Does Taking Communion Save You? 🥖🍷 | The Table: Part 3 | Pastor Alex Himaya

So good to be with you today before we dive in. I want us to pray together if we could. Would you just kind of just lay your hands in your lap and would you just in your own words, just ask God to speak to you today and ask Him to take His written word and let it jump off the pages into your spirit and into your soul by the Holy Spirit today. And that He would communicate a message that is real and relevant and relational and personal to you today. And because of our time in the Word and our time and worship together that you would advance in your journey with Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name we pray, and together we all say amen. Before we jump in, I'm so excited for our city. We are hosting this big high school football jamboree next Saturday in our city, where two great high school teams TU and OSU are gonna play each other on Saturday right here in our city. And it's gonna be amazing. The greatest thing you could do OSU is not play a game. This year you will never have more hype than you have right now this season. And as an Arkansas fan, I speak with great deal of authority about knowing that all the hype is before the season ever begins and before game one is played. Obviously I'm just joking, if you play it to you, we're so glad you're here today. And thank you for giving OSU a chance on Saturday.

Okay, I wanna just tell you this week, I have been thinking a lot lately, a lot lately about things that we all do without knowing the meaning behind it. You know what I mean? Like we do things and we don't really know what it is that we're doing. Have you ever wondered why we do birthday cake? Anybody ever researched that and thought, how come we don't do birthday pie or Cinder Cup ribeye? And why do we put candles in these things and blow them out and make a wish? Anybody ever thought through why we do any of that or know why we do it? I have a suspicion it originated with the Catholic church where you like candles when you say a prayer and maybe that has something to do with where that came from. Or what about this? The habit of saying bless you or God bless you to someone who is sneezing, not coughing, even though they're virtually the same thing. But only when someone sneezes. I did read that way back when people thought that when you were sneezing, your soul was leaving your body and escaping. And by saying, God bless you, somehow you were cramming it back down their throat. What about all this bad luck stuff, like the number 13, opening an umbrella indoors or walking under a ladder? And anybody grew up superstitious?

Like you grew up thinking about it. Yeah, a lot of you did. And some people think the number 13 is bad luck because Judas was the 13th guest at the Last Supper and he betrayed Jesus. Now I did a little research and found out that these two, the umbrella indoors and walking under the ladder, these superstitions are actually Egyptian. And if you didn't know that, I'm part Egyptian, but I never once thought like opening an umbrella or walking under a ladder was unlucky. In my opinion, the thing with ladders and unluck is falling off of the ladder, not walking underneath the ladder. I personally think they should put a warning label on all ladders with this equation that says if you're over 40 years of age, you take your age and for every five subtract one rung and every, you know, that's how high you're allowed to go according to your age. And that's not just superstition, that's wisdom from somebody who's visited many of you in the ER who went way too high for your age on the ladder, right? But then there are the things that aren't really about tradition or superstition, right? Things that we just do without even thinking, like turning the radio down on the car so we can see better. It makes no sense, does it, right? Or how many of you have a friend who says

they only need to wear their glasses when they drive? Anybody have a friend who says that? Like I only need my glasses when I drive. That your friends need a prescription windshield, right? Or how about pushing the elevator button when it's already lit up? Those things we do just out of force of habit. Let me just get this off my chest. If I'm standing at an elevator, I assure you the button has been pushed. And if you walk up and see that thing already lit up and push it five more times, I'm just telling you, I'm questioning your intelligence. I'm not being mean, I'm just thinking, what's going on in that head of theirs? I'm not sitting here just hoping against hopes that the elevator will show up. And wondering, you know, if some lucky day it's gonna show up on this floor, right? I'm not a moron, I pushed the button. You pushing it five more times quickly is not gonna help the matter. And it's not gonna help the elevator show up. And that's not the worst part in my mind. The worst part is that when the elevator does show up, you think you had something to do with it. (audience laughing) And somehow your actions made that thing happen. And I'm not a bad person at all. I'm just really, I honestly, I'm not a bad person.

