The Meal That Heals | Jabin Chavez | City Light Church

Hey, what's up to our online City Light family. Man, I love you guys so much. We are about to jump into God's Word. I believe it's gonna be powerful. I believe it's gonna be relevant. And I really do honestly believe that God's gonna speak to you. So I just want you to open your heart and believe with us that God is gonna do something amazing through this sermon right now in your heart. If you have not liked and subscribed and done all the things, if you would do that, that would be a huge blessing to us as our media team tells me that it helps the algorithm. Whatever an algorithm is, I guess we want to be on it. So I love you, let's jump into God's Word. Let's go to God's Word, 1 Corinthians 11. While you're turning there on your way out, you'll see in the lobby, we have this little book for you. It's a free gift from us to you. It's called Eating Your Way to Wholeness. It's a little booklet written by our friend, Pastor Joseph Prince. And it's a little book on communion. And so this is our gift to you. We just ask one per family, grab one on your way out. It'll just really help you unlock the power of communion, which I'm gonna help you do today as well. And then as you feel led of the Lord, receive communion at your home as you need to.

And for you who are watching online, find a piece of bread, find a cracker, find some juice or some water, something, some wine, I won't judge. And praise the Lord. And we're gonna receive communion at the end of this service. So I wanna make sure that you are following along. 1 Corinthians 11, for I receive from the Lord. Now Anna just sang about the blood of Jesus. Now I'm gonna teach you about the blood of Jesus. And then at the end of this service, we're just gonna take a moment to receive communion together as a family and to honor the Lord. And I believe most importantly, we're gonna receive from the Lord. Can I get an amen, everybody? 1 Corinthians 11, verse 23, I receive from the Lord that which I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take eat, this is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And in the same manner, he also took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. So now notice there's the body and the blood. The body of Jesus hung on the cross. And the Bible said in Galatians 3, 13,

cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree. So Jesus on the cross became a curse for us that we might receive the blessing of God. So in any area that the curse is trying to operate in your life, addiction, sickness, disease, poverty, mental issues, fear, disease, all of these things, Jesus on the cross, he took that upon himself that we might receive the blessing of God. And so today we are expecting God to do something in our life. Now, that's the physical part of salvation. But this cup is the new covenant in my blood. That's the spiritual side. That's the forgiveness of sin. Hebrews 9 says, without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sin. And so because of Adam and Eve's sin, because we have sinned against a holy God, something, someone had to die. God died in our place. Jesus died in our place that we might receive eternal life. Anybody grateful for that? So now watch this. Do this as often as you drink it. And remember it to me, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. Therefore, whoever eats this bread and drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner

will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. And I'm gonna really focus on this today. It's not that you're unworthy. It's that you're doing it in an unworthy way. But let a man examine himself. And so let him eat the bread and drink the cup. So Paul is not trying to get people to stop taking communion. He's trying to get people to take communion. I want you to notice that. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner, again, they're not unworthy. They're doing it in an unworthy way. They're not doing it in worship and in reverence and in honor and in expectation. You drink judgment upon yourself not discerning the Lord's body. For this reason, many are weak and sick among you. Many have fallen asleep. Now I want you to notice many are sick and weak. If you can receive communion in an unworthy way and it makes you weak, imagine what would happen if you receive communion in a worthy way. It wouldn't make you weak, it'd make you strong. Amen. And I'm believing today that as we receive communion, God's gonna strengthen his people in Jesus' name. All right, so I wanna talk about this meal that heals, the meal that heals.

Thank you, Lord. For all you've done in our life, and thank you for all that is yet to come. You have been so much better to us than we deserve. And today we are grateful. We are eternally grateful. In Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen. Y'all ready for the word? You like who you're sitting next to? You need a move? If you don't like him, it'll be rude, but go for it. You can move and just say, I gotta go, man. You don't seem right. No, just kidding. So we just sang about the blood of Jesus. And you know, I think it's even interesting. I think sometimes the Christian church gets criticized for the blood. They call us a bloody gospel, a bloody religion. I've learned though that within every dogma, within every belief system, there is a shedding of blood. And if you want that to be your blood and you want to try to be religious and kind of suffer your way through to try to earn something from God, if you want that to be the shedding of blood, I mean, I guess more power to you. The beauty of the gospel is not that it is bloodier than any other religious system or philosophy or atheism or anything else.

