WEBVTT 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:08.320 This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God. 00:00:08.560 --> 00:00:13.359 For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org. 00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:20.800 Want you to take a minute and look at those words on the screen, because that summarizes everything we're going to think about this morning. 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:23.120 This, my friends, is the gospel. 00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:25.199 That my debt is paid. 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:26.800 Let's start there. 00:00:27.039 --> 00:00:28.640 My debt is paid. 00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:30.640 You are by nature so sinful. 00:00:30.719 --> 00:00:31.839 Or let me use myself. 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:49.200 I by nature am so sinful that the only way that I could get to heaven, the only way I could have a relationship with God, the only way I could be forgiven is that Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God, had to die on the cross as payment for my sins. 00:00:50.399 --> 00:00:55.679 But I'm also so loved by God that Jesus was glad to die for my sins. 00:00:56.719 --> 00:00:57.600 That's the gospel. 00:00:57.679 --> 00:01:00.799 So when we say my debt is paid, that's what we mean. 00:01:01.039 --> 00:01:07.200 The second part is there's nothing that can separate my heart from your great love. 00:01:07.439 --> 00:01:09.120 There's nothing that can separate. 00:01:09.760 --> 00:01:12.799 The Bible talks about the love of God, the sense of permanence. 00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:16.159 I want to draw your attention to those last two words from your great love. 00:01:16.400 --> 00:01:22.959 Most of us have we've heard of great love, but all we've experienced is good love, okay love, so-so love. 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:29.519 There's a greatness to God's love that you don't find anywhere and in anything else. 00:01:30.319 --> 00:01:35.840 And sometimes that's so disillusioning that we we know there's great love out there and we've never experienced it. 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:42.879 Some of us self-medicate and we self-medicate over a period of time, and that's where that's how addiction it becomes addiction. 00:01:43.040 --> 00:01:48.079 We self-medicate because we know there's great love, but all we've ever experienced is okay love. 00:01:48.319 --> 00:01:52.239 And you can't live with that dissonance, and so you gotta do something to take the edge off. 00:01:52.319 --> 00:01:58.959 So some people eat too much, some people take a glass of red wine and a valium, some people love Percocet. 00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:06.239 Because to know it's out there and not experience it is just it's unnerving. 00:02:06.799 --> 00:02:09.599 And yet, God comes to bring it to us. 00:02:10.560 --> 00:02:15.840 And so, everything we're gonna talk about this morning, if you're our guest and you're looking around, kind of going, what is this? 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:19.680 We're observing communion, we're celebrating communion this morning here at Grand Park Way. 00:02:19.840 --> 00:02:28.080 Let me just say, by way of we practice what's called open communion, which means that if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus, you have a relationship with Christ, you're welcome to receive with us this morning. 00:02:28.159 --> 00:02:31.039 You'll get some instruction here in just a minute, but let me tell you what's gonna happen. 00:02:31.120 --> 00:02:32.719 In just a minute, I'll pray a brief prayer. 00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:38.400 You'll sit down, I'll read from the Bible back in the very beginning because I want to answer the question, why do we do this? 00:02:38.719 --> 00:02:44.400 Because one of the times we were doing communion and a family came, had three kids, I think, and one of them is a little like a four or five-year-old girl. 00:02:44.479 --> 00:02:47.280 And while I'm talking, she just looked at me to her family. 00:02:47.439 --> 00:02:49.680 She looked at me and she goes, Why do we do this? 00:02:50.560 --> 00:02:52.639 And I thought, that's great. 00:02:53.199 --> 00:02:56.159 So I want to talk to us, remind us while we do this. 00:02:56.400 --> 00:03:01.039 And then after that, we'll kind of sit and reflect for a minute, and then we'll open up the communion stations. 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:03.439 There's three in the front and two in the back, and people will come. 00:03:03.520 --> 00:03:04.800 We'll continue to worship. 