Celebrating Communion

You know, if he was at your grandkids' graduation, or if he was at a ball game, or if you saw some kind of great thing happen, you'd raise your hand and say, "Thank you, Jesus." Can we do that? Thank you, Lord, for salvation, for coming to end our presence, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for feeling us with your spirit, be available to us, Lord, for showing us every time we come into your presence, how good you are, how pleasant you are, how you've done for us, what we can't do for ourselves. Lord, today we take this communion, we place ourselves in your hands, we ask you, God, to make it real to us, Lord, to make it personal, help us to realize, and Lord, as we sing, as we worship you, help us to lift our hearts, our hands, our souls to you. Lord, in your spirit, in your presence, as it comes over us, and over willness, help us to glorify your name. Lord, it gave you the glory, the praise and the honor. Lord, as we hear today, God, we just ask you to overwhelm us with your presence in your spirit, to show us your mighty words, your mighty hands. Lord, as we lift each other in prayer, as we come into this presence today, God, to talk about having been united with you,

of drinking of your blood, and picking up with your body, help us to be surrendered to you, and all that we do and say. Thank you, Lord. - Thank you, Lord. - Praise God. Sure is good to be in the presence of God, isn't it? I'll tell you what, man, he loves us so much. He's paid so much to ransom us from sin, he gave us a new life, and man, we sing that song. I was a rich, I remember who I was. I'll tell you what, it's a good thing to have a memory. You know, we're not supposed to dwell there, but man, when we see what God has done for us, how he rescued us from the dominion of darkness, and gave us hope, and gave us joy, gave us a new life. If we are in Christ, if you've been born again, you are a new creation in him, and I'm thankful for that this morning. I thought about, you know, man, many things, but I was just so thankful for the songs that God brought our way this morning, just to lift us up, give us hope, give us new, renewed strength. I'll tell you what, we need that each and every day, don't we? And it's available every day. This isn't just a Philip station here, but this is a place where God comes, man, and he meets with us in a special way.

And I just thought about this, man, 'cause I don't know, I've had a, this came to me while I was sitting over there. Since Psalm 51, I'm gonna read most of it, but I wanna read, I wanna start with this down in 17. It says, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, "a broken and contrite heart. "O God, you will not despise." I'll tell you what, if you're broken this morning, it's a good place to be. You ain't got it all figured out, that's even a better place to be, because I'll tell you what, what we need is God's plan, not our plan. God help us to set our plans aside, but I'm gonna read 51 here starting at the beginning, maybe this will be a help to us this morning. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, blot out my transgressions, wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me. This is very key right here. Against you, you only have our sin and done what is evil in your sight. I'll tell you what, man. We don't send it against anybody else. They don't send it against us. We send it against the Holy God.

But I'll tell you what, man. He's made provision through Jesus Christ. He has made provision from day one for Adam and Eve, all the way to us sitting right here this morning. And I'm thankful for that. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely you desire truth in the inner parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be wider than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. He's done that in Jesus Christ. Praise God for that. This is great. This is what he's doing for us each and every day. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do you need that this morning? I'll tell you what, man. Tomorrow morning where the rubber hits the road, I'll tell you what, we need to go to our Father. Say, God, help me today. Sustain me. Give me the joy that you won for us at the cross, man. Give us that. We need that because the joy of the Lord is our strength.

