SPEAKER_00: Hey, this is Andrew Demazia, lead pastor of Rose Church here in Portland, Oregon.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to our podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission here at Rose is building big people.
SPEAKER_00: Becoming like Jesus in community while growing in our faith.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever you are, wherever you are, I pray today's message challenges you and encourages you on your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for listening.
SPEAKER_00: Enjoy today's podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, we're gonna get into uh the word.
SPEAKER_00: Um today is yeah, it's think you're Sunday and Jersey Sunday, whatever, but today is also communion Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna take communion together as a family.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you were raised uh the Catholic Church or maybe Protestant uh different Protestant church or Lutheran or whatever it might be.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're raised in church and you have some frame of reference for communion.
SPEAKER_00: Uh maybe you don't at all.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a completely new space and place.
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, bro, what is communion?
SPEAKER_00: Or we're gonna do the weird stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: So um communion is one of the most profound things that we do as a body of Christ, as a family.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the most mysterious and unique things that we do, and I'm gonna do my best to explain it.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna read a passage of scripture, uh, about 13, 15 verses, and then I'm gonna explain what communion is, why we do it, and then we're gonna take communion, and then we're gonna worship longer together.
SPEAKER_00: And so go with me to the word, to God's holy scripture today.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're gonna read from 1 Corinthians chapter 11.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians chapter 11.
SPEAKER_00: As you turn there and get ready, uh, why don't you say hi to some of my friends?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we have Pastor Joe and uh Katrina here from the pastor all city church down the road.
SPEAKER_00: Can you guys stand and say hi?
SPEAKER_00: Can you guys say hi to our friends Joe and Katrina?
SPEAKER_00: They're here today, they're awesome.
SPEAKER_00: They uh Pastor Great Church down the road, called All City, um, up on 65th, uh just up the road, I guess.
SPEAKER_00: But um, right, 1 Corinthians chapter 11, 1 Corinthians chapter 11.
SPEAKER_00: This is probably one of the most um uh important texts about communion, one of the longest ones as well that the Apostle Paul is dictating and showing this church how to take communion.
SPEAKER_00: And as I said before, we have first and second Corinthians, we know there's third and fourth, we know there's at least four letters.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we do not have the other two.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and the other two were the Corinthians, this church, writing Paul a letter of questions.
SPEAKER_00: They're writing as pastor, saying, Hey, we have some questions.
SPEAKER_00: And 1 Corinthians chapter 1 to 11 is him answering questions about sexuality, about the church, about marriage, about the gospel, and about communion.
SPEAKER_00: So obviously, in the letter, we can put two and two together, they've asked him about communion, saying, What are we doing?
SPEAKER_00: What is it?
SPEAKER_00: How do we take it?
SPEAKER_00: Like, help us out.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul's writing back saying, hey, this is what communion is, why you take it, how you take it, and the importance of it.
SPEAKER_00: So here we go.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 17 to 30.
SPEAKER_00: Says, in the following directives, I have no praise for you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Pastor.
SPEAKER_00: Look what he says.
SPEAKER_00: For your meetings do more harm than good.
SPEAKER_00: Could you imagine me getting up here one side and going, This car this causes more harm than good, people?
SPEAKER_00: Like, not the most encouraging word from your pastor.
SPEAKER_00: He says, In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you.
SPEAKER_00: To some extent, I believe it.
SPEAKER_00: No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you are God's have God's approval.
SPEAKER_00: So then when you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat.
SPEAKER_00: For when you are eating, some of you go ahead and go ahead with your own private suppers.
SPEAKER_00: And as a result, one person remains hungry and the other gets drunk.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you have homes to eat and drink in?
SPEAKER_00: Or you do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing?
SPEAKER_00: What shall I say to you?
SPEAKER_00: Shall I praise you?
SPEAKER_00: Certainly not in this matter.
SPEAKER_00: For I received from the Lord what I also pass on to you.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it and said, This is my body which is for you.
