Glenys Freeman: The sermon text reading for today is First Corinthians nine chapters nineteen through twenty-seven.
Glenys Freeman: You can find this passage in the Sanctuary Bible on page seventeen forty-one.
Glenys Freeman: Please listen as I read God's word.
Glenys Freeman: Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone.
Glenys Freeman: To win as many as possible.
Glenys Freeman: To the Jews, I became like a Jew.
Glenys Freeman: To win the Jews.
Glenys Freeman: To those under the law, I became like one under the law.
Glenys Freeman: Though I myself am not under the law.
Glenys Freeman: So as to win those under the law.
Glenys Freeman: To those not having the law, I became like one not having the law.
Glenys Freeman: Though I am not free from God's law, but am under Christ's law.
Glenys Freeman: So as to win to those not having the law.
Glenys Freeman: To the weak, I became weak.
Glenys Freeman: To win the weak.
Glenys Freeman: I have become all things to all people, so that by all possible means I might save some.
Glenys Freeman: I do all this for the sake of the gospel.
Glenys Freeman: That I may share in its blessings.
Glenys Freeman: Do you not know that in a race all the runners run?
Glenys Freeman: But only one gets the prize.
Glenys Freeman: Run in such a way as to get the prize.
Glenys Freeman: Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.
Glenys Freeman: They do it to get a crown that will not last.
Glenys Freeman: But we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
Glenys Freeman: Therefore, I do not run like someone running aimlessly.
Glenys Freeman: I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.
Glenys Freeman: No.
Glenys Freeman: I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave.
Glenys Freeman: So that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
Dave Hammond: It's good to have uh a Sunday morning with you all.
Dave Hammond: Glennis, thank you very much for reading.
Dave Hammond: If you are new to the room or if you're watching us online for the first time, my name is Dave.
Dave Hammond: I am uh I get to serve as a director of Next Gen Ministries here at Elmwood.
Dave Hammond: Let me be another voice that says, Welcome.
Dave Hammond: It's good to have you here with us.
Dave Hammond: As a part of my role as a director of Next Gen Ministries, one of the things I do is I get the chance every once in a while, as we all leave the sanctuary.
Dave Hammond: Uh, we gather with the the kiddos and the students that stay in the room here during the sermon.
Dave Hammond: We go down to classroom B and we we have a conversation, we debrief the service and specifically the sermon.
Dave Hammond: We call it our next gen sermon debrief.
Dave Hammond: Two weeks ago, after John's sermon, we we went down and we did a recap of the sermon for the youth who were serving in children's sermon time and the nursery because they wanted to know what John was talking about.
Dave Hammond: We told them that we were back in 1 Corinthians, otherwise known as this week on how not to run a church.
Dave Hammond: And we said John had talked about the fact that it was important to give up his rights as a free man and free men or women in Christ, and instead engage in radical self-giving love.
Dave Hammond: I explained that John had asked us to maybe consider our schedules might be a little too full.
Dave Hammond: And out of love, we may need to remove things from our schedule for the purpose of giving yourself to someone else so that Christ might be formed in them.
Dave Hammond: The question he asked was, What am I willing to lay down so that Christ may be formed in others?
Dave Hammond: And the eruption that I got to watch in the room.
Dave Hammond: Hey now, hear me out.
Dave Hammond: It's not that bad, I promise.
Dave Hammond: It might have been my daughter.
Dave Hammond: Uh I was not picking on her.
Dave Hammond: John wasn't picking on me when he said that sermon.
Dave Hammond: John was identifying something that's true in our culture.
Dave Hammond: It's true that we we run at 1,500 miles an hour as fast and as hard as we can.
Dave Hammond: We fill our schedule full of anything everything, and then we try to downshift super fast so that we can connect with people around us.
Dave Hammond: Luckily, those people are also flying at 1,500 miles an hour, so it's okay.
Dave Hammond: Kind of.
Dave Hammond: But then we try to slam in there into our schedules somehow, some time with Jesus, and we end up praying prayers like Lord Jesus Christ, risen Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
Dave Hammond: Amen.
Dave Hammond: Okay, what's next?
Dave Hammond: It's a good prayer.
Dave Hammond: If that's the sum total of your relationship with Jesus, you're gonna end up with problems.
Dave Hammond: John's sermon two weeks ago hit me between the eyes as I looked at my schedule.
