Beacon Sunday Service: June 30th, 2024

As his work is finished, he has spoken this hope to me.

This morning, and uh I'm gonna need your guys' help just singing aloud and praising the Lord this morning. Um just want to share something really quick. Our praise team is uh has been going through a book on worship, and this particular week we learned on the call to worship. Why do we do a call to worship as a church? And really, it's not that me or John or Sarah are calling you guys into worship, right? It's the Lord that is calling us into worship, especially as we either recite a verse or we hear a verse that's God's calling for us to come and worship him, right? Not that we have anything to bring to him, but really he's calling us as broken people to come to him and offer our lives in faith to him.

So that's just a reminder for us that as we worship him, uh may we uh tune our hearts and our minds to him this morning, especially as we gather uh corporately and just have this great privilege to be able to be together in his presence today. And so um our call to worship this morning comes from Revelation 5 13, and it says this it says, Let every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them say to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever. And so much like the rest of creation worships the Lord. May we come before him and offer him worship from our hearts, oh my God, oh Lord my God when I in awesome wonder consider all the works I hands have made I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, thy power throughout the universe display, then sings my soul my Savior God to thee, how great thou art, how great thou art, then sings my soul my Savior God to thee, how great thou are how great thou when through the woods and forest glades I wander and hear the birds sing sweetly in the tree when I look down from lofty mountain's grandeur and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze, then sings my soul my Savior God to thee how great thou are how great thou art then sings my soul my Savior God to thee how great thou art how great thou when I think and when I think that God is Son not sparing sent him to die.

I scarce can take it that on the cross my burden gladly bearing he bled and die to take away my sin to thee how great thou art how great thou art then sings my soul my sings I to thee how great thou great thou Christ shall come when Christ shall come with shouts of acclamation and take me home what joy shall fill my heart then I shall bow in humble adoration and then proclaim my God how great thou art then sings my soul my Savior God to thee how great thou art how great thou art and sings my soul my Savior God to thee how great thou great thou art then sing so my saving God to thee how great thou are how great thou art then sings my soul my savior God to thee how great thou art how great thou great thou art reaches of heaven starry lights of the evening dancing inside skies brilliance of morning breaking day oh let them praise him praise oh praise his name oh praise his name let all his one trust works clear might and peaceful place snowfall and thundering ocean waves, kings and their king age to raise Oh, let them praise him, praise his praise him, praise name, praise his name.

Let all his works praise praise. Oh praise. Let all his works praise. King enthroned, King enthroned in majesty, all things made by his decree creation's melody, praise him, praise him, everything with life and breath, everywhere from east to west, every heart raise from the dead, praise him, Angel Zoin, Jesus Lamb for sinners, name above all other names, praise him, all praising, praising, let all is words, praise Oh praise name, oh praise, let all his words sing with our voices, praise name, oh praise his name, praise his name, let all his works praise, praise praise works, this morning we will confess our faith using a catechism for the Christian growth.

And these questions and answers. We'll confess whether the Lord Supper adds anything to Christ's atoning work. So here's the question. Does the Lord suffer add anything to Christ's atoning work?

No. Christ died once for all our sins. The Lord's supper celebrates and remembers Christ's atoning that communion. And it'll be a time for us to remember Christ's work for all he has done for us.

Blessed redeemer.

And broken and poured out all for love. The whole tremble.

So amazing. Love so amazing.

Blessed redeemer.

All our hope.

All our hope is in you. All the glory to you.

Blessed redeemer. Amen you the rescue for siner.

Blessed be the rescue forces the ransom from him Jesus Messiah Lord of all Amen He is our Messiah the Lord of all at this time uh we are going to just corporally confess our sins to the Lord this is a time to just come before him with contrite hearts humbling ourselves before him and just confessing the things that we have uh done wrong to him so we're gonna confess that corporately and then shortly thereafter we'll have a private time of just confessing our sins to the Lord and so together let us confess O God wash me and I will be whiter than snow let me hear joy and gladness let the bones that you have broken rejoice hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me cast me not away from your presence and fill me with your Holy Spirit restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit amen let's all take our seats and let's have a private time of confession of sin to the Lord here now the assurance of pardon if you O Lord should mark iniquities O Lord who of who of us could stand but with you there's forgiveness that you may be feared for a time of prayer this morning uh what I'd like us to do is just think of somebody in your life could be a family member a friend co-worker that is not saved that does not believe in the Lord let us pray for that person that salvation would come to them but also for ourselves that although we may have a heart for that person, that we would have opportunities to be able to share the gospel with them, uh, that we would uh just genuinely be able to plead with them to just turn to the Lord, that they would uh come to know uh the saving faith in Jesus Christ our Lord, the same faith that he has given us.

