WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000 Good to see all of you. Patty and I always enjoy getting out here and being with our uh, PK community. 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:13.000 Uh, we had lunch with uh, with Jim and Janet Dennis at a last week, a couple of weeks ago, I guess. 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:20.000 And uh, they were obviously talking about you all and the great affection that they have for you and for this community and send their regards. 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:26.000 And uh, we just had that shared uh, uh, they were talking about how much this community ministered to them. 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:41.000 I know certainly that Jim uh ministered to you all and Janet and uh we both had that shared Uh, how God has used you to minister to us in our years after pastoring. 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:50.000 And so it's always good to be here. This is a communion uh, Sunday, always the first Sunday of each month is uh, our communion observance. 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:57.000 And it seems like, this isn't planned, uh, but it seems to always fall with me being here that we do communion. 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:05.000 And that that isn't planned. It seemed like in 2025, my, my defined role was to follow Joel Gregory every time I was here. 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:13.000 I'm actually glad to be away from that one that I'm not following Joel. Uh, that's like going from prime rib to a baloney sandwich. 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:19.000 you know, so uh, I'm glad to be out of that pattern, but um, I think the 29th I will not be doing communion. 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:22.000 Uh, I think Mark will have that the next week. 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:35.000 But what I want to do is, as we reflect upon this communion event and uh, have a message that is appropriate for the occasion, I want you if you have your Bibles, smart device, to open with me to Luke's gospel. 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:53.000 Uh, Luke chapter 22 and uh, we'll be taking apart of this narrative specifically, uh, from verses 7 through 22 as uh, we talk about uh, that particular evening and the significance of this uh, event, this um, this upper room, if you will. 00:01:53.000 --> 00:02:00.000 And um, how we prepare for this and what it prepares us for as we go out into the world. 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:04.000 So Luke's Gospel chapter 22 is you're finding that passage. 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:08.000 Let me begin by telling you a story that I heard some years ago. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:14.000 Uh, Bob Vernon was the gentleman's name. He was deputy police chief for LAPD. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:27.000 He told a harrowing story of a, an account of a motor, motorcycle police officer who early one morning, just after sunrise, he noticed a pickup truck rolling through a stop sign. 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:40.000 And he had kind of determined in his mind, this motorcycle officer, he had kind of determined that this was some man going, probably making his way to work and uh was just not paying proper attention. 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:45.000 I already made up his mind, I'm not going to give him a ticket. I'm just going to give him a warning. 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:54.000 And pulled the truck over, unbeknowced to this motorcycle officer, this man had just robbed an all-night convenience store. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:03:01.000 And when he saw the motorcycle lights on in his rear view, his thought was one of panic. 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:07.000 I've been found out. I'm caught and I'm not going back to prison. 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:14.000 He pulled over as the police officer came up behind him, parked the, the vehicle, the motorcycle. 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:25.000 And then walked to that driver's side and the window was down, and just as he said, "Sir, may I see your driver's license?" He never finished that sentence. 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:32.000 The man stuck out a Colt 1911 45 caliber, shot him square in the chest. 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:39.000 Knocked him 7 feet to the ground on his back. 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:44.000 The morning air rang with silence. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:04:04.000 To the horror of that driver, that police officer stood to his feet slowly, pulled out his service revolver, fired two shots into the side of that truck, striking the driver in the leg, who immediately threw out his weapon and surrendered. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:10.000 Well, the police officer, of course, was saved by his bulletproof vest. 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:17.000 3/8 inch material, Kevlar, layers after layer, very strong material. 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:21.000 It saved the officer's life. 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:32.000 Jump ahead several weeks later, Police Officer Ray Hicks was going in, his partner were going to serve a warrant on a known drug dealer in L.A. 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:38.000 Police Officer Ray Hicks knocked on that door when four slugs were fired immediately through that front door. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:53.000 One of them finding Officer Ray Hicks, finding the center mass in his chest, striking him in the same place where that police officer, that motorcycle police officer some weeks earlier had been struck. 