Fixer Upper: Spiritual Crew
MESSAGE TRANSCRIPTION:
Well good morning everyone. Good morning. It’s great to see you. If you’re new around here, my name is Virgil Grant; and I’m the senior pastor of this wonderful community of faith that’s called Eastside. And we are so glad that you are here with us today. We are finishing up a sermon series called:
“Fixer Upper.”
And we’re talking about; Thank you Chance. We’re talking about renovating relationships. And you may be asking: “Well, why would we do that?” Well, because life is all about relationships. A couple thousand years ago, Jesus was asked the question: “What is the greatest commandment of all?” And here’s how he responded. He says this:
“Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind…” And Jesus says: “…This is the first and greatest commandment of all is to love the Lord. The second is like it is to love your neighbor as yourself and all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:37-40
Jesus said: “Life is all about relationships and the most important thing in life is one another.” Now, relationships require time and attention. Right now, lemme just ask you a question, Josh, just put you on the spot. You’re on the front row. I just want to ask you a question: Given over time a relationship, if you don’t give any time or any attention to the relationship, it’s not a trick question, does it get better or does it get worse? Worse, worse, exactly right. Now, same thing with a leaky roof; over time you don’t do anything with that leaky roof. And over time, does it get better or does it get worse? Worse. It gets worse, right? And the same thing relationally speaking.
And what we have to understand is that when we talk about relationships needing renovation is because you take two people, they come together, they fall in love, then they get, what? Married. And then they go on their honeymoon, and then they believe that they’re going to live happily ever after from that moment on. But a short time later, like two days, they discover, what? That relationships are hard. And the reason why it’s hard is because there’s two imperfect people coming together to form a relationship. And the Bible has a biblical word for that, and it’s called: sinners. Two sinners come together and they begin to have a family. And the next thing you know, they have some “sinner-lings” hanging around. And the next thing you know, you have a whole tribe of sinners. And the Bible says, what? In Romans chapter three:
“For all have…” What? “…Sin and fallen short of the glory of God.”
Romans 3:23
So here’s what I want to ask you to do. I want you to turn to your neighbor and I just want you to acknowledge that they’re sinner; and here’s how you’re going to do it, okay? You’re just going to look at them and go: “You ain’t right.” Okay? So just do that.
Now you don’t have to have that much fun doing that, okay? Some of you’re like: “This is fun,” right? Now, Rose and I, we’ve never done a fixer upper. Now we’ve owned a couple of different homes over the years. We have done an addition, we’ve built two homes. And I think it’s true. If your marriage can survive building a home, it can survive anything, right? And we’ve learned some things about construction along the way. We understand that whenever you renovate a room or put an addition onto your house, is that you’ll have all kinds of construction crews in your house. You’ll have the demo people, you’ll have the carpenters, you’ll have the drywallers, you’ll have electricians, you’ll have plumbers, you’ll have painters. And here’s what we’ve learned about construction crews; I don’t know if anybody else have learned this or not. There’s some construction crews that actually showed up on time. Some of them showed up late, some of them never showed up.
I mean, some of them, they did the job right the first time. Some of them; they needed two or three times in order to get it right. There’s some of these construction people that we would use again. There’s others that we would, what? We would never use again. And over the years I’ve learned something as it relates to all of this; and it has a direct application to those who are renovating relationships. And here is what I’ve learned, and I want you to say it with me in full voice:
“The quality of the construction rests on the commitment of the crew.”
Don’t you find that to be true? And the principle here is that you and I are a product of the relational construction crew that is in our life. I’m a product of the relational construction crew in my life. You are a product of the relational construction crew in your life. And this is the reason why it’s important to the right people around our children. Now today, I want to talk to families just for a few moments; and I want to use one single verse and I want to dissect this verse that has great relational wisdom. It has great biblical wisdom, it has great faith building wisdom. And it is written by Paul to a young protege named Timothy. When Paul would write a letter in the New Testament, he’s responsible for half of the New Testament.; he would write it either to a church or he write it to an individual. And Paul wrote two letters to his young protege named Timothy. And Timothy was a product of Paul; and Paul being a part of his construction crew. And here’s what Paul said to Timothy two Timothy chapter one, verse five. Paul says:
“Timothy, I’m reminded of your sincere faith…” Now we’re going to come back and talk about it in a few moments. Where did this sincere faith come from? “…Which first lived in your grandmother, Lois, and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.”
