2 Corinthians 1:3-11

In 2 Corinthians 1:3–11, Paul shows us that God is the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. In this message, Josh Turansky explores how suffering strips away self-reliance, teaches us to depend on the God who raises the dead, and equips us to share Christ-shaped comfort with others.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

2 Corinthians chapter 1. Oh, it's gonna be so much fun. Have I told you before how much I love the book of 2 Corinthians? I know I have. You know this. Some of you know this, because we say it every week. But God has created you as a blessable, image-bearing covenant partner. That's how he designed you. You're blessable. You are created so that God can bless you. That's Genesis 1. It also says in Genesis 1 that you're created in the image of God. That is that you that you bear his image. And the Bible teaches all throughout that you are designed to be a covenant partner with him. And so we're looking at 2 Corinthians now. We're walking through this book together so that we can learn how do I be that based off of 2 Corinthians. Based off 2 Corinthians. So that's where we're at. We're looking to see what does it mean, what does it look like for us to live as blessable, image-bearing, covenant partners based off 2 Corinthians. Now, one of the things that we saw last week, or 2 Corinthians, let's start with this. 2 Corinthians demonstrates the outworking of new covenant grace in the context of strained relationships. Look, all of us are designed for relationships. If you struggle in your relationships with other people, you're not alone. Relationships can be the greatest gift, but they can also be a real curse. So here's the thing: this book is teaching us what it looks like to live out new covenant grace when relationships are strained. We're jumping right into it this morning with Paul. Paul's relationship with the Corinthians was seen through this lens of God arranged our connection. Remember, last week he said, I am an apostle. That means that Paul knew that he had been sent to that city of Corinth to establish the church. He knew that the Corinthian people, he could see Bob and Sally and Timmy, and he could see them in his mind's eye, and he knew you're not an accident that we know one another. God arranged our connection. God called me and gifted me to help you know Jesus. Our relationship has a divine origin. Here's what I want to ask you. When you look at, I almost had you bring like a three by five card this morning where you could just write down the people who are in your life. Just think of like what are the names of your family members? Name some of the people in your family. I got Scott, Carrie, Sandy, Bob and Sally. Okay, we got some family members. What are their names though? What are their names? God gave them a name. Ebony and Randy. What is it?

unknown 3:33

Ebony and Randy.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

Ebony and Randy, yeah. You've got friends. What are some names of your friends?

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Max.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Max? Okay, that's a good friend's name. I like that. What else?

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Ebony.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Okay, all right.

unknown 3:50

Tommy.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Tommy, yeah. Here's what I want you to think about. Here's what I want you to think about, and how Paul saw those people in his life. He's like, God is not a God who makes accidents. He's involved in the relationships that I have, the new friendships that are on the horizon. So listen, listen, listen. The people that are in your life are not an accident. And God is sovereignly at work in the fact that you have those relationships. And so Paul, as he's dealing with, what do you do? When a relationship gets strange, how many of us just go, I don't have time for this? Right? Check out, ignore, cancel, withdraw. How many of us do that in relationship? But Paul, Paul's not just some guy who's going to be walked over in this relation. He's not going to be the carpet that gets walked over. He is going to stand for his role in their life based off of who God called them to be. Some of you are too loving. I watch it. You're getting walked all over, and you got the whole love thing down, but you don't have a concept of God's divine work through you in the relationship. Because some of you need to have a backbone. And you need to say, nope, I'm not doing that for you. You need to carry that burden. Paul talks about this in Galatians. He talks about how we help carry each other's burdens, but then how we're also supposed to bear our own burdens. In other words, we have our own responsibilities. So Paul's book to the Corinthian church is walking down this road through the lens of New Covenant grace, of I'm going to do this relationship based off of New Covenant grace. The letter as a whole, it's written after a painful visit. So Paul has had a relationship with the Corinthian church for a number of years. We don't know much of the painful visit that occurred, but he alludes to it in chapter one. He also wrote them a letter that was just a, it was a tear. He said it was a tearful letter. You ever had to communicate