Sufficiency of Christ

Service tonight: Mark Huber.

Time change Saturday night

I want to begin by saying, “Thank you!”

For Pastor Appreciation cards, gifts and church Chili fellowship.

You do such things because you are a generous people.

Which leads me to one of those chicken and egg dilemmas.

Is it because of your generosity that God shows His favor on you?

Or is it because of God’s favor on your life that you are generous?

Thankfully, it is not because of our works of generosity that God showers us with His favor — but because of grace given THROUGH Jesus.

We don’t earn favor with God through our works.

He showers us with blessings because we love Him and we are abiding in Jesus.

John 1:17 (LSB) For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Grace and favor are very much linked in the Bible, whether you look at the Hebrew or Greek words.

From my youngest years I learned that grace is “God’s unmerited (unearned) favor”

But I really like what the Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible says. It says …

[Grace is] One of the distinctive features of the religion of the Bible. No other system of religious thought, past or present, contains an emphasis on divine grace comparable to that of the Bible.

As a general definition, the doctrine of grace pertains to God’s activity rather than to His nature. Although God is gracious, this trait of His nature is revealed only in relation to His created works and to His redemptive enterprise.

In other words, grace is to be understood in terms of a dynamic expression of the divine personality rather than as a static attribute of God’s nature.

Grace is the dimension of divine activity that enables God to confront human indifference and rebellion with an inexhaustible capacity to forgive and to bless. God is gracious in action.

So, if you are abiding in the vine of Jesus, you are experiencing His favor — His blessings — a favor we cannot earn, but is given freely.

BUT, just because we are favored and blessed by God doesn’t mean WE automatically extend that favor to others.

That is a choice that we make.

So, thank you for making a choice to be so generous to me and Sandra.

Your cards and gifts, not just during Pastor Appreciation month, but all year long are very appreciated.

And like the Apostle Paul said in Romans 1:8, I also want to say:

“… I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.”

How is your faith being proclaimed?

Through your many prayers on behalf of the Gospel.

By your generosity of giving.

Next Sunday we will have a missions emphasis service followed by an International Fellowship.

Please sign up on the clipboard for what you will bring.

Also, there are Faith Promise cards on the missions table.

Please pray and ask God what He would have you to do, above your tithe, in giving to missions next year.

You have enjoyed the favor of God, let’s be sure to extend that favor around the world.

Now, let’s turn to the Good News of God’s Word.

Turn to Hebrews 9 in your Bibles.

As you are turning there, let me take note of other good news.

Not as good as what I’m about to read, but, still good.

First of all, according to The Christian Post, on October 11, in Hot Springs, AR (which is the birth-city of the AG) ,

Thousands of young people gathered on a high school football field in Hot Springs, Arkansas, for an evening of music and testimonies of Christian faith.

“Truly, there was an unmistakable move of the Holy Spirit," said Micah May of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. May, the director of FCA South Central Arkansas, added that "God was present and lives were changed.”

All told, May reported that more than 3,000 people, nearly all of them teenagers, attended the Oct. 11 event.

Secondly, many prayed, you prayed, and God did a miracle.

Not only did the U.S. House of Representatives select a Speaker, but they selected, to me, an extremely improbable one — it seems they selected a godly, praying man from Louisiana, Rep. Mike Johnson.

Let’s do our part:

1 Timothy 2:1–4 (LSB) First of all, then, I exhort that petitions and prayers, requests and thanksgivings, be made for all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth.

Let’s do that right now.

PRAYER OVER SCRIPTURE

READ Text: Hebrews 9:24-28

What do you get from this passage?

I pray that you receive an understanding of the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf.

Jesus died ONCE for all.

Jesus saves us by His Blood.

As vs, 26 says: Hebrews 9:26b (NCV) … Christ came only once and for all time at just the right time to take away all sin by sacrificing himself.

Not only does Jesus take away our sin at salvation, but He makes is a completely new creature:

2 Corinthians 5:17 (LSB) Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

Through His sacrifice Jesus gives us complete victory over sin.

Romans 6:11–14 (KJV) Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

I have noticed a resurgence of the teaching of “Generational Curses.”

Please, don’t get hoodwinked by proponents of “Generational curses”

Dr. Wave NUNNALLY, of Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri tells us:

Most teachers of generational curse base their teaching on some combination of Exodus 20:5,6; 34:6,7; Numbers 14:18; and Deuteronomy 5:9,10. Each of these texts contain the words, “visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children … to the third and the fourth generations” (KJV).

Those who teach generational curse interpret these verses to mean that a person’s guilt is genetically passed down to all his descendents.

That people not only inherit their ancestors’ sin nature (the tendency all have to rebel against God), but they also acquire the accumulated guilt of their ancestors.

They believe that as a result, God sees them as guilty, not only for their own sins, but also for their ancestors’ sins as well.

