Hallelujah! Do me a favor, uh, if you would, church, when you see them, uh, make it a point to congratulate them. Make it a point to encourage them.
Uh, when you get baptized, this idea of making a public declaration of this thing that you have done, the enemy doesn't just sit back and be like, "All right, since you got baptized, I'm gonna leave you alone now." Like, "Ah, I lost." No, no, no, no, no! At that point, the attack begins even more.
Uh, and so I would ask you to encourage them when you see them. When you think about service this week, pray for them. Just say a quick prayer: "God, I pray for those who got baptized this week that you would continue to reveal yourself to them and to strengthen them." Amen.
Well, if this is your very first time here, um, I would like to welcome you to Limitless Church. My name is Pastor Keenan. I, along with my beautiful wife, Miss Sonia, we are the pastors here at Limitless Church. And let me tell you something, we're so, so excited that you're here.
Um, we don't believe that it's an accident that you're here. We don't believe that you just woke up this morning and said, "You know what? I'm going to Limitless." No, we believe that God has been having conversations set up for you, that He's been having family members talk, that He's been clearing your schedule so that you could be here this morning. There is a specific plan and purpose for you being here, and at Limitless, we're just excited to be a part of that.
Limitless, can we make some noise for our visitors this morning? Thank you, guys! Welcome! It's good to see you. Bless you.
Um, you'll see on a seat pocket in front of you that there is a QR code. Open your phone, pop open your camera, point it to that code. A little drop-down will pop up, and it'll give you, uh, this thing that says "Visitors." If you could fill that out for us, I would greatly appreciate it.
Um, it allows us an opportunity to just call you and pray with you this week. Also, if you meet me back at the Team Limitless table, we have a gift that we'd like to put in your hand. We know what it's like to be at a place for the very first time, and so we just want to give you a gift as a way of saying thank you. Trust me, you will enjoy the gift.
All right, are we ready to dive into this word this morning? All right.
Um, Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you for what you've already done in this service today. We ask that you would continue to move. God, would you open our ears to hear what you're saying? Not just those things that are coming across the pulpit, but what are you saying individually to each and every one of us? God, we ask that you would open our hearts so that we would be able to receive what you're saying. God, it is our prayer that our hearts would be fertile ground and that the seed that is planted today would produce a great harvest. We love you. We thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.
All right, so we've been in this series called "Welcome to Church." Um, we've been in here for two weeks, and we've been talking about this idea of representing church. Now, before we jump into week two of this series, I want to take some time and recap what we discussed last week.
We talked about, uh, the purpose for this series, and we had some takeaways. First, why are we doing a series called "Welcome to Church"? It is because we realize as a body we need to be regularly evaluating what is and what isn't church, what church is about and what church isn't about.
We said that as believers, we need to be committed to the same things that the first body of believers were committed to. So we've been looking at the church in Acts, and we've been looking at those things, and we are saying, "Okay, here is where it started. Now we need to evaluate where we are and how we are lining up with that."
Why? Because somewhere down the line, things begin to creep into church. Things begin to creep into church culture that were not what God intended, and they were not things that the early believers thought that mattered or were necessary. Something changed, and it wasn't the word. Something changed, and it wasn't the word.
We said that we have to be careful that we aren't making church about us, by us, and for us. We have to be careful, and we continue to ask this question since the first week of January: Where is your commitment?
Over the next several weeks, we're going to look at the things that the church did that allowed them to see the miracles and the multiplication that we read about last week. If you were not here, I encourage you, please, I beseech you, I beg you, all of the things, please go on YouTube, wherever you get podcasts, Facebook, go listen to last week's message.
Last week, we talked about being committed to the word of God and being committed to community. This idea of having community with one another, that we need one another, that we serve a God of community that desires us to be in community. We talked about how isolation is death, that we were never intended to be isolated.
All right, and so this week, I want to talk about being committed to prayer and to communion. Being committed to prayer and to communion.
All right, Acts chapter 2. I want to start in verse 40. You'll see it up on the screens here.
Uh, and Peter solemnly and earnestly witnessed, testified, admonished, exhorted with much continuous speaking, and warned. He reproved, he advised, he encouraged them, saying, "Be saved from this crooked generation, this perverse, this wicked, this unjust generation."
Therefore, those who accepted him and welcomed his message were baptized, and they were added that day about 3,000 souls.
