If you got a Bible, turn to Luke chapter 5,
Be thou cleansed, is the title of today.
It is, Jesus has been wowing people with his abilities.
I don't know if you've noticed the ability of the Lord to,
to speak life into us, his subjects.
But it's the more you get to know it, the more you crave it.
And it is the words that he speaks to us.
The Bible says is spirit in their life.
And so last time we saw him call the four fishermen and
And Peter and his brother and James and John. And it says, and so when they had brought their boats to land,
they first took all and followed him. Are you following Jesus today? Because you really do have to
forsake all. That doesn't mean you stop, you know, doing your jobs and stuff like that. But the Lord
is incorporated into your life. It's who you are. It's not just something you do. It's being a follower,
or a disciple of Christ, Jesus, it really is who you are.
In every area of your life, as a worker, and as a husband, and as a father, and as a mother,
and a parent and an employee and all those things.
And it just works its way into your life, and it's in every part.
And that's kind of how the Lord invades us.
Or I've heard people say they've been freight trained.
by Jesus. And I think that's a good analogy. But so he is going about and he goes from city to city.
And we picked the story up in verse 12 and we'll read just a few verses here. And it's in verse 12. And it's in
verse 12. And it says, and it happened when he was in a certain city that behold, a man who was full of leprosy, saw Jesus.
and he fell on his face and then poured him, saying,
Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.
And then he put out his hand and touched him, saying,
I am willing, be cleansed.
Immediately the leprosy left him, and he charged him to tell no one.
But go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing
as a testimony to them, just as a testimony to them,
as Moses commanded.
And so here he encounters this dude with leprosy.
And throughout scripture, leprosy is a type of sin.
That it creeps up on you and it infects you.
And when it does, it just infects the whole lump.
Kind of like yeast, right?
Leaven.
Jesus said a little leaven, leaven's a whole lump.
The true leprosy, they call it today Hansen's disease.
But back then, there were a few things that they would consider leprosy, maybe psoriasis or different kind of sin.
Skin.
Skin conditions.
And but this guy seemed to be noticed.
It said there he was full of leprosy.
It had infected his whole body.
And so what would happen in the Old Testament law, if a person had leprosy,
then they were basically excommunicated from society.
They had to live in a leper colony.
And when people got close, they would have to shout out unclean.
And not only that, but they had to stay two meters or six feet away.
Ring a bell?
I'll bet Jesus wouldn't have worn a bell.
Right? He's not intimidated or scared by these things that infect us. He's the healer of all those things. And so that's a glorious thing. But that's what they would have to do. They would have to yell unclean. And no doubt, as Jesus was walking through this area around this city, he probably heard that. Unclean, unclean. But this guy came running to him. And notice, as Jesus was walking through this area around this city, he probably heard that. Unclean, unclean. But this guy came running to him. And notice,
what he does there. It says, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus and he fell on his face and implored him.
He fell on his face. That's what the actual word humble means to get low. It means to get low.
To humble yourself before the Lord and get low. This guy's low, right? He's about as low as you can go here with
this leprosy. Just nasty looking stuff. Years ago, my brother Rick went to India with
Pastor Bob Caldwell from Boise, and he had a ministry going on there in India. And there was a
there was a leper house where lepers were. And they were trying to provide shoes for the lepers,
because they would have to wear shoes at night when they slept. Otherwise, the rats would come and
eat their toes off. And, uh,
It was just a nasty thing.
And so, but leprosy, it's a type of sin.
That's what sin does to us.
It's silently kills you.
Chuck Missler in his study of Leviticus,
he says leprosy is a type of sin in seven ways.
I just wanted to share them with you.
And number one, you can't hide it.
You couldn't hide leprosy, right?
They would be these wounds that would ooze, right?
It would ooze fluid.
And if you got it on your scalp or men got it on their faces,
it would cause white hair to show up.
And they had different tests that they would do for the lepers.
