripture real quick. Is that hope. He's the one we hold on to. He is the anchor of our soul. He is the anchor of our faith. Lord, I just thank you that it is through his work that we have been made right with you. It is through his work that we have our sins forgiven. Is through his work that we can stand before you, we can pray and we can lift up one another. We can worship you in spirit and in truth. We pray all this in Jesus name, Amen. Go ahead and have a seat. If you have your Bible. We've been going through the book of Luke for I think this is sermon number 52 I think something like that. We started in January of last year, with a couple breaks in between. But anyway, so we're going to be in Luke chapter 13, verses one through nine. As I was thinking about this sermon, I couldn't help but think about my senior year in high school. My senior year in high school was 2001 It began in 2001 and I was, I remember the morning of September 11, 2001 I was sitting in a class that I took kind of as a joke, but I wanted to have an easy, easy grade and an easy class. And it was called film as art. And basically we just watched movies and talked about it. It was a great class, although it was difficult because we were watching stuff in the morning, right? You know, we started school at 730 so wasn't always conducive to watching movie environment because most of us were still tired. Anyway, that's neither here nor there, but I was sitting in that class and the bell period, they were hour and a half long classes. The bell period rang for us to leave class, and the teacher comes in and says, Hey, don't leave yet. And we had no idea what was going on. We didn't really, I mean, we had cell phones, but we didn't have cell phones like we did today, right? And so we weren't able to access the internet or anything like that. We were sitting in class, and then about an hour and a half later, I guess he comes in and he goes, Okay, you guys can leave. And we're still confused, really, as to what's happening. And as I was walking from that class to my next class, I believe it was a math class, I was walking through the cafeteria, and on the TV, I saw the second plane hit the second tower, and then I started to kind of piece together what was going on. The school didn't know what to do with us during that time. They didn't know if they wanted to let us go the rest of the day or if they wanted to keep us, spoiler alert, they let us stay the whole day in school, but we were there, and I saw that happen, and I'm like, What in the world is going on? And then I went to class, spent the rest of the day at school, and, you know, we were, I was, what, 17 years old. I really didn't know what was going on, and ended up just asking myself, what is happening? Why are these things happening, who is responsible for this? And really, I bring all that up for the fact that when we see tragedies happen in the world, that is the question that we tend to ask, Why is this happening? What is going on? Who is responsible? And that is the question that begins this morning sermon, who is responsible? Why do these things happen? And Jesus has a really interesting answer to that. And and not long after 911 happened, then we had, in 2004 there was a huge earthquake in tsunami that went and hit Indonesia right and killed like 230,000 people. So we didn't asking that question, what's happening here? And then in 2005 in New Orleans, we have this huge hurricane that comes and destroys most of the the town. And we asking ourselves again, what is going on? And in 2017 we have a shooting that happens not too far from here in a little church in Sutherland springs at First Baptist Church where 25 people die, we just sit here and we ask these questions, why do these bad things happen? Most recently, we have the air crash that happened over the Potomac in Washington, DC, between the Black Hawk and the American Airlines plane. Then we have the one that was just talked about. We talked about this morning in Philadelphia that crashed. So we're looking at the things that are going on in this world, and we ask this question, what is going on? What is happening? And I think those are good questions to have. In fact, these are questions that people have that aren't believers. What do we what's going on? Who is, who is in charge of all this mess? What is happening? And it's a question that we have to wrestle with as believers. But the reality is, is that we know God is sovereign. We know that he is over all the world. We know that He is king. We know that he is overseen all the things. And though some things bad, sometimes bad things happen, that does not mean that he is the cause or the agent of those things. Those. Happen because of the broken world we live in. In fact, I want to guess give you four reasons why bad things happen before we actually get into text this morning. So four reasons that bad things happen are the sin of other people. People commit sins against us. They they hurt us. That's what we think about when we think about the 911 thing, what happened where people were attacking us. They were it was the sins of others that caused catastrophe. The other thing is, accidents. Things happen accidentally. This is a broken world. Things happen. Planes crash. Those are accidents that happen. The third thing is, we live in a broken world that the the sin of Adam also infiltrated not just humanity, but it broke part of the earth, and this is why we get earthquakes and hurricanes and those types of things. The the fifth way is our or the fourth way is our sinfulness. Our sinfulness is a