The Lord's Supper - Matthew 26:26-30

Sunday June 7, 2026  

NASB

The Lord’s Supper Instituted

26 While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and [a]after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” 27 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; 28 for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. 29 But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

30 After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Good morning. As we are making a transition, I want to make sure we're going to be celebrating the communion today. I want to make sure that everyone that wants to partake, uh, to participate, has one of these handy and dandy all-in-one thing matrickers to be able to participate. If you don't have one, I'm gonna ask if some of the ushers would give us, help us uh just come uh raise your hand. I don't want to um I don't want to leave you out if you're wanting to participate. We we as a fellowship believe um that communion, Lord's Supper, is open to anyone and everyone who has accepted Christ as Savior, followed him in baptism. You don't have to be a member of this specific local church. We just ask that you be a member of the body of Christ uh as you participate. And uh honestly, we we're not gonna we're not gonna check your card before you do this. So it's not one of those where we're gonna we don't have a clipboard and a whistle, we're not gonna call foul. We just if you need one, would you please raise your hand as they're coming coming through there. We uh privileged to be here this morning and to be able to worship our Lord and and be thankful for Him. Just to give you a sense of the remaining time uh this morning, what we're going to be doing is we'll be um coming to the table and uh celebrating the communion together. And then immediately after that, we're gonna have a time of commissioning for the missionaries. We'll be going to uh New Orleans uh in a few weeks, three weeks uh to for mission lab, and I'll be talking to you about that in a few minutes. And then after I hope I hope you got plenty of rest because this is gonna be a good day. But um after that, we're going to be going to eat lunch. Um you're welcome to join us if you didn't know about it or if you just forgot to to RSVP. The youth are are putting on a spaghetti lunch for us to help support their youth camp, which is coming up uh next month. So you're you're very welcome to stay for that. And then immediately after that, I told you it's gonna be a big day. Immediately after that, we have a uh a cake auction, uh dessert auction. And if you've never been a part of that, uh you might want to just come to observe the craziness. It's gonna be good. So uh be be here for that. So like I say, I hope you you plan to come and stay for a little bit. This is definitely a uh a day where we get to be together as the body of Christ, uh just to fellowship, to enjoy each other. I'm gonna everybody everybody's good. Does everybody anyone wants to need one that doesn't have a little two-in-one thing with your goal that be good? So I know I know it's a little awkward because you know there's one of me and there's more than one of you, and so I can't do this eyeball to eyeball, but just let me just ask real quick, how's it going? You doing okay? Okay. I got a little response. I got I got one or two that says none of your business. But the rest of you, I appreciate you you you you jumping in there. Thank you for that. I wanted to open a word of prayer as we we dive into the passage and come to the table. Would you pray with me, please? Lord, thank you for today. Thank you for the chance to celebrate you, to celebrate what you've done, to what you're going to do. Lord, I pray for the next few moments as we we anticipate and we enjoy your company at your table. I pray, Lord, that you would give us a heart of reflection, hearts of desire, faith. May we be right with you. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. So before we actually open the scripture and go to Matthew chapter 26, in case you didn't know that's where we're going, we are going to spend a few minutes getting our hearts ready for the table. And what I mean by that, when we talk about the Lord's Supper and we talk about what we do and why we do it, it isn't something to be entered into lightly. It's not something that we do and say, hey, yeah, we'll add it to our calendar, we'll make it work, it'll be fine. We'll give them a couple minutes and then we'll get on with life. This is very much one of the primary things that you and I do as members of the body of Christ. So let me let me just let me back up just for a second. I'm going to assume that you know nothing, and those of you who know everything, which is most of you, you can just kind of sit there and nod and say, I do that, I know you know that. But here we go. When you come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as your one and only Savior, when the Spirit of God convicts you by the Word of God that you are a sinner by nature and by choice, and that you are accountable to a God who is an authority, created you, and you have to answer to Him for who you are and what you've done against Him in rebellion. The Bible calls it sin, things that we think, say, and do that go against the wall, the law of God, the Word of God. When you come to that saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, what happens in the scripture according to the Bible is that you have a repentance, this turning from your sin and turning toward Jesus Christ. This isn't just a nice little addendum. It isn't something you add on to your life. This is a total transformation. The Bible calls it a metamorphosis, a confirm uh being no longer conformed to this world, but being transformed. And when that happens, you join in union with Jesus Christ. You become both that point forever and ever and ever and ever a member of the body of Christ. Everything changes. Oftentimes you don't feel like a lot has changed. Sometimes it takes days, weeks, months, years to get some progress in your in your growth, in your in your walk with Jesus. And that's something that we do as a body of Christ as we yearn to do that together. But when you become a believer, when you become a Christian, what you are doing is you are joining in covenant with those others, men and women, boys and girls who have joined in covenant with Jesus Christ. So when you and I come to church, I know