Worship - Sunday, February 27

Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right, I'll see you guys in church. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I can't see it. What's wrong? Thank you. I'll see you next time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I'm going to open your phone and yell to me. I'm going to open your phone and yell to me. I'm going to open your phone and yell to me.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We'll be right back. The End Thank you. I'll see you next time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. wrangled up. Oh, yeah. Okay, all right I think we're gonna start, maybe.

we're getting everything situated I think the camera is on yep so okay all right good morning everybody we're here. Brandon is preaching today, which I shouldn't be surprised because he preached like after he had a craniotomy. So this is a walk in the park compared to that, I guess. So just a reminder that he is pretty immunocompromised right now. So he's got to keep a distance and no hugging, handshaking, high fives, no rushing the stage. If you rush the stage, we'll have to get the bouncers which is Audrey and Kathy to escort you out so but uh it's good to be here and after last Sunday's craziness we're we're happy to be here so we're gonna the service is gonna be a little shorter today but it'll still be it'll still be good so we're gonna go ahead

and stand and read out of Psalms together. And we're just going to be reading out of chapter 18 today, and we're going to be doing verses 1 and 2 together. And it begins, I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. My God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. This is the word of the Lord. Praise be to God. All right, we're going to go ahead and pray. God, we thank you for the opportunity to be here today and gather together and be encouraged by each other, both here and online. We thank you for the opportunity to worship you and to learn more about you throughout the different parts of your word. And we thank you for your

closeness and your deliverance and how you're a mighty rock and a fortress for us when we need that and how you're always there and present in our lives. Be with our service today. Be with Brandon and just give him the strength to get through and just allow this to glorify you in Jesus name amen all right our first Song we're going to be singing together is going to be behold our God

Cumbered every grain of sand Kings and nations tremble at His voice All creation rises to rejoice Behold our God Seated on His throne Come let us adore Him Behold our King Nothing can compare Come let us adore Him

Who has given counsel to the Lord? Who can question any of His words? Who can teach the one who knows all things? Who can fathom all His wondrous deeds? Behold our God, seated on His throne, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him.

God has felt the nails upon his hands Bearing all the guilt of sinful man God eternal, humble to the grave Jesus, Savior, is enough to reign. Behold our God, seated on His throne. Come, let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare. Come, let us adore Him All right, we're going to move a couple of things around in our service today. Usually we do our prayer and share time next, but we're actually going to do that at the end of, towards the end of the service today. So we're going to be moving into our time of communion. And if you want to stand while we sing this song, you can sit, whatever you'd like to do. And then Brandon's going to come up and preach. And we'll move forward with that. So this song we're going to be singing is a new song for us, but the words are really good. And so just follow along, and it's pretty easy to pick up. It's called By the Grace of God.

I rest my soul on Jesus When the mountains shake I put my trust in Jesus The moment I awake And when my soul is lost at sea He will be my rock My vision be in Christ alone This grace is all we've got His love is like the mighty ocean His love for me will never stop Oh, His arms are strong enough to carry me through it all by the grace of God. So I, upon His shoulders, safely brought this far.

Helper of my helpless soul The King of broken hearts His love is like the mighty ocean His love for me will never stop Oh, His arms are strong enough to carry me through it all by the grace of God. You are the passion of my life, Lord Jesus. You are the song within my soul My strength, my hope, my all in all Is you, Jesus When breath grows still and night draws near I will not be afraid I know the plans he has for me Don't finish at my grave His love is like the mighty ocean His love for me will never stop Oh, His arms are strong enough to carry me Through it all by the grace of God You may be seated.