SPEAKER_00: Do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, This is the cup of the new covenant of my blood.
SPEAKER_00: Do this whenever you drink of it in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_00: For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he returns.
SPEAKER_00: So then, whoever eats the bread, these are very harsh words, and I'll try to unpack it here in a moment.
SPEAKER_00: So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink of the cup, for those who eat and drink, look at this, without discerning the body of Christ, eat and drink judgment on themselves.
SPEAKER_00: This last sentence which has caused so much scholarship argument.
SPEAKER_00: It's pretty intense.
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to figure out what Paul meant.
SPEAKER_00: He says, That is why some of you are weak and sick.
SPEAKER_00: And even some of you have fallen asleep or died.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, There are some of you that have mishandled communion in such a way you've gotten sick because of it.
SPEAKER_00: Pretty, pretty profound and harsh words.
SPEAKER_00: But today I just want to pray as we dive into this text about communion.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_00: God, for the Holy Scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that your word would be like seed to the soil today.
SPEAKER_00: We bring back 30, 16, 100fold, God.
SPEAKER_00: Would you shower your word upon us?
SPEAKER_00: These words from the Apostle Paul that is quoting our Lord Jesus, that would be seed to the soil.
SPEAKER_00: We pray as we take communion.
SPEAKER_00: As we spend a few moments in your word, God, and we thank you for it.
SPEAKER_00: Would us be changed from the inside out today, God.
SPEAKER_00: Let today bring salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Let today bring healing.
SPEAKER_00: Let today bring redemption.
SPEAKER_00: Let today bring breakthrough in people's lives, God.
SPEAKER_00: We pray for the power of the word to go forth today in the hearts and lives of people.
SPEAKER_00: In your mighty name I pray.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone said?
SPEAKER_00: I I love Portland for many different reasons, but one of them is because we are a foodie city.
SPEAKER_00: Portland, if you don't know this, uh, is always in the top three of the most food and beveraged cities in America.
SPEAKER_00: It's us, Sanford, and New York, always like trade.
SPEAKER_00: Who's number one?
SPEAKER_00: We've been number one many of a times.
SPEAKER_00: We are a massive food and beverage city, whether that be coffee or IPAs or breweries, or you know, we we are a huge food and drinking city.
SPEAKER_00: It would take you years to eat your way through the city.
SPEAKER_00: Years.
SPEAKER_00: I'm still finding out about new restaurants to me that I've been here for 20 years.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I didn't even know that restaurant.
SPEAKER_00: So we we're we're a big foodie city.
SPEAKER_00: Um I love food for food's sake, but I also love it because of what it does.
SPEAKER_00: It brings people together.
SPEAKER_00: There's laughter, there's tears.
SPEAKER_00: Like what happens around the table plays a significant role in our life.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, be careful who you eat with, for that's who you become like.
SPEAKER_00: It's the meals you have in life that actually shape and form a significant way of who you become.
SPEAKER_00: And even scripturally, you know, if you just write Genesis to Revelation, just read the whole Bible.
SPEAKER_00: If you could read it really fast and just get like a 30,000 overview, the overview, you would see this one thing very consistently: food.
SPEAKER_00: Our relationship to food is really significant in the biblical text.
SPEAKER_00: I'll just zoom over a few.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, it starts in Genesis chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: Of all of the things that God said no to, he didn't say, Don't go to that part of the garden.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't say, Don't talk to those people, he didn't say don't play in that river, he didn't say don't jump off that, right?
SPEAKER_00: He's not saying no, he goes, Do not eat of that.
SPEAKER_00: It's profound to me.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing we were told no about was food.
SPEAKER_00: The way that sin entered, the Romans says, that sin entered the human heart was through food.
SPEAKER_00: That's Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: When you look at Exodus, notice Israel's relationship with God in their wilderness is around food.
SPEAKER_00: It's this thing called manna that's fallen from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: It's the that was the original Chick-fil-A, the Lord's chicken just showing up every day, and they walk out, and there's food.