this is countercultural, I know this is not what the world tells you. I know that this may be new for some, but when you come to church, you're not coming to a worship service, you're coming to a fellowship. You're not coming to a building to sing some songs and listen to some boring preacher go on and on. You are coming because you belong here. You're a part. You have a gift, gifting. You are a part of the body of Christ. And because God has formed and fashioned you as a believer in Him, union with Him, fellowship with Him, to be a part of His body, He says, now, as a follower of mine, this is all in the Bible. I'll show you scripture, chapter, and verse if you'd like to look at it later. But what he says now, as a part of the body of Christ, there are a couple of things that I want to be sure that you do, that you have to do as an obedient, faithful disciple of Jesus. The first is behind me up in the in the rafters there, the baptism. He says, if you want to follow me, you have to say, you have to agree, you have to profess that you are a follower of me, and you have to be what the Bible calls baptized. It's immersion. It's going into the water, and you represent Romans chapter 6, he talks about this. It represents a symbolic representation of how you are dead to sin, you die, buried with Christ in baptism, raised to walk in newness of life. It's a one-and-done. You don't get baptized a hundred times because you get saved a hundred times. You're only saved once, you only need to be baptized once. Oftentimes there are those who get baptized again because they didn't realize or understand what they had done, that the baptism was a representation of what Jesus had done for them. So that's fine. But that's the first, that's the entrance. That's why a moment ago, when I talked about being a part of the communion, we asked that you be baptized. That's out of respect for how God ordained this, how he said this is how it's supposed to be. So the second is, he says, two orders, two sacraments, two directions in Scripture. The first is to be baptized. That's kind of like the wedding. It's kind of like walking into the door. It's kind of like being a part of the home. Then he says, now on a regular basis, I want you to come together as a member of the body of Christ. Not just a participant, not just a congregant, not just someone who comes to church on a regular basis. As a believer in Jesus Christ, I want you to come together with other believers. This is very corporate. This is not a this is not a Lone Ranger. This is not you do your own thing, your own way thing. This is very much we do it together corporately. He says, I want you on a regular basis to come together, and I want you to come to my table. See, just like baptism would be representative of the wedding ceremony, Lord's Supper is representative of the anniversaries, by the way. The Lord's Supper, when we talk about coming to the table, it is a constant reminder of the relationship, the fellowship that we have with Jesus. So in the next few moments, what you and I are going to be doing is not just sipping a little juice and eating a little cracker. What we are going to be doing is we are going to be celebrating our relationship, personal, corporate relationship with Jesus Christ. That's the reason we come. That's the reason we we continually come before Him. Now, before we dig into Matthew chapter 26, this morning, that's what I'm going to do, is I'm going to take us through these few verses as we take the cups and the element. But before we do that, I want to have a time of prayer. Now, by that, I don't mean I want you to bow your heads and I lead us in prayer. What I want us to do is I'm going to give two or three prompters. Are you still with me? Sometimes eye contact is not all there. I know you're distracted, things are going on, but I just want to make sure that those of you who are here, please stay here. Here we go. And I don't mean just physically. I've been in a building and not been anywhere near where I actually was physically. But anyway, I want you here. Hang on to this. The Lord's Supper is a time of renewal, to renew the covenant, to refresh who we are in Christ and with each other. So one of the first things that you and I are called to do, according to the scripture, is we're to make sure that we're taking this meal. You see, we we we got into the door by baptism. Now we're in the home and we're going to the kitchen table and we're going to sit down and we're going to enjoy fellowship at the Lord's table. This is his supper, his meal. This is what he's got us doing at his table. He's at the head of the table and we follow his direction. As you come to the table, what he's asking us to do is make sure that we are taking, partaking, participating in a worthy manner. Now, when Paul talks about this in Corinthians, what he's referring to is not whether or not you are sin-free, sin, S-I-N, without sin, that's not what he's talking about. He's saying, are you treating each other with godly love? That's unworthy if you're not doing that. So, in other words, what was happening in Corinth is those who were a little better off financially, they were abusing those who were not. They were showing favoritism, they were being cruel, they were being unloving toward their brothers and sisters in Christ. So for the next few moments, I'd like to enter us, have us enter a time of prayer. And I just want you to ask that simple question to your Lord, the one you're in a relationship with, that we all have in common. Lord, am I am I good with my brothers and sisters? This means if you have ought, I've always loved that word. It's the word you ought to use. If you have ought against your brother or sister, if you have bitterness, anger, unforgiveness, malice, slander, this is the point where you get things right. Because you want to come to the table loving those sitting around you. You want to come to the table clean. I'm gonna leave us in a time of prayer if you pray with me specifically for that. That we come in a worthy manner. So we bow before you. We got the elements, we've got the Lord, we've got the juice, we've got the cracker, but we want to be sure that we're not celebrating you as a hypocrite, that we're not claiming to love you and hate our brother at the same time. Lord, search our hearts. Show us how we've got judgmental or critical or just mean. Convict us of sin. As your word promises, if we confess our sins, you're