The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 8: Why Fast?

Episode Date: June 7, 2020

A city on fire and only be extinguished by Holy Spirit-filled people who pray & do something. ---------- The heart of religion is about impressing people and proving to God that you are worthy. The gospel is about knowing that you are not worthy and having the grace of God pressed upon your heart through the cross of Jesus Christ. For more information and resources on this series, visit coe22.com/bestsermonever. For disciple group curriculum please visit coe22.com/disciplegroups

Amen and amen. You may be seated, no matter where you are. Welcome to the Church of 1122. So glad that you have decided to worship with us. Now, I know that you are super stoked to hear a sermon on fasting, aren't you? Especially in light of all the crazy that is going on in our world, but today's going to be just a little bit different. As you know, on Mondays, I go into the woods, and the first thing I pray is this. God, they're your sheep. They're not my sheep. my sheep, so what do you want to say through me to your sheep? And as we're walking through the sermon on the mount in this series that we've called Best Sermon Ever, we get to this week on fasting. And I just felt like I hit a roadblock, and I was like, what are we going to talk about

fasting this week? And then I feel like the Lord maybe gave me an idea. And so I will talk about fasting, but it'll be next week, tune in to one of the DeVos, and either Monday or Tuesday I'll talk about what fasting is and why we do it and all those kinds of things. But the thing about fasting is this. Fasting very simply is just telling your flesh no to make room to hear Jesus is yes. That fasting is stepping into the pain with Christ to remind us of the part that pain plays in the gospel to glorify him.

And we do fast from things like sugar and food and those kind of things, but we also fast towards and forward things. and so instead of talking about all the nuts and bolts of fasting I thought we would spend our time together today talking about what we're going to fast for and towards because our country needs a breakthrough our country needs the love of Christ at least like no time I've ever seen in my lifetime

and I know I look super young and fun but I am way older than you think okay and so I invited not only one of my friends but a real partner in the gospel ministry, Pastor Cam Triggs, to come and share God's word with us. Pastor Cam planted his church, Grace Alive, almost three years ago. He's a dynamic communicator. He's a godly man. He's a great leader. Their church, again, it's almost three years. And he just led their church through a generosity initiative, and they were able to purchase and move into a brand new to

them building just in time for people to not be able to meet in building. So pray for Grace Alive when it comes to that. he'll lead through. And so one of the things we've been able, the church of 1122 has been able to plant or partner with people to plant 276 churches on our way to 10, on our way to a thousand churches over the next 10 years. And Pastor Cam is one of those church planners that we have partnered with. And so in our partnership, one of the things that happens three times a year, four times a year or something is that I will have a phone conversation with Pastor Cam. and he'll call me up and he asks questions and then I give some answers. Not because I am smarter than him.

In fact, he's working on his doctorate right now. And three minutes into his sermon, you will see how much smarter he is than I am. But I do have a lot more experience in being a church planner than he does. And so he'll have questions and I'll just share from my experience. And so this week in particular, in light of the past few weeks, as I was praying to God, how do I lead, help lead and shepherd our congregation through this? I thought, I know. It's time that those roles are reversed.

And so I picked up the phone and just reached out to Cam and said, and now I have lots of questions. And based on his experience, he has a lot of answers. So Church of 1122, would you humble yourself? Would you lean in? Would you pray that God would give us hearts and attitude? of learning as we as we walk through this season in our nation's history on how the church should respond to all the things that are going on. And so whether you're in your living room

or you're some of the people here right now, would you please stand to your feet and give a good hearty Church of 1122 welcome to my dear friend, Pastor Cam Trigg. All right. Thank you so much. You guys can be seated. I'm so grateful to be here. Thank you to Pastor Jobby for the invitation and the opportunity to serve you the Word of God this particular occasion. First and foremost, I want to say thank you to 1122, you as members. Because of your generosity, you guys are fueling our church plant in Orlando, Florida. May not know this, but number nine on most unchurched regions in America.

And because of your generosity, we're planning a gospel-centered, multi-ethnic church in the heart. of the city. So go ahead and give yourself a round of applause because I'm thankful for your contributions, your prayers, your encouragement. And I'm glad to be in my hometown. I am from Jacksonville, Florida. Amen. Went to Douglas Anderson School of the Arts. And DA students in here? No, we didn't have sports, so we're not loud. But I did see that hand there. That hand is right over there. Listen, I love Jacksonville. It's the capital of Southern Georgia, right? I'm glad to be back in my hometown, and I love being here to be able to break bread with people who are supporting me, praying with me. And I just want to introduce myself.

