WEBVTT 00:00:04.799 --> 00:00:12.480 This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Faptist, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God. 00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:18.000 For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandProquay.org. 00:00:19.280 --> 00:00:20.160 Pray together. 00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:23.359 Father, there's a uniqueness to your name. 00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:28.719 There's a worth that we ascribe to your name that we don't ascribe to any other name, including our own. 00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:33.920 The Bible says that there's no name given under heaven whereby which men should be saved except the name of Jesus. 00:00:34.159 --> 00:00:36.560 Proverbs says the name of the Lord is a strong tower. 00:00:36.719 --> 00:00:38.719 The righteous run into it and find strength. 00:00:38.799 --> 00:00:44.960 And so we come today to be nourished and strengthened by who you are at the expense of who we are. 00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:55.920 So, Holy Spirit, lead us into this time as we prepare our head and our heart to come to the table and remember that you offered up your body and your blood in our place and for our sin. 00:00:56.880 --> 00:01:02.240 This is a cause for great celebration and great preparation. 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:05.280 We give ourselves to both of us now in Jesus' name. 00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:07.280 And everyone said, Amen. 00:01:07.359 --> 00:01:07.680 Amen. 00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:11.439 You can have a scene, if you have a Bible, you can open up to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 00:01:11.519 --> 00:01:12.719 And let me just explain what you're seeing. 00:01:12.799 --> 00:01:15.200 If you're our guest, we're observing communion today. 00:01:15.519 --> 00:01:22.719 And we practice what's called open communion here at Grand Park Way, which means if you're a Christian, you have a relationship with Christ, you can be visiting for the first time today. 00:01:22.879 --> 00:01:25.680 You are welcome to come and receive communion with us, okay? 00:01:26.079 --> 00:01:38.959 However, if if you're like, you know what, that's not who I am, uh, or I've got some things in my life I've not dealt with, then we encourage you to abstain from the table today and just observe and just worship and spend some time thinking and praying about your life. 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:46.319 Paul gives instructions in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 to the church at Corinth, which was this most problematic church that he'd ever dealt with. 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:50.079 There was always controversy and crisis going on in the church at Corinth. 00:01:50.159 --> 00:01:56.400 And so Paul gives them a lot of granularity because they started consuming the Lord's Supper upon their lust. 00:01:56.480 --> 00:01:57.439 It was just a thing for them. 00:01:57.519 --> 00:02:02.799 It's like a ritual, another thing for them to exploit in the ways that they wanted to. 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:06.799 And if left unchecked into ourselves, we can become the same way. 00:02:06.959 --> 00:02:11.199 And so it helps us to kind of look into what the Bible says and then take our cues from that. 00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:14.479 I'll start reading in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 23. 00:02:14.639 --> 00:02:18.319 He says, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you. 00:02:18.560 --> 00:02:25.759 That the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and he said, This is my body which is for you. 00:02:25.919 --> 00:02:27.599 Do this in remembrance of me. 00:02:28.159 --> 00:02:33.599 In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant and my blood. 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:37.039 Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. 00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:42.240 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. 00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:49.680 Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and the blood of the Lord. 00:02:49.919 --> 00:02:53.840 Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 00:02:54.080 --> 00:02:59.280 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:02.639 This is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 00:03:02.879 --> 00:03:06.159 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 00:03:06.400 --> 00:03:11.759 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:16.240 There's three things I want to give us to think about as we prepare to come to the table. 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:17.360 Just three simple words. 00:03:17.439 --> 00:03:19.439 And the first one is just remember. 00:03:19.680 --> 00:03:20.080 Remember. 