2 Timothy 1:5
Now I just want to take a moment and I want to just talk to you about this phrase:
Sincere faith.
Now, what Paul is doing here, he’s giving us a clinic on how to pass faith from one generation to the next generation, to the next generation. And it begins with sincere faith. Now, it should be the goal, it should be the objective. It should be the dream of every parent and every grandparent in this room to pass on to the next generation a sincere faith and help them to have their own sincere faith. Because why? The Bible says:
“Without faith, it is…” What? “…Impossible to please God.”
And how important is it for us to pass on and pray that sincere faith is developed in the next generation? Well, I was listening to a podcast a couple of weeks ago, and in this podcast, the speaker was talking about a college roommate, a college friend that he had named Kent Wolf. And Kent was madly in love with this young girl named Lisa. Lisa came from a very devout Christian family. Her parents were all in for Jesus. Ken was head over heels over Lisa; they got married. They was having a wonderful time after their honeymoon. They were just growing in their faith. And the thing about Lisa’s parents is they love to ride motorcycles and so did a lot of people in their church. And so Ken and Lisa alone with Lisa’s parents and 55 other people from their church, they decide to do a motorcycle ride on a Saturday morning and they decided to go the back roads.
And so they was doing that. And all of a sudden over the headset, there came this call that there had been an accident in the back of the line in the motorcade of motorcycles. And so Lisa’s parents, they turn around, they come back to the end of the line where the crash had taken place, and when they got there, they found the lifeless body of their daughter, Lisa, lying on the ground. A few days later was the funeral. And her mother wrote these words; and listen to these words:
“My husband and I, we stood hand in hand by her casket and knew at this moment in a parent’s life, nothing, nothing is as important as time spent in leading a child to know, to love and to serve the living Lord.”
If you ever called upon to look upon the still form of the body, which once house a precious child of your own, you would know in that moment that there is nothing, that is nothing. There is nothing more important for a parent than to influence your child for Christ. And folks that summarizes the entire thing, right? I mean, that is the ball game there. Now the question is: Where did Timothy get his sincere faith? Well, let’s look at the verse one more time. And Paul says to Timothy:
“Timothy, I’m reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I’m persuaded, that now also lives in you.”
2 Timothy 1:5
Now, some of you’re sitting here today and you’re saying to yourself: “Pastor, I’ve never had what Timothy had. How do I pass sincere faith onto the next generation when it’s never been passed on to me? I didn’t have a grandmother; I didn’t have a mother who had sincere faith. How can I give away something that I do not possess? How do I make a mark on my family spiritually when no one really ever did that for me?” And I want you to notice the words that are highlighted from this verse. And it’s the words, what?
Sincere faith.
Say it with me: sincere faith. And, what?
First lived.
The sincere faith of Timothy first lived, where? In his mother and his grandmother. Now, folks, listen to me really, really careful. Some of you know that I had an extraordinary family growing up. Some of you know that my parents both loved Jesus. They were my biggest cheerleaders. My dad, he loved the Lord, he’s now in heaven. My mom’s here this morning. She was really the founder of the church. She’s really had the vision that this church should be on the East end of town. And you would think that as we talk about first lived and sincere faith, you would think that I would have this great spiritual heritage with my great great grandparents.
And it may be the case, but I just don’t know that. I just know that my grandfather; one of ’em was an alcoholic, died at a very young age. My other grandfather, he was just mean and angry. I never met one of my grandmothers. My other grandmother, she loved the Lord, but she just had a rough life and she didn’t have a whole lot of joy. And so if you ask me: “Where did the faith first live for me and for my family?” I would say that it started with my mother and my father. And it’s because of their faith that I have the faith that I have today. And I trace my spiritual roots back to my mom and back to my dad because it first lived there first. And some of you are here today, and as you’re here today, you’re saying: “I don’t have the family background that you have. I don’t have the spiritual heritage that you have. My spiritual tree doesn’t look nothing like you.” Guess what? You have the opportunity to change all of that. You can be the one in your family that says this:
“Our family history is not going to define our family destiny because faith is going to first live in me.”