I have a wife named Tamaric Riggs. She is a next top model status way outside my tax bracket. If you see her with me, I did not kidnap her. She's with me under her own free will. And we have two kids. We have Baby Cam, who is five years old. You're probably saying, why do we call him Baby Cam? We're hoping that he becomes a rapper when he gets older.

And he'll just keep that particular name and cut a Christian album. And then we have a girl named Karras. And Karris is already doing ministry at the age of two, keeping us up at night to pray for the nations. As mentioned, I'm a graduate of some institutions, University of Central Florida. I went to Reform Theological Seminary. Got my degree now. Now I'm at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, working on a doctorate.

And I'm saying all these particular things because from the outside appearance, These are kind of the details or accomplishments or accolades that a lot of people would look at and say, can you be my pastor? And a lot of people would say, man, Pastor Cam, you could be my pastor. But I believe Pastor Joby really invited me here to speak about really what's happening across the nation in terms of a lot of the racial unrest. And one of the things that I have a question for myself oftentimes when I see a hashtag on the news is, could that be me? and actually one time it was almost me in Jacksonville, Florida, my hometown. Turning on to Bay Meadows Road with my girlfriend, now wife, saw a cop car kind of followed right behind us, was wearing a hoodie coming back from a Bible study, and we were pulled over.

Four cars, standing outside, guns out, and told me to get out on my knees, got out the car, cell phone, dropped out of my pocket because of my experiences as a minority. man, if I reach for that cell phone, something bad could happen. Got on my knees and they began to tell us why they pulled us over. It was actually mistaken identity. They thought we were driving the model of car that was carjacked in that area and it didn't turn out to be that. And it kind of just passed on from there, but my heart sank.

And even now to this point, and even after some other occasions when I experienced unjust profiling, I kind of felt like, man, these hashtags, Brianna Taylor, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, could have been me. And now we're seeing that a lot of people in African-American experience, not everyone, but a lot, kind of look at these hashtags and say this could have been me. And now there's a lot of unrest happening in our cities and across America, and literally cities are on fire, like it was when there was race riots, like it was when Martin Luther King was shot,

like it was when Rodney King was brutalized, and then the people who actually beat him were acquitted like it was when Trayvon Martin was killed and Eric Gardner was killed. And the question, I believe 1122, we have to ask ourselves as the body of crisis, what do we do when the city is on fire? In fact, that's the title of this sermon that I want to present to you is, where do we go from here when the city is on fire? I'm glad that we don't have to grasp for answers out of our own opinions. We don't have to turn to any type of textbook, but the Bible. If you have a copy of God's Word, turn with me to Nehemiah chapter 1. In Nehemiah chapter 1, we're going to see a potential leader step up to the plate

when he finds out that the city of God is on fire. Nehemiah is at this time in a city known as Susa. It's the winter residence of King Ardazerxes of Persia. And he's serving during the time when Jews who had returned, to Jerusalem after being in Babylon captivity. These Jewish people were formerly slaves, prisoners of war, were turning back home with nothing to build with. And even though they had some liberties, they didn't possess total freedom or mobility.

In fact, some of them didn't even have resources to live the lives they really wanted to because, listen to me, of many years of Babylonian oppression because of ethnic strife and geographical war, the city of God was literally on fire. And many would ask, where's God? I mean, God, yeah, you say this is your city, you say this is your people, where are you? What are you doing? But the book of Nehemiah is so captivating in the sense that we're looking at a leader that doesn't perform any miracles. He's actually unspectacular. And he steps up to the plates where the book of Nehemiah is not asking, where is God? But he's asking, where are you?

How can you engage a city that is set ablaze? Nehemiah, starting from chapter one, ringing from the English standard version that says this, the words of Nehemiah, the son of Heckelaya. Now, it happened in the month of Chislev in the 20th year. As I was in Susa, the citadel, that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped. who had survived the exile concerning Jerusalem. They said to me, the remnant there in the province who had survived the exiles

in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are destroyed by fire. As soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days. And listen, I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. It's amazing here to see this character, Nehemiah, and this position of power in the house residence of the king.

