PROVEN | Week 4 | Sermon

The section of scripture where Jesus has been going around peeling people and teaching proving that he is a he is God, not just a guru and that he is the king who came to bring the kingdom they were all waiting for. Yet people are arguing with him. People get mad at the end of this passage.

These religious leaders, the Pharisees decide not only decide they're gonna kill them. They've already they said they're meet to decide how. That's how bad it goes. The finger pointing.

And and and then the truth is from this that we're gonna see our big idea for the moment few moments we're gonna talk simply this. When you miss the point, you start pointing at what you missed.

Just like I did with my daughter. I missed her point. So now I'm attacking and I'm I'm getting negative. And then and then she put the truth up to our here you go. Poke in the eye and then I get mad. And that's what Jesus does in this moment.

And so what I wanna do is just read the first 14 verses of this chapter and you're gonna see what this argument, what this finger pointing happens, How Jesus kind of dismantles that and where it ends. And then we're gonna say, so what? What does that mean for us? And I think we're gonna see by this today as many of us, we miss the point of

not just what is God asking us to do. We struggle with it because we missed the point of what it means because we've ultimately missed the point of who he is.

And I think we're gonna have a moment to take communion at the end and just have a heart check today. Just have us think that ask ourselves where are we at when it comes to this. So here we go. Matthew chapter 12 verse one. At about that time, Jesus was walking through some grain fields on the Sabbath.

His disciples were hungry so they began breaking off some heads of grain and eating them. But some of the pharisees saw them do it and protested.

Look. Your disciples are breaking the law by harvesting the grain in the Sabbath. So right there, it's like they're walking through a field. They're hungry. Back then, they didn't have rest stops. There's no McDonald's. There's no Uber Eats. And they're actually doing something that the book of Deuteronomy says by their ceremonies civil laws of the state of Israel with God being their king says if someone is poor or hungry and they're traveling and they need food, they are allowed by their hand to grab a stock or just enough to eat to to to move. You can't use a sickle. You can't use that as the goal. I'm gonna go steal half your field and then resell it. You can't do that. But it's allowed. But they come and you you're violating the Sabbath because the Sabbath, which if you know what that is, the Sabbath is the day. It's one of the 10 commandments where God says, want you set aside just like in honor of the relationship with God how he rested, stopped working on the seventh day what he created. I want you to take the seventh day. And I want you to rest physically

and rest in me. Like focus on the relationship with me. Worship and all that. And that's what they're supposed to do, but it turned into something greatly different we're gonna see here in a minute. So they're saying, you broke a stock off. That was work.

Here's the question you guys. When I say, you know, when you miss the point, you start pointing to what you missed. They're walking through a field somewhere. Why were there a group of pharisees there to see them do this?

They're already looking for things. They're looking to judge him. They're trying to trip him up. They're looking for ways. They've they've already rejected Jesus. And this chapter is the final rejection. And then the whole rest of Matthew changes.

Jesus ends up opening up the the gospel to the whole world to bore Peter. He stops just talking to Israel, and he starts heading towards Jerusalem to die on the cross. So it's a pivotal moment. And it starts with this argument nitpicking on this thing called Sabbath.

So then Jesus says to me, alright, you want some truth? Here you go. Stick your eye right here. He says, haven't you read in the scriptures what David did in the old testament when his companions were hungry? He went to the house of God and he and his companions broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread

that only the priests are allowed to eat. And have you read in the law of Moses that the priests on duty in the temple may work on the Sabbath? Meaning they break that all all the time. They're always working on the Sabbath.

And he goes, I tell you, there is one here who is even greater than the temple. That probably set him off. He's like, I'm above the temple. You got you're stuck in your rituals and these rules on the temple. I'm the symbolic I am the coming of what the temple is pointing to.

And he goes, but you would have not have condemned my innocent disciples if you knew the meaning of this scripture. I want you to show mercy not offer sacrifices for the son of man is the Lord even over the Sabbath.

So he's telling them you missed the point of what Sabbath is. But he's also saying, but what you really missed is the point of who I am. All of these things were symbolic to point to me. I'm here. I came to fulfill the law. Not the law the way you guys turned it out to be, but what it actually is.

And if you would have understand, you missed the point. Now you're pointing fingers at me and my disciples. And so then he doubles down. He goes, I'll prove the point. Verse nine. Then Jesus went over to their synagogue

where he noticed a man with deformed hand. The Pharisees asked Jesus, does the law permit a person to work healing to work by healing on the Sabbath? They were hoping we'd say yes so they could bring charges against him. So basically, they think they're gonna spring a trap. He's like, I'm gonna spring this trap and it's really a trap for them.