faithful, you're righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So right here and now, we just we want to be right. We want to be right with you, we want to be right with others. And we don't want to we don't want to go into this in a way that doesn't honor you. Amen. There's another part of coming to the table that we've got to be really careful about. So I want to see a show of hands. I usually don't do this, but I just want to see, and it's a little bit of a test question, so don't be paranoid. But can I see a show of hands? Who here at any point in your life ever sinned against a holy God? I'm so glad to see all the hands. Can we just get that? Can we just get that out in the open? We are not the ones who got it all figured out. We're the ones who need him. And to come to the table with pride or self-righteousness or arrogance, I think that's very that's very stinky. I'm gonna use really Greek words for you. That's really stinky for our Savior. There's got to be a sense of remembering the sacrifice he gave for us because of his love for us and our need for him. We are celebrating that we came dead in our sins, we came ugly and deformed and depraved, and we don't make it on our own. So if you you come to the table with this kind of, well, I'm good. No, you're not, and I'm not, and we're not. You come to the table with a sense of, wow, Lord, thank you for your love, thank you for your grace, thank you for your forgiveness. We're celebrating the fact that his life, death, burial, resurrection is the good news. And the bad news is we need the good news because of who we are, because of what we've done. So it might be that this morning you might be finding yourself in a bit of a rut, a bit of a kind of a pattern. One of the ways to kind of expose this is ask yourself, what's the last sin you ask forgiveness for? You see, if you're having trouble thinking about that, you got a problem. Because we don't go days and weeks and months without sinning. We go days and weeks and months without reflecting upon the holiness of God and our need for forgiveness. So if you're in a point where you're coming to the table with uh an arrogance, uh, with a with a uh pride, you gotta guard that. So let let's let's pray about it. Lord Jesus, search our hearts, see if there's any wicked way within us. See if there's something in us that that gives us a an unnecessary pride or arrogance. Would you remind us even now of what it was to be without you? For what it was to go to sleep at night not knowing what would happen to us if we were to die in our sleep, of what it was to be separated from your love and your compassion and your peace and your purpose and your grace and your mercy and your faithfulness and your greatness and your majesty, what it was to be confused and hurt and alone, and what it is to be with you right now, to be your child, to be loved, to be given every spiritual blessing in Christ, to be forgiven, to be redeemed, to be made new. Give us grateful hearts. Make us right. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. There's one more part of this, and there's many more. This is this is this could go on a whole day, and I don't want to, I know you don't want that, and I don't want that. We're gonna we're gonna keep moving, but there's one more part. In Corinthians, when Paul finishes giving directions for the Lord's Supper, he says how when we take this, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. So there's a past tense and there's a future tense, all in the midst of where we are right now. So we reflect back on what he has done, but we also reflect or contemplate or meditate on the fact that he's coming back. You see, when you L-I-V-E, when you live L-I-V-E, live in view of eternity, it changes everything. Because when you live, L-I-V-E, live in view of eternity, then all of a sudden the things that overwhelm the world, pride, prejudice, power, prestige, popularity, the blood of peas. But anyway, all the things that consume you don't consume us because we're living with our minds on things above. We're Colossians chapter 3, where we understand that our identity in Christ changes what we are burdened by, changes how we don't live in anxiety or stress, we live in a faithfulness and a commitment to be with him. So it could be that as you come to the table this morning, that you're wrapped around the axle. It could be that you are overly anxious, you're stressed. It could be that you somewhere along the way you've forgotten that as we take these elements, that there is going to be a day where there will be no more tears, there will be no more pain, where those who come to him will know him fully as he is to be fully known, and we will be as we were created to be. In addition to that, there are those in our homes that don't have that relationship, who don't have that communion with Jesus, and that is a burden for us that we pray for and pray about as well. That we want all to know Jesus. Not not just because we want the camp to grow, because we want the popularity or the prestige. We want people to follow Jesus because that's what Jesus wants. Because he came not to do his own thing, not to not to be the center of attention in terms of building a big crowd. He came to seek and to save the lost. And we are those people, and we want to love those around us. So the last time of prayer before we we come to the table and read Matthew 26, the last time of prayer, I want you to pray about Marinatha. About come, Lord Jesus, come. But you see, when you pray that, when you when you say that, you're not just saying a flippant kind of like, you know, maybe someday, maybe, maybe it'll happen. It changes everything. Because you struggle with sin. Come, Lord Jesus. You don't know which way to turn in this financial crisis you're in. Come, Lord Jesus. You don't know what's going to happen with your child or your parent or your sibling or your friend. Come, Lord Jesus. Because when we keep him in reference to who he is, it gives everything else in perspective the correct way. It keeps us in faith with him. So that we say, to live is Christ and to die is game, to understand who he is and to walk with him, that's why we're here. This is what we are to be about. We have this unity as the body of Christ, of understanding that we come to the table because of his sacrifice, because because he faced contempt, because he faced rejection, because he faced death. We now live and we