00:04:53.000 --> 00:05:02.000 Officer Hicks' partner said he simply fell to his knees and said quietly, I've been hit. 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:07.000 And he died right there on that spot. 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:11.000 Police Officer Ray Hicks was 27 years old. 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:24.000 He left behind a wife and three kids and a bulletproof vest 30 feet away in the trunk of his vehicle. 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:27.000 There is not a police officer alive. 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:36.000 There is not an individual in law enforcement who does not believe in bulletproof vests. 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:40.000 They are a proven commodity. 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:51.000 And as much as Ray Hicks might have believed in the vest, he wasn't prepared for the task. 00:05:51.000 --> 00:06:10.000 In verse 8, Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, "Go and prepare the Passover for us so that we may eat it." They said to him, "Where do you want us to prepare it?" You will see a theme through here. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:19.000 And he said to them, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters. 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:27.000 And you shall stay say to the owner of the house, the teacher says to you, where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples? 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:32.000 And he will show you a large furnished upstairs room. 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:35.000 Prepare it there. 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:45.000 And they left and found everything just as he had told them, and they uh, there it is, prepared the Passover. 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:54.000 What I want us to see this morning in our time is that preparation, being prepared is vital to the life of faith. 00:06:54.000 --> 00:07:04.000 In fact, Jesus would say to his disciples in earlier chapter here in Luke, in chapter 12 and in verse 35, he would say these familiar words in this particular parable. 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:11.000 He says, be prepared and keep your lamp lit. 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:14.000 Be prepared. 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:18.000 And keep your lamp lit. 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:29.000 This idea of preparation is vital to the to the life of faith, not just for a Passover meal, but uh but to the understanding and the pursuit of of the life of faith. 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:35.000 The prophets of old would say, uh prepare the way of the Lord. 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:45.000 Jesus even understood this and fulfilling the purposes of his father, he gave those disciples assurance in John chapter 14, he said, I go and what? 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:53.000 He said, I go and I prepare a place for you. 00:07:53.000 --> 00:08:01.000 And so what we we come to understand is that is that preparation is vital. 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:04.000 Things don't just happen in life, do they? 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:15.000 Things don't just occur, things don't just get accomplished. We we have to be intentional, we have to be deliberate, we have to we have to prepare. 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:21.000 And that's what is being emphasized here. 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:30.000 Well, if we imagine this morning, if you will, with me, if you will imagine that this is our upper room, so to speak. 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:39.000 If we allow this to be our, our upper room where we, we share in a meal together. 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:45.000 As we prepare for this, what is it that what is it that we should draw from this account? 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:52.000 What is it that that adds meaning? What is it that helps us to to prepare well? 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:54.000 To have communion with our Lord. 00:08:54.000 --> 00:09:08.000 What is it that prepares us well to go out into this world and to live the life that we are to be chasing after and pursuing in our, in our living together for the cause of Christ? 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:17.000 Now, I want you to notice, I'm going to share three things with you this morning taken from various passages within our, our text. 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:23.000 But I I want you to notice that first of all, our our coming together like, like this. 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:34.000 Our coming together as as a community of faith, a community of of believers. If you look at verses 15 and 17 and then verse 28, if we pull that in. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:43.000 What we will notice about this kind of gathering, coming together for a communion, coming together for for worship, which we are to do. 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:50.000 Not forsaking the gathering of ourselves together, which has become the habit of some, the writer of Hebrews would say. 00:09:50.000 --> 00:10:09.000 But the first thing that I would draw our attention to is Jesus seems to draw attention to it for these disciples is that is that our doing of of this, that what we have here, what we share together is a this is a requisite association. 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:15.000 What we share together, this is a requisite, a required association. 