Because then he goes and he answered, if you had a sheep that fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn't you work to pull it out? Of course, you would. And how much more valuable is a person than a sheep? Yes. The law permits a person to do good on the Sabbath. They're like, yes. He said, yes.

Then he said to the man, hold out your hand. So the man held out his hand and it was restored just like the other one. So he says, yes, you can do this. I'm the Lord of the Sabbath. I'm Lord of all. Right in front of him chose the power of God and heals them. And what do they say? They didn't have that that I see dead people moment. They they they said we see a person that needs to be dead moment. They doubled down. It says, then the Pharisees, verse 14, called a meeting to plot how to kill Jesus. Their past

plotting, should we kill Jesus? Like, alright. We gotta do this thing. How's it gonna happen? How did they get there over something like this? Because they missed the point. And when you miss the point about who Jesus is, which is what he was trying to tell them, you're gonna miss the point about everything else.

You know, it's there's a statement that's so true. It says, how you see God will determine how you see everything else.

If you don't get who Jesus is right and understand what it means to have a relationship with him, you're gonna misunderstand everything else he asks. We're gonna miss the whole thing. And that's what they did. How does that relate to us? What's this deal? First of all, why Sabbath?

And why is Sabbath a big deal? And why is this that moment that they're like, okay, finally. He's disobeying Sabbath because Sabbath was one of the rituals, like I said, taking it It was very important to them. But what they turned it into was instead of being this day to truly rest because Jesus has said Sabbath is for man not for God. Meaning you're not proving I created that to give you a break and help you focus on the relationship with me and know who I am. He goes you've turned it into all these rules and all these stipulations

to prove your holiness, to prove your righteous. You've made it a ritual. It's about the law, not love. It's about the list, not not the list giver. It's it's it's it's it's about all these wrong things. Matter of fact, Sabbath had gotten instead of being about rest. It became a huge burden.

All the rest they had these rules like they're saying you break the stocks like in the Talmud because the rabbi said, alright, if it's rest, we got to define rest. There is 24 chapters in the Talmud trying to explain what you can't do, what constitutes rest, and what or really don't do this because this is considered work. I pulled out just a few of them to let you know kinda how ridiculous and how the thing that was supposed to be a blessing,

they turned into a burden in order to look self righteous. And so here it goes. Here's some of the rules. No sowing, plowing, reaping, threshing, sifting, grinding. That's probably the making food kind of grinding. Kneading, baking. I've been gone for a while. I don't think about what I say sometimes.

Shearing the wool, washing it, dying it, spinning, putting it in a weaver's beam. I don't even know what that means. Making two threads, weaving two threads, separating two threads, making a knot, undoing a knot, sewing two stitches, writing two letters, scraping in order to write two letters,

building, pulling down. Here's the one that gets me. Lighting fire, but extinguishing fire so if on the Sabbath you overcooked something and forgot about it and you have a little kitchen fire you basically got to look at your family I guess we're moving because we can't put the fire out until tomorrow.

See how the ridiculous this is getting? You can't this is even worse. You can't throw a ball up and catch it with the opposite hand. Why was that even something to talk about? Was it they hated jugglers? As long as you do this we're fine. You start to try to juggle? Oh God hates you now.

As long as the same hand, that's not work. Walking more than 3,000 feet from your home. It's about 0.56 miles.

Here's the deal. You're supposed to stay close to home, right? I can understand that. They don't need to walk too far. But the rule also said as long as you're close to a home, like if you pass into another home's threshold and you know them. So if you're in a crowded city,

you can technically walk to the other side of the city and that wasn't work. But if you're a farmer and you got a cow or a sheep that's like, that's getting away. It's getting too far away. And you go more than 3,000 feet, you worked. You've broken the rule.

He goes, here's you couldn't take a bath for fear would spill onto the floor and you would clean it on accident. Because the cleaning was was work. All I know about this one is I've never cleaned anything on accident. I barely do it on purpose.

24 chapters. And you know what? It's still happening today. There's more rules now because this was back in the day. But now we have electricity and machinery and what do they do with that? So they form rules on that. I've been to Israel many times. And if you go into a hotel,

their elevators, there's always one elevator that'll tell you. This elevator is the Shabbat elevator. Meaning on Sabbath day, it's programmed to automatically just stop at every floor. You know why? Because they said flipping in a switch or pushing a button is work.

