Sunday 6 April 2025

  📍 The Bible reading today comes from Romans chapter five, starting at verse 12.

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man. And death through sin. And in this way, death came to all people because all sinned to be sure sin was in the world before the law was given. But sin is not charged against anyone's account where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam.

Who is a pattern of the one to come, but the gift is not like the trespass for if the many died by the trespass of the one man. How much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflow to many nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man's sin.

The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and bought justification for if by the trespass of one man death reigned through that one man. How much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of one man, the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made righteous.

Thank you Denise, and uh, it's great to have you all here with us today. As I said earlier, next week is Palm Sunday. The following week is Easter. So today what I wanted to do was to share a message that's gonna focus our hearts and our minds on our need for Jesus. Yeah, we do need Jesus. Yeah. Every single human being needs Jesus.

The title of my message today is The Backstory. Let's, let's pray.

Holy Spirit, we ask you to come touch our hearts. Touch our minds. Remind us of fresh of our need for Jesus. We can so often go on in our days, our weeks busy. Thinking of you, but not truly being challenged by our need. For Jesus Holy Spirit, through your word today, remind us, bring us to Jesus afresh. In His name we pray.

Amen. If you may be familiar with the whoops, one too far. Can you put me one back please. Sweetheart. Some of you may be familiar with the film, citizen Kane. Has anyone seen this? No. No. Well, it tells the story of Charles Foster Kane played by Orson Wells. He won the Oscar for best pitcher all the way back in 1941.

So a long time before me. The American Institute of Film has voted it as the greatest American film of all time. Now, when you watch this film, the the beginning is quite interesting. The film begins by showing the end. Okay. He begins by showing the end. You know, the credits roll. There's this dark, ominous music that's playing and we see a chain link fence.

And on this fence it says a sign very clearly that says, no trespassing. And it's the camera pans. We peer inside this fence. We see this once, great empire that Kain had built. He's got this palatial estate that he called zanadu. It was once pleasing to the eye, but now, now it lies in ruins. You see the mansion, it's dilapidated.

The exotic zoo, the Japanese garden, the private golf course. This man had it all, but now they're in disrepair. We see this man who was once rich and powerful. He had it all, but something's happened. Paradise has been lost, and he's now a, you know, he's been reduced to a shell of his former glory. He's no longer this titan, this man among men, and he was a man who once pulled strings politically and corporately.

He was a man who used to run the world from his office. Instead, what we see here at the end is a man who was weak and frail, and he's lying on his deathbed in his hand. He's holding a snow globe. Do you know what a snow globe is? Yeah. He's holding this snow globe and with his dying breath, he utters this mysterious word rose butt.

And once he's uttered that word, he, you know, he releases his grip on this snow globe and it falls down and smashes to pieces. It's signifying this brokenness. It's signifying not only the end of his own life, but also the world that he created. It begins this way with the end so that as a viewer, you are watching this and you're left wondering what went wrong?

How did it all come to this, and what does it mean? What does Rosebud signify? Okay? You are watching this beginning and in your mind, all these questions emerge, and the rest of the film is the backstory to that opening scene. And what you see when you watch the film, a young reporter is given the task of uncovering find out young man, what does this word rosebud mean?

And for him to, you know, to to work that out, he has to go all the way back to the beginning, and as he does, we see the events that led to the downfall of Citizen Kane. Now, many people approach the Easter story in the same way they come in at the end. They know it's got something to do with the death of Jesus.

You know, Jesus dying on the cross, but they're like, Hey, I don't really understand what all this is about. I mean, this guy, Jesus, he was a good man. He led a good life. He was a teacher, a healer. Why did he have to die? And on that cross, when he uttered with his dying breath, it is finished. I don't even know what that means.

And how is it you Christians, you can look at this man dying on this cross. How is that good news to a world that seems to be dying? You know, we can look at the world around us and it doesn't seem to be too different from Zou. Yeah, there may be these hints of glory, but at times it just seems to be overrun with death and decay.

How can one man dying be such good news in a world like this? Now, to answer these questions, we need to know the backstory. Yes. It's the backstory that gives meaning to the end of the story. And to do that, we have to go all the way back to the beginning. Now, does anyone know the Hebrew word for beginning?