And he hears this particular news, and now he feels provoked to get engaged. And the main point I want you to understand is that a city on fire can only be extinguished by Holy Spirit-filled people that pray and do something. And Nehemiah is going to do both of those things. They're the same wing on the same aircraft where he says, I'm going to do. to pray, but I also have to do something. While many commentaries kind of look at the prayer of Nehemiah, I want us to have the idea to gaze into his hearts, his posture, and his response to a city that is on fire. 1122, I want to remind you that you are God's agents, that you are God's ambassadors,

that you are God's active ingredients to preserve and change the world. And so the idea of us sitting on the sideline, when the city is burning down, it's not an option. We need to peer into the life of Nehemiah and see how the Holy Spirit ushered him and moved him to engage in the injustices that he hears about. Now the first thing we see from the life of Nehemiah engaging in this reality is their report became his reality. Their report became his reality. We see this in verses 1 through 3. He hears about this report and all of a sudden he has this response of being taken down to fast and to pray. He asked about what's going on there.

Notice Nehemiah wasn't too busy. Nehemiah wasn't too busy keeping up his social media account or his business. Nehemiah was not argumentative. Nia sought to empathize with the tragic news here. He didn't need another report from somebody else. He didn't ask for finer details. He didn't say, man, the walls of Jerusalem were down. But what about the walls of Egypt?

He didn't defend or deflect. Nehemiah says the report has become my reality. How can I engage? Family, this shows us that Nehemiah cares about the report he hears. If I can use my sanctified imagination, they're in the king's residence, enjoying a splendid time. Somebody says, pass the caviar and gray poupon. And why he's enjoying his time in the king's residence, he asked his brother, how are things in the city of God?

And the mood drastically changes then. Because in this power and privilege, all of a sudden, he hears the people of God are in distress and they are reproached. And he sees that this city is on fire and the walls have been broken down. Now, during that time, walls would have been a source of protection and provision. It would have prevented other people invading that country. It would have been a sign of prestige and military power. and the city of God doesn't even have that.

In fact, a couple times, the people of God did try to rebuild the walls, but they were burned down by people that didn't want them to regain their status in that city. And Nehemiah hears it. He sat down. He wept. He mourned. And he put on the spiritual breaks. And he fasted. He said, I have the pause and I have allowed this report to become my reality.

Friends, mark this down. Gospel people are compassionate people. Our first response, as we think of the beautiful music of the gospel and what it is and the proclamation is to hear that music and dance in joyful obedience. And I understand that this idea of being compassion is looking at the hurt of others because it's this gospel reality. As Jesus has been to us, we will be to others. As Jesus saw us in our sin, as Jesus saw us broken. as Jesus saw our shame and our guilt, and he healed us, and he engaged our suffering, redeemed us from our suffering, as he was to us, we will be to others.

And that's what Nehemiah says. Friends, the biggest thing we need to understand is when a city is on fire, it needs compassion and love. Not just systematic theologies. Not just your favorite commentary or blog. Not just your favorite podcasts. See, many times we see a city on fire, and we begin to talk about answers from a mental capacity, but God wants to see where our hearts are engaged in the issue.

G. Campbell Morgan said this. It is possible to be homiletically brilliant, verbally fluent, theological profound, biblically orthodox, and spiritually useless. If you can't say amen, say ouch. And Paul put it this way. I can prophesy, can move mountains, but if I have not love, Love. I'm what? Nothing.

Friends, I believe that as we think about this and kind of think of between two worlds, how do we drag the ancient near east and what's going on in Persia and Babylon and the city of God and bring it into the American context, one of the things we have to begin to ask ourselves is, how do we listen and have compassion? You know, Martin Luther King, Jr. said that riots are language of the unheard. Now, understands, friends, that's a diagnostic. That's not a prescription. How do we understand why there are riots and why things are burning down?

We have to think about the injustice that has come. We have to think about not merely the past, but how the realities of the past exist in the presence. Elaborating on this idea, Martin Luther King says this about injustice. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen. and dealt with like a boil that can never be cured so long it is covered up but must be open with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light and justice must be exposed with all the tension its exposure creates to the light of the human conscience and the air

of national opinion before it can be cured can I tell you many communities of color the walls are broken down and many communities of color the walls are broken down and many communities of of color, it has been burned down. Friends, did you know that the wall of wealth has been burned down in many communities? According to one study, white families hold 90% of national wealth. Why, Latino families hold 2.3% and black families hold 2.6%. Here's what I want you to do. Before you examine the why, lament the what? For you examine the why of these statistics, will we lament the what of these walls being broken down? One of the other walls that has been broken down unemployment. African Americans are two times as likely to be unemployed. And over the past 60 years,