So you have to get on the elevator. I'm on the 9th Floor. You're just going all the way up, all the way down, stopping at every floor. But here's the crazy thing. So that was work. You get on the elevator.

And also the rest was supposed to give you more time for your relationship with God. How much longer does it take to go up and down nine floors every floor? But yet doing that is work. But you know what you can do? You can take the stairs if you want.

5th Floor. Lugging your stuff up nine stories. That's not work. You can do that. As long as it wasn't over 3,000 feet. That's the problem with ritual and rules. When it becomes more about that, you end up in trouble.

You end up in a problem because you said, well, what does it mean for this? What does it mean for that? A lot of us, do. You come straight to me and say, well, God says I should be a fully involved engaged follower of him. And he wants us to give our time. What does that mean? Does it mean this much? Is it that much? What does this? We naturally gravitate towards, I just want the ritual. I want the rule. You know why? Because we don't have the relationship

as much. We're thinking about how I wanna connect to God. I wanna do it. But I wanna know what's the minimum I need to do. Because the problem with all these rules and when you have ritual, you forget about love. One of the last ones was medical care.

Anything of ointments or stopping like stitching or anything because you know, sewing on that was considered work. So if someone was injured, you couldn't do that. You could only do enough to stop them from dying.

Anything more that would start the process of healing, you had to wait till the next day. Could you imagine going to to the hospital like I gasp, I'm bleeding hard. We put they put a tourniquet on it. They go, alright. We'll come back tomorrow because we can't sew it up till tomorrow.

See it leaves out the relationship. It leaves out the love. That's why he said you can do good things. You don't leave your sheep in a ditch. Why would we leave people? Why and why are you falling around? It makes you judgmental. It makes you it makes us judge. We get competitive. We look and we see people that aren't doing what we do. We get mad at them like they were mad at Jesus. You become self righteous. And when you're self righteous, you think people that don't do what you do are not as good as you.

You've missed the whole point. In other words, pop this up on the screen here.

Ritual leads to rejection. Relationship leads to response.

Now that word ritual, the New Testament likes to call it legalism. Paul talks about that a lot. That's when you make your relationship with God basically, I live for his love. Meaning I do this because then he will give me what I want. It's a it's a contract basically. And and that'll always end up leading to rejection.

You'll either feel rejected or you're gonna reject God. You're gonna reject others. You're gonna be you're just gonna be that way because you're missing the point. You're missing the point.

And so what happens is when you don't have a relationship that comes from love, which actually leads to a response. When you have ritual that leads to rejection. Why does it lead to rejection? It leads to rejection because doing the ritual, being law oriented, being rule oriented only without a relationship,

it always takes us down this path to either being conceited or defeated. It leads us to being conceited or defeated. The the Pharisees were conceited. Paul admits that. Before he came to know Jesus, he wrote most of the New Testament. He was a Pharisee.

He was high up. And when he writes about how he met Jesus where, you know, Jesus basically throat punched him on a donkey and knocked him down onto his donkey. And think about it. You'll realize what I just said. And he

he writes about how the law goes, yeah. There's all those laws. And you know the truth was? I was better at anybody. I obeyed the law better than anyone in Israel.

So guess what? He was very conceited. That's why he started off rounding up Christians and killing them because they're like, Grace, you're not doing it. You're terrible. You're awful. You're like, he's rejecting God and he's rejecting people and because he's conceited. So his rejecting is rejection of others and

Jesus because the conceit. He doesn't even see the right way. So he thinks he's acting in the name of God when he's really just living by these rules and he thinks he's better than we still do that all the time.

Churches, we like to circle the wagons and talk about how terrible it is out there with all those people and all the people that we like to vote against or don't like and all this. And they're like, we think if we get mad at the people.

The world system was the problem. Sin is the problem. People aren't the enemy. They're the prisoners of war. And we have a mission to go love them.

But if you are self righteous, you think you're playing the game right, you think you're better, and you judge everyone that's not as good as you because you think you're better. And the the truth is you've missed the point. You missed the point who God is. You missed the point what scripture really says. Because scripture really clearly says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Every one of us is destined for a hell because sin is not just making mistakes.

Sin means we are actually at our core essence in a rebellion to the God who obeyed us and loves us. And he is holy and righteous and perfect. And without dealing with that, it doesn't matter how many good things you do. You are still a rebel who has sinned against a holy God and you cannot have a relationship with him.

