June 1, 2025, Message by Ats Kagawa
Transcribed by Beluga AI.
Jesus, thank you so much that you are our Savior. You are our righteousness and freedom. In you, as we walk around our race, we can experience victory. And because you have already won it all, the victory is won. We get to experience the outworkings of all that you have done, starting on the cross and even to this day in each of our lives. We’re so grateful that we can come before you.
We’re so grateful that we can stand boldly before your throne together with fellow brothers and sisters here to worship you and glorify your name. May all the glory be you, which is our good Lord.
We ask you that tonight, as we open your word and go more into the book of Romans, the letter to the Romans. Please, Holy Spirit, come and guide us this time and teach us and inspire us and make us more like you through your word tonight.
So we ask for your help, and yeah, we anticipate that you will continue to work here at this time. We thank you, and we worship you, and we pay all this in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Okay, so we’ve been from the beginning of the year. We’ve been doing Romans, and crazy, it’s already June. The year is going by so quickly, and we are now into part three of the Romans, as Pastor Kevin has been teaching us.
We’re now in the third part, from chapter 9 through 11, where Paul is addressing the question of why some of the Israelite Jewish people are not receiving the gospel message. Did God fail? Did they give up on them? Paul is addressing that.
In doing so, he re-emphasizes the key points that he’s been making from the beginning and what it takes to receive that righteousness, what it takes to be saved.
So Pastor Kevin, he started off Chapter 9 last week. For those of you who weren’t here, he just covered the first five verses and talked about the heart of the apostle and what it means that we get to inherit the promise of God, the gospel covenant that God has given us from the beginning.
The Old Testament covenant reflects the New Testament, and it applies to us as well. But he started on that part. If you haven’t got a chance to, please. We do record all our evening services, and we have transcripts too.
So, it’s easy to not just, you have to sit down and listen to the whole message, but you can do a quick search by keywords, whatnot on our website, and you can zoom into the portion that you want to, you know, you’re interested in listening to.
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So yeah, that’s where Pastor Kevin left off when he comes back. Not this coming week as we have the Holy Spirit conference, but next, the following week.
You’ll continue with the second part of chapter nine, but Stefan and I, we got to kind of skip a little bit ahead and do cover chapter 10, which is still in the same section.
So I’ll continue where seven left off and do the second part of chapter 10.
And this is great because, you know, if I miss something, Kevin is still doing chapter nine, so he can always, you know, cover me. So, yeah, God is gracious.
As I prepared, you know, I always need review. I am forgetful, and I always forget the things that I try to observe. It’s harder and harder these days to retain things. I learned in school that, you know, teachers used to say that it takes six to stick. You have to repeat, learn something, forget it, and repeat, learn again.
You have to go through that six times at least to remember it. But it feels like it takes 60 to stick for me.
But so as I prepare, it’s always helpful for me to do some quick review and understand. So maybe you already know all this, but, but just to give, I wanted to share with you what I went through as I prepare for this part of the message.
And just a quick background, hopefully I can make this really quick.
So the Romans, the reason it was written was because there was a division in the church of Rome. There’s the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers. And there were conflicts.
What triggered that is that a little bit, a few years before that, Emperor Claudius expelled all the Jewish people from Rome. There was some kind of, I think they believe that it’s a conflict between a scuffle between the Jews and the New Christians. And there was some tension that was increasing. So the Emperor said, okay, that’s it. All the Jews, you guys are out.
So he. They were all expelled from Rome, and that happened around A.D. 49. He dies I think he’s believed to be assassinated, but were poisoned but he dies about five years later, at which point that decree is nullified.
So the Jewish people are allowed to return. But while they were absent, the Gentile believers, converts who started worshipping together with the Jews, were left behind. During their absence, their faith and their style of worship really changed, evolved, and they no longer followed the Jewish traditions. And, you know, so when they.
When the Jewish came, the Jews returned to rejoin the church. They found the church that was very different from what they remembered.
And especially, I think there were a lot going on about what kind of food they can eat in the Sabbath. And there were many differences. It was almost not identifiable.
So that caused a lot of tension. And so that’s what happened. That’s why there was a tension in Rome. And it caused the division.
And if you could go to the next slide.