reason that sometimes things happen, whether it be a judgment from God or it be a consequence, a natural consequence, of our own sinfulness. These are the reason that bad things happen in this earth. So as Christians, we have answers for why these things happen. It's because of sin, it's because of brokenness, it's because of judgment. And so we can look at the the accidents and the things of this world, and we can go we have the answers, and Jesus is the hope that all of this stuff isn't meaningless, because if we don't have an answer, then we we have only meaninglessness. But Jesus tells us that there is purpose in this world, that everything that happens in this world ultimately will lead to the glorification of his father. And we see even Jesus's sacrifice on the cross as one of those things where we see brokenness and sinfulness, the sinfulness of others putting Jesus on that cross, but also the father allowing that to happen for the redemption of the world. So in brokenness and in sinfulness, we see that things happen. And this is again, the question that is brought to Jesus, that begins what Jesus is going to really focus on? Because he though he is concerned with the things of this world, he is concerned with eternity all the more. And why is that? Because eternity is eternal in the things of this world are simply temporary. So I'm going to read Luke chapter 13, verses one through nine, all of them, and then I'm going to focus in the only have two part, two points in the sermon this morning, guys, you know that doesn't mean anything. Um, alright, so the first chapter 13, verse one says this. At that time, some people came and reported to Him about the Galileans who Pilate, whose blood Pilate and had mixed with their sacrifices. And he responded to them, Do you think that these Galileans were more sinful than all the other Galileans because they suffered these things? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all perish as well. Or those 18 in the tower in Siloam fell and kill fell on and killed. Do you think that they were more sinful than all the other people who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all perish as well. And he told this parable, a man had a fig tree and that that was planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it, and found none. He told the vineyard, work and listen. Listen, for three years, I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down. Why should it even waste the soil? But then he replied. But he replied to him, Sir, leave it this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. Perhaps it will produce fruit next year. But if not, you can cut it down. So in the first five verses of this section of Scripture, we're told that Jesus is approached, and these people are telling Jesus about something that happened in the temple area. And in the temple area, what happened was these Galileans, these people from Galilee, which should already put our ears up, because why Jesus is from Galilee, right? So, so these people from Galilee go to go worship at the temple, to sacrifice. This was most, most likely around the Passover time that they came to offer sacrifices, because that's usually when people from out of town would come and offer sacrifices. And as they were going to go offer their sacrifice, their their sacrifice for their sin, Pilate had some grudge against them. We don't know a whole lot about these two events that Jesus talks about, the the killing of the the Galileans in the temple or the pillar of or the Tower of Siloam that fell. But we do know that they're they're counted here, and so they happened. But what happened was Pilate, for whatever reason, wanted these Galileans dead, whether they were, whether they were people who had sinned against Pilate or he was just having a bad day. He wanted him dead. I don't know. It doesn't tell us. That's not the point of this, but this is what happened. They were going to offer sacrifices. Their sacrifices were defiled, and they were defiled because Pilate sought to kill them during that time, so their blood was mixed. And so what? When one theologian that I read about this said this is like you. Somebody came into a church service and they killed some people and mixed their blood with the communion wine. Now we it was good Baptist. We don't use wine, right? We use grape juice. But that, that's kind of the idea here, is that there's a defilement of the sacrifice. And so also with that, again, the Galilee thing, the Galilee connection with Jesus, so he's also Luke is hinting at the danger for Galileans in Jerusalem at this time, pointing to the fact that Jesus is going to be crucified. This is a foreshadowing event that happens, and he talks about the pillar at Siloam, or the tower at Siloam that fell and killed 18 people. Now I want to think about these two events. What were the reasons or the causes for these two events? One was the sin of a man right, the sin of Pilate. The second was an accident that happened. So Jesus doesn't even concern himself, though, with the the reasons for it. What does he say? He says, Repent you or you will all perish as well. Jesus's concern is for the hearts and the souls of those he is talking to you hear that repent or you too will perish. Repent or you too will perish. Now, part of the reason that Jesus is bringing this up is because in the Jewish mindset, they had this understanding that bad things happen, and the reason bad things happen is because bad people exist. And so if we think about the book of Job, the book of Job in the Old Testament, Job has tragedy strike