Does anyone know what it is? It's Genesis. Well, in English, yes. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna go back to Genesis. We'll pick up the story at the beginning in chapter two, verses eight and nine. Let's consider the backstory. Behind Easter. I'll read from Genesis chapter two, verse eight and nine. Now the Lord God had planted a in the east in Eden.

Now listen to this. Listen to how deliberate it is from God. This is all a deliberate action from God. God planted the garden in the east and there he put the man he had formed the Lord. God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground. Trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. Can you see this?

The trees were appealing. You look at them, you want them. They're appealing, and it says they're good in the middle of the garden with a tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So what we see here in the beginning is God has formed Adam, he's put him in the garden, and it's God who's caused these tricks, all kind of tricks to grow from the ground.

This is God's doing and it's deliberate. And right there, smack bang in the middle of the garden are two trees. The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You can see God has deliberately put them there at the centerpiece in the middle of the garden. You can't help but notice them.

You can't miss them. They standing out. Let's read on verses 15 to 17. The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man you were free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for when you eat of it.

You will what? Surely die. Not just die. You will surely die. There's certainty here. Now, this is the very first time in the Bible. We see this word commanded and look at what God commands. He says, you are free to eat from any tree in the garden. Let's stop there. I. Normally we think a command is a bad thing.

Yeah, but the very first thing that God commands is a good thing. What God commands is human enjoyment. God says, I've given you all this provision and you are free to enjoy it. I made it for you. That's the very first command. Take it, eat it, enjoy it. That's the very first command. Now it's interesting because the exact wording of the Hebrew says, eating.

You may eat. Did you get that? That's the Hebrew eating you may eat. Now, the reason it's written that way is to intensify the freedom. We have to eat what God has provided. God is saying, you are free to eat. I made this for you. I want you to take it and I want you to enjoy it. Right from the beginning we see that God is good.

Yeah, God is a good God. But of the one tree you must not eat. Now that's the flip side of this very first command. You're free to eat except from that one tree. Now, can I tell you how, how many times these days do we seek to know the will of God and we're just striving and, and searching and wrestling in prayer in the beginning, knowing the will of God was pretty simple.

You can eat. You can eat, but you can't eat. Can you see the confusion that sin brings in the world? In the beginning, the knowledge of God's will was pretty clear. You can eat that tree, you can eat that tree, but you cannot eat of that tree. And the wording here is also interesting. Listen to how the Hebrew says it.

If you eat dying, you will die. That's what it says in the Hebrew. And just as eating you may eat intensifies the freedom that we have. Dying you will die intensifies the certainty of the consequence, the certainty of death. That's why our Bible say, surely you will die. Death is guaranteed right from the beginning.

God wanted to make it absolutely clear. If you weed of that tree dying, you will die. Now let's think about what this tells us. It tells us, God has provided for us, he's given us many good things that we can enjoy, but, but there is also this deliberate responsibility back from back, back to God. Yeah. Right from the beginning.

We see that we have both the wonderful freedom to enjoy what God has given us, alongside a responsibility to live in the way God commands us. Do you see that? We are free, but we are never free to do us. We please and we are never, ever free from God. You know, I remember a song from the 1990s back when I was in university.

You know, I had long hair. I never wore shoes. I lived as I pleased. I was a young, independent man, and there was this song that says I'm free to do what I want any old time. That's how I live my life. Can I tell you? This is just not right. Human freedom is never freedom from God. Are we okay with this?

It was true in the garden. It's true today. You know, there's so many things in our lives that we can enjoy. They're God given and they bring life and blessing when enjoyed the way God intended. Yeah. Wisdom is living life the way God intends knowing his boundaries thriving inside of those boundaries. Are we okay with this?

There's so much that God has given us to enjoy and to be received with blessing and thanksgiving, and God says, I want you to enjoy these things. They're for you. But remember, there is a spiritual responsibility that comes with all of this. Now this is something our modern culture needs desperately to hear.

Yeah. Actions have consequences.

You know, we might seek to undo the physical consequence today with all of our science and technology, but there is always a spiritual consequence. You can undo things maybe physically, but you will always reap the spiritual consequence. Do you know, I'm thinking here primarily about all this confusion we see around us with sex and gender.