All right, I think that's on, so hopefully you can hear me here, and for those watching online. Specifically, say hi to Neil and Dee. Glad you're with us this morning. Glad you're all with us. I'm glad to be here. A little bit different, I have never been in front of the church in Crocs, and so that's a new experience for me as well. So as we get ready to come to the Lord's table, I just want us to think a little bit about grace. I've thought a lot about food this week, not because I was hungry, but kind of the opposite scenario. I not wanted a lot of food, but it's funny how it works out. Friday night, we've had friends making us dinner, and they had made just something real simple stuffed shells and a little salad to go with it and I came

in to sit down at the table and Rachel said do you want some food and I said I don't want any food and I said well well what is it and so she gives me a little like three bites of stuffed shells and two bites of salad and I sat down and I took a bite and it tasted so good and I took another bite and it tasted so good and I ate all I ate everything on my plate. Now, it was like a toddler-sized portion of food, but it was one of those kind of moments of recovery where it's like, hey, I will someday be able to enjoy eating again. And it was a nourishing moment, not just physically because I was eating food, but it was nourishing because there was, it was a strengthening moment for me. For us as Christians, you and I, all of us need

that, right? We need the strength, we need the nourishment, we need the encouragement of just sitting around the table with those that we love. And so when we come to this meal this morning, which is what we are doing right now, this is, even though it's small, a little tiny cracker, a little bit of juice, this is monumentally important, right? This nourishes us, it strengthens us it points us to our hope it reminds us of our forgiveness it tells us we have a savior who loved and who died for us this is our family meal so i'm going to read from corinthians and then we'll partake together and then we'll spend just a little bit of time talking probably the shortest sermon i've preached a lot of firsts a short sermon not a lot of cry not a lot of shoes and

and we'll spend some time together in prayer. Father in heaven, thank you for your church and your word. I thank you so much for this bread and this cup that we're about to eat and drink. I thank you for the sacrifice that it represents. I thank you for the hope that it brings to our lives. I thank you for the nourishment that it fills up within us. I thank you for the forgiveness that you have lavished upon us. And we thank you, as we just sang, for the depths of your grace. Help us not to forget how good you have been to us, how gracious you have been, how your love has been poured out through the blood of your Son. Be with us as we partake. May we not forget the seriousness of this moment.

Thank you for Jesus and for grace. It's in his name we pray. Amen. Paul writes this. For what I received from the Lord, what I delivered to you, the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and he said, This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way also, he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and you drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. We're going to pray one more time. Spend a little bit of time in God's Word and talking a little bit about some things that I am very thankful for. And then we will close up in a time of prayer with Russell. There's a lot to pray for in our world, in our lives, in our nation, in nations throughout the world. And so we want to do that together this morning. We'll sing again and wrap up our service. So let's pray. Father, give me strength.

I thank you for the good news of the gospel. I thank you for Jesus. I thank you for hope. I thank you for all the good things that you have given to us. I thank you for your grace poured out in my life and the life of my family and the life of this church this past week. So I just ask that you would be with us, whether we are here in person or watching online, that your word might encourage us, that my experiences might encourage someone that you would help us to see your grace and how it's poured out. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So I'm glad to be here. A couple things that I want to do. In the 40th Psalm, the psalmist writes this. He says, I have told the glad news of my deliverance to the congregation.

And behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord. I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart. I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation. And I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation. So part of what I want to do this morning is just do that for a minute. Just share what God has done in my life and in the life of my family. Share three or four very specific things that I hope maybe will encourage you, that I have been encouraged by this week. And then secondly, just very simply, I just want to direct you to Jesus. Two verses in John chapter 6 that point us to wonderful, overwhelming, beautiful hope. And so I want to do that with you just for a few minutes.

Normally, during our service, we've already done a prayer time. We're going to close with that, specifically thanking God for the good things, praying for those needs that we know of and we've seen, and also, I think, spending some time in prayer for world events, situations, the nation of Ukraine and the Christians there, who are worshiping very differently this morning. So, week's been a little bit different for me, as I think everybody knows. In many ways, as we read the news and hear the news, we see the brokenness of our world. And it's not just something that we've heard about, right? It's something that we can see and we can feel. And we can see that this is a world that is filled with hurt, right? Sin and brokenness isn't just something that we talk about.

