Let's grab our Bibles, and we continue our study, our expository study, in the book of Genesis.

And yes, ma'am, Beth, we went through the ark quite some time back, and went through it probably in a greater detail than some of these folks care to think about.

But Genesis 18, we got through the first, I think, 15 verses last week. Today is Abraham intercedes. Abraham intercedes.

But I was going to call Rudy up here this morning, because I was going through the back back there, and Rudy stopped me and goes,

Hey, make sure you got a good word like you did last week. That's always pressure when somebody says that.

I was like, wow, okay, why don't you just come up and give the sermon from last week?

That'd be, you know, people would probably want to hear more from you than me.

But yes, last week we got through the first, I think it was 15 verses of chapter 18,

and we talked about what it really meant for us to be a friend of God, a friend of God.

We have that term we throw out there a lot of times, a friend of God.

Sometimes we think about it from a human standpoint.

But Abraham, and Abraham alone was the only one given the title within the scriptures as friend of God, friend of God.

We said that it happened three different times.

First time was in 2 Chronicles chapter 20, when Jehoshaphat was talking to Judah,

and he says that, you know, Abraham and your descendants, and Abraham was God's friend, okay?

The last time is in James chapter 2, I think, verse 23, where James quotes the scripture from Genesis

and says that Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, and Abraham was a friend of God.

The third time is the middle time, the one I was most, you know, kind of connected with there.

That's in Isaiah 41, where God is speaking to Jerusalem, and he's talking to Jerusalem and says,

You, O Israel, Jacob, from the mouth of Abraham, our descendants, Abraham, my friend.

God calls Abraham my friend.

And we said last week, well, what does it really take for us to be a friend of God?

We said that the first thing that it takes for us to be a friend, to be in that relationship with God, with Yahweh,

because that's how he's introduced in 18 verse 1, the Lord, L-O-R-D, is Yahweh, the Old Testament tetragrammaton, Y-H-V-H, Yahweh, okay?

What does it mean?

First thing that it takes is what?

Spontaneity.

Spontaneity.

If you're going to be a friend with God, you have to know that God can come and wreck your world anytime he wants to.

You can have something planned on your calendar, on your day timer.

You don't even know what day timers are.

Whatever.

Your iPhone.

Whatever.

You can have everything locked in.

You've got your plans.

And that's okay to have plans, but just understand God has editing rights to your life.

How many of us have seen that as God has worked in our life?

So, spontaneity.

The second thing we said that you're going to find the mark in that friendship is humility.

Humility.

Because we said that Abraham comes, he has these three visitors that show up.

We understand that it's the Lord and two others, okay?

It's Yahweh, and to our understanding of the scriptures, we believe it to be God, Yahweh, and some theophany, Christophany,

whatever you want to call it in the Old Testament, and two angels.

But Abraham bows down, okay?

There's humility.

And that word bow is the Hebrew word, what?

Shakah.

Shakah.

To bow down.

To pay reverence to.

To pay homage to.

There is, in that relationship, there is a reverence, okay?

And that humility.

He's not the big guy upstairs.

He's not the old man in the sky.

He is God Almighty.

He is holy.

He is righteous.

There is a reverence to that relationship.

That brings about humility.

When you understand who you're talking to and really who you are.

There's a sense of humility.

But then there's also, we said that in that relationship, there's what?

Service.

Worship.

Worship.

That's the other mark.

I'm sorry, not service.

Ministry.

I understand.

Ministry.

Service and ministry.

And Abraham served the Lord.

He served the Lord.

We said he did it three ways.

He did it personally.

He did it immediately.

And he did it generously.

And I'm not going to break it all down for you again.

But there was an immediacy to it.

He had 318 paid service.

He could have just clapped his hands and got it all done.

But no, he did it.

He did it.

And so as a Christian, a Christian without a ministry is non-existent.

If you are called as a Christian, okay, Lord, that means that you are a servant, our Lord.