Do not cast me away from your presence. Praise God, I appreciate what the Lord is doing for us, just the remembrance of everything He did at Calvary. You know, it's hard for the human brain to comprehend. It's only by His Holy Spirit that we can see it. And trust it. Put our whole hope in the finished work of Jesus Christ this morning. Praise God. Good morning, everyone. You all know we're having communion today, and I've been thinking about it through this week, meditating on it, talking the Lord about it. And we've heard about it this morning a little bit, because Jesus said, "Do this often in remembrance of me." And thank God to what He accomplished for us on the cross by the giving of His body and His blood for us. But I guess what came to me when I was reflecting on it this week is something called a daily dependence that communion needs to have in our lives. Do y'all know what I'm talking about? Thank God for the blood that took away our sins. But there's a daily sense we need not just mentally but a heartfelt apprehension of what the blood accomplished. Do y'all ever fail? Do you ever have to fight the enemy? The very first thing in fighting the enemy is overcoming by the blood of the Lamb. Because what happens when we fail, we almost feel like we can't come to God. That's not what the blood did. We are God's holy children, dearly loved, and there's no asterisk beside that. And it's just good to remind ourselves of that. But going to the bread, I know we talk about this is the bread that was broken for us. And I somehow just went through the Scriptures and a lot of them say this is the bread that was given for us. And Jesus said I am the bread that comes down from heaven. But the Scripture says that in teaching us to pray, it says give us this day our daily bread. And this is where the daily dependence comes on. Then unless y'all are different from me, you can get busy in your day. And we sing that song Lord I need you, oh I need you, there's a daily need of... We just don't get a jump start and then we got it the rest of the week or Sunday morning. Thank God for His presence. But there is a daily asking Him I need you today Lord. I need this. I think there's a song we sing.

This is my daily bread, this is my daily bread. You're very word spoken to me. God wants to communicate with us. I just want to encourage myself and all of us as we take communion. Thank God for what it accomplished. But there's an accomplishment in our lives daily because this world's not getting any lighter. We need, I need, just like we sing, I need the oh I need the Lord. And that needs to be plagued out just like when Jesus was teaching Him to pray. There's an active part in our, say, give me today my daily bread. I don't know what I'm facing, I need you Lord today. So praise God. Praise God for what He's done for us. We're so blessed, like Robert was saying and others. The message of the gospel is being preached through song this morning. And I had a couple of things come to me. I'll be very brief, but one of them is the statement in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 19 and 20. This is what it says. "He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ ambassadors as of God we're making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ behalf be reconciled to God." That's the gospel. And, you know, the thing about it is everybody needs to be alerted to their need, but they also need to know the answer to their need. Because if you just see your need and the hopelessness that exist, what hope do you have? Anyway, but I look at the definition of reconciliation. This is the biblical definition of reconciliation. It is the restoration of a broken relationship turning a state of enmity or hatred and estrangement into peace, fellowship, and friendship. That's what the Lord has done for us. I've been praying about our services.

I think we're all praying for our services because we want to hear what the Lord has to say, right? Because you can even read the Word of God. It can really just be information without inspiration. And we need the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and seeing things the way He says it, the way He put it in there. Only He can make it real to us, right? And I just, I will, I was praying for the service and something that came to me, you know, I trust, you know, we have to speak to the way the Lord speaks to us the best we can and ask the Lord to help us. But I was praying about it and a prayer will come to me and when it came to me, I'm like, I don't have that one taped to my refrigerator. I mean, how do you read about that and give somebody hope? But it was about the rich man and Lazarus. You know what He did? He was rich, wealthy, purple and all that. And Lazarus was at his gate and he just wanted to have the food that fell from the rich man's table, but he wasn't even in the building. He was out there at the gate, you know. But the bottom line is, I'm not going to read that parable, but they both die. And the rich man winds up in Hades. He's like, well, yeah, could you encourage me now? But it's a fact. You know, eternity has to be dealt with on this out of eternity. And when the Lord says something, it's not, you know, there were some that they saved with fear, but the main thing is the Lord wants to bring us to Himself. He wants us to experience and know what reconciliation is because that is our hope. But I was thinking about that and I said, well, Lord, how in the world could that be of an encouragement? I'm just speaking my heart here, okay? But this is what came to me. This is a, you know, when Peter preached the sermon after Pentecost, you know,

and he went from running like everybody else did to actually preaching the gospel, and he's telling the people who Jesus really is. And he quotes from Psalms, but this is in Acts 2, but I'm just going to read, this is, he's prophesying about Jesus Christ. And this is what he said, I saw the Lord always before me. He is at my right hand. And therefore this is what Jesus says, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. My body also will dwell in hope because you will not abandon my soul to hate ease. Praise God. I don't know what all that means, but he went there. And unlike that rich man, we have hope because of what Christ did. You know, he told, he told that, that, well, Abraham was talking to that rich guy, and he said, hey, your brothers, they've got, they've got the law and the prophets, let them listen to them. But you know, Jesus was telling the parable, but who was it that fulfilled the law and what the prophets were speaking about? It was the one telling the parable. It was Jesus Christ. He fulfilled righteousness on our behalf. What we could not do, he did. He is a great Savior. He is forever be praised as Robert was saying. Here's another verse. This is from Ephesians 4. He who descended is a very one who ascended above all the heavens in order to fill all things. He who descended. It was Jesus. Where did he go? He went deep for us.