will have life forever and ever and ever. This is celebration, and this is the joy we have coming to the table. So one last one last time, if you'll bear with us as we go once again to the Lord. Would you pray with me, please? So, Lord Jesus, we we want to live by faith, not by sight. We want to live knowing that conversations and activities and the the daily routines, they're not ordinary. You put us here for a reason. And it isn't for the here and now only, it's for what's coming. Or may we celebrate that. May we celebrate that the fact you came first time and the assurance you're coming again. That no matter what we're walking through this morning, no matter what burdens we are bearing, no matter what stress or storms we're in, there will be a day where all of that will wash away. We will be with you in a glorified state. We will know you. We will love you. We will be with you. Thank you for that. May we celebrate that as we come to your table. Christ's name we pray. Amen. All right, does anyone have one of your handy dandy languages? I'm sorry for my technical language. I tried to I try to dumb it down so that's I can know. Um so we want to I want you to I make a joke about this when we do the one and duns. Um please don't open the juice yet because you gotta do the bread first. If you do the juice first and then you try to do the bread, I just wouldn't want to be sitting near you when you're trying to maneuver that. But if you could just do the bread, just the bread. Would you open that up for me with you, with us? Pop that out, and then I'm gonna put that away. I'm gonna put that way over there because I don't wanna I don't want to mess anything up. And I'd like you to be holding this as we we come to the table. I'm gonna I'm gonna go through this passage, I'm gonna go through the verses, and I'm gonna talk about it, and we're gonna take the elements as we're reading Matthew chapter 26. So let me start in chapter 26, verse 26, and give you the context of what's happening here. While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after blessing, which is important, he's doing the Passover meal. This is this is the instituted um centuries ago. This is what Jesus was doing. This was an every year thing, this is where they would come, they would celebrate release from captivity out of Egypt, uh, redemption, all that is beautiful imagery. Jesus took some bread after blessing, he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, Take eat, this is my body. So, what I want to be sure that we understand before we take this element is the fact that Jesus is not, he is, he is not a victim in terms of he didn't know what was going to happen, he was surprised by what happened next. He was he it was not a mistake, it was not an ill ill fortune. He offered himself. He did this hours before the cross, knowing full well that when he was going to give of himself, he wanted his disciples, both then and now, to remember that he voluntarily gave himself as a sacrifice for us. And this bread that he took, it's not it's not this bread, by the way, that would be really old bread, but it's it's the bread that he took back then was bread that represented the communion, the the Passover, uh, breaking that bread that that was unleavened, so they had to make it in a hurry. They had to be sure they ate it in haste so they could get out of Egypt. And as they were taking that bread, it had that symbolism of the fact that God is a deliverer, that he is going to redeem his people, that that he is going to help us get out of captivity. But now, now we take the bread because he has redeemed us, not because he's going to. We don't take this anticipation of future victory, we take it in celebration of what he has done for us. See, there are no more lambs that need to be slaughtered, there are no more sacrifices that need to be made. His physical death, his giving himself up for us, and the freedom we have in the Passover lamb of who he is gives us an ability to come before him and say thank you because you are that sacrifice for us now. Before it was unleavened bread. Now it's deliverance. Who we are in him. And so let's let's read the passage again and and then we'll take it together in unity, admitting and proclaiming that we are trusting his death to take our place, that we are letting his sacrifice be for us. So now we're gonna we're ready to eat, we're ready to enjoy the meal. While they were eating, Jesus took some bread and after a blessing, he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, Take eat. This is my body. Continue in Matthew chapter 26. Show you what he does next. In verse 27, when he had taken a cup and given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink from it, all of you. For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. This is big, this is huge. What he is talking about and how he's coming about. The bread was radical, so is this. Understanding that now no longer do we live in the in the Passover sense of this meal, now we have in the Lord's Supper sense of this meal because something amazing is happening. I'm gonna take you back real quick. You don't have to turn there, but I'm gonna show you on the screen. Exodus chapter six, the Passover meal, they would have cups, and they would have four different cups. And the passage in Exodus chapter six would represent those four cups during the Passover meal. He he in verse six of Exodus six, he said, Say therefore to the sons of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egypt of the Egyptians. Now, that's the first cup in the meal. So during the Passover, they take that first cup, that cup of sanctification, saying, I'm gonna bring you out, I'm gonna make you new, I'm gonna give you that release, that deliverance, make you more like me. And then he continues, take you out of the burdens of the Egyptians, I will deliver you from their bondage. So no longer in slavery. Now we have the cup of judgment or deliverance. Then we get to the one that we think is the cup that Jesus was using in the Lord's Supper. And the continuing in the passage, he says, I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm. I will redeem you. The cup of redemption. This is the cup that Jesus during the Passover meal, before it was one of many, representing the Exodus chapter six, and how they're going to come out of slavery, into freedom, go into the wilderness and eventually to the promised land. But now this cup