SPEAKER_00: But what's profound about this relationship with food is God said, if you take more than a day's worth, when you wake up, it'll be rotten.
SPEAKER_00: You can only take a day's worth every day.
SPEAKER_00: God baked into the relationship with this nation trust around food.
SPEAKER_00: Every day, food.
SPEAKER_00: They wake up outside their tents and they trust God to have food there.
SPEAKER_00: Think of all the miracles that Jesus did in the Gospels.
SPEAKER_00: How much are around food?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did as many miracles around food as he did resurrecting people.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus resurrected three people and he did three miracles around food.
SPEAKER_00: Our relationship with food matters.
SPEAKER_00: Look at all the laws in Leviticus.
SPEAKER_00: Don't eat that, don't touch that.
SPEAKER_00: If you're new to church, don't read the book, the book of Leviticus for a long, long time.
SPEAKER_00: That's a mature level.
SPEAKER_00: They just don't read it.
SPEAKER_00: Um I haven't read it in a decade and have no attention to anytime soon.
SPEAKER_00: So um it's a it's a bizarre book.
SPEAKER_00: But notice a lot of laws in there don't eat, don't touch, don't cook, don't be around.
SPEAKER_00: Think of the Last Supper, right?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' last meal with his disciples, one of the most famous paintings in the world, The Last Supper.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that when we go to heaven, there's a tree that the Bible says in Revelation 21, that every nation comes and eats of it and gets healed.
SPEAKER_00: There is a significant motif about our relationship to food.
SPEAKER_00: So no wonder, so no wonder, one of the last things that Jesus did and installed before he died and went to heaven and ascended back to heaven is had this thing called communion with his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Now you and I no more have cups and stuff, but in the ancient world, it was a table with one loaf of bread.
SPEAKER_00: You would tear it off and pass it.
SPEAKER_00: We can't do that here.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the most sanitary thing to do that with 700 people.
SPEAKER_00: So we're not going to do that today.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but that's how it was.
SPEAKER_00: It was you tear, you eat, you'd pass, you drink, you'd pass.
SPEAKER_00: But notice what would happen.
SPEAKER_00: They would eat and pass.
SPEAKER_00: And that's one of the ways that salvation was installed into our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that?
SPEAKER_00: That should bring something to you.
SPEAKER_00: What did Eve do?
SPEAKER_00: She ate and she passed, and sin came in.
SPEAKER_00: But now we eat and pass, and grace comes in.
SPEAKER_00: Communion is undoing and redoing the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
SPEAKER_00: So communion is this significant meal, if you will, that our church, the church, has done for 2,000 years that is very, very, very important to our faith and the tenets of what we believe as Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Today I want you to see four things from 1 Corinthians 11.
SPEAKER_00: Four things.
SPEAKER_00: And they're all gonna be around this word look.
SPEAKER_00: You'll you'll see this repeated thing in all four.
SPEAKER_00: Look, look, look.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is one of the major things communion does is it recenters what you're looking at, it recenters your attention.
SPEAKER_00: Four things I want you to see today.
SPEAKER_00: Number one is this communion is a moment to look around.
SPEAKER_00: Communion is a moment to look around with holy awe and wonder.
SPEAKER_00: Communion is a moment to look around, to look around with holy awe and wonder.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says this significant sentence that again, many scholars are debating, but he says, hey, some of you are treating communion in an unworthy way.
SPEAKER_00: Unholy way.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why you're sick.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm I I don't know how to wrestle with that.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine me sitting with somebody who's sick and going, it's because you mishandled the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: You approach the communion table in an unholy way.
SPEAKER_00: Now the argument is, is Paul literally saying bodies are sick, or is he saying this is why humans are sick as in sin?
SPEAKER_00: We don't know what he's saying, but all we do know that he's saying is there's a way to approach the table, and there's a way to not.
SPEAKER_00: We do know that.
SPEAKER_00: There's a holy way to approach.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because yes, friends, we're about to grab a wafer and a cup of juice, and we're about to hold these elements in our hands, but they are not just elements.