And yet we're sitting here because Jesus we met Jesus. We accepted his love. Now we think we're better than the other sinners. We're just saved. That's it. So heart check number one. What do you think about people that don't go to church? That people that actually don't like God. Do you have a heart for them?

Or do you like to follow them around like these Pharisees and point out and then basically plot to kill them in your heart?

Because you can get conceded or you can get defeated. And that's where I think a lot of us are in this room at any given time. Because if you think that it works through ritual, I do this and I do that, you end up with this issue of what happens when you fail And what happens when you keep failing?

What happens then? And then you feel like, I just can't do this. And that's the problem because the ritual viewpoint turns the relationship with God into a contract. It's a contractual relationship. In business. That's good. But what is a contract? A contract is two parties both want something. So you negotiate.

What do I have to give you in order to get what I want? And think about when you think of that that way with God. I do what he wants, but you have your end of the agreement. You're like, but I have some very stipulated expectations

that if I do what he's asked, the contract states he needs to give me this. And what we call it in the Christian world is when I honor God and I do things right, I expect to be blessed. The problem is the contract version

changes the definition of blessed. When you hear blessed, you think more of what I want and less of what I don't. That's not what blessing means. Sometimes it is something you really, really, really like. But sometimes the very thing you want the most, God's like, that ain't gonna happen.

But we had a contract. He's, no, he didn't. We had a covenant. And a covenant means you blew it. There's no way. You can't do this on your own. So I took both I took care of both ends of the agreement. All you gotta do is trust me. All you gotta do is trust me. There's no contract here.

Because if you wanna have a contract, you're gonna breach the contract nonstop. And what happens to breach a contract? You sue, you get out of the contract, they have to pay restitution.

That's the problem with that contractual idea. And if you think it's that way and you keep failing, you feel like I just got to walk away. And you'll reject Jesus. You'll reject him either out of despair or out of frustration.

Because then because you know when you when you do something wrong wrong, if you can't sit there going, I'm bad. I'm bad. I'm bad. There's no I'm just doing bad. I'm bad. At some point, if somebody keeps on, you're worse person, you're a person, and you try and you keep failing, and they just keep pointing their finger at you, eventually,

you're gonna fight back because you're like you you can't take it anymore. You're either gonna implode or you're gonna explode.

And you get mad. We act like four year olds. My grandson's four years old. Call him sweet and sour. He can be the sweetest. And then there's moments like, did he have too much red dye? What is going on here?

And and and one of the problems is when he does something bad, like, especially if he if he's disrespectful or he, like, hurts his little brother, he does something where he needs to say sorry. Because and I'm not talking about he does it on purpose. I'm talking about he'll do it on accident.

And he just shoves him over like, oh, wait. Hey. You know, you shoved your little brother over. He's crying. He's like, just say sorry. No. Why do I need to say because you but I didn't mean it doesn't matter. You did it. It's it's it's a nice thing to do when you when you actually hurt someone. Just apologize. No.

You think that'd the easiest thing in the world. Just say you're sorry. But have you seen four year olds? He'll dig in. This is like you would think like this is like the most critical battle of World War two or something. He's like, I will plant my flag in this hill and I will die on this hill.

And then he'll fight and then he gets worse. Then he gets super disrespectful. Then he starts attacking you when you're actually trying to give him good guidance and help him. And he'll start looking at you go, you're a poo poo face. And then I do what any good grandpa bet, you're a double poo poo face.

Then my wife gets mad. That's not how you handle it. Fine. So then she takes them. Like the other day, it's like it's like like we we talked and and the woman he was doing this and and and my wife's like, do you think he has a problem? Like, is there like, he doesn't show remorse.

And I go, yeah. He has a horrible problem. She goes, what do you what is it? I go, he's four.

I mean, my master's degree, had to take human development and all that. It was a long time ago and I didn't really pay attention the first time, but I vaguely remember that children don't get the they get regret. More like I regret getting caught.

And I guess and you have to guide them. You have to give them the consequent because that discipline over time, you give them discipline until they can develop self discipline. They don't get it. So you discipline them to try to at least keep them in the right ballpark and get them to understand. But they don't have that same idea.

A four year old's brain does not understand the concept of I've regretted this so many times. I'm remorseful for that. I really feel sad. They just get regret each time and usually it's a very narcissistic regret. And then they you have to give them a consequence and let them in. So they start to like, okay. I don't maybe get that I shouldn't have done that, but I don't like being in time out.