I think I should be given a card that lets me slap one person a month. (audience laughing) Not like Will Smith, like Hard. I'm talking about just soft, a soft one. Just to get their attention, just one time per month, I would never do that. Okay, you're new here, I would never do that. But here's my point I'm trying to make today. A lot of church stuff, actually. If we're not careful, it becomes habit over time. And we end up doing things, but we don't even know the meaning behind those things. And we end up just going through all of the motions. And it's not that it's bad, it's just that it's lost its meaning. And therefore it's lost some of the impact. And that's true of the Lord's Supper. And we've been talking about the Lord's Supper all month long this August. And you might have grown up like me, where you called it communion, or even older than that in my life cycle. We called it the Eucharist. And I grew up in Catholic school. I don't know if you know that or not, but I went to Jesuit school all the way through 12th grade. And we had confession weekly, we had mass weekly, we had religion class every day. And I learned the whole technique involved

in taking the Lord's Supper. And in that church, it was about, some of you know what I'm talking about. Like it was like, sit down, stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, stand up, ride and then stand up. And go forward, get on your knees, put one hand on top of the other, the priest lays the little wafer in your hand. And he says, and the Lord be with you. And you say to him, and also with you. And here's the truth, those of us who grew up Catholic, we grew up wondering, are they prolonging this service on purpose? (congregation laughing) Like some sort of purgatory thing, like just getting you ready, like it's just longer than it has to be. But here's the confession as a germaphobe, like I don't eat after people really, I don't drink after people, just really, almost never. And my brother, when we were kids, like he'd eat his ice cream cone and lick mine. Knowing I would just give it to him, 'cause I'm not gonna eat it, right? Anybody else out there, like you're worried about it. The Catholic Church was problematic for me, because we all drank out of the same chalice as the priest, and everybody in the congregation for that matter, and it bothered me, especially if somebody was sneezing or coughing,

which are the same things, God bless you, right? And so here's what I would do. This is just what I would do on a regular basis. I would pretend I had sin on my heart, and I just needed to stay at the kneeling bench at the pew and deal with my own sin instead of go forward and drink out of that cup that everybody else was drinking out of. But at like 15, I went to a Baptist Church for the first time, and my buddies brought me along, and we did the Lord's Supper, that's what they called it, the Lord's Supper, but I knew what it was, 'cause it's the same menu, right? It's the same two items, right? But it was completely different, and they said it was the Lord's Supper, and so I stood up, and my buddy grabbed me and was like pulling me back down, and he's embarrassed of me, and he said, sit down, you see those old guys over there? They're the deacons. And he said, if you don't know what deacons is, it's like Christian mafia, in a minute, they're gonna bring you all of the elements to the Lord's Supper, and I thought, really? We don't have to go forward, it's like DoorDash, 40 years before that ever came out, like they're gonna bring it to you, and they would pass the plate, and you would grab your wafer, and you would grab your cups,

and I went ahead and took the wafer, and mumbled under my breath, and also with you, and my buddy's like, stop! He's so embarrassed of me, and he's like, no, no, you have to wait, that guy up there is gonna pray, and I had no clue what was going on. It's the same exact meal, same exact ritual, but I didn't know their context, and I didn't know their culture, but the truth is this, I really didn't know in either context the meaning behind any of it. But there came a point in my walk with Christ, where I actually learned the meaning behind all of that, and it transformed me from just going through the motions to God moving in my life when I take the Lord's Supper. And here's the thing, the church has been doing this meal called the Lord's Supper for 2,000 years. Now let me just put that in perspective for you. McDonald's has had a value meal for 25 years. It used to be called the dollar menu. Nothing is a dollar anymore, right? You know, you can't get a cup of ice for a dollar. But it used to be called the dollar menu, but for 25 years, they've had the value menu. 40 different items have been added to or taken off of the value menu in that 20. the McRib on the menu for more than two months at a time. And I have a suspicion it's because of the chemicals used to make it. It takes about 10 years to process those chemicals, but before they can make the sandwich. In fact, I read a few years ago that they did some scientific research on the McRib and

found in the McRib the same trace elements that are used to make yoga mats. And for those of you who eat McRibs, you're like, "What is a yoga mat?" And how did I get there? I'm not even sure what... I'm talking about the Lord's Supper. Okay, let's go back. Here's my point. The Lord's Supper has never changed. Never. The whole process that we go through now is the way they did it 25 years ago. It's the way they did it 250 years ago. In fact, it's the same way they did it 2,000 years ago. And it goes back even further than that, if you can believe it much further, actually. But as everything around us has changed, this meal has not changed. It's the same prayers, the same scriptures, the same elements, and the same meaning. And today, what I... Excuse me, what I want to do is go through one passage, God bless you. Praise the Lord. We're going to be doing a lot, a lot around here, right? Instead of me just reading you a passage and you saying, "Amen," or saying, "The Lord be with you," I really want to kind of just walk through a passage line by line and show you what it means so that at the end of this service, we're no longer any of us going through the motions when it comes to the Lord's Supper. And instead, we can invite God to move in us. Does that sound good? Yes. Okay, let's do that. Let's read in 1 Corinthians 11, just four verses today, okay? And here it is. I pass on to you what I received from the Lord Himself.