SPEAKER_00: It is not just a little cup of juice, it's not just a little wafer you're holding your hand.
SPEAKER_00: We are holding the body, the blood, the sacrifice, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus in our hands.
SPEAKER_00: It is one of the most holy and mysterious things that we do as Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Look what C.
SPEAKER_00: S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis says.
SPEAKER_00: Our Lord said, take and eat, not take and understand.
SPEAKER_00: Take and eat, not take and understand.
SPEAKER_00: And T.
SPEAKER_00: Wright says this.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus wanted to explain to his disciples what his death was all about, he didn't give them a theory, he gave them a meal.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine a neighbor coming over today after church going, hey, what'd you do?
SPEAKER_00: I went to church today.
SPEAKER_00: Can I come over?
SPEAKER_00: Can you just talk to me about God?
SPEAKER_00: Can you answer my questions?
SPEAKER_00: Can you can you just teach me about God?
SPEAKER_00: Like, absolutely, come over.
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you everything you need to know about God.
SPEAKER_00: Everything.
SPEAKER_00: Everything?
SPEAKER_00: Yep, the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: Come over.
SPEAKER_00: And they come over and you say, okay, here's you want to learn about God?
SPEAKER_00: Here's a cup.
SPEAKER_00: And here's a piece of bread.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: This is what you need to know.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just theory, it's a meal that transforms our life, and it's one of the most mysterious things that we do.
SPEAKER_00: J.A.
SPEAKER_00: Packer says this there are mysteries that we safeguard but not explain.
SPEAKER_00: For that is beyond us.
SPEAKER_00: Like the Trinity, I can explain that to you.
SPEAKER_00: I can, but I can't.
SPEAKER_00: I can explain communion to you, but I can't.
SPEAKER_00: I can't really articulate what's about to happen.
SPEAKER_00: In Greek, Hebrew, or English.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we're about to have some bread, but it's not bread.
SPEAKER_00: We're about to take of a cup, but it is no cup.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it is natural, but it is supernatural.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it is the elements, oh, but it is not the elements.
SPEAKER_00: Like I can explain it to you, but I can't explain it to you.
SPEAKER_00: It's just something that we have safeguarded as the family of faith for 2,000 years, that what we're about to do is holy, awe, wonder, supernatural.
SPEAKER_00: And what we're supposed to do as we come to the community table is look around, going, I know her story, I know his story, look how far he's come, look at that healing, look at like, look around, like, wow.
SPEAKER_00: When was the last time you were in awe of God?
SPEAKER_00: Like you just looked around and you're like, my God.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what he's doing.
SPEAKER_00: Look at my life, look at my friend's life, look at our marriage, look at like I'm in awe.
SPEAKER_00: Communion is this thing that draws you to a moment to look around with awe, holiness, and wonder.
SPEAKER_00: Second, not only do you look around, but communion is a moment where you look backward with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: You don't just look around in awe and holiness and wonder and praise.
SPEAKER_00: You don't just look around, you look back with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: Look what Paul says.
SPEAKER_00: He's quoting Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_00: Why are we told to remember God so many times?
SPEAKER_00: Because we're prone to forget him.
SPEAKER_00: We're Christians, and we're prone to forget Christ.
SPEAKER_00: His word is in our title.
SPEAKER_00: We're Christians, the whole thing we're gathering around is the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we forget it.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because life is lifing, friends.
SPEAKER_00: Especially those families with younger kids.
SPEAKER_00: Life is lifing, man.
SPEAKER_00: Get the kids, get gas, get food.
SPEAKER_00: What at work tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00: That email.
SPEAKER_00: Do you call that person?
SPEAKER_00: We meet like life is just going.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're not careful, we just tend to forget that we are redeemed, that we are forgiven, that the cross has won, that the grave has lost, that death has been removed.
SPEAKER_00: Like, like we need to slow.
SPEAKER_00: What is communion?
