We believe that the Church consists of all who put their faith in Jesus Christ. He gave His Church the ordinances of baptism and communion. The Church exists to carry on the ministry of Jesus Christ and further advance His kingdom by undoing the works of the enemy, preaching and living the good news of God’s love, and discipling the nations – baptizing and teaching them to love and obey God.
you know the whole the whole point that
i make i hope i make it well
is that the christian life technically
isn’t the cross it’s the it’s the
resurrection
but you don’t get there without the
cross the cross is absolutely central
you take communion personally quite a
bit but
jesus taught us not don’t get too far
away from my sacrifice like you’re going
to come back to my broken body and my
blood pretty regularly exactly this is
important for you stay connected to this
so how does that function for you as far
as we don’t feel like we’re getting
close far from the gospel because we’re
regularly having communion it’s part of
the rhythm of our community so like what
it’s the lamb of god on the throne yeah
yeah so forever there’s that reference
point yeah you know yeah um
communion is a huge part of of church
life in general
uh for us for me it’s something i took
again this morning and
yesterday and i most every day i i take
communion
come before the lord and honor him for
his absolute love for us as people his
self-giving yeah that he would sacrifice
himself i
i just i literally just go through this
before him and say god
you became empty so that i could be full
you were broken
so i could be whole
you were rejected
so i could be accepted
you were despised so i could be
celebrated
you became poor that i could be rich you
became sin so that i could become
righteousness and just regularly just
rehearse these things that he became all
of that so that i could have life yeah i
didn’t earn any of it it’s all a gift
and so when i take that broken body i
just i remind myself
of the of the price that he paid so that
we could have life that we could receive
simple faith in what he did on my behalf
that gives me eternal life
and
it’s important for me
to rehearse that on a on a regular basis
and so i
i pray the broken body of course
represents many things but for once by
his stripes we’re healed so i i pray for
that healing grace to be released to
people that i know that are
suffering
and then i hold the cup before him and i
proclaim as for me in my house we will
serve the lord
and i i began to pray for
family members i pray for those who
who would aggressively oppose me in the
gospel and i and i honestly uh
with heartfelt affection pray for the
blessing of the lord on their lives as
well and it’s just a it’s an important
part of of my life
so the eucharist the communion is so
central uh this practice the lord’s
given us
for us it sits within this kingdom but
and the kingdom’s about his presence it
started in his presence in the garden
and then uh it’ll end in his presence
heaven is his presence yes it’s not so
much a place it’s a person to be
exactly the this relationship of the
lord
but sometimes i think we the cross is a
component of the lord’s kingdom
uh
in the way we talk about it and that
might be confusing sometimes it’s like
because it’s not all the cross and then
getting to heaven it’s actually the
cross heals humanity and then the
kingdom is born and more are invited to
become like god in relationship with the
lord so i sometimes wonder if
if it feels like the cross isn’t center
because we have this larger
story of the kingdom of god before and
in the kingdom of god to come that the
cross is the way into
do you want to speak about that real
quickly or yeah here’s another
challenging thing to understand and to
articulate well so that
so that we we represent him so we never
minimize the cross
discussion it’s central it’s central but
it doesn’t end at the cross
you know the whole the whole point that
i make i hope i make it well
is that the christian life technically
isn’t the cross it’s the it’s the
resurrection but you don’t get there
without the cross the cross is
absolutely central it’s
it’s you can’t ra you know jesus didn’t
raise himself from the dead you know you
don’t die and then raise yourself to
demonstrate something it’s the complete
abandonment to the will of god and it’s
the resurrection life and presence of
god that comes and enables us to live by
grace in a way that represents jesus
well so you can’t separate the two
and i okay i’m living in resurrection
power in this but tomorrow i’m still
gonna have to die again to this
situation or to that i’m gonna have to
deny my flesh and this or you know
whatever it might be it’s it’s the
continuous cycle
of truly bearing up our cross following
after jesus but knowing it leads to
something here’s my concern is as i was
raised in an environment that not with
my dad but in various teachers that they
would emphasize the cross
but it became morbid because there was
never a resurrection
it never led to anything
it only led to you can’t do that you
can’t become that you can’t dream that
all your dreams desires are of the flesh
and it it ended wow the expression
of human uh uniqueness that god actually
wanted to to bring out you know john
matthew mark luke and john each have the
fingerprints of those four men in those
four gospels god wasn’t afraid to have
their personalities demonstrated because
he values us he doesn’t want to do it
without us he wants to include us in the
journey and so here we are
i’ve i’ve just wanted to make sure that
yes we emphasize the cross the cross is
central but my goodness it’s got to lead
to something there’s got to be
that this experience of laying down my
life has led me into a place where i can
represent him better through purity
through power through my love for people
it’s there’s got to be resurrection we
don’t leave it in the rearview mirror
like we’re driving away from it it’s
actually we through the eucharist
through the singing of this through our
own devotional life we live connected to
his self-giving love on the cross every
day as we’re moving and advancing the
kingdom yeah that’s the best as we know
how that’s when you know how yeah we’ll
get to having to figure out well we
could have done that better
no doubt no doubt
i’ve enjoyed our time it’s been super
fun and let’s do it again all right
[Music]
you