He went to hell, so we wouldn't have to. And I don't, again, I don't know what all that means, but I'm just so thankful that the Lord, He paved the way for us. There is nobody in here that can earn the salvation. This is a gift. It is a gift. It's an eternal gift. And it's a gift of great mercy and compassion. The other word that I was thinking about was redemption. And the definition of that is to buy back that which was lost. He bought us back. We were hopelessly lost. We were lost right for the garden. We were born and sinned. That's a lot of the things that were being sung this morning. It's the contrast of total hopelessness and life and joy in Jesus Christ. Thank God for that. That's when we were singing and just praising the Lord. I tell you what, when we sing with the Spirit and the understanding also, and we know that Jesus Christ is exalted, He's here singing with us. And you know He's here. He is alive. The one person, and I'm going to read just this from 1 Peter. It says, "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed or bought back." Remember the kinsman to redeemer? Um, when he, when he went and bought her back, Jesus has truly, that, that is what redeemed is. We've been bought back. Redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, and we'll read again, you know that it was not the perishable

things such as silver or gold that you redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors. But with the precious blood of Christ, they lamb without limit or defect, he was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. This is a full redemption. And I was thinking, I was thinking about communion, you know, when we partake of, of the Jews, we are in a, this is a symbolic of us drinking the substance that it, that Jesus shed and the cost that what it paid him to redeem us, his body, his flesh and his blood. That's what we're taking of. And even though it's in symbolic form, look at the cost, but look at the victory. This is a great victory in Christ, and to me, when we partake of communion, it is a celebration. It is a celebration of what Jesus did for us. And it's a recognition, and that's why he said, do this and remember it to me. He's worthy to be remembered, he's worthy to be praised, and he's worthy of us for taking of this because he has done everything for us, amen. Praise God, this has been a precious service. You know, we've said this before, that the price that our precious Savior paid for us, we can't, we can't fathom it. And even more unfathomable is the love that paid it. John there, John 3 16, script yourself familiar to us where the Lord says that God, our Father, God, so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever would believe in Him would receive His life, eternal life, would not be condemned, but would receive His life. And it says, only begotten Son, I thought, well, you know, aren't we all God's children? I mean, the word says that we are His children, born of God's Spirit. As I was praying for this service, as the brethren have said, and it is so, it's such a blessing to know that God's people are crying out for Him, because folks, when we come together like this, He's promised that we're two or three are gathered, He's in the midst. And as we come hungry and seeking and reaching out, He comes and He shares His heart and His living Word.

And that's what He's doing this morning, I'm so thankful to be here. And I sure don't want to mess this up. I'll bring the Lord, I'll cut me off quick, if this is not Him. But this is something that's just made real to my heart. Let me read this. This is Philippians' second chapter, and I'll just start here in the fifth verse, and this is interesting. It says, "In your relationships with one another have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in the very nature, God, did not consider equality with God, something to be used to His own advantage. Another translation did not consider equality with God something to cling to. He was willing, He chose the mercy tree. Did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage, rather He made Himself nothing. He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. being found in appearance. And it just was made so real in my heart. The only begotten son, I mean, that's God's word. And it was Jesus that said that the Father so loved the world, He gave His only begotten son. And the only begotten son was in full union with Him to come and to give Himself for us. This was their heart, of one to heart. We're going to have a family that we can share our love and our being throughout eternity. We'll be growing in Him throughout eternity, because that's how big He is. Learning of Him and growing in Him forever and ever and ever. The Lord came. He gave Himself. He took on humanity. Folks, we can't fathom what the price He has paid for us. He didn't choose to cling to, "I'm God's Son.

