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Good morning.
If you got your Bibles with you, go and open them up to Genesis, chapter three.
It's where we are going to begin this morning.
As you turn there just to reemphasize a couple of things that Pastor Dave said.
Easter next Sunday.
Excited for it?
You've got one of these invitation cards around you.
This is to invite you.
This is also for you to invite your friends, your neighbors, anyone who you think is looking for a place to worship on Easter Sunday.
It's funny, you would think people would be receptive to an invite to church any time of the year, but we found it's most likely for people to receive that during the Easter season.
And so if you want to invite someone, we would love for you to do this now.
Outdoor service at eight, breakfast at nine.
Looking forward to that.
Breakfast service at ten.
I do want to say this.
I've had a couple of people ask me this question because as typical in South Carolina with the spring weather, rainwise is looking a little iffy on Easter morning.
And so here's what I tell you.
We're going to watch that the best we can this week and make a decision and we'll try to communicate that out to everyone ahead of time.
So on Friday, Saturday, look for Facebook, email, all the ways that you know that we communicate.
Look for those so that we can try to bring clarity to the morning.
I will say this, if you don't hear anything, all right, then we're rocking and rolling just the way that we thought we would and just come and join us and be a part of that with us also.
Secret church, April 21.
Want to invite you to be a part of that as we do an intensive study in God's word, looking at the Book of Jonah.
And so we're going to start around 630.
We'll gather that Friday evening 06:30 p.m..
And then it'll be a seven hour study with Pastor David Platt as he walks through this with us through a worldwide time for the church universal to engage with one another.
So it is 7 hours.
We'll be done around 01:00 a.m.
As we finish up with that.
So we want to encourage you to be a part of that.
But just know if you fall asleep, we're going to extend grace, right?
We just want you to be there and be a part of us.
Well, I hope you've been enjoying I hope God's been speaking to you as we were studying Genesis.
I know God's been doing a wonderful work in my life personally as a dad, as a husband, as a pastor, as a friend as we've journeyed through this.
And so we're going to continue on.
We'll take a break next week and the week after with being Easter and some things we want to do, but we'll pick back up.
But we thought Genesis three kind of fit well as we're looking toward Easter next Sunday.
But as we've seen so far when we see Genesis one and Genesis two now life is pretty good.
Life is pretty good.
It would be great if this was the story and then that was it and then it continued to be the story.
Be the shortest passage we could think of it's there.
Life is good.
What we see god has created everything in creation.
Everything in creation.
All the mountains, all the rivers, all the fruits of the trees, all of the animals.
God creates the elements, the stars in the sky.
God creates.
He creates by the power of his voice.
He speaks creation into existence.
He orders it in the way that.
He has designed it to perform how he has created it to perform.
He's created everything.
He creates mankind.
He creates our ancestry where it will come from.
He creates man.
He creates woman.
He looks at this part of creation and says, this is very good.
As everything else had simply been said, that it is good.
He makes man, he makes woman.
In the image of Him, in the likeness of Him.
We see the work of the Trinity moving.
We see God the Father, god the Son, God the Spirit in creation.
And we see that God creates mankind.
And then in that God gives to mankind.
God didn't create and say, leave it here and be done.
God creates.
And guys, God creates.
He blesses and so he gives.
And so what we see in these first two chapters is this closeness of relationship with God.
We see the interaction between God and man.
We see that God gives rest.
And what that looks like is God models that and blesses us with that.
We looked last week where God gives marriage, god's plan for marriage, god's design for marriage.
God says this is what marriage is going to look like.
We see that God gives work that doesn't sound like good, but it is good.
It is the work that comes from the Lord.
Work that creates from it great joy work from it that's not marked by the sin and the struggle that you and I know.
We see all of these things that.
God gives, but God also gives instruction throughout all this.
God creates rhythms and God gives instructions throughout Genesis chapter one and primarily Genesis chapter two.
And part of the instruction is what we looked at last week.
I want to read to you.
It's not on the screen.
Genesis 215 through 17.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden.