that number has not drastically changed. Also affects education. Another wall that's been broken down. Black students are three times more likely than white students to be suspended for the same infractions. When study declared that nearly 50% of all suspensions are African American, before you examine the why, lament the what. Another wall that's been broken down is criminal justice programs. Blacks make up 13% of the general population, yet 40% of the prison population. Finally, black people are often convicted at a 20% more rate for jail time than their counterparts. Before you, examine the why, lament the what. Another one could be housing. Housing, the walls have been broken down because one statistic says black ownership is now at an all-time

low, 42% compared to 72% for whites. Another wall that could be broken down is surveillance. Black drivers are 30% more likely to be pulled over. Or health care. One study found that 67% of doctors had a bias against African-American patients. Friends, it's not just African-Americans. It's Hispanics. It's Koreans.

It's Asians. It's people that have been oppressed and there are walls broken down around us. Now, friends, that's the hard news. that there's systemic oppression that exists. One analogy I like to use to kind of teach about what systemic oppression is. So imagine you come over the Pastor Cam's house. We're going to jump into a game of Monopoly. It's going down.

I'm fighting you for the Thimble because we all know the Thimble is going to win the game. You get the car and we're about to come up and play Monopoly, set our strategies. You're thinking you're going to buy up boardwalk, get everything set up and running, set the rent at high rates. And I tell you, hey, listen, oh, we're going to roll four. 400 times before you get a chance to go. Friends, that's what slavery has done to our nation. That is disproportionately allowed other people opportunities for housing and positions of power at the same time not allowing other people to get involved in the game.

And then we say after 400 years, you finally get to roll the dice when there's no way you can literally catch up by actually listening and having compassion. and Nehemiah sees the oppression of his own people and his heart overflows to the second point their loss became his lament their loss became his lament you understand Nehemiah is actually doing kind of good

he's a cut bearer of the king he's a taste tester for the king sounds like a pretty good gig for me of course because I'm gravitationally challenged but I would have loved to been the cut bearer for the king get to taste anything that the king is going to eat before he eats it. But as soon as he hears it, he weeps and he prays out to God. And this is the spiritual discipline of lament.

Crying out to God unfiltered. Their loss became his lament. And here's the thing. It wasn't the agenda. It wasn't politics for Nehemiah. See, Nehemiah saw it as a distinctive of his theology. Whatever broke God's heart broke his. Understand, friends, we're not trying to please political platforms.

We're not trying to side with one commentator over the other. The thing that we're trying to do is come back to the Bible and say, what does the Bible say about people who are hurting, and how can we serve them for the glory of God? And he laments. You know, lament is the largest category of the Psalms, where the psalmist literally unfilters his prayers and cries out to God. It's one of the healthiest things.

a church or an individual Christian can do. Sung Chan Ra in his book Prophetic Lament says this. The American Church avoids lament. The power of lament is minimized and the underlying narrative of suffering that requires lament as loss. But absence doesn't make the heart grow fonder. Absence makes the heart forget.

The absence of lament is the liturgy of the American church results in the loss of memory. We forget the necessity of lamenting over suffering and suffering. pain we forget the reality of suffering and pain 1122 can I give you some application here this week don't bottle it up lament to God cry out to him bring your doubts to God allow God to know what your questions are maybe lament in your discipleship group or your accountability lament out in your journal and write down

the things that are perplexing to you and on the other side Maybe you would see somebody laments on social media or in your community group. Listen, do what Nehemiah does. Don't correct them. Don't send an article. Don't send a podcast. Say, I weak with you. I grieve with you.

I'm praying with you. I am here to love you through this. No, one of the things we're teaching baby cam is, as he's reading and preparing for kindergarten, is the cipher between stories that are real and make-believe. And one of the things that's challenges for him is when he reads stories out in the Bible. Because they're so amazing. that they're hard to believe. You know, lament gives us the actual inverse practice here.

Lament allows us to dive into things that seem so bad, so unreal, I think 2020 is a bad dream at this point. But lament allows us to jump into those things and see that we don't live in magic kingdom, but Christ's kingdom. And that this world has fallen and that there are sinners and that there are suffering. and we can lament and God can take anything, but the gospel says he comes, he redeems, he rescues, and it's almost too good to believe.