But they want them to expect like, they don't get it. So then you put them in time out, and he'll react to that. And then he'll do what many of us do. We can do the same thing. We don't understand God's love. We don't get it at times. And so we'll do something, and we need to repent,

confess. Why why do we get defensive on it? Usually, because we feel bad, but we don't know what to do with it. But then we're we we feel like we failed or we feel and then we get this we do what he does next. You put him in hey. We're gonna go have a quiet time. Sit him down. And you go, alright. And he doesn't fight you on that anymore. He goes with you, but he says, but I want my water. I want my water. I want my water.

He's just finding something that he has to win on.

And that's what we do. Like God starts to discipline. He's like, hey, I love you. You need to go over. Don't you understand that what I'm asking you to do is because I love you, but I don't want to do that. And you did it. Then you get a time out. And you're in time out. God's done something. He's put you in a time out. And you're like, but I want my water. So you start whining about something sideways.

We act spiritually like these fairies, like spiritual four year olds. And what does it come down to? Just like a four year old just doesn't get it. They miss the point because it actually doesn't come to play till you're about five to seven years old.

We start going down this road of either conceit or defeat. And it all ends up long enough. You keep feel like you were failure long enough. You will reject Jesus because you just can't handle it anymore. And when you're conceited, you literally think you're doing the right thing.

But then you blow up sometimes because I played by the rules and I didn't get the blessing. I honored God with my time and my money and now I'm overworked and I have a bad job and I can't get a good job and I'm underpaid. You want me to give and serve when all you say give me my water.

Because we don't get it. You don't understand who God is. He becomes a contract. He becomes this this figure that's out here that's great and awesome. And you might know, yeah, he kinda died for me, but still and the problem isn't with the list. What he asked us to do,

we should when he says this is what a disciple does, he's saying this is the best way to live. He's like a good parent. I know what's better, and we don't get it. And sometimes what he's asking us to do when you're a kid, they fight that. That doesn't make any sense to them. It sounds terrible, they don't wanna do

But you know better. So does God. But we don't get that. So out of fear or frustration or arrogance, we think we got it right. And we run down this road and

we have this contractual relationship with God. So we're mad when he doesn't give us our end of the bargain. We don't get what we wanted. Our prayers become this list of God. I will honor you, but this I need this and this and this. Need you to it becomes a we we we give God our our our honey do list and, you know, and then we think he gave us one.

And the problem is the list isn't the problem. What God's asked us to do because then people say, okay, what do you do with ritual? Let's reject it. The law reject it. We don't need to do it, God. We're in your grace. They think that means just do whatever you want and no.

The problem isn't with a list that God says here's what I've the problem is with our understanding of his love and what does it mean to be in relationship with him. Example, I give honey do list. Anybody do any honey do list this weekend?

Anybody want me to preach extra long because you're gonna go two years right after this and you're trying to avoid it at all cost? You know, honey do list in a marriage. Honey, can you please do this for me?

And some of you reject that's so dumb. I hate honey you know why? If you just get mad at it, it's probably because you don't have a very good relationship with your spouse.

If you are married to someone that you know would take a bullet for you and they've sacrificed all the time and they're always willing to take it and both of you are that way, guess what? If they say, honey, today, when you come home, I know it's a bother, but could you stop by the store and get this? What are you gonna say?

No problem. Matter of fact, sometimes you might anticipate they forgot something. And hey, I I realized we'd have this. I just went ahead and stopped.

You know why? Because you know how much you're loved. And you know that person cares for you. You know, they're not trying to take advantage of you. When you have two people or even one where you feel like they take advantage. I don't really connect. I'm not sure if they love or if you're in a relationship that feels like it's a contract. You always have to perform like, yeah. I'll do your list, but then I got my list

and you operate that way. You know what happens when you do that? You start playing that game of who can get the hand up on the top of the bat last you start one upping each other because if it's all about a contract, it's not about really love or knowing that your love what you do is you start say, okay, I'll do that. But you should do this because if you start adding up the math in your head, go, you know what? My honey do list has been longer than the one that you've done for me.

And then you fight all the time. You see this misunderstanding of God will seep into your marriage.

Because our relationships are supposed to model the relationship God has for us. It's covenant not contract. It's love not law. The list follows the love.

In other words, Jesus said in the passage just before he talked about how his burden is light, his yoke is easy, then they start arguing about Sabbath. He says, you got it wrong. What I'm asking you do, you might be afraid, it might be hard, you might say, but you got me with you. You got the power.

