For Those in Danger

Well, I'm so thankful for all of our partners. You can make your way back to your seat if you're joining us at any of our other campuses. What a joy it is to be able to pray for our partners. Can we just let them know how much we love them on every one of our campuses this morning. We're so grateful to be together and be partnered in the mission of God because it does take all of us. We will not be able to accomplish these tasks on our own by ourselves. We need to be able to partner for the greater body to be able to reach every man, woman, and child. Now there's one facet of being on mission for Jesus that sometimes the church of Jesus Christ doesn't consider often enough, danger. Part of the cost of following Jesus is counting the cost of what it means to follow the Lord Jesus. And sometimes what we see is we see that in the world that we live in, there are enemies of the Gospel in the world. They are animated by the evil one himself who desires to stand in opposition to God and the things of God and do whatever it takes to steal and kill and destroy if necessary the people of God and the work of God. This has been true from the beginning of the church's mission and it is certainly true even now. And in Acts chapter 12, which is where we'll be looking today as we continue on in our series. In Acts chapter 12, we are in a place where Luke has recorded for us events that are happening in the early church. And these particular events in Luke chapter 12 are around 43 AD, in that neighborhood. So we're talking about roughly a decade after Jesus' death and resurrection and ascension back to the Father. And so early in Acts when we're reading in chapter number two, when we see the birth of the church, what we find out is the church is growing significantly and is also finding favor among all the people. But now a number of years later, we get to Acts chapter 12 and instead of finding favor with everyone, the church is actually being both hunted and persecuted in some degree. That's specific to the apostles and it begins to work its way out to some of the other people in the body of Christ. But specifically there's a target upon the apostles. And this is not being led directly by the Romans. This is being led by one of the Romans puppets, Herod Agrippa, who is doing this very action. In Acts chapter 12, beginning in verse one it says this, "It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. And he had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. After arresting him, he put him in prison handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. And Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover." You see, friends, danger is a real part of the ministry of the Gospel for the early church. And danger is a real part of the ministry of the Gospel in the present church. I'm joined this morning by a friend who's become a new friend actually. So Scott is a brother in Christ who has been doing a lot of great work, Scott Brawner, he's the president of Concilium and is also the executive director of the Risk Management Network. I want you guys to take a moment and welcome Scott as he joins us this morning. So, Scott, with what you do with Concilium and the Risk Management Network, just give us like a quick overview of what it is you do for Gospel workers all over the world.

- To oversimplify, we help Gospel workers thrive in hard environments. Whether that's an environment that could be found in the Middle East right now or down in a place like Haiti, we look at things like kidnapping and assault. You might have noticed or watched the news out of Haiti, I know you have ministry there, of a young lady and her daughter who were kidnapped back in July, and Concilium had the blessing of being able to help recover her safely, her and her child both and to get them back to the United States.

- Wow, so you are, yeah, you can applaud for that for sure. So with what you guys are doing all over the globe in kind of helping talk through and disciple people that are in hard places doing sometimes hard Gospel ministry and they're against it a little bit, tell me, have you seen in the globe itself, with all the work that you're doing in your many years in the field, have you seen danger and persecution make its way on the rise or have you seen it being declined a little bit in the global kind of sphere?

- Often there's an ebb and flow, but what we've seen in the last five years is definitely a rise in persecution and targeting of followers of Jesus because of their testimony and for the truth that they bring in so many places. Look, we don't operate as Christians in a vacuum. Our presence, our words have an impact to a second and third order of effect, and the enemy hates that. So, the enemy uses evil men to make war on the saints, whether they know they're being used by the evil one or not. So as we look at the rise of persecution, as we look at the rise of challenge and struggle, the good news is we know the end of the story and we know where this leads. But until that time, when you look throughout the book of Revelation and as you read different Old Testament books that point to the end times, what's critical in all of this is number one, God's faithfulness, but number two, the resilience of each member of the church to bear up under persecution, to be able to focus on that which is most important. So that through our trials and tribulations, we don't just persevere but we become more Christ-like.