People might say, I'm free, I'm free to do these things. I'm free to live. However, I please, I'm free to, to change this and do that. But there's always a spiritual consequence. You know, what we need to hear today as a society is that there is no freedom without responsibility. Because that's what we want.

We want freedom, but we don't want the consequences. Yes. I mean, you see this stuff on social media, young people today. You know, if I sleep around, it won't have an impact on my life. It won't affect me, you know? And you know, I can always exercise my reproductive rights so that my life is not affected. Now, is anyone familiar with those words, reproductive rights?

It's modern day code. It's a gloss. It's a spin for, you know, terminating my pregnancy. I can dress it up, make it sound better, okay? It's just this fancy way of dodging responsibility. It's my right. Now, we may think we have the freedom to live this way, but can I tell you our decisions always come with a price.

You can seek to mitigate the physical consequence, but there will always be a spiritual consequence. And that consequence is inescapable right from the beginning. It was true then. It was true today. So God puts these two trees in the middle of the garden, the tree of life, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And he says, you can eat of the one, but you can't eat of the other. And the question is, why? Why do this? We can read this and think, you know, God is setting Adam up to fail. Now here's something we need to understand, and given this command, it's God's intention to establish a test, and it's our destiny to have to choose.

It's true at the beginning. It's true today, even in the 21st century. Can I say, when it comes to God, there's no sitting on the fence. When it comes to allegiance to God, there is no neutrality. Every single person needs to decide, and the choice set before us is will we listen or will we use our freedom to go our own way?

That's the choice set before us, even as followers of Christ. I've gotta make that decision every day of the week. Look at these words we find in Genesis chapter one, verse 28.

God blesses humanity, male and female. He blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it. So God blesses humanity. He gives us his mandate. Be fruitful, multiply why so you can subdue the earth. Do you know what this word subdue means? Do you know what it means to subdue something?

It's a Hebrew word, kav. It literally means to take your foot and put it onto the neck of a conquered enemy. Can you picture that? I take my foot, I've conquered the enemy, and I, I, I put my foot on their neck. It implies submission. You know this word, it also implies conflict. And that conflict first plays out here in this choice that needs to be made.

There's another question that arises from this story. What is this tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Now, most scholars agree there's nothing inherently evil about this tree. You look at the tree, there's nothing, there's nothing wrong with it. There's nothing bad with it. But it serves God's purpose to become a line in the sand where God says, you're free to eat, but not of this tree.

God sets it up and he says, here is a line that you cannot cross. That's what this is all about. Now, when we think about the name of this tree, the knowledge of good and evil, what we're talking about here is, is experiential knowledge, okay? It's not talking about something, you know, by, by reading about it, by by watching a TV documentary, or even hearing about it.

It's something you know because you've experienced it. You are inside the experience and therefore you know about it. Now, lemme give an example. I grew up with a, with a father, and most of us here did, we had the, the blessing of growing up with a father. So I grew up understanding of, you know, something about fatherhood.

By watching and listening to my dad, I. And I also watched a lot of tv. We didn't have much entertainment back in the seventies and the eighties. And I, I watched all these TV shows where there's lots of dads, okay. Family Ties, the Cosby Show, the, you know, the Brady Bunch. I look at these dads, I can watch them alone and I could say, you know, with all of this experience that I, I, I know something about what it means to be a father.

But can I tell you, that all changed on October 17th, 2007 when my son was born. I became a father and began to experience fatherhood firsthand. I can now raise my hand and say, I know from inside of it, and experience what it means to be a father. And that's what this tree is. Once you make that choice and cross that line, you've now experienced the difference between good and evil.

You know it from inside the experience. Now, it's interesting when you hear people talk about sin. You know, many people today, they see sin as, you know, they're those bad things people do. Have you ever met someone who said, you know, uh, I'm not a bad person. I'm actually a good person. I don't sin. Have you ever, ever met someone like that?

I don't sin. I'm actually a good person. And then they, they produce a list to quantify, you know, all the bad things they don't do. I'm not a sinner because I don't murder. You know, I don't take, I don't take what doesn't belong to me. I don't cheat on my spouse. I don't cheat on my taxes. I'm not a bad person because I don't do bad things, and that's how many people today define sin.