it's something that we see, we feel, and our hearts break. So I want to talk about how God moves into those sort of broken moments of our lives. So a bunch of years ago for me, at least 15, maybe 16 or 17 years ago, I showed up at church on a Sunday morning, kind of ready to preach. I was in an incredible amount of pain, and I was talking to Greg, as we tend to do before the service, and he's like, you know, you might want to go to the hospital. And I was like, I'm a man, and I don't need a hospital. And he's like, hey, just FYI, my brother-in-law is here. He's also a preacher. Probably has a sermon. It'll be okay if you go to the hospital. And so that time in the hospital, I was diagnosed with a hereditary kidney condition

that in all likelihood would end in me requiring a kidney transplant, but not generally right away. And this particular disease can move very quickly or it can move very slowly. Sometimes it's years and years and years, and other times you go downhill very quickly. And in my case, mine was one of the sort of quicker moving cases. And so we've been on the transplant list for, I think, two or three years. I've been on dialysis three times a week since the beginning of last August. And I remember my first day at dialysis, I was terrified because the type of dialysis we were doing, they would stick very large needles into your arm, and then they just filter your blood like an external kidney. And I was not looking forward to it. In fact, I put it off probably months past where I needed to put it off.

And God took an experience that for me was terrifying. And he turned it into something that was encouraging. It was life-giving, not just physically keeping me alive, but spiritually and emotionally. A very wonderful blessing for me. Since this year has begun, we've been evaluating our living donors, that's people who are willing to sort of shell out an extra kidney. Like, hey, we've got a kidney, you need a kidney, we'll give you a kidney. And so this process generally takes a lot of time, right, because they have to go through a lot of medical tests, they have to find out if they're a match, find out if they're healthy enough for surgery, find out all of these different things. And we were making some progress with our most recent volunteer donor. But with that process, it generally takes a little bit longer, and in that process, you

have an idea of what's going on, right? So when it's timely time for the surgery, you're scheduled weeks, maybe even months in advance, you have a lot of warning that it's coming, and so I was starting to get excited because everything seemed like it was going really, really well, and I was like, maybe I will get a kidney someday. And then this past Sunday, normally I'm up between 5 and 5.15. And last Sunday I slept in until I think I was almost 5.30. And I wake up to a whole bunch of missed calls, which generally is not good. And it's a little weird because I tell everybody, if you're going to call after 10 p.m., call Rachel. Don't call Brandon. And so to wake up with a bunch of missed phone calls is a strange thing for me.

And it was a 703 number, which was the transplant center. And so I was like, I'm just going to get a voicemail, probably a pre-recorded message. And so I call back, get a voicemail, lady answers on the very first ring, which is weird. Even when I've called back during business hours, I've never gotten an answer on the very first ring. I said, this is Brandon. Did you just call? And she says, we have an amazing kidney for you. How fast can you get to the hospital? And I said, I'm going to need to get back to you. And if I'm 100% honest, and if anybody who knows me knows that I like to kind of plan things out, I don't like to be surprised, especially when I already have a plan, my thought was, well, I've got church. I can't get a kidney on a Sunday morning.

I was like, I've got to go to church. And so I said, Rachel, they've got a kidney. I called my parents. They came to the kids. Our neighbor, Eric, got his car ready to go because he was going to drive us, and we got moving. So we walked into ANOVA. They checked my name in the computer, and it wasn't like where you go to the doctor's office, and they say, have a seat. And then, you know, 45 minutes later, a nurse comes out and takes you back and goes through everything. Literally, the receptionist said, I'm taking you upstairs to a room right now. We stopped. We had a word of prayer with Rachel, Eric, and my dad. And next thing I know, I am wearing a hospital gown with no back. And they are taking 28 vials of blood out of my arm while trying to do a chest x-ray and an EKG.