00:03:04.960 --> 00:03:08.080 During that time, people will come and we'll serve your communion. 00:03:08.719 --> 00:03:15.680 If you've ever been to church and you looked up, especially uh if you grew up at a church, they had a little table at the front, and on the front of it, it was kind of usually routed in. 00:03:15.759 --> 00:03:17.680 This do in remembrance of me. 00:03:18.479 --> 00:03:20.560 That's that was called the communion table. 00:03:20.639 --> 00:03:25.680 And that's what Jesus, when he celebrated Passover with his disciples, he was saying, Hey, this is not just an empty ritual. 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:30.240 When you do this, as often as you do it, do this in remembrance of me. 00:03:30.479 --> 00:03:36.719 Translation, never forget what I did on your behalf on the cross. 00:03:37.039 --> 00:03:41.759 Because then you start believing untruth about yourself when you forget. 00:03:42.159 --> 00:03:44.719 So let me pray and we'll dig in this morning. 00:03:44.879 --> 00:03:48.400 Holy Spirit, thank you that you love us with a great love. 00:03:48.639 --> 00:03:54.479 And that we were created for great love, and so often we settle for just okay love or good love. 00:03:54.800 --> 00:03:58.879 May the power of great love be brought to bear on us today, we pray in Jesus' name. 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:00.719 And everyone said, Amen. 00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:01.599 You can have a seed. 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:05.919 I want to read to you from Genesis chapter 3 in response to the question, why do we do this? 00:04:06.080 --> 00:04:10.639 Now God's created the heavens and the earth and the animals and everything, and he made man and woman. 00:04:10.800 --> 00:04:12.560 He says it's not good that man should be alone. 00:04:12.639 --> 00:04:15.520 So he made a helper, uh, Eve, uh, for him. 00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:22.720 He puts them in the garden, and God said to them, You're free to eat of any tree in the garden, but of this one tree, don't eat, because when you eat of that, you'll surely die. 00:04:22.879 --> 00:04:24.319 We pick up the story right there. 00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:25.920 Chapter 3, verse 1. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:34.079 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made, and he said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden? 00:04:34.240 --> 00:04:44.240 And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat the fruit the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die. 00:04:44.480 --> 00:04:51.600 But the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. 00:04:51.759 --> 00:05:03.279 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit, and she ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:16.560 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked, and they sowed fig leaves together and made themselves loinclaws, and they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the cool of the garden on the day, and in the cool walking in the garden in the cool of the day. 00:05:16.720 --> 00:05:21.920 And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 00:05:22.079 --> 00:05:24.480 But the Lord called to the man and said to him, Where are you? 00:05:24.560 --> 00:05:29.199 And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. 00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:31.680 And he said, Who told you that you were naked? 00:05:31.920 --> 00:05:34.399 Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? 00:05:34.480 --> 00:05:38.079 And the man said, The woman whom you gave with me, she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate. 00:05:38.319 --> 00:05:40.560 Then the Lord said to the woman, What is this you have done? 00:05:40.720 --> 00:05:43.680 The woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. 00:05:44.319 --> 00:05:45.360 Why do we do this? 00:05:45.519 --> 00:05:48.800 We do this because in Adam and Eve we see a picture of ourselves. 00:05:49.040 --> 00:05:54.480 First of all, what we see is that in our human, fallen human nature is a desire to be God. 00:05:55.040 --> 00:06:01.680 I mean, let's just face it, why submit to God and the things of God, the law of God, the commands of God, if you can be God? 00:06:02.160 --> 00:06:03.040 What do you mean? 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:06.319 The serpent comes along and says, Hey, did God really say don't eat of the tree? 00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:08.079 And these they said, Well, he told us not to eat of tree. 00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:11.120 We can eat of all these trees, but this one, don't eat of that because you'll die. 00:06:11.279 --> 00:06:14.800 The serpent doubts the truth of what God says and says, Hey, you're not gonna die. 00:06:14.959 --> 00:06:17.839 God's afraid you're gonna be like him, knowing good and evil. 