So here we get this glimpse of this first piece of the instruction.
You can go and you can eat and you can enjoy and you can be a part of this and experience it.
But verse 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
You shall not eat.
For in the day that you eat.
Of it, you shall surely die.
God says you can eat of every.
Tree and you can enjoy it.
But this one tree let me explain to you.
Let me give you some instructions of this tree.
You shall not eat of this tree.
And if you do, here's the reason why.
It's not that God's mean.
It's not that God wants to restrict.
It's not that God doesn't want them to experience all the things of creation that God has created for them to experience.
But God knows that if you choose the tree that I've not set before you to choose, here's what will happen.
You will surely die.
In the story that we read, in the story that most know that we will see in Genesis, chapter three is life is good, but man will choose death.
Life is good, but man will choose death.
Now, I don't know about you, but anybody else, when you're caught doing something, ever blamed Adam.
So there's that laugh because you did it right, like, well, you know, it's all because of the garden.
If our first parents would have gotten it right, I wouldn't do the things that I do.
It's easy for us to criticize Adam.
It's easy for us to criticize Eve.
It's easy for us to look at.
Genesis chapter three and this statement is true and to acknowledge that they chose death.
But the truth of Scripture is this that we choose death.
We choose death.
Look at me as we understand sin and as we understand death.
Let's look at the first verse here.
In Genesis chapter three.
Now, the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?
Now, I want to pause here.
We're going to read it's how we're going to work through Genesis three.
We're going to read some and stop and talk and read and talk and kind of move through this.
But we're going to look right here because the battle has begun.
Satan is going to appeal to Eve in this moment.
And we see the battle of sin and we know they're going to lose this battle.
They're not going to make the right choices.
They're going to bring forth the weight of sin on the world and of themselves.
And it's easy for you and I to take this as some moralistic explanation of why the world is the way that the world is, and it's true.
But in doing that, what we can do is create a deflection off of ourselves and off of the accountability in our life for our sin.
And so the question I have for you as we begin this this morning, as we see this battle begin to mold and take shape, is this how.
Do you view the battle of sin?
How do you view the battle of sin?
Because I think all too often we don't take the battle seriously.
When we feel the consequences.
We take it serious when we watch people around us destroyed because of sin.
We take it serious.
But in our day to day life.
In who we are, in Christ, how do you view the battle of sin?
I've told this story before.
I think I'll tell it every time I read this passage of scripture, because it fits.
We see Satan appear as a serpent.
And we see the destruction that comes when Satan and sin aren't taken seriously.
A few years ago, I think this was one of the first times, almost ten years ago, one of the first times I was preaching here at Willow Ridge Church.
I came forward and we were going to talk about sin.
And that week, just kind of googling things, I came across an article and here's what the title said.
Something close to this.
Snake handler bitten by cobra and Dies.
And I thought, Yep.
Right.
Like not bitten by caterpillar and dies, but bitten by cobra and dies.
And I thought, yeah, that was bound to happen.
That's got to be warning number one in the snake charmer manual, right?
If they bite you, this ain't good.
But he had become so accustomed to.
What he had done or what he.
Did, and that he got lazy.
And then the bite of the snake struck and the reality began to set in.
You see, sin wants to strike you.
Satan wants to strike you.
The question is, do we become at ease with it or do we acknowledge the battle that it is?
The battle over sin is a spiritual battle.
Now, the serpent is what we see in this first verse.
We get the picture of the more crafty of any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
This wasn't the creature that wasn't known for what it could do.
And Satan in this.
It's the picture of what we began to understand.
Satan's not walking around in your life randomly bumping into things that don't matter.
Satan is attacking you where he knows you are vulnerable.
Satan is attacking you in the area that he knows that he might can claim victory.
Satan is attacking you in areas where he seeks Jesus's words to steal, to kill, and to destroy.
And it's a spiritual battle.
And this battle over sin is a direct attack at God.
At God, through us.
Look at Satan's words.
Did God.
Did God?
Let's understand this about Satan.
He has lost and he is losing, and he will fully lose.
