Mike Breaux - How Do I Stay DEVOTED to God (01/13/2026)
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Summary:
In this message from the Acts series, Mike Breaux contrasts a scary California wildfire with the explosive spread of the early church in Acts 2. After Pentecost, 3,000 new believers formed a vibrant community devoted to apostles' teaching, fellowship, meals (including Lord’s Supper), and prayer. The key isn’t just practices but the character traits behind them: being teachable (humbly learning about Jesus), vulnerable (authentic shared life in community), and dependent (relying fully on the Holy Spirit). These traits kept the fire burning, leading to radical generosity, unity, and transformation that impacted history. Today, we continue this by remembering Jesus in communion and living centered on Him.
Welcome and Time Change Humor
Hey, I want to welcome those of you who are now showing up for the 9:30 service. Thanks for coming today! Thanks for your… you’re a little late, yeah, that one hour of extra sleep, right? Right? We had that today. Hey, I met somebody out in the lobby who has a six-month-old kid, and they said our time change happened about six months ago. Every night has been different now.
So welcome! Thanks for coming on Time Change Weekend. My name is Mike, by the way, and I get to be a part of this amazing team, this amazing family of people. I want to welcome all of our campuses and those of you who might be in the bridge today, or maybe you’re joining us online today. Super grateful for you! If this is your first time here today, I can’t tell you how grateful we are for you. It takes a lot of courage to show up at a church for the first time; it can be intimidating.
So thanks for pushing through all the nervousness. You need to know this about us: we’re just a bunch of imperfect people around this place, and you fit right in. We’re just trying to navigate life with the help of a perfect heavenly Father, and we’re so honored that you would come today, so thanks for being here.
Personal Wildfire Story
Many of you know that my family and I lived in Ventura, California, for the past eight years. I have to tell you something: the weather in Ventura is pretty much close to perfect. I mean, it’s 70 degrees whether it’s February or July; it doesn’t matter. No ice storms, no blizzards, no tornadoes—just earthquakes and wildfires. Other than that, on December 4th, Debbie and I were coming back from a movie, which was terrible. We left early, and we were driving along when we saw this glow east of our city in the sky. I thought, «What is going on over there?»
We learned there was a fire going on up in the hills about 15, maybe even 20 miles away from our house. I thought, «Well, it’s no big deal, you know.» But the wind started blowing, and in less than an hour, it was three blocks away from our house, and we had to evacuate at 3:00 in the morning. It was pretty scary, but it was amazing how fast that thing grew.
Introduction to Acts
We’re walking through the fifth book of the New Testament, a section called the book of Acts, which chronicles this movement of God that was absolutely spreading like a wildfire in a good way. It exploded overnight. Now, if you’re not real familiar with the Bible, the first four books of the New Testament are called the Gospels, which simply means the good news about God’s love. And man, is it ever! It’s all about Jesus.
We’re not only introduced to Jesus in the Gospels, but we get to meet some of his followers—guys like Peter, James, John, Andrew, Matthew, Thomas, Nathaniel, Philip, and the rest. After his resurrection and before Jesus ascends back to heaven, he tells these guys and some women to spread the good news of God’s love. Tell the nations that there is hope and eternal life through following me. He tells them, «Listen, the Holy Spirit is going to come upon you and empower you to do the job.»
And guess what happens? The Holy Spirit does exactly that! He comes like a mighty rushing wind and ignites this fire within them. So with boldness, passion, courage, and a ton of grace, they begin to proclaim the good news of Jesus everywhere. This small group of about 120 men and women begins to explode into the thousands, and it would soon spread like a raging wildfire.
Like I said, Acts is the fifth book of the New Testament; it’s right after the Gospels. I’d encourage you to read it all for yourself. It’s written by a guy named Luke, who has been regarded as one of the most accurate, thorough historians to have ever lived. It’s a true story. It’s full of adventure, intrigue, great drama, and characters and wonder—all 28 chapters of it. I like to think of us as writing that 29th chapter with our lives.