And isn't that just like sin?
Right?
You can pretend to hide it.
You can try to cover it up.
But just like what Moses told the two and a half tribes,
he told them this, Ruben Gad and the half tribe of Manassan,
and he said,
And be assured your sin will find you out.
It's kind of like leprosy.
It's going to be found out, right?
Because pretty soon it just shows its face everywhere on your body.
And because it oozes and it also stinks.
It's obvious.
And sin is obvious.
And all of us.
We examine one another.
You examine me very close.
You're going to see sin.
Right?
I'm a sinful man.
and yet I bring my sin to Jesus, right?
And he forgive me and he dusts me off and he helps me.
He helps me resist.
And it drives me to him and it should you as well.
Secondly, it's a horrible disease.
The Holy Spirit chooses in the scripture, right, to use leprosy as a type of sin.
and the people who it infects is it's sad, actually.
It begins in small ways, just a little here and a little there.
We were talking the other day about the movie nefarious.
Who's seen that movie?
The movie nefarious.
And it was done by Christians.
It's a recommend.
But it's a...
it's really a narrative of a demon as he speaks to this man.
And basically the whole movie is just this confrontation between a counselor
and a death row prisoner that was demon possessed.
And the demon said it starts with a bunch of little yeses,
a little yes here, and a little yes there, and a little yes here.
And pretty soon, people are under the sway of the devil.
And they don't even know it.
And sin rules their lives.
That's how leprosy works.
James 1.15 tells us,
then when desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin.
And sin when it is full grown, brings forth death.
Right?
It brings forth death.
So three, it starts in small ways.
Four, it progresses slowly but surely.
Right?
I mean, that was the way it was with me.
I was a sinner at a very young age.
At the age of nine, I was convicted as I heard a message on hell,
and I thought, oh, no, I'm going there.
At nine years old.
Now, I don't know what all I had done at nine years old,
but I knew that there was something not right in me.
And I was faith in me.
with my own sin. And I cried out to Jesus. But right after that is when my mom married this ex-convict.
You know, and the Bible says to be saved and be baptized and disciples. Well, I got saved all right,
but my discipller was an ex-con. Right? Out of San Quentin. And he knew how to sin really well.
And he taught me and my brother how to do it.
And I actually got quite good at it.
You?
But slowly, by the time I was 23, I had enough.
I realized, oh, no, this is going to lead to death.
This is not going to be good.
This is not going to end well.
And actually that thought that when I almost did die in a rodeo,
accident that I thought, oh, maybe I better start dealing with this whole, whole sin and death
thing. Because they seem to go hand in hand. And I didn't even know what it says in Romans, right?
623, the wages of sin is death. But I love the backside of that verse, yeah. But the gift of
God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen. That is a beautiful thing, right?
And but so many people don't get that.
I got friends that are there.
They're in their 60s now.
I know some in their 70s and they're still in their sin.
And Jesus encouraged us.
You don't want to die in your sin.
You want to do something with that.
You want to get payment for.
You want to get it paid for, get that debt paid for,
and get out from underneath that sin.
Because it will condemn you to hell.
And so, fifthly,
leprosy goes beyond pain. It's interesting because it's not painful in the traditional sense.
Right? It works away at the nerve endings. It makes things numb. And that's why they were putting the shoes on those
lepers is because they couldn't feel it when the rat was eating their toes off their feet.
You couldn't feel it. There's a numbing to it. That's kind of like sin. You know,
how many people you talk to that are deep into sin. I'm not hurting anybody. Really?
no man sins unto himself.
Nobody sins unto themselves.
Your sin affects everyone who loves you.
And so many of us have come to the place we realize that is so true.
Right?
And so it goes beyond feeling.
And Ephesians mentions it.
in Ephesians 419, it says,
who being past feeling
have given themselves over to lewdness,
to work all unclean cleanliness with greediness.
Pretty soon you don't even realize what you're doing.