And so may we pray for those things. May we pray for that specific person in our lives. Uh let us do so now. Let's pray.

Lord, we uh just thank you again for this time. Um you call us uh in your great commission to go out to all the nations and to preach your gospel. But Lord, um how can we even do that if we're not doing that in our own um spheres of influence today? God, I I just pray that you would give us hearts for um the people who are around us who do not know you. God, we pray that you would give us boldness to just preach your gospel and to just share uh your love with them. Um, even for myself personally, God, you've placed uh my friend AJ uh in my life to just be able to be a blessing to share the gospel with him. And I just pray that you would just continue to give me uh bold words, um courage to just share your gospel with him, and even um amongst us here in our congregation at the beacon, God, continue to give us opportunities to preach the gospel, Lord, um help us to just recognize those opportunities, but um take it a step further and to actually do it, God.

Um you call us to just to evangelize and uh in our short time here on earth, this is the only time we really can do it. And so I pray uh that you would just continue to give us those opportunities and to just really have the same loving heart for your people, that we would just truly be able to just share and evangelize to others, Lord God. And so uh, yeah, we just thank you so much for this time, and as we just go into a time of hearing your word, uh sharing in communion together, uh Lord, would you just bless this time together and may it just be a time of sweet fellowship and more importantly, worship and just giving glory to you, God. We thank you. We love you, and it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Amen. And today we have a few announcements. So, children, you're actually gonna stay in our worship service today, because um it's kind of special. We're gonna have a communion service today, and you we will all be learning uh just about communion today. Um, so here's a couple announcements. Uh, first one is our park day is on July seventh. Uh, that is next Sunday. It's gonna be at uh Dr. Richard, Dr. Richard Rue Memorial Park in Stevenson Ranch. Um we're gonna have a time of worship. It's gonna be a little bit modified, uh, but we will still have a good time of worship, fellowship. We're gonna play some some games, uh, and just have a good time together. Uh and that'll start the same time that we start uh like today at 10 30.

So please be there, don't be late. There should be plenty of parking. Uh and again, it'll just be a real good time. I'm definitely looking forward to it. Uh lastly, our uh offering options are Zell Zell Venmo Cash and Check. Um we we always say if your members here or our attenders here, longtime attenders here, please give generously as the Lord has led you to do so. And so with that, Pastor Madison.

Hey, we're gonna share communion today, and and when we have communion, it's usually it's almost just tacked on to the end of a service, and I don't want it tacked on to the end of the service today. I want it to be the service so that uh the kids and others can know what's going on. But to start it out, uh let me just uh play this video clip. If you've some idea of what you see that, basically what you saw was we're free, our debt has been paid because you saw what was to look like blood, how Jesus shed his blood for us and gave his life.

Now we're gonna sit we're gonna share in communion. It says, for often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. I would think that many of you think uh I can't preach. I can't I'm don't don't ask me to get up in front of anybody, but the Greek word that's used there, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes, is the Greek word caruso. And it's the Greek word that means preach. So what it's saying there is when you take communion, you're preaching, you're proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes. When we do communion, communion doesn't save anybody. It just points back to what was done that makes our salvation possible. When we do communion, um again, we could do it.

There are some churches that do this every single day. There are some churches that do it just once a year. When I started the church in Palmdale back in 1987, we didn't have any believers, so to speak, at our church. Our church was, we were going door to door. We sent out 24,000, 25,000 letters inviting people to come. We're gonna have a church, it's gonna be a new church, it's gonna be in the movie theater. And so the first Sunday, people didn't, I mean, they didn't know anything. Well, after the service, it was on Easter Sunday. We talked about the resurrection, and one woman said to me, Oh, I didn't realize that's what Easter was all about. Because most of the time, Easter means uh let me say it this way.