something where it's just like, man, I'm just grieved. I'm upset. Well, he's been in that place. I mean, there's a lot of emotions that have gone into this relationship with Corinth. And Paul is trying to rebuild this damaged relationship. He's also defending his apostolic ministry without destroying the relationship. The Corinthian church is hurt that Paul hadn't visited them earlier. They were under the impression that Paul was going to come back quickly. And his visit is delayed. And that causes there to be this opportunity for people to backbite Paul. He's not there. And some people start slandering Paul in his absence, saying, see, Paul's, he's not a good apostle. He's not a real quality apostle. Because look, he's not here. So Paul has to deal with that. Paul's hurt by the serious sin. There is just there was some just gross sin that had been occurring and tolerated in the church. And Paul was upset that they had tolerated it. Another wound is that the Corinthians did not stand up for Paul when there was these, what they called, they called themselves the super apostles, not supermen, but super apostles. This group that came through and they they called themselves Christians, they said, We are the we're the super apostles. And Paul was hurt that like when they were attacked, these super apostles were attacking Paul's reputation, the Corinthian church didn't defend him. The sharpest pain comes from the churches um opening their hearts to these rival leaders, these superapostles that belittled him. It hurts Paul, or it hurt Paul that the people he led to Christ were now treating him as a second-rate-rate citizen in the kingdom and embracing these abusive leaders. We'll get there. We'll get there later on in the book, but I just what I want you to know is like this letter is being written with that being the context of all this painful stuff going on in the relationship. And so Paul's going to open up and I'm going to read it to you, verse 3. He's going to say, he's going to say that God is the God of all comfort. Because Paul's not just dealing, like, how do you feel when there's conflict? Isn't it just weigh on you? It's upsetting. Then you feel angry that it's upsetting, and then it can be stressful because it's like I'm going to see that person again. There's like just conflict is a burden, but that's not the only burden in Paul's life. Paul's got junk going on all over the place. He's in Ephesus, he's dealing with junk going on in Ephesus. He's got other peers that have had to like leave him in ministry. And he is going to declare that God is the God of all comfort. Let me read to you these verses, verses 3 through 11. It'll be on the screen. You can read along in your Bibles if you want. It says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our afflictions, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we're comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings that we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, so you also share in the comfort. And we don't want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of our affliction that took place in Asia. We were completely overwhelmed, beyond strength, so that we even despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead. While you join in helping us by your prayers, then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gift that came to us through the prayers of many. Lord, we just pray that you would take this text and that it would just saturate our hearts. And that we would not just hear it this morning, it would go out one ear, go in one ear and out the other, but that these truths would just saturate our hearts. Because we're going to need to recall these things in the future. And there's some of us that need to hear it right now, this morning. So, Lord, would you just build this into who we are? Let the words of Paul, the logic of Paul, the explaining of Paul just saturate our hearts, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. Man, I've talked to many of you, and I hear oftentimes this question: why does God do this? And so oftentimes, uh, we don't know. One of the worst questions to ask is, why does God do this? Because there's so many things we don't know, we don't have an answer to, but this text is going to tell you, it's going to give you an answer to one of your why questions that's coming. I'm excited for us to get there. But let's start in verse three. We'll start in verse three. And before we do that, I just want to take you back to a conversation I had on Wednesday. I was sitting working with an organization. I'm I'm sitting on their board, and there's been like a um there's been an ongoing discussion of how do we tell our story as an organization. And as we were praying together and thinking together, this framing came to me. Who we are, what we do, and why we do it. Who we are, what we do, and why we do it. Because what the organization had been doing was they were talking about what we do. There was too much going on in terms of this is what we do, but it was confusing because they do a bunch of different stuff. Excuse me, they're all over the map. But the reason they're all over the map is because of who they are. So anyway, it was a great moment of clarity. I think it was invigorating. And then I began to study this text, and I was amazed because when you come into verse 3 and 4, you get the exact same phrasing, framing. Here is who God is. Before we get to what he does, here's who God is. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. God is the God of comfort. God is the God of comfort. He's the God of mercy. When you are here worshiping God, you're coming and you're singing and lifting your voice up to the God of mercy, not judgment. He's the God of comfort, not condemnation. He's the God who rescues, doesn't abandon you. He's the God who looks upon you with love and can solve your problems rather than giving up on you. God absolutely loves you. And this is who He is before we get to what He does. He is the God of all comfort. We are going to see the word comfort in this text nine times. This is the word paracaleo. It is another name for the Holy Spirit, the one who comforts. God is the comforter. It literally means to instill someone. This is what comfort means. It means to instill someone with courage, cheer, comfort, to encourage them or cheer them up. That's your God. That's the God of the Bible who can come and instill you with courage. Like you need courage, he can bring it inside of you and make you feel courageous. The God of the Bible is not saying, come along, muster up that courage, like maybe a Disney movie might tell you. No, God says, I am the God of all comfort. I'm here to instill courage in you. I'm the one who can work this in you, to lift you up. It's literally the idea, the word is this put together of I'm going to come along next to you. Have you ever had a friend who's really, really encouraging? Yeah. They do that. They're very encouraging because they get close to you, right? They're willing to come in close proximity to you. That's what comfort entails. I'm coming alongside of you. I'm going to instill you with courage. I'm going to cheer you up. I'm going to comfort you. I'm going to encourage you. Let's go to verse four. Here's what he does. He comforts us. Where? Where does he comfort us? When you're having a good day? When you're at church? Where does the text say that he comforts you? Where does the text say? He comforts us in all our affliction. The location of God's comfort is in our affliction. Paul does not tell this church that he's teaching that you will not have affliction. He never preaches that your life is going to be free of suffering. Paul says that the God of the Bible is the God who comes and comforts you in your affliction and your suffering. So that's what he does. But then you ask the question, why, right? I told you. Sometimes God gives you the why he does it. And look what Paul says. Here's why God comforts you in your affliction. It's so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction. There is a sweetness about the comfort of God in the midst of mourning. Many of you have mourned great loss. Many of you have mourned the loss of family members, friends, spouses. Some of you have mourned the loss of your health. Some of you have mourned the loss of opportunity. And in that, that's where God's comfort is to be experienced. But Paul tells you here's why. It's so that you are able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction. Do you see that? That God's at work in your life. He's comforting you so that you can comfort others. It's through the comfort we ourselves have received from God. It's amazing. God has rescued you. He's taken away through the cross of Christ. If you've accepted Jesus Christ, he has removed your guilt debt. And now he's dynamically daily working in your life these types of things. I wore this shirt today. This is the men's discipleship home. It says on it, dulos. That's one of the words that Paul would oftentimes use to refer to himself. It's the word servant. Our guys who live in the men's discipleship home wear this shirt when they go out and do ministry calls. They're helping people with their houses and fixing steps and all kinds of work. But they put on their shirt. We're a servant. If Paul the Apostle, who wrote a big chunk of the New Testament, who planted churches all over Southern Europe, Asia Minor, if he called himself a servant, if Jesus came to serve you, then I got news for you. You're a servant. God's at work in your life so that you can be of service to the people around you. The work of God to comfort you is not so that you can be this cesspool of comfort where you can just have good, happy, tingly feelings. No, the work of God in your life is so that you can flow to the other people who are also afflicted. And so you, if you've if you've got that, and I know I have, I can think back to times where I experienced the comfort of God. And and Paul is telling me, saying, Josh, you're useful as a comforter of others. Because the comfort you received from God. Now, in verse five, he says he's gonna substantiate it, which means that the the logical way that Paul's making his argument is that now he's going to take what he just said. About this ability to comfort others who are in affliction. He's with the comfort we receive from God, he's going to substantiate that. He's going to give a logical case for it here, and he's going to say, for just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. So there's a comparison that's being made as he's piecing together