00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:19.000 It's it's an expectation for those who would be the people of God. 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:34.000 Notice here in verse 15, and he said to them, these disciples, I have I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you. 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:39.000 before I, before I suffer. 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:51.000 And then again in verse 17, we see this communal aspect of of the meal and when he had taken a cup and given thanks, he said, take this and share it among yourselves. 00:10:51.000 --> 00:11:02.000 And then as we jump down to, to verse 28, he said, you, you collectively, you are the ones who stood by me during my my trials. 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:10.000 And so whether it's a traditional historic meal like like the Passover that that reminded and it wasn't a meal that was eaten in isolation. 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:20.000 It wasn't eaten alone, but it was eaten around a table to uh, as a part of a family and it was understood that that we are a part of a greater family. 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:28.000 We're part of of the people of God. We're a part of a unique and a distinctive community. 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:35.000 And what we do here, notice again in in verse 17, what we, what we do, we, we share together. 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:41.000 We have a kinship with one another. 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:56.000 And I think it's important that we recapture that idea of of association, of togetherness and kinship because it helps us if we embrace that, if that becomes our conviction about what it is to be the people of God, a community of faith. 00:11:56.000 --> 00:12:02.000 It helps us to avoid that cultural Christianity. 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:13.000 And when you hear me speak of cultural Christianity, I hope we understand that is, that is something that stands in stark contrast to biblical Christianity. 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:18.000 Because the messaging of cultural Christianity is that this is something that you can do apart from the church. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:33.000 It is something that you can do apart from the community and it's and it's developed this kind of solo act, this kind of lone ranger mentality that really has no biblical basis whatsoever. 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:44.000 And so we we find in scripture that that we are to identify ourselves as being part of a of a community of faith. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:49.000 You remember back in the day when we took newspapers, and uh, I miss those days. 00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:55.000 I always like just having a paper in hand with the morning coffee, you know, it's not the same as flipping through your iPad. 00:12:55.000 --> 00:13:04.000 But you know, back back when you had a paper in hand, you'd have these, I guess filler space, you know, you'd have little uh human interest type stories. 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:15.000 And I'll never forget one particular human interest story. It's a little paragraph. It said, Bessie Smith whistles Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:18.000 Well, you don't whistle a symphony. 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:22.000 It requires an orchestra. 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:41.000 It requires a group of various gifts, various accomplishments to come together to to make that symphony, a symphony of sound, a symphony of music to make it into what the author intended. 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:52.000 Well, that's it. That's that's us, the church, the people of all backgrounds, diversity, uh, diversity of gifts. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:14:05.000 And yet all of that God the author forges together to be a a unique and distinctive community of people for a place such as this at a time such as this. 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:12.000 I think it has to be asked, do you as a as a believer, do you have that sense of association? 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:18.000 Do you have that sense of identity? Do you have that sense of belonging? 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:28.000 Years ago, the first Dean of Chapel at Princeton University, Robert Russell Wicks, he had an interesting observation that he wrote of. 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:39.000 He said it was always intriguing to him to watch young men coming through the university and how they evolved from boys into men. 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:46.000 He said those who become men, those who became contributing adults to society. 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:53.000 He said there was always some profound cataclysmic event. There was conversion, for lack of a better term. 00:14:53.000 --> 00:15:11.000 A conversion to the recognition of something greater than themselves of which they joined themselves and it became the very thing that gave foundation to their life, the thing that they would point to and say, I belong to that. 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:25.000 But those who continued through the university, graduate from the university who never have that kind of selfless experience. 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:27.000 He said they have a different worldview. 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:48.000 They spend the entirety of their lives in this emotional, immature rat race of trying to get things, of trying to gather insignificant things that, and and they continually say through their lifetime, that belongs to me. 00:15:48.000 --> 00:16:04.000 But those who contribute, those who have the greatest contribution to society are those who say have come to a place of saying, I belong to that. 