- Beautiful, Scott spoke to our banquet last night where we gathered all of our partners and he talked about this idea of resilient disciples. And I was reminded and mentioned this last night. I was reminded as he was talking, however it is that when we look at the book of Revelation, even if you don't understand every jot and tittle that's in the book of Revelation, what we understand is this, is that the book of Revelation as a whole, it's about the resiliency of the people of God following after the Lamb of God.

- [Scott] That's right.

- That that's what it ultimately is about.

- [Scott] That's right.

- And that we need the resilient disciples in this day and age because there is more and more increasing danger, more and more increasing trouble, more and more increasing persecution. And we sometimes feel a bit immune to that when we look at it in other places in the world, but Scott's got a front row seat to it in a lot of places. As a result of that, Scott, I would ask you, how can we best pray for those who are in dangerous places and doing the work of the Gospel in places that can be hard and maybe are facing persecution?

- That's a great question. The work of the Gospel has consequence. The work of the Gospel, of bringing the love of Christ and the truth of salvation to others leads to the enemy bringing all hell against the church. So as we pray for the church, we're praying for individuals. And as you think about every person who was just up here, who you're praying and interceding for. You're praying for them to not only be resilient, but to be effective in the ministries that they have. And if you're going to be effective, whether it's here in Buffalo, what we might call our Jerusalem, across our state of Judea, across the northeast of the United States or Samaria or even to the ends of the earth, pray that as persecution comes that we could drop off the veneer of what Christianity is. That we could find our identity not just in the shallow things of Christiandom, but in the person of Christ.

- [Pastor Jerry] Yeah.

- Because for each person who chooses to follow Christ, whether you're facing the death as Peter was or mourning those who have been lost, 'cause in that same verse, James has already been martyred. Those who survive are the ones that have to keep asking this question, is it worth it? And so as you pray for them specifically, pray for them to find their identity. Not just in a denomination, not just in the name of a church itself, but in the person of Jesus Christ. And pray as they find their identity in the person of Jesus Christ, that they could find their fulfillment in the things of Christ that are experienced together through the church. Because what we have here even today in this church is a fellowship that is like no other because there's nothing else that unites us together because of all of our differences today, friends, Jesus is enough. Be praying for each of these Gospel workers that Jesus is enough because for some of them, all they have left with all of their belongings that have been taken, their houses that have been burned to the ground, loved ones who have been martyred for the name of Jesus. These are the people who have nothing else but to cling to the person of Christ and say, "Jesus, you're enough." That's how you can pray for this.

- Beautiful, would you guys again, thanks Scott for joining us this morning.

- Thank you.