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:19.439 And so that is the most appealing thing. 00:06:19.680 --> 00:06:23.360 If you want to appeal to human nature, tell them they get to be God, they get to be in charge. 00:06:23.439 --> 00:06:24.800 You say, I would never think that. 00:06:24.959 --> 00:06:28.160 That is alive, and that thought process is alive and well today. 00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:29.519 It just sounds like this. 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:31.199 Oh, it's my body. 00:06:31.439 --> 00:06:34.319 Or it sounds like this: who are you to tell me what to do? 00:06:34.639 --> 00:06:37.360 Because deep inside all of us, we want to be God. 00:06:37.439 --> 00:06:38.319 Let's just face it. 00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:41.759 So why do we do communion to remind ourselves that we're not God? 00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:43.920 Secondly, why do we do communion? 00:06:44.079 --> 00:06:48.240 Well, we do communion because we by nature are like our spiritual parents, Adam and Eve. 00:06:48.399 --> 00:06:53.680 We we we we don't trust God, we disobey God, and when we screw up, we hide. 00:06:53.920 --> 00:06:55.839 And when we get found, when we get called out. 00:06:55.920 --> 00:06:58.000 By the way, when God says to Adam and Eve, where are you? 00:06:58.160 --> 00:07:00.000 He is calling them out of a small place. 00:07:00.079 --> 00:07:04.959 Because when you hide, when you kind of, when you when you break fellowship with God and you go hide, what are you doing? 00:07:05.040 --> 00:07:05.920 That don't miss this. 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:08.720 The Bible says they made for themselves loincloths out of fig leaves. 00:07:08.879 --> 00:07:12.319 And so they kind of covered themselves with this temporary solution because that's what we do. 00:07:12.480 --> 00:07:13.920 We realize, hey, I've screwed up. 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:16.560 Well, if I can screw up, I can also fix it. 00:07:16.879 --> 00:07:20.560 You cannot be both sinner and God at the same time. 00:07:20.800 --> 00:07:28.560 And so they make provision for themselves and they hide among the trees, kind of like a real the first real tree camo outfit is Adam and Eve, and God says, Where are you? 00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:33.199 And he invites them from a small place of hiding into this big place they were created for. 00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:34.800 He's not asking because he doesn't know. 00:07:34.879 --> 00:07:36.639 He's God, of course he knows where they are. 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:40.800 And Adam says, Well, I was naked, so I hid myself, but who told you you were naked? 00:07:41.360 --> 00:07:44.240 Who begin to shape the way you think about yourself? 00:07:44.720 --> 00:07:49.199 And so God, and Adam does what we do to this day, he blames somebody else. 00:07:49.360 --> 00:07:51.600 Have you noticed that no one's guilty anymore? 00:07:51.920 --> 00:07:56.800 Most conversations, if people were honest, they would just say, Let's begin with the fact that this is not my fault. 00:07:57.839 --> 00:08:00.560 Adam and Eve, hey, hey, uh, what have you done? 00:08:00.959 --> 00:08:04.399 Well, the woman you gave me, she gave me some fruit and I ate, and it's he looks to the woman. 00:08:04.560 --> 00:08:05.120 What have you done? 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:06.720 Well, really, it's the serpent that you made. 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:09.519 If you hadn't made the serpent, I wouldn't have been this way in the first place. 00:08:10.160 --> 00:08:11.839 That is just human nature. 00:08:12.079 --> 00:08:16.000 Human nature is to look around and blame everybody but ourselves. 00:08:16.319 --> 00:08:17.839 This is why we do communion. 00:08:17.920 --> 00:08:21.519 And let me just can let me just boil it all down to this phrase and we'll get to it. 00:08:21.680 --> 00:08:30.480 Uh if you leave your seat here in a few minutes and you go to one of these communion stations and you remember the body and the blood of Jesus with the elements that are on the table. 00:08:30.639 --> 00:08:32.159 Here's what you're confessing today. 00:08:32.320 --> 00:08:37.039 You're confessing that you by nature are a deceitful liar who hides. 00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:39.039 You're confessing you want to be God. 