Easter means beans. To most people, jelly beans, and not Christ resurrecting from the the dead, and so we we had that that wonderful service, but we had hardly any believers. So now you're not gonna do communion and give it to unbelievers. And so what we did is we said, okay, we're gonna we're gonna do it, you know, maybe Wednesday nights or some other time. We didn't do it for years in our morning worship service until our congregation began to understand the importance of it, and that it doesn't save them. A lot of them came from Catholic backgrounds that, oh, that's they think that that wafer becomes Jesus' real body. And when you say, have you ever received Christ as your have you received Christ in your life?

They think, yeah, I ate that wafer because that wafer became literally Jesus. But throughout scripture, Jesus held it up and he said, This is my body, which is for you. Doesn't mean it really became his physical body. A lot of times in scripture, we have uh words and pictures that the trees clap their hands, is what the psalmist says. But do the trees have hands? No. But it's it's almost a picture. It becomes this picture of trees clapping their hands as they they wave and in praise to the Lord. So when we take communion, and here's how we do it here, and here's how we do it at the church in Palmdale, it's an open communion. What does that mean? That means that there are churches around the world, especially in the United States, that you cannot take communion unless you're a member at their church, because they realize how significant it is.

If you eat and drink unworthily, you eat and drink judgment on yourselves, not discerning the Lord's body. So they say they wouldn't let people take communion if they didn't know him. If somebody visited the church, they couldn't take communion. What we would say to you is this if you have repented of your sins and trusted Christ for salvation, invited him to come in and save you, then this is the Lord's Supper. And he invites you to participate. If you've never done that, then you don't know what you're doing, and you're taking it in an unworthy manner. So here's what let me take you over to the text. First Corinthians chapter 11. This is one of the earlier scriptures written in the New Testament.

Probably the first one was the book of Galatians. The Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were written at later dates. But 1 Corinthians is one of the first examples, and it's one of the few examples in the New Testament where it quotes Jesus. You know, if you had a red letter edition of the Bible, that his words are in red, uh Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John would have a lot of that. But most of the other scripture wouldn't have that. But 1 Corinthians does, where it becomes one of the earliest quotes written down of what Jesus said. So here's what it says. For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you. You told me this, and I told somebody else, and I told somebody else, and I they told somebody else.

I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you on the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread. And when he had given thanks, broke it, said, This is my body, which is for you, do this in remembrance of me. Can I let me we'll just kind of break this this down a little bit today so that we'll do some of the look at the text and then we'll move towards some of the communion stuff, and then we'll come back and look at some of the text, so that we'll just kind of weave it right through that it'll be all the service will be communion, but we'll learn about what's going on. Can I say to you, remember when I was little, which goes a couple years ago, when I was little, they they talked about in school learning the three, do you know what I'm gonna say?

The three. Anyone anybody familiar with that? What? The three what? They used to say it this way. It was kind of crazy because it was incorrect even to say it this way. But they would say, oh, you need to work on the three R's. You ever heard that? Reading. And then they would say, writing, and I go, wait a minute, that's not how you spell writing, you know? But they say reading, writing, and arithmetic instead of arithmetic. The three R's reading, writing, arithmetic. But literally, I want to give you three R's to think about when it comes to communion. And the first one is on the screen. Do this what? Remembrance. Why are we doing this? Because Jesus knew how prone we were to forget things.

I mean, I can if I said to you, uh, what did you have for lunch on Friday? You're gonna go, well, I don't know. Um, let me think. What did I have? What did you have for lunch on Monday? You probably aren't going to remember unless, oh, wait a minute. Some people have the same thing every day for lunch. Oh, I had a turkey sandwich or head or whatever. But most of the time, what do we do? We forget. And so the Lord said, I need a way. So people always are? Remember. They always remember. Sometimes, you ever heard of you ever watched as people? I give you some of these old things that people used to do. People used to tie a string around their finger so that they wouldn't forget. You ever, did any of your parents ever do that?