I'm God's Son." He didn't cling to that. He was willing in love with the love of the Father to lay His life down for us. He took on human nature. He became obedient to the Father, to the point of death, death on a cross, the suffering of which we can't fathom. The greatest suffering He did was when He cried out, "My God, have You forsaken me?" He couldn't look on that sin. He who knew no sin became sin for us. He took every one of them. Every son, every sin that ever has been committed and ever will be committed and all in between. He took Himself on the cross as He shed His blood for us. He took it. He took our sin. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made. The righteousness of God in Him, we have God's righteousness. It was bought with the blood of Christ, and He's given it to us because He loves us. He wants us to know Him. He knows us intimately. He wants us to know Him intimately. It's like it's been said He wants us to draw in here. Every day in the realization, "Oh Lord, how I need You, I need You to direct my steps today. I want to be drawn closer, Lord." He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in this sacrifice. He and the Father made together. You think it was? You don't think it broke God's heart? You've turned on that sin. And for Him, He didn't abandon Him.

Lord knew that, but He felt, "You know what? I had someone tell me one time, 'How can Jesus really identify with us?'" He was perfect. He was sinless. He didn't know. He didn't battle condemnation. "Oh my God, He did battle condemnation." In that moment, He became sin. He received every sin. You don't think He was condemned. He was so condemned. He said, "God, why have You forsaken Me, Father? Why?" That was His humanity calling out. And this mystery that Steve was talking about as far as Him, I don't understand that in the Scriptures. Him going to hell, well, He just went down there and took the keys of death and everything else. He went down there and said, "You liar? You're defeated now. Your head's crushed. No longer is death going to rule and reign. That's the last enemy that's going to be put under my feet. And the word of my Father is going to be fulfilled, and the children of God are coming into my kingdom." On this day, when He gave Himself for us, the only begotten Son of God became the first born of many brethren. That's when that transition was made, a price was paid, we can't fathom. The only begotten became the first born. to protect God this morning. To the measure we can. To the measure we can, God help us

to realize how blessed we are and what a privilege to be the children of God, to be His children. He loves us, and you know, when we're born, we're born again. That's what, in that scripture us, what the Jesus was telling the Academy is. You've got to be born again. And he didn't understand it, but he was, he was shared with him what he could as far as the spirit and how we're born, born of that spirit. It's the mystery of God, but we're born of God's spirit. We become His children. It's the new birth. And we have so much to, as has been said, to celebrate here today. Thank God. Thank God. The price has been paid. We've been redeemed and brought back into the, when Adam and Eve, that was the beginning. And in the beginning, there was open fellowship between them and the Father until we chose our own way. Thank God. He was willing to come and give himself and, and become the first born of many brethren. Praise God. We've got a lot to celebrate folks. Yes, the Lord. I'll just, just thinking, you know, we sing that song, the perfect heart. None of us has a physical perfect heart, but in the scripture's piece of taking communion and doing it unworthy. And our flesh will never be worthy. But God, when He comes in, we're born again, we get a perfect heart. Now, this heart and our flesh, He's going to turn that switch off one of these days, and it's going to drop dead. But that perfect heart is going to keep our own beating throughout eternity. So as we, as we're here today, let's just remember that God has given us a perfect heart. We don't have to be condemned. Now, we were convicted. That's that perfect heart saying repent. When we do something unworthy, we're going to know it. That perfect heart is going to let us know. And God forgives us. We just ask Him to He forgives us. I don't mean we don't pay for some of the stuff we do. Thank God that He gives us grace. But as we go forward today, let's just remember God has given His children a perfect heart. And that heart stays perfect. It will never become unperfect. He's cleansed and made it pure. But that's what gives us a conscience to come and fellowship. It's what brings us to church, to fellowship with our brothers and sisters. It's what makes us lift our hands and praise and in prayer. It's what makes us go to the Lord every day, especially when we're in trouble. Often we'll go to Him when we're not in trouble. Thank God that He gives us desire to do that. Maybe we need a little bit more of it. I know I do, but I'm just thankful for that. But as we sing today, these songs, especially the Lord brought them every one for a reason, for a purpose. One person