On the night He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread, gave thanks to God for it. He broke it into pieces and said, "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, He, that is Jesus, took the cup of wine after supper, saying, "This cup is the new cup in it between God and His people, an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it." Now maybe this is the very first time you've ever heard this. Maybe it's the hundredth time or the thousandth time. It can mean everything to you or it can mean nothing to you. But even if it does mean something to you, that something can get lost over time because things have a way of losing their meaning the more we hear them. So let's go back through this passage one line at a time through four verses and I want to show you what Paul, the Apostle Paul, who wrote this book called First Corinthians to the church at Corinth explaining to them and truthfully explaining to us what all of this means today. So let's back up. I pass on to you, underline that in your Bible, what I received from the Lord Himself. Paul is saying, "I got this from the Lord and I'm giving it to you." These words, I pass on our words of formal authority, what do I mean by that? Formal authority, meaning in that context, these words would have been used for passing down an official pronouncement, even like a last will and testament. So Paul is saying, "I'm handing off to you what I was entrusted with." And the important part is this, is that it came from the Lord Himself, it did not come from any man. This was not invented in some executive boardroom back in the 50s, it came out of the very mouth of Jesus. And because of that, you and I can trust these words. Now let's keep reading. He said, "On the night, when he was betrayed," this is Jesus talking, "and the night that he was betrayed is the night of the Last Supper.

After this meal, he goes out with his disciples and he goes to a place called the Garden of Gethsemane, and there he will be arrested, bound in chains, taken to Pilate where a kangaroo court will find him guilty and sentence him to death." But notice that Paul did not say, "On the night of the Last Supper." He did not say, "On the night of the Passover," which is the meal that was happening. He says, "On the night, he was betrayed," betrayed by who, by Judas. And it's so interesting that this is the wording that Paul uses. Jesus is a gracious host, willing to eat with the very ones who will betray him. And you and I who know Jesus are not surprised at all by that because he did that with us. And we know that Romans 5.8 says this, that while we were sinners, while we were the enemies of God, God showed up and showed us how much he loves us by sending Jesus to die for us. And here's the truth, I wouldn't do that for you. And you wouldn't do that for me. None of us would do that. But Jesus would, and he did. And it explains how wide the grace of God is. And the application is this, no matter how bad you've been, no matter how hard you have run from him, no matter what sins you have committed, he is still holding a place at the table for you. Now, let's keep reading. The next line, it says, the Lord Jesus took some bread. Some bread, what bread? Well, it was very special bread, it was unleavened bread,

which simply means it had no yeast in it. It still had gluten. I don't think any of us knew what gluten was until about 10 years ago, right? And I still don't know what gluten is, to be honest with you. I just know it contains the flavor because I've had gluten free bread and it lacked one thing, flavor, right? But in the Bible, yeast represents sin. And sin will puff you up in the same way yeast does the dough. And it spreads to everywhere in your life, just like ye spreads everywhere in your life. But Jesus was sinless. He knew no sin. In fact, he's the only person to ever not sin, which means he is the only one who could offer himself up as the sin offering for all of us sinners who need that. Now, why was Jesus using this type of bread? Well, the truth be told, it's because that's what they served at the Passover meal. Back then, and still do today, unleavened bread. So it's important to know that the Last Supper is a part of a bigger meal and an older meal called the Passover. Which in the Jewish culture was this big holiday where all the Jews would come to Jerusalem for a week and they would have this week-long celebration where they celebrated the Exodus out of Egypt where God freed his people from slavery and freed them from bondage. And in that Passover, the Israelites were told