- Thank you, Scott. So not only did we take a few moments ago in all of our campuses to be able to pray for our partners, but we're also gonna pray for those who are in danger in just a few moments. But before we do, I want us to return to Acts chapter 12 and learn some things from Acts chapter 12 that will help inform us as we take a few moments to be able to pray. So Luke has given us a picture of what happened and that it's Peter who has been captured. He's probably being held in the Antonia fortress, which I've been to many times. It's the same place by the way there in Jerusalem where Jesus would have stood before Pilate when he was there in the praetorium area right there underneath in the place that we call the fortress of Antonia. Now Peter is captured and they are intending to kill Peter because they're waiting for the days to finish of the festivals, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the time of the Passover. That was kind of all together. And at the conclusion of that time, then they were going to put Peter to public trial, which was going to simply mean that Peter was also going to die like everybody else was going to die. And Peter is in jail and he's waiting to die. In fact, they've put extra security around him. It says that there were four squads of four soldiers each. In other words, they put barriers out there, so that Peter was not going to be able to escape and nobody could come and get him. There was extra security around him. That's what was going on in this particular passage of scripture. And then here's what we see in verse number five of Acts 12, "So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him." This is what the church was doing here. They were interceding on Peter's behalf. They were praying specifically for Peter in this instance because Peter was basically condemned to die, was gonna face public trial, was probably going to meet with being beheaded or maybe even crucified. And so, the church was gathered and was praying for Peter. So, how did this event then unfold? Peter's in jail, he's looking at a death sentence. The church is gathered to pray. How did this particular event unfold? Well, verse six begins to tell us. "The night before Herod was to bring Peter to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance." It gives you a picture, right? They're paying real close attention to Peter. "Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. And he struck Peter on the side and woke him up. 'Quick, get up,' he said, and the chains fell off Peter's wrists. Then the angel said to him, 'Put on your clothes and sandals,' and Peter did so. 'Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,' the angel told him. And Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening. He thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first and the second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. And the iron gate opened for them by itself and they went through it. And when they walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, 'Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.' When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. And when she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening the door and exclaimed, 'Peter is at the door.' 'You're out of your mind,' they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, 'It must be his angel.' But Peter kept on knocking and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. And Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. 'Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,' he said, and then he left for another place." It's a really remarkable story, isn't it? It's a glorious story of God's intervision, intervention and God's sovereign work on display. Now what we're told is that the church gathered and they prayed and all these things happened. What we're not told specifically is how they prayed. But what we kind of can gain some insight into here is maybe to why they prayed. I don't know that it's not explicitly stated in here. It just says the church was praying and these events happened, right? And we're not told how they prayed specifically. We can probably take some pretty good guesses. God would you help Peter, right? It was something along those lines, right? But I want us to take a moment and ask this question, why should we pray for those in danger? That we look at this passage of scripture and see that the church was doing that very thing, they were praying for Peter who was in harm's way, who was in danger. And maybe we can ask the question, why should we pray for those in danger? I wanna point to three things that I'm gonna try to show you in the text itself, and I'm gonna work backwards in the story. But here's the first reason why we pray for those in danger. Because God may want to astonish us. God might just want to astonish us all. In fact, I want you to pay close attention to what Luke records for us in verses 16 and 17. It says after Peter obviously got outta prison, this miraculous work and God had sent an angel, it says, and then Peter went to the door where they were praying and he kept on knocking. And when they opened the door and saw him, they were what?

- [Congregation] Astonished.