the logic of this. And the comparison is that the sufferings of Christ overflow to us. So Jesus lived a life with a great deal of suffering, and you, because you have decided to accept his invitation to be in the kingdom, you're a follower of Jesus. When you're suffering, you're a part, you're considered a part of the sufferings of Christ. When you're suffering as a follower of Jesus, not because you did something stupid, but because you're a follower of Jesus, that suffering there is considered a peace and part of the sufferings of Christ. And it's overflowing. Then he says, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. Hudson, could you take and mute the other channels? There's some line is not grounded. You may feel like in your life, the suffering that you're going through, the pain in your life, may seem just so abundant and so impossible. But what Paul says is that listen, the comfort of God is also going to flow into the midst of your pain. It's promised in Matthew chapter 5, it's testified to through the saints year after year after year, that the comfort of God is yours. And you just need to know as you're going and walking through, you're persevering in your pain, you should anticipate, be open to receiving the comfort of God. Because Paul says it's just as much a reality. So what does it look like to be comforted by God? Listen, God knows your language. Some of us, we just need friendship, right? And it's God brings alongside of us other people. Sometimes God just gives us open doors where we can keep ourselves occupied, get our attention off of ourselves, be busy with other things, right? Sometimes it's it's that it's just that still small voice in our hearts where just there's this encouragement, remembering scripture. Sometimes it's um, I don't know. There's other, I can't think of other ways. I know for me, the comfort that I receive happens usually in an alone space where God uses his word to remind me of what is true. And that truth just goes home to my heart and it lifts me up, gives me a bigger picture of like, yeah, this hurts right now, but the ultimate truth is this thing here. But look, if you're a follower of Jesus and you're not at not in church, which you wouldn't be guilty of this morning, if you're but if you're not in his word, if you're not talking to him about your life, if you're not listening to worship music, it's kind of hard for him to comfort you. Right? Because his means of comfort are usually his word, prayer, church, and fellowship. So while Paul promises this, you need to make sure that you're putting yourself in a position where you can receive that comfort. We receive an overflowing comfort from Jesus in the midst of our suffering so that we have an ability to comfort others. God wants to work comfort in you so that you can comfort others. Let's go to verses six and seven. Paul explained the principle in verses three through five. Now he's going to apply it to himself. We got the principle of who God is, what he does, and why he does it. Now, now what we're gonna see is that Paul's gonna apply the principle to himself. Let's see. In verse 6, if we are afflicted, Paul's talking about himself. He's talking about Timothy, about Titus, about Sylvanus, his ministry clue. If we are afflicted, it's for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it's for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance for the same sufferings that we suffer. Paul's basically saying, look, it's played out in us. You've watched us suffer from afar. You've heard my story of suffering. Remember, you go back to 1 Corinthians and you get a bit of that. You hear about his suffering. He's going to share some more later on in this book about his suffering. And he's saying it's working in you. This dynamic, this principle is something that you haven't just heard theoretically, but you've experienced it practically. It's important. You've seen it, you've tasted it, you've touched it. And our hope for you is firm. Well, why? Why is Paul's hope for them firm? It's because we know that as you share in the sufferings, so you will also share in the comfort. Paul, why? Why do you know that? Why does Paul know that? Because he's gone through it. He has gone through it, right? He has experienced it himself. He has gone through affliction, and he's experienced the comfort of God. And so Paul is sitting there hopeful about them. Some of you have friends, family, kids, and you look at their suffering, and your hope is tested. You have spouses, co-workers, neighbors, and it's like, God, how do I think about this person? Their situation makes me stressed out. Paul looked at the Corinthian church and he says, I'm hopeful for you because of the spiritual experience I've had. Right? I'm hopeful for you because of the spiritual experience that I have. And Paul saying that in your suffering it is not meaningless. It knits the church together into this shared comfort. Verse seven explicitly says, as you share in our sufferings, you also share in our comfort. Now, we're in a city that is not far removed from pain, right? There's a lot of suffering. There's a lot of pain in this city. Right? Do you agree? You got broken families, there's stuff going on that's hard. This city knows pain. And so how it handles pain is fascinating. You got some people