I can remember hearing about an old preacher who was unable to see any longer, and he asked his son to open his old Bible to the book of Acts, to Acts chapter 2. He took his aging hand and laid it on the top of the book of Acts and prayed, «Do it again, God! Do it again.» And that’s my prayer as we walk through this together—that we would sense the Holy Spirit of God encouraging us, guiding us, equipping us, transforming us, stretching us, and igniting a fire within us so we can be the church of Jesus.
Recap of Pentecost and Peter’s Sermon
You might remember from last weekend how this all started. Peter, who was one of Jesus' closest followers, is a former fisherman. He’s part of Jesus' inner circle. I mean, this guy was a big-time failure who thought that Jesus was finished and done with him forever, that he had no use for him at all. Well, not only does Jesus forgive Peter and restore him, he chooses him.
And Peter is filled with the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. This raw, uneducated Bass Pro Shop kind of guy preaches his very first sermon. I laugh every time I think about my buddy John Ortberg, who is an amazing preacher these days. But he talks about how the first time he ever got up to preach, he was so nervous that he passed out on stage and fell to the floor behind the pulpit two times. He always says in the church he was a part of, you didn’t get extra credit for doing stuff like that.
I can’t imagine how nervous Peter must have been. First time ever, there’s a huge crowd of people there in the streets of Jerusalem for this big festival called Pentecost—people from everywhere. And this guy stands up with courage and conviction, a deep sense of gratitude for Jesus. He takes a deep breath and gives a very simple but very clear explanation of what God had done through the cross and through the resurrection of Jesus. When he got done, it says that the people were cut to the heart. They were moved to repent, to do a 180, and turn away from their sin and start turning toward God.
And it says this in Acts chapter 2, verse 41: «Those who accepted the message were baptized, and about 3,000 were added to their number that day.» Like I said, spreading like a wildfire!
The Early Church Practices (Acts 2:42–47)
Now can you imagine this brand-new church in the opening pages of the book of Acts—day one? They have at least 3,000 people and no history whatsoever of what a church even is. They don’t have an organized kids' ministry, they don’t have a campus in which to meet, they haven’t even found a bass player for their band yet. All they had was this little movement that was spreading like wildfire, and they knew to keep the fire burning they were going to have to rely on God’s Spirit.
You see, in Acts chapter 1, we see 120 followers of Jesus who are weak, defeated, and overwhelmed. In Acts chapter 2, we see them empowered and strong. In Acts chapter 1, they’re scared to death and hiding. In Acts chapter 2, they’re courageously sharing the good news in the streets. So what changed? Well, in short, the Holy Spirit is what changed. He came, and they experienced, as we just sang, his wonder-working power in and through them.
Now Jesus wasn’t someone who was just with them—he was in them. So relying on the Holy Spirit of God, Peter and the rest of the apostles now have to figure out how in the world they are going to include, equip, and provide care for these thousands of brand-new followers of Jesus. So I have a feeling that between verses 41 and 42, the apostles had some «now what» meetings, right? They had to have some of those whiteboard «What do we do next?» kind of meetings where they just prayed for God to give them wisdom.
Out of that seems to flow a few practices that they would do in order to keep the fire burning within them. And this is what it said the early church did: Verse 42: «All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals, including the Lord’s Supper, and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over all of them. And the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the temple each day. They met in homes for the Lord’s Supper. They shared their meals with great joy and generosity, all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.» Amen!
Man, if you want to know what a church should look like when it’s working right, that is as pure a picture as you’ll ever find! There was a tremendous sense of unity. Answered prayer was happening all the time. People shared their stuff with each other. They ate together, worshiped together, learned together, and prayed together. More and more people were being saved because of the dramatic transformation that the Holy Spirit was doing on the inside of these brand-new believers. And that movement began to spread like wildfire.