00:03:20.319 --> 00:03:24.719 Twice Jesus says that do this, and as often as you do this, do this in remembrance of me. 00:03:24.879 --> 00:03:30.560 You engage in this behavior, what Jesus, what Paul tells us, what Jesus says at the Last Supper. 00:03:30.639 --> 00:03:35.759 He says, Hey, do you do this, but you and when you do this, you do this in remembrance of me. 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:40.080 It's important that we remember today because it's our nature to forget. 00:03:40.159 --> 00:03:45.759 It's our nature to come through a year like this past year and come out of it and think it's all depends on me. 00:03:45.919 --> 00:03:50.800 I reached down, it was difficult, but I reached down and pulled myself up with my own determination. 00:03:50.879 --> 00:03:58.639 And yet the Bible, we open it up, and it Jesus says, Hey, as often as you do this, remember me when you do it. 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:04.000 He says, when it comes to the bread, and he holds up the cup and he says, This cup is a new covenant in my blood. 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:07.360 Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. 00:04:07.599 --> 00:04:11.520 Now, you should be asking yourself, why does the Bible have to tell us to remember? 00:04:11.680 --> 00:04:16.240 Because it is our nature to forget and therefore to take matters in our own hands. 00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:21.839 And so it just kind of slows us down and unwinds us and finds us and says, remember. 00:04:22.079 --> 00:04:24.240 Second word I want to give you is just proclaim. 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:24.959 Proclaim. 00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:31.279 Verse 26, Paul says, For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. 00:04:31.519 --> 00:04:32.639 Here's what you're doing today. 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:41.040 Let me just remind you, it's been a while, but if you leave your seat, when we start to receive communion and you come to one of these communion stations, there's three in the front and two in the back. 00:04:41.199 --> 00:05:01.519 If you leave your seat and you go receive communion today, what you are saying, what you are proclaiming is that you by nature are so sinful and so separated from God and so incapable of doing anything about your status in standing before God, that you require a perfect God to sacrifice his perfect son in your place and for your sins. 00:05:01.680 --> 00:05:10.800 That's what you're saying, that there is no way, the only hope I have of forgiveness and heaven is that someone dies for my sin in my place. 00:05:11.839 --> 00:05:15.839 But you're also proclaiming that yes, yes, this is who I am by nature. 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:18.160 I'm I'm this sinful of a person. 00:05:18.480 --> 00:05:23.920 But you're also proclaiming I'm also so loved by God that He was glad to do that. 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:27.600 And so one of those balances out the other. 00:05:27.759 --> 00:05:34.399 One uh uh one uh stops the the boasting uh and and the other stops the pity. 00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:36.240 It's a proclamation. 00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:37.040 Proclaim. 00:05:37.199 --> 00:05:41.519 You as often as you do this, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:48.079 Not only do you proclaim the Lord's death, I want to just say when it comes to proclaiming the Lord's death, we fall in one of two categories. 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:52.480 Either the Lord's death is personal for you or it's historical. 00:05:52.879 --> 00:05:55.519 It's something that happened thousands of years ago. 00:05:55.759 --> 00:05:58.160 You can believe in that and never experience that. 00:05:58.399 --> 00:06:00.560 It's just historical, like the Titanic. 00:06:00.720 --> 00:06:05.199 I believe the Titanic happened, it's historical, but it's not personal. 00:06:05.519 --> 00:06:07.360 I didn't lose anything on the Titanic. 00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:10.879 Leonardo DiCaprio didn't come save me on the Titanic. 00:06:11.439 --> 00:06:15.360 And so I can talk about the Titanic all day long in a historical mindset. 00:06:15.680 --> 00:06:16.720 Oh, yeah, I believe that happened. 00:06:16.879 --> 00:06:18.720 Here's how it happened, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 00:06:18.959 --> 00:06:20.959 But I didn't experience the Titanic. 00:06:21.360 --> 00:06:27.040 I saw the movie and I still did not experience the Titanic because that is an historical event for me. 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:30.879 The cross is both historical and personal. 00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:34.800 You have to ask yourself, is this personal for me? 00:06:35.360 --> 00:06:39.519 When he says, proclaim the Lord's death, do I understand what he's saying there? 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:41.920 Do I have a personal proclamation? 