Your parents said that? Yeah. Or, you know, they do something. I used to, I wait years ago, I used to take my watch off my left hand, put it on my right hand, and say, okay, now it's there for a purpose. Remember what it's there for. So that you we just have a tendency to forget. So the Lord said, I need a way that they're going to remember what I did for them so that they could be saved. So what do we do? Communion. And you know what the Lord says? As often as you do it, you I want you to do it in remembrance of me. I told you there are some churches, there are some churches that do this every day. It's not how often you do it, but it's that you remember. He wants you to remember that he gave his body on the cross, and he shed its blood on the cross so that you could be saved.

Taking, I'll say it, I'll keep hammering this home, taking communion, never saved anybody. What's interesting is the Roman Catholic Church would teach that it's a means of grace. Did you catch that? It's a way to get God's grace. Did you know something? There's only one place in scripture, one verse in scripture that says how to get more of God's grace.

James 4, 6. And that goes back and quotes the Old Testament. The only way to get more of God's grace is to humble yourself before Him. And grace is just God's free gift to you. You can't do anything to get God's grace. Otherwise, listen to me carefully. If you do anything to get God's grace, God's, here's what Paul says in Romans. If you do anything to get God's grace, grace ceases to be grace. Did you catch that? Grace is God giving you what you don't deserve. His love, heaven, forgiveness of sins. That's grace. And so he's saying, I want you to remember. And you're going to forget. And so I want you to do this. Oh, and here's the key. I want you to do this as often as you do it in remembrance of me.

You can do it every day. You could do it once a week. Our church here at the Beacon does it once a month. For years, when I pastored in Palmville, we did it once a quarter. Every three months. First Sunday of every new quarter. First of January, first of April, first of July, first of October, and we turned the whole service over to worshiping and remembering. So we would have solos that talked about the cross. We'd have everything went back to the cross so that I would remember and that I would worship. And it wouldn't just be tacked on to the end, quickly done and say, okay, we did that. He said, do this in remembrance of me. I'm going to give you three hours. The first one is you're gonna what?

Remember. In the same way, also he took the cup after supper and said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it. And what's the word again? In remembrance. In remembrance of me. It never says, do this as often as you do it so that you're saved. It's so that you remember that you don't forget. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim. Remember the Greek word? Caruso, you preach, you preach the Lord's death till he comes. So then, whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord, look at this phrase, verse 27. So then whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord.

Did you catch what he's saying there? Not that you are unworthy to take it. Because we all are unworthy, aren't we? If that were the case, then nobody could ever take this. But he's talking about how you go about taking this in this unworthy manner, will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Let me just uh go to the next verse. Let a person examine himself in this way, in this way, ah, let him eat the bread and drink the cup. I don't examine you, you don't examine me. We know you know the sin in your life. You know what you've done, you know what you've said, you know where you've gone. And he's saying, hey, examine yourself so that you understand what you have in the Lord. So you're going to remember.

You're doing this, so you remember, and then you examine yourself, and you see the sin in your life, and with that sin, what do you do? Repent. Okay. You got the second R. You're going to remember what he's done on the cross. And then you're going to examine yourself and say, Lord, you know, and that's why we had that time. And that's why each week we have that corporate, you know, Lord, we've sinned. And then we have that private. Lord, you know. And you just tell the Lord what's going on in your life. Did you know something? I it just amazes me sometimes when people want to get up and tell others some horrific sins they've done. Did you know what God's word says? It's a shame to speak of those things which have been done in secret.

You know, they don't need to hear the details of what you've done. God's wanted to hear the details. And we confess our sins to one another. You know, you say, you know, I haven't, I haven't been faithful in in this area. Do I need the details of where he hasn't been faithful? No. You know, I I've said this. Sometimes some guy come to me and say, hey, I I I've been unfaithful to my wife. And I say to him, okay. Have you repented of that? Yeah. Okay. Have you confessed that to your wife? You know? And by the way, then I say to them this. I said, don't give her that details. Don't say, oh yeah, it was over here at uh uh at the holiday inn, uh, it's from 619, and you know, yeah. Every time she goes by that holiday inn, what's Satan gonna do?