And friends, you have an opportunity to let the faith first live in you and then it can live in the next generation and the next generation and hopefully the next generation. Now here’s the wonderful thing. In the last eight months, we have baptized 175 people. Yeah, how about that? 175 people. Now why should we be excited about that? Because a lot of those people that were baptized; sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, aunts and uncles, guess what? Now the faith first lives in them. And as a result of that, there’s hope for the next generation and the next generation.
They have driven a spiritual stake in the ground and they have said, in my family: “Faith will first live, faith will first live, faith will first live inside of me.” And then it has an opportunity to live in the rest of my family. And for some of you, you’re the first generation of being a Christian. Man, that is wonderful; that is great. For some of you, it’s been a season since somebody in your family has really lived out their faith. And can I say something to you? If you’re going to surround yourself with a construction crew with quality crew members who’s committed to quality construction, can I encourage you to do something? When you surround yourself with the right people, one of the characteristics that you know that you’ve surrounded yourself with the right people is that:
They are willing to encourage you.
They’re willing to encourage you, they’re willing to encourage you. Say that with me. They’re willing to encourage you. This is what Paul says in one Thessalonians, he says:
“Therefore encourage one another and do a fixerupper and build each other up just as in fact you’re doing today.”
1 Thessalonians 5:11
Paul says; “You want a quality construction crew? Make sure they have people to encourage you.” Over. In Hebrews, it says the exact same thing:
“Let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another.”
Hebrews 10:24
Now let’s go back, look at our theme verse one more time; and I want to make one more point and then we’ll be done. Look at second Timothy one, five:
“I’m a reminder of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and now I’m persuaded, that now lives in you also.”
2 Timothy 1:5
Biblical wisdom; the Bible from Genesis to Revelation has taught us for thousands of years that the spiritual development of your children is the parent or the parents responsibility. Parents are accountable to instill faith in their children. Parents are responsible for modeling and for instilling in teaching the word of God in the lives of their children. Parents are responsible for instilling the love for God in the lives of their children. And here’s the interesting thing: according to this verse, Timothy’s grandmother and Timothy’s mother did, what? They accepted this challenge and they actually lived it out. Now, after being a pastor for 34 years, I have watched a lot of families at Eastside come and go. And here’s what I’ve come to; my general conclusion: All the families wants their children to pursue living the all in life. But most families, a lot of families, what their belief is, is that they should contract the spiritual growth of their children out to the church.
It’s kind of like a Christian laundry service mentality. “I bring my child to church, I bring my children to church. You baptize them, you sanctify them, you disciple them, you invest in them, you help them to gone the journey of living all in life for Jesus. And then I will take them back.” Folks, can I tell you something? That’s not how it works, biblically speaking. That is not how it works. The church is not responsible for the development of your children spiritually speaking. That’s your job as a parent. That’s your job as a grandparent. It’s my job as a parent, it’s my job as a grandparent. And can I just say something to you? Even though that’s been my job as a parent and grandparent, I’ve always been thankful for Eastside Community Church. Let me tell you why I’m thankful for Eastside. For the last 34 years as being your pastor; my children, this is the only church that they know is Eastside. And my children still loves the Lord, still is active in the local church because, why? You love them well. You took care of them. You took care of their parents. And here’s the reality: Most pastors today, their children are no longer in the church. And the reason why they’re no longer in church is because they watch the church mistreat mom and dad. And they said: “If that is the church, I don’t want to have anything to do with that.” And so thank you, Eastside for loving us and our children well.