SPEAKER_00: It's a it's a slow cooker, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: It's a come, sit, take a moment, and look back in remembrance.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have been saved for so long.
SPEAKER_00: You forgot when he found you at 17.
SPEAKER_00: When he found you at 20.
SPEAKER_00: When he broke off that addiction in your life, when he brought that breakthrough, you just forgot.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, the older I get, my memory's getting bad, man.
SPEAKER_00: I'm starting to call my kids by different names and stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Cruz Quinn, Rhodes, whoever you are, let's go.
SPEAKER_00: Like, if I forget your name, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: I just I have a bad memory.
SPEAKER_00: The other night, Austin, Emmanuel, and I were out hanging out, and and we're just talking about church and life and just Rhodes.
SPEAKER_00: And he was like, man, like, what was the early days like?
SPEAKER_00: Because he, Emmanuel, just started coming here a few years ago, no.
SPEAKER_00: He said, What was your favorite year of the church?
SPEAKER_00: I was like, Oh, the boss for sure.
SPEAKER_00: The first year of the church was my most favorite.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Why?
SPEAKER_00: It means Austin starts telling stories.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I forgot about that.
SPEAKER_00: I forgot about that Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: I forgot about that.
SPEAKER_00: I forgot about her.
SPEAKER_00: I forgot about him.
SPEAKER_00: I forgot.
SPEAKER_00: I I just forget.
SPEAKER_00: And it takes someone to call you back.
SPEAKER_00: This is what communion is.
SPEAKER_00: It's a callback.
SPEAKER_00: Let's remember the cross for a second.
SPEAKER_00: Let's remember the stripes on his back.
SPEAKER_00: Let's remember the empty tomb.
SPEAKER_00: Let's remember that heaven is real.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take a moment and just remind ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember in the garden, if you're raising church, if you were, there's this story, Matthew 26, when Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane and he's talking to his father and he says, Um, your will be done, not my will.
SPEAKER_00: Then he says this phrase, but if the cup can pass, if the cup can pass, let it be so.
SPEAKER_00: That phrase is a Greek phrase that the Roman army would use when they would conquer nations.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you know that the Roman Empire ran the entire world.
SPEAKER_00: Up and down the Mediterranean, it was their world.
SPEAKER_00: Everything was Roman.
SPEAKER_00: And what Romans would do, because they are vicious, vicious people, is after they would conquer a new nation or new land, they would kill the majority of the men, leave the women and children, and they would find the ten generals left.
SPEAKER_00: The ten people, the ten men with the most authority.
SPEAKER_00: A Caesar, a prince, a ruler, um, a governor, like the top ten officials.
SPEAKER_00: They'd line them up in a ten in a row.
SPEAKER_00: Highest authority to lowest.
SPEAKER_00: So usually like the Caesar, the king, you know, whatever, whoever's left, highest to lowest.
SPEAKER_00: They would then give the person with the most authority a cup of poison.
SPEAKER_00: And the king or the prince or the Caesar, whoever's the most authority, would have to make a decision.
SPEAKER_00: Drink the entire cup of poison or pass the cup.
SPEAKER_00: If he passed the cup, next person in line has the same decision.
SPEAKER_00: Drink the whole thing or pass the cup.
SPEAKER_00: If the cup got to the last man and everyone passed the cup, they would kill all ten.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus, the first man in line with the most authority, says, if I need to drink this cup, I'll drink it.
SPEAKER_00: But if there's any way to pass it, if there's anyone else I can pass it to, let me know.
SPEAKER_00: But your will be done, not my will.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus was first in line with the most authority.
SPEAKER_00: He did not pass the cup, he drank the whole cup of judgment and wrath and anger, so that now you and I, we don't have to drink the cup of sour wine.
SPEAKER_00: We get the cup of fresh wine and sweet wine.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, communion makes me go back in my memory.
SPEAKER_00: Goes, God, let me remember what you've done for me.
SPEAKER_00: Do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_00: Communion is a moment where you look back with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: Third.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, you look around in holy awe and wonder.