- Astonished. "And Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet. And he described how the Lord had brought him outta prison. And then he said, 'Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,' and then he ended up leaving for another place." It is a little bit funny in this story, right? There is a piece of comedy in the story where the very person that they're praying for, "God, would you please do this on behalf of Peter, would you do this for your glory? Would you intervene by your power?" And then all of a sudden while they're praying, "Hey, guys, it's me, Peter." And they didn't even let him in. They didn't believe that he was actually outside the door. They thought it must be his angel. It couldn't possibly be Peter, which tells you about the level of faith maybe that they had in engaged in while they were praying, they didn't even believe the answer to their very prayers was outside the door. So, there is this kind of ironic piece of comedy here. But could you imagine being one of the believers that was there gathered in that place, that was praying for Peter and then Peter shows up at the door. He'd been under a death sentence, now he shows up at the door and he begins to tell this story. He tells you the story of I was there, I was chained to guards and then there were guards outside and then there were guards past that. There were all over the place. But we were all just there sleeping. And then an angel showed up in the cell and they'd be like, "Wait, what?" Yeah, an angel showed up in the cell. And there was light coming from the angel and before I knew it I was asleep, but he punched me in the side and he said, "Get up." Now, they didn't hear it but I heard it. I don't know how all of that works. And all of a sudden I realized that my chains had fallen off. They hadn't undone them for me, they just fell off. And then the angel said, "Let's go." And we got up and somehow they didn't hear us. And I imagine that everybody there's doing the same thing that you're doing in your mind, thinking to yourself, "The veil that exists between what we see and the unseen realities seem to have been pulled back for just a moment," because now it seems like there's a suspension of what is going on in real time and in a real place so much so that Peter didn't even realize that this was real, He thought it was a vision. Peter is existing in a realm that he quite not had not fully been accustomed to and didn't understand, but here he finds himself walking past guards, they're not waking up and he's with an angel. They come to the iron gate that leads out to the city and the iron gate opens all by itself. Peter's telling them all of this story. What would your response be? The same as theirs, astonishment. And what does this astonishment do in their hearts and in their lives? I think what it does is it inflames their faith and reminds them of God's ability to act in power when He so chooses to do that. And when we pray for those that are in danger, what we need to remember is this, God may yet want to astonish us by His power. So, we should pray. In fact, I was reminded just today when I was thinking about it, one of our brothers, Jordan Stinziano, who's in the room here, who's one of the pastors at Missio Church, but is helping to lead saturation church planting globally. Sent me a text just a few weeks ago about one of our saturation church planting partners who was in a particular country. I won't use his name or the country's name. He was in that particular country and he was preaching in a church that was not registered with the government. And they found out and they arrested him. And so Jordan sent out a note to us all and said, Would you pray for our brother? Here's what's happened. They've arrested him. They arrested him, they charged him, they found him guilty. Then they had another trial after that. They had held him in a prison or in jail or whatever for a period of time and we didn't know what was going to happen. The prison sentence could have been months long and then they had another one after that. It's kind of a unique way they do justice in this particular country. They had another one after that, found him guilty again. The end of the story is by God's grace, they let him go, he made it home and we thank God for it. Sometimes God just wants to do things as a demonstration of His own power. And so when we pray for those who are in danger, God may want to astonish us all by what He chooses to do. The second reason is because when we pray for those in danger, it establishes our dependence on God. And this is what we need to keep in our minds. Because as you'll note in verse number five, it says, "So Peter was kept in prison but the church was earnestly praying to God for him." And then in verse number 12, it says this, "When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered," and were what? Praying. You know what's interesting about this passage of scripture is it notice what they're not doing. The church has not gathered together, plotting. The church has not gathered together, planning. The churches gathered together, praying. Do you know why? It's all they had. They did not have any other option. They had no power, they had no recourse, they had no authority. They had no strings that they could pull to somehow get Peter out. What they had to do was depend on God. Ladies and gentlemen, friends, brothers and sisters, this is the heart of prayer. The heart of prayer is a reminder of our need and our dependence upon God. And when people are in danger, we know that we have to depend upon God. But, brothers and sisters, please listen. When we're not in danger, we need to depend upon God. Because what prayer is as its core is saying we are not in control, we are submitting ourselves to you. We're putting our trust in you. And you God, do what only you can do. That's what we're looking at here. You see, ultimately when we pray for those in danger, God may want to astonish us or what He wants to do for sure is he establishes our dependence upon Him. 