In construction, sometimes you have to use a boat; and I want to let this boat represent four hours, okay? Now what I’ve observed, Josh, over 34 years of ministry, that the most devoted Christians disciples that we have here at Eastside; they will bring their children to church, at the best, 40 hours a year; 40 Sundays. Now, that’s not being negative, it’s just the reality. And the reality is: You’re sick, they’re sick, you’re out of town, you’re on vacation, you just don’t want to come a couple Sundays a year, right? And so the most devoted parents that we have bring their children about 40 hours a year to church; that’s how long the church gets them. If your child is average, they will spend 400 hours a year solving math problems. They’ll spend 500 hours a year playing video games. They will spend eight to nine hours on a touch screen and the church gets them for 40 hours a year.
Now how much time do you get them as a family? It’s not 50 hours, it’s not a hundred hours, it’s not 500 hours, it’s not a thousand hours, it’s not 2000 hours. It is literally you get them as a family for 3000 hours a year. It’s pretty clear where the responsibility lies, right? It’s pretty clear who gets the most opportunity, who gets the most chance to make an investment spiritually into their child or into their children. It’s the home, it’s mom or it’s dad. Now, you know what research has shown, mom? You know what research has shown, dad? It’s just a humble attempt at living a Christian life out with your children. What I’m talking about is that you attend church together, is that you just do a devotion with them a couple days a week. You pray with them at meals, you talk to them about what God is doing in your life, in your family’s life, in your church, in your community, in your country.
Just those humble attempts. If you do that, research shows that that has greater impact on the development of your child spiritually than any student ministry in the world. And here’s the reason why: Because they get to see real faith lived out day after day. Now folks, here’s the reality. Here’s the thing that I want you to understand: Even though I’m accountable for my children and grandchildren, you’re accountable for your children and your grandchildren, I want you to know that this church is committed to making heroic efforts to partner with you, to team up with you in captivating and challenging your kids so that they can find their own sincere faith. And if I were a parent who had young children or grandparent, I would make sure that my kids would take advantage of every opportunity that the church provides for them. Now, lemme just say something to you.
You go: “Well, I don’t have any young children, don’t have any grandchildren yet.” Well, can I just say something to you? Is that you have a responsibility to come alongside these family members. You’ve got a responsibility to serve in student ministry. You have a responsibility, if you will, a divine responsibility to give of your time, your talents, your treasures, and your plans so that we can come alongside these parents and grandparents and help their children and grandchildren to find their own sincere faith in Jesus Christ. And lemme just say something that blows my mind, it just literally blows my mind. Parents, you’re committed to your children having the latest and greatest shoes and clothes. You’ll spend hundreds and thousands of dollars to make sure that they are dressed to the full tilt, right? But you’ll complain, you’ll bellyache. You won’t send your kid or your grandkid to summer Christian camp because it costs too much.
You won’t send them to a mission trip to Guatemala to have their soul touched and change by the Holy Spirit and maybe change the whole trajectory of their life. Here’s the other thing I don’t understand. You’ll travel all over “Tim-Buck-Too.” You’ll take them to soccer camps, you’ll take them to band competition, softball tournaments and on and on that it goes. But you don’t make sure that they’re here on Sunday night for student ministry because it’s too much of an inconvenience for you. I just don’t understand that my friends. This is the most important thing that you are entrusted with as a parent; is to make sure that your children and your grandchildren develops their own sincere faith in the Lord. Look what it says in Mark. Jesus says:
“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me…”
Mark 9:37
And we want to create a church and the environments in our church so that the next gen of students wants to be a part of our church. We want this place to be magnetic. And here’s the reason why I’m so amped about making Eastside a next gen church and that we should put as much resources that we can to E-kids, which is birth through fifth grade and our E-students. Sixth grade through college. Folks, we’ve got a whole generation that is ready to receive Christ and to embrace it. They’re just looking for a place that they can call home. And we get the chance to do that. And here’s the reason why I’m amped; because look what statistics shows us. We have Builders that basically, Builders from 27′ to 45′, 65% of them would be pursuing the all in life. That’s how we would say it around here.