to kill a lamb and to roast its flesh and then to take its blood and apply it to the doorpost of their home. And if they applied the blood to their doorpost, the death angel which was coming would pass over them. And here's the point, here in the Last Supper, Jesus is the Passover lamb. He will shed his blood. And when his blood is applied to your life through a relationship with him, death, hell and the grave will pass over you and you will have new life, eternal life. Now let's keep reading in verse 24. And gave thanks to God for it. Watch this, he broke it into pieces and said, this is my body which is given for you. Jesus took some of the bread, probably a big piece of flat bread, enough for all 13 guests at the meal. He broke it into pieces so that each one could have a piece but they all ate from the same bread or the same loaf but Jesus broke it up individually for all of them. Now what does all that represent? Well, Jesus tells us himself what it represents. Is his body, in the New Testament in first Peter, Peter quotes the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah from chapter 53 and this is what Peter says. He, that is Jesus, personally carried away our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin

and live for what is right by his wounds to his body, you are healed. In other words, by the breaking of his body, he won your healing by taking your punishment. And whenever we take this bread, this is the Passover feast. And for those of you who haven't been around a long time, maybe you're even new today, let me just tell you that this meal is in the Jewish culture is called a Seder. S-E-D-E-R. Pretty sure, E-R. E-R-A-R. I think E-R. And the Seder feast, there are four cups of wine. Now, I've covered this before, but in case you weren't here, let me just review. Each of the four cups refers to one of the promises that God made to his people in Egypt as he was getting ready to take them out of Egypt. Let me show you what I'm talking about. Exodus 6, "I am the Lord. I will free you, say free, from your oppression and rescue from your slavery, I will redeem, say redeem. You with a powerful right arm, I will claim, say claim, you as my own people, and I will be your God, and I will bring, say bring. You into the land, I swore to give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." In other words, he frees us, he claims us, redeems us, claims us as his own, and brings us into the promised land. And these four promises still apply to any Christ follower today, because Jesus said, "While taking that Passover cup, this is for you." Now, look, because Jesus is going to change the game a bit and change the tradition here, and watch what he does. He says, "This cup is the new covenant between God and his people, an agreement confirmed with my blood. The new cup is a new covenant." Now, what is a covenant? Well, the whole Old Testament is about covenants. In fact, covenants may be my favorite Bible word, because it appears so often throughout the Scriptures. And by the way, the word for covenant means to cut, because when two people entered into a covenant, they would take some animals, cut them in half, lay them in two rows with a path and the rock between these two halves of the animals. And they would both walk through this path, meet in the middle, and they would both look down and say, "May what happened to these animals happen to me if I don't keep my end of the covenant." And after cutting this covenant, they would sit down for a meal, which in our minds is a bit weird, that you just walk through this bloody ceremony and bloody ritual, and then in the middle of the blood, you sit down and have a meal and say, "Pass the potatoes out," right? But that's exactly what it's about. It's a picture of intimacy and being real. And in the Middle East, to eat with someone

means more than just putting food on their plate. It is about bringing someone into your family. And it meant you are now a part of my family. I've trusted you, I've leaned on you, and you have leaned on me. That's why we call it the Lord's Supper, because it's actually the whole meal. And here Jesus says, "I've already cut the covenant. I'm going to pour out my blood. It's my blood. You and I don't shed a single drop of blood." He did it all for us on the cross, and when He did all of that, with this new covenant, He fulfilled all of the old covenants that we just read about. And notice what it says. It's between God and His people. In other words, He's making this covenant with us, not as strangers, but as members of His family. In Ephesians chapter 1, verse 5, listen to what it says, same author as Corinthians. Paul says, "God decided to adopt you." Such good news. To bring you into His family, to make a special place for you. And if you have ever felt out of place, if you have ever felt like you didn't belong, there is a place you do belong. And it's at this table, the table of the Lord's Supper. But please hear me, just because you take the Lord's Supper or because you did at one time take the Lord's Supper. Does not mean you're saved. And maybe you were raised in a denomination where you went to a class, And at the end of the class, they let you take communion. And some of you heard me say that and it got you mad because in some circles those are fighting words. To say just because you took the Lord's Supper doesn't make you saved in your ears means I'm calling the Pope a liar. Don't hear what I'm not saying. What I am saying is the Lord's picture is, the Lord's Supper is a picture. It is a sign. When I was a kid in the 70s, I think Velcro had been invented for a long time but NASA decided to use it on a shuttle or something to keep stuff from flying around. And because NASA used it, it became popular

in mainstream world culture. And so now they were putting it on shoes like you just Velcro your shoes shut which was a game changer for moms of little ones who had time to shoes all the time. But I remember when they applied it for the first time to wallets. Anybody remember Velcro being applied to a wallet for the very first time? Like I thought like we're going to space like this is unbelievable. You remember it was made out of some kind of ballistic nylon and it had Velcro. Anybody remember what I'm talking about? How many had one of these? Yeah. And it had this little photo thing and for everybody who's under 40, let me explain to you what this is. These are printed photographs from a camera that had film in it and you would take the film to Walgreens, drop it off with a stranger and three weeks later you would get these pictures printed back. I know you have no idea what I'm talking about but we used to do this in the day of cranking things out. And so pictures were something you had printed and you would cut them out and you would put them in these little slots in this plastic thing in your wallet and carry them with you wherever you went.