You've lied to yourself so much you believe the lies that you tell yourself.
Have you been around people like that?
But when they lie, it's like, I think the truth would do you a whole lot better off right now.
It'd treat you a lot better right now.
But they're so, it's such a habit, there's such habitual liars, and they've deceived them their own selves.
And sin unchecked, that's what it, that's what it does.
1st Timothy 4th says, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.
That's scary.
Because things are falling off and you don't.
even realize it.
Lepercy Sixly was thought to be hereditary, though it's not, but we know that sin is.
You know, you're born S-I-N- Positive.
Right?
And so are your children?
S-I-N- Positive.
These little ones, that little Charlotte.
She's so beautiful.
Oh, my gosh.
I just could have just hugged and cuddled her for hours.
She's a sinner.
And she's going to deal without her whole life.
She's going to bring out the best and the worst in her parents.
I love telling parents that this child will bring out the best and the worst in you.
Right?
Isn't it amazing you can have mercy?
murdering your heart for something that you love so much.
Just fascinating stuff.
Though you get it from your parents,
you're accountable for your own.
Right?
We live in a culture and a society where it's a blame game.
Well, it's the way I was raised.
No, sorry.
Once you get to that age of accountability, and all right,
we could have a two-hour conversation about when is the age of accountability. Right. But once you know,
right, the Bible says that the father is not going to suffer for the sins of his son, nor does the
son suffer for the sins of his father. Or he doesn't have to pay for him. Though the sins of the
father affect the children. It gives them an excuse. Right. Rick and I had a great excuse when our
our stepdad showed us how to sin.
Well, he does it.
Right?
He does drugs and drinks whiskey and, you know, and steals things from people.
Why not?
But ultimately, we're accountable for our own sin.
Last of all, leprosy and sin separates us from God.
Sin separates us from God.
The Bible says in the Psalms, if we regard iniquity and our heart, God does not hear us.
Isaiah 592 says, but your iniquities have separated you from God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear.
You ever feel like that?
You know something's not right and you're trying to pray?
Jesus talked about that. He says, wait a minute.
We know somebody has something against you.
God has something against you.
against you that in your sin you haven't repented. Go to him. Confess your sin. It tells us in 1st John 1.9, right?
Confess your sin and he's faithful in just to forgive you of your sin and cleanse you from all
unrighteousness. Then he will hear you. But not until. Don't go to him with some big issue.
If you haven't sought him for forgiveness and cleansing, it's a good good thing to do it daily.
Because the Bible says he who knows to do good and does not do it to him.
It is sin.
So how much sin do we have?
Lots.
Bucket loads.
And so we bring that to the Lord.
And then he's free to bless us and direct us and to hear our prayer.
But if we regard iniquity in our heart, if there's a root of bitterness there, get rid of it.
Humble yourself and ask for it.
cleansing. So here Jesus says, he's going from place to place, and he comes to this city,
and this leper sees him, no doubt he's calling out unclean. And Jesus looks at him, and then he does
the unthinkable, where this guy says, Lord, if you're willing, you can, you can heal me.
And it says, and he put out his hand and he touched him.
I would imagine at that point, all the air in the region was sucked out from the gasp of the people.
He touched him.
Don't you just love the Lord?
He just does things so that are not apropos.
and he touches this guy.
He goes, I'm willing.
I'm willing.
The Lord is willing.
When we're humble and we bow before him, he's willing.
He's willing to reach out and touch you and to deliver you from whatever it is that has you bound up.
It says he implores him.
That word actually, he begs him.
Lord, if you're willing.
and because this dude was saturated with leprosy.
And notice he calls Jesus Lord.
He's already determined in his heart who this guy is.
Have you?
Have you determined in your heart really who Jesus is?
Who is he to you?
Is he just a savior?
Because that's pretty lame.
Right?
Is he just your savior?
Or is he your Lord also?
because there's a difference.