 You know what's interesting about this passage of scripture, is it notice what they're not doing. The church is not gathered together, plotting. The church is not gathered together, planning. The church is gathered together, praying. Do you know why? It's all they had. They did not have any other option. They had no power. They had no recourse, they had no authority. They had no strings that they could pull to somehow get Peter out. What they had to do was depend on God. Ladies and gentlemen, friends, brothers and sisters, this is the heart of prayer. The heart of prayer is a reminder of our need and our dependence upon God. And when people are in danger, we know that we have to depend upon God. But, brothers and sisters, please listen. When we're not in danger, we need to depend upon God. Because what prayer is, as its core is saying we are not in control, we are submitting ourselves to you, we're putting our trust in you, and you, God, do what only you can do. That's what we're looking at here. You see, ultimately when we pray for those in danger, God may want to astonish us or what He wants to do for sure is He establishes our dependence upon Him. But thirdly, when we pray for those in danger, it deepens our confidence in God's sovereign purposes. It deepens our confidence in God's sovereign purposes. As you're jotting that down, I want you to pay a close attention to what verses one through three of this narrative tells us. "It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John," those are the sons of Zebedee, "put to death with the sword. When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread." Now what's remarkable about this, imagine again being one of the praying believers and Peter gets delivered. And it would encourage you because you'd be thinking, "You know what? We gathered to pray. God heard our prayer, God responded in power. God sent an angel, God worked supernaturally. God delivered Peter back to us. What a glorious thing. And it stokes our faith in God." God, it would remind us God still has use for Peter. God still has use for him in the mission of what he's going to do. But listen carefully, Peter was delivered, James was not. And do you think that the church had gathered to pray for James when James was pulled into captivity? Of course they did. They would've been doing the same thing they were doing for Peter. They would've been praying the same prayers that they were praying for Peter. And in one instance James, he was killed. And in the other instance, Peter, he was delivered. Why is that? Well, certainly the answer is because God is sovereign and He gets to do what He wants to do, how He wants to do it. But Jesus had also told James earlier what was going to happen. You remember the story in the Gospel of Mark, it says, "Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus, 'Teacher,' they said, 'we want you to do for us whatever we ask.'" Wow, a lot of gall, right? "What do you want me to do for you," Jesus asked. How beautiful did Jesus respond to that? So gracious. "They replied, 'Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.'" In other words, one of us needs to be the vice president and the other, the secretary of state. "Jesus says, 'You don't know what you're asking. Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I'm baptized with?' 'We can,' they answered. Jesus said to them, 'You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I'm baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. Those places belong to those for whom they've been prepared.'" Jesus had already told James, you're going to be baptized with the same baptism, you're going to drink from the same cup. And the same cup is the cup of suffering. You are going to drink from that cup, so we already knew that this was coming for James. But even in James' death, God still pushed the mission forward. Do you know what's beautiful about this? That James gave his life for the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and was beheaded as a result of that. But it did not stop Peter from continuing on in the extension of the Gospel. It did not stop the church from gathering to pray and trust in God for the extension of the Gospel. You see, God was sovereign through it all and it helped the church to understand God's sovereignty, that God is working all things according to His own power in the way that He desires and it fan the flame. They were not dissuaded because they trusted in God. Tertullian, who was a remarkable early church father in his writing called, "Apologeticus," which was in Latin. But he said something very, very remarkable in that, translated loosely in English, it would say this, "We spring up in greater numbers the more we are mown down by you, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. You see what God works out even in the midst of danger, even in the midst of terrible outcomes, even in the midst of horrible circumstances, is He is working His own purposes for His sovereign will regardless, because God is sovereign over everything. That's why when we pray, brothers and sisters, we pray your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in the heavens, not our own. Because we don't always understand how God takes all things and works them together for His ultimate sovereign purposes, but we trust Him as he does. So what I want us to do on all of our campuses is to take a moment and to pray for those that are in danger. I'm gonna ask one of our partners, Malini, Malini Asirvatham. She is the president of Hindustan Bible Institute where a good friend of ours is a part of, has been a part of that leadership and still is involved in leadership. His name is Bobby Gupta and he's been with us here before and addressed us here on our platform. And Malini's going to come in just a moment and I want her to be a visual reminder for us. You can grab that mic right there if you'd like. I want her to be a visual reminder for us of a church that is in dangerous places. Come on over here, my sister and my friend. Malini is in India. And though she herself has lived there her whole life and is not necessarily experiencing the same kind of danger. The people that they're training, church planters that are going out into all places, many of whom have lost their lives for the sake of the Gospel, have lost their homes, have lost everything for the sake of the Gospel. Some of the people that I know and I've been there and I've trained pastors from a different state that they had come into Chennai where she is. And we trained 400 plus pastors from a state called, Karnataka. And this was a number of years ago, but I know that they faced significant persecution. And the likelihood is, is that some of them have given their lives for the sake of the Gospel. So she's just gonna be a visual representation of us taking a moment to be able to pray for those that are in dangerous places. We've got partners that are in Israel right now, and we need to pray for them because the body of Christ in Israel needs our prayers right now. They're in a dangerous situation. We have partners in Ukraine, missionaries that are from our church, Jesse and Bria Poley, who are involved in ministry into Ukraine. It's a dangerous place. Ministry in Haiti that's represented here today, Mission of Hope among others. We've got ministry in China, we've got ministry in the Middle East with one of our partners there. We've got ministry in Africa. All of these places, dangerous places for the sake of the Gospel. And I can't name them all, but you can look inside of the the magazine that you have to be able to see a number of those places and spaces. And what I want us to do is on all of our campuses right now to just take a moment and be able to pray for them where they are. So, would you join me as we pray? Father, we come before you in the precious name of our savior Jesus. And we come as your church praying because we know that we have brothers and sisters all over the world, those that we're partnered with directly and those that we don't know anything about that are facing danger and hardship and persecution. Father, first and foremost, we pray that you in certain scenarios and circumstances, that you would deliver our brothers and sisters for your glory. And that we know that in some of these circumstances that you'll choose to do and act in a way that will astonish them, astonish us, and maybe even astonish the world around them, so that maybe the people around them that don't even yet believe might see the power of God and would turn their faces toward God and know his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, I pray that for the church as we pray that you would remind us of our dependence upon you. Because when we look around the world, it is a dangerous place and there are people in dangerous place. And we need to be reminded that we are not in control of everything that is happening in the world. There are forces at work that are beyond our control, even beyond our ability to comprehend fully what is going on, but we know that we can depend on you. And that you would call us to be a people who pray and depend upon you in times where we're interceding for those in danger and in times as well where it seems as everything is fine. We need you, God. As my brother prayed over me this morning before I came to preach the message of the Gospel, his prayers were, we need you God, and we do. And, Lord, we pray that you would remind us that you are sovereign, that you are king, that you are on your throne, that nothing takes you by surprise. That whatever circumstance, whatever danger, whatever outcome, you can be trusted to work the purposes of your mission and your will in the world because you are sovereign and you will not be thwarted in bringing the consummation of history to its conclusion. May we learn to trust you deeply in this as we intercede for our brothers and sisters in Christ. And we pray you would encourage them by your Spirit. Remind them as Scott said earlier, that you are enough and that you are worth it. And that we would have that same mindset in our places where we live and work and pray. And pray you are worth it in every way and in everything that we do. I pray this now in Jesus name. And all God's people everywhere said, amen.