And when kids had their pictures made at school they would order like a hundred of the wallet size because you gave them out like trading cards, like you're a baseball hero and you would give them to your friends and they would take your picture and put it in their little plastic thing. My little plastic thing would unroll like it would come down like the FBI had showed up. Like it's just gonna unroll like five of them on each side. You could turn it over and see it was double-sided. Amazing technology. You could turn it over and see a picture on the back as well. Now, there was a dilemma that happened on which friends you put in there and if you were a boy, typically all 10 of them were girls. And the moment you knew 10 girls, it was five on this side, five on this side. If you knew 11 girls, now a judgment call was coming. Because one of the girls would not be front-facing anymore. She would go in between the other photos as a second-class citizen, right? And so she would be in the middle. But it was a caste system in that, you walked around to one another and you would say, "Hey man, let me see your pictures." With the Velcro, you know, open it, boom. You know, this thing folds out and you are like, flip it around, see this, see this, and you're showing one another your pictures.

Now, if you had 10 beautiful girls, like you were at the top of the pecking order in this caste system, but one of my buddies could have done this. He could have gone into a magazine and cut out a picture of the most famous supermodel of the day, stuck it in the top slot of his little plastic photo thing. And when we said, "Let me see your photos" and he went, "Shh, oh, boom." And then showed us, and we're all looking at this supermodel in his picture thing, we would all think, "You're a moron." (audience laughs) Well, why? Because she doesn't know you exist. You have no relationship with her. You've never talked to her. You never had breakfast with her. She does not write songs about you. She does not know you. We would think you're a moron. But if he did know her, and if he did have a relationship with her, then that picture would actually mean something. You see what I'm saying? And so with the relationship, the picture actually means a whole bunch. Without the relationship, the picture actually means nothing, right?

The same thing is true. With the picture of the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is a sign that points to a relationship. And just because you partake in the sign does not mean you partake of the substance. Because behind the Lord's Supper is a spiritual reality. And it reminds us what Jesus did. And it's commanded by him actually, but it's a sign. It doesn't save you. It explains how and why you are saved if you are saved. the sign lacks all meaning. But if you do accept the free gift of salvation from Jesus Christ, it makes all the difference in the world for you. And in a moment, here's what I know to be true across our campuses. Some of you are gonna do that today. This is gonna be the day of your salvation. You're gonna come to understand the reality behind the sign for the first time. And I'm so excited for you because some of you are gonna cross that faith line today. And look at what Paul goes on to add in this text. He says, "For every time, say every time." You eat this bread and drink this cup. You're announcing the Lord's death. Look at this. Until he comes again. In other words, this is not just a past action. It's not just a present action.

It is a repeated action with future implications. Meaning, when we take this bread in this cup, we do it in anticipation of doing it again with Jesus in glory when he comes back. And that's a spiritual truth you need to hear today. He's coming back. And the question that you need to answer is are you ready? Are you ready? Have you accepted his invitation? Have you taken your seat at his table? Nothing stopping you from pulling up a chair. Don't let anything today keep you from saying yes to him today. And in fact, would you pray with me across all of our campuses with your heads bowed and your eyes closed and no one moving? This is like the holy moment of the service. And if you're here today, and the reason I ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes is because I want to ask you a couple of questions and I want your answers to feel private and I don't want to embarrass anyone today. But if you're here today and you would say, "Pastor, I know Jesus is my Lord, my Savior, my forgiver." He walks with me and he talks with me. I've got this thing salvation settled in my own heart. If that's you at every single campus, would you raise your hand, please? Thank you, you can put it down and here's what you can't see