And we'll get to that a little bit later.
But he touches him.
And this statement, right, they say there's seven of these statements in the gospel of
John, but I think there's more than that.
Jesus says something, though it's not punctuated the way you would think,
but every time I hear these two little words come out of Jesus'
mouth. I go, yeah. He says this, I am. I am. He says, I am willing. He's willing. And he's the I am.
I mean, is there any more thing more powerful than that? Because when you look at the I am statements in the book of John,
right, they're powerful. I am the way the truth of life. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the bread of life.
Before Abraham was, I am.
And he says, I am willing.
Be cleansed.
Now, this is pretty intense.
It says immediately, right?
Still in verse 13.
Immediately, the leprosy left him.
And he charged him to tell no one.
Why did Jesus do that?
Like, really.
Really, people are going to tell nobody.
I mean, the fame of him is going abroad like crazy.
But some think it's because Jesus's time wasn't yet.
Daniel chapter 9 tells us it's a very specific day that Jesus is to be revealed.
That the Messiah of the world is to be revealed on a certain day.
Right? Daniel tells us about that in Daniel chapter 9.
You can read it later and check it out.
But pretty intense.
And so from the time that our exerxes told Nehomiah to go back and rebuild Jerusalem
to the time that Jesus rides into Jerusalem, and they say, you remember what they say?
Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed to see who comes in the, that was the day that he was to be revealed.
And not until then.
And so maybe that's why he tells him, but sinners can't keep a secret.
We try.
Right?
But he says, don't tell anybody.
But listen, listen to what he says here.
He says, but go and show yourself to the priest
and make an offering for your cleansing as a testimony to them,
just as Moses commanded.
So he's telling this guy, you've been cleansed, so go and make an offering.
to the priest.
And that's where we're going to go next.
If you have a Bible, turn to Leviticus chapter 14.
Turn to Leviticus chapter 14.
I remember when I was in Bible school in my excavator, you know,
dig and ditch for 10 years, listening to Chuck Missler.
And Missler said, he said this.
And I love it when it just jumps out and grabs you.
He said, in the old.
Old Testament, listen, is the New Testament concealed?
In the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed, right?
Get that?
So in the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed.
In the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.
And so his ploy was that you see Jesus Christ on every single page of the Bible
from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22.
You see, he's on every page of the Bible.
Now, you're not going to get that just at face value,
but as you begin to dig and you look at the entirety and the power of the word of God,
it's impressive how God does this.
And so I just want you to look at this real quick.
So I guess I'm going to have to turn there too.
Leviticus chapter 14, we'll just read the first seven verses.
And I'm going to let you guys read some of it on your own if you want to look at it later.
So it says here now, and this is a ritual for the cleansing of the leper.
And this is what Jesus is telling this guy to go do.
And it says, then the Lord spoke to Moses saying,
this shall be the law of the leper for the day of his cleansing he shall be brought to the priest
and the priest shall go out of the camp and the priest shall examine him and indeed if the leprosy
is healed in the leper then the priest shall um command to take for him who is to be cleans
to living and unclean birds or excuse me clean birds cedarwood scarlet and hyssop
and the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in the
earthen vessel over running water. As the living bird, he shall, as for the living bird,
he shall take it the cedar wood and the scarlet and the hyssop and dip them and the living
bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. And he shall sprinkle it
seven times on him who is to be cleansed from the leprosy and shall pronounce him clean and shall
let the living bird loose in the open field.
Okay, we're going to stop there for a second.
So here's this cleansing.
And this is what this guy is supposed to do, right?
He's supposed to go to the priest.
But notice that he can't go into the temple because he's unclean.
And that was just it.
Because of leprosy, that kept him out of the congregation.
So he has to go, let somebody know that, hey, I'm here for the cleansing.
So the priest would have to come out to end.
him. That's a type of Christ. Jesus has come to you and me, right? We didn't come to him. You and I don't
want to come to him, right, until we're faced with our own failure and fault and sin that overwhelms us.