Then we have the Boomers. The Boomers are the people who’s currently leading governments, leading nonprofits, leading the businesses in the world. And look at that. 35% of them is pursuing the all in life. And then we go to the Busters and there’s 16% of them that’s pursuing the all in life for Jesus. Now, do you see the trend that is developing here? And then the last group are the Bridgers, and look at that. Only 4% of them are pursuing to live the all in life. Now, folks, there’s a transition that’s taken place in the leadership in the world, in the nonprofit, in the church, these statesmen, these people who honor the Lord with the walk that they walked with their life; they’re transitioning out of these leadership positions. Can you imagine when these Bridgers begins to transition into leadership, what the world is going to look like?
See friends, this is the reason why I want us to create environments and reach the next generation for Jesus. This is the reason why we do the music that we do. This is the reason why the video and the lights and the smoke and the sound and the atrium and all of that, and some of you’re here right now and some of you’re just saying: “I don’t like any of that stuff. If I had the preference, we’d go back to the old ways of things.” Can I just say something to you? Get over it. There’s a whole generation out there waiting to be reached for Jesus. And Eastside is that church to do that in this community. So, I got thinking about Mary Carol, if you put that quote back up, I got thinking about this phrase:
“The quality of the construction rests on the commitment of the crew.”
I got thinking about that over and over and over, and the Holy Spirit nudged me. This has been about, I don’t know, four or five weeks ago, and the Holy Spirit began to nudge me and said: “Virgil, you know what? Over the lifetime that you’ve been in ministry and even in your entire lifetime, you’ve had quality construction crews that’s committed to helping you to grow. I’ve given you all kinds of great people. I’ve surrounded you with mentors and friends and discipler who’ve discipled me and invested in me.” And I go: “You know what, Lord? You’re right.” And I just want you to know, if I’ve ever preached a sermon that has touched your heart, if I’ve ever prayed with you, if I’ve ever said a kind word to you, if I’ve ever told a joke and you laughed at it, I mean it would be… All of that stuff is because of the construction crew that God has placed around me; and their commitment to doing the construction right has been phenomenal.
And so the Bible says: “To give honor where honor is due.” And so this morning, I just want to kind of visibly show you the importance of having a quality construction crew around you because it determines where you go relationally and spiritually in life. Some of my influencers, friends, they couldn’t be here today, so we got some pictures of them. When I left Richmond and went to Cumberland College, I met a pastor by the name of Jerry Lowry and he was a strong biblically base preacher. And Jerry taught me the value of taking the Bible and opening the Bible up and preaching the word of God and preaching it based on the word of God. And Jerry, over the years I’ve known him, he’s always been cool, calm, and collective, and he’ll probably never understand the impact that he had on me being a student of the word and being a preacher of the word.
And then God brought into my life this guy by the name of Richard Adams. And Richard was a leadership guru. He just loved everything, leadership, and he poured into me and he made sure that our church had the resources to grow the leadership. Back in the day, we had Chastity Ray as a volunteer. We had Vivian Wallace as a volunteer, and we didn’t have much money, but we had Big Heart. And Richard would come in and volunteer his time and just make sure that we had the resources that we need.
And then God brought into my life this guy by the name of Keith Strasburger. And I have two or three friends in my life, and Keith is my best friends and Keith is one of my best friends. And Keith taught me the power of relationship, but he also taught me how to be a great facilitator and listener and asking great questions. And many of you know Keith; Keith has preached here and he’s just a relational magnet. If you get around him, he just woos you in.
And then God brought this guy by the name of Jimmy Harris into my life. And Jimmy and I, we were in a coaching cohort and it was just the two of us because it was a brand new cohort and I was the first one in the cohort that took him a little bit longer to get more people in. So for a year, we met once a week for an hour, and he counseled me and he helped to save my soul by helping me to get rid of all the junk that was there that I didn’t even know that was there.
And I am just eternally grateful for Jerry and for Richard and for Keith and for Jimmy; sorry, they couldn’t be here today. They’re involved in their own ministries or live out of state. But there’s a couple men that was able to make it this morning, and I’m just going to call on them and ask them to stand. The first one is Doug Strader. Doug, would you stand? Yeah, give it up for Doug. Come on. Give him a big hand.