So it connotes that there is a service that is owed, whether volunteer or whatever.

We are to serve the Lord.

Kingdom work.

You are to get involved.

was what? Conformity to His will. Conformity to the will of God. Knowing what God's doing. Knowing what God's leading. And walking in obedience to that. Walking in obedience to that. That's tough sometimes. That's tough sometimes. But those are the marks that I laid out before you. And some of you are sitting there going, well, why couldn't you just preach that? And you wouldn't have preached 40 minutes last week. So there you go. Could have had it a lot sooner, right? But there you go. That's the outline. That's the outline. So now we're going to jump into chapter 18.

Beginning in verse 16. Abraham intercedes. And we'll start in verse 16. Then the men set out from there. And they looked down towards Sodom. And Abraham went with them to set them on their way.

It's kind of funny. They set out. Abraham's kind of showing them out. We've got to go this way. As if God doesn't know which way to go.

You know? How many of us think we've got to show God which way to go sometimes in our life?

I need you to go this direction, God. I need this in my life. I need you to move in this direction.

But at the beginning of verse 16. It's the beginning of the story that we're going to see of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

This is where it all begins. And Lot's going to be in Sodom once we get to. We're going to see that in chapter 19, verse 1.

So it's the beginning. And I know last week I told you that we're going to start to see a contrast between the life of Abraham and the life of Lot.

That Abraham led a blessed life. Lot led a blighted life. Okay?

Abraham continued to gain and he was blessed.

Although he fumbled, bumbled, stumbled all along. Okay?

He continues to pick himself back up to repent and continues to come back to the Lord.

And the Lord blesses him. Lot led a blighted life. Okay?

He chased after the world. He chased after all these things.

And we'll see that a little bit as we go on as well, too.

But we'll get more into that diversity in there and then comparison next week.

But six times the Old Testament refers to Sodom.

Four times the New Testament refers to Sodom.

And it's really kind of become famous or infamous, if you will.

And the term Sodom has been a byword for sexual perversion.

All right?

And so the term Sodom has been thrown out.

And we'll see what kind as we get into some crazy stuff, even in chapter 19.

That's one of the crazy things about when you study something, an expository study, you're going to hit everything.

So you're not going to just skim over stuff and not read it.

But we'll look at this.

But the whole destruction begins here of Sodom and Gomorrah with this chapter.

Verse 17.

The Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do?

Seeing that Abraham will surely become great and a mighty nation.

And all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.

Now, I read that and I kind of wonder, you know, who's God talking to?

You know?

He's having this conversation.

Is he talking to himself?

Is he talking to the two angels?

Was it some sort of inter-Trinitarian communication?

There's a lot of debate.

Some of you don't realize that there's a lot of debate on these verses.

A lot of people write.

A lot of these really brainiac theologians write a lot of stuff on this as to really who God was talking to.

To me, it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter.

Okay?

God said it.

God said it.

And he said it for the benefit of us that are reading it.

Okay?

That he's having this conversation.

And verse 19 kind of sums up things here when it says,

For I have chosen him that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice,

so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.

Now, to me, this is revolutionary and really insightful here right here in verse 19.

Here's Abraham.

And God says, you know, here's the guy who's going to bless the whole world.

All right?

And it's a reference ultimately to Jesus Christ because the seed of Abraham is going to bear forth Christ and Christ is going to be born.

And the whole world is going to be blessed through that because Christ brings about hope.

Christ brings about salvation.

So we understand that.

But in verse 19, it shows me that God not only sees that Abraham will influence the world,

but God will see that Abraham...

...prayer of service, he's actually in...our elders are sharing in the teaching responsibility. We're going through 1 Timothy, and he's in chapter 3. He's doing a tremendous job on that. But we talked about this very thing. Taking care of your household and sowing into your household. I probably have some of my statistics wrong, but I was looking at some of this. But if your child goes to school, which most children do, they spend approximately, if you count the hours, it's about 20% of their time is at school.