And then we cry out to a priest who has come to us. Jesus came to us. Jesus came to earth for us.
And that's the type of this priest that comes out to him.
And so the priest, first the priest goes out. Second, a sacrifice is made, right? This is interesting.
So it is, what is it? It's two birds, clean birds. They have to be clean. So it's probably turtle
doves or maybe pigeons. And they are a picture of death and resurrection. One dies. The blood of one is
shed, right? And then everything, the cedar, the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the live bird are dipped.
in the blood. They're dipped in the blood. You and I, we need to be dipped in the blood.
The speaking of the death of Christ, the live bird is a picture of the resurrection.
And what does he do? He flies away free. But guess what he's covered with? Blood. Right?
You've heard the term free as a bird. Not the Leonard Skinner one, but...
Right? You're free. It's a bird. You're free as a bird. You're free as a bird. You're free as a bird.
a bird. Why? Because your sins have been washed away by the blood of the lamb. Right?
This is a beautiful picture of the gospel here in the book of Leviticus within the law.
It's just like, really? Yeah, really. And cedar. Cedar is typical of a place of worship because
most of the Solomon's temple was built out of cedar. Right? And then you have Hyssup.
And Hissup was a type maybe a purification. They used Hissup when they dog.
the blood over the doorposts there at Passover, right? The hyssop and the cedar. And then the scarlet.
The scarlet thread that runs throughout scripture. It's really faith in the blood.
It's also a picture of the stain of sin. And yet Jesus came and with the same color, he washed the stain of
your sin and mine away. Right? You remember when when Rehab put the scarlet core.
out her window.
Right?
And that was her show of faith that God was going to save her.
And so I'm just looking at this and I'm going, wow, this is, this is way cool.
Right?
That the gospel here speaking and showing here in the book of Leviticus.
And so he has proclaimed clean.
He's proclaimed clean.
Just like that.
I shared this story Wednesday night, but it was about a girl that had come to a cowboy church years ago at George and Robbins barn.
And I'll never forget, we stepped off into a little side room there where they had their refrigerator and stuff there at the barn.
And she asked me to pray with her and she received Christ and repented of her sins.
And I congratulated her.
And she said, I got a question.
I said, what's that?
She goes, what about all the things I've done?
I said, girl, they're gone.
Right?
They're gone.
He's faithful and just to forgive us or and to cleanse us.
You're clean.
Right?
You're clean.
You've been washed clean.
That's tough to take, isn't it?
Because we have this guilt.
complex that just overwhelms us at times when I can't believe I did that sort of a thing.
And I can tell it was written all over her face. Like, I've done some really bad things.
Yeah, but you're forgiven. When you confess them to the king of kings and the Lord of
the Lord's and the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus to wash you from your sin. That verse in
Revelation chapter 1, verse 5. It would be tattooed word.
I'm not into ink, right?
But it says, and he has washed us from our sins in his own blood.
Thank you, Jesus.
Right?
And so I've seen that in the Old Testament.
It says, but it doesn't stop there.
Like I stopped reading there at verse 8.
But I'm going to read a little bit more to you, okay?
And this is Old Testament.
People go, oh, really do we have to go.
into the Old Testament.
Listen, it is the full counsel of God.
You don't understand the gospel until you know the book of Leviticus, right?
Because you don't know how guilty you are until you know the book of Leviticus.
Have you read it lately?
Please read it.
Because the Bible says the law, the Levitical law is a schoolmaster to drive you to Christ.
Because when you read it, you think, oh no, we're all sunk.
We're all dead meat.
God's going to kill us all.
And justifiably so.
So he goes on here and he says,
in verse 10 and on the eighth day,
who knows what the number eight is, the number of,
new beginning, the number of new beginning.
When you come to Jesus and he watches your sins away,
listen, you've got a new beginning.
It's exciting.