He says in gospels, he says, abide in me. He says, I am the vine and you are the branches. If you abide in me, you will bear much fruit. Then a few verses later down it goes, it says, if you love me, you'll do what I say. Realize that? If you love God, you're gonna do what he says.

And here's the problem. If you have a ritual contractual view of a relation with God, what I just said there is you think Jesus is threatening you.

It's connected to what he just said about a vine and a branch. If a branch on a tree or on a vine is connected to a healthy vine, the branch automatically produces fruit. The branch didn't have to do anything.

Jesus talks about the fruit of the spirit. It's not the fruits, it's the fruit. It says this is what shows up in your life when you trust the Holy Spirit. They all come together. It's not I best work really hard at doing this. It's if you trust the Holy Spirit and stay connected,

these characteristics are gonna start showing up in your life. When Jesus says if you love me, who do I say? Because it says in John also that we can love him because he first loved us. So he goes, when you know his love, when you abide in him, when you're connected to his love,

it says the byproduct is you'll do what he says.

So what he's really saying is if you say you love Jesus and you come to church and there are things that he says, this is what it means to be a follower of me. This is what it means to be in my kingdom. This is what it means to be a part of a church. This is what it means. Here's the list. Here's what characteristics

should be in your life and here's actions that should happen and you have a few that you know it says that and you just refuse to do that. It's not you better buck it up and do it buddy. It's you need to sit down and have a heart check and go what is wrong

with my understanding and my connection to the love that God has for me. What is it about my understanding is love that I don't trust him completely? What's blocking it? And usually it's a lie. It's usually the world out there is preaching. And

you start to get about well, if I'm gonna be good at the what I need this too. But how can I serve God and have this too? And you believe the lie. And so then when God says, hey trust me and usually it's when someone like me says you need to trust God this way.

I get them. Well, if they're God, I'm supposed to how I do that and I do that and I do that you're not supposed to do that now. But then I won't be happy. You're back to the garden. We're all like Adam and Eve where Satan came and said, God, did God really say that? What he really said, he doesn't want you to eat this

because he's holding out on you. There's something you need that you can't trust him completely and get also. So don't listen to him on that. That's sin. So the answer is you got to get back to the love. The point they missed? Yeah, they missed Sabbath. They missed a lot of things.

But what he was saying to them in that verse, there's someone greater than the temple. There's someone this. He's like, what you've really missed is me. And God gave us another moment. Kind of it's like a ritual, but they're what he meant them to be. It's an action that can get that's symbolic,

that can help discipline us. It helps us look. It helps us refine us. We're gonna take that in a minute. You had it? Communion. Communion, if you're not familiar with what it is, is Jesus the night before he was crucified

broke some bread, said, this is my body broken for you. Because they thought if you're gonna save us, you're gonna win the day. He goes, I am. But I'm gonna do it in a way you didn't You win by surrender. He sacrificed. Death is what won. He gave his life for us, even though we were the ones sinning against him.

And he says, here's my body broken. He took the blood, the cup, and he said, this is my blood, the wine spilled for you for the forgiveness of sins, for a new covenant. He didn't say contract. And then he says these words, Do this in remembrance of me.

Of all the things he wants he says on occasion. He didn't say how often you're supposed to do it. He didn't give rules on that, which now we've made rules. We've done the same thing with this even in the Christian church that's that's gone beyond. Like he didn't say he says, just do it. And what I want you to do is remember me. What did he want us to remember?

The cross. This whole series is called proven. The cross is the moment that God proved. Beyond a shout out, he is God, and he loves us more than we love ourselves. Absolutely. Proved it.

And we forget that. And so he wants us to go back and remember that frequently because we get so caught up. It's like you heard the phrase, don't miss the forest for all the trees. He realized don't miss the tree because of all the forest.

We look at all the other word of God in the whole world around us and we get really confused. And in that we need to remember one tree. It was when you took a tree, put it together like this and made a cross. He goes, that's where I wanna meet you. We need to sit there. You need to come back to this moment. Cause we get going down the road. We start we always struggle with this. We struggle with wanting to become ritual. We want to you know why? Cause that puts you in control. That makes I can control this contract. I do this. I get that. It's a lot easier to play that game. I don't have to really trust God. I don't have to step out. I guess because just I can just work this contract, but it's dead. It leads to reject rejection. You'll reject God or you'll feel like he's rejecting you.