It spread all the way to Texas. I mean, it’s fair to wonder if Lake Point would even exist if it weren’t for these passionate people who centered their lives on Jesus Christ.
Character Traits Over Checklist
Now you can see here the practices that they did. Too often, I’ve heard sermons on this passage that are pretty much «do better» messages. You know what I’m talking аbout: «Read your Bible more, pray more, give more, get in a group, and show up for communion.» Now, all those things are great; they are vital, life-giving practices. But I’d like to focus today on what I think are the character traits that these practices flow out of.
You see, too often, we just focus on doing instead of being. We say, «Just give me the checklist; just show me what I’ve got to do.» That tends to lead to a little behavior modification, but not so much true transformation. What I’m learning is when you and I humble ourselves and allow the same Holy Spirit—the one who ignited that fire—to shape our character, then our doing and our being start to work together. What we do is no longer just a religious regiment that we just check off the boxes. Rather, what we practice flows out of who we are becoming. The healthy things that we start practicing come alongside and enhance the character that the Holy Spirit is shaping in us. See how that works? Hand in hand.
Trait 1: Teachable
And it all begins with the first trait I see in these people: they were teachable. They were teachable. You remember after Peter preached the good news in the streets of Jerusalem? The people asked a question. They said, «What should we do?» I think it’s cool they kept that same humble, teachable spirit, asking, «And what do we do now? What’s next?» It says here that all the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching.
Now, we read this and think, «Oh yeah, so they read their Bibles, » right? At that point, they didn’t have Bibles. They didn’t have like an app they could download on their smartphones. Now, eventually, the divinely inspired words of the apostles would become our Bible, but they didn’t have someone standing up saying, «All right, turn in your Bibles to First Peter.» They just turned to Peter. They didn’t say, «Open your Bible to the Gospel of John.» They just turned to John and said, «Would you teach us? Tell us all about Jesus. We just want to know everything he did, everything he said. Tell us about where he went, what he did, and who he touched. We heard that he hung out with some questionable people—a pretty rough crowd. Is that true? What did he say about the heart of God? Why were the religious leaders so critical of him, and why did they want to take him out? Would you tell us what he said about marriage? What did he say about money? What did he teach about forgiveness? What did he tell you all about heaven? In fact, somebody was telling us the other day that he told this great story one time about a lost sheep, a lost coin, and two lost boys. Would somebody tell us that story? Hey, Matthew, we heard that you sat down and wrote down every single word Jesus preached in his very first sermon—the one on the side of the hill up in Galilee. Could you share that sermon with us? Because we just want to know more!»
They were hungry to know. They were teachable. You see, it’s not so much the learning that changes us; it’s the teachable spirit we bring to the learning. I mean, you can read the Bible from cover to cover, but unless you bring a humble, teachable, «show me more» kind of attitude to it, it will not transform you. You’re just checking off the religious to-do list. But when you bring that hunger, when you dive into a regular basis into God’s Word and say, «Father, teach me! I’m just hungry for you! Speak to me! Show me your ways! Teach me your paths! Guide me in your truth! What are some next steps you want me to take? Reveal your heart to me more and more! Help me become more and more like Jesus!» When you do that, transformation starts to take place as your being and your doing start to match up.
Health Parable Illustration
Now, this is a very imperfect illustration, but let me tell you a parable. Once upon a time, there was a random man who was traveling down the road of life. And even though he was well into his grandparenting years, he lived as if he were still in college. He ate whatever he wanted, slept sporadically, worked hard, but then crashed and lay around watching sports and mindless television. As a result, this random man began to feel sluggish, moody, and with little energy.