Yeah.
Right?
And that's the life, the abundant life,
that's why he came was to give you and I, this abundant life, that we can be excited about waking up
in the morning in a dark world that just seems to have lost its way. And we're fine because we know the way.
Right? We got a hold of him. We've laid hold of Jesus. And it says, and on the eighth day,
he shall take two male lambs without blemish, a unlam of the first year without blemish,
three-tenths of an epa, fine flour mixed with oil as a green offering.
and one log of oil, and then the priest who makes him clean shall present the man who is to be made
clean and those things before the Lord at the door of the taberlac of me, and the priest shall take one of the male lambs
and offer it as a trespass offering in the log of oil and wave them as a wave offering before the Lord,
and he shall kill the lamb in his place where he kills the sin offering and the burnt offering in a
holy place for the sin offering. And the priest is so is the priest. So is the trespass offering. It is most
holy. The priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering. Listen. And the priest shall
put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed. And on the thumb of the right hand
and on the big toe of the right foot. What's this about? Listen, this is wild. Because
here's this leper who is unclean, right? Unworthy. Just like us sinners are unclean and unworthy.
And then he gets washed and then the priest treats him like a priest. Because this anointing of the
blood on the ear and the thumb and the right toe, it's symbolic of what you hear and what you
receive and conceive in your mind, right? The work of your
hands and your walk where it takes you. Right. And they're all to be, there all to be a witness of the God
of heaven. Right. And, and so it doesn't stop there. It goes on and I don't got a time to go there
because we're running out of time. But then he takes the oil. He takes the oil. He takes the oil.
What's an oil type of in scripture? Holy Spirit, right? The oil. And he takes the oil and he
puts dabs the oil on top of the blood. And he dabs it on top of the blood on the thumb and on the
toe. That this life would be anointed by God's Holy Spirit. Is your life anointed by God's
Holy Spirit? It should be. If you've been, if you've come under the blood, you've been cleansed,
right? You freeze a bird to do what God's called you to do. See, that's why it's so important
for him to not just be your savior.
But for him to be your God that anoint you,
covers you with his blood,
and anoint you to do a priestly ministry.
You're all.
All of us are called to be kings and priests.
Do you realize that?
I've got a little saying here that I wanted to share with you.
God doesn't just cleanse your wretched hide from sin.
to save us from the flames of the lake of fire.
That's not why he saves us, right?
But that we might go into the world, right,
and be the kings and the priests that he's called to.
What kings do?
They had authority.
Greater is he that is in us than he is in the world.
God has given us authority.
Spiritual authority as we put our faith and trust in him.
To them, he gave the right, the power, the authority
to become the children of God.
right? John chapter 1, verse 12. And so, and priests, what's the priests do? They intercede.
They intercede in their families. They intercede at the workplace. They intercede at church.
They intercede.
Revelation chapter 9, verses 9 and 10. It says,
And they sang a new song saying, you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals.
for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people
and nation and have made us kings and priests to our God and we shall reign on the earth.
Can anybody say amen? Right? Not awesome. But it's all him. We just have to come under that promise and that
blessing and that power that God has made available to us.
1. Peter chapter 2, verses 9 and 10. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light, who once were not a people, but are now the people of God,
who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Has God been merciful to you?
Right?
Doesn't that just kind of create?
Oh, I mean, it just kind of makes you want to get Pentecostal, right?
I can become a pew jumper, right?
Woo-hoo!
This stuff, I don't know if you know there, it can excites me.
It just gets me all giddy, right?
He chose us.
He chose to do this for us.
We didn't choose him.
We were under the wrath of God, sons of disobedience, children of darkness.
John 15, 16, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit,
and that your fruit should remain.
And whatever you ask the father in my name, he may give you.
that's what we have available to us
by coming and bowing before the king
with our sin, just like this leopard did.
And he totally yielded and he's, Lord, if you're willing,
if you're willing, you can do, you can do with me what no one else can.