in his life, right? He loses his kids, he loses his house, he loses his cattle, all this stuff. And we're told at the beginning of job that it was that Job was an upright and he was an honest man. He was righteous in the sight of the Lord, that's what we hear in job. And so Job loses all this stuff, and then he sits down, and he's mourning. He's covered in sackcloth and ashes, and he's just broken hearted over what has happened. And his friends come and they sit with him, and they do a really good job for about a week because they're just sitting with him and being quiet, not saying anything. And then the moment that they open their mouths, what do they say? Job? What did you do? What caused all of this heartache? What caused all of this pain? Because they think that that the reason why this bad stuff happened to Job was because of his sin. But we know from the opening section of job that that's not the case, that Job was an upright man, that his sin wasn't the cause of this issue. So they have in the back of their minds these Jewish people that Jesus is teaching that the reason why the Galileans were murdered in the temple, and the reason why the tower killed and crushed 18 people was because of some egregious sin amongst those people. But Jesus says not necessarily the case. The other thing we have to think about is in John chapter nine. This is one of my favorite stories in all of the Gospels. John chapter nine, Jesus is walking with his disciples, and they come up to this man who has been born blind, and he's been blind for a while, and they look at Jesus, and they said, Who sinned? This man, or his family, or his parents? And Jesus says, it wasn't this man's sin that caused him to be blind, but that the glory of God would be shown displayed in the world. And so it wasn't sin that caused the blindness. So we have to remember that it's not always sin that causes bad things to happen. In fact, when I was talking about Hurricane Katrina earlier, I remember hearing from pastors from the pulpit saying that the reason why Hurricane Katrina happened was because of the sin in New Orleans. That was what some people were saying. Now, could it be that God had sent judgment to New Orleans because of their sin? It could have been but for us to make that leap is not for us to do right or even like the shootings that happened in Las Vegas a few years ago, some pastors and preachers were saying that it was because of the sin of that city, and that's committed in that city, that that had happened. Now, again, we want to know that sometimes God judges the world that way, but sometimes it's because of other people's actions, that sin happens or is because of the broken world. That's why I led this sermon letting you know about the reasons why sin happens or why brokenness happens in this world. And so we can't sit here and make the judgment that people have these consequences of sin, because we would fall into the same category as these Jewish men and women who are approaching Jesus. And that's not the heart that Jesus has. In fact, what he does is he he flips the script and he says, yes, these bad things have happened, but that's not what I want you to focus on. What I want you to focus on, repent, or you too will perish, repent, or you will die, repent, or you will be dead in your sins and trespasses. Repent. You. I think that's something that our hearts need to hear. It's so easy to go ahead and judge people based on their actions and the judge the consequences of their actions, but what Jesus is saying is, where is your heart in this? Have you repented? Have you turned your life to Jesus? Because I need he needs us to be more concerned with our own personal responsibility than he is with anybody else's. We are responsible for ourselves and our repentance, and not where everybody else sits on this earth. Does that make sense? And so Jesus is really pushing forward towards that repent or perish. How have you viewed this event? This event, the how is your life? Okay? Now, what does Jesus assume when he tells us to repent, well, he assumes that we have sinned. He assumes our depravity. He assumes that we are broken and that we continue to rebel against God. That is his assumption. He doesn't just go, if you sin, repent, he just says, No, you need to repent. All of humanity needs to repent and turn towards Jesus. Now you may be asking yourself, Jesus or Josh, what is this repentance mean? And we'll get there in just a second. But I want us to understand this real quick, that it is us who need to repent and not worry about the what the world is doing. It's so easy to to look at other people's lives and say they're in chaos. They're causing issues. They're the problem when we're not examining our own heart. So the assumption of Jesus is that we all have sinned, and we all need to repent, but I'll and I also want to let you know that Jesus isn't shocked by your sin. He knows that you are depraved. He knows that you have a sinful heart. He knows that you would rather do what you want to do rather than do what He has called us to do. So he's not shocked by it, but he does hold us responsible for it. Okay, so why is this sin such a big deal? Why is sin such a big deal to God? Well, because God is holy, because God needs to and because God is just, God is holy and God is just. That means that there has to be a payment for sin. Throughout the whole Old Testament, especially in the Book of Leviticus, we see that God has set up rules and boundaries for sin to be atoned for, for sin to be covered. And it's through the blood of animals in the Old Testament