Well, one day, this random man’s wife made him an appointment to have his blood drawn. The man, in his pride, resisted, saying, «I feel great! I don’t need some doctor telling me what to do.» But eventually, he submitted to his loving wife’s request and went. After a few days, the man’s doctor called him, and she was sore afraid. She said through the phone, «Verily, verily, I say unto you that unless you stop eating Pop-Tarts, Cheetos, and two-day-old pizza, you shall develop type 2 diabetes and shall prematurely die.» The man was shocked. He came to his senses, humbled himself, and asked, «What then shall I do?»
The doctor replied, «Eat right and get thy butt moving, and you shall surely live.» She gave him a list of healthy foods and an exercise plan to follow. The man went home and immediately bought a new pair of running shoes and began to walk—7,000, then 10,000, then 15,000 steps a day. He began to limit unhealthy carbs, sugars, and processed foods. He began to stretch and regularly lift heavy things. He began to meditate and sleep eight hours a day. His weight melted away, his clothes began to fit, his mind fog cleared, and his energy soared. When he returned to the doctor, she examined his new blood work and exclaimed, «This is wonderful! Your numbers are back down to where they were in college! Well done, thou good and faithful patient!»
The man went on his way rejoicing and stopped for the first time at a doughnut shop in four months to celebrate. Now let me ask you, was this random man’s health restored because he finally humbled himself and let his doctor’s words teach him, or because he started practicing some healthy habits? Both! He finally brought a teachable spirit, trusted in the wisdom of the doctor, believed that what she said was true, and then expressed that faith by doing the good and healthy things he was told to do.
Now, by the way, that random man got a little cocky and reverted to bad old habits and has had to reboot that healthy routine. Again, this is certainly not a perfect parable, but I think it might help you see how our inner character and our outward practices enhance each other.
Bible Engagement Stats and Encouragement
There are all kinds of opportunities around this place for learning, and I want to encourage you to make every weekend not hit and miss. Just build this into the regular rhythm of your life. When you show up, show up with a teachable spirit. Just say, «Lord, I don’t know what you got for me today, but speak to me today.»
Whenever you go to a little Bible study group, just bring a teachable spirit, saying, «Lord, speak to me today.» Download some things like the Daily Drive podcast that we do, and before you hit play, just say, «Lord, just speak to me today.» When you dive into God’s Word daily, just bring a humble, teachable spirit, saying, «Lord, speak to me!» And it will keep the fire burning within you.
You may have already seen this, but the Center for Bible Engagement recently surveyed 40,000 Americans and discovered something they weren’t even looking for. People who read the Bible one time a week—maybe they see a scripture at church or something like that—saw a negligible difference in their life. Their anxiety levels remained the same; habits, behaviors, whatever. Those who read the Bible two times a week also saw a negligible difference. People who read it three times a week experienced like a little blip on the radar, like a heartbeat on an EKG. But here’s what shocked the researchers: those who brought a hunger and really engaged with the Bible four times a week or more experienced a huge jump.
Life change spikes off the chart! They found that being in God’s Word four times or more per week resulted in significant life change, such as feeling lonely dropping 30%, anger issues dropping 32%, bitterness in relationships dropping 40%, alcoholism dropping 57%, feeling spiritually stagnant dropping 60%, and viewing pornography dropping 61%. On the positive proactive side, sharing their faith jumped 200% because they had so much confidence in who God is. They started serving each other and living beyond themselves, which jumped 230%.
It’s pretty amazing when a teachable spirit and daily practice start to match up!
Trait 2: Vulnerable (Fellowship/Koinonia)
And you know, as the guys were teaching the people—guys like Peter and John—they probably told them about how one time Jesus said, «You know, he got us in a room one time and told us, ‘Listen, I’m the vine, guys, and you’re the branches. Stay connected to me. If you will let my words remain in you, you will never stop learning; you’ll never stop growing, and your life will flourish in ways you never dreamed of.'»
So they taught the people in the early church to keep the main thing the main thing, and they grew like crazy. There’s another characteristic that I see in this group of new followers that kept that fire burning. Not only were they teachable, they were vulnerable. They opened themselves up to real, authentic friendship. They got into community. It says they were devoted. Did you catch it? They were devoted to fellowship.