- [Congregation] Amen.

- As we are thinking about our brothers and sisters in dangerous places, what makes it worth it for us to be able to face the dangers that we face, that they face, that we might face, is Jesus. What He's done on our behalf. God coming to us, rescuing us, being born of a virgin, living a sinless life, going to a death on the cross for our sins, rising from the dead, demonstrating that He has satisfied the justice of God against sin on our behalf as the sacrificial, spotless lamb of God in our place. And He's risen from the dead and we have the hope that He, just as He came at the time of what we call Christmas in Bethlehem, He is going to return again. And we have the hope that death has been defeated, sin has been dismissed. We are now standing in right relationship with God because of what He has done in and through the Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf. He's worth it. And because of that we can walk and we can follow after Him. And I can't think of a better way to be able to celebrate that truth than to be able to share in a time of communion together as the church body. I'm gonna ask you if you would, to take out the communion cups that you received on your way in. As you're getting those out, I'd ask you to peel back the first layer. And take the bread in your hand. Paul writes this, "For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you. The Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed, took bread and when He had given thanks, he broke it, said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.'" Malini, would you take a moment to pray before we receive the bread?

- Father, we are so thankful for what you have done by sending our Savior, your beloved Son to die on the cross. Because His body was broken, today we can enter through His body to become the body of Christ. What a privilege that we have, that we have been part of your family and part of the body of Christ. Even as we partake in your body, I pray that you will help us to not only just remember what you did, but help us to represent you as your body to this world and let them see Christ in us. In Jesus precious name we pray.

- "Jesus said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.'" Let's eat. Scripture says, "in the same way after supper, He took the cup saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.'" Malini, would you pray for us.

- Father, one more time, we want to say thank you so much for your Son who shed His blood and creating this beautiful relationship with you. And thank you for the forgiveness of sins. Thank you for the redemption that we have in Christ Jesus. Father, we thank you for all the blessings we enjoy because of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Even as we partake in the blood, help us to realize there's no sin that you will not forgive. Your blood is enough for us to live a holy life. I pray that we will live as people of righteousness revealing the glory to this entire world. We thank you and we praise you. In Jesus preciously name we pray.

- Let's take and drink. Father, how we thank you for the truth of your Word, for the beauty of the family of God. That together we are reminded by the elements of body and blood, that, Jesus, it is all about you. That our lives are to center on the reality of who you are and what you call us to, and how we live out the mission that you've assigned to us. Whether in places that are less dangerous or more dangerous, that you are the worthy one. And I pray that you would help us to be a people who surrender ourselves to you. That we would be a praying church, both in times of danger and in times of peace because we need you and we love you. And we are so grateful for every expression of your kindness and grace to us in Christ Jesus, in whose name we pray, amen.