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:46.000 You're confessing that it's, hey, if left to myself, I will blame everybody else except myself. 00:08:48.480 --> 00:08:50.639 Aren't you glad you came to church to hear that? 00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:53.360 Isn't that seeker friendly? 00:08:54.240 --> 00:08:56.000 And yet that's the gospel. 00:08:56.799 --> 00:09:01.360 Because if that's not true of you, then why does Jesus have to come? 00:09:01.919 --> 00:09:03.840 If that's not true of me. 00:09:04.159 --> 00:09:08.159 And so the Bible tells us, hey, this is why we do this. 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:12.559 And he also tells us later, hey, and gives us some instructions as to how you do that. 00:09:12.799 --> 00:09:19.279 He says, hey, in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul says, hey, uh, don't receive the elements in an unworthy manner. 00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:26.240 Not unworthy as in I I deserve it or I don't deserve it, but don't just kind of go through the motions without discerning the body. 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:29.919 Discerning the body is not, hey, now we're going to sit here and hate ourselves. 00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:36.080 No, discerning the body means I'm a part of something bigger than myself, therefore it matters how I live. 00:09:36.159 --> 00:09:47.840 Uh most of you know we just got a men's, our men's, some of our men just got back from a mission trip to Costa Rica in the mountains of Costa Rica, and uh we got back Friday night and it's eight days and we're tired, and it was great. 00:09:47.919 --> 00:09:49.360 The men worked hard, it was awesome. 00:09:49.440 --> 00:09:51.679 We laughed, we cut up, we gave each other a hard time. 00:09:51.840 --> 00:09:55.200 James Serrano cut his leg off and we stitched it back on. 00:09:56.480 --> 00:09:58.159 It's a flesh wound. 00:09:58.639 --> 00:09:59.600 I'll fight you. 00:09:59.840 --> 00:10:04.159 Anyway, uh by the time he got back here, he severed that thing or whatever. 00:10:04.240 --> 00:10:12.399 But anyway, we get back and we're we get back to the airport in Houston and we go on the shuttle bus and we're driving, and the guy's going about 45 miles an hour, and I am dying. 00:10:12.639 --> 00:10:14.559 And I'm like, this thing got a governor on it. 00:10:14.639 --> 00:10:15.360 Can we go faster? 00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:21.440 And I'm just about out of Jesus, and then he misses the turn from this from the Sam Houston tollway onto the West Park tollway. 00:10:21.519 --> 00:10:24.639 And he says, I'll just go down 59 and loop back around. 00:10:24.720 --> 00:10:29.039 And there's all all we could see between us and the driver was a little limousine window. 00:10:29.120 --> 00:10:31.919 I was ready to crawl through there and choke that guy out. 00:10:32.639 --> 00:10:35.120 And I'm I'm the pastor, that's not good. 00:10:35.360 --> 00:10:42.720 And the other guys are picking up on it, and then I thought about today and that little subtle phrase in 1 Corinthians 11 when Paul says, Hey, don't do this without discerning the body. 00:10:42.799 --> 00:10:48.240 Translation, you belong to something bigger than yourself, so what how you live matters. 00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:50.879 And so I said it out loud to myself and all the other guys. 00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:53.600 I said, Hey, let's remember we're the Christians on this bus. 00:10:55.120 --> 00:11:01.039 And I wasn't scolding my men, I was reminding all of us how we live matters. 00:11:01.679 --> 00:11:16.000 And so in just a minute, Brett and Emily are gonna come and they're gonna sing a song over us, and it's an opportunity to just kind of discern the body and kind of say, you know what, how I live matters because Christianity is not a path toward individual self-actualization or self-fulfillment. 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:24.399 It is the responsibility of conducting yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel and realizing I'm a part of something bigger than myself. 00:11:25.679 --> 00:11:30.399 There's a little girl up on the mountain, her name is Nuria, and every year we show up, she shows up. 00:11:30.720 --> 00:11:33.279 The confite, the confite, the candy. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:37.120 She wants candy, and every time I take a break, she'll come over and sit beside me. 00:11:37.200 --> 00:11:38.879 The first year she just put her hand on my hand. 00:11:39.120 --> 00:11:40.399 Last year we kind of held hands. 