Dave Hammond: I know it probably hit some of you between the eyes as well, but I bring it up because this week's passage is kind of a continuation from the thought from that passage.
Dave Hammond: The passage we read that week could have ended, or the sermon from two weeks ago could have ended with to be continued, or Paul will return in exploring the life-giving way of Jesus.
Dave Hammond: That week we talked about emptying our schedules and laying down our rights for the sake of others.
Dave Hammond: This week, as we look at our passage today, we're gonna see the life-giving way of the cross on display once again in the way that Paul fills up his life in a new way to live, and also how God uses that new life.
Dave Hammond: Before we dive in, could you please pray with me?
Dave Hammond: Lord, your word encourages us to value others above ourselves.
Dave Hammond: Tells us to look after the interest of others and to ultimately have the same mindset of Christ Jesus.
Dave Hammond: Jesus, we know this is hard.
Dave Hammond: And so we ask you once again for help.
Dave Hammond: We thank you that we have this chance to interact with one another and to be your hands and feet to each other as we journey on this life.
Dave Hammond: Father God, we ask you, please prepare our hearts and minds to worship you as we listen to your word.
Dave Hammond: Holy Spirit, I ask, convict us today once again of our need for you.
Dave Hammond: God, thank you for showing us your love by sending your son, the second person of the triune God, to die that we may live.
Dave Hammond: Lord, empty me, fill me, use me.
Dave Hammond: We love you, Jesus.
Dave Hammond: Amen.
Dave Hammond: As I alluded to, we're kind of in the middle of a sermon series looking at the letter we call 1 Corinthians.
Dave Hammond: It's a letter from Paul, who was an early church planter in the Jesus movement, a follower of Jesus, and it's sent to the church in Corinth.
Dave Hammond: This is not the first letter that was exchanged between these two, but is the earliest we have in the Corinthian correspondence.
Dave Hammond: The letters between Paul and this church.
Dave Hammond: This letter always gives me so much hope.
Dave Hammond: It gives me so much hope because I'm a sinner in need of saving by God.
Dave Hammond: I'm a sinner in need of God's grace, and I still mess up.
Dave Hammond: And when I read this letter, and I start reading this letter, and it starts with Paul and our brother Sosthenes to the church of God in Corinth.
Dave Hammond: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Dave Hammond: I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.
Dave Hammond: Paul goes on to name some incredibly ugly sins that are present in this community, but he starts by thanking God.
Dave Hammond: He starts by wishing them grace and peace.
Dave Hammond: I may be a mess.
Dave Hammond: We may be a mess.
Dave Hammond: We have a ways to go before we catch up with Corinth.
Dave Hammond: But one of the things that is true is that if God Paul wrote a letter to us, he would start by thanking God for us.
Dave Hammond: And he would desire for grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ to be made manifest here in our church and in our cities.
Dave Hammond: And so it gives me hope.
Dave Hammond: It gives me hope because in some way that that church in Corinth is going before us, boldly going where no one's gone before.
Dave Hammond: And so we can learn from their mistakes.
Dave Hammond: We can learn and say, oh, we can we can join the life-giving way of Jesus because Paul is helping them, and the way that Paul helps them, in some way, he's helping us as well.
Dave Hammond: Now, uh anyone who's spent any amount of time uh in ministry with me knows that I like my two-word phrases.
Dave Hammond: I like my two-word phrases here at Elmwood, better together, gospel witness, ordinary obedience.
Dave Hammond: You hear these uh week after week from me.
Dave Hammond: Even uh, what is it, being with God, that's the fourth one.
Dave Hammond: It sounds like three words, but it's really two, right?
Dave Hammond: Being with God.
Dave Hammond: Uh two?
Dave Hammond: No.
Dave Hammond: Uh those are for church.
Dave Hammond: In marriage, there's super important two-word phrases.
Dave Hammond: We've got I do, yes, ma'am, I'm sorry.
Dave Hammond: Marriage set.
Dave Hammond: Gentlemen, take notes.
Dave Hammond: That's all you need.
Dave Hammond: Ready to go.
Dave Hammond: Uh, in Bible study, you get God is, I am, I will.
Dave Hammond: That's all you need.
Dave Hammond: You got Bible study down for you.
Dave Hammond: There's a pattern with this Dave that's standing up here.
Dave Hammond: Uh, I need to keep it simple, sweetie.
Dave Hammond: Like I need, I need some simpleness in my life.