that I can see is thousands of hands just went up. And what that means is that a man who died 2,000 years ago is still changing lives today because he's not dead. He rose from the dead and he beat death hell and the grave. He's still changing lives and I want to thank you for raising your hand, so many hands just went up, but some of you, you didn't raise your hand. And can I just say to you, we are so glad you are here. We've been praying for you. And with heads bowed and eyes closed, I just want to ask you, if you're here today and you say, I don't know that Jesus is my Lord or my Savior, would you just raise your hand at every campus, raise it high so that we can see it? Okay, okay. I don't know that he walks with me and talks with me. Would you raise your hand? I don't know that, but I would like to know, okay? If Jesus were to come back today, I don't know that he's coming back for me. Would you raise your hand at every single campus? If that's you, I don't know if he's coming back for me. Okay, just raise your hand up if you would. At every campus, okay? At South Tulsa, would you raise your hand? At Jinx, would you raise your hand? At Owasso, would you raise your hand at Midtown? Go ahead and raise your hand at Midtown. At Allen Gamble, would you raise your hand? Here at Broken Arrow or in the chapel,

would you raise your hand? Pastor, I don't know that Jesus is my Lord or my Savior. Anybody else, just raise your hand if you would, to say, if you're gonna pray, include me in that prayer. Anybody else, okay? Okay, okay. At every campus, just raise your hand if you would. In the chapel, just raise your hand right now. Here in this room, anybody else. Pastor, if you're gonna pray, include me in that prayer because I don't know if Jesus is my Lord and Savior. Just raise your hand. Okay, okay, okay. Okay. Now you can put 'em down, I wanna pray for you. any man, woman, boy, or girl under the sound of our voice today who needs salvation could find salvation today in the person of Jesus. It would spring up out of this ground into their hearts and into their lives that the Lord would win the battle in every heart and every room today. And if you're here today and you want to give your life to Jesus, you want to trust Christ as your Lord and Savior, there is no greater privilege than I could have than to lead you in a prayer helping you do just that. And maybe you're here and you say pastor, I don't know how to pray. That's okay. I'm going to pray this one phrase at a time so that you can repeat it after me. But I'm going to ask you not to pray it in a rote fashion. I'm going to ask you to pray it to God in heaven. And you're going to hear people praying all around you. No one's going to pray alone at every single campus. But if you want to cross that line and trust Jesus as your Lord and Savior, would you pray with me and say, dear God, I know I'm a sinner.

But today I ask you to forgive me for all of my sin. Jesus coming to my life to be my Lord. Call the shots in my life coming as my Savior, my forgiver in the best way that I know how. I turn my back on my sin and I trust you alone Jesus to save me. I receive you Jesus and I receive salvation. Thank you for saving me that you were not embarrassed or ashamed of me on that cross. Help me in this moment to not be ashamed of you. Now before we look up and before we say amen, if you just prayed that prayer and you meant it with all of your heart, you're not playing games, you meant that prayer with all of your heart, would you just raise your hand at every single campus, just raise it high. I prayed that prayer and I meant it with all of my heart, just raise it high at every campus. I'm trusting Jesus, giving my life to Christ. I meant this with all of my heart. Here at BA their hands going up everywhere. At South Tulsa, would you raise your hand at Jinx? Would you raise your hand at Owaso? Would you raise your hand at Allen Gamble at South Tulsa in the chapel? Anybody else? Just raise your hand. I meant that with all my heart. I'm trusting Christ. I mean it. Now here's what I want to ask you to do. There were hands that just went up all over this room at every campus. Here's what I want you to do. With your hands still raised, I want you to look up at me or look up at your campus pastor. Just wave your hand so that I can find you or your campus pastor can find you. Sir, right here in the white shirt, you meant that. Congratulations.

Right back here, there's several of you. Side by side, all of you meant that. Okay, ma'am right here on the aisle. Ma'am right here on the aisle. Sir, right here. What wave at me? I want to find you. I want to find you. Any anybody else over here? Okay. Okay, right here, three of you, side by side, congratulations. Right here, young ma'am back here and back here. Okay, I see you way over here to my right, your left. Just okay, sir, right here. Anybody else? Okay, right back there. A couple side by side back here. Let's do this, okay, at every campus. The rest of you, you keep your head bowed and eyes closed. Okay, but I want to address those who just prayed that prayer and meant it with all of their heart. If you raised your hand to say you prayed that prayer and you meant it with all of your heart, just stand up if you would, just so I can find those of you and just speak to those of you. You don't need to look and see who else is standing. Just stand up so I can find you. These lights are really bright in my eyes. Just stand up right here. There was a row of you right back there, three of you right here. Sir over here, a row of you right here. You meant that with all of your heart.