And many of you should really understand that this man right here; he taught me to laugh, to love. We were friends with Doug and his first wife, Esther before she passed away; friends with his family. We did a lot of ministry together early on in the days, but I wouldn’t be in ministry today if it wasn’t for Doug Strader. He was the very first man who gave me a job in ministry. And he would tell you that the reason why he did is I looked so poor and pitiful. He had sympathy and compassion for me. And so Doug, thank you for giving my first ministry start in ministry. So thank you. I appreciate that.
And then I met this guy along the line called Vernon Cole. Vernon, I want you to stand. Doesn’t he look great to be 86 this morning? Yeah. So Vernon was really Doug’s boss, and Vernon really took me under his wing, Rose and I; and he opened doors for us in ministry that we never would’ve had open if it wasn’t for Vernon. And long time ago, when we was at 1675, Vernon taught me an important principle that’s went with me wherever I’ve gone in ministry and whatever I’ve done in ministry, we had three couples in our church that was just beating me up. So if there was anything wrong in the bulletin, I heard about it. I mean, as soon as the service was over, they was punching me literally with verbal words. And if I said anything wrong in the sermon, they would correct me as soon as the service was over; and I was just getting tired of just the verbal, I mean, I was like a verbal punching bag.
And I called Vernon and I said: “Vernon, I got these three couples; can you come down and negotiate.” And I said: “You can spend the night with me.” He goes: “Virgil, I’m not spending the night with you.” And I go: “Okay.” And he goes: “I don’t want to look bias,” He said, “but I will only come underneath one condition,” He says, “the only condition I’ll come; if you’re the problem, will you promise me that you’ll leave Eastside?” I said,: “Yes, sir. I’ll leave Eastside if I’m the problem.” And he taught me to do the right thing. No matter the cost is to do the right thing. And so Vernon, I want to thank you for opening doors for me in ministry that I never would’ve had without your influence. So thank you, my friend.
Now I told you I had a couple really good friends. Keith is one. The other good friend of mine is Bruce Smith. Someone asked Bruce and Kristen if they would to please stand. They flew all the way from Montana yesterday to be here today with us; and Bruce and Kristen has been coming to Eastside every month for the last 12 years, helping our church to grow. He designed the worship center. He designed the new building, he designed the atrium. He’s taught me so much about how to dream bigger dreams than ever before. He’s taught me how to be way more strategic in my thinking and planning. He’s helped Rose and I in our marriage. He’s helped us with their family for the last 12 years. Him and Christian has been there through thick and thin for us. And I’m just eternally grateful that God allowed our lives to cross over 12 years ago. And so Bruce and Kristen, I love you. Thank you for being here today. Couldn’t imagine doing ministry without you. So thank you.
I want my mom to stand. Mom, I want you to stand. My parents; they’ve always been my biggest cheerleaders. And mom had a vision for this church. Dad, he kind of took the vision and executed it and helped to make it become a reality. But I know he’s up there looking down today, but without my mom and dad’s, no way I could be here. And her faith and her love is still kind of the cornerstone that holds our family together. So thanks mom, love you.
And then I have my siblings, Becky, Tim and Alan, if they’re in the room, y’all can stand. If you don’t care, just stand. They were members of Eastside before I even got here. And they’ve still stuck around after all these years. And they’ve always been my biggest supporters. They’ve also been my biggest critics. If I say anything wrong, stutter, mispronounce a word. You never have to tell me. That’s their spiritual gift of reminding me of all of that. And so without my siblings, we do life together, we vacate together, we carrying on my dad’s legacy together, and I just can’t imagine being here without them. So, thank you all.
And then I have my beautiful wife, Rose. Rose, could you stand. And Rose is an only child. And not only did I have Rose, but I had her mom and dad, Vester and Eva; and they were big supporters of our ministry and they always stepped in, took care of the children. When we needed to go somewhere and do a Bible drill, Doug back in the day, they would be the one to take care of her kids. And Rose made sure that Jacob and Rachel got everything that they needed at home while we was trying to grow the church. And so Rose, thank you for your devotion and faithfulness over the last 30, soon to be 36 years. Yeah, so thank you. Love you.