Let's think about the nature of Adam's sin. Genesis chapter three verse one. Satan comes in the guise of a serpent and he says, did God really say. Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden. You know the evil one? He slithers along and the first thing he does is what He questions.

God's words. Did God really say? You see what he's doing? He wants to sow doubt in their mind by questioning what God has said, and then we're gonna see a progression. He takes it a step further. Verse four. You'll not surely die, okay? It's an outright lie. What God's told you. He's not being straight with you.

You know this guy, God, he can't be trusted. He's lying to you. You will not surely die. And then Satan moves to seal the deal. He says, you know, God has lied to you because he knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. Can you see this? He's now functioning as an accuser.

He's accusing God, this guy, God, he's not good. He can't be trusted. He's withholding this from you because he knows it's really good for you, so take it and eat. Can you see this? It's an attack on God's character. God is stingy. He's withholding good from you. He's a killjoy. He doesn't want you to have it because he knows you'll become just like him, and he doesn't want that.

He's jealous. So Eve says, okay. She takes the fruit, she eats it, gives it to Adam, and he eats as well. What we see here is that the essence of sin is unbelief. Did you get this? The essence of sin is unbelief. They haven't believed and trusted God's word and they haven't believed and trusted God's character.

The result is death. Now, think about what happens. Imagine if Eve, you know, she's kind of been deceived. She takes the fruit, she bites into it. And now she's lying lifeless on the ground. She just drops dead immediately. And Adam, Adam, what he's gotta do to eat that fruit? He's gotta pry it from her cold, dead hand.

Do you think he, do you think he'd, he'd do that? Do you see how the fact that Eve is still alive speaks into this idea that maybe God wasn't being straight up and Adam's thinking? Well, God said she would surely die. She looks pretty much alive to me. Now. Understand the word death means separation. The minute there was this disobedience, there was immediate death.

Adam and Eve now spiritually separated from the living God. They're now alienated and they're lost, and they will begin to die physically because spiritual death brings about physical death. Look at what happens after the fall. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and Eve or so for Adam and his wife and cloth them.

Now up until this point, they haven't worn animal skins before. And some believe that God actually made them watch as he killed these animals. That's what Jewish writers will say. God made them watch as those animals were killed and skinned to provide clothing, and it's God's way of saying, this is what your choice has brought into the world.

I told you there would be death and you see it now with your own eyes. This is what you have done. This is your choice. In Genesis chapter five, we see the very first genealogy in the whole of the Bible. Now, now be honest. Who actually takes time to read the genealogies? Yeah. If you raised your hand and said, yes you do, I'd call you out.

'cause I don't think you're truthful. I. What we usually do is we just skip past 'em because they seem so boring to us. Yeah. So and so begats, so and so who, begats so and so who begats, so and so and so on and so forth. Boring. Right. Let's bring on the action now. There's something interesting that happens in this first genealogy that makes it stand out from others.

It sets it apart. There's one phrase that's repeated over and over again. We're told that people are born. They lived for a certain number of years, and then he died over and over again. You see this pattern? Adam is born. He lived X number of years, and then he died. Seth was born. He lived so long, and then he died.

Enoch was born. He lived for so long, and then he died. Do you see this? This is God's way of reminding us. I kept my word. I kept my word. I told you you would die. God keeps his word. The apostle Paul picks this up in Romans chapter five. Let's, let's read from verse 14. Look at these opening words, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam.

I've highlighted those two words because of Adam. Death is king Death's in charge. Read the opening, you know, chapter of the Bible. Who does God give dominion to? He gives it to us. He says, I want you to rule. I want you to reign. But when Adam's sin, we stop reigning and now death rains. We are no longer running the show.

Death is, and guys, let's be honest, we can see it all around us here. We look at our world, we see the death and decay. We see it in our society. We see it in our environment. Think of this earthquake that just happened. This is what it looks like when death rains. Things are not the way they should be.

Creation is not the way it should be. We are not the way we should be. Death is also something we experience in our own bodies share. We experience it. And so now we are living in a time where people think, you know, death. Death is just some natural part of life. It's just the way it is. You know, we can watch a film like The Lion King.