Now, the word used here for fellowship is the Greek word «koinonia, » which literally just means the shared life. One of the things that captivates me about this first church was their incredible level of devotion to and vulnerability with each other. They shared things—they shared joys and pain, gladness and sorrow, promotion and loss. It really was the shared life.
Somehow, I missed this understanding of fellowship in the church I grew up in. I thought fellowship was having like an all-church potluck dinner where everybody ate gluttonous amounts of food in a room known as the fellowship hall. That’s what I thought fellowship was.
I heard a guy, a pastor friend of mine, telling me about a time when an AA group wanted to meet in the basement of their church building, in a room called the Fellowship Hall. They agreed to allow them to meet there. He said, «I began, once they started meeting there, to pray God would do in the sanctuary upstairs what would just trickle down to the basement.» He started praying that prayer. He said, «Then I went to a meeting, and I started praying, 'Hey God, what they do in the basement, would you let that trickle up to the auditorium? ' Because man, it was so honest; it was so raw and it was so vulnerable—people just sharing their life!»
Because in Acts 2 kind of community, people don’t just sit in rows. They get in circles and face each other and take off their masks and get vulnerable. They say, «You know what? Here’s what’s really going on in my life right now. Here’s what my heart is full of. Here’s what I’m scared about. Here’s something I think God’s asking me to do, but I just don’t have the guts to do it. There’s an image that I’ve been kind of projecting, but I just want you all to know that this is the truth about who I really am.»
That’s the kind of rich relationships every one of us was created for. That’s what our souls yearn for. And you need to know something: this kind of community really is an imperfect place—people on a journey together. We’ve got men’s groups here, we’ve got women’s groups here, we’ve got Bible study groups here, we’ve got recovery groups, we’ve got student groups, kids' groups, moms' groups, young adult groups, senior adult groups, neighborhood groups. Just be vulnerable. Take a risk and get connected and share your life with other people.
In fact, you can text «groups» to 20411. That number again is 20411. I’ve always wanted to say that—operators are standing by! Just start getting connected in real community.
Generosity and Historical Impact
Did you notice in this shared life how generous they were? I mean, that jumped off the page for me—how they opened up their homes, shared their stuff. Meeting people’s needs just flowed out of them.
And here’s why: as they began to learn about Jesus, they would hear about things he said like, «It’s so much better to give than to receive, “ and „Don’t you ever let your treasure steal your heart away from God.“ A spirit of generosity and compassion is so much better than living with a spirit of entitlement. It’s so much better than stockpiling stuff for yourself. So just like Jesus taught and modeled, they began to live an other-centered life.
If you jump over a couple of chapters to chapter 4, you will see that the fire is still spreading. It says this: „All the believers were united in heart and mind, and they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had.“ I mean, this really was the shared life—not in some cultish commune kind of way, just real people who had been touched by the love of Jesus, who simply wanted to live like him.
And guess what? They did. The most common thing said about these early Christians was, „These people love everybody!“ Gang, you cannot find any kind of religious movement or any kind of movement for that matter before the Church of Jesus Christ that actually sought to include every single human being regardless of skin color, nationality, how much money you make, your gender, your age, your health. The down-and-out, the up-and-out were all together in this shared life.
And this was so radical! Not only were the people in ancient Rome and Greece separated by class, but the rich, the educated, the beautiful, the noble were prized and taken care of while the weak, the poor, the sick, the marginalized had no worth whatsoever. Children weren’t valued at all. If they showed signs of weakness or had any kind of disability, they were often abandoned, neglected, or even disposed of. But there was this weird little movement—these followers of a man named Jesus—who remembered that he said things like, „Let the little children come to me, for such is the Kingdom of Heaven, “ and that all children were made in the image of God.