You know, you think that, wow, you just spent a whole bunch of...if you just look at the hours at school, 20% they go to school. If they attend church, that's about 1%. If they're Sunday attenders, that's 1%, okay?

And so 73% of their time is with you. The other percentages, I know he doesn't add up to 100%. They do another stuff. But 73% of the time is with you, parents. 73% of their time.

And so you can see where the fallacy is, where if I send my kids, I send my kids to Christian school, and I send them to church, and they're supposed to teach them the way that they're supposed to live.

No. No, not at all. And you can see where the mathematics don't bear that out. And Abraham is learning that. God's revealing this to him.

He says, I've called you, Abraham. I have called you, not just to bless the world. That's a pretty big order. But also, but your family. Your family. This is trickle-down righteousness.

This is trickle-down evangelism, all right? That's supposed to be held within the household. You know, watch me, son, as I live my life.

Watch me, daughter, as I live my life. I want you to watch as I live out to the best of my ability, okay?

But in the tent, in the household, you know? Dads, that's your responsibility to live that life out before your children.

Well, I don't want that kind of responsibility. Too bad. Don't be a dad then. Okay?

Don't be a dad. It comes with the territory. Well, that's not fair. That's the way God set it up.

That's the way God set it up. You know, so the percentage of time that you have with your children, you know,

so they can learn what it means to follow the Lord. And so he's going to influence his children.

And Abraham is called to lead his family. And I just throw that out there, you know, as we're getting to this point,

because we come face-to-face with the fact that so many of us, we just put aside the importance of the fact that we need to remember

that it's my responsibility, our responsibility to impact our own children, to influence our children.

If you're, if you're, if you are, it's great to bring them to church. It's great to send them back here to the children's area.

Those are great things. It's great to send them to youth group. Okay?

But if you are not impacting your children, it is your fault. It is your fault.

You know, um, I get it. Uh, well, some, some of you, you have the small child, some of you have teenagers now,

and I know that's a whole nother world. It's like, Holy cow, my child's possessed.

You know, they used to be so awesome. They used to be so beautiful. And now they're possessed. What is that?

They've lost their ever loving mind, you know, and you know, they're, they've turned into this rebel force. Okay.

And so you've got a, you got a relationship. Everything's changed. They're individualizing now.

They're, they're, they're, they're, they're starting to mature a little bit and they want to be an adult,

but they don't want the responsibility of it. Okay. All that, you know, that, that whole impasse that we

have there, but you know what? They want more of their own space. I want my own this. I want my own

this on that. It's a difficult time for some people. I shared this Wednesday night, but I was studying on

this and Mark Twain writes in his writings, he said that, um, everything with the child is great

until they hit age 13. Then at age 13, you need to take them and put them in a barrel and tap the lid

down, tap the lid down on the barrel and feed them through a knot hole. Once they turn 16, you tap up

and seal the knot hole. Okay. Now that's Mark Twain. I'm not endorsing this. Okay. But I think he's,

I think he's very funny, but, um, but the, the, the, the,

God is still giving you the arena or the, uh, the ability to still be an influencer. Because even in the, even in the, the, the household of God within within the walls of the church, children are watching you and how you react and the tenderness of your heart and the way you, you're, you're, how you treat others. You have an influence. We can't afford to disengage. We can't afford to allow other people to have continued to have influence on, on our, on our, um, our children. We have the time. We have the time. We have the time.