SPEAKER_00: You look back with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: Third, communion is a moment where you look within with humility.
SPEAKER_00: You don't just look around, you don't just look back, now you look within.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what Paul says.
SPEAKER_00: Before you come to take the cup and the bread, examine yourself.
SPEAKER_00: He says, before you eat.
SPEAKER_00: Before you take communion, examine yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Notice, he does not say examine others.
SPEAKER_00: Communion is not a time to examine who should not be taking communion, who should be.
SPEAKER_00: Communion is not the time to be examining why they are in church and why are they here.
SPEAKER_00: Communion is not a time to examine anyone else but yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control.
SPEAKER_00: The only control the spirit will give you is self-control.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get other control, you don't get leadership control, you don't get boss control, you don't get friend control, you don't get God control, you don't get any other control except self-control.
SPEAKER_00: And communion is the moment in time where we slow down and go, God, what is in here?
SPEAKER_00: Unforgiveness, bitterness, lust, resentment, anger, gossip, slander, lying.
SPEAKER_00: God, what's in here?
SPEAKER_00: And this is why.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I said to the 830, and I'll say it again because I think it matters.
SPEAKER_00: There's one thing that Happens at uh at Rose that I would like to stop.
SPEAKER_00: I would ask you to consider not doing this anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And it's this what typically happens is because we do church a bit backward, we do a song or two up front, I preach, and then worship at the end.
SPEAKER_00: What typically happens is when I get off the stage and I'm done preaching and worship start, people start going home.
SPEAKER_00: Like like church is over.
SPEAKER_00: And I know people have jobs in life, and your kid bit someone and you have to go get them.
SPEAKER_00: I get it, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I get some people have to leave for a reason.
SPEAKER_00: But unfortunately, it's almost like you're done receiving and it's time to go.
SPEAKER_00: See, right now, you guys aren't doing anything.
SPEAKER_00: You are receiving right now.
SPEAKER_00: You are receiving the word of God, you're receiving the written holy scripture over your life right now.
SPEAKER_00: But in a moment, we will switch to worship, and now you are done receiving, and now you're giving.
SPEAKER_00: And it's almost like we treat church as a place we go to receive.
SPEAKER_00: Not at a place that we go to give.
SPEAKER_00: This is what happens.
SPEAKER_00: I know for a lot of us men, is communion and worship get emotional and personal, and we'd rather not do that so we kind of go home during that time of the service.
SPEAKER_00: Because typically what happens during communion worship is God starts putting his finger.
SPEAKER_00: You want to talk about that?
SPEAKER_00: No, I do not.
SPEAKER_00: Can you talk to my husband about last week?
SPEAKER_00: This is this is what happened.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I really pray you're speaking to her.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I hope he's listening right now.
SPEAKER_00: And worship and communion becomes a very intimate and personal and emotional thing where the Holy Spirit, through communion, through worship, starts putting his finger on your anger, on your unforgiveness, on your resentment.
SPEAKER_00: And and for us men, typically we work so hard to hide those emotions, and and worship starts bringing them up.
SPEAKER_00: And we're like, oh no, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: And God's like, what are this?
SPEAKER_00: No, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: And worship is just you just shove it.
SPEAKER_00: Because it gets personal and slow.
SPEAKER_00: Communion is not just a time to look around.
SPEAKER_00: Communion is not just a time to look back.
SPEAKER_00: Communion is a time to look with him.
SPEAKER_00: And take inventory of your inner world.
SPEAKER_00: Examine yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Uh often I've called communion the Christian altar cult.
SPEAKER_00: So it happens for those who maybe got saved at eight or fifteen or twenty, or maybe got saved a few weekends ago.
SPEAKER_00: You repent, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's the whole thing with Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: You come to an altar, you lift your hand, and you say, I received the gospel, I repent of my sin, and then some Christians think that will be the last time they repent.
SPEAKER_00: As long as you're breathing air on this planet, you will repent over and over and over and over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need to be saved again.