That furthermore, Satan has the right to continue to hold legal claim against Christians who have not effectively dealt with their generational curses, resulting in failure, violence, impotence, profanity, obesity, poverty, shame, sickness, grief, fear, and even physical death.

So, to be set free from a generational curse requires a special deliverance service.

That our initial repentance of sins and surrender to Jesus were not enough.

Something more is needed.

Nunnally tells us 5 things we can learn from the false teachings of Generational curses:

1. The Scriptures are the only trustworthy lamp to our feet and light to our path.

2. The words of man can only bring us back into bondage: for example, to fear.

We must follow the full counsel of God in Scripture rather than the latest theological fad.

3. Fallen man is always looking for a quick fix.

Most problems addressed by the ceremonies of generational curse cannot be cast out or bound.

Behavioral problems need to be addressed in our discipleship walk.

We need to daily take up our cross, reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ, bring our bodies under subjection, take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and renew our minds by the word of God.

A drive-by exorcism of our character flaws will leave us sorely disappointed when we awake the next day to find our flaws still with us.

Jesus did not call us to a short-cut version of Christianity.

He called us to discipleship — daily following the Master, submitting to His lordship, learning from Him, and becoming more like Him.

4. It serves to remind us of the power and sufficiency of Jesus’ blood.

That’s what we see here in our text.

Jesus’ one-time sacrifice on the Cross is sufficient for all our sin — including any so-called generational flaws.

5. Because generational curses have caused us to return to the Bible to re-evaluate its message, we are again reminded that our actions do have consequences, and our lives do have a powerful impact on our children, either for good or evil.

By the way some believers live, as Hosea 8:7 says: they are indeed “sowing the wind and will indeed reap the whirlwind.”

Many people in our churches are in need of true biblical repentance, transformation, and empowerment so we can live the exemplary lives God calls us to live.

So, as we come to the Lord’s Supper this morning, let’s ask Him to help us to walk in His footsteps.

Walking in a freedom from the fear of generational curses.

Walking in faith that Jesus’ Blood is sufficient.

Walking as we follow the example of Jesus.

1 John 2:6 (LSB) the one who says he abides in [Jesus] ought himself to walk in the same manner as [Jesus] walked.

Prayer for us to follow Jesus.

Free from the fear of generational curses.

The Lord’s Supper

We are going to do the Lord’s Supper a little differently this morning.

It seems that breaking piece off a loaf of matzos is a very hard thing.

Hard to do without handling the whole loaf.

So, I have asked Sister Becky Gill, who prepares the elements, if she will help us this morning by wearing food service gloves and breaking off apiece and handing it to each one of you.

Why not use the little communion wafers or small crackers?

Because the Lord’s Supper symbolizes multiple things.

Of course, the cup symbolizes what we see in another Hebrews passage:

Hebrews 9:11–14 (LSB) But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, 12 and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy places once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Not only are we saved by the Blood of Jesus, but as our Hebrews 10 tells us:

Hebrews 10:19 (LSB) Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,

Hebrews 10:22 (NLT) let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

Through the blood of Jesus we have access to God.

And then, not only does the bread symbolize that....

Hebrews 10:10 (NLT) … God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.

But it also speaks to our “koinonia,” our fellowship with one another:

Galatians 3:26–28 (LSB) For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

1 Corinthians 10:16–17 (LSB) Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? 17 Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

So, let us prepare ourselves to partake of the Lord’s Supper TOGETHER, as the Body of Christ.

As we honor the sacrifice of Jesus … His Body and Blood

I believe that supernatural healing is available as we partake together.

I believe supernatural provision is available .

We prepare by getting rid of any “leaven,” any sin in our lives.

1 Corinthians 11:28 (NLT) … [we] should examine [ourselves] before eating the bread and drinking the cup.

Our earthly temples need to be swept clean by confessing sin and asking forgiveness.

1 John 1:9 “ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

PRAYER of Cleansing and Preparation

Receive Elements (Sister Becky, would you come?)

You don’t have to be a member.

Come, just as you are and honor Christ.

Beginning with the Worship Team, I’m going to ask each of us to come forward and receive a piece of the loaf of bread, and take one of the cups.

Please stand or sit in this front area.

Worship Team: Just As I Am (Chorus)

Bread:

Luke 22:19 (LSB) And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.”

2. Prayer by …

3. End prayer with prayer from Seder:

i. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, who brings forth bread from the earth.

4. Partake

Cup:

Luke 22:20 (LSB) And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.

2. Prayer by …

1. End prayer with prayer from Seder:

i. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.

2. Partake

Jesus is coming soon:

1 Corinthians 11:26 (NCV) Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup you are telling others about the Lord’s death until he comes.

As our text said: Hebrews 9:28 “so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.”

Yes, Jesus is coming!

Titus 2:11–13 (LSB) For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12 instructing us that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,

Worship Team:

The King is Coming!