have the time we've given the power so it engaged them and so and pray that god will give you the

insight i'm going to get off a soapbox and keep moving here because we'll get through this here

okay verse 20 then the lord said because the outcry against sodom and gomorrah is great and

their sin is very grave i will go down and see you whether uh they have done all together according

to the outcry that has come to me and if not i will know so the men turned from there and went

towards sodom but abraham stood before the lord now i read this and it brings a question okay

it says that there's been that there's been an outcry against sodom the scripture is telling it

and god says there's been an outcry and i'm going to go check it out well who's been doing the outcrying

who is it that's been crying out

maybe it's abraham maybe maybe it was abraham but i just want to throw a thought out to you this

morning maybe it's lot maybe it was a lot maybe maybe you're cynical oh no no no it's not a lot

he's the bad guy in this remember pastor curtis you said you were going to contrast the life of

abraham and the life of lot okay and that's that's true however did you know that the new testament

refers to lot as righteous in second peter chapter chapter two uh the the scripture says i think we

got it yeah do we have it thank you and if he rescued righteous lot righteous lot greatly distressed by

the sensual conduct of the wicked for as the righteous man lived among them day after day and

was uh was tormenting his righteous soul over the lawless deeds that he saw and heard so he's called

righteous now that doesn't mean that he was as righteous as abraham was and he believed god's

promises and he was walking with god but in comparison to sodom and gomorrah okay comparison

to that standard he was he would be considered righteous and it could be that he was there and

he's gotten sucked into it and now he's complaining against it it's horrible here but of course he didn't

do anything he didn't do anything to to mitigate against it because we're going to see in a minute

in fact he's now one of the elders of the city he's one of the leaders of the city but i'm just saying

it could be a lot in here we'll see but here's something else that's interesting about this verse

that we just read that i want to point out to you this morning that i that i want you to grasp a hold

of listen god is not reactive god is not reactive you know he's heard the outcry and of course god god

knows all things okay he's he's very well aware of all things okay but before he judges he is going

to send out a little party to personally investigate to get some firsthand knowledge if you will

this is written for our benefit it's written for our benefit so that we could never accuse god

of being unrighteous when it comes to judgment this is this is important stuff he fully knows the

situation but he's not reactive he is going to go what he's going to do is i'm going to confirm it

i'm going to go down there and i'm going to confirm this

and it would seem that god has allowed the outcry to go on and on and the sin to go on and we have

more outcry and more sin and more outcry until finally it reaches a point where the iniquity of a

city or the iniquity of a nation is full or complete as the scripture says we're done you remember back

when we were reading in genesis i think 15 16 i believe it was when god was telling abraham he says

look you're descended

but it tells me it tells me that god has a limit god has a limit you know i remember my mom i used to always have this saying i've had enough to hear with you

i was like well good thing it's not here it's just a year you know i got this much more to go that's the way i thought i'm going to continue to push the button because i got that much more to go i've had you know god has a limit there is a there is a limit

i mean in genesis 6 3 god says that my my spirit shall not abide in man forever for he is flesh

there's going to come a point in time when i'm done i am done god is patient god is merciful god is gracious

but he waits until a nation reaches a level at which point god must act in judgment in order to be

just there comes a point in time in your life in my life where god will be patient god will be gracious

we continue to turn our back on god we continue to do this we know the lord we've made a profession of faith

we think we're getting away with something and god will reach a point in time in your life and in my life

where god says i have reached the limit

we're done i'm done playing this game with you

and sodom has reached a point and god's saying i'm going to destroy them i'm going i'm going to

confirm it first just so you see you see that i'm not i don't fly off at the handle i'm going to make

sure that all the facts are right and then i'm going to go go ahead and i'm going to destroy them

you know i was studying this last week and i came across a verse and and you don't have to turn

there i'll put it up on the screen in a minute for you but it's a it's a verse found in ezekiel 16

that really shook me uh about this and maybe give you some insight god god is he's he's he's about to

come against jerusalem in ezekiel 16 and he says this beginning in verse 48 as i live declares the

lord god your sister sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done

behold this was the guilt of your sister sodom she and her daughters had pride excess of food

and prosperous ease but they did not aid the poor and the needy they were haughty and did an

abomination before me so i removed them when i saw it these people they lived in abundance they they

could care less about about the world around them the people who are suffering around them and they just

sort of became very narrow-minded they become very uh self-focused they became very prideful

and they committed an abomination before the lord and god says i finally have had enough