Apostle Paul, although he never had any personal direct contact with the churches in Rome, knew some people who his partners that he worked with were there, but he personally didn’t have any direct contact.
So he wrote this letter a few years after the Jews returned, about maybe three years. So the conflict is, you know, going. And he’s trying to address that issue.
And the purpose of the letter was to unite the church, the divided church.
And also, he thought it was especially important and useful at this moment in time to make the church in Rome the model, as he wanted to expand the church further out to the west, into Spain.
I guess the benefit of this epistle, the Letter to the Romans, is that it is the longest and the most systematic and comprehensive presentation of the Gospel. Partly because he was addressing people he didn’t know personally, he’s laying down basically his understanding of the gospel comprehensively.
So, the other letters he wrote to the other churches he knew.
He was addressing more specific issues that this particular church was going through. But unlike the other letters, the Book of Romans is special in that sense because of the relationship he had and the purpose that he was trying to achieve through this letter.
So that’s why we benefit so much from this letter. And it’s a dense letter. And I was always personally kind of scared away from it. But it’s been really good, I think, to be able to go through it together and to study, go through it. So I.
In a nutshell, you know, as we talk about witnessing or we’re talking about today, calling on the Lord and proclaiming the gospel or preaching the gospel, I thought it’s a good practice for everybody to be able to share the gospel in your own language, own words, in a really brief way.
And so I try to write it down. I can’t maybe necessarily do it by memory. But in a nutshell, this is the right Romans, that we are utterly incapable of saving ourselves because of our condition. And God is righteous and he’s just.
So none of us are what is it off the hook or be good enough to be accepted by him, his standards in our own effort. But the great news is that instead Jesus fulfilled all the requirements that we couldn’t fulfill. And so he, through him, through believing in what he was able to accomplish on our behalf, on my behalf, I am declared and deemed righteous before the Father. And this is none of my own effort. There’s no merit on my end, but the merit goes to Jesus. But this salvation is what allows.
It is to both Gentiles and non. Both Jews and Gentiles alike. We are justified and saved through putting our trust in Jesus. And because of that, we are called to be united. We are to be one church under Christ.
And despite all the traditional and cultural differences, we can become one under Christ. And we can proclaim his work, his gospel to the rest of the world through the museum. So that’s the message that Apostle Paul is trying to convey through the Book of Romans, letter to the Romans, and please try.
I think you can do better than what I just did. Everybody. It’s your homework to try to summarize Romans and try to explain it to your, your family or spouse or, you know, it’s good practice.
But anyway, so today’s part we are like, like I said before, we’re going back into chapter 10 and addressing Apostle Paul is going to be addressing what that re-emphasizing the requirement for salvation. And it’s not by works. Righteousness is something that. This is what Devin shared with us last time.
It’s not by righteousness, which does not come from obeying the law by our own effort or works, but it’s by faith, God’s righteousness that we receive from him through Christ. So that’s the message that he wants to talk about today.
And so let’s quickly go through the Scripture, the passage today. Let’s see. So Romans 10:14-21. This is the CSV version. It’s 14, but I decided to cover a little bit. Go back a little bit further and start from verse 11. Let me read that real quick.
For the Scripture says everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame, since there’s no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
How then can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach unless they are sent as it is written?
How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. But not all obey the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message?
So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ. But I ask, did they not hear? Yes, they did. Their voice has gone out to the whole earth, and their words to the ends of the world.
But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses said, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation.
I will make you angry by a nation that lacks understanding. And Isaiah said boldly, I was found by those who were not looking for me. I revealed myself to those who were not asking for me, but to Israel. He says, all day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and defiant people.
So this is the word of the Lord. And as I went through this passage,
11 For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame, 12 since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. 13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. 14 How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. 16 But not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message? 17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ. 18 But I ask, “Did they not hear?” Yes, they did: Their voice has gone out to the whole earth, and their words to the ends of the world. 19 But I ask, “Did Israel not understand?” First, Moses said, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that lacks understanding. 20 And Isaiah says boldly, I was found by those who were not looking for me; I revealed myself to those who were not asking for me. 21 But to Israel he says, All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and defiant people. (Romans 10:11-21, CSB)
I ran into a few questions. There were a lot more questions.