But his way of attacking God is.
To attack his people and to turn them against their Creator.
And he does this so many times in that the battle over sin is a direct attack at God and a direct attack at God's word.
Did God actually say does God actually really expect you?
Does God really want this from you?
That's too much for God to ask.
And in this battle what we oftentimes see is that Satan's direct attack on God's word for the will of your life.
Did God actually say to you, to you, to you the best way to.
Know God's will for your life is.
To read God's word and find what God said.
Did God actually say to you and then in this when Satan wants to sink his teeth into you, the battle of this, of sin is the exchange, the truth for a lie.
Did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?
Did God actually say to forgive as you have been forgiven?
Did God actually say to live a life of sacrifice?
Did God actually say to take up your cross and follow me?
Did God actually say to honor me with every part of your life?
Did God actually say did God actually say and so let's look at the response, verses two, three, five.
And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden.
But God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that.
Is in the midst of the garden and neither shall you touch it lest you die.
But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened.
And look at this and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
Oftentimes the appeal of sin is found in the manipulation of truth.
And this is what Satan does.
Here she gave an answer.
We may eat of the trees in the garden, but God said you shall not eat of that tree unless you will surely die.
Are you sure?
Come on.
You won't surely die.
Here's what will happen.
You gain control.
You choose for yourself.
You write your own story.
You set your own path.
You know more than he does.
You choose what you choose, for you will become like God.
You determine your will.
You determine your plot.
And what we see here is the.
Appeal to the desires of the flesh.
And appeal to the pride of mankind in this moment.
Surely God won't.
Surely God didn't.
Look at verse six.
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.
And she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate.
So here's where it all falls apart.
The story that we've seen, the story that we know, the story that Hollywood has taken, the story that poets have written about people who are not followers of Jesus all the way take it all the way back and put the blame on the apple.
They took it and they ate it.
And so they ate because of what they saw, felt better in the moment than it would have been promised to them.
And what they reasoned seemed better than what they had experienced.
And folks, this is us.
This is us.
This is our appeal to sin.
This is our desire that begins to creep up in us.
That what we see, what is right in front of us feels better than what we've been promised.
What we begin to reason in our mind begins to ring more true than what we've experienced in Christ.
And so we begin to think what we could have.
We begin to think what we could do.
We begin to think what we could become.
And so we take whatever that fruit is that's appealing to us just as it was for them.
And we pull it off the tree and we bite down into it.
And within us, when the emotional feelings and human reasoning drive the pursuits of our life, sin reigns.
Sin reigns.
But I want, but I need, but I desire.
But I can manage it.
But it can all work out.
But I'm stronger than to take it farther than that.
I can go, I can do.
I can determine for myself.
And we know the truth.
And we still choose death.
We choose death and we take a bite out of it.
And sin consuming us.
Look at verse seven.
And then the eyes of both were open and they knew that they were naked.
And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in.
The cool of the day.
And the man and his wife hid.
Themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden.
But the Lord God called to the.
Man and said to him, Where are you?
And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.
He said, who told you that you were naked?
Have you eaten of the tree of which I have commanded you not to eat?
And the man said, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate.
And then the Lord guide said to the woman, what is this that you have done?
And the woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate.
Here comes death right here in these verses starting in verse seven.
Death penetrated creation.
Death penetrated the heart of mankind.
Death penetrated every generation since.
In this moment, as sin came crashing down.
And this wasn't like a poison apple.
Moment where they bite of the fruit and they collapse and they die.
But this was the immediate death that they would experience, the eternal death that they would find, the death that all too often many walk in and need to be set free from here we see the death and we see the death the sin destroys.
We see here, we see where sin brings death because sin brings shame.
We look back at the end or the middle of chapter two there in Genesis two, where it says that Adam and Eve, man and woman, they were together and they were naked and they were unashamed.
But now look at them.
They haven't changed.
They are physically who they were before, but they have changed as who they are inside is different.