So communion

is not something where many Christian traditions teach. They've turned it into the same thing. It's you come we drink this and now I'm I'm drinking and it turns into the body of Christ and it becomes my forgiveness. I'm literally doing an action that the action itself has given me the grace of God. That's centered back on you. That's a contractual thing. I do this. I get that. It's a remembrance moment. It's a heart check. It's a it's a chance to sit with Jesus in this moment and check your heart and say, do I realize how much he loves me?

And I guarantee if you see your sin for what it is and his death, burial and resurrection for what it did.

Trusting God with some of these things in your life that you're terrified to trust him with will be easy.

There's no three point answer. There's no five point program to getting it's go back to the cross and realize, do I believe that God is who he said he is? And do I realize what he did to love me?

And then you live from that love, not for it.

Before we take communion, let me explain it this way. Communion is kind of like a train station where you can sit and God will meet you there. Jesus will meet you at the station. What do mean by that? I went on one of the road trips I went I went back to New York and I got to go to the

town my dad grew up in, Ticonderoga, New York, where they used to make pencils. And I went with my friend who his where he lived was near the biggest city in there called Plattsburgh. About a thirty minute drive north

back. If you took a train back in the day, maybe forty five minute train drive or whatever back in the day when my dad was a kid, it'd been probably an hour and a half drive. But I went with him and he was throwing me around Plattsburgh before I went down to Ticonderoga.

And we drove by and he goes, Hey, look, there's the old train station. And I have a picture of it here. Should be, there it is. And I took it so you could see the tracks and those tracks go back towards Ticonderoga. That train station has been there since like the 1890s, I think.

So that would be the same train station when my dad was like 30 years old. No, just kidding. It was the middle of the great depression. And my dad was walking by these tracks down in his town, Ticonderoga. He was about 10 years old. So it about 1936, '37, something like that.

And at the middle of the great depression and his mom, he was like the seventh, he was the last born child. He was the baby. And they had a gaggle of kids. Seven of them, I believe. And

her mom had done some work for someone, and she paid them a little paid. And so she bought my dad this little bag of candy in the middle of the Great Depression because my dad was the baby and it was her mom's favorite. So a little lesson kids. You love your kids all the same, you just don't like them all the same.

And the like changes depending on the season. But so she's eating this candy and his older brother ran by and grabbed it as they're walking by these train tracks. And there was a train coming heading towards Plattsburgh, but it was going really slow through the town.

And he grabbed it and it started running and laughing. And my dad got mad and he saw there was a railroad spike that was out of the ground, just loose. He grabbed it, threw it, big head of it, got his brother right in the base of his skull and dropped him like a sack of potatoes, knocked him out. Just boom, fell out.

And as a 10 year old, he looked at him, and he wasn't out very long, but just long enough for him to see and go, I just killed my brother. He goes, dad's gonna kill me. And not in the way we say, I'm not he's gonna kill me. Like, he literally thought his dad would kill him.

See, he kind of thought his dad loved me. He's never abusive. He's a good man, but he raised all these kids. They never lost their house. They fed. He fed through the whole Great Depression, but he had a business. He had to work hard. His brothers had to quit school to serve days to help him work so they could keep the business going.

And then they worked really hard. So he was kind of gone a lot and his dad he says my dad was a little bit more aloof. He's a little bit more of one of those quiet people, you know, that just did his action. So he proved he loved us by what he did. But to him as a 10 year old, he was the disciplinarian.

He'd go, hey, he would guide you. But it felt a little cold. He wasn't sure if his dad loved him. And he said this was the moment he figured this out. Because when he fell, he's like, I killed my brother. Dad's gonna kill me. I can't be a part of this family anymore. So he ran

away. He ran over and there was an open boxcar and he jumped in it hobo style. And right as it was cruising off and he's climbing, his brother woke up and saw it. So he runs home to tell my grandfather, his dad, and it's like, what? You don't have cell phones. You don't have the Internet. I mean, you you might have stop. Or

they probably have those little phones on it. You have to do the clip. I don't even know if they had one in their house, but if you found Mabel, hook me up to 102000 train. I don't know. Whatever. They didn't have real numbers. They would say things. And so he had no way. So he knew the closest

place he could probably get to that had a big station was Plattsburgh. So he ran out and he had one car. Even though he had this old car, but it was an old model t one of the original cars put that little crank in the front of the engine starts

up jumps in it the steering wheels like this big and looks like this Beverly Hillbilling it down the road going like 27 miles an hour man he was flying he's like I might get a ticket I'm going like 10 miles an hour over the speed limit he cruises to get there and in Plattsburgh at this station

they found my dad Pulled him out the upstairs far window right there. That was the waiting room place where they had him.