Tim Keller says this about suffering. Christianity teaches that contra fatalism, suffering is overwhelming. Contra Buddhism, suffering is real. Contra karma, suffering is often unfair, but contra secularism, suffering is meaningful. There's a purpose to it, and if faced rightly, it can drive us like a nail deep into the love of God and into more stability and spiritual power

than you can imagine. Friends, if you're going through a season of lament because of injustice, this pandemic, crisis, loss of finances, divorce, you don't know how to homeschool your kids. Your house is under the new terrorist regime of your children. You can lament to God. There's hope and there's love in him.

A third point that we see from Nehemiah's, their complicity became his confession. Their complicity became his confession. As soon as Neumai begins to pray about this particular thing, he sees the sins in himself and in his people. And he confesses those to God. Instead of defending or deflecting or hiding under this veneer of religion, Nehemiah brings it to the throne of grace. Verse 5, he said, and I said, O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant and steadfast love with those who love him,

keep his commandments. Let your ear be attentive and your eyes be open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel, your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I in my father's house have sinned. The first thing we see that Nehemi, even in the face of this trial and this tribulation, he worships God. He still remembers who God is.

The circumstances and the city of fire still doesn't shake his foundation to know that there are no emergency meetings in heaven. There's not a panic room at the throne of grace, that God is still in control and his reign is unshakable, but he sees the holiness of God and immediately confesses where he falls short and where his people fall short. Friends, another spiritual discipline so beautiful here is confession. Sometimes we avoid confessing our sins to one another, and even confessing our sins to God. Sometimes maybe our upbringing or what we experience in our life whenever somebody found out the dirt on us has allowed us to filter our lifestyles or kind of sweep things under

the rug or kind of put everything in this spiritual junk drawer and we hide the brokenness of what we really all face, and we think, man, if I confess to someone else, they will have the stones to throw out in me. If I confess to God, he'll whip me or be the Joe Jackson of the sky and whip me into place. But, man, that's not what the Bible says. The first John 1, 1, verse 9 says, if we confess our sins, he'll discipline you in the shape. He'll punish you. Send you to wrath and destruction.

Friends, that's not in my Bible. 1. John 1, verse 9 says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The beauty of the gospel is that you can be fully known and fully loved. That you can stop pretending, that you can actually own the things that break us down and engage in a city on fire to see how might I be contributing and how can we take our sins to God and be washed in his blood. But how does Nehemiah do that in the Old Testament?

Verse 5. Oh, God of heaven, the great and awesome God? Why is he great and awesome? Because he keeps his covenant and he has steadfast love. So he was moved to action. You know, one of the forgotten stories a lot of times in American history that advanced the civil rights movement is the story of Emmett Teal. Emmett Teal was a 14-year-old African-American boy that was visiting his family in Mississippi,

even though he lived in Chicago. and was rumored that he whistled at a white woman in a store, suggesting that he was being sexually pervasive. Begin the rumor in that town, and two men would go and take Emmett Till from his home, beat him, brutalize him with barbed wire, throw his body in the river. They would be acquitted for their crimes, even though a lot of people knew that's what happened,

and after they were acquitted, they would actually confess that's what they did. The woman who said that she was whistled at would later say in a different novel that she actually lied about it. The most disgusting part of this narrative was a condition of Emmett Till's body after their brutality. So much so that they kind of urged his mom to have a clothes casket funeral, but she said she wanted it open so that people could see what they did to my boy, and the image would become viral during that day and age. Friends, we have to expose those injustices. We have to expose our sins,

and it's only when we bring those things until the open air that God's grace can invade. You know, one of the applications of this is that many of us may avoid the sin of pride or racism or bigotry or supremacy or privilege. And we know that we've kind of progressed from overt racism of lynching or the KKK and racial slurs or segregation or hate crimes,

but we defend and deflect covert racism, like maybe racial profiling or victim blaming or a silence on justice or inappropriate and immature jokes. Do you know the beauty of the gospel says? You can own it. The beauty of the gospel says, I could take whatever places I've fallen short for the glory of God.

I can hold it to my chest and I can surrender it back to Jesus. and he will wash me clean of that sin. The gospel says, I'm fully known and I'm fully loved, and so I can rest in the idea. It's not about me being right, but me resting in Christ. This leads me to the fourth and last point here is their concerns became his calling. The concerns are the people who were understanding that they were being oppressed

and in the city of fire, Nehemiah feels called to engage. And Nehemiahs shows us what authentic prayer looks like, that it's both prayer and work. And Nehemiah was moving past merely just panel discussions. Don't say that they don't serve their place. Nehemiah's moving past just prayer rallies, not saying they don't move their place. But Nehemiah says, let's get a game plan together, gather resources, and do something. How do I know that? It's verse 11.