The beauty of the gospel is that God took upon himself flesh and blood and paid the price in our place. This is not a bloody message in that all of us have to shed blood. It is a beautiful message that only one had to shed blood. And because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, we can be saved and redeemed and forgiven. Come on, this is a, this is not a bloody message. It is a beautiful message. So how do I eat the cup worthily? How do I do this in a worthy manner that I might receive the blessing of communion? First Corinthians 10 tells us that communion is the cup of blessing. So how do I receive this cup of blessing? Number one, we do it with thanks. You give thanks. When I receive communion, I give thanks. And at the end of this service, we're gonna give thanks for what Jesus has done. If we go back to the very first Passover, we go to Exodus chapter 12, and God is setting Israel free from Egypt. He's setting the Jewish people free from Pharaoh and from Egyptian slavery. And he tells them, you're gonna eat this meal. You're gonna eat this Passover meal. And here's what's gonna happen. He says eight times in chapter 12, Exodus 12, eight times in one chapter, he says, remember me,

remember me, remember this moment. Don't forget this moment. Don't forget what I'm doing right now. Don't forget this. And then he actually says, and every year keep celebrating it. Keep it fresh in your memory. That's why Jesus would say, do this in remembrance of me. Do it because it is a constant and consistent reminder of what I've done in your life. You constantly remind yourself of where you were before you met Jesus. But because of the grace of God. See, some of y'all been saved too long. You forgot you were lost. You forgot what that addiction was like. You forgot what that hate was like. You forgot what that fear was like. You forgot what that bondage was like. You forgot what it was like to just live, beat up by the devil. But man, I think every once in a while, we have to look back and go, thank you God, that I don't walk like I used to. And I don't talk like I used to. That there is power in the grace of God. And so God says, every time you receive communion, remember, remember this moment. What could God do in a moment in your life? God is a God of moments.

God is a God of sudden leaves. God is a God of jumping into a sliver of time and changing our destiny in our eternity. Think about that. If we go back to the first Passover meal, one meal changed the nation. After 400 years of Egyptian slavery, they eat the Passover meal and Pharaoh at the end of that meal calls Moses and says, get out of here. I don't want you guys in our nation anymore. Think about that. Before dinner, Pharaoh's saying, I'll never let you go. By the end of dinner, Pharaoh's saying, please leave and take whatever you want with you. Wow, that is the power of one meal. That is the power of Passover. That is the power of communion, that the thing that has held you and the thing that has bound you and the thing that told you I'll never let you go in the power of the Lord's supper, God supernaturally sets you free and the thing that held you has to let you go. I just declare over every Pharaoh in your life that's trying to hold you back, let my people go. You're getting free today. You're getting healed today. Oh, somebody shout with me real quick, come on. I believe in the power of a moment.

Hey what's up family? We're about to get right back into God's Word. Just before we do, I wanted to thank so many of you who have helped us financially. Maybe you don't live in Vegas, maybe you don't even live in America, but something in your heart has been stirred to help us reach literally one of the most unreached places on planet earth. Las Vegas is the most unchurched city in the most unchurched state, Nevada, in all of America. We're doing everything we can to reach more people with the gospel. And so to all of you who have ever given to our ministry, thank you. To you who maybe have not, but have been impacted by this house, by the teaching and preaching from this house, I want to ask you, would you consider helping us as we continue to bring the good news of Jesus to our region? You can go to citylightvegas.com and find all the ways to give there. I love you so much. I appreciate you. I'm praying for you. Let's jump back into God's Word. Jesus said, this is my body and this is my blood and I'm giving it to you. Never forget that about salvation. Salvation is not something you earn or achieve. It's something you receive. It was God's to give. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Who does it belong to? Everybody, who does it belong to? The Lord. Not you. The Lord. Jamie, can I lose my salvation? It's not yours.

Let me make everybody, let me make all the religious people nervous real quick. It's not yours to lose. Now can you willingly walk away from Jesus? Yeah, I think you can. Salvation is not some cheap thing like a set of keys that you can just, I lost my phone. I lost my keys. That's not salvation. You don't have a bad day and all of a sudden you've lost your salvation. It belongs to the Lord. And if you believe that, here's what happens. A blessing comes upon you. Oh, thank God. This isn't me. The weight of the world isn't on me. The weight of my soul isn't on me. Thank God it's on, wow, thank you Lord. And then God uses this weird little word that you'll see whenever you read the Psalms, and I encourage everybody, read the Psalms, silah. Everybody say that out loud. Say silah. Congratulations, you just spoke Hebrew, you're a scholar. You're basically a scholar. Okay, watch this. That little word silah means pause, wait, think, ponder. Don't move too fast. Take a moment. Breathe. Exhale. Inhale. Wait a minute.