Dave Hammond: I need two word phrases to help me.
Dave Hammond: And as I was studying this passage that we're looking at today, I was looking over and reading it again.
Dave Hammond: I found uh it kept reminding me of a simple prayer that I'd heard recently.
Dave Hammond: Often as we we hear songs and hymns and listen to the prayers of others who've gone before us, or as we read the scriptures, those songs and hymns and prayers will come to our minds because the people that wrote them were reading the same Bible we are.
Dave Hammond: And the prayer that kept floating into my mind has been made famous by Mother Olga.
Dave Hammond: She's the founder of the daughters of Mary of Nazareth, and a person who some are calling our generation's Mother Teresa.
Dave Hammond: The prayer is simple.
Dave Hammond: God empty me.
Dave Hammond: God fill me, God use me.
Dave Hammond: Amen.
Dave Hammond: If I could sum up John's sermon from two weeks ago, the one I already talked about, I would use the phrase, empty me.
Dave Hammond: Don't trample over each other as you exercise your rights.
Dave Hammond: Allow yourself to be emptied.
Dave Hammond: Follow the pattern of Paul, who follows the example of Jesus, who emptied themselves for your sake.
Dave Hammond: What does Dave need to lay down so that Christ can be formed in others?
Dave Hammond: How does Dave need to be emptied?
Dave Hammond: It was a call for me to downshift.
Dave Hammond: You got it?
Dave Hammond: Thank you, Kevin.
Dave Hammond: See, this this totally works.
Dave Hammond: We just needed a downshift.
Dave Hammond: Get out of the rat race.
Dave Hammond: We don't need everything to be perfect.
Dave Hammond: We need to see our brothers and sisters for whom Christ died.
Dave Hammond: So we need to slow down.
Dave Hammond: We need to see that our neighbors are chasing after Jesus, even though they may not know it yet.
Dave Hammond: We need to see the way that our frantic pace of life is affecting those closest to us.
Dave Hammond: We need to turn off the afterburners and be emptied of ourselves so that God can do something wonderful with us.
Dave Hammond: Seriously, the sermon was wonderful.
Dave Hammond: Go listen to it online.
Dave Hammond: I highly encourage you.
Dave Hammond: But think, empty me.
Dave Hammond: This is where Paul jumps in this week to guide us on the way to follow the life-giving way of Jesus.
Dave Hammond: Once we've allowed God to empty us, he starts to fill our lives back up.
Dave Hammond: God empty me, God fill me.
Dave Hammond: The example Paul sets before us, the example of someone following Christ, is once we're emptied by God, he fills us with an incredible love for him.
Dave Hammond: And out of that love flows a love for our neighbors.
Dave Hammond: So that the process of reaching out to them doesn't feel like a burden, but rather it's a privilege all of a sudden.
Dave Hammond: Paul talks about this process in this way in verse 19.
Dave Hammond: Though I am free, I belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone.
Dave Hammond: Paul undertakes this incredible task.
Dave Hammond: He tries to adopt the cultures and practices of others around him.
Dave Hammond: He commits himself to being filled with these new ideas, this new way of life because of his devotion to Jesus.
Dave Hammond: Paul then goes on to name somewhere between three and five groups, depending on how you count them, that all need to know about King Jesus, all need to know about a new way of life.
Dave Hammond: The five groups that I count, the Jews, those under the law, those not having the law, those that are weak, and then in the end, Paul just does everyone else.
Dave Hammond: Culturally speaking, uh it those who do not have the law and those who have the law, those those who have read the Hebrew scriptures and those who have never read the Hebrew scriptures are gonna be pretty different.
Dave Hammond: They're gonna be different, and yet Paul found a way to study their way of life, their practices, and become like them for the sake of spreading the good news about Jesus.
Dave Hammond: In order for us to just consider how do we maybe apply that for today, we're gonna do a little story time with Dave.
Dave Hammond: That's I I would invite you all down for a children's sermon, sit down on front, but you can stay in your pews.
Dave Hammond: I'll stay standing.
Dave Hammond: My knees hurt a little bit too much today.
Dave Hammond: Um I grew up, story time with Dave, I grew up in West Bloomington.
Dave Hammond: Uh it was it was not prestigious West Bloomington, that was the other side of the park, but I grew up in West Bloomington in an upper class, middle suburbanite home.
Dave Hammond: I was born in New Jersey, yes.