We can sing the Circle of Life. You know, the song Elton John, great song. The Circle of Life. We arrive and we go. You know, the animals eat the grass, but that grass is just you being pushed up by the, you know, the dead carcass of some other animal. You know, it's a circle. This is the way life is, and that's what we can think.

You know, death is just part of life. It's inevitable. But you know, the Bible tells us something different. It was never God's intention that death would reign. Do you believe that this was only ever a consequence of human choice? From the time of Adam death took charge. Listen to what Paul says just a few verses earlier in verse 12.

Just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and in this way, death came to all men, can you see the death is an alien intrusion in God's good world. It was never part of the original creation. It enters when we send. The doors opened up. We sin and when? When sin walks in, you get death with it.

You don't get sinned without death. That's the reality. It says here, and when you read this passage five times. Five times, as it says through one man, through one man, Adam came death, judgment, and condemnation, and it came to all. Look at what the end of verse 12 says. Death, judgment and condemnation came to all because through one man all sins.

When Adam sinned, we sinned. That's what this is saying. As our representative, what Adam did, we did, it's this concept known as the one and the many, the actions of the one impact and affect the many. Maybe you're sitting here thinking, well, that's unfair. I didn't vote for this guy, Adam. I didn't elect him to be my representative.

I didn't choose this guy. Can I tell you? Tough. It's just the way it is. Now, if you think it's unfair and you don't want Adam to be your representative, then here's the deal. You can be your own representative. Are you okay over that? But just remember this Adam, on Adam only had to sin one time to stuff it up for everyone.

So if you've sinned more than once, then you are staffed as well. Pardon my French,

I wanna be my own rep. Okay? How many times you sinned?

This brings us to an interesting question. Are we sinners because we sin or do we sin because we're sinners? Did you hear the difference? Let me repeat that. Let we sinners because we sin. Or do we sin because we're sinners? Is it our sin that makes us sinners or do we sin because we're naturally inclined to act in a certain way?

Anyone going for the former? Uh, keep your hand down. It's the latter. Now, whether it's the former or the latter, either way, we are in deep. Okay? The fact is we've got Adam as our representative and he has really messed things up. And even if you are your own representative, let's be honest, you've messed up your life.

Yeah, I know I am. I've messed up my life. Big time. My choices, my decisions, I've mucked things up. So the question is, what hope do we have? We're in deep. What hope do we have? If we close our Bibles here, we're thinking, wow, this is a pretty grim picture. Death just continues to rain. It just continues. Its relentless, onslaught, onslaught, consuming everything in its path.

What hope do we have? The first Adam comes along, he's tempted, he fails, and his fall affects us. Death comes to all. Then a second, Adam comes along. This is the good news. His name is Jesus. He too is tempted by Satan. You know, in one of the, the temptation accounts he's taken to this vantage point, and, and he can see the kingdoms of this world.

And Satan says to Jesus, I'll give all of this to you if only you'll bow down and worship me. Now, understand why Jesus came, he came to win back the kingdoms of this world. And you know, Satan doesn't know. You know why Jesus is here. He doesn't know what Jesus is planning to do, but he says, if you just bow down and worship me, I'll give you what you came for.

And you know, without even knowing, you know, without even knowing what he's really saying, he's basically saying, forget about the cross. Forget about giving your life as a ransom for many. Forget about dying for people. Just worship me. And where the first Adam failed. The second Adam does not. And in that garden on the night he was betrayed.

He cries out to God. Now, you know, we can have this picture of Jesus being the serene martyr, praying, oh Lord, just take this cup from me. That's not how it happened. He agonized. He agonized sweat like drops of blood. He's crying out to God. Father, take this cup from me, but not my will. Your will be done. He made that choice to trust the father.

And Inden, you know, his act of obedience. It took him to that cross. You know, Jesus faced in that garden the same choice that was set before. Adam, will he trust and believe in God or will he choose his own way? That's the choice set before him, and that's the same choice that every single human being needs to make.

We will, will we trust in God and submit our lives to him or will we say, no, God, it's okay. I'll go my own way. Now, remember what I said earlier, there's no neutrality when it comes to God. No one gets to sit on the fence. Every single person will have to stand before the living God, and we will either have Adam as our representative, or by faith we can trust in Jesus as our savior and redeemer.