00:06:42.560 --> 00:06:44.319 And then finally he says, Examine. 00:06:45.040 --> 00:06:46.240 Sorry, verse 27. 00:06:46.639 --> 00:06:48.240 The text gets a little thick. 00:06:49.040 --> 00:06:49.759 Why is that? 00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:54.480 Because the table, coming to the Lord's table is God's means of purifying the church. 00:06:54.800 --> 00:06:55.920 Listen very carefully. 00:06:56.399 --> 00:06:59.279 The Lord's table is God's means of purifying the church. 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:05.120 It keeps you and I from getting in the habit of just living in sin and shrugging and going, Well, Jesus died for my sin. 00:07:05.839 --> 00:07:06.480 Yes. 00:07:06.879 --> 00:07:11.279 He died not just for your forgiveness for sin, but your freedom from sin. 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:14.319 And so we we we come with some sobriety. 00:07:14.480 --> 00:07:22.240 Verse 27 says, Whoever therefore eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and the blood of the Lord. 00:07:22.480 --> 00:07:26.720 Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:31.600 For everyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 00:07:32.079 --> 00:07:34.879 This is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. 00:07:35.600 --> 00:07:38.639 But if we've judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 00:07:39.040 --> 00:07:43.920 When we judge by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. 00:07:44.800 --> 00:07:47.680 That's the difference for the Christian and the non-Christian. 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:53.920 The Christian, when he feels judged by God, when you feel convicted by God of sin, you don't feel condemned, you feel disciplined. 00:07:54.079 --> 00:07:57.920 You feel like there's somebody in your life that loves you enough to tell you that's wrong. 00:07:58.319 --> 00:07:59.279 That's discipline. 00:07:59.519 --> 00:08:03.120 If you have children, you're not loving your children if you don't discipline them. 00:08:03.680 --> 00:08:08.000 God loves you and I so much that He will discipline you when you sin. 00:08:08.399 --> 00:08:10.399 That's not hate, that's love. 00:08:10.560 --> 00:08:12.480 It's the nature of relationship. 00:08:12.959 --> 00:08:15.120 And so, three words I want us to think about. 00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:16.560 And the last one is just examine. 00:08:17.040 --> 00:08:18.959 Just examine, just take some time. 00:08:19.120 --> 00:08:25.839 If you've never observed communion with us here at Grand Park, what will happen in just a minute is I'll pray a prayer, and Clyde will come and he'll just kind of play. 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:40.000 He may sing something over us, and we'll just spend a little bit of time just kind of getting our head and our heart ready to come to the table and remember and and celebrate the sufficiency of Christ offering up his body and shedding his blood. 00:08:40.159 --> 00:08:45.519 Now, by the way, if you come to my station, I'll I'll probably tell you this, but let me just say this to everybody. 00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:53.519 Uh uh when Christ holds up the cup and says, This cup is a new covenant in my blood, the covenant is as certain as that which it depends upon. 00:08:55.120 --> 00:08:58.799 The covenant is as certain as that which it depends upon. 00:08:58.879 --> 00:09:10.480 It's kind of like if you went into a business agreement with somebody, that agreement is as certain, the outcome is as certain as the character of the person who you shook hands with or signed a contract with. 00:09:10.639 --> 00:09:14.399 The covenant is as certain as the nature of the person it depends upon. 00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:24.720 And so the new covenant that's in his blood, it is sealed and it is ratified, it is signed by the blood of Jesus, and it depends upon the character of God. 00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:26.320 It is that certain. 00:09:27.120 --> 00:09:44.960 And so you can have a not great period of time in your relationship with God, and he doesn't take it back because it doesn't depend on your behavior, but it depends on the character of God, and the consistency of God is what calls us back into the relationship. 00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:48.879 I asked one couple that came to our station in the first service, how long have you been married? 00:09:49.039 --> 00:09:50.720 And they said, like 42 years. 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:52.240 And I said, Has it been perfect? 00:09:52.320 --> 00:10:05.759 And the lady laughed, and the guy's like, uh and I said, But you didn't leave because you're not always gonna keep the rules, but the relationship is what brings you back, and so it is with a covenant. 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:12.960 Marriage is a covenant, Christianity is a covenant, and God says, I'm always going to be faithful, even when you're faithless. 