Dave Hammond: For those of you that know me, there's a little East Coast in me, but I grew what Bloomington was my home.
Dave Hammond: As I prepared to plant a church in my late 20s and thinking, where does God have me?
Dave Hammond: Where does God want me to reach out to to help people know and follow Jesus?
Dave Hammond: I realized I wanted to reach a different people group than I had known while I was a kid.
Dave Hammond: I wanted to reach blue-collar workers in northeast Minneapolis, was where we landed, and I knew I was gonna have to fill my way of life with something new in order to reach this new, different group of people.
Dave Hammond: And so I ended up with a job at UPS in Northeast Minneapolis working the midnight shift.
Dave Hammond: I learned the ways of the city.
Dave Hammond: My wife and I had bought a house in South Minneapolis just off of Lake Street.
Dave Hammond: At UPS, I learned the ways of a union shop and also how not to ever sleep again.
Dave Hammond: Those of you that have worked the second or third shift know exactly what I'm talking about.
Dave Hammond: I picked up some language at the union shop that I'm sure would not communicate the same ideas to back in my hometown.
Dave Hammond: I tried my best to pick up the cultural practices of people I was trying to reach to the UPSer.
Dave Hammond: I became like a UPSer.
Dave Hammond: I gotta tell you, when I planted my church in Northeast about a decade ago, I was nowhere as near as good as Paul is.
Dave Hammond: Let's just be clear.
Dave Hammond: But it doesn't really matter how good of a job I did.
Dave Hammond: Each of us has people in our lives, in our spheres of influence, that they do life, they have slightly different cultural practices than us.
Dave Hammond: They do life slightly differently, but through those people you can reach out with the love of God.
Dave Hammond: But in order to, we need to spend time getting to know them and how they interact with the world.
Dave Hammond: To the people of Arden Hills, become like one from Arden Hills.
Dave Hammond: We need to be filled with their culture in some ways.
Dave Hammond: To the people of Columbia Heights, become like one from Columbia Heights.
Dave Hammond: We need to consider their ways and how they're different from our ways.
Dave Hammond: To the people of New Brighton, we need to become like people from New Brighton.
Dave Hammond: We need to learn their language and their daily rhythms.
Dave Hammond: To the people of Roseville, become like one from Roseville.
Dave Hammond: We need to be curious about the people around us.
Dave Hammond: To the people of Minneapolis, become like one from Minneapolis.
Dave Hammond: We need to be close to the lost people in our lives.
Dave Hammond: To the people of Fridley, become like one from Fridley.
Dave Hammond: We need to meet people where they are and not expect them to come to us.
Dave Hammond: To the people of St.
Dave Hammond: Anthony, we need to become like one from St.
Dave Hammond: Anthony.
Dave Hammond: We need to figure out how we can become like them so that we can witness to them about King Jesus.
Dave Hammond: Doesn't matter if you're living in Blaine or in Spring Lake Park or in St.
Dave Hammond: Paul, even.
Dave Hammond: As a Minneapolis person, that hurts a little bit.
Dave Hammond: But even the St.
Dave Hammond: Paul people in the room, I love you.
Dave Hammond: To the people of wherever God has planted you, become like those people so that you might save some.
Dave Hammond: We need to be emptied by God so that we can be filled by Him with the love for our neighbors, so that the process of learning their ways of life doesn't feel like a burden, but rather it's a privilege.
Dave Hammond: Let's be clear.
Dave Hammond: Just because we may be filled with God's love for our neighbors who live differently than we do, that does not mean that the process of being filled with this new way of life is going to be easy.
Dave Hammond: Paul talked about the process of becoming like others to communicate the good news of the gospel to them in the language that they would understand.
Dave Hammond: He uses language that's intense physical training.
Dave Hammond: He talks about runners and boxers and strict training and striking blows to his body.
Dave Hammond: Any runner in the room will tell you that physical pain that they have when they tie up their shoes for the first time after way too long of not going out on the trails.
Dave Hammond: Even in youth group, we'll have people at the beginning of track season, oh, my legs hurt so much.
Dave Hammond: While runners might be able to enter a zone eventually where they're doing more meditation than running, there's an incredible amount of ice and time and energy and consistency and self-discipline that it takes.
Dave Hammond: And it's not for this faint of heart.
Dave Hammond: The other example, boxers.