that sin is covered. That's what those Galileans were in the temple doing. They were offering a sacrifice to have their sins forgiven. But that sin, or that that killing of the goats and of the sheep wasn't one that was going to last forever. Instead, the our sins need to be covered by an eternal gift, and that's a gift and the bloodshed of Jesus, but God is holy, and so God desert, or God demands that sin be sacrificed for. God demands that sin be atoned for. We're talking about this in Sunday school. So if you miss Sunday school, this is a Sunday School commercial, just real quick. One of the things that we as first or as 21st century believers tend to forget about is that God doesn't just forgive sin. Of those who believe in Him, that God demands justice, and he demands punishment for sin, and for us who believe in Jesus, that punishment was laid on the shoulders of Jesus, Jesus on that cross, endured the wrath of God on our behalfs. So Jesus, or God, doesn't just go, Oh, your sins are forgiven. No, that your sin was paid for. You have been that's what that word redeemed means. You have been paid for your sins. Have been purchased by the blood of Jesus. So either Jesus pays for our redemption on the cross, or we pay for our sins in eternal damnation. Those are the only two options. So when Jesus tells us to repent or perish, those are the options he gives us. Turn your heart towards Jesus, or you will endure the wrath of God. That is what he is offering here. So repentance, what does it mean to repent? Repent means a change of heart or a change of mind, from what you desire now to what God desires. Okay, so I want to break this down. When we get caught in our own sin in this world, we tend to have what is called worldly sorrow. So I'm going to contrast two things, worldly sorrow and godly repentance. Worldly sorrow is this, oh, I'm so sorry that I did this thing against you, and you really don't care about the thing you did, but you care that you got caught. This happens with our kids a lot, right? That they're not upset that they sin, they they don't have a broken heartedness over sin, but they do hate that they're going to have to face consequences for that sin. And this is the thing that we hear a lot in church. Well, I want to follow God so I don't endure hell, right? Or I want to believe in Jesus so that I don't have to go to hell. So you don't really want what God has to offer. You just want again. It out of hell free card. That's the problem. That's not actually following Jesus. That's not actually repentance. This is, this is ignoring or wanting to avoid the consequences of your own sin, rather than embracing the love and the compassion and the grace of God. Okay, so that's, that's worldly sorrow. I feel sorry that I got caught for what I did, not that I actually for what I did. So what is repentance look like? Well, I want us to to think about what godly repentance look looks like. And I want to read from Psalm chapter 51 verses one through four. And the reason why I want to read this is because this shows us the heart of repentance. Now, if you don't know what's happening in Psalm, chapter 51 verses one through four, here's what's happening. David had just been confronted by a prophet named Nathaniel for having an adulterous relationship with Bathsheba. This is what happened. So not only that, but David had an adulterous relationship with a woman who was already married. But not only did that happen, but he also sent the husband to go die on the front lines. There's a lot more that goes on in the story, but that's kind of the thing a Bathsheba husband was a warrior, and and David sent him out to the battlefield. And when he sent him out to the battlefield, he told everybody else to retreat, so that Uriah, the the husband of Bathsheba, would die. And so he's confronted by a prophet, Nathanael. And this is a result of that confrontation, and this is what David said, Be gracious to me, God, according to your faithful love, according to Your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion completely wash me or wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin, for I am conscious of my rebellion, and My sin is always before me, against you and you alone. I have sinned and done this evil in your sight. So you are right when you pass a sentence and you are blameless when you judge. What is he doing? He's saying, God, I pray that you would forgive me of my sins, but I also understand that I deserve whatever judgment you have coming towards me. Now, God was gracious to David. There was a consequence of his sin, which I'm not going to go into right now, but there was a consequence of his sin, and He endured that consequence, and he was broken hearted over that consequence, but he also knew that the only way he could receive forgiveness was through the graciousness of God. So what is godly repentance look like? First, you need to confess your sins. You need to confess your sins. You need to say, God, I have stood against you. I have stood in rebellion against you. I have hated your law. I have hated who you are. I have run against everything that you have commanded me to do and I confess my sins. Confession is something that's hard for us, because we don't want to admit when we're wrong. We don't want to admit when we've messed up. But the reality is, is that all of us have fallen short of the glory God, all of us have sinned, and confessing your sins and recognizing your sinfulness is the first step to true repentance, the Lord I have I have soiled your name, I have made a mockery of who you are. I have stood