Here we go! This is our whole series right here: "And they steadfastly persevered, devoting themselves constantly to the instruction and fellowship of the apostles, to the breaking of the bread, the Lord's supper, and prayers."
This is what we're talking about this week: communication with God and remembering the sacrifice of Jesus.
Okay, to me, these were arguably two of the most important things that the early church did. They understood that prayer was the very lifeline of who they were and what they did. Nothing happened without prayer. Nothing happened.
They understood that communion, as often as possible, was necessary to maintain the focus on the why behind the what of what they were doing. Communion was necessary to maintain the focus on the why behind what they were doing.
All right, so let's start with being committed to prayer.
So all throughout the Bible, uh, we see Jesus living a lifestyle that was committed to prayer. You'll see in the scriptures when things happened, you'll see this often said: "And he went away to be with the Father," and "He went away to pray," and "He went away to speak to the Father."
In good times, he prayed. He fed the 5,000, and everybody's feasting, everybody's eating, and he steals away to go pray. In hard times, in the Garden of Gethsemane, we see him praying to the Father several times, praying to God in good times and bad times, in the morning, in the evening, throughout the day.
We see that Jesus's life was committed to prayer. He was committed to it, and so the early church saw this. They saw this, and they said, "You know what? We need to be committed to this as well."
Acts chapter 6, starting in verse 1, it says, "Now, uh, in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution."
And the twelve summoned the full number of disciples and said, "It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good rapport, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word."
There's a lot going on, church. Politics, stuff happening as per usual. People going to church, some got fed, some didn't. And the disciples, as they're out in these different areas preaching the word of God, laying hands on the sick, doing what they're called to do, they get somebody tap on the shoulder saying, "Hey, we got a problem. Um, some people ain't getting fed."
So, uh, I know you know, doing your Jesus thing, can you come and, uh, take care of this? And so they all had to come from where they were, come together, gather the full number of disciples, and handle this.
And they said, "Look, we're out preaching the word of God. We're distributing the message that God has given us. Look, you guys handle this, but as for us, we are going to commit and devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word."
Let's move over a couple of books in Acts chapter 12. Acts chapter 12, and let's start in verse 1.
It says, "Now at that time, Herod Agrippa I, the king of the Jews, arrested some who belonged to the church intending to harm them. And he had James, the brother of John, put to death with a sword. And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to have Peter arrested as well."
This was during the days of unleavened bread, during the Passover week. Verse 4 says, "When he had seized Peter, he put him in prison, turning him over to four squads of soldiers, four to each guard in rotation throughout the night, planning after the Passover to bring him out before the people for execution."
Verse 5: "So Peter was kept in prison, but fervent and persistent prayer for him was being made to God by the church."
Fervent and persistent prayer for him was being made to God by the church. For those of you who may be new to the faith or maybe you haven't read this story, let me tell you a little secret: he doesn't stay there too much longer, okay? He doesn't stay there too much longer, and he didn't get executed. Why? Because fervent and persistent prayer was made to him by the church.
It didn't matter what situation the church faced—if it was leadership problems or if it was life or death problems—they knew that the answer was to pray. It was an automatic thing for them. The answer for everything before we do anything is to pray.
Later, we see Paul and James speaking to some of the early churches, and they're admonishing them. So we see Jesus, the disciples, and now they're admonishing them to do the same: steadfastly persevere and devote yourselves to prayer.
Colossians chapter 4, verse 2 says, "Be persistent and devoted to prayer, being alert and focused in your prayer life with an attitude of thanksgiving."
Be persistent and devoted to prayer, being alert and focused where? In your prayer life with an attitude of thanksgiving.
James chapter 5, he says, "Is any among you sick?" Verse 14 says, "He must call for the elders, the spiritual leaders of the church, and what are they going to do? Are they gonna complain about it? Are they gonna go post it on social media? Are they just going to ask what to do? No, it says, 'And they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will restore the one who was sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he's committed sins, he will be forgiven.'"
Therefore, confess your sins to one another, your false steps, your offenses, and then what should we do? Should we tell one another about those false steps? Should we judge one another about those false steps? Should we look at one another differently because they confess those false steps? No, it says, "And pray for one another that you may be healed and restored."
Why? Because the heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous man or a believer is able to accomplish much.