And a surgeon is telling me that the kidney has just arrived at the hospital. And then it just seemed like we waited for a really, really, really long time. And then I woke up four hours later with an incredible amount of pain with a brand new kidney. And so I want to share with that its background for some of you watching who don't know and haven't been through this experience with us, but I am very, very thankful this morning for God's common grace. And what God's common grace means is just the goodness that God has poured out on this entire world. In Psalm 145, it says, The Lord is good to all. His mercy is over all that He has made. And in Matthew 5, Jesus says he makes the sun rise on the evil and the good

and sends rain on the just and the unjust. What that means is there is a grace in this world that God has poured out on every single person. Whether you're a Christian or not, you are a recipient of the good grace of God. On those beautiful sunny days, through the power of medicine and the human intellect that God has gifted to us, that lets us literally take a part out of one person and plug it into someone else. God has given us this grace. And this week, to me, it was very clear how God worked through His common goodness in this world, right? Through the doctors, the nurses, the techs, the surgeons, all of those people that have taken care of me and kept me alive. But I'm also very deeply thankful this morning for the depth of God's special grace.

And what I mean by that is the grace that God gives specifically to his believers, right? The peace that passes understanding, the gift of the body of Christ, the prayers of the saints, his provision in the midst of just seeing giant obstacles. I'm thankful for how God has worked everything out And I was telling Rachel this morning, nothing has been simple, nothing's been easy, nothing has been without pain, there's definitely been some fear and some nervousness, but I've never seen anything in my life work the way this week has, right? Our kids have been taken care of by an amazing amount of people, we haven't had to make a meal this week not that we planned on um we didn't even have to ask there was just food um you know it's just God has provided in big ginormous enormous ways and and in just small everyday

ways and I'm I'm so thankful but I think one of the things that that really hit home for me this week that I am so deeply thankful for are God's people um uh I've read a lot of verses in Paul where he says stuff and maybe you've read these where he'll say things like oh I long for the believers or you know I long for you with all the affection of Christ I can't wait to see you and I always think yeah there's some Christians that are pretty cool but one of the things that this week did drove home to me and I've always loved the church right you can't be in the church I think and experience things in the church and not love the church it's hard sometimes but I've always love the church, but this week, one of the things that I saw, I was so thankful for, was the church.

I mean, our local body here at College Park, the prayers, the encouragement, like the calls, the little notes, the messages, but not just our church, but the other churches in town that are praying for us, and not just churches in our branch of Christianity, right? There's all kinds churches that have been praying, and not just here, but in the U.S. and throughout the world. I got messages, just simple messages, hey, us in our church are praying for you, and they're literally on the other side of the world, right? And so one of the things that God, and I think God knew I needed this, is to remind me I'm not alone, right? And I told the surgeon going in, I said, I don't know if you're a Christian or not, but there's probably a thousand people praying for me and for

you right now and to me that is mind-boggling that you and I are part of a family that stretches throughout the globe right that in our hurts we have a church here and we have a church that goes through the world that loves us and wants to wrap us up in their person it's amazing right you know I just talked a little bit to Neil this week it was encouraging he feels the same way about the prayers of the saints. It's this thing that it's so easy for us to take for granted. But it's so important and so powerful. So I just say this, you're here in person, you're online, God brings you into a church. Be here, be part of it. Love your brothers and sisters in Christ. Know that you are loved, know that God gives you that love. Two quick verses in John the sixth chapter I want to

share with you. John the sixth chapter is a really, really long chapter. I thought about it just to be difficult to make Brent read all 68 verses. If you're not familiar with John 6, a big part of it is the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000, right? One of those favorite Sunday school lessons, because it's this massive picture of thousands of people, they're all hungry, Jesus feeds them all, and then he teaches them about the truth. And in this, he'll provide them bread, and then he'll teach, and people will struggle with the teaching, specifically Jesus saying, I am the bread of life. And Jesus doesn't literally mean that his body is made of bread, but he says that I'm the one who will nourish and strengthen you, right? I'm what your soul needs. And so people struggle