who are like sitting in self-pity, right? People that just are like, they're just like wallowing in their self-pity. You got other people that use their suffering as an excuse to disengage, right? What how how can I use the system? You know? How can I, how can I just check out from society? I don't need to love my neighbor, I don't need to contribute to society, I don't need to go and get a job because I've gone through this painful thing. Other people use their pain and suffering as an opportunity to play the victim. And they make their suffering a banner to try to get favor within society. Look at if you're part of Jesus' kingdom, you got it all wrong if that's you. If you're in self-pity, if you're disengaged, if you're playing the victim, that's Baltimore, but that's not Jesus' kingdom. If you're suffering following Jesus, you should expect that the comfort of God is going to be upon your life and that you're a servant to others. You become useful. You become useful to the people around you as a great comforter to the people around you. Now we go to verse 8. And it's going to open up with this. We don't want you to be unaware. You can read the rest of this, but I'm going to get to it in a second. I just, I've got to I've got to pull your attention in real quickly. I he's he uses this phrase, and you're going to see all throughout 2 Corinthians that the way Paul communicates is that he tells them how he's doing his relationship with them. Paul is explaining here's how a new covenant Christian does relationship. And one of the things that we do as followers of Jesus is we don't try to operate in the dark. We're not shady. That kid is so cute. Oh my gosh, I wish I could hold him. I'll let you hold him for a little while. He's been very patient. Listen, a Christian does not do relationships where it's just like, well, you gotta figure it out. No, Paul, as he's following the Holy Spirit in this relationship with the Corinthian church, what he's saying is, I don't want you to be unaware of the things going on in my life. Listen, if you've gone through painful stuff, the temptation is to shut down, cross your arms, and to be closed and hard. That's not a generous disposition. The disposition of Jesus was like this. His arm posture was like this. Right? Yeah. The natural instinct if you've gone through junk in relationships is to close up. But what Paul does is he says, because Jesus is king of my relationship with you, he's just, he can deal with the wrongs you've done. He's still at work in you, he can still comfort you. He's the God who's He's gonna bless you, He's gonna work in your life. I'm gonna say this. I don't want you to be unaware. I'm gonna let you know what's going on in my life. Now, the things He's about to share could be deeply embarrassing. It's hard to share. Sometimes you want, there are people who do their life who feel like it is necessary to look like they're tough. I see this all the time with guys in the city. Young men, I'm tough. You know? I got it. I got it. Yo, it's not gonna bother me. Who are you coming at? You know? I'm tough. I'm tough. This is Paul the apostle. This is the apostle. Of course you can't have suffering in your life if you're an apostle. Right? That can't happen. This is this is the guy we think, like you you gotta have it all together, Paul. But he says, no, I want you to be, I don't want you to be unaware of this suffering that occurred. Brothers and sisters, I don't want you to be unaware of our affliction that took place in Asia. Affliction. You're over there in Asia, Paul, you're getting afflicted, huh? Maybe, maybe God's not with you. I mean, we got a bunch of super apostles here saying you're like second rate. You're over there getting afflicted in Asia, that's because God doesn't like you anymore. Paul's got his arms open. He's saying, I'm gonna let you know what's going on. Be transparent. I don't want you to be unaware, I don't want you to be ignorant. We were completely overwhelmed. Whoa. Paul the apostle was completely overwhelmed. I know when I'm completely overwhelmed, after the fact I feel pretty embarrassed. Like I was kind of freaking out. But Paul's like, hey, I was completely overwhelmed. And he says, I was beyond strength. What? You didn't have strength for the moment? The situation was beyond the strength that you had? Yeah, it was. It was to the point that we even despaired of life itself. Despaired of life itself? Like you didn't see the other side of the situation? Yeah. That's where I was at. That's what was real for me, Paul. That's what Paul says, that's what was real for me, Corinth. Despairing. I don't know. Some people say he was suicidal. I don't know if it says that, but it uses this word, despair. Have you ever despaired? Some of you are despairing. See, you've been in despair mode so long, you're like you can't even recognize yourself. He said, Look, we despaired of life itself. He goes on. He's not done yet. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. Paul's talked about affliction. He's talked about suffering. He's talked about the sentence of death. He's talked about being beyond strength. He's talked about feeling overwhelmed. Can you relate? Yeah. Man, a stressful day. You're at work. It's just like, man, I what I don't. It's it's just when you're in that place, it's not your best moment, right? You're like, man, this is just, ah, why, why? Why is this going on? Look at look at this. Here's again the word so that. Paul is going to explain logically, structurally, why God allowed this in his life. Now, he says this because this is what God taught him. God taught him in the midst of his suffering, this is what comfort looked like to him. Here's the logic, Paul. Imagine God speaking to Paul. Paul, here's the logic. You're going through this suffering. Here's the logic. It's so that you will not trust in yourself, but in God who raises the dead. That's crazy, right? That the God of the Bible, the God of the Bible is the one who will let you go through suffering, and he does it so that you will not trust in yourself, but in God who raises the dead. Do you remember Proverbs 3, 5, and 6? Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path. You were designed as a blessable, image-bearing covenant partner. You were designed to be dependent, to do life with God. And sometimes God allows this suffering to occur in our life so that we don't default back to, I'm gonna just trust in myself. I got this, God. You hang out there, God, over in heaven with your angels. I got it down here on earth. Nope. That's not how it's supposed to be. God wants to walk with you. He wants to do today with you. He wants to do your bus rides with you. He wants to do your job with you. He wants to do your marriage with you. He wants to do your parenting with you. He doesn't want you to trust in yourself. So listen, if you're in the midst of suffering, you may want to think, am I trusting in myself? Or is God just reminding me through my suffering that man, I've been really leaning on my own understanding? And I should be, trusting in the God who raised Jesus from the dead. And so Paul continues, he says, This God who raised Jesus from the dead has delivered us from such a terrible death. We have put our hope in him that he will deliver us again. Deliverance three times. Delivered from eternal judgment. Delivered from physical death, like there's a hope of the resurrection in the midst of death. And we have put our hope in him that in this present suffering he's gonna deliver us. Listen, when we're done with this sermon, we're not done with this theme. Okay? My hope is that this will saturate your soul because the things that Paul's talking about is very real life. Okay? It's real life of how you and I engage and process painful moments, stressful moments. I hope it saturates you. You just gotta know that you gotta chew on this, but we're coming back to this type of material. Deliverance. God is the God who delivers. You can be hopeful. You can allow his comfort in your life. You can anticipate his deliverance. You can do life in this generous, servant-like way because he's the one who works these incredible things. Now he ties in prayer at the end and he tells them there's gonna be this deliverance while you join in helping us by your prayers. So prayer's helpful. Prayer fits in. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gift that came to us through the prayers of many. Paul is anticipating that he's gonna be helped by their prayers in a very real way, and that there's gonna be this just deliverance. It's gonna be awesome. It's gonna be awesome. That God has worked, He's delivered, He's made it this just that He's turned the circumstance. And that's the type of thing that you're waiting for in your life. And you need to hold on for that. You need to persevere for God's work in your life. I'm gonna invite the um uh the worship team to come back up. We're gonna worship together. This is this is what I want to invite you to this morning. I want you, I want to just invite you to recognize that God loves you, he's ready for to help you in your relationships, he's ready to be in the midst of your pain and suffering. He is there for you, and he wants to not just rescue you, but he wants to do it for the sake of other people that are like, yeah, thanks God for letting me watch them get rescued. Right? Oh my gosh. I love kids, they are so cute. So so the dynamic here, I I think the response, like, what do we do? Open up our hearts. Are you are you willing to open up your heart? Or are you gonna be closed? No, no, not taking that comfort. Can't afford to, been disappointed too many times. You're gonna open up your heart. Let's do that. Lord, we um we come before you. We come before you, we we we tell you, God, that we want our hearts to be open to you. We wanna be like Paul, where we're like relationally open, not closed down. Lord, we want to work, we really want to work and do our relationships with the people around us by the power of your Holy Spirit, like in a new covenant way, not in a way that is like in our flesh, leaning on our understanding. Lord, we really, really want to honor you. So, Lord, we just offer ourselves to you. Would you just help by the Holy Spirit, just crack open the doors of our heart so that we can receive your comfort? We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. As these guys are leading us in worship, I want you to um, if you're a follower of Jesus, only if you're a follower of Jesus, you can grab elements up here or in the back for communion. Hold on to them because we're going to take communion together.