means so much more. Now it is representing Jesus is buying us back, redeeming us, making part us part of Him. His blood covers our sins. Passover is no longer necessary. Now we have communion. Now we have the cup. So very carefully, take the lid off of your juice. I don't mean to be paranoid, it's just that I'm stressed about everything. Especially that last little clip. You know, you think you're good, everything's coming off, and then you got that less little jerk, and then, oh well, there you go. So please be careful. Alright, so you've got your cup. So as you're as you're drinking this cup, in just a moment, not yet, but as you're drinking this cup, what we're doing is we're saying, Lord, your blood covers my sins. Your blood, your covenant, is how I get to be right with you. Not my efforts, not my ability, but it's because of this sacrifice that I have a relationship with you. We're not sure if Jesus actually did the last cup, the cup of praise or consummation. I don't think he did, but I don't know. All I know is right here and right now we get to celebrate the fact that he bought us. You're not your own anymore. And that's the best news ever. We belong to Jesus. Matthew chapter 26, starting in verse 7. Now we're going to drink it together as I read. And we had taken a cup and given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink from it all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. Now, in just a moment, we're going to sing the blessed be the tie. That'll be our closing hymn, like the passage talks about. But before that, you still have your Bible. I hope you haven't put it away. I want you to show you just two more verses, and we're going to be done. Matthew 26, continuing in the passage, in verse 29, after they drink the cup, says, This is the blood of my covenant, verse 28, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. The passage continues, and this is important. It all is important, but I just want you to see this. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. Just walk in that just for a second with me. Just for a moment. Think about the promise of this. In a few weeks, I'm gonna get the privilege of taking this group to New Orleans. I get to be a part of this. And and what happens historically, and she's not in the room, so I can talk about this, but my daughter Elizabeth, she does not like me leaving. I mean, she is very clear that she, and I I guess that's better than the alternative. But anyway, so what we usually do is we do some sort of little game, some sort of little whatever, to keep her mind off of it. And I think this time it's gonna be Pringles. So she's gonna get a certain little cup of Pringles a day that's been candy before, different things that she's gonna do, and she always knows that I'm gonna bring her something back. It doesn't have to be expensive. All it all it is is it's me assuring her, both while I'm gone as well as when I get back, that I was thinking about her while I was gone. You understand what Jesus is doing in here? He's saying, when you take that cup and you drink that, yes, celebrate the fact you're redeemed, you're bought back, you belong to me. But he says, you're also, as you drink, as you participate, as you're you're joining together over this, you also get to celebrate the fact that I am a God who keeps his word. And my word, my promise is very clear. Come back to the verse, verse 29. I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. So for that to happen, a lot of things have to fall into place, not the least of which there is a father's kingdom, and he is preparing a place for us so that he will go and come back and take us to be with him, so that where we where he is, we may be with him also. He is preparing that place, and he is assuring us that this communion, this fellowship, this joy of being at the table, this is a pause, not a period. This is a slight break, but there will be a day where this will be enjoyed so much more and so much greater than we can even begin to comprehend. This is not just, well, I'll just do the best I can and we'll just muddle through. This is living. This is life. And because of what he is doing for us, because of his death and his resurrection, we in our death to our sin and our life living in Christ, we get the same joy, we get the same promise. And our commitment to him, our living with him, our knowing him means that when we eat his flesh and we drink his blood, we are saying that we become a part of him and we're committing ourselves to the one who said that he is coming back, and we get to be with him and enjoy his presence forever and ever and ever. And he's he's not even done. As he's saying this in verse 29, I say to you, I'm gonna drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you, drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. There will be a day where you and I will know life as we were created to know it. You know, years ago I read this, and I I it's printed out, I could have read it and I should have thought to bring it, but years ago, I I read this cute little article about is there life after delivery? And it talks about these two twins who are in the mother's womb. And they're in the mother's womb, and they start talking about, I wonder what's going to happen after we have birth. Now understand the context. They're in the womb and they're having a conversation, and it goes something like this. I wonder, I wonder, I wonder what happens when we leave this place. The other says, Well, as far as I'm concerned, this is life. This is all there is. So, no, no, I just I get the feeling, I get the feeling that there may be a day where we won't be connected to this cord and we might be able to eat and drink all on our own. No, no, no, no. This is it. This is all there is. No, no, I really think there may be a chance, a day where we won't be surrounded by this fluid. There might be a chance where we would actually walk on our legs and and reach and grab things with our hands and be able to see fresh air, whatever that may be. I think there may be a day. No, no, don't be silly. You're being you're being silly, religious, you're being uh, you're being radical. This is all life is. It's just staying in this. Well, I I don't know. I every once in a while when it gets really quiet, I I I can't help but I can't help but hear somebody. There's nobody out there. This is all life is.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