Now, before we get on, I know some of you be like, "Pastor, I'm not righteous. I don't feel like I'm righteous." Let me clear this up. The Bible says that when you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal Savior, that you were clothed in righteousness. So that is a done deal. Righteousness is not based on your actions; righteousness is based on what Jesus has already done. That is how you got into right standing.
So therefore, when you accepted him, you became righteous. Now, you may be working on it still, but you became righteous. So he says the prayer of a righteous man, a righteous woman, a believer—that prayer is able to accomplish much when it's put into action and made effective by God.
It says it is dynamic and it can have tremendous power. I love that he says "heartfelt and consistent." Heartfelt and consistent.
Let me tell you something. Some of y'all come to me, "Pastor, I pray for you." If your prayer wasn't heartfelt, don't pray for me. Don't do it! How dare you! Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't need it because it's not going to do anything. You're wasting your time.
He said the heartfelt and consistent prayer. Why? It's because he's reminding us that as followers of Jesus, prayer was never meant to—and it cannot be—something that we just do out of ritual, something that we do out of habit, something that we just go to at the moment that life is falling apart. That is never what prayer was meant to be.
Prayer is not just a life jacket for the believer; it is the bloodstream that contains and nourishes our life. No relationship can be expected to grow without communication. No relationship! I don't care how long you've been married—10 years, 20 years, 30 years. You could be engaged or you could be married two days. No relationship can be expected to grow without constant communication.
The same goes for your relationship with Jesus. It cannot be expected to grow if there has not been constant communication. You're looking to grow your relationship? Then you need to grow your communication. You need to grow your communication.
Prayer is not just a bunch of words that you remember to say in order. Prayer is a conversation with the Father. Prayer is the opportunity for you to get wisdom. It's the opportunity for you to get direction. It's the opportunity for you to get insight directly from the source.
See, I can ask you for wisdom. I can ask you for insight. You may have letters behind your name, and I may ask you, "Hey, what do you think?" You may have a couple numbers in your bank account, and I may ask you, "What do you think?" But the Bible says we know in part, we prophesy in part, we speak in part. But something happens differently when I go directly to the source.
When I go to the source, and prayer is an opportunity for you to get that done directly from the source. Prayer is an opportunity for you to lay it all at His feet. Some of y'all are so heavy! My goodness! We have some days, some weeks, some months, some seasons—we are so heavy.
This is the opportunity for you to lay it at His feet. The Bible says, "Cast your cares on Him because He cares for you." It's an opportunity for you to cast that thing, that weight you're carrying, that concern, that thing that's just weighing you down day in and day out.
And I would say maybe the reason that you're carrying it, maybe the reason that it's so heavy and that it's weighing you down is because you haven't taken the opportunity to pray to the Father and cast it off.
I fish a little bit less than 10 times, but when you get out there and you get a bad cast and it just drops right in front of the boat, you're like, "Ah, I can't do nothing with that." But when you cast it and you throw that thing and you hear, "Yeah!" That's what we are supposed to do with these things that are holding us down.
We're supposed to lay them at the feet of Jesus, and we have the opportunity to do that when we pray. We have the opportunity to do that when we pray.
Prayer is an opportunity for you to be reminded of God's faithfulness over and over and over again. We must be heartfelt, we must be consistent, we must be committed to a life of prayer.
Philippians chapter 4, verse 6 through 7, let's put this up. It says, "Do not be anxious or worried about anything." We can just stop right there. We can just hang it up right there.
"Do not be anxious or worried about anything, but in everything, in every circumstance, in every situation, how? By prayer and petition with thanksgiving."
Here's the other thing: continue. Continue! Not once, not one and done. Continue to make your specific requests known to God. Make your specific requests known to God. Continue to do it. Let Him know what it is.
You say, "Pastor, I don't know how to pray." It is a conversation with God. Yeah, it is a conversation, but we must be people who are committed to prayer.
It's a prayer disciple asking Jesus, "How should we pray?" He says, "Start with Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread."
This day, our daily bread. "And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not, not direct us, don't allow us to go in the way of temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen."
You can start there! That's good enough! You can start right there. That is good enough to hold you, I promise you.
But as you grow in your relationship, it will begin to be a conversation that you're having: "God, thank you for waking me up. God, thank you for protecting me."