And we see that in the introduction of sin to them, what should be normal, what should be good, what should be right, what is a blessing and a gift from God is now covered in shame.
Because that's what sin does.
Sin brings that as it changes who we are.
But also sin brings fear, and very specifically, the negative fear of God.
There is a fear of God that God calls us to, where we acknowledge the holiness of God and our reverence for Him.
It's why we worship Him in reverence.
It's why we speak of his name in ways that glorifies Him.
It's why we are obedient to Him.
It's why he is the King and we are his servants.
It's why we bow down before Him.
This is the right reverent fear of the Lord.
But this isn't the fear that we see in the garden.
And instead the negative fear of God.
And they once freely commune with God and now what do they do?
Like a child, they hide from Him in hopes that he'll just move past and leave them alone.
And sin brings fear in that manifest us still today in the same way, unfortunately, when sin begins to consume someone, it's very rare that where they find themselves in their journey is seeking the Lord.
And instead what they find is it pushes them farther and farther away.
And it's what we see in the garden.
Third thing we see in death is sin brings blame.
The words of Adam, the woman you gave me.
All right?
Now, earlier.
When God gave woman to man, it was, who the woman you gave me?
You know?
And now we see a different side of that, of the woman you gave me.
I don't think Adam is blaming Eve here.
Adam blames God.
God, I wouldn't be here.
I wouldn't make these decisions, but it's what you gave me.
And what we see is shame leads to hiding, leads to blame.
And the farther and farther the separation comes until we see the destruction of the relationships.
Now, what we find in here not.
The physical death that if this was your first time here and you might think like the like the poison apple, but instead the spiritual death and now.
The separation that we find.
Look at verse 14.
The Lord God said to the serpent because you have done this, cursed are you, above all livestock and above all the beast of the field.
On your belly you shall go and the dust you shall eat.
All the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring.
And he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
And we're going to celebrate this versatile moment.
And to the woman he said I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing.
In pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.
And to Adam he said because you have listened to the voice of your wife and you have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat it.
Cursed is the ground because of you.
In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life.
Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.
And you shall eat the plants of the field.
But by the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground.
For out of it you were taken.
For you are dust.
And to dust you shall return.
And the man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all the living.
And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skin.
Skins and clothed them.
And then the Lord God said behold, the man has become like one of us and knowing good and evil now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever.
Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
He drove out the man and at the east of the garden he placed the chair and the flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the Tree of Life.
And what we see here in a snapshot that has ripples that have played.
Out in so many different ways in our world and in your life and in my life.
Sin breaks the creation.
Everything that was designed the way that it was before has now been marked.
And what we see in this and just some of these pieces that we see nothing is more celebratory than the birth of a child.
But God says because of sin and this event that should mark the great joy.
And it is.
But ask any woman who's been through it what comes with that great joy, great pain and great suffering?
And also what can come from that moment where we are hoping for great joy.
Death.
With the joy that is to come from marriage.
The Genesis Two model of what God has laid out and said, this is the plan.
What comes from it?
I said it last week.
Marriage is hard.
Marriage is difficult.
Why?
Not because of God's design.
Not because of God's plan.
Not because of Genesis Two, but because of Genesis Three.
And what happens on that day?
Hopefully hopefully is a man and woman who love the Lord, surrender to him and agree in a covenant relationship with one another.
For the man to love his wife as Christ loves the church, and for the woman to respond appropriately.
But what happens?
The sinful and the pride of man can often come in contact with the sin and the pride of the woman.
And the marriage that should embody the joy also comes strife and conflict and stress.
God says the sin enters the world.
Imagine this work.
Work was solely designed to be an expression of joy.
Now, how many of you felt like that all week?
This week, right, I'm going to tell a story to laugh at me.
All right, here we go.
We're doing our garden and I decided I didn't want to pull as many.
Weeds, so we're going to put this paper down and we're doing some different.
Things with our garden.
We got like these 80 foot rows that we're going to plant.
So we're going to put down paper that's going to go each one of.
So Aaron and I, we get out there and she says, what do you need me to do?