God has said, if we would get to this point where, man, we are at rest, Lord, salvation is a gift from you. It belongs to you and you've given it to me. There would be a blessing in that. I'm trying to get this in your heart today. Salvation is not something we earn. Let me go to a scripture that people are really scared of. People are freaked out about this verse. I was really freaked out. I'm a church kid. I've had a lot of trauma from church. Church in the 90s was crazy. Oh, my God. Some of you are like, I miss old church. I'm like, I don't. I don't want to go back to that. It was wild. And our pastor would always preach this verse. Now, he had this big wooden pulpit and, boy, he'd slam that pulpit and he would wear this like lapel mic that was real loud, so he'd pound the pulpit, you know, and he would preach this little verse right here. Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not cast out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty works in your name? And the preacher would preach this and he would go, look at these people. They're prophesying. They're casting out demons. They're doing miracles. And you're like, oh, my God. And then I will declare to them, watch this, I never knew you, depart from me, you workers

of lawlessness. Oh, my God. You're 17 years old? Looking at porn? Come on, somebody. All bound up in lust. Oh, sorry. Was that too real? You know, 17 years old, praying in tongues, memorizing the Bible, is that better for you? 17. Guys, relax. And the preacher preaches that. I'm like, if the prophet isn't going to heaven, I'm cooked. Come on, go back to verse 22. If the demon caster outer isn't going to heaven, I'm toast. If the person doing miracles isn't going to heaven, I'm in trouble. And that's how the preachers would preach it. Even prophets aren't going to heaven. Even miracle workers aren't going to heaven. And you're like, oh, my God. Oh, my God. You know, you run to the altar, sob, you know, God, please. Let me just say. Two things about this scripture real quick one. This is Jesus speaking to the religious leaders of his day And the main thing he's trying to do is he's trying to get them to get past their religious outward works and He's trying to get them to verse 23 where they would just know the Lord They know how to act publicly But their heart is far from God and he's trying to get them to go guys. None of that stuff matters What matters is knowing me trusting me no loving me

Does that make sense number two this scripture is given before the resurrection, which means it's part of the Old Covenant So you just have to you just have to remember that now one more time look at verse 22 because this is important They stand before God and they say we prophesied we did miracles. We cast out demons. We we we If you were to come to me today and say Jaben, why are you going to heaven? I'm not going to say because I pastor a church Because I'm nice to my wife Because I don't hit my kid because I feed my dog Because I pay my bills Because me me me me because I'm nice to people because I give away money because me me me me because I'm in church Even on Memorial Day weekend my god me me me That is not Why I'm going to heaven? That is not what's going to give me access to an almighty. Holy God. Come on somebody I'm not gonna stand before Jesus and go me me me me salvation is not we we we salvation is not me me me I Salvation is Jesus Jesus oh Does anybody believe me today Jesus? The old hymn said my hope is built on nothing less but Jesus blood and righteousness I dare not boast that song said in me alone, but only boast in Christ alone. I Try to do good things I try to be a good person giving it my best But here's the reality only Jesus saves Do we believe that I hope we do It'll change how you worship It'll change how you praise God, that's why when at this church, we don't sing songs about ourselves When talk about how great we are Talk about how great God is Talk about how awesome God is we don't sing our name is the highest our name is the greatest Our name stands above it all look that seemed that's gross to even say Your name is the highest Jesus your name is the greatest when you really believe what I'm preaching it will cause a praise to rise out of you

Let me go a little bit further God saved you by his grace when you believe this is salvation God saved you by his grace when you believed You can't take credit for it. It's a gift from God Salvation is not a reward for the good things. We've done so that none of us can boast about it Wow You know in the Old Testament every year they would celebrate this Passover this this moment and every year what you had to do in the Old Covenant is you would have to bring an animal to the priest and to the temple and Depending upon how much money you made you might bring a little dove and you might bring a beautiful lamb It was all it was all dependent upon what your income was and Here's what you would do you would take that animal you'd bring that lamb to the priest and the priest would inspect the lamb Watch me not the man the lamb Y'all hear me over here come on say amen to me the priest would inspect the lamb not the man and If the lamb was good, the man was forgiven The priest didn't go how you treating your wife. Are you cheating on your taxes? Did you have some road rage on your donkey on your way into the temple today? Did you cut anybody off? Did you know? The priest would look at the lamb and would declare you are forgiven not because of your works But because of the lamb that would die in your place Let me tell you something Jesus is the Lamb of God and when I stand before God God doesn't see the man He sees the lamb and to the lamb be glory forever in Jesus name I I'm gonna read one more scripture because I'm liking every scriptures building my faith below, but Hebrews 12 24 you've come to Jesus the one who mediates the new covenant between and God and his people. Watch that, God and not his people and God, God and his people. Top down, grace goes first, Jesus goes first.

This is all God first. And two, now watch how he says this. You come to God and you come to the sprinkled blood. The blood of Jesus that was poured out on the cross, which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for vengeance like the blood of Abel. This is so powerful. The Bible said in Genesis four that Cain killed his brother Abel. And when God goes and confronts Cain, God says, where's your brother Abel, Cain? And Cain goes, I don't know. I don't know where he went. Am I my brother's keeper? I don't know where he went. And God says, I know you killed him. I hear his blood crying out. His blