Okay, have a seat. Hey, good morning. Isn't that
going to be a fun text to go through? You guys
ready? I'm going to eat some flesh, and yeah,
we'll get through that in a minute. Hey, glad
you're here. If you're new with us, we're serious
about those Bibles in the back. Feel free to
take one of those. There's a place for you to
write in the sides. Yeah, so that's for you.
Don't be afraid to jump up and grab one if you
don't have it. At Radiant, from the very beginning
of our church, we have desired and hoped that
you wouldn't just come here, slide in, slide
out, that you wouldn't just come here and kind
of put on a false face, act like you got it all
together. But what we're really hoping for is
authenticity. We want you to be real. and honest
with where you're at, and honest with God. Because
here's what I know about doing this job for a
lot of years. We're all messed up, including
me, right? And we're all in desperate need of
a Savior. And so one of the things we're inviting
you to as a church is to get your eyes off yourself
maybe for a minute and to begin to get your eyes
on Jesus. to come to Jesus, and that we believe
that as your vertical relationship with God deepens
and grows, it will affect the horizontal relationship
you have with each other. And so we call ourselves
a family because God has called us to that. We
call ourselves servants because Jesus served
and modeled it for us. We call ourselves missionaries
because he's sending us. to be a radiant reflection
of him so we're not here to do a show for you
we're not here to and we say this all the time
in our church that the the church is not sunday
morning the church is all week long you're the
church we want to live that out we do gather
together every week but we when we gather we
want you to come and be real and be honest with
you starting with yourself and your how you see
yourself A lot of times what I've experienced
in churches and been a part of and struggled
with myself is that you walk into the church
and you're like, oh, I better get my best stuff
on. I better look really good. Better that nobody
know what's going on behind the walls. And that
just doesn't work. And so we want to invite you
to be real before the Lord. And so what I'm going
to do is we're going to walk verse by verse.
Just the way we roll most of the time around
here is just walk right through God's word. He
sets the outline. And we're going to pray and
ask the Holy Spirit to do a work in our hearts.
And I don't know where you're at. I know that
every one of us in this room are in different
places, including me. And so we need Jesus to
meet us. We need the Spirit of God to work in
our hearts. Will you guys pray with me right
now? I don't know where you're at, but maybe
you just need to open your hands up before the
Lord and say, God, I just come before you and
I give all my stuff to you right now. So let's
pray. Lord, we come before you as just, if we're
really honest, really broken, confused many times,
trying to figure out this world, figure out this
life that we live. And so we come before you
because we do know that you are the Savior of
the world. And you're calling us to make you
Lord over everything. And so we just ask that
you help us by your spirit to do that, but also
help us to understand even today at a deeper
level what it means to be your follower. Love
you, Jesus. Amen. All right. You can turn to
John chapter 6. We're going to be there. But
this is going on our third week in John chapter
6. I could easily do four weeks. I'm not. This
is going to wrap it up this week. There is so
much in here. And if you love to study your Bible,
you're going to say, oh, he missed things because
there's so much in here. You remember when we
went through Romans and every week in Romans,
I kept saying, this is so difficult. There's
so much packed in a small amount. John 6 is that
way, has been that way. It felt like I was studying
Romans all over. But John 6 is incredibly important.
And what goes on in John 6 is the only part that
is mentioned, other than the crucifixion and
resurrection of Jesus, in all four Gospels, because
it's that big a deal. And so, before we jump
into the conclusion of John 6, I would like us
to consider a few questions. I'm not going to
ask you this morning to respond. I want you just
to consider this question as we go through. What
is... a true disciple of Jesus. That's a language
that the Bible uses all the time. It calls us
disciples. Be my disciple, right? It's not a
language you and I use very often, but what is
a true, not a, what is a true disciple of Jesus?
What is at the core of being a true disciple
of Jesus? Well, we discover in the book of John
that a disciple is someone who believes in Jesus
and continues to follow him. That's a pretty
critical point. Someone who believes in Jesus
and continues to follow him. So at the core of
a true disciple of Jesus isn't just someone who
studies his teachings, but someone whose entire
life is being reformed to mirror his character,
his mission, and his heart. I'll say that one
more time. It's really important to understand
this. Someone who's a disciple of Jesus is someone
whose entire life is being reformed. That means
changed because we're all broken. Being reformed
to mirror. We always say radiant reflections
around here. You're a radiant reflection of Jesus.
You're reformed to mirror his character, his
mission, and his heart. So at the time of Jesus,
a disciple wasn't just a student trying to pass
a test. You're not going to UAA as a disciple.
It's a very different concept. They lived with
their rabbi, their teacher. They copied their
exact way of life, mirrored it, followed him
everywhere. We would kind of think that's weird
and creepy today, but that's what a disciple
did. Being a disciple would reshape your entire
life. I was this way, and now that I'm following
this teacher, this rabbi, I become like him.
And in a sense, there was a whole new identity
that was being formed. Jesus didn't leave the
definition of being his disciple up for grabs.
He constantly... It's coming back to what it
means, which, by the way, applies to us today
if you call yourself a Christian. He didn't miss
any. Like, here's just a few of them, right?
He lays a few of these out, just most of them
in John chapter, in John. Look at what John 8,
31 says. Then Jesus said to the Jews who had
believed in him, if you continue or abide, is
the word, in my word, you are my disciples. You
don't just read the words. You soak in them.
You live in them. You abide in the truth. That's
what a disciple does. John 13, verse 34 and 35
says this, I give you a new command. Love one
another just as I have loved you. How are we
to love one another? just as i have loved you
jesus is talking to him you are also to love
one another but by this i underline that if you
have it in your bible by this everyone will know
that you are my disciples if you love one another
the sacrificial love of jesus begins to come
out of you and it's showing on other people and
it reflects it's it's all sudden goes from you
that vertical affecting the horizontal John 15
verse 8, my father is glorified by this, that
you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.
This means that you are being changed by Jesus
to begin to reflect his love, his patience, his
kindness, the fruits of the spirit, right? We
learn about in the Bible, the fruits of your
life begin to prove that you are a disciple of
Jesus. If there's no fruit in your life, You
may not be a follower of Jesus. That's what he's
saying. There's fruit. It's going to come out
of you. And that's to really pause to ask the
question, like, wow, how's my life? In Luke chapter
9, verse 23, he says this, then he said to them
all, that's Jesus, if any of you wants to follow
after, or that's, if anyone wants to be my disciple,
if anyone wants to follow after me, Let him deny
himself, take up his cross daily, and follow
me. For a disciple of Jesus, it is a daily surrender
to him. It means putting Jesus' agenda above
your own ego, above your own comfort, every single
day. When you become a disciple of Jesus, your
identity shifts. This is the whole picture of
baptism, right? Part of the picture of baptism
is you go into the water, which we're going to
do on Saturday for many of you in this room,
but it's a picture of going into the water saying,
I identify with Christ's death, burial, what
he did for me, and as I come up out of the water,
his resurrection, but in coming out of that water,
I have a new identity in Christ. The old is gone,
the new has come, the Bible says. It's... It's
this whole identity shifts from what you do to
whose you are. What you do many times is how
we get our identity in this world. But being
a Christian means it shifts from what you do
to whose you are. It's an identity based on a
relationship with Jesus. So Paul says this in
Galatians 2 .20. I know we'll get to our text
in a second. He says this, I have been crucified
with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ
lives in me. That's the difference. What's it
mean to be a disciple is that Christ lives within
you and it changes everything about you, including
whose you are. So warning, as we jump into six,
and this is a warning, like I even put in my
notes, I put warning and I put red around it
because this is a really big warning. As we jump
into John 6 today, Jesus tells his disciples,
what he's going to tell his disciples is really
hard for them to get their heads around. And
it very well may be very hard for us. But one
of the things that I've committed to as a church
is that there are texts in the scripture that
are not fun to teach. They're hard. And we're
not going to miss them. We're going to go right
through them. And this is one of those texts
that are a little more difficult. I might not
want to spend time talking about eating flesh
and drinking blood. It's just maybe another verse
I would pick, okay? But we're going to work right
through it because it's really important. So
in these verses, Jesus is pointing out the difference
between a true and a false disciple of Jesus.
That's what's happening. He's pointing out a
difference between... A true disciple and a false
disciple. Okay? So we've talked about what a
true disciple is. Let's look real briefly at
a false disciple. A false disciple, another way
of saying, somebody who thinks they're a follower
of Jesus but really aren't. Somebody who's embraced
some of Jesus but they're really not fully in.
Okay? And the church is full of these, by the
way. Church general. A false disciple is someone
who comes to Jesus for reasons other than Jesus.
You come to Jesus for reasons other than Jesus.
You come to Jesus to get wealth, to get better,
to feel well, sickness, whatever it is. You come
to Jesus to succeed and to prosper. You come
to Jesus for everything but him. The Bible is
pretty clear on that, that that's a false disciple.
So let's get into our text, and we'll see how
Jesus deals with this question. So if you remember
in verse 35, and by the way, if you've missed
this series, we've recorded it twice. I usually
don't say this very often. Man, it makes a whole
lot more sense, this text we're about to do,
if you would attract with the first part of all
of chapter 6. So go back and listen to it, and
it'll help you. But Jesus refers to himself as
the bread of life in verse 35. Now look what
he says, continues that thought in verse 51.
Verse 51, he says this, I am the living bread
that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this
bread, he will live forever. The bread? that
I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
And that the Jews argued amongst themselves,
how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Okay,
so the statement by Jesus is provoking this large
group of disciples. And that's the way it's referred
to. These are followers of Jesus. And it's provoked
them to a place of confusion and controversy.
Sometimes Jesus' teachings do that, don't they?
But it's provoked them. They begin to argue amongst
themselves. And then Jesus just doesn't try to
defend it. He just jumps right in the middle
and he takes it even further. Look what he says
in verse 53. So Jesus said to them, truly I tell
you, unless, underline that word by the way,
unless you eat the flesh. The one who eats my
flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and
I will raise him up on the last day. Because
my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink,
the one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living
Father sent me, I live because of the Father.
So the one who feeds on me will live because
of me. This is the bread that's come down from
heaven. It's not like the manna your ancestors
ate and they died. The one who eats this bread
will live forever. He said these things while
he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.
All right. There's a powerful little word that
you need to underline. It's in verse 53. It's
this word, unless. Unless. What Jesus is doing
in these really strange verses is he's drawing
a line in the sand. You might want to call it
that. He's drawing a line in the sand. He says,
okay, you guys follow me. You guys say you're
followers of me. I'm going to help you understand
that. I'm going to draw a line in the sand for
you to know what truth is. The conditions Jesus
sets in front of these people, and he sets in
front of us, he says, look, he says, you have
to eat my flesh and drink my blood. What? He
says in verse 53, you can look at that, that
you might have biological life, like you might
exist, but real life, eternal life, comes from
eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Now,
if that's not strange enough language from Jesus,
he continues in verse 54, and then he says in
verse 55 that his body is true food and his blood
is true drink. 56, those who eat and drink are
the ones who remain or abide in him. And he says,
unlike the manna, like normal food, bread that
I just fed the 5 ,000 with or the manna that
came down from the sky, that kind of food, it
doesn't work. It doesn't work. It doesn't give
eternal life. It means we have a problem on our
hands. How do you get eternal life? Well, he
says you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood.
Maybe to us this sounds pretty weird. Raise your
hand if it sounds weird. It sounds really weird.
I'm sorry, I'm the first one to raise my hand.
It sounds really weird. to have this kind of
language, all right? But to the Jewish ears of
that time, it would have been radically, I mean,
you take our weird, they'd be like, what? And
here's why. See, the Mosaic law, what they believed
in that time, prohibited them from eating flesh
with blood in it. Like, no rare steaks. Cook
it out. They couldn't even have a steak with
a little dribble of blood in it because that
was a no -no. And so to drink blood itself? Are
you kidding me? So you've got to realize how
absurd this would sound to them. This would just
be off the charts. Leviticus 19, if you want
to go look that up, it talks about that. Leviticus
19, starting in 26. But in all of this, Jesus...
He wasn't talking about literal eating. He's
using a powerful, shocking metaphor for total
internalization. Meaning, how do you get Jesus?
How do you get him? This kind of eating or drinking
means that Jesus is in us and we are in him.
The Bible uses that term all the time, right?
If you are in Christ. So he's using a very powerful
metaphor to help us wrap our heads around this.
So it's this picture of union with Christ so
that his life counts for your broken jacked up
life. His righteous life counts for your broken
life. That's what he's talking about. There is
no eternal life except in union with Christ.
Every one of us has one thing. 100 % of us has
one thing in common. We're all going to face
death. We're all going to die. And if you want
eternal life, there has to be, in Christ, there
has to be union with Christ. And this is really
important. And so John Piper says, one of the
quotes he said I thought was interesting, he
says, so the pervasive, so the pervasive offer
of this chapter from beginning to end he's talking
about chapter six anyone who has may have eternal
life if they will receive jesus and trust in
jesus and treasure jesus and be satisfied with
all that god is for them in jesus meaning eat
him consume him he is what you go to that's the
metaphor that jesus is rolling with okay So one
more thing that we need to understand before
we move on to the response of the disciples is
in verse 51, Jesus says, the bread that I will
give for the life of the world. You see that?
He says, is my flesh. And what does that mean?
He's pointing to the cross of Christ. He's pointing
to the cross that he's about ready to go to.
He's referring to giving his flesh as a sacrifice
for the whole world. He's talking about his flesh
and his blood would be given as a substitution
for you, for the whole world. So Jesus finishes
speaking with, he just kind of begins to finish
speaking with no further explanation. He lets
it just kind of drop on him. Look what he says.
He's not justifying like, hey, I told you all
this metaphor. Let me explain all that to you.
He doesn't. And I think it's important to understand
that he just kind of drops it and they're like,
whoa. They're back on their heels. Look what
he says in verse 60. Therefore, many of his disciples.
Who? His disciples. These are people who have,
these are church people. These are people that
have lived, that are following. He's not trying
to convince them, are you really the Messiah?
They're already saying, oh, you're it, you're
it, you're it. These are his disciples, right?
Therefore, many of his disciples heard this.
They said, this teaching is hard. Who can accept
it? Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples
were grumbling about this, asked them, does this
offend you? I love this language. Does this offend
you? We're going to unpack that. Disciples are
really stirred up by Jesus' words. And they actually
have a good point. Like, don't poo -poo the disciples
on this one. They actually are asking a really
good question. Like, who can accept this? This
teaching is really hard. Who can really accept
this? And just a quick side note on this text.
I think it's important. We're not going to, we
could do a whole sermon on this piece. But a
little side note there, is the majority of the
scholars that work this over, this text over,
they do not believe that this is the Lord's Supper,
that he's referring to communion. Okay, so if
you've grown up with that background, this is
not what this is about. Instead, he's addressing
more like the conversation he had with the woman
at the well in John 4, where he says that this
is the living water. that I give? A metaphor
to represent himself to saying, this is what
you get? So what teaching is so hard to accept?
What is it that is so hard to accept that the
disciples are struggling? He is telling his disciples
like, so R .C. Sproul says this, he says, he
told his disciples, you have to come into me,
be united to me, feast upon me, not just a casual
relationship with me. But I said he's drawn a
line in the sand. He says, to be a true disciple
means you have to come over. And you have to
begin to realize how important, how central Jesus
is to everything in your life. Is your relationship
with Jesus casual? Jesus is not wanting that.
He wants a deep, feasting kind of relationship.
He wants a deep, intimate, personal relationship
with you, not a casual one. I said that there's
going to be lines in here in this text that are
hard for us because North American culture says,
I want Jesus on my terms. And this text does
not allow that. R .C. Sproul later continues
on. He says, Jesus declared that religion won't
do it. Church attendance won't do it. God works
in and of themselves, good works, I'm sorry,
good works in among themselves won't do it. The
only thing that gets us into the kingdom of God
by which we participate in is the gift of eternal
life, is union with Christ Jesus. Gotta be union
with Christ Jesus. So, we have to take all of
Jesus and ingest him. That's what he's saying.
All of him. I think in verse 61, the followers
of Jesus started grumbling about how serious
Jesus was calling them. This is what they're
grumbling like, are you kidding me? You want
me to do, you want me to that kind of follower?
How? How all? In he wants us to be. Can you believe
he's asking us to step over that far? So Jesus
says, does this offend you? My favorite part
of the whole, like one of my favorite parts of
this whole section. Does this offend you? Well,
does what I say and been saying really offend
you? Like he's not justifying, he's not trying
to explain it. He just kind of looks and goes,
so, what I'm saying, that bothers you, huh? But
here's the thing. This word offend, you and I
understand the word offend, but this word offend
is translated, means, when it's translated, it's
not the way we understand offend. It means give
up believing. Give up believing. It means fall
away. Does this, things are hard things I'm saying,
put you in a place that you're going to give
up believing? That's what he's saying. So I was
talking to, you guys remember last week I kind
of introduced Lauren who was one of the elders
of Radiant Fairbanks when we started that church.
He was here visiting and we were kind of just
talking through like it's been coming up on 20
years since we started the first Radiant of five
Radiant churches. I've been doing this for a
little while. And we were just reflecting back
on people. I was asking questions. Oh, what's
so -and -so doing? What's so -and -so? We got
to this point where he was sharing about a couple
people that have totally walked away from the
Lord. Like they've turned. They don't believe.
These were people that were in leadership in
our church at one point. And it just broke my
heart. It was so sad. I just started thinking,
oh my gosh. Because I look at all you guys, I
love you guys. I don't want to see anybody walk
away from Jesus. And I was going back and thinking
through people this last week, and this was right
in my mind, and I'm thinking, oh my goodness,
how sad. And Jesus asks another probing question.
Look at what he says in verse 62. He says, then
what if you were to observe the Son of Man ascending
to where he was before? I think this verse, Jesus
is trying to help restore their perspective.
He says, hey, what if right now you saw me rising
up to glory? And you saw angels come down, and
man, it was beautiful. Would that offend you?
Would that offend you when you see me elevated
up? You're like, yeah. No, of course not. You'd
be hyped for that, right? You'd be like, whoa.
Did you see that show? So disciples, take a minute
and remember, take a minute and remember, disciples,
who I am and whose life, who gives life. Remember,
so he's kind of saying, he's like, do you remember,
do you know who I am? I'm the one that's going
to go. And you're going to be excited about that.
Remember who I am and who gives life? Remember
we talked about it in John chapter 1? Look at
verse 63. The Spirit is the one who gives life.
The flesh doesn't help at all. The words that
I have spoken to you are Spirit and are life.
He says two things I see in these two verses.
First one is that the flesh he's talking about
here is human flesh. He says your flesh won't
help you. Your flesh won't help you. You cannot
get to God on your own. And number two is that
the Spirit is the one who brings life. The Spirit
pierces your heart. The Spirit of God makes you
aware of your need for Jesus. That's what I love
when I hear a lot of your stories. That there
was a moment many times where you go, God began
to pierce my heart. The Spirit of God made it,
and all of a sudden I began to understand and
see things differently. You can't do it in your
own strength. Now Jesus becomes very, turns and
becomes very blunt with those who are sitting
there, standing there listening. Look at verse
64. But there are some among you who do not believe.
For Jesus knew from the beginning that those,
beginning those who did not believe and the ones
who would betray him. He said this. He said,
this is why I told you that no one can come to
me unless it is granted to him by the Father.
Okay, so eventually all the false disciples will
find some reason to stop believing. Being a disciple
of Jesus is making a commitment to follow him
with all of your life for the rest of your life.
So many of these who are claiming to be Jesus'
disciples were faced with the decision. By the
way, this may not be the way to grow a church.
He just kind of calls them out. Do you remember
how many people were following Jesus up to this
point? We don't know exactly how many were in
this discussion, but we know how many he fed.
And there are thousands. And many of them, are
claiming to be disciples of Jesus, and now they're
faced with the decision, is Jesus truly their
Savior and Lord? Now look at the saddest verse
in chapter 6, verse 66. From that moment, many
of his disciples turned back and no longer accompanied
him. Can you picture this moment? It would be
like this. All of you, but just a few, stand
up, turn around, and walk out that door, and
I never see you again. You're like, I am done.
Done believing in Jesus. I'm done with this church.
I'm out of here. That's exactly what happens.
It's a really sad moment. People who once were
super excited about Jesus now move on to other
things. Now the once large crowd is now 12 guys
standing there with Jesus. 12 dudes. Jesus says
to the 12 that are standing there, look what
he says in verse 67. So Jesus said to the twelve,
you don't want to go away too, do you? You don't
want to go away too, do you? He's not begging
them to stay, is he? Exalting Jesus' commentary,
one of the commentaries I was looking at said
this, after watching these false disciples turn
away, Jesus turns to the twelve and he asks them
if they want... to leave as well jesus didn't
ask this question for his sake he wasn't alarmed
that so many had left jesus knew his disciples
were his and he was actually preserving them
this question wasn't intended to assure jesus
of their commitment to him it was an opportunity
for the disciples to make a confession of faith
was saying are you all into now look what peter
says and this is now and we go from the ugliest
verse in verse 66 to a really cool section here
that peter says he responds in verse 68 simon
peter answered lord to whom will we go you have
the words of eternal life we have come to believe
and know That you are the holy one of God. I
see two parts of Peter's confession here. Number
one is that Jesus is the only one who has eternal
life. This is what Peter is saying. We don't
have anywhere to go. We get it. As hard as it
is. Watching my friends just leave and turn.
Watching people walk away from you. to experience
so much great momentum where the churches seem
to be exploding and everybody's excited too,
everybody walking away. Where else would we go?
Because what we know is that you, Jesus, have
eternal life. Jesus, you're the only one who
can save. You're the Savior. And I think the
second part... It's actually, even as powerful,
more powerful, he says, Jesus is the Holy One
of God. Now, this statement is powerful. It comes
out of Isaiah 6. We won't go into a lot of it
there. You can go back and read Isaiah 6. But
it's, Isaiah has this prophet, he experiences
this vision where he's transported to the throne
room of God. And he's so blown away. By the awesomeness
of God that he cries out, woe is me for I am
ruined. And in it he goes over the Holy One of
God. It's the way it's referred to with God.
That he's so holy, so amazing. That all he can
do is go, woe is me for I'm ruined. I'm a wreck.
Now what's he mean by that? He means there is
nobody that is beyond Jesus. He is God and God
alone. And what Peter's saying is, I got no other
thing. I got nothing else to say but that you
are my Savior, and church, you are my Lord, Jesus.
You are my Lord. So Peter opens his mouth to
confess his faith, and he unmistakably declares
that Jesus alone is his Savior and Lord. Being
a true disciple of Jesus begins by knowing and
believing that Jesus is the Holy One of God.
That's why John opens up with saying, in the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. What is he saying?
He's God. And God has come to this earth to bear
your sins upon himself so that you may have eternal
life with him. That's beautiful. And Peter goes,
as hard as this is, it's the only thing I know,
and I'm going to cling to that. And where else
would we go, Jesus, but to you? You know, being
a true disciple of Jesus means that we reject
anyone else, anything else as our Savior and
Lord, including ourselves. And we turn to Jesus
alone. This is why we do public baptisms. And
why we say in our baptisms, when we get baptized,
I'll say to those who are getting baptized this
next week, I'll say, who is Jesus to you? And
your response needs to be, He is my Savior and
He is my Lord. And we're taking it that serious.
And I think that's kind of what part of what
Peter's going, he's like, he's my Savior, my
Lord, who else do we have to go to? So as we
conclude this morning, are you a true disciple
of Jesus? If not, are you ready to put Jesus
as your Savior and Lord of your life? If that's
you today, and you are not yet, you have not
said, I'm on the outside, I'm looking in, I'm
curious, and that's good. You can be there. But
is Jesus really, truly your Savior? Is He truly
your Lord? And you can live in church your whole
life and think that He's your Savior, but not
ever release Lord to Him. And so my question
to you this morning is, I don't know where you're
at, I don't know, but are you a true disciple
of Jesus? Lastly, Jesus is constantly pushing
his disciples to a deeper and deeper faith. We're
going to see it right to the very end. Peter,
that made that awesome declaration, what do we
know about Peter? He denies Christ. Part of what
70 and 71, which we don't have time to go into,
but goes point is that, look, I got you. I got
you. So even Peter and his struggle with faith
still comes back. So God's got you if you struggle
with your faith. But what Jesus wants you to
do, he wants us at Radiant to do, is to go deeper
and deeper and deeper into who he is and that
our faith, our tentacles are down in him. The
more your faith grows in Jesus, it changes everything.
This is what he wants for us, guys. Let me pray,
and then we'll respond and sing this morning.
Band, you can come up. Search our hearts, Lord.
Help us see where we're really at with you. This
is not a works -based thing you have called us
to. We know that by your grace you have come
to us, that we do nothing in our own power. And
so, Jesus, we pray right now that you will break
into our hearts in deeper levels. For those in
this room who are disciples of you, that you
will break into even a deeper level of faith,
of believing. And making you Lord of our life
that we'll go deeper with you. And for those
who are saying, I don't know if I am a true disciple
of Jesus. Then want to. God, will you break into
their heart. Know that there is nothing they
can do to earn you. That you have done everything
for them. That you come to them and offer yourself.
And you say, eat. Eat of me. So Lord, will you
move amongst us? Will your spirit do a work in
our hearts? In your name we pray. Amen.