and i'm going to judge him

you know i uh

i can't help

but to be so burdened

for our nation

i'm i'm not sitting up here trying to be political

i'm not i'm not being anything other than

biblical and transparent

we got a mess going on

we got a mess going on in our nation

and

i don't

i could give a rip

what you feel about wall no wall

i could give a rip about what you feel about this that and the other

we have brothers and sisters

coming against each other in such hatred

but here's the thing

it's painful

i don't want a

to continue to greater to greatly justify taking the lives of babies and states are doing it because they want to protect themselves so that the federal government ever make a law we don't have to be under that we're talking about lives

i'm not talking about skin color i'm talking about the imago day we're all created in the in the image of god and why does that not shake us to the core what is wrong what is wrong i'm not i'm two i guess two two couple Sundays ago i blew it we had sanctity for human life Sunday we had the bulletins we handed out i

i gaffed i forgot to even mention it you know what every sunday is sanctity of life Sunday every sunday is sanctity of life Sunday

you know i'll tell you this and we'll get back on task

we had some we had some friends over for dinner last night and we started talking about some of the things that are just troubling our nation troubling our community and yes you're not going to fix it all you know well you're just reaching one family i get it well it's still we're just taking care of this we're not taking care of the car i get it i get it

i get it but i believe in my heart of hearts that 90 percent of the mess that we're in today

as a nation is because the church has been asleep at the wheel for way too long

the church has not stood up to be the church if the church was being the church

this whole slavery thing would have been a thing of the past

quickly that thing would have been put out fast

okay if the church was being the church

this whole um this whole abortion thing never would have made it to any docket

okay

i'm telling you if the church was being the church

the boys and girls club would be out of business

if the church was being the church we wouldn't need morning star

nothing against morning star

if the church was being the church

we wouldn't have families disintegrating all over the place

and and pastors from the pulpit that are leading that

leading that saying well you know god's called me to a new woman

because i've stayed young and she's gotten old now

and it it it scares me that i don't know what to pray anymore

i don't know what to pray as i pray sometimes i just i just gotta cry out

jesus just come

because you know what that's the only thing that's gonna fix

the hearts of the people just come

you know i i want my daughters to grow up and to see

all these things of the world and experience

but you know what just come

just come

and i'm not sitting here being gloom and doom

but there has to be there has to be something that wells up within us today

that says we will not be like that church

we will not be like that community

we will not we will not sit silently

okay and that doesn't mean we walk around carrying signs and protest

this is not in my notes

where are we going

but i firmly believe you guys

there is going to come a point in time when god's going to say

everybody

out of the pool

done

done

father forgive us

then abraham

verse 20

saying

you

you

will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked

suppose there were fifty righteous within the city will you sweep away the place and not spare the fifty righteous

who are in it

and we're going to read the next few verses and as we make our way through it

it's gonna it's gonna seem like you know

god and abraham are having this argument and abraham is sort of backing god into a corner you know

but look at the verse that we just read

first of all god never has to be reminded that he's righteous

you know

god have you forgotten that you're righteous abraham

i totally i totally blew that i forgot that i was righteous

i appreciate you pointing that out

you know

let's let's work our way through this and i'll just make a couple of comments

we'll

far be from you to do such a thing to put the righteous to death with the wicked so that the righteous

fair is the wicked

far be it from you

shall not the judge of the earth do what is just

and the lord said if i find fifty

righteous

and the lord said if i find fifty

righteous in the city

at sodom in the city

i will spare the whole place for their sake

abraham answered

behold

i have undertaken to speak to the lord

i who am but dust and ashes

suppose five of the fifty righteous were lacking

will you destroy the whole city for the lack of five

and he said i will not destroy it

if i find 45 there

again he spoke and said to him suppose 40 are found there

and he answered for the sake of the 40 i will not

then he said

oh let

not the lord be angry

and i will speak

suppose 30 are found there

and he answered i will not do it

if i find 30 there

he said behold i have undertaken to speak to the lord

suppose 20 are found

in the answer for the sake of 20 I will not despise

Then he said, oh, let not the Lord be angry.