Satan's gonna beat the tar out of her. She's gonna say, oh yeah, that's that's that's where it happened. She doesn't need those details. What you did was you were unfaithful. You know, and you simply say, I sinned against you. I didn't keep my word to you. I I was unfaithful. Will you forgive me? I was wrong. Will you forgive me? So when we come to this kind of an area, you examine your own heart, and you do what? You repent. So, what I'm gonna ask you to do right now is to again examine your heart. You know exactly. Come clean with God. Against you, David sinned. Remember, David with Bathsheba in Psalm 51. He said, Against you, you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight.

That's what I want you to do right now. I'm gonna ask you to bow and quietly just examine your heart before God right now. Oh dear Father, we would confess. We have corporately confessed, we have individually confessed. We're examining our own hearts now so that you could have us come to this table. So we remember and we repent, and we stand and are able to say there's nothing between my life and the Savior. And we would pray that right now.

In Jesus' name we pray. Love. Amen. There it is. Turn it up a little bit. So many meanings, so many feelings attached to it, so many definitions, so many experiences. We think we know what it means, but honestly, it's it's been distorted, misrepresented, misunderstood, misused so much that perhaps we've lost sight of its real meaning. Poets, philosophers, songwriters, filmmakers, painters, dancers, businessmen, scientists, congressmen, everybody's trying to express its meaning. Some get close, others are way off. Some refuse to accept where it comes from, still others act like they don't need it, while others try to convince us that it's just a basic function of the brain. John Lennon said it's all we need.

Pat Benatar said it's a battlefield. Some matter for all you old people out there, so it's a mini splintered thing, whatever that means. To be honest, we've all thrown the word around in some glib reference to ice cream or a football team as if the word is interchangeable between products and people. And I'm not trying to knock that. It's just a sometimes I really want to know what a word means. It kind of helps in conversations and human communication. But this word, huh? Can we really define it? Is it too ambiguous, too morph from its original meaning, too mysterious, we can't even expect anything from it? Well, maybe maybe the creator of its original meaning should be consulted. So let's glean from his book and see how he defines it, shall we?

Agape. That's the New Testament word for love that I'm talking about. The kind of love that we're all really longing for, and nothing else even comes close. This is the kind of love when demonstrated properly changes everything. It's an act of an unconditional love. It's the kind of love that says I'll never think of myself first. Everything I do is for someone else. It's the kind of love that says, I'll be rejected so you can be accepted. I'll be humiliated so you can be lifted up. It's the kind of love that says, I'll set this one out for the good of the team. I'll move to the back so my friend can move up front. It's a rare love that proves its merit by action. The kind that wakes up every morning and asks, how can I outserve everyone around me today?

It's a motivational love that says, Don't worry because I got your back. You can do all things with me on your side. It's the kind of love that says, I'm with you always. I'll provide for you. I'll sit with you beside still waters and I'll go before you in battle. It whispers, I forgive you, and it shouts, I'm your best friend. It leads you to truth, it steers you from harm. It's the kind of love that can't be earned, that can't be bought, that won't leave you, that won't forsake you, and that won't misjudge you. It's a rare kind of love that will tackle you to the ground so you won't fall off a cliff. This is the kind of love that's better than life, stronger than death, it's patient, it's kind, it always protects, trust, hopes, and perseveres.

Agape love is unmerited. It's unmovable, it's unshakable, it's undeniable, indestructible, secure, sensitive, and straightforward. It's the kind of love that builds up, it seeks the lost, it befriends enemies, it corrects, it guides, it comforts, it reassures. In the simplest of terms and maybe most complete definition, it's the kind of love that says, I'll die, so you can live.

Do this in remembrance of me. Jesus took the bread.

Uh, back to our seats as we ready ourselves to partake in communion. If God is leading you to come, you come and partake. Body of Christ for you. Now that you have that, let's let's just talk about this for a second.

Jesus took the bread. When he given thanks, broke it, he said, This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. This is my body. Again, I I said to you, this literally doesn't become his body. In the same way that Jesus, and just a little bit after that, turned toward Peter and said, What do you say to Peter? Get thee behind me, Satan. Oh, is Peter Satan? Not literally, but what was being said through him. Peter was trying to just dissuade him from where he's going to the cross. And that's the whole purpose he came down. He said, I want you to understand, I gave my body for you. Greater love has no man than this. Then a man laid down his life for his friends.