Before I ask for anything, God, I want to enter your courts with thanksgiving, so I want to say thank you for keeping me. Thank you for healing me. Thank you for allowing me to have the very breath that I am breathing right now.
We have to be committed to prayer. It's got to be everything that we do.
"God, before I go off on this person, I just want to take some time to just thank you, Jesus. God, you've been so good to me. Lord, you kept me. God, you gave me this job, Jesus, and I don't want to lose it. God, so I need you right."
"God, you gave me these kids. Ooh, we don't want to pray about that! What is it that you would have me to do? How do I move with this resource that you've given me? Because I trust you, so whatever you say, I'm going to do."
He says in everything we should be committed to a life of prayer.
Secondly, we should be committed to a life of communion.
Uh, it is human nature that over time we will forget things. We will forget things. No matter how big the circumstance is, no matter how awesome it is, over time there are details that we will begin to forget.
There will be whole moments that we will forget. Somebody will be telling you something, and you be like, "What? I do not even remember that happening at all!" Since, co, my brain done gone. I don't know what I can't—we forget things, right?
As time progresses, as life progresses, we forget things. But when we, as a church, begin to forget our why, we can easily get off course, and it can be dangerous. It can be dangerous.
I love cruise ships. I love going on cruises. My wife knows that if she asks me what I want, I'm probably going to say a cruise.
Uh, I like the idea of paying one time to eat whenever I want to, to go to these many different destinations, and I never have to move. I like that! I like that! It's wonderful to me.
And so when I go on these cruises, they all, you know, um, I've been enough times that they begin to tell you these details and these things, and I know what's going on. So I'm like talking to the servers, being weird and asking them different things.
And the thing that I learned about, uh, when you're on a ship, uh, it is very important for you to stay on course. Because if you're not careful, even one degree off course could change your entire destination.
Even one degree off course can change your entire destination. It can lead you in the totally wrong direction.
The Passover feast was to remind God's people. It was meant to remind the Jewish people of the time that the Lord delivered the children of Israel, the time that the angel of death spared their homes that were marked with blood on the doorpost.
The feast was implemented so that they could remember, and communion is integral to the life of the believer for the exact same reason. It is meant to remind. It is meant to remind us of our why.
It is important as believers, as Christians who profess the name of Jesus Christ, that we have a high view of communion. We must have a high view of communion.
It's a reminder. It's a reminder of God's incredible love for us, this unwavering love that compelled Him, despite our sin, despite our flaws, despite our life that practically ran away from Him.
This love compelled Him to send His Son to Earth, His Son who embodied a perfect life that we could never live, that we could never attain, to pay the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf, to endure persecution, to endure ridicule, and to endure death—all so that we might be redeemed.
And each time we partake in communion, each time we partake in the holy act of communion, we are not just being reminded of this truth within ourselves, but the Bible says we are proclaiming to the church and to the whole body of believers the profound why of our faith, the profound why of our very existence.
1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 23, and I'm going to go to verse 26: "For I receive from the Lord Himself the instruction which I passed on to you. For the Lord Jesus, on the night in which he was betrayed, took the bread, and He had given thanks, and He had broken it and said, 'This is and represents my body, which is offered as a sacrifice to you. Do this in affectionate remembrance of me.'"
Verse 25 says, "In the same way, after supper, He took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the New Covenant. It has been ratified and established in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it. Do so in affectionate remembrance of me. For every time, for every time, for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are symbolically proclaiming the fact of the Lord's death until He comes again.'"
Paul was telling the church what the Lord instructed him, and it was for them to be committed to the breaking of bread, for them to be committed to holy communion, and get this—to be committed to the weight that communion carried.
There was a weight that is associated with communion. Now, why would Paul need to tell one of the very first churches to be reminded of this? Why would he need to tell them to be reminded of the weight of communion?
It was because somewhere in the church, somewhere the Church of Corinth got off course. They became committed to the act of communion but not the heart of communion.
And whether it's prayer, whether it's communion, these are matters of the heart, not just the act. These are heart matters.
I'm going to continue to read in verse 27. He says, "So then whoever eats of the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in a way that is unworthy of Him will be guilty of profaning and sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord."
Verse 28 says, "But a person must prayerfully examine himself and his relationship to Christ, and only when he has done so should he eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without solemn reverence and heartfelt gratitude for the sacrifice of Christ eats and drinks judgment on himself if he does not recognize the body of Christ."