I always have, but decided to kind of share some of the questions that came to me as I read through it. And this is what I wanted to try to address answer today.
What does it mean to call on the name of the Lord? Whom are we calling to exactly when we say Lord? Who is this Lord? What does Paul mean by preaching in this passage? Preaching? What does it mean to preach? Are all Christians called to preach?
What can we Gentile believers learn to watch out for when we observe Jews’ rejection after hearing the Gospel message?
So, those are the few points I hope I can do an adequate enough job to address. But at least I hear some of the answers that I think I came to.
Okay, so back to chapter 11:4. Scripture says everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame, since there’s no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him.
For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. So call on the name of the Lord.
26 A son was born to Seth also, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord. (Genesis 4:26, CSB)
11 For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame, 12 since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. 13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. (Romans 10:11-13, CSB)
I, you know, I’m, I, I used to be part of a predominantly Asian church and, and even churches in Japan, small churches. But, you know, there’s a kind of a practice where we as a congregation, we all raise our voice and call Jesus’s name and Lord. You know, in English, I guess it would be Lord, oh, Lord. Everybody’s passionate and they call out and call upon the name of the Lord.
So my idea immediately that comes is that everybody’s just saying Lord right out loud. And I think that’s part of it. But is it? What does calling mean? And is it just a verbal thing, or what’s going on in your heart and your soul?
So calling the word, you know, this is the New Testament, so it’s written in Greek, epical. It’s to call upon, I guess, like to invoke, to appeal to, to name something. So invoking in God’s prayer, invoking God in prayer, crying out to him. You could call on him to worship him.
Or when you’re in a desperate time, a difficult time of need, that’s when you call out to him for help. It’s not just a casual voicing I mentioned, but it’s a very intentional and heartfelt turning to God in time of distress or deep desire to be intimate and to connect, to be connected to Him.
So calling. So calling on the name of the Lord. And it also, in Acts 25, Apostle Paul, when he appeals to Caesar, that’s the same word that was used.
So there’s kind of like a legal term there too, in the meaning, I guess, the nuance of calling. So it’s kind of a very formal, you know, has a lot of authority. Calling. So that’s that.
And this is something it’s not. It could be a calling is a specific way that we can relate to God at this time in our stage, in our walk with God, because God is not physically present with us. When Jesus returns and we are in heaven with. With the Lord. You know, Revelation said we are going to be.
We will see him, his face. We will be face to face with the Lord. The distance is no longer right there. The night will be no more. God is there as the light for us. The Lord will give them light, and they will reign forever and ever. We will be together forever with God in the most intimate way. And so in one sense, the call, of course, the worship part will be worshiping and rejoicing in heaven before the Lord. So that part of calling probably still remains.
But the calling of distress, or to the longing, because he’s not here present with us, or he is, but oftentimes we don’t see him or feel him. The calling is a very unique calling that we have right now. And maybe it’s a special way that, you know, that we can do specifically now that we won’t be able to do in heaven.
So in that sense, calling is God gives us or asks us to call upon him. Even though if he feels. We feel that he’s distant at times, we can call on him.
We can relate to him intimately or desire to, you know, to cry out to him. So that’s, I hope that makes sense in terms of what this calling is.
Okay. And then this was really amazing to me. Romans. So I underlined verse 13. Again, Apostle Paul says, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. (Acts 2:21, CSB)
And then the Lord here I said, who do we call? Who are we calling when we say Lord? Is it God the Father? Is it Jesus?
You know, I was wondering, it’s the Holy Spirit, who is it? And in the New Testament, the Lord is translated or not translated. It was written as Kyrios, this word.
But Apostle Paul, as you may know, is referencing Apostle Peter also when he, in Acts, gave his sermon after the Pentecost. You know, he talks about calling on the name of the Lord, you know, you’ll be saved. But it’s referencing Joel 2:32. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
For there will be an escape for those on Mount Zion and Jerusalem, as the Lord promised among the survivors of the survivors the Lord calls.
32 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, for there will be an escape for those on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, as the Lord promised, among the survivors the Lord calls. (Joel 2:32, CSB)
And notice in Joel it’s an all caps Lord. And do you remember what that means when it’s all caps in Hebrew? The all caps Lord is the name of the Lord, right? Yahweh.