For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks what? Judgment on himself. Did you catch that word? This is the Christian standard Bible. Okay. Let me give it to you in the King James, right underneath here. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation on himself, not discerning the Lord's body. Now, damnation is eternal damnation. Hell. Okay. This is why I really want to be clear on this, and this is why I wanted to teach you this today. One of them says judgment, one says damnation. And we're just trying to be clear here. What is he saying? Okay, here's the Greek word that's used in this passage.

There's another word that we say.

It's I am judging. Judging. It's judgment. Okay? Let me give you the English word that we get from this. Critic. Instead of a K, we use C. C-R-I-T-I-C. It's a critic. And if somebody's a critic, they start to do what? Judge people. They become critical and they judge people. They cannot condemn them. They cannot send them for damnation. So that's why when almost every new translation clarifies this with the word judgment rather than damnation. But let's go on. For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. This is why many are sick and ill among you, and many have fallen asleep. If we were properly judging ourselves, we would not be judged.

But when we are judged by the Lord, let me highlight that. But when we are judged by the Lord, that's where our judgment's going to come in. When we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined. This is not eternal hell. This is discipline. Who the Lord loves, he does what? Hebrews 11. And 12, who the Lord loves, he does what? Disciplines. Like a father does his son. If you don't love your son, you'd never discipline him. You'd let him be get away with everything and grow up never disciplined in his life. But look at what the text says here. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined. And then he tells you why. Look at this. So that we may not be condemned with the world.

Did you catch that? If you took this in an unworthy way and you were under damnation, you would be judged by the world. You would be going to hell. But he said, no, you are under judgment, discipline, so that you won't be condemned with the world. So he says, look, this is really important. What you're doing right now is important. I want you to remember, I want you to repent. I'm going to ask you to begin to peel us back so that you're ready to partake of this bread. This is this is how the wafer got to be after COVID. But in our church, we never, we never took a loaf of bread.

And the reason we didn't put it do a loaf of bread is because that bread has yeast in it. And yeast causes that bread to rise. It tastes wonderful. But just a little bit of yeast or leaven can go through the whole loaf of bread. Bread like this has no leaven. There are pictures in Scripture of sin being like leaven. A little bit of sin. How much sin does it take to permeate your whole life? God says, whoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all.

And so when we take this, this has no leaven. As a matter of fact, before the Passover, they would sweep up the leaven and get rid of it in the house for that period of time. When Jesus took the Lord's Supper, he had, you know, that cracker that we have, a kind of a saltine cracker. That saltine cracker, have you ever held it up to light? If you have a cracker and you want to do that at home later today, hold it up to the light, and you'll see just hundreds of little pierced holes. You won't see it in this, but you'll see it in a saltine cracker. That unleavened cracker. It has all those holes. And then if you just look at it, you'll see where it's been cooked over that grill, and it has stripes on it.

Because he was pierced for our transgressions. By his stripes, we are healed. And that's why it became that picture, and that's why Jesus took that wafer, not a loaf of bread, but that flattened wafer that had no yeast in it. By the way, the reason it was that way is that became a picture of when they fled Egypt. And when they fled Egypt on that last night, and they ate that sacrificial lamb, and they put the blood on the doorpost, and then they took the bread to leave Egypt and go towards the promised land. If it had had yeast in it, it would have milled, it would have had mold eventually. Ah, but unleavened, that cracker, that cracker can last a good long time without any mold. And that's what they took, and that's what they celebrated when they celebrated the Passover of when they left Egypt.

He's saying to you, Jesus held that bread up and he said, This is my body, which is for you. Eat of it.

There's an old hymn. The hymn was entitled, Beneath the Cross of Jesus. And that's where he said, God forbid that I should glory, except in what? The cross. Galatians chapter six. Where he talks about it in verse fourteen. I wanna I want to rejoice in the cross. And so I, if you know the song and want to sing along, I'm gonna have the words on the screen so you have a chance to hear it and see it. You want to turn it up, Alex? I have no sound of it.