So they actually began to take in these abandoned kids—kids that were not their own. And eventually, orphanages began to spring up, started by, you guessed it, the Jesus followers. Widows were taxed and fined by the Roman Empire. It was considered bad form to outlive your husband; you were seen as an economic drag on the empire. They would tax them, fine them, cheat them, take advantage of them in every single way—except there was this little weird movement of followers of a man named Jesus who saw how he treated everybody.
They remembered how one day he noticed a poor widow give her two small coins in the temple treasury, and he stopped to value her and lift her up above the rest of the people. So they began to value widows and take care of them. They began to clothe them, feed them, and take them in. Again, this was absolutely unheard of. Many people at that time suffered from illness; they were outcasts, shut out of towns, quarantined, left to die. But again, these followers of Jesus began to take in sick people to care for them, treat them, and nurse them because they knew and they had seen how Jesus would take care of the sick and how Jesus would reach out and touch lepers.
As these Jesus followers began to follow his example, the first hospital sprang up in the 4th century. Now, when we speak of organizations like the Red Cross or the Salvation Army, Compassion International, or the fight against sex trafficking—when you visit hospitals with names like St. Jude’s, St. Mark, St. Peter, Central Baptist, Good Samaritan—you’re speaking of the movement of Jesus.
You see, whether you believe in Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior or not, we have all been impacted by these people who lived the shared life. Their love spread like a wildfire.
Trait 3: Dependent
They were teachable. They were vulnerable. And I believe that this very first church thrived because they were dependent—they were dependent. They knew that they needed the Holy Spirit to flow in them and through them.
So, as we sang, they stayed desperate for him. They remembered that Jesus stood up on the side of a hill one time in his very first sermon and said, „Blessed are the poor in spirit.“ Blessed are those who will recognize their spiritual poverty, who live with a sense of brokenness and deep dependence and need for God. They practiced a deep dependence on God.
Jesus was not merely a spoke on the wheel of their life—he was the hub of their life, and everything else in their life revolved around him.
Church Planting Story in Las Vegas
In the early 90s, our family and a team of people were led to plant a church in fabulous Las Vegas—you know, Sin City. We never called it Sin City; we always called it the City of Grace because the Bible says where sin abounds, grace abounds that much more. We wanted people to find the grace of God.
It was amazing—it was amazing what God did! Our church grew very, very quickly. I mean, I can’t even explain it other than the supernatural work of God. At the time we launched the church, there was a movie running that was a sequel to the movie Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Remember that movie? This was called Honey, I Blew Up the Kid. It was a movie about this huge toddler stomping around Las Vegas, you know, stepping on cars and stuff on the Strip.
I can remember watching this movie thinking, „That’s us! That’s our church! That’s what we felt like!“ We felt like this big, uncoordinated baby just walking around Las Vegas. Now, we had passion, we had focus, and we had a deep, deep love for Jesus, but a game plan? Not so much. A clearly defined strategy? Not so much. Really smart leaders who had done this before? Not so much.
What we had were a lot of brand-new people from every conceivable walk of life and very few long-time seasoned followers of Jesus to help. We had a super small staff, a rented YMCA in which to meet once a week, and this old—I wonder if it’s going to start today—U-Haul truck in which to store all of our equipment. One day, a volunteer forgot to close the pull-down door in the back, and all the equipment got strewn all over the roadways of Vegas as he drove along. All of it was gone! I mean, that’s what happened all the time. It was an amazing adventure.
We were pretty clueless, and we were very clumsy, and there were really no church planting organizations back then to come alongside us. There were no how-to manuals, no conferences to attend—just a group of passionate people who had no choice but to depend upon God.
Yeah! And I can remember even telling this story; I can remember standing up on the stage on a Saturday night in the Las Vegas YMCA. We’d set up the racquetball courts for kids' classrooms. You talk about a crazy place to teach kids. It was like ‘sit down, down! ’ It was crazy in there! And we set up some chairs in the gym, hoping that people would show up the next day for our launch.