You have Adam as your rep, or you have Jesus. Look what Paul writes in verse 18. He says, just as one trespass, one trespass resulted in what? Condemnation for all people. So also, one righteous act resulted in justification that brings life to all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made righteous.

So also through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made. Sorry, the many were made sinners. The first one, sorry. So also through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made righteous. Can you see there? This is concept of the one and the many. The entire human story is about these two.

One men. One man got us into this mess, another man gets us out. Can I tell you? Your name's not there in the text. It's not about you. It's not about me, it's about Adam and it's about Jesus. And so the choice, separate forces is, it's not. It's not between two trees, now it's between these two men, which one will represent you.

You can say, God, I'll follow in the way of this guy, Adam. I'll live life my way and I'll allow death to reign in my life. Or will I look to Jesus, trust in him to be my advocate and redeemer with his dying breath. Jesus said it. It is finished. What does that mean? It means this spiritual alienation caused by Adam.

It's been undone. We've been reconciled to God through the cross. We've been justified made right with God, and we are now covered with his righteousness. That's the good news. One man gets us into this mess. Another man gets us out. We're gonna close this part of our service today with communion. I'll ask for serving to come up later.

I wanna first bring this back to the promise of God. I wanna bring this back to grace. In Genesis chapter four, Adam lies with Eve and she gives birth to a child. In verse two, she says, with the help of the Lord, I have brought forth a man. Now, I dunno if you've ever stopped and noticed this, but think about this.

Something beautiful has happened here. They have sinned. They've chosen to live their lives apart from God. They're excluded from his presence. They're in exile, but despite their disobedience, God is still with them. Do you see that? God is still with them despite their disobedience and he's blessing them and he's helping them to fulfill the purpose for which they were created, which is to be fruitful and multiply.

I wonder how often is this true in our own lives? Has it ever been your own life? You choose against God, and yet in the midst of your brokenness and disobedience there, you encounter the grace of God. Has that ever been your experience? Can I tell you that's the only place we ever experienced the grace of God, and we see it here.

God helps them produce a child, and when they first send God, promise that from the seed of the woman one would come, who would crush the head of the serpent? The serpent would strike out at him, strike at his heel, but he would be crushed in return. And that's what we see at Calvary. God is faithful to his word and because of Jesus' faithfulness to God, it results in this gift of life for us.

Let me, let me read one last section from our reading today, verse 15. But the gift is not like the trespass for if the many died by the trespass of the one man. How much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflow to the many nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man's sin?

The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation. But the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification for if by the trespass of the one man death reigned through the one man. How much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Now, did you notice the word that I highlighted? What was the word gift? Up until this point? It's only been used once in the book of Romans, and here Paul uses it five times in three verses. I think he wants us to get it. Salvation is a gift. I'm sorry, Paul. What did you say? It's a gift. Huh? Huh? I don't understand.

It's a gift. It's a gift. It's a gift. It's a gift. You can't earn it. You certainly don't deserve it. It's a gift. Every week we come around this table and we partake of what Paul calls a cup of Thanksgiving. Can I tell you, Thanksgiving is the only possible response to those who receive God's gift of grace.

Yeah, the only possible response to receiving a gift, as precious as this is simply to say, thank you. Thank you, father. If I could ask those who are serving communion to come and wait upon us

as we're being served, could I ask you to reflect upon this gift we have in Jesus? In your own time, give thanks and we'll hold the elements until everyone's been served and then we'll partake together.

On the night he was portrayed, Jesus shed Passover with his disciples. He took the bread, gave thanks. He broke it. He gave it to his disciples saying, take a eat. This is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Let's eat together

in the same way after the meal. He took the cup, he gave thanks, offered it to them, saying, drink from it. All of you. This cup is the new covenant in my blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins that is string together

before we collect the the elements. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the precious truth, that it is by grace we have been saved. It is a gift we can't boast. There's nothing we could possibly do to earn it. So there's no way we can, you know, point at ourselves and say, look what I have done now. Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus Christ's blood and righteousness.

And so Father, we thank you once again today. Remind us of this precious gift, the responsibility that comes from following you, that we would daily make that decision to deny ourselves. Look to Jesus. Follow him, yet, not I, but through Christ in me. Father, we give you thanks in the name of our Lord and Savior, in whose name we pray.

Amen.