In verse 11, he says, O Lord, let your air be attentive to the prayer of your servant. To the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name and give success to your servant today and grant him mercy and the sight of this man. Now, I was a cupbearer to the king. I want you to understand here, this is a gospel risk for Nehemiah. He's going to king art exorcists. He's a cupbearer, and he's going to a request towards the king and ask him for something. The king could have him decapitated or murdered, but he's so inflamed to be moved. into a position, he says, I'm going to pray and I'm going to get into the presence of this man

and ask him, why? Because I know a greater king. Friends, let me understand this particular perspective that we cannot be pessimistic because God is still on the throne and that Nehemiah addresses him as this man because he knew who the real king of kings was. And guess what? God supplies. If you read it on in Neumai chapter 2, he receives the king's permission.

He receives the king's protection. He receives the king's provision. Why? Because God is moving and active when we follow the wind of his movements. Proverbs 31, verse 8 through 9 says, speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. For the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly. Defend the rights of the poor and needy.

Proverbs 9, verse 17, says, He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he is. has done. Friends, can I just encourage you that while the city is on fire, that we would do something? Talk about this idea of racial reconciliation. I got a couple of practical suggestions. I want you to write them down. The first one is this. Own your research. Know the history of the racial strife in America. Dive into books and read them and know them. Expose yourself to African-American authors. One of the things that Pastor Jobi has done is allow guys like Eric Mason and Leon's Crump and myself come and speak to you. Go and buy those guys' books. I don't have any

books, but research and see how you can apply the gospel to race. Second thing, this one's hard. Count the cost. Tell Pastor Job being leaders of this church, then when we engage in issues of injustice anywhere in this world, it will not be easy. It will allow the comfort and the idols of a heart flow to the top. You have to count the cost and bury your cross and move into these issues. The other things I would say is leverage your influence and privilege for the disadvantaged. That everybody here, even myself as a minority, has privilege and influence. One of the things I'm exposed to living with my wife, there are certain privileges I have as a male.

and advantages I have as a man that I have the leverage for the advantage of my wife. Maybe a police officer. One thing that we are understanding, man, it's not just about bad cops, but this is a call, especially for good Christian cops to be the example of what it looks like, to be salt and light in this road,

and you have influence, and you can speak prophetically, and you could be a man of courage, and you could be a man of valor, and you can stand up and be a man of love, an extinguisher to a city that's on fire. Another thing you can do is support the leadership of minorities. What pastors or leaders in your church or on your favorite networks that you follow that are minorities speaking out about these things, how can you engage them, encourage them?

Another thing that we can do is actually engage in the suffering. How can you serve in Jacksonville? Places that are disadvantaged to leverage, listen family. You've been talking about this, what you're one initiative, time, talent, and treasure towards the good of others. Another thing that you can definitely do here at 1122, as God has been blessing you to reach the next generation, it's teach the next generation. You know what's powerful? It's at an early age to sit down with your kids and have an honest and frank discussion about the history of America, about what's going to be. gone and tell them how God has created us all in his image and he desires equity and there's

going to be a time where we'll all worship together every tribe, tongue, and nation and we will worship together and that you want them to speak out against any racism or injustice that they see in their school that you want them to be salt and light. Last but not least, live in step with the gospel. The gospel music gives us dance steps in this world. that it tells us to be Nehemias in this day and in this age. You know, in 1971, they were trying to desegregate the schools, and they appointed this board and this chairperson

to lead the desegregation of the schools during that time named Ann Atwater. Some of the people in Durham, North Carolina didn't like that, so they appointed a co-chair that was the grand exalted Cyclops of the KKK named Charles P. Ellis. needless to say Ebony and Ivory didn't get along too well In fact on one occasion Charles P. Ellis brought his gun to a meeting and in retaliation and Atwater would bring a knife

which I guess you didn't get the memo don't bring a knife to a gunfight but these two would come to a place of solidarity on one night where the suggestion was made to bring a black gospel group that would come in and sing to the community to kind of ease tension and at water saw Charles P. Ellis, Grant exalted cyclops, clapping on the wrong beats.