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:17.000 You see, that's when we understand the power of our association together, when we point to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ and you say, I belong to that. 00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:31.000 That is what defines me. That is what motivates me. That is what awakens me on a daily basis. That is what gives me my purpose. I belong to that. 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:34.000 It's a powerful thought, isn't it? 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:56.000 That when we leave here individually, that by our actions, our words, our deeds, our attitudes, individually, collectively, we are having an impact to the world, in the world as to what it means to be the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:16:56.000 --> 00:17:15.000 Morris Massey was a professor of marketing at OU when I was there and I read an account of Morris Massey talking about being on a commercial flight with United Airlines and a stewardess tripped and stumbled as she was serving drinks and dropped an entire tray of drinks in in his lap. 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:24.000 And he said for the next 30 minutes, that stewardess, that flight attendant, he said, she was United Airlines. 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:32.000 He said, I didn't care anything about their advertising. I didn't care anything about their, their slick branding, their slick marketing. 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:36.000 He said all of that was meaningless to me. 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:50.000 That woman, she was United Airlines in the next 30 minutes and how she responded to this unfortunate circumstance. 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:58.000 You see when when we walk out these doors, each one of us individually. 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:03.000 People watch us. You know, people that never go to church, they'll watch you. 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:07.000 People that never read their Bible, they'll read you. 00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:14.000 And they're going to make valuations, they're going to make judgments about what it means to be a follower of Christ. 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:19.000 They don't care anything about our branding as a church. They don't care anything about slick programs. 00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:33.000 But when they encounter you, me, then they're making judgments about what it is to be the church and to be the body of Christ. 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:41.000 Oh, I hope we leave here today. If we leave with anything that we understand the power of our association. 00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:49.000 But there's something else in our preparation here in the in the upper room. It's not just our understanding our requisite association with one another. 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:57.000 But I I would also hope for us that that we would also find a a reassuring affirmation. 00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:03.000 That what we're doing, that in this very thing in which we are participating, I hope it is for you this morning. 00:19:03.000 --> 00:19:06.000 a reaffirming affirmation. 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:11.000 Notice, Jesus certainly offers that in verses 19 and 20. 00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:23.000 And when he had taken some bread and given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body, which is being given for you. 00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:26.000 Do this in remembrance of me. 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:37.000 And in the same way, he took the cup after they had eaten, saying, this cup, which is poured out for you, is the new covenant in my blood. 00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:45.000 In other words, what what Jesus is emphasizing to these disciples, what he doesn't want them to miss is that what I'm doing and certainly they didn't understand what he was doing at that point. 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:58.000 But what he, what I'm going to do that that this is sufficient in accomplishing this great salvation that God has prepared and offering to you. 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:04.000 That my death, that my sacrifice is sufficient for your salvation. 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:07.000 It's not your merit. 00:20:07.000 --> 00:20:13.000 It's unlike every other system, man-made system in this world. This is not merit-based. This is grace-based. 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:21.000 This is based upon the sufficiency of my sacrifice in accomplishing the salvation that God would desire for you. 00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:25.000 It's far more about God than it ever is you or me. 00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:40.000 And I would hope that this would be for you just, uh, especially in this day of culture that imposes up upon us this idea that we're not good enough, that we don't measure up, that we're undeserving. 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:53.000 I hope that we can hear a word of reassurance and affirming reassurance that his death is sufficient. 00:20:53.000 --> 00:21:06.000 You know that was one of the things that captured my heart and mind as a new believer at the age of 21, not growing up in church, but when I, but when I started my mind and heart became heavy for the things of God. 