I remember standing up there, just wow. I see myself standing there right now. I was so overwhelmed, and my wife Debbie walked up next to me, and I said, „I feel so inadequate. I don’t know what I’m doing.“ And she said, „Good!“ I said, „What?“ She said, „If we start depending on our own wisdom and strength now, this will never make it. Feeling inadequate—that’s a good place to be!“
And I’m sure we did a lot of things wrong; we made our share of mistakes and some hasty decisions. But one thing we got right: we prayed a lot. We depended upon the supernatural power of God. It’s really all we had. Turns out it was more than enough. It’s all that they had. They just prayed, and they stayed dependent.
And you know what, gang? Some things never change! It’s still the key to the life of Lake Point Church. It’s the key to your life and mine! And the key to you and me becoming God’s best version of us is to surrender every day to his love and leadership—to talk to him every day, all through the day, to stay humbly dependent upon the Holy Spirit, and keep Jesus as the hub of our lives.
Lord’s Supper and Closing
That’s what they did. They centered their entire life around what Jesus said, what he did, how he acted, how he reacted. It was all about him!
So much so that they remembered him all the time. Did you catch how they not only hung out and ate meals together, but they also remembered the most important meal, the Lord’s Supper? They would pause often to remember what he did for them on the cross. For these people, think about this: it was a crucifixion that many of them watched. A bunch of these people maybe even were in the crowd 50 days prior shouting, „Crucify him! Crucify him!“
And now they knew. They knew that he was the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world—their sins. Now they knew that he died so they could be made right with God. Now they knew that he rose from the dead to assure anyone who believed in him they would never die but have eternal life. The reality of God so loved the world that he gave his only son completely blew them away.
The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus was the most important thing in their lives. It filled them with joy, gratitude, compassion, and awe. And I’m sure that guys like Peter and John told these new followers about how on the night before it all went down, they were all hanging out in a borrowed upstairs room, eating a meal together.
Jesus stood up, took some bread, broke it, and said, „Take, eat; this is my body, which is broken for you. Never forget this.“ Then he took a cup of wine and lifted it up, telling them, „This cup represents my blood, which is poured out for the sins of many.“
I’m sure the guys told the people, „You know what? In that moment, all of us were pretty clueless to what Jesus was talking about that night. But now we know! Now we know, and we never want to forget!“ And I’m sure they told him, „You know, Jesus knew that over time we all have a tendency to forget. The human heart can grow cold and drift. So he knew that we would need a vivid reminder of what he had done for us. So what we’re going to do as an early church is remember him a lot by eating the Lord’s Supper together.“
And so they did. And so do we. And we get to do that together today! Just as physical bread and drink bring nourishment and strength to our body, so our participation in the Lord’s Supper strengthens our spirits, keeps him central, keeps him as the hub of our life, helps us to never forget how deeply loved we are, keeps us teachable, keeps us vulnerable, and dependent upon him. It keeps that fire burning.
If for whatever reason today you don’t want to participate in this, that’s okay. There’s no pressure. But I want you to know if you’re undecided about Jesus, he’s not undecided about you. He’s ready for you to participate anytime you feel led to do that. He’s ready for you to come to him and know real love and real life.
So I’m going to pray, and then we’re going to put a scripture up on the screen for all of us just to reflect upon for a few minutes—to be still and quiet, center our hearts. Then all of our campus pastors will come up and lead us through a time of communion.
So let me pray. Father, I’m just so grateful for these people and thankful that you inspired Luke to write all this down so we could see how your Holy Spirit lit this fire and it spread like crazy. Father, I do pray: do it again! Do it again in us, through us. Help us to stay teachable, vulnerable, and dependent upon you.
And Jesus, right now, in the next few moments, we’re going to take a piece of bread and a cup of juice, and we’re going to reenter our lives, putting you right at the hub and worshiping you, thanking you for what you’ve done for us. And I pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.