Dave Hammond: I have to be honest, I don't completely understand boxing or uh MMA or jujitsu or sumo wrestling.
Dave Hammond: I understand the rules.
Dave Hammond: I get it.
Dave Hammond: I understand the rules.
Dave Hammond: Um I have all the respect in the world for people who engage in those sports.
Dave Hammond: Uh they're doing something and that they train for them.
Dave Hammond: They're doing something that I know I can't do with my body.
Dave Hammond: It's impressive and awe-inspiring, but uh the thing I don't get, why are we beating on each other until one of us has a traumatic brain injury?
Dave Hammond: It just doesn't, it doesn't quite make sense to me.
Dave Hammond: But I know those athletes are engaging in something incredible.
Dave Hammond: They're in control of their bodies in ways that are awe-inspiring.
Dave Hammond: They know exactly what they should and shouldn't eat.
Dave Hammond: They know exactly how many push-ups they should do, how many hours of jump rope they need to engage in.
Dave Hammond: They know exactly how to position their bodies in order to survive and win.
Dave Hammond: Do we have that same kind of purpose?
Dave Hammond: That same kind of resolve as we try to reach people with the greatest news we've ever heard.
Dave Hammond: Paul had a certain dedication to his craft.
Dave Hammond: Do we?
Dave Hammond: Paul trained himself to share the good news.
Dave Hammond: He emptied himself of his rights as an apostle.
Dave Hammond: He allowed God to fill him with love for those who are culturally different from him, and then he reached out and has allowed his life to be changed and filled with a new way to be human, loving others by adopting their cultural practices so that he could tell them the good news.
Dave Hammond: Guys, you're a sinner in need of saving by God.
Dave Hammond: Are we there?
Dave Hammond: All with the goal that others might be saved.
Dave Hammond: He wanted to be used by God.
Dave Hammond: If you're the kind of person that underlines things in your Bible, uh, I want to suggest that you go ahead and underline 1 Corinthians 9 22.
Dave Hammond: The passage says, I have become all things to all people, so that by all possible means I might save some, so that by all possible means I Might save some.
Dave Hammond: All that cultural study, getting ready to enter into life with a different group of people, becoming like the other people that were wildly different from Paul and how Paul grew up was for the other people's sake.
Dave Hammond: He saw people running straight at a cliff and then ran to join them and beg them stop, turn, follow Jesus.
Dave Hammond: Paul heard the good news about Jesus and then was transformed from the inside out and wanted to be used by God for the rest of his life so that by all possible means some might be saved.
Dave Hammond: Now, when I talk about evangelism and I talk about reaching out to people with this good news, there are some of you in the room that might be a bit intimidated by that concept.
Dave Hammond: You may have experienced a way of doing evangelism that uh some might label more arguing people into the kingdom of God.
Dave Hammond: I don't know if any of us have experienced that in the past.
Dave Hammond: That's not what we're talking about at all.
Dave Hammond: We're talking about the kind of evangelism that is motivated by kindness and love and the mercy of God.
Dave Hammond: Paul's letter to Titus, one of his proteges, says, uh, says this in chapter three When the kindness and love of God, our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.
Dave Hammond: The righteous things we do, all the emptying, the filling, all of the learning other people's cultures, the becoming like a UPSer to save UPSers and to tell them about Jesus, the early morning Bible reading, the hours spent in prayer, the volunteering at a church to the serving, the widows, the orphans, all of our actions do not save us.
Dave Hammond: God saves us because of his mercy.
Dave Hammond: He extends to us grace that we do not deserve.
Dave Hammond: He loves us even while we are still sinners.
Dave Hammond: And it is out of a heart of gratitude and an excitement for his love and grace that evangelism flows.
Dave Hammond: While there might be some that were have been intimidated by evangelism for seeing the arguing into the kingdom of God, I know there are our souls, those of you in the room, that as I say, as I say things like, empty me, fill me, use me, there's there's a way that your heart resonates with that song.
Dave Hammond: There's a way that you can feel a stirring within your chest as the Spirit of God vibrates a chord.
Dave Hammond: It it gives you this energy and this passion that you can't quite ignore.
Dave Hammond: And it only the only way to explain it is to say it was a spiritual moving.
Dave Hammond: I learned from King Jesus, my Savior, that out of an overflow of my heart, my mouth will speak.