I will speak again.

But this once, suppose ten are found there.

And he answered, for the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.

And the Lord went on his way, went away, went his way.

And when he had finished speaking to Abraham, Abraham returned to his place.

Again, it sounds like they're kind of arguing and Abraham's backing God into a corner until you get to verse 33.

And verse 33 doesn't say that when Abraham finished, he and he had gotten what he wanted.

OK, it says that and the Lord went his way when he finished speaking to Abraham and Abraham returned to his place when the Lord was finished.

So what we understand here is that God all the while had in his perfect will to be merciful by separating the righteous.

And that would be Lot and his family from the wicked and destroying the wicked.

It was God's plan all along.

But God wanted Abraham to be part of the process.

He wanted him to be part of the process.

So God initiates the conversation.

He leads him through it.

And when God is done with Abraham asking him, you know, what God wanted him to ask, now it's finished.

I got you to that point.

The Lord's the one who's leading it.

And the Lord is the one who wanted to show mercy all along.

But he wanted Abraham to be involved in prayer as part of the process.

And therein lies the beauty of prayer.

It lies the beauty of it.

OK, prayer isn't getting my will done here on earth.

It's getting God's will done here on earth.

God has a perfect plan.

And so in prayer, God invites me.

He invites you to tap into his program.

That's the invitation to pray.

You know, how often we pray for things.

And when you see things happen according to God's will.

And many of us have had those things happen that have been included in our prayers, your prayers and in my prayers.

And there's I don't know if you have the same feeling I do, but there's great satisfaction.

I don't know if you have the same feeling I do, but I don't know if you have the same feeling I do, but I don't know if you have the same feeling I don't know if you have the same feeling I don't know if you have the same feeling I don't know if you have the same feeling I don't know if you have the same feeling I don't know if you have the same feeling I don't know if you have the same feeling I don't know if you have the same feeling I don't know if you have the same feeling I don't know if you have the same feeling I don't know if you have the same feeling I don't know if you have the same feeling I don't know if you have the same feeling I don't know if you have the same feeling I don't know if you have the same feeling I don't know if you have the same feeling I don't know if you have the same feeling I don't know if you have the same feeling I don't know if you have the same feeling I don't

that you find out it's in the laboring that you hear that you hear it's in the laboring that you listen I agree with Warren Wiersbe when he speaks of Abraham here in this part he says that Abraham becomes one of the select group of people known as intercessors he's an intercessor people who pray for people people who labor in prayer for people it's one of the beautiful things we do here on Wednesday nights we labor in prayer for

people we labor in prayer for others now I don't know if you're called to that ministry of intercessory prayer but I believe that Christians are called at some point to intercede for others when was the last time you interceded for someone other than yourself did you know when you pray for yourself you're not interceding you're just you're just telling God what you want or asking God to help you help me and this is you're not interceding

interceding interceding is when you when was the last time you were really burdened in your heart for someone else something else it was a burden on you you know that's one of the things I have I make that time I have that time when I when I leave the house I get here to work extra early you almost every morning I had that specific time and I intercede in my little my little hole in the wall over there for people for people and sometimes some of you might get random text messages from me it just has some screenings

scripture and when that happens you need to know I'm interceding for you God has put you on my heart I'm interceding for you I encourage you I encourage you to desire that to desire that in your life and that that you would you would want to persevere for others in prayer I mean that's what Paul says to Timothy doesn't he says I would you would

intercede intercede intercede for kings and pray for kings and intercede for those who are an authority over you that we might live a peaceful life with God in that intercession so Abraham is part of that and by the way if you want to be like Jesus if we're supposed to be Christians that means Christ like you want to be like Jesus guess what Jesus is doing right now interceding be an intercessor that's the easy way you can be me like Jesus just be an intercessor