Then I got my daughter and my son-in-Law and my daughter-in-Law and son and two grandchildren. They’ve been big encouragers as well. In addition to that, I have the elders. Many of you don’t realize that we don’t do anything without going through the elders of our church. They’re here to protect and make sure that I’m on the straight and narrow and that the church is healthy. And these men; I just couldn’t imagine doing ministry without them. So I’m going to ask our elders to stand, and I want to thank you for all of your support, all of your love.
And then I want our staff to stand and our former staff members, if you’re hearing a former staff member, I want you to stand. And guys, I look around the room and I think about Mike Eckler. Mike really helped to change the trajectory of our church with bringing worship into a whole new level. And it took a little convincing, but he came and he’s known as a grandfather of worship around here. I don’t know what that means, but that’s a self claim title that he has. But this is such great men and women. That’s over the years that I think has poured into you. And I think we are the best staff in the region. So let’s give it up for them.
My mom’s spoken, so I have to listen to her. We have a lot of my family that’s here. Would you stand? We want, yeah. Stand together. All of y’all stand. All my family, Rose, everybody. So this is a big part of the cheerleaders. I’m a product of a construction crew or two. I have a doctorate. And it’s a funny really to think that I have it. You pay enough money, you can get anything. That’s true. You know how I tell people, really the reason why I have my doctorate is that I would scribble out notes and I would give it to Amy Gallion and she would revise it. And so Amy wrote 90% of my doctorate, true story, is true story. Is it not, Amy? And if you read my dissertation in the front of it, it’s a big “Thank you” to Amy Gallion. So Amy, you and I, we share this doctorate together. So would you stand, and I want to make sure that nobody calls me doctor. The most often phrase I get called is , “Father.” And I don’t know why that, I guess some Catholics don’t know the difference, but I get called father more than doctorate. But in reality, all of this is possible, my friends, because of Jesus. I want to honor him the most here today, if you will. Would you take your communion cups?
And if you don’t know how to open these, just the front of the little tip, just kind of fold it back and forth, and that will help you. And the primary qualification for taking communion is to be a Christ follower. And if you’re a Christ follower and you want to take communion this morning, we usually don’t do it on Sunday mornings. But I thought this was an exception that we could do it, because, really, Jesus is the one that’s most committed to our construction of our lives. And God could have sent text message, he could have sent an email, he could have phoned a friend, he could have sent a letter, but he did something better than all that, He sent his son Jesus Christ. And Jesus broke his body and gave his body so that you and I could have the opportunity to receive eternal life and to have our sins forgiven. And so the body reminds us of the love of God for each and every one of us. So let’s take the bread together. Then the Bible says in the book of Hebrews, that:
“Without the shedding of blood, there’s no forgiveness of sin.”
Hebrews 9:22
And we used to do this animal sacrifice for thousands of years. And then Jesus, the perfect lamb that was slain before the foundation of the earth came along, came along, and he became the perfect sacrifice that eliminated the sacrificial system so that you and I could have forgiveness of our sins and have her name written in the Book of Heaven. And so this morning, we remember what Jesus did for us by drinking of the cup. And so this morning, if you would, would you please stand, and as we stand this morning. I will pray us out. I want to remind you that next weekend is Father’s Day. We got a great speaker for next weekend, Dr. Tony Evans, son, he’s a chaplain of the Dallas Cowboys. He used to play in the NFL; you don’t want to miss next weekend. Take one of those cards that there’s some left we was running out. Take that, invite someone, bring someone with you next weekend because part of the success of our church has been this invite culture where we invite people to come and come and see with us. And so just bring someone with you next weekend. You won’t regret it. And I just want to thank you for being here today. I hope that you have a great week. I’m just going to pray a prayer of blessing over you.
God, may you protect these men and women. May you bless them, may you use them, and may they be your hands and feet wherever they go this coming week. And we pray all of these things in the name of Jesus. And everyone agreed and said, amen.
God bless. Have a good one.