Dave Hammond: I learned from a guy named Dave Lindy, who's a leader in the Evangelical Free Church of America, that oftentimes uh the overflow of a full heart will pour out through the tears that fall from your eyes.
Dave Hammond: If you've been filled with the love of God, if your heart has truly been changed, I encourage you, out of an overflow of your heart, speak the good news to others.
Dave Hammond: If your heart's singing as God works in you, allow the tears of gratitude to flow from your eyes so that the world can see our good God that is changing you.
Dave Hammond: Every single one of us is called by God to reach other people with the good news that God demonstrated his love for us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Dave Hammond: Every single one of us has a different part to play.
Dave Hammond: Every single one of us has a way we can interact with our neighbors to tell them about who Jesus is.
Dave Hammond: And so I'm not going to stand up here and say, This is exactly what you need to do.
Dave Hammond: This is exactly what you need to do.
Dave Hammond: Because all of us are different.
Dave Hammond: But I will invite you to join with the rest of the Elmwood family that we might invite all people into the life-giving way of Jesus so that some might be saved.
Dave Hammond: And I'll encourage you that maybe, maybe the first step in the process is likely found in something somewhat of a simple prayer.
Dave Hammond: It might be found by praying a prayer as simple as, Lord, empty me.
Dave Hammond: Lord, fill me, Lord use me.
Dave Hammond: Amen.
Dave Hammond: I actually I want us today.
Dave Hammond: I told you I wasn't gonna tell you exactly what to do, but I want us today to practice.
Dave Hammond: We're we're gonna do a little practice today.
Dave Hammond: Uh, we're gonna do this together in the next gen ministry world.
Dave Hammond: We use the phrase, our our hands we fold, our heads we bow.
Dave Hammond: So we can talk to God right now.
Dave Hammond: This is this is how we do.
Dave Hammond: This morning, I'm gonna, we're not gonna do that.
Dave Hammond: Uh sorry guys, I apologize.
Dave Hammond: I know, keep it simple, but we're gonna do something different.
Dave Hammond: This morning, I want to invite you to take a slightly different posture.
Dave Hammond: I'm gonna invite you to close your eyes and bow your heads, but I'm gonna invite you to hold your hands open on your laps.
Dave Hammond: There's nothing special about this posture of opening your hands, but sometimes what we do with our bodies, they help remind our minds what we want in our spirit.
Dave Hammond: And so please, everyone, now I ask you, please just close your eyes, bow your heads, and open your hands and pray with me.
Dave Hammond: Lord, empty us.
Dave Hammond: Lord, fill us.
Dave Hammond: Lord use us.
Dave Hammond: Amen.
Dave Hammond: Before I invite you to communion, we uh I want to share some incredible news.
Dave Hammond: Uh we just prayed a really, really big prayer.
Dave Hammond: Like that prayer, that's gonna change things.
Dave Hammond: I know, and I don't know what it is, but it's super exciting because we prayed a really big prayer and we have a really, really big God.
Dave Hammond: Uh, so the best news that I could ever share with you right now, the best thing that I could ever tell you is this news, you're gonna mess it up.
Dave Hammond: Yes, yes, thank you.
Dave Hammond: Yes, this is the best news.
Dave Hammond: As you try to be emptied, try to be filled, try to be used by God, you are going to make mistakes.
Dave Hammond: The reason that I'm telling you that you're a sinner and that's the best news you could ever hear is that I know a God who loves and saves sinners.
Dave Hammond: The elements that are at this table, they're a physical representation of the broken body of Jesus, broken so that broken people can be made whole.
Dave Hammond: The blood of Jesus shed for the forgiveness of the sins of sinners who are trying to be emptied, trying to be filled, trying to be used and missing the mark over and over and over again.
Dave Hammond: This morning, as I invite you to the table, don't let any sin in your life stop you from coming.
Dave Hammond: Instead, let the grace and the mercy and the love of God invite you to the table because he has overcome your sin.
Dave Hammond: And he has called you his child.
Dave Hammond: Each week we come to the communion table as a physical demonstration of our empty state before God, as a way to remind ourselves that we need to be filled by him, and as a way to commit with our feet as we walk down the aisle, as a way to commit with our hands as we receive the element, with as we commit with our very bodies to be used by him as we head out back out into the places where we live, work, learn, and play.
Dave Hammond: And so, as I invite you to the communion table, let's take just a few moments of silent confession and reflection as we prepare our hearts to worship God through communion.