with that. And so they began to grumble and eventually his crowd of more than 5,000 people after this miracle and this sermon turns into a crowd of 12, right? We have a small church. Imagine going from a church of 5,000 to 12 in just a matter of minutes, right? It has to feel a little discouraging. And so Jesus will look at the last 12 that are sitting there. We know him the disciples and he'll say this after this many disciples turned back and no longer walked with him so Jesus answered the 12 do you want to go away as well and then look at what Peter says Peter says in verse 68 Peter answered him Lord to whom shall we go you have the words of eternal life and Peter says we've thought about it we've thought we know that there's other places we could

go. But there's only one place that there are the words of eternal life, and that's in Jesus. So I've heard a lot of words this week. Some people have been incredibly encouraging, right? You call and they're like, yeah, we're so excited. We're so thankful. We're praying for you. Some people are very informational. My surgeon comes in Sunday morning. This is what we're going to do. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to go here. We're going to do that. Here's all the bad things that can happen to you just a lot of information right that's what surgeons their job is to give you information some people were really brusque um you know kind of short to the point the anesthesiologist which seems to be my experience with the anesthesiologist it comes in

all right we're gonna put you to sleep take out a kitty put in a new one any questions right like i mean it was fun it was great and there were people who were uh praying all these things. But one of the words, it was just ridiculous. I'm laying there in pre-op, waiting to go into the operating room. Everybody's gone back. I'm by myself. There's some kind of situation in the corner that I'm trying to see because it looks real interesting. The guy's like, you can't detain me here. Anyway, it's weird. And then this 20-year-old tech comes over, looks at my chart and goes, oh good, you're an Aquarius too. And I was like i don't know what being an asparagus has to do with any of this whole situation but you know nice to meet you i'm brandon you know um anyway so there's then there's words that are just

ridiculous and that was ridiculous and then she's like i don't know why your blood pressure is so high there is only one person who has words of life and that's Jesus right a lot of people can encourage us a lot of people can teach us a lot of people can make us mad with their words a lot of people can make us laugh with their words but there is only one person who has the words of life and it's interesting there's several different words used for words in the gospel of John one of them that we're familiar with you'll hear preachers talk about this that Jesus is the word and you know begins like in the gospel of John in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the Word was God. Thinking about how the Word is made flesh, that Jesus is literally

the Word of God in the flesh come to us. Well, the words we're talking about in verse 68 is a different kind of word. It's a different word in Greek. And what it means is word that is spoken out. So Jesus isn't just the Word of God, but he also brings to us the Word of God. I want you to think just for a moment about how wonderful that is. Think back to Genesis chapter 1. So God speaks, and what happens in Genesis chapter 1? There's life, right? The dead brown earth is covered with all kinds of different plants, right? We've got the flowers that my kids like to pick, dandelions, we'll call them weeds. We've got beautiful rose bushes. We've got big trees, little trees. God speaks, and what happens? There's life. And then God speaks again,

and what happens? The oceans are filled with, you've got shrimp, you've got whales, you've got colorful fish, you've got brown fish, you've got all of this life that emanates from the Word of God, right? And then God speaks again, and what happens? And you get birds, and owls, and eagles, and hawks and birds and dogs like to chase and bark at, right? And then God speaks again, and all that life, the plants on the ground, is covered again. And this time, right, we've got horses and lions and cheetahs and dogs and cats and squirrels. And God speaks again, and what happens? Two living, breathing human beings, Adam and Eve, breathes his life into them with his words. You see the pattern? That when God speaks, he brings life into this world. What Peter realizes here, and it's simple, but it's so deeply profound,

is that Jesus is speaking, but he's not just speaking words, right? Sometimes we talk just to talk. Sometimes we talk because we're nervous. Sometimes we talk because we're scared. Sometimes we talk because we're mad. But Jesus is speaking the words of eternal life. And Peter is saying, through you we've seen that there is a life that isn't just short and temporary, but one that never ends. And when God speaks to us through the words of Jesus, through the words of His Spirit, There's a life that is brought to us, right? In this world, there's going to be times where it feels like we're walking through a desert. In fact, the 63rd Psalm can talk about a dry, weary place. Maybe you sang that hymn where we talk about being in a dry and a weary place.