SPEAKER_00: You need to be sanctified again.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, you keep screwing up throughout the month and you come to church with, I need to get saved again.
SPEAKER_00: No, you don't.
SPEAKER_00: God's salvation in your life is not that weak.
SPEAKER_00: Your bad decision last night did not rob you of your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: That bad decision you made last month did not steal your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: So don't believe that you're coming to church to get saved again.
SPEAKER_00: You are saved.
SPEAKER_00: You need to be sanctified.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, that's a process you will enter the rest of your breathing air life on this planet.
SPEAKER_00: And communion is the thing that draws us back in repentance and forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: It's a Christian altar call.
SPEAKER_00: This is why I believe the early church did it every single day.
SPEAKER_00: Because they knew they needed repenting every single day.
SPEAKER_00: They needed to be recentered every single day.
SPEAKER_00: Communion is this moment where we look around in awe, we will look backward in Thanksgiving, and we look within with humility.
SPEAKER_00: Last and maybe most importantly, communion is a moment not just to look back with Thanksgiving, but to look forward with hope.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 26.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna put it back up in verse 26.
SPEAKER_00: I think this is significant.
SPEAKER_00: For whenever you eat this bread and drink this guy, take communion, you are proclaiming the Lord's death.
SPEAKER_00: Until he returns.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, friends, we're we're the weird church, or maybe the weird doctrine.
SPEAKER_00: I believe Jesus is coming back.
SPEAKER_00: There is coming a day when the sky will open and trumpets will go.
SPEAKER_00: You always know you're around Christians that were raised in the 80s and 90s.
SPEAKER_00: That if you're at a game or you hear a trumpet, people just start looking up.
SPEAKER_00: If it's a movie or you're at a jazz band, what's that?
SPEAKER_00: Trumpet starts, you're like, is it today?
SPEAKER_00: Like, it's just it's stuck, those trumpets are coming, and it's stuck in my brain.
SPEAKER_00: That's funny.
SPEAKER_00: Got me.
SPEAKER_00: Um friend, he's coming back.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have optimism, we have hope.
SPEAKER_00: And and every time I take communion, it's a reminder to me to lift my eyes and proclaim the Lord's death, burial, and resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: That He is returning one day, He is coming back one day, every tear will be wiped, every head will be lifted, every wrong will be made right, every sin will be corrected, everything is going to be fixed one day, and I know this is not it.
SPEAKER_00: See if Lewis says, if I'm constantly thirsty, it's because I need water.
SPEAKER_00: And if I keep denying there's a thing called water, why am I so thirsty?
SPEAKER_00: He says, if nothing in this world satisfied approves I've made for another.
SPEAKER_00: You in this room, if you're a believer, I'm sure of it.
SPEAKER_00: There's a groaning within you.
SPEAKER_00: There should be a longing of like, can you just come back today?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, today might not be a bad day.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, today is a great option.
SPEAKER_00: Your mind starts just wandering into the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: Not in like a weird super spiritual way, but just like, yeah, that day.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love it.
SPEAKER_00: What is that?
SPEAKER_00: That's this groaning, a longing, a waiting in expectation.
SPEAKER_00: And what does communion do?
SPEAKER_00: It recenters our little mind around this job and this meal and this friend and this vacation and this boss and this neighbor I can't stand.
SPEAKER_00: Get off my lawn.
SPEAKER_00: That's fake.
SPEAKER_00: My neighbors aren't here.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm not talking about an actual neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: I zoom in on this little life.
SPEAKER_00: I pick my head up and go, it's gonna be alright.
SPEAKER_00: This day's gonna end, and a better day's coming.
SPEAKER_00: This moment will too pass.
SPEAKER_00: Though it's as dark as night, joy comes in the morning, the sun will rise.
SPEAKER_00: That's what communion does, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: It recenters, it refocuses to what?
SPEAKER_00: Not just I'm not looking back at Thanksgiving, I'm also looking forward with hope.
SPEAKER_00: Usually Romans 8.28 gets brought up a lot.