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:15.000 And as I was seeking that out, trying to find out what that meant and how that was to be understood and how that was to be experienced. 00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:21.000 The thought that that Jesus died for me. 00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:39.000 That he gave his life as a sacrifice. I I just had this compelling, this compelling thought, this compelling conviction that if someone died for me, then why would I not live for him? 00:21:39.000 --> 00:21:52.000 Why would that not become my life pursuit that if someone was willing to to lay down their life, why would I not live for him? 00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:59.000 March 15th, 1985, Wayne Alderson was on the today's show. 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:09.000 He was a successful labor negotiator in Pittsburgh, but it was the 40th anniversary, the reason he had been invited to be on the today's show. 00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:17.000 This was the 40th anniversary of the first American uh, that crossed the Siegfried line into Germany during World War II. 00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:24.000 It was Wayne Alderson. He was injured. In fact, he still has a crease in his head from the injury that he sustained. 00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:36.000 The woman interviewing Wayne Alderson asked him, as you recall that event 40 years ago, what is it that stands out in your mind? 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:41.000 What is it that comes to the forefront of your mind? 00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:46.000 His eyes welled with tears. 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:50.000 And he said it was a redheaded friend of mine. 00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:57.000 He said I'd been confronted with a German shoulder and he threw a grenade. I happened to shoot him at the same time. 00:22:57.000 --> 00:23:01.000 But that grenade exploded, knocked me to the ground, face down. 00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:11.000 I had a head injury, it knocked me face down into a puddle of mud and at that same time, there was a German pill box that exploded with machine gun fire. 00:23:11.000 --> 00:23:24.000 He said if the grenade wasn't going to kill me, the machine gun fire certainly would. But my friend threw his body over me after rolling my body over so that I wouldn't be submerged in the mud. 00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:30.000 Rolled me over, laid his body on top of mine, and he was killed. 00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:41.000 And he paused and he said, not a day goes by that I don't see the face of my redheaded friend in my mind. 00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:48.000 And that I live my life every day for him. 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:54.000 Well, that's, that's the call of Christ upon our lives. 00:23:54.000 --> 00:24:01.000 You see, we're we're a part, he sacrificed his life for you, he sacrificed his life for me. 00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:10.000 We we are the church. We are the body of Christ, the one who sacrificed for us. 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:25.000 It's a powerful image, like Lycurgus, the Spartan lawgiver, once in a conversation with the reigning monarch, and what was unique about Sparta, this great warrior state is that they had no defensive walls. 00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:32.000 Other countries had walls, defensive walls, not not Sparta. 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:40.000 And when this particular monarch was was saying how vulnerable Sparta was, he like Lycurgus pointed to his soldiers. 00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:48.000 And he said, these, these are the walls of Sparta. Every man a brick. 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:53.000 You see, we, we are the walls of the kingdom of God. 00:24:53.000 --> 00:25:00.000 We are the walls of the church, each and every one of us, a living stone in Christ Jesus. 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:07.000 That is our association. That is our affirming assurance as the people of God. 00:25:07.000 --> 00:25:26.000 The final thing that I hope that we would consider as we prepare properly for this, is that for you and I that as we come to the table and we experience communion, that that you and I would have a, a readied anticipation. 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:35.000 That what Christ did isn't all there is, but that you and I would have a readied anticipation regarding the kingdom of God. 00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:42.000 Yes, the kingdom of God is here and now, but also it is it is to come in that same sense. 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:44.000 Notice what Jesus says in verse 18. 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:53.000 We get this idea of what God is doing. He says, for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes. 00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:59.000 Jesus has this anticipation of more that that is to come. 00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:15.000 Verse 29, and just as my father has granted me a kingdom, I grant you that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and you will sit on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. 00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:20.000 You say there's, there's always more to come. 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:25.000 You can never be satisfied with what we've known, with what we've experienced, what we've accomplished. 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:30.000 There there has to be this readied anticipation knowing that there that there is more to come. 