She reached over and helped Charles P. Ellis learn how to clap. Pastor Joby, we're going to work on that one. It was in that meeting that Charles P. Ellis began to hear about the disenfranchisement of African Americans in that region. And he began to make the connection that the reason he joined the KKK was to help poor whites that were disenfranchised. On the last night of that rally, in front of more than a thousand people, Charles Pellis would reach into his back pocket,

pull out his KKK card, and says, I renounce everything this represents to help people everywhere from every color, and he would receive death threats for the rest of his life. But him and Atwater will spend their lifetime fighting for justice. Charles P. Ellis would die, and Ann Atwater would come to the funeral, but instead of sitting with other friends and family,

she would enter in his funeral as a family member. Friends, can I tell you that's what the good news of the gospel does with us? The gospel turns enemies into friends. The gospel allows us to understand that blood is thickened in water unless it's baptism, to understand that our family tree is the cross of Jesus Christ, and he has made one new person, and we have one new person. and we have one bloodline, Jesus Christ, and enemies have become allies. So we gather and we serve and we extinguish the city that is on fire.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ that has taken Jew and Gentile, male and female, and made us level-footed at the cross of Jesus Christ. And now, God, would you prepare our hearts to gather around the table and the feast that makes us family? As we come to the Lord's Supper. Would we meditate on what it means for us to be one in Jesus Christ? Would we meditate on what it means to hear the reports of others and make it our reality? Would we meditate on what it means to see others lost and lamented in our lives?

Would we meditate on what it means to take the confession of others and see how? how we can be engaged for their good because we are all washed and the same blood. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Stay right here, Wooden. So, first of all, Church of 1122, expect to hear more from Pastor Cam in the months and years to come as we partner together in extinguishing the fires here in Orlando and all over this place for the glory of God. Amen?

Amen, church? So what do we do? Pastor Cam gave us some very, very specific action steps, and we as a church are going to start right where Nehemiah started. When he got the news, he prayed and he fasted. And as I was studying on fasting this week, I found myself in Matthew chapter 17. Jesus and three of his disciples come off of the mountain of transfiguration, and they walk off of this high holy moment. and they walk into the valley of the shadow of death, at least for this one dad who had a demon-possessed boy.

In Mark chapter 9, Mark records it as the dad comes to the boy. I mean, the dad comes to Jesus and says, I brought my son to the disciples and they couldn't heal him. And Jesus says, bring the boy to me. And he says, can you heal him? And Jesus says, nothing is impossible for one who believes. And the dad cries out. believe, help me overcome my unbelief.

Jesus cast out the demon. Later, the disciples and Matthew were asking Jesus, how come we couldn't cast out this demon? You see, apparently in this man's greatest time of need for his boy, like you said,

the religious Jesus followers are arguing theology. They're fighting over which hashtag they ought to use in this particular situation. And Jesus' answer is this, Matthew 17, 20, this kind can only be cast out by prayer and fasting. Here's what hit me this week.

There's a certain kind of demon that only gets out of there with prayer and fasting. When I see what happened to George Floyd, when I see what's happening in our streets, it must be this demonic thing in our country that started a long, time ago. And there's been a lot of talk and there's been, there's been a lot going on, but there is a type of demonic oppression that only gets out by prayer and fasting. So Church of 1122, I'm calling us to pray and fast this Monday, this Monday. If you're medically able from sun up to sundown, say no to all food so we can say yes to Jesus. And we are going to pray and fast that God does what only he can do and change and transforms hearts.

And I want to push us to not only fast from something, but fast towards something too. I want us to do social media differently this Monday. Oftentimes people in my position will say, I just don't know what words to use. So how about this Monday? Let's just flood all of our social media accounts, not with our words and our opinions, but with the Word of God. All the time that you would spend eating and thinking about eating, I want you to spend in the Word of God and ask God to, to lead you to his words that are more powerful to do than what my words can do.

And then anybody that sees the Church of 1122 social media accounts on Monday would just see the Word of God plastered all over the place. And you ask God to lead you to verses the point to Jesus and to justice and to hope and to compassion and to mercy. And let's just blanket this burning city with the Word of God. So I'm calling us to pray. and to fast as the first step to fuel the rest of the action that God leads us to. And so I find it appropriate that a long time ago,

we planned to celebrate Holy Communion together. And so Pastor Cam and I will lead it together. And so in your homes, if you would get the elements, I don't know how you grew up, so I know that some of you grew up in denominations that make you nervous to have communion in your home, but let me, it's okay, all right, get you raising bread and whatever you need, all right? You see, at the Lord's table, first of all, it's the Lord's table, it ain't my table.