against you time and time again. And I recognize that I recognize that my heart is lustful, I recognize that my words are hateful. I recognize that I am a liar, a thief. I recognize that I have murder in my heart. I recognize this stuff and Lord, I repent. I confess my sins to you, that apart from you, I am a worm. That's what Psalm 22 says. The second thing is being contrite, that means having a broken heart over your sin. That means that not just a that means that when you repent of your sin, you understand that you have offended the Lord. That's what David says, against you and you alone. Lord, have I sinned? Had he sinned against Bathsheba and Uriah Absolutely he had but he recognizes that the the greatness of his sin was against the LORD, that against the Lord he had sinned. And so we take into account that. So we confess our sinfulness, we are contrite and broken hearted over our sin. And then third, we change. We repent. We turn our hearts towards Jesus. We walk. We know that we're walking down this road of sin, and we'd make a U turn, and we talk. Start walking towards the Lord. This is a change of mind. Romans, chapter 12, verse one and two, says, This therefore brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, so there is a recognition of God's grace. I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, meaning, Daily we offer ourselves up to the Lord, a holy and pleasing to God. This is our true worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the. Renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what the good, pleasing and perfect will of God is. So this repentance begins with confession, begins with or is with contrition or contrite heart, and then also with change. You cannot understand where you are going if you have not seen where you've been, and knowing that God has forgiven you changes our hearts. Recognizing how sinful you are changes your heart when you start to follow the Lord. And this is a daily thing. Each one of us who have been following Jesus for some, some amount of time. Some of us in here have been following Jesus for three years. Some of us have been following him for six months. Some of us have been following him for 40, 5060, years. This is a daily thing for each and every one of us that we change our heart and our mind. We change our heart from the things of this world, from our own fleshly desires to the thing of God. That is what it means to repent. And Jesus says, if we do not repent, then we will perish. We will face the eternal wrath of God, because we have sinned against him, because we have we have violated him, because we have offended him. This is the heaviness of this repentance. And then Jesus, after he tells us to repent or to perish, one of the things that we have to before I get there, one of the things we have to think about is why these bad things happen in this world, why the brokenness? Obviously it's the brokenness of the world. Obviously it's because people are sinful. But one of the things that happens when these bad things happen in this world is it shows us. It shows us and reveals to us how fragile life is, how fragile this world is, how temporary it all is. I read a commentator earlier this week that said that every wrinkle on our skin should remind us how fragile we truly are, every bag under your eye, every ache in your knee, should remind us that this world is temporary, that this world will not last forever. Our bodies will break, our minds will die. We will breathe one last breath and what we do in this life, whether we repent of our sins and follow Jesus, or we will perish for the sins that we have committed, that decision is one of the utmost importance. And I want you to know that this decision, the Lord is patient, and he gives us time, but time does run out. There is an urgency, okay, this is what happens in verses six through nine. And he told this parable. A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. He told the vineyard worker, listen, for three years, I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down. Why should we even waste the soil, but he replied to him, Sir, leave it this year also, until it is dug around and I until I dig around it and fertilize it, perhaps it will produce fruit next year, but if not, you can cut it down. Okay. This seems like a really weird parable, but it's not okay. The The point is is there's an urgency. Now there are three characters in this parable, the first character is the owner of the vineyard, and his he represents God. The second is the vineyard worker, and he represents Jesus. And then the third is the fig tree, and it represents, well, it represents a couple different things, but for all intents and purposes, it represents Israel and their unrepentant heart. Okay? So what is he saying? He's come and he's waited and he's wanted fruit off of this fig tree for the last three years. And every time he's come to this fig tree, he hasn't seen any fruit. He hasn't seen any fruit. Now God is patient. But there's also a play clock here. Okay? Cuz, what does he say? He says, cut it down, remove it why? Because it's wasting valuable soil. You see, it's it's interesting that the fig tree is pointed in a vineyard, right? Because that's not where fig trees are normally planted, but it's planted in there because the soil is good. The soil is good, but yet it's not producing fruit, and so the fig tree needs to be removed. Because what can I plant there instead? Maybe a fruit. Fig tree that plants or that grows good fruit, maybe another part of my vineyard, whatever it is, it's wasting space