And I said, I need you to stand at this end and hold the paper down and I'm going to unroll the paper 80ft.
And then we're going to get it right.
We're going to get it set.
And then what I just need you to do, babe, just do this for me, is just stand there and just hold the paper down.
That's all I need you to do.
You do that, you'll be good.
I'm going to lay these pins down in there, like three pins going across every about eight inches because I don't want this paper to come up, all right?
And so then in that moment, what I then did was I got down on my knees like this, a little slower, and I started putting pins down.
And immediately I thought this well, I'm old because this hurts, right?
This shouldn't hurt, but this hurts.
Kyle, stop laughing at me.
And then I thought, I'm not going to look up because if I look up, I'll see the finish line.
And I'll want the finish line.
I don't need to look up.
I'm just going to endure and go.
And so after what seemed to be an eternity, I decided to look up.
And Aaron, as I looked up, did not appear to be any closer than she was when I started.
And then in her kindness and her graciousness.
I looked up a few moments later and she's on her knees, working in the other direction, coming to me, right, this is how I'm foolish and I'm old and how she's kind and generous, right?
This is how our life works.
That works had been fun.
I didn't have to, I chose to.
But in the mark of sin, this is what it brings.
With joy should.
Come from a relationship with God in the garden before, that was normal, that was natural, that an open communion and fellowship is now separated by sin.
And just as sin separated Adam and Eve, just as sin caused this, so too what we find is that it separated us.
Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden.
They couldn't jot a map down, they couldn't build a bridge back, they couldn't create a religion that would earn them the right to get back into the garden because the sin had created a void that was there.
And it's the same thing for us, because sin was going to demand a price.
And on this Sunday, as we look forward to next Sunday, next Sunday we are going to celebrate that he was in the tomb when the tomb was empty.
But before he could be in the.
Tomb, he had to bear our payment for our sin on the cross.
And so we welcome sin in.
So Jesus comes.
And while sin brings death, jesus offers life.
You see, with sin, Adam, you, me, here's what we choose, we choose death.
But Jesus offers life.
And the wonderful story about the life of Christ is that this offer for life was not just found in a message that he gave.
It was not just found in a parable that he told.
It was not just found in a miracle that he performed out in the streets.
It wasn't just found in any of those, but that the life that would come from Christ in who he is, would be that it was perfectly lived out in his life, completely free of sin.
Imagine that every appeal, every desire, every moment, every thought, every word, every action of sin that you and I have grabbed off the tree and sunk our teeth into Jesus in his life.
Perfectly walked every pure thought, every pure word, every pure motive, every pure action.
There was not one that was marked in the slightest.
There was not one that brushed up to sin.
There was not one that longed for sin.
There was not one that desired for sin every single part of who he is in his very being completely free from sin.
And his reward for that a crown of thorns, a whoop across his back.
And the cross of Calvary to pay the price for you and me as we look forward to Easter, the realization that we have to come through is what we deserved and instead what Christ brought.
I want to.
Read for you passage out of Isaiah 53.
700 years before Christ would be born prophet Isaiah would write Isaiah 53, starting in verse three.
He writes this in the telling of who Jesus will be.
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces.
He was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.
Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.
And with his wounds we are healed.
All we, like sheep, have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to his own way.
And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and he was afflicted.
Yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shears is silent.
So he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and is for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgressions of my people.
And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death.
Although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him.
He has put him to grief.
When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days.
The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge.
Shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong.
Because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors.
Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors.
Folks, this is what Jesus did for you and for me.
When we give in to the desire, when we dive in to the sin, it was paid for on the cross of Calvary.
Nothing required of us, everything required for him.
In a moment, we're going to take.
Part in the Lord's supper together.
The band will come back on stage.
They'll play a song.
It'll give us a time to respond.
But before they come, before we do.
I want to acknowledge and mention again what we saw and what we experienced with the three who came to be baptized earlier.
As they came not to be saved.
But they came because they are saved.
And followed through in obedience to Christ.
What they understood is what the Bible teaches in Romans 323 for all have.