and I promise you and I promise you if you ask God tonight someone to intercede for he will put someone on your heart he will be faithful in that

so as soon as

Lord's finished

speaking he goes away

question why does Abraham stop at 10

you ever think of that

amen

amen

amen

amen

let's um

let's kind of just close with this

and it's uh

makes everything else

I was needed

just thought I need to say

kind of moot

at this point

and I'm going to ask the worship team

to uh

come

well I think Steve is probably with

his stepdad

Shannon's over there as well too

but

you guys would come on up

and uh

we'll just close with this

as we

kind of prepare our hearts

as well

for just

celebrating communion

um

I just wanted to read

chapter 19

just the first verse

and then we'll kind of close with this

this morning

um

the two angels came to Sodom

in the evening

and Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom

and he saw them

he rose to meet with them

and he bowed

himself

with his face to the earth

so

um

it's a good outward show

you know

Lot's doing

he bows before

the angels come

it's a good outward show

but the reality of the matter is

is

he's an elder of this city right now

it was

it was a progression for him

it was uh

it started off where he pinched

first he pitched his tent

remember

towards Sodom

he wanted to

look at Sodom

be a part of Sodom

he pitches his tent

towards Sodom

now he's actually

an elder of the city

he's in leadership there

so he's making all the

he's showing

how I'm worshipping you

and

we can give a

out of all of the cities

and

goes

and

that's

to Abraham they just appear at his tent and we say we understood it to be the Lord and two angels we look at the scripture in that if you remember the Lord doesn't come up and say hey Yahweh at the door coming on in he stands at the door and he waits for Abraham to give him an invitation I believe that's how the Lord works Jesus speaks to the church in Laodicea

behold I stand at the door and I knock if any man hears my voice and invites me in I will come and dine with him have fellowship with him and he with me I will sup with him so that's the invitation that God gives and so the Lord waited for Abraham he recognized who he was he gives him the invitation come sit down take a load off and maybe I just wanted to say if you're here this morning and you never really have given

that invitation that invitation that invitation to the Lord into your life let it be today let it be today let it be today and you would simply understand that there's the Lord knocking at your door of your heart he's not going to force himself in on you he's not he's not going to force himself upon you but it's that a complete surrender is let that be the day let today be the day

and it's in that surrender and it's in that surrender that the Holy Spirit then comes and dwells within you and you're part of the family of God and this morning we celebrate communion I'm going to ask I know Bobby is homesick and with sick boys and David and Tom Foster Foster if you grab Tom out there right there and Foster

Will you also grab Bobby Mac

Come on guys

We're celebrating communion this morning and the way we celebrate today is you don't have to be a member of this church to celebrate communion you just have to be a member of the household of God

So the invitation is to come sit at the table

And if you have received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior you are in the family of God

And so we're just going to have two stations here set up and we're going to have the bread and the juice

And we're going to ask you to come down through the center aisles make your way out to the back spend some time in prayer

With the altar with your family

Spend some time in prayer in your seats

If you need to get your children and go to lunch get your children and go to lunch

I just don't want to be in a hurry

If you want to stay here and linger I'm happy to stay here and linger with you

Beth thank you for being here today and sharing

Remember the portal as we talked about

But this morning we celebrate

On the evening that Jesus was betrayed he took the bread

And with his brothers he took it and he said

He broke it and giving thanks

And he said

This is my body

Each of you

Take and eat

And likewise

During the dinner of the cup of redemption

At the point of the cup of redemption

Jesus stands up and he says

The new covenant I have

This is my blood which is shed for you

Poured out for the remission of sins

And we thank you Lord Jesus for the breaking of your body

We thank you Lord Jesus for the shedding of your blood

For it is only through Christ

Can we stand before a holy and righteous God

And that's what we celebrate today

All of our righteous acts would fall short

To measure up to a holy and righteous

Anything we could ever bring to the table would never be sufficient

But Jesus was all sufficient

All sufficient