So he says, let's do this in remembrance of me. I'm gonna ask you to take the cup.

We used to have a covenant. While you're doing that, let me just put a couple of things on the screen here. And the same way also he took the cup after supper and said that this cup is the new covenant in my blood. I used to have a covenant in the Old Testament, he said. Now this new covenant, I'm putting it on your heart.

The same way he took the cup after supper. He said, This is this cup as the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. It's in my blood. Hebrews 9 12. Interesting. I memorize this verse as a probably an eight-year-old, a nine-year-old. It was out of the King James Version. Out of the King James Version, it says, Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. I learned that for Sunday school and never forgot it the rest of my life. This is a temporary, a contemporary translation, with his own blood. Not the blood of goats and calves.

With what? With his own blood. Hebrews 9 27 says this. He doesn't, it's 7.27, excuse me. He doesn't need to offer sacrifices every day, as high priests do, first for their own sins, and then for those of the people, but he did this once for all time. That's why this isn't, you're not doing this to get your sins forgiven. He did it once for all time. And because of that, he says, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. I invite you to drink of it. As you think about communion.

He says, I want you to remember.

What's the third R in the text? As often as you do this, you proclaim the Lord's death until he.

I give you another word. It's time to refocus. Do this in remembrance of. Where's your focus? Refocus. Give you end up four, you know. You're going to repent. You're going to remember. You're going to refocus. You're going to look at his return. All these are tied in communion. So that it's not something that's just, oh, let's just slap it on. Let's really walk away saying, oh, Lord help me to remember this week now. And to look for your return. I'm going to proclaim the Lord's death until he returns. Let's pray, and I'm going to ask the worship team if they'll go up and we'll sing one last song in closing. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, our heads are bowed, our hearts are in worship, in awe of you.

That you have done this for us. That you planned it before creation. That you knew we would fail. And you decided to make a way for us to get back with you. And so we pray that you would help us remember now. Never forget. Help us to repent when we s when we sin. Help us to keep our eyes on you. This do in remembrance of me, Jesus said. Of him. Help us to refocus.

We want to worship you in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's all respond in worship. As we just saw a powerful picture of the gospel just through communion and what Jesus Christ did for us. Let us sing that out in song. This is one of my favorite songs, the power of the cross. And may we just sing that out and live that out in our lives as we go through our weeks this week.

Sinfara we still forgiven us.

Every crown in your blood stay.

And know to see my name. It's in the wounds. For through your self. I am free. Yes. Death is crushed to death. Life is mine to live amen. One to yourself.

One of love. What a cost we send forgiven the cross.

Well, you can see how communion can take the whole service. And how it can take you back to what you need to have your mind on so that you always remember. And that you repent. And that you refocus. Do it in remembrance of what Jesus said of him. Me. Next Sunday, as we share at the park, we're going to have the kids with us again.

And talking about how they relate to our lives.

Okay.

And what I'm going to do is I'm going to teach you hand gestures so that you learn the Ten Commandments.

Raise your hand. Anybody? Okay. So most don't. And the reason the commandments were given is so that we can know our sinners. So I'm going to give you one right now. And this is how I'm going to teach you next week using just your hands and stuff. Okay. So here's the here's the first one for next Sunday. So you're ready. Okay. The first, the first commandment, right? The first commandment. You ought to be this, the first commandment is he's number one. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. He's number one. Got it. No other gods before him. Who comes first? God does. Thou shall have no other gods before me. He's first. Anything else is second or third or fourth or way last. But he's number what?

One. No other gods before me. And so next week we'll be going through those ten commandments so that when you're done, you'll be able to give them all in their order. No the gods before me. He's first. Got it. Got it? So next week you're going to have that down? He's number one. No other gods before him? Okay? Let's just close in prayer with a benediction. Heavenly Father, we rejoice that we could be here and celebrate communion. We want to remember. Help us remember what you've done. And then, Father, we pray that as we go from here today, you would watch over us, that you would cause your face to shine on us, and that our lives would point other people to you. Father, bring us back together next week to fellowship and to worship you and to hear from you.

In Christ's name we pray. Amen. God bless.