00:11:40.480 --> 00:11:44.399 This year she took my hand and splayed my fingers out and put her fingers between them. 00:11:45.120 --> 00:11:46.720 She's experienced horrible abuse. 00:11:46.799 --> 00:11:48.159 She's in the third grade. 00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:56.240 And the redneck in me wanted to find all the men that have taken advantage of her and slaughter every one of them. 00:11:57.279 --> 00:11:59.360 And I'm not I'm not making that up. 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:03.919 Instead, we would just sit there and hold hands and I'd drink water and I'd go back to work. 00:12:04.080 --> 00:12:09.759 And the last day I looked at her through a translator and I said, Hey, no dear, don't ever forget God has a plan and a purpose for your life. 00:12:09.919 --> 00:12:13.120 I know it's hard up here on this mountain, but God has a plan and a purpose. 00:12:13.200 --> 00:12:16.320 And because he has a plan and a purpose, how you live matters. 00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:25.039 Don't don't ever act like it doesn't matter, because if you don't, if it if God doesn't have a plan and a purpose, then nothing matters, but he does, and therefore it does. 00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:26.080 You understand? 00:12:26.159 --> 00:12:28.240 And she kind of nodded, blinking back tears. 00:12:29.200 --> 00:12:30.240 Why do I tell you that? 00:12:30.399 --> 00:12:39.279 Because when when Paul says, hey, don't do this without discerning the body, he's saying that hey, it matters how you live, not just for you, but you're part of a church. 00:12:39.519 --> 00:12:45.039 I know church membership is not sexy and in vogue these days because we're free-spirited individualists. 00:12:45.360 --> 00:12:47.279 That's an offense to the gospel. 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:50.559 You're part of the body of Christ. 00:12:50.879 --> 00:12:52.399 And therefore how you live matters. 00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:55.200 And so that's what Paul means when he says, discern the body. 00:12:55.679 --> 00:13:04.080 So Brett and Emily are gonna come and they're gonna just kind of sing over us and kind of remind us of the difference between our earthly father and our heavenly father. 00:13:04.399 --> 00:13:10.799 Because I got back Friday night to my house about 9, 9:15, and my wife said, Hey, save me three minutes before you go to bed. 00:13:11.120 --> 00:13:17.519 And uh, she had recorded American Idol, which I just thought, I don't, I got nothing in me for this. 00:13:17.840 --> 00:13:22.000 But I'm married, so okay, this better be good. 00:13:23.759 --> 00:13:25.039 And it was more than good. 00:13:25.200 --> 00:13:45.200 It was beyond good because the three minutes that she made me watch were Kelly Clarkson singing a song called Peace by Peace, where she wrote the song about how her dad who had abandoned her, and she's really contrasting the dad that left her and the dad that came along and and and just kind of loved her consistently and was there for her. 00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:49.600 And as I'm watching that, I thought about this morning, and I thought this is a communion song. 00:13:50.240 --> 00:13:50.720 Why? 00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:59.759 Because here in just a minute, you're gonna come to these stations and piece by piece, you're gonna taste and see that the Lord is good, and you're gonna be reminded. 00:14:01.120 --> 00:14:05.519 And so, just kind of as we let this watch over us, I want Jesus said this. 00:14:05.679 --> 00:14:14.240 He said, if your earthly father knows how to give good gifts, and some of you had great earthly dads, and some of you didn't have very good earthly dads. 00:14:14.480 --> 00:14:26.000 It doesn't matter either way, because over all of that, the goodness or the badness of your earthly father, God has come today to say, I want you to taste the how much mourness of your heavenly father. 00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:29.679 So let's, as we listen, let's just discern the body. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:33.759 And let's just discern the goodness and the how much mourn of our father. 00:14:35.840 --> 00:14:44.960 It is the nature of fatherhood to give your children what they need before they know they need it, and to give it to them in a way in which they'll never forget it. 00:14:45.840 --> 00:14:58.639 And so now that you've tasted it, depart and may the bread on your tongue leave a trail of crumbs that leads the lonely back to the place that you're from. 00:14:58.879 --> 00:15:01.440 In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 00:15:01.679 --> 00:15:02.080 Amen. 00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:03.759 Bless you, you're dismissed.