here. Israel was on the hook for their own repentance. That's what this is saying, that Israel needed to repent those who had the law of God, those who had God's law revealed to them, those who had the scriptures, needed to repent, and yet they haven't repented. That's why I read what John said back in Luke chapter three, is because they were not showing the fruit of repentance. Their hearts had not been changed, their lives had not been transformed. Instead. Were relying on their their heritage to save them. They were relying on their lineage to save them, and yet they're not producing any fruit, and Jesus or the Lord saying, cut it down, because it's wasting space. It's wasting time. It's wasting resources. They had been given the law of God. They have been given the promises of God, they have been given the covenant of God, and yet they were still not producing fruit, and the Lord says it's time to cut it down. Now what that doesn't mean is that doesn't mean that they weren't religious, because the Jewish men and women of that time were super religious. They did all the religious things, but they weren't repentant. Do you see the distinction there that they did the right things, but they didn't have the heart to follow the Lord? Instead, they just kind of fell in line and did what they had always done. We would call that today tradition, that they did the traditions of their ancestors without the heart for the love of the Father. Now here's the thing, guys. The reality is, many of our churches, many of the people who call themselves Christians, do the same thing. They do the trade traditions of their parents, rather than having a heart for the Lord. And my fear is that some of us here today, the Lord is walking in the vineyard saying, cut down that tree because not producing any fruit. I heard like three times this week, something that just really struck my soul. It was on different podcast. There were three different podcasts, and they all said it, and it said that the Lord doesn't have grandchildren. What does that mean? That means that every person who believes in Jesus has come to Jesus of their own repentant heart, that my kids are not going to be in God's kingdom because I believe in Jesus. You're not going to be in God's kingdom because your grandparents believe in Jesus or because your mommy and daddy drug you to church. That's not why you get to be in the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God only is for children of God, those who have repented, those who have turned away from their sin, who have confessed their sin and have a contrite heart. Those are the ones who get to be in the kingdom of God. And there's precious soil that is wasted time and time again, resources and things that God has shown us that we just ignore because we'd rather have the pleasures of right here and right now, rather than submit to the glory and the goodness of the Lord. And I just pray for you and for me and for my children and my eventual grandchildren, that they would understand what repentance truly looks like, that they're not going to be saved because their daddy preached the gospel. They're only saved when they repent of their own sins. Israel needed to repent of their sins, and they were there, and they had all the tools necessary to see Jesus as the Messiah, as the Savior. And yet they missed it because they were so concerned with their own traditions, they were so concerned with their own things going on, that they did not see what God was actually doing. May it not be for us church, may it be that we see the goodness of God, that we don't just subscribe to some religious activities, but we believe and trust in the God who created and sustained the universe. That's what we need. This morning, as we wrap up, we're going to do the Lord's Supper. Now, the Lord's Supper is only for those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ, only for those who have given their lives to Jesus. And if you haven't done that, then I would ask that you would just let the bread and the cup pass by you, and that you would just pray and confess your sins to the Lord, that You would be contrite over your sinfulness, and that you would repent of your sins, turn away from them and trust the Lord. I'm going to ask a couple of my deacons to come down, and I don't know, Danny and Chuck, I guess if y'all would come down and and help pass out the Lord's Supper. This is a time for us to reflect on Jesus's sacrifice. The Lord's Supper was instituted on by Jesus on the night that he was betrayed, and he broke bread and he gave it to disciples, and He gave them a cup of juice, or they drink wine, a cup of wine. And he said, This is My body which is broken for you. This is my blood which is shed for you. Do this in remembrance of me. But not only does it remind us of that night, but it points us forward to the beauty of the kingdom that is to come, this beauty of the kingdom where we get to sit down with the bridegroom, when we get to sit down with Jesus and have a meal of thankfulness and gratitude for the sacrifice that he gave for us. So I'm going to pray real quick, and then my deacons are going to pass this out. Uh, dear Lord, thank you so much for the sacrifice of Jesus. Thank you so much for the love that you have shown us and the grace that you've given us. Lord, I pray for every heart in this room that if they haven't truly repented of their sins and turn from their brokenness, that they would embrace that would do that. This morning, and they would embrace your grace and embrace your mercy. We pray all this in Jesus name amen.