00:10:13.039 --> 00:10:14.559 I'm gonna keep being faithful. 00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:16.720 Let that bring you back today. 00:10:17.919 --> 00:10:19.120 Let me voice a prayer. 00:10:19.919 --> 00:10:22.320 Father, we uh want to do what the Bible says. 00:10:22.480 --> 00:10:39.600 We want, don't want to just um we we remember we want to proclaim the Lord's death, and now we want to examine ourselves, not to see if we deserve this, but to see if we understand, make sure that our head and our heart are calibrated to what's fixing to happen, that we don't think it's ritualistic or we don't think, oh, it's just communion today. 00:10:39.759 --> 00:10:40.480 No, no, no. 00:10:40.639 --> 00:10:42.639 It's a huge undertaking. 00:10:43.200 --> 00:11:02.000 So I pray for those that are here in the room and those in our online community, if they have elements that they would just spend some time even now kind of posturing and preparing themselves, not groveling, but being humbled underneath the fact that the Bible says that greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends. 00:11:03.039 --> 00:11:06.720 You said to your disciples, I no longer call you servants, but friends. 00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:18.000 So over all of this today, God, we've got to hear that the God of the universe looks at us and says, The cross is my indication to you about the nature of uh of relationship I want to have. 00:11:21.519 --> 00:11:24.720 So, Father, let this be as intimate as it needs to be. 00:11:25.679 --> 00:11:31.600 We remember that we proclaim your death and its sufficiency for our life. 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:35.360 And now, Lord, we just spend some time examining ourselves. 00:11:35.679 --> 00:11:42.159 So, Holy Spirit, brood over us as we think and we prepare, for we do so in Jesus' name. 00:11:45.120 --> 00:11:47.679 We ask you just to be seated for a second. 00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:50.080 Cloud's just gonna play. 00:11:50.799 --> 00:11:56.480 We like to, whenever we observe communion, we like to end with just a just a period of consideration. 00:11:57.200 --> 00:12:03.279 So I'd like you just to take some time and just think about what you saw and what you sensed this morning. 00:12:05.039 --> 00:12:12.159 There's a sufficiency to the body and the blood of Jesus that we do not find in anything or anybody else. 00:12:15.919 --> 00:12:21.919 We just sang the great hymn of the faith that reminds us that we lose all our guilty stains. 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:31.120 And so your sin is not to increase your determination, it's to enhance your perspective. 00:12:34.960 --> 00:12:40.080 As a Christian, you're not a sinner who's trying to act like a saint. 00:12:40.559 --> 00:12:42.000 You're a saint. 00:12:42.320 --> 00:12:47.840 God has changed your nature, and occasionally you forget that and you choose to sin. 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:50.799 But that doesn't change the nature of who you are. 00:12:52.159 --> 00:12:55.120 Let's think about these things for a moment before we dismiss. 00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:42.159 And we are humbled. 00:13:44.559 --> 00:13:52.639 So thank you for the opportunity to come to the Lord's table, to remember, to reorient ourselves around your sufficiency. 00:13:52.879 --> 00:13:59.440 We just want to baptize all of our insufficiency in your sufficiency and say, Thank you that you are more than enough. 00:14:00.320 --> 00:14:02.639 So, Holy Spirit, brood over us. 00:14:03.360 --> 00:14:10.080 Help us to be reminded that we are not just forgiven for sin, we've been set free from sin. 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:12.399 No longer has power over us. 00:14:12.639 --> 00:14:17.200 Comfort those who mourn and invite those who wander. 00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:19.279 We pray all this in Jesus' name. 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:21.679 And everyone said, Amen. 00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:22.159 Amen. 00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:24.639 If you're a guest, I want to say thanks for being part of our service. 00:14:24.799 --> 00:14:26.240 You're always welcome here. 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:27.919 You're always welcome, okay? 00:14:28.080 --> 00:14:33.919 If you have any questions about anything you saw or heard today, some of us will be available down front when you're dismissed here in a second. 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:36.240 We'd love to answer your questions or pray with you. 00:14:36.399 --> 00:14:39.120 Uh, we'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing. 00:14:39.200 --> 00:14:40.639 So if you would stand to your feet. 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:44.399 Hold your hands out. 00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:27.840 In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. 00:15:28.159 --> 00:15:28.399 I mean