No, I'm telling you, sometimes it sounds like music. And sometimes it sounds like a very sweet voice talking.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

You are so backward, you are so fundamental. There's no life after birth. You understand? There will be a day where we will look back on this day, this life. That's nothing. We're in the womb. There will be a birth. There will be a day. And what he's promising is that in the midst of all that, that he will be with us. So it won't be heaven without Jesus. It couldn't be, but it will be heaven with him. And then he concludes in Matthew chapter 26, verse 30, after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. And it's not just a hymn, by the way. A song, a hymn, a psalm. We believe that these were one of many psalms, uh, specifically Psalm 113, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, those low 100s. They were called praise psalms or halel psalms. And we believe, church history, that in terms of what he was singing, were sing were songs about their faith in their Savior, and their Lord, and their God. And one of the psalms that I think that he sang from was Psalm 118. And that was is the most referenced psalm in the New Testament. And the psalm begins like this it says, Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his faithful love endures forever. Now, what I want you to do is just for a moment, I want you to imagine Jesus Christ with his disciples, after communion, after the Lord's Supper, if they they get they finish the meal, they get up and they're on their way to the Garden of Gethsemane, but before they go, they sing, and they sing these psalms. I'm saying Psalm, P-S-A-L-M. I realize Psalm and Psalm sound really close, but they're singing these psalms, and when they sing Psalm 118, give thanks to the Lord for He is good, his faithful love endures forever. Jesus knows that he is hours, minutes away from dying, from felt mock trials, from physical abuse, from taking the sin, literally, from taking the sin of the world upon his shoulders, from separation, from the holy communion, the fellowship of God the Father, Son, and Spirit, all of these things are going to be happening just in the next few minutes. And yet he is still singing, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his faithful love endures forever. No matter what rejection or suffering or even ultimately death he is about to face, he is able to praise God from the depths of his soul, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his faithful love endures forever. And brothers and sisters in Christ, when we come to the table, we're singing the exact same thing. You could face death in the next 20 seconds, you could you could face persecutions and suffering, you could face all the things and so much more, but we know, we know, we know to give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His faithful love endures forever. See, this means something. This table means something. This communion means something, and we get to celebrate him. That's what we're doing. If you'd stand with me, please, we're going to sing together. Blessed be the tie. And then when we're finished, we're going to have our commissioning. I'll address that in just a few moments. In Christ just love. Let me tell you a little bit about what's happening so you can be prayerful and appreciate what they're about to do. At New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, every year they have what's called Mission Lab. And what this is, is a by the definition mission lab. It's an opportunity for us to minister in the New Orleans area, and it's a training ground for church members all over the country to come together. We stay in the seminary dorms, we stay, we stay where the students stay, we eat on the campus, uh, we're all right there. It's an opportunity for us to engage in the community to share the gospel. We're gonna, our schedule is already set. We're gonna be doing some work with uh children's ministry that started right after Katrina, uh, where we'll be leading a VBS in the mornings. We're gonna be working with a homeless population. We're gonna be going to a uh a recovery, addiction recovery um um ministry as well. Um we're also gonna be working with a church, a new church start. We're gonna be busy, we're gonna be good. But here's why I wanted them up here. We've got 15. I don't think everybody's here, but we've got pretty close. Uh me, 19 other folks. Oh, that's really close. Uh we're missing. I saw Morgan, I saw Landon's not here, but I saw, yeah. You need to come on down, Mr. West. We know we know that's not how this works. So, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna ask him, did I just gonna pass the mic down? I'm gonna and if I have to go all the way back there to to to to to get is he really not gonna come up? Really? Okay, everybody look back there. There's Morgan. All right, we're gonna pass the mic. If you wouldn't mind introducing yourself, just say who you are and Jim Johnson, Bill Bowser, Carolyn Johnson, John Johnson, Jonathan Vaughn, Wesley Roberts, Katie Vaughn, Abby Vaughan, Taylor Cernan.