might need it. This one, another person might need that one, but the body received it all. I just got lucky all to give that out. Thank God for this this morning. This is a wonderful truth. It's really the foundation of everything, isn't it? It's... When I wanted to go back to Psalm 51 there where JP had started and just some things there that really jumped out to me as he was reading it, you know, I'm just so thankful for it. David, of course, you probably know the context of this song. This is what he wrote after what had happened with Bathsheba and he had been confronted by Nathan the prophet and God had confronted him with his sin. And this was his song over repentance about that specifically. But what I appreciate about it, or one of the things I appreciate is there verse 7 when he said, "Clens me with hissep and I will be clean, wash me, and I will be quieter than snow." You know, he was at a pretty low place. Maybe the lowest place of his life, you know, had to certainly be among the lowest places he'd ever been. And yet, even in the middle of that, there was a confidence in him that if God would cleanse him, he would actually be clean. He believed that was possible, even where he was at. He said, if you He could enter back into the joy of the Lord despite what had happened. And, you know, God had already told him what the consequences were going to be. Robert just said, you know, sometimes there's consequences for things we do. And there was for him there was going to be a breach in his family that would never be healed or the point it would eventually rip the kingdom apart. And that was the child that had been conceived and that had died. I mean, there were consequences for what happened. But yet even at that low place, David believed that you can restore that joy to me. I had your face for my sins, blot out my iniquity. He believed God could and would do that for him. He'll do that for us this morning. That's what he wants. That's what he longs for. And then I appreciate this too, because it wasn't just about helping me get back right with you where I, you know, I feel okay again and we're good again. It was more than just that. He also said, create in me a pure heart and renew a steadfast spirit. In other words, I don't want to just be forgiven. I want you to work in me. So this doesn't have power over me anymore. He believed God could do that. He could not only forgive him in the moment, but he could lead him own past that to greater to something more. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Praise God. Don't cast me out of your presence. And I don't want to, I don't want to lose your

presence because it's that, it depends on it. It's everything. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Bring me back into that fellowship and make me willing to submit and cooperate with what you want to do in my life. He believed God could do that for him. And then it went beyond that because it wasn't just about forgive me and work in me and let bring me closer. There was an end goal to that, which was then I will teach transgressors your ways. As God does that in us, we got something to share then, no way. There's something to give of what we have received. Then I will teach transgressors your ways so that sinners will turn back to you. And you know what that lesson is in that teaching? Is it if God did it for me? He'll do it for you. This is what God did for me and this is what he can do for you. That's the lesson that we can teach then. Deliver me from the guilt of blood, shadow God, you who are God my Savior and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. Praise God, we did that this morning, didn't we? We've got every reason to do that. And I appreciated this too. This jumped out at me too, looking at this. You do not delight in sacrifice or I would bring it. You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. We talked this morning about that when we feel like we can't go to God. Why? Because there's something that says I gotta do something to fix this or to make it better. I mean, wasn't that Adam and Eve's first instinct when they fell into sin? I gotta do something to at least make it better. Let's get some fig leaves. Let's do something. That's an instinct we have. But he's saying, that's what he's saying here. I don't delight in sacrifice. You're not looking for that. What did he say? My sacrifice, oh God, is a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart. You will not despise. You know, I don't know where everybody's at today, but if there's something you feel like is holding you, it's hindering you from freely entering into this because you're conscious of yourself, some weakness, some failure. He wants to, he wants to set you free this morning. If you have that broken spirit, if you've come to that place of repentance, that's the sacrifice he's looking for. Not some great thing, not some act, not something you've got to do. If that's achieved where we're brought to that place of repentance, then God has done what needs to be done because the sacrifice has been made. The price has been paid. That feeling of I've got to deal with this, it's been dealt with. Christ dealt with it. We couldn't. He did that. We get to enter into that. And what we need to do, what we have to do to do that, is come to that place of that broken spirit, that contrite heart, and ask him, now you work in me. You make me willing. You lead me into your presence. Show me what it means to abide in your presence.

And as you do that, then I'll have something to share. That's what we get to celebrate and enter into today. And we are free to do it because of what Christ did. Praise God.