SPEAKER_00: God will work all things out for good for all those who love him and work according to his purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 8.28 is a great verse.
SPEAKER_00: Let's back up 10 verses and read it in context.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 8.18.
SPEAKER_00: Look what he says.
SPEAKER_00: I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that is coming.
SPEAKER_00: I can stop preaching after that verse.
SPEAKER_00: Present-day sufferings are not even worth comparing with the future glory that will be revealed in us.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
SPEAKER_00: For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.
SPEAKER_00: For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of one who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage of decay and brought in the freedom and glory of the children of God.
SPEAKER_00: We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in pains of childbirth right up to this present time.
SPEAKER_00: Not only so, but we ourselves, who are the first fruits of the Spirit, look at this, are groaning inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption and sonship and the redemption of our bodies.
SPEAKER_00: So if you are longing for something better, that's where this comes from.
SPEAKER_00: There is something in me groaning, waiting in expectation to be redeemed and healed and the future glory.
SPEAKER_00: For in this hope we were saved.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
SPEAKER_00: But hope that is seen is not hope at all.
SPEAKER_00: Who hopes for what they have already have?
SPEAKER_00: But if we hope for what we do not have yet, we wait for it patiently.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness while we wait in groaning.
SPEAKER_00: We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
SPEAKER_00: What a great definition of suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Wordless groaning.
SPEAKER_00: And he who searches our hearts and knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: For we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see what Romans 8.20 is actually about?
SPEAKER_00: While I'm waiting, I know God's working out things.
SPEAKER_00: While I'm longing, God is working everything out.
SPEAKER_00: While I wait in expectation, he's working everything out.
SPEAKER_00: While I'm in my weakness, he's working everything out.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 8.28 is in the context of someone groaning and waiting eagerly with expectation.
SPEAKER_00: What does communion do?
SPEAKER_00: It recenters us, grabs us by the face, goes, look up.
SPEAKER_00: Wait with hope.
SPEAKER_00: Because every time you take it, you're reminding yourself of the death, burial, and resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: That He is coming.
SPEAKER_00: Communion, as I said in the beginning, it refocuses how you look.
SPEAKER_00: You look around, you look back, you look within, and you look up.
SPEAKER_00: You look forward.
SPEAKER_00: This world is trying to find ways to steal your attention.
SPEAKER_00: TikTok, Instagram, news.
SPEAKER_00: Breaking news.
SPEAKER_00: And our dopamine hate goes, oh, it's breaking news.
SPEAKER_00: It's trying to steal your gaze.
SPEAKER_00: It's trying to steal your energy.
SPEAKER_00: It's trying to steal your thought process.
SPEAKER_00: It's trying to steal what you're meditating upon.
SPEAKER_00: And what communion does is it goes, hey, come back.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, the blood and the body, the cup and the bread, the death and barrel and resurrection of Christ, I have hope.
SPEAKER_00: That Twitter page stole my hope, but I'm getting it back.
SPEAKER_00: The email stole my hope, but I'm getting it back.
SPEAKER_00: That neighbor stole my hope.
SPEAKER_00: That ex-pouse stole my hope.
SPEAKER_00: That job stole my hope, but oh, I'm getting it back.
SPEAKER_00: How do I get my hope back as I partake of communion?
SPEAKER_00: And the bread in the cup re center.
SPEAKER_00: Communion is one of the most mysterious supernatural otherworldly things that we do as a fellowship of believers.
SPEAKER_00: Worship's kind of normal.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like a band in concert and people sing along.
SPEAKER_00: Like that's kind of normal.
SPEAKER_00: Preaching is kind of normal because it's a it feels like a TED talk, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of normal.
SPEAKER_00: Connect groups are kind of like there's other things we do that are kind of normal.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the most mysterious, supernatural tenants of the faith that we hold.
SPEAKER_00: That is significant for the believers.
SPEAKER_00: Take the bread and the cup.org slash give.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for partnering with us and helping us continue to do what God has put in our hearts here for us.