SPEAKER_01 42:03

Alright.

SPEAKER_02 42:04

So, and that's Morgan back there. And um yeah, he and I are gonna have a long talk about group participation. Uh so uh June 28th, we're gonna be leaving. We'll be leaving at 8 o'clock. It'll be Sunday morning, three weeks from now. That's why we're trying to do this a little early. But there's a couple of things that we'd like you to do as a congregation. First and foremost, pray. And on the altar up here, we have these little envelopes. And on the envelopes is the different missionaries' names. So there's 15 of them. And inside our prayer requests and a friendship bracelet for you to wear to be remembered to pray, both now and up to and during the trip. Thank you, Miss Janet, for putting these together. So um, we're gonna ask you, um, as we close this morning, we're gonna ask you to come up. If you'd like to, I'd like you guys spread out a little bit. Let folks come if you can kind of you know do the whole arm's length thing. And if if folks can come and pray over you, and then as you come up here, if you'd like to uh grab one of these envelopes as a commitment to pray for one of the missionaries or all that was terrible. Um a little bit more, a little more. Yeah, yeah, okay. So I think that's it. Pastor Adam's gonna come up and he's gonna lead us in a prayer of commission. If you'd stand with me, please, and uh come. If you'd like to come and pray over these missionaries personally, physically, please come forward and do that as he's coming to the poem.

SPEAKER_00 43:29

As you're making your way forward to come and pray with the group that's traveling on the missions trip, uh go ahead and lead us in a word of prayer as you're walking up. And be sure to grab one of the envelopes so you continue to pray for them as uh as you think about throughout the rest of the week. Lord, we thank you for this day and for all that you do. Lord, we thank you for your kindness and goodness. Lord, thank you for this service this morning where we were pointed to your son Jesus Christ and what he did for us on the cross, the shedding of his blood with the breaking of his body. Lord, help us to keep our eyes fixed on you and in expectation of your return. Lord, we pray for these that are traveling, Lord, keep them safe, and help them to have a great time there as they serve you, and we also pray for their safe return. Lord, help us as a church to continue to pray for them throughout the time of their away, and to keep them in our hearts and prayers. Thank you for all that you do and all the ways you guide and direct, Lord, because this now must be for our separate ways in our prayer. Amen. And even if you haven't had a chance to come up yet, make sure you grab one of these cards to pray for someone on the trip.