And so this is a profound statement that Paul and Peter and the early apostles were making that whoever believes in Jesus, Jesus is Lord, and whoever calls on his name will be saved.
And in this, Lord, obviously from Romans 10, Paul is referring to Jesus, but it’s quoted in Joel as Yahweh God. So, who are we calling to? I guess the answer could be Yahweh, you know, God, Jesus the Father. But by calling on Jesus’ Name, we are associating his deity, his identity as Yahweh. Also, he’s the God, the triune God. So that’s the Lord we’re calling to.
Okay. And then, as we keep going, Paul lays out the sequence that leads up to the calling.
And he talks about somebody has to be sent. Somebody has to be, somebody has to preach. And somebody has to receive that preaching, hear it, and in order to, you know, only then somebody can believe it. And through that belief, the calling comes.
So what is it again about calling?
30 But God raised him from the dead, (Acts 13:30, CSB)
Something happens first in our hearts, and believing that Jesus is Lord, God raised him from the dead in that reality, and by which I am forgiven or saved. That reality leads to, maybe almost naturally, the calling, the response, or the crying out to the Lord in worship and to give thanks and to depend on him in our trials as we continue to face here. So.
But Apostle Paul is making a point that in order for anybody to believe and to be able to call on the name of the Lord, there has to be a preaching of the Gospel.
And it’s not. Salvation can never come just by human reasoning, philosophical contemplation. It’s something that had to be revealed.
And we do not arrive at the saving faith by our own intellectual efforts, you know, or philosophical endeavors. It’s God by his Spirit who opens our eyes and hearts to Christ.
But also, what’s amazing is that God sends his people to take part in his revelation process. Of course, it’s God who’s doing the work to open up people’s hearts, but he sends us, you and me, to become the vessel to bring upon this great news to people who need to hear them and for preaching.
So the question was, okay, are we all called to preach? What does that preaching mean? And preaching in the strictest sense in this passage is Caruso. It’s a public proclamation heralding, sharing, bearing witness to Jesus.
It’s an authoritative, public, verbal proclamation of who Jesus is. So in that sense, yes, it’s a preaching to everybody out loud, verbally. But the question is, I don’t think everybody’s called to be a preacher.
Are we all to go and stand in a corner and are preaching with a microphone? Or what does that mean? Are we to preach? And so, yes, of course, there are people who are called to be preachers and teachers and pastors, but everybody has a role to play.
The New Testament expands this call to not only the verbal proclamation, but through, you know, one-on-one conversation, friendships, relationships, testimony, giving testimonies. We are to, we can still take part in that.
And of course, Pastor Kevin always tells us, you know, yeah, he’ll do the preaching for them. You know, you bring your friends and family and, you know, if you don’t feel comfortable to preach, but not necessarily, maybe from, in a preaching preacher’s way, but we are all even to bring somebody to church or to just share your life.
We are called to be preachers of the gospel or the preaching, or I guess the definition had proclaimed, right? So proclaiming the gospel through your life. I think that’s how I decided to put that in the title of my message today.
Matthew 5:16 says, in the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
27 Just one thing: As citizens of heaven, live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or am absent, I will hear about you that you are standing firm in one spirit, in one accord, contending together for the faith of the gospel, (Philippians 1:27, CSB)
16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16, CSB)
Philippians 1:27. Just one thing, as citizens of heaven, live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ. So we are called to each moment, each day.
We’re a recipient of this amazing grace through Jesus and the recipient of the love from him. The amazing acceptance, unconditional. But he loves you and me so much. you’re so precious. I am so precious. You know, although we don’t feel it often, he loves each and every one of us.
And not only loves, he likes and he delights in each and every one of us. So that truth that we are to carry that to the world, as that identity take hold in our hearts more and more, you know, we.
We are able to become useful, powerful proclaimers, preachers in our life to shed the light to the world.
And even, I don’t know, I don’t remember if I ever. I think I shared it here before. Even in the things are going, everything is not working. It might seem to be working in my life, and I’m just stressed and really depressed and just barely hanging on a thread.