And and and his daddy said his dad came in looked all the shelves just ran in like and he took it as aggressive like, oh, I got caught. I got caught at the station and now I'm gonna die because my father's gonna kill me. And then he saw me looked at him.

And his dad looked at him right now. He's like, here it goes. And he ran over to me. He came over fast. He goes, never saw my dad move like that. And I thought and he goes, I actually crunched up. And he scooped him up and he hugged him. And he said, first thing, are you okay?

And he said he started crying because he didn't understand why he said, are you okay? He's like, but aren't you gonna you need to kill me? He goes, why would I kill you? He goes, because I killed Bobby. He goes, first of all, no, you didn't. You just knocked him silly, which we're gonna deal with.

And he shouldn't have taken your candy, which I will deal with. But why would you run away? You should run to me when something happens. He said, yeah. But I killed him. I thought you would kill me. He's like, why would I do that?

And he said his dad looked him in the eye, almost teary eyed, which his dad was not an emotional guy. And he said, I love you, son. I love you. I brought the car. So why don't you just go get in the car, and let's go home together?

That is who Jesus is. He's the one that we do things and we end up rejecting God. And for whatever reason, we jump on that train heading the wrong way. And what's funny is we think this train is the way, but trains, they're limited. They have these rigid tracks.

We try ritual. We try what do we try running away? We try this little ridge. But yet, Jesus is the one that met us at this train station. Didn't catch us there. He met us there. You know why he was able to meet us there and able to take us home? Because he had the vehicle to get us home, to get us the right way.

The cross, the original model t was the vehicle that he came to meet us at the train station and says, if you trust I love you and quit running this way, get in the car, come to the cross because I died. That's the vehicle to take you home.

Where are you at? Are you on a train right now? Are you sitting in this station? Because that's what this room is. It's one of those stations.

The way they realize or not, God is trying to speak to you right now. I don't care what you've believed to our relationship with God. Don't care where you've rejected them. I don't care how many times you're in. I don't care how stubborn you are. Don't care how arrogant you are right now. You need to believe me on this.

There's a reason God has you sitting in the seat you're in right at this moment. You are in a train station, and he's gonna invite you to get in the car and go home with him. It might sound scary, but are you willing? Because that is why he asked us to do communion.

And just like we missed the moment of, we think this is a spiritual obligation, let's just get it over with. Communion is a train station moment that he gave us over and over and over again. Sit at the station and remember the cross and let that help you deal with whatever it is you need to deal with.

So we're gonna take communion, but I'm gonna give us a minute to pray. Just start talking to God about what you need to talk about. What my dad did was right. Confess. Confess what you've done. Take his hand, and it was called repent. Get in the car.

But some of you have never met Jesus. So in this minute, you might need to pray something different. You can do it on your own. You can meet Jesus right now. You can become born again, a Christian, a follower of Jesus, say yes to him. Whatever you wanna call that, it's simple.

If you've never done this before, your prayer should say, Jesus, I am sorry. I've sinned. I've gone my own way. I've gone down the tracks my own way. And now I realize in this moment, I'm just poking myself in the eye. And the best way I know how,

I confess my sin, I turn to you, and I trust that your death, burial, and resurrection is the vehicle that gave me a relationship with you for all of eternity. I'm saying yes to your love. You can do that on your own right now. So just take a minute and then we'll close with communion and be done.

Jesus took the bread and broke it and said, take, eat.

He then took the cup and said, is my blood spilled for the forgiveness of sins for the new covenant. Take and drink.

God, I just wanna thank you for meeting us at the stations. Thank you for giving us a moment to reflect. Lord, I pray for myself, anyone in this room, anyone online, anyone who's gonna watch this in the weeks, months, or even years to come. As they sit in this moment, they will just remember your love.

And, Lord, when we embrace that love and realize the grace, the freedom, the forgiveness from a God who's loved us more than we can love ourselves, It'll free us up to joyfully respond to your call in our lives

because we trust you, because you love us.

I just pray that in the mighty name of Jesus, amen. Hey, if you just said yes to Jesus while you were praying, we would love to know about it. We have a team that just wants to pray for you. Other than that, God loves you. I love you. I'm glad to be back. Thanks for being here with us. Have a great day.

Thanks for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Yeah. And make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on the We Are Rock Point app for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.