And sometimes on this side of heaven, it feels that way. But through the gospel, through the words of Jesus, through the encouragement of the Spirit, through the salvation we have in Him, there is eternal life found in Jesus. One of the things that I am so thankful for in the Gospel is that God has drilled this truth into us, that there is only one place to go, there is only one hope, and that is in Jesus. God in the flesh who came, who has experienced life as we've experienced this, He knows what it's like to hurt, He knows what it's like to have joy, He knows what it's like to experience loss and to have friends. He knows what it's like to love and to be betrayed. He knows what it's like to be tempted.

And ultimately, He doesn't just know your life, but He takes all the brokenness of our lives and He dies on the cross. He rises again for our victory. And in Him, and in Him alone, there is life. So like Peter, I hope it's our declaration. Where else can we go? You have the words of life. Let's have a word of prayer, and then we'll spend some time together in prayer. Father in heaven, thank you for your blessings in my life. Thank you for the way that you have worked wonderfully and providentially and miraculously to bring physical life into my body and spiritual life into my soul. I thank you for your people and your church. I thank you for your common grace poured out upon this world. The special grace that you have given to your church.

Thank you for the prayers of your saints. I thank you that in Jesus there are words of life. Help us to cling to them. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So, normally I'd go sit down, but I'm just going to sit here. This is far more comfortable than moving at this point. I'll have Russell come. and we'll spend some time together in prayer. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

So we're going to sing another new song. I think it's appropriate, as we've prayed for, not just all the good things that have happened and all of our requests, but to pray, or we've prayed for, you know, world events. So this song is called Hope of the Nations. You can stand, you can sit. I'm probably going to, I might just move right over here, we'll see.

It's a song about how Jesus is our ultimate hope, not just for us, but for the nation. So we're going to try this out. We'll have a couple of announcements, and then we'll wrap up.

Jesus, hope of the nations, Jesus, comfort for all who mourn. You are the source of heaven's hope on earth. Jesus, light in the darkness, Jesus, truth in each circumstance. You are the source of heaven's light on earth. In history, you live in sight. You broke the chains, you rose to life. You are the hope living in us. You are the rock in whom we trust. You are the light, shining for all the world to see You rose for day, conquering fear A prince of God, drawing us near Jesus I'm called, living for all who will receive Lord, we believe Jesus, hope of the nations Jesus, comfort for all who mourn You are the source of heaven's hope Jesus, light in the dark Jesus, truth in each circumstance You are the source of heaven's light On earth

In history, you lived and died You broke the chains You rose to life You are the falling in us You are the rock in whom we trust You are the light Shining for all the world to see You rose from the dead Conquering fear I've got peace, drawing us near Jesus, I'm home Living for all who will be saved Lord, we believe Lord, we believe Lord, we believe

All right, I want to thank you for joining us, whether you're here sitting or online. We are very, very thankful for you, and you are a huge encouragement to us, and I hope we've been able to be an encouragement in the gospel to you this morning. Just a quick announcement, we'll be hopefully here Wednesday night for Wednesday night Bible study. We've been trying to do this now, Thessalonians chapter 4, for like four weeks. So my notes keep getting longer every week because I go back through and reread it. And then it's like, well, you know what? I should probably add this. And then we end up with COVID. And then we ended up being sick. And then we ended up with a kidney transplant. And then, so anyway, we're ready to go for Wednesday night.

So that's here at 7 p.m. upstairs. I'm excited to spend some time in discussion of the Word of God. So that'll be Wednesday night. at seven. Yes, Rachel? So there will be ladies' class, and there may be a bunch of kids at it. So anyway, so come to ladies' class at 1 p.m. So it's been a long time since I've been to ladies' class. So, all right, let's pray, and then we'll sing the doxology and be dismissed. Father in heaven, thank you for your church. Thank you for your word, your people, for grace, for Jesus, for brothers and sisters in Christ. Thank you for letting us be here this morning. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Thank you. Thank you.