Sinned and come short of the glory of God.
They had sin.
You have sin, I have sin.
We have all sinned.
We have all done things that are displeasing to God.
And the Bible also teaches us that there are consequences for sin.
In Romans 623, it says, for the wages of sin is what is death, what we see, the fruit, what it brings.
But death is not the gift, but the Bible tells us, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So the punishment that we have earned for our sins is what it is, death.
Not just physical death, but eternal death.
But Romans five eight tells us that.
God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Christ didn't die for a bunch of good people.
He died for a bunch of sinners.
Jesus's death paid the price for our sins, and Jesus's resurrection proves that God accepted Jesus death as payment for our sins.
And so Romans ten nine tells us.
That if we confess with our mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, that we will be saved a promise of the scripture of God.
Because of Jesus's death on our behalf, all we have to do is to believe in Him and to trust in Him as payment for our sins.
And the Bible tells us, and we will be saved.
And then God gives us something.
God gives us something, not only eternal life in heaven, but God Himself builds the bridge and comes back in community with us.
Romans five One therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have a peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Through Jesus Christ, we can have the relationship of peace with God.
Romans eight one says, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
And that's the gospel.
So in a moment, we're going to prepare ourselves for the Lord's Supper.
First, I want to say it's for.
Anyone who is a follower of Jesus Christ.
And as you visit, that may be.
Different than some of the churches that you go to.
And that's okay, that's okay.
We understand that.
But if you're a follower of Jesus.
Christ, we want to invite you to partake in the Lord's Supper with us this morning.
If you're not a follower of Jesus.
Christ and you would like to become one, what you just heard is the plain, simple, and powerful truth of the Gospel to confess with your mouth jesus is Lord.
Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved.
And if that's you today, we want.
To encourage you to take that step of faith.
If you are already a follower of Jesus, god says that there are some expectations that he has for us.
And so in a moment, the band's going to come up, the band's going to play a song of response.
It's going to be a wonderful time for them to do that.
And as they do, I want you and I, we to check our hearts for the unrepentant sin that we may.
Have, the death and the destruction.
Even though we've been found in Christ.
We still choose and repent of that.
Sin before the Lord, but then also to check your heart and your relationships.
With others, particularly within the body of Christ.
And if there's someone that you need to forgive to forgive them, and if there's someone that you need to seek.
Their forgiveness, then seek that forgiveness.
Don't respond to me.
Don't respond to a song.
Respond how God leads you this morning.
Would you pray with me?
Lord, we thank you so much for this day that we could be here.
God, I thank you that while we.
Live in and experience the ramifications of.
The fall god, you sent your son.
To die on a cross to pay.
The payment of our sins so that our relationship with you may be restored, so that peace may reign.
And so that while we live in.
A world marked by sin and death, where we are found is in Christ Jesus.
If there's anyone here today who's lost, I pray that through the working of your spirit, Lord, today will be the day that they confess.
Today will be the day that they believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior.
God, I pray for us as we.
Prepare to take the Lord's supper together.
Lord, I pray for the any unrepentant sin that we have in our heart.
Lord, that through the power of your.
Holy Spirit in us, you would bring us to the sweet spot of conviction.
Where what is waiting us is the.
Heavenly arms of our Lord and savior.
Lord that we would understand that we are called to forgive others and we are called to seek forgiveness from others.
And, Lord, in those areas in relationships, lord, if we need to do that first, that maybe today we say, I can't do that right now, so I'm going to wait.
I'm going to hold off.
It might not be that I don't want to take the Lord's Supper, but it may be that I'm not ready.
And until I'm reconciled to that brother and sister in Christ, I'm going to do what God wants me to do and wait until we can take that.
In unity of fellowship, of believers we can take together.
Jesus, just have your way in us.
Glorify yourself through us, and it's in your name we pray.
Amen.
You, um.
Thanks again for listening and be sure to check back next week for another episode.
In the meantime, you can visit us@willowridgechurch.org or by searching for Willow Ridge Church on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.