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.000 Jesus on the cross saying it is finished. 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:41.000 That's just a statement that it's the end of the beginning, to borrow a line from Churchill. 00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:46.000 It's just the end of of the beginning. 00:26:46.000 --> 00:27:00.000 That there is more to come and as you live the the life of faith, we are to do so with this readied anticipation of of the Lord who is coming again, where the kingdom of God will be established once and for all. 00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:14.000 Not not with all of its frailties and shortcomings because we are seeking to live it out each day, but in finality, the kingdom of God will be established once and for all when the Lord comes. 00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:16.000 And we're not caught unaware. 00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:22.000 That we're ready, that we're prepared. 00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:37.000 Final story, I'll tell you it was a few hours after his 30th mission, having flown his 30th mission over Iraq, that uh, that Lieutenant Robbie Robbins was awakened by a young airman, was told that the CEO wanted to see him. 00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:42.000 After rousing himself, going to see the CEO, the CEO asked him, do you want to fly your plane home? 00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:45.000 He said, absolutely. 00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:51.000 The orders were cut the next morning, he took off, landed in Greece for for refueling. 00:27:51.000 --> 00:28:03.000 Next leg of the flight was Wiesbaden and then uh the UK and then Greenland and then uh Otis Air Force Base, I believe, in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. 00:28:03.000 --> 00:28:09.000 Called ahead, had a rental car waiting for him on the on the flight line after doing all the proper paperwork. 00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:15.000 He took off and drove all night to Warren, Pennsylvania. 00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:18.000 He's going to surprise his family. 00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:36.000 Walked into his home that morning, but when he pulled up to the curb, there was a sign there said, "Welcome home, daddy." He walked through the front door. The kids are dressed for school. They're screaming, Daddy, daddy, daddy, running and jumping in into his arms. 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:46.000 Hugs the kids. He looks down the hallway. His wife is approaching. Hair is perfect. Makeup's flawless. She's in this crisp yellow dress. 00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:50.000 He sees past her into the bedroom. There's a vase of fresh flowers on the dresser. 00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.000 The bed is is made. 00:28:54.000 --> 00:29:03.000 It had only been 44 hours since the hour since, since the orders had been cut. 00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:08.000 Thousands and thousands of miles. 00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:14.000 He asked his wife, he said, how, how'd you know? I wanted, I wanted to surprise y'all. 00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:23.000 She said, oh, when the, when the conflict was over, when the war was over, we we knew you'd eventually come home. 00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:25.000 And we knew you'd want to surprise us. 00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:38.000 And so we got up every day and got ready so that we would be prepared when you got here. 00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:44.000 That's a readied anticipation. 00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:49.000 And the coming of the Lord need not be a surprise. 00:29:49.000 --> 00:29:54.000 I'm often times asked when I was a pastor, they say, Pastor, what what would you do differently if you knew Jesus was coming tomorrow? 00:29:54.000 --> 00:30:03.000 Well, I wouldn't do anything different. I do what I do every day, but I'm doing everything, I hope, everything I'm doing every day to the glory of the Father. 00:30:03.000 --> 00:30:08.000 That there's not some set kind of behavior that I need to be doing before the Lord comes. 00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:14.000 I I want to be prepared. I'm anticipating his coming. 00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:20.000 I don't want it to be a surprise. I want to be ready. 00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:25.000 That's how we prepare for our communion. 00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:31.000 Let me lead in a word of prayer and as I pray, our those that are going to help us with passing out our communion, you guys go ahead and come forth. 00:30:31.000 --> 00:31:00.000 Our Father, how grateful we are to be a part of this unique association with you, with one another, with what it means to be a people of God, to have that identity, to have that association, to have that kinship, to have that shared partnership with brothers and sisters in Christ, and not just here, but but around the world. 00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:08.000 And that in this, we find such reassurance and affirmation that we are children of God. 00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:19.000 And it gives to us that readied anticipation of more to come in all that you have in store for us. 00:31:19.000 --> 00:31:35.000 So Father, as we partake this morning of these elements, I pray Lord that as we feel them, as we taste them, that they would be that they would be a present reminder of the indwelling of our Lord and his presence in our lives. 00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.000 In Jesus name, I pray. Amen. 00:31:39.000 --> 00:31:49.000 All right, you can go ahead.