So we go to our priest.
He's coming to the world first.
us and we go to him. We can go to him with everything and anything. There's no mediator between God and man,
but the man Christ Jesus. Right? You don't have to come to me. You don't have to come to your priest over at
the Catholic Church or your bishop at the Mormon Church. You don't go to them. You come to Christ
Jesus. Right? He is your great high priest, Hebrews 4. For we do not have a high priest who cannot
sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all point.
tempt as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly before the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need.
I remember like the words of my little granddaughter.
Hello, Papa, I'm right here.
That's what Jesus is saying to us.
Hello, I'm right here.
Right?
Hebrews 7, for we do not have a high priest.
Well, I had a different one, sorry.
Let us therefore come boldly before that throne of gase that we may find mercy.
We are to go to our high priest with everything.
And with that thought, we're going to enter into communion.
and maybe there's something in your life.
You're going, man, I don't know if I should take communion.
Just get it right.
Confess it before the Lord right now.
As we just have a moment of prayer before we partake of the elements.
Get your heart right before the Lord.
Just humble yourself.
He's willing.
You'll be cleansed.
He wipes it away until tomorrow.
Then you probably have to do it again.
But that's okay.
Because he's willing.
If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father.
Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Let's pray.
Father, we come before you now as we enter in to this sacred act of communion, Lord,
remember in your body and your blood.
So I just pray for any, Lord, that just need to humble themselves right now.
They can just whisper that prayer and get right with you.
Lord, as they hold the elements in their hand,
and they realize maybe there's some things that they haven't confessed, Lord,
but they're saying, Lord, if you're willing, you can clean this up in my life.
And maybe that's you.
Just take a second right now and do that business with the Lord.
And Lord, we just take the bread and we do that business with the Lord.
us, Lord, that it was that sacrifice.
Lord, that offering of yourself, your back, and your hands and your feet and your side
and your scalp, Lord, and even the plucking of your beard, Lord, is a sacrifice for us.
And your body that was broken.
You said as often as we do this, that we would do it in remembrance of you.
So, Lord, we just pray that you would pierce our hearts.
Lord, with the power and the weight of that sacrifice, as you lay down your body for us.
Lord, totally willing.
And then require that of us as well to lay down our lives, Lord, to be totally willing.
And, Lord, to complete your will.
So, Lord, we just lift the bread before you.
We pray over it.
We thank you for it.
Pray that you would bless it now in Jesus' name.
Let's partake.
Likewise, he took the cup.
He said, this is the new covenant of my blood that was shed for you.
Lord, thank you, that you literally poured your life out for us.
Lord, the color of love was crimson, and it flowed.
And it flowed out of your body and down the cross and out of your side and out of your side.
And Lord, Lord, is truly that detergent for the sin that so easily ensnars and entangles us, Lord.
And so we just pray you for it.
Pray that you would bless the cup as we partake and we remember your precious blood that was shed for us.
Lord.
And it truly makes us clean.
White is snow.
I don't know how that works, but I sure believe it and I sure praise you for it.
So bless the cup now as we partake in Jesus' name.
Let's partake.
Let's all stand, shall we?
May we all commune with the Lord this week.
There's an old ditty that I remember singing when I was a little,
little guy church with my granny in it.
It's called Have That I Own Way, and it goes like this.
Have Thine own way, Lord.
Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way.
Thou art the potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after thy will.
While I am yielding, yielded and still, have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way.
Lord, have thine own way.
Thou art the potter, I am the claim.
Bow me and make me after thy will, while I am waiting, while I am waiting, yielded and still.
Lord, we yield to your direction this week.
go before us, make our paths straight, Lord, and fill us with your Holy Spirit.
The only way we can be successful in this life you called us to.
In Jesus' name, everybody said, amen, God bless you.
If you need prayer, the prayer team will be up here.
Have a great week in Jesus.