Even in that kind of a weakness, God’s power, God’s strength can come through.
And I have a story about my work in Tokyo and working in the financial services. It was a really, really rough workplace. I was there as a bi-vocational missionary, I guess. I felt horrible because my job performance was terrible, and I didn’t feel like I was being a good witness, as a lot of people knew I was a Christian.
Even the act of clinging on to Jesus day by day, moment by moment, had me shaking all over the place and barely able to stay standing.
God can use those kinds of weakness to see the strength that God has. So people around me later shared with me, you know, there’s some strength that I wish I had. I was envious.
Even in the worst kind of case, we can still shed the light by calling upon the name of the Lord. In the distressful times and good times, when we’re rejoicing, calling on the name of the Lord still works. And that kind of goes to the next.
The point that I was thinking is as we call upon the name of the Lord, that kind of spills over or overlaps with our preaching or the proclaiming of the gospel as we’re just calling on the name of the Lord.
It’s almost the same thing as preaching the gospel to the world. I don’t have to necessarily say, okay, I’m going to call on the Lord and then, okay, I’m going to go preach now. I’m pumped up and I can do this necessarily.
It’s not like that. It almost overlaps in my experience.
So when I’m weak, God’s strength and glory shines even brighter. That’s my experience.
Okay, so let’s see. And this preaching, yeah, this preaching was a new phenomenon. Phenomenon compared to the Jewish practice and let alone Jewish, but any other world religions. There’s no particular, as much as I was able to look into. No other world religion have this authoritative proclamation of the truth.
Jewish people in the synagogue, they do the public reading of Scripture and they expound on it, they interpret and give wisdom from that.
But what Christians started doing is, even though they use the Scriptures, they’re proclaiming that this points to Jesus.
Preaching is not just the information, knowledge transfer. You don’t just target your head, but it targets the heart and it requires or encourages, inspires people and be called to change towards Christ. So that’s the type of preaching that became really new. It’s a new occurrence. I guess the Holy Spirit did it.
So, that’s what happened and that’s what we’re following in the footsteps of our examples, our former older brothers in Christ.
And we’re carrying on the torch here to do that style of preaching.
Okay, go to the next slide.
Okay, so the later section of today’s chapter talks about even though when the preaching happens, not everybody listens to it. They hear it, but they don’t, they don’t respond.
In verse 18:21, it says, But I ask, did they not hear? And this is talking specifically about the Jews. Yes, they did. Their voice has gone out to the whole earth. And their words to the ends of the world.
But I asked, did Israel not understand? First, Moses said, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation. I’ll make you angry by a nation that lacks understanding.
And Isaiah says, I was found by those who were not looking for me. I revealed myself to those who were not asking for me. But to Israel, I say, all day long I have held out my hands to disobedient and defiant people.
So it made me wonder. Jews were hearing but not obeying,
18 But I ask, “Did they not hear?” Yes, they did: Their voice has gone out to the whole earth, and their words to the ends of the world. 19 But I ask, “Did Israel not understand?” First, Moses said, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that lacks understanding. 20 And Isaiah says boldly, I was found by those who were not looking for me; I revealed myself to those who were not asking for me. 21 But to Israel he says, All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and defiant people. (Romans 10:18-21, CSB)
even though the preachers were being sent out.
Apostle Paul was always, every time he goes to a different city, he would go to the synagogue first to proclaim the gospel. But then, of course, people don’t receive it. So he’ll go out to the Gentiles.
And Jesus was a stumbling block to many Jews. The rock that the builders rejected became a chief cornerstone.
22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. (Psalms 118:22, CSB)
It was rejected by many of the Jewish people. And why was that? I think I have sympathy. They were striving so hard to be righteous by the law that was given. They were trying to be righteous on their own merit.
But of course, Apostle Paul’s point is that if you try to live by the law, you have to observe every single one to the T. And nobody can do that. God’s standard is so high. So Jesus had to come and be the end of the law. He had to fulfill it for us.
But yeah, but I think that way of thinking is just as prevalent in me. In us, there’s always that temptation to want to merit our righteousness instead of submitting to the righteousness of God.
I think that’s a real thing that’s in my heart, and that’s the warning, you know, as a non-believer. Are you? Any of you here have a Jewish. I can’t tell who’s Jewish or just by looking, so apologize if I. But yeah. So as a gentile believer, how can I make sense of it? Of course, God is. He promised in. Later in chapter 11 too. He goes on and says he has his hands stretched open all day long. God hasn’t given up.
And then there’s a remnant. You know, God is still faithful even towards the chosen nation of Israel, that he will save those He. Those people who are willing to turn to him. He has his hands stretched out to those people who are stubborn too.
But what can I, as a non-Jewish person, take that and learn? And I take it as a warning. You know, I think, yeah, you’re right. Apostle Paul says we, as a branch grafted into the tree, you know, we can easily be cut off, broken off again. Right.
If I’m trying to go back to my old way to try to prove my worth and to be righteous by my own ability and feel good about myself by my own doing, I think I start approaching the dangerous area of becoming like the Israelites, the Jews trying to receive God’s approval.
And I think it happens. Even one example is like, if I don’t have a good. If I haven’t been having a very good quiet time with the Lord or I feel like I kind of backslid in some area.
And when I come to church, I can’t openly worship the Lord. And that’s my heart saying, okay, I have to be good enough, I have to do better before I can approach God. And so that’s already there. That fault is there in my heart that through Christ I can boldly approach the throne of heaven and come before the Lord because he has already completely made me just righteous through Jesus.
So yeah, that’s the lesson and also the action. Call to action. When I hear, what is the response?
We are to respond to the preaching, the word that we receive, the Lord brings to our hearts. We are. We need to respond. And how do we respond? I guess it starts with calling on the name of the Lord, and that will lead to our proclamation and preaching in a cycle.
So I think that’s what I got through this. We are. Invitation is open. Everybody who believes in Jesus will not be put to shame. Everyone who calls on his name will be saved.
We are called to call on Jesus as Lord, capital L O R D, and to proclaim him boldly. Rest in his grace, share his message, how he is, how he loves you, how he helps you, and invite others to join his calling and calling on and proclaiming that Jesus is Lord.
So, I think this section, this is the message that Paul wants to really nail. And yeah, do you? So, I wanted to take this time to give you a little moment to, as a body of Christ together, but individually, call upon the name of the Lord. And either if it’s something that is troubling you or something that you want to worship, that’s prompting you to worship, let’s take this opportunity to really respond at this time and call upon the name of the Lord together.
And let’s. Yeah, I’ll give you a little moment. Let’s pray individually.
It. Okay, I’m gonna close in prayer, please. Yeah. Continue to exercise your call to continue on not only now, but throughout this week, every moment of your life whenever possible to call on him. But I’ll close for now.
Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your word. Thank you for Apostle Paul for helping us understand that we merit your son, Jesus, the work on the cross by which we are justified and made righteous and called back into the family of God and Lord.
Although each of us, we come from different backgrounds and different places, but it’s amazing, Lord, that you bring your followers together and unite us under Jesus to start this new kingdom.
And thank you that you have adopted us into such privileged, amazing place relationship back with you.
We’re so grateful.
And as we continue on our journey individually and together as a body of Christ, let us help us to really continue to call upon your name.
And through the intimate relationship that we can have with you, may that turn into a proclamation of how amazing and how loving you are.
Lord, use us in any way. Send us to our neighbors and friends and families that need to hear and understand so that they can believe and also call on you. Use us to be that instrument, vessel to bring that light to their lives.
We ask you to take our lives and use it for your glory. Thank you so much that you.
You love us and you delight in us, that you’re, as we speak, you’re working in our hearts and making us more into the likeness of your son, Jesus.
So we ask you that you’ll continue the work and carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.
Thank you for inviting us to this table of your bread and wine. Thank you for using this to sustain us in this fallen world.
It’s a meal that reminds us of what you have done for us, that we are saved completely, but also it feeds us today. And you are also saving us now and helping us to work out our salvation.
And also this table, this meal points to the feast that is to come when Jesus, when you return and fully restore the kingdom. It points to that amazing feast and day of rejoicing.
So thank you for the hope that you give us in your meal also.
So please bless this communion and help us to take it with gladness and thanksgiving. Pray all this in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Please come and take the communion.