He says that careless and unworthy participation is the reason why many of you are weak and sick, and a number of you are sleep in death.
You say, "Y'all thought it was a game?" He said, "Y'all thought this was just something you could do and then it's good?" No, no, no, no, no! Not at all! There is weight to this, right? This means something!
This ain't breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This means something! Yeah! See, the church in Corinth at that time, they would come together, and they would just have these lavish meals. They would have these meals, and as a part of their meals, guess what? They're there as a body, but guess what? Some of them are divided.
Some of them felt like they were better than others. Scripture says they didn't even wait for everybody to get there. They wanted to be selfish, so they began eating on their own. Then, as they were doing this, they're having these divisions. People are divided; they're not waiting for one another; they're not considering one another.
And in the midst of this, then they want to take communion. Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah! Somebody get the bread! Somebody get the wine! Break the bread! Okay, everybody got a piece of bread? Okay, boom! Okay, everybody drink the cup? Okay, cool! Now let's get back to eating!
No, no! He said, "That's why y'all sick, and some of y'all are dead, because you're not holding the weight of what this means. You're not holding it in high regard. You're just doing it out of habit."
They were committed to eating, but they weren't committed to communion. We share a special time of intimacy with Christ when we do this. But when you do it and you ignore the why or you disregard the why, it has severe consequences.
See, when God calls us to commitment, He's not just calling us to an action that shows commitment. He's calling us to a mindset and to a heart that is committed—one that is steadfast, one that is persevering and devoted.
See, we, as a body, we must live a life that is committed first to prayer, to a life of communication with God—not out of habit, not out of repetition of words, not out of fear, but out of a desire to connect and grow your relationship with Jesus.
And then we must be committed to a life of communion—a life that participates in proclaiming the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We should be regularly partaking in the body and in the blood, sharing in that intimacy and remembering Jesus's sacrifice.
See, in some churches in today's culture, communion is just, it's just one what we do on once a month, first Sunday or second Sunday. It's communion Sunday. Okay, they're going to say the prayer, uh, we're going to take the juice and the cup, and then we good.
No, no, no, no, no! God intended it for be way more than that! Way more than that!
So I ask you the same question I asked last week and the week before: when it comes to communion and when it comes to prayer, where is your commitment?
We got to evaluate ourselves. This is the basis right here: where is your commitment? Does it line up? We have to make the adjustments. We have to make the adjustments.
We can't be halfway in and halfway out. We can't just do it as a ritual. We can't just do it as, "Oh, let me make sure I do it like it's a life jacket so Jesus isn't mad at me." No! Where's your heart at?
We're called to a life of these things, not a Sunday of these things.
Today, I pose a challenge—two challenges. Today, we, as a church, have an opportunity to change the way that we see prayer and change the way that we see communion.
I want us to move from this habit and this fear mindset to one of intentionality and one of faith. Normally, at this time, everyone would have a communion element, and I would go over the scripture, I would read it, and we would partake in communion.
But we're not doing that today. Today, I want you to take communion at home. I want you to take communion at home because anywhere we see it doing and see it happening in the scripture, it's in homes.
I think it is very important that we come together as a body and participate, but it can't stop here. It's got to go home.
I shared this story in first service. When I was younger, I had this house, and I had my studio there, and I'm living there, and I'm traveling, I'm rapping, I'm doing all the things, and it's great.
And I get home, and I have no food in my house. I have no food in my cupboards. And I call my friend at the time, and I'm crying, and I'm telling her what's going on. And I'm like, "I got no food! I don't understand! I spent my whole life, all my days at church, um, traveling around the world telling people about the goodness of Jesus. I'm doing all of these things, and I get home, and there's no food in my cupboards. There's no food in my refrigerator."
And she says, "You know what? We should take communion."
I said, "For what? I told you I'm broke! Like, I don't need..." She said, "You know why you need to take communion? Because, uh, you're thinking a lot about yourself right now. You're focused a lot on what you don't have. You're focused a lot. I hear you talking a lot about what you're doing and how you're doing for God, and you're in this position of where you're upset because you're not seeing what you feel that you need to see. You're forgetting about the roof that He put over your head. You're forgetting about the bed that you just got out of. You're forgetting about the car that you drove to get to the house and the phone that you're talking on that He provided you."
on Jan 22, 2024