Just stand up and let me just say to you as you're standing up, congratulations. This is the wisest decision you could possibly make. In fact, let me say this. If somebody is standing next to you and they came with you or you brought them, just stand up with them. Just stand up with them. Okay, just as an encouragement. Just stand up. And let me just say the angels in heaven are throwing a party for you right now. They're rejoicing all over heaven. If you were the only one and obviously there are several of you, if you were the only one, the angels in heaven will be throwing a party for you right now. The wisest decision you could possibly make. And what we'd love to do before you leave is we just want to know your name. Okay, and so we want to pray with you. See if you have questions about what you just did. If you don't have a Bible, we want to give you a Bible. And we want to put you on our prayer list just as somebody we're going to pray for. Don't sit back down. Here's what I want to ask that you do. If you're standing, okay, just say excuse me. Grab your Bible. Grab your friend. Grab whoever came with you. Grab your purse and just make your way right here. Right outside that door is a room. They just wanna pray for you for five minutes and then you'll be done. So grab your stuff. You don't need to look but you can celebrate

with these that are coming right now. So come on if you would, come on if you would. Just step out and say, excuse me. And they're gonna encourage you right back here. Anybody else just stand and come with them. If you wanted to stand but didn't stand, just stand at this time and make your way. Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations. The angels in heaven are throwing a party. Let's continue to celebrate. They're still coming from the back corner of the room. They're still coming. Just say, excuse me and come on if you would. Still coming, they're still coming, guys. They're still coming. Anybody else, just make your way right now. (audience applauding) As they're making their way, could we just pray over them real quick? Would you just pray with me? And would you say, Lord today for these men and women and boys and girls who've just come into relationship with your son Jesus? Would you not only put your spirit in them today but would you put just great courage in them? Would you encourage them as they go pray with one another and they go just talk for a minute? May they not only be encouraged, may they even maybe find a friend who they could ask questions about

in their new walk with Jesus and somebody that could help them take some steps in advance in their journey with Jesus Christ. We just pray you'd love on them today. We're so grateful for them and for what you're doing in their lives. We thank you for what you're doing in this church. We're so grateful to be a part of what you're doing, how you're saving men and women and boys and girls all around us. And we rejoice in that today. In Jesus' name we pray and together we all say, amen. Do you thank the Lord for moving in our midst today? - Church, I just don't want us to lose how holy of a moment this is. And there were people who'd just walked out of this room who'd been prayed for weeks, months, maybe even years. And so this is a holy moment. And what better way to remember a holy moment like this and with communion? Paul adds this, he says, do this when you take communion and remembrance of me as often as you drink it. And that does not mean to remember something, to just jog your memory. It's not to pull something and just write it down so you won't forget. What Paul is talking about here is to recreate the experience, to repeat it so that it matters to you. It's a part of your life.

Every time you take the Lord's Supper. It's not just going through the motions. It's not just taking it just to take it. It's about reliving the moment. That moment when heaven met earth, when Jesus died and his blood was shed for you, when he willingly gave his life on the cross. And he did all of that for you. You should have communion near you. You can go ahead and pull off the top layer, reveal in the wafer. And we're gonna take the Lord's Supper together. And what's amazing is that in that room right now, where all of those people who made that decision to follow Jesus, where they just went, they're literally gonna be taking communion for the very first time as believers in Jesus. And so right now across all of our locations, there's gonna be thousands of us invited to the table together and taking communion together, some of us for the very first time. And so with the wafer in your hand, what I want you to do is remember, Jesus taking this bread at the last supper, the last moment with his disciples, his body broken for us. And when you take this bread, would you ask the Lord for healing and for substance that it would nourish you?

Here's what his word says. This is my body, which is broken for you. Take this in remembrance of me. You may take the bread. And now if you wouldn't hold the cup, I want you to ponder and envision Jesus taking this cup after the last supper. And he said, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood." He said, "Do this in remembrance of me for whenever you drink this cup and you eat this bread, you're proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes again. You may take the cup." (gentle music) [BLANK_AUDIO] we're reminded of who we are. That we were redeemed by Jesus. We're a new people. And so because we are a new people, we live a different way. Two weeks from now, we're starting a brand new series called branded. And we're gonna talk about because we are branded by God, how then should we live? I believe this could be a life changing series for you and your family. I would encourage you to join us. Church, we love you. We're praying for you. We're celebrating new life today. and we'll see you next week.

(audience clapping)