So if you know him as Lord, you're invited to the table. And even the word communion, it talks about unity. There was a common union amongst the men that were at the table there. I mean, they were all Jewish for sure, but they were very, very diverse. There's a tax collector and a zealot. The zealot wanted to take up arms to kick Romans out, and the tax collector collected funds to support the oppressive society, and they're sitting at the table together.

There's the best friend of Jesus, according to John, sitting there maybe with his head leaning on his shoulder, and at the other side of the table is a traitor that's going to betray him that night, And yet Jesus invited them all to the table. You see, at the Lord's table, everyone's invited, no matter who you are, what you've done, what you look like, where you're from. We're all invited, but we all get there through the same door. And that's the blood of Jesus Christ. And at the table, Jesus took the bread.

And they were remembering Passover. where an oppressive society ravaged God's people. And God set them free. And as they were celebrating that, Jesus took the bread and says, this is my body. Little did they know that the next day that Jesus would become sin, that we could become the righteousness. of God.

And he broke that body to show them that on the cross that he would be broken for us. That sin was such a big deal that Jesus Christ had to die, to take away our bigotry,

to take away our pride, to take away our racism, to take away our sin. And then he says, and as all As often as you eat of this, you do so in remembrance of me.

And that doesn't just mean remember that Jesus died. But it means you reach back into history, that moment on the cross where he said it is finished, and you pull it up into this very present moment. And you allow Jesus to gospel you one more time that it is through the broken body of Jesus that the power of sin is broken in our life. And he said as often as you eat of it, do so. so in remembrance of me. If we drag in Nehemiah to the New Testament,

the temple that would be rebuilt, would have a drainage system to handle the blood of the sacrifice and would be flowing underneath the Kidron Valley, which Jesus would travel to go to the Garden of Gassimity, to pray, to the Father. Can this cup pass? What's in the cup?

was the wrath and the hell and the punishment we all deserve but instead Jesus drinks from that cup so that we may drink from this one and he would become the greater reality of that blood that would be flowing from the temple behold the Lamb of God

that takes away the sins of the world whatever it is and any sin that divides us must be washed away in his blood because Jesus would say in John 17, how will they know that we are disciples by how we love one another? So on the night that Jesus was betrayed, 1122, Jesus took the cup and said, in this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which gives you the forgiveness of sins. 1122, let's take and drink. Father, we come to you. Grateful, for the blood of your son that was shed so we might be reconciled to you first and foremost.

Father, would you kill self-righteousness within ourselves? That we would look in the mirror and see that we are not deserving to sit at your table. We were rebels. We were sinners deserving of alienation. But you love the world so much that you see. your only son, that we might be saved and reconciled back to you. Father, that you would bankrupt heaven so we would have eternal riches in your presence. And, Father, we understand that that's not merely vertical reconciliation.

There's another crossbeam for us to consider that your son, Jesus, died for. And that was the horizontal reconciliation and humanity. that you called us to be reconciled because it exemplifies the scandalous love you had for us. And while the city is on fire, may we be reminded that it's only the blood of Jesus that could extinguish sin. It's only the blood of Jesus that could extinguish the power of death. It's only the blood of Jesus that could extinguish the plans of the enemy. what can wash away our sins, what can make us whole again, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Father, we don't stop there because your son was killed, but he's alive.

We gather around this table not merely as a repass or a funeral service. This is a celebration to say he was put in a burrow tomb, and the reason it was borrowed is because he would give it back. He's risen from the dead. He has all power in his hands. And he says for us to go, preach the gospel, make disciples, because he is soon to come again. Father, as we look at the birth pains of this world, our nation, our homes, would we be reminded we need to be a going church for a coming Christ?

so we would be sent with the gospel from our lips to the ears of a hurting world so that we could see your grace and invade darkness. In Christ's name we pray. Would you please stand as we respond? At the end of every service, every single service, listen, we respond to the gospel because the gospel demands a response. And so we respond by praying. Let us pray for the healing of our nation,

the healing of hearts, for the leaders in our city and our country, pray that the church of Christ would be salt and would be light in these days so that people would see and glorify the Father. And we bring, we worship God with our resources as a declaration that we trust him above all things because he first loved us by sending us his first and his best. And so with a cheerful heart, we bring back to him a portion of that. And we sing. We join our voices together. And we make much of the one that send his son on a rescue mission for us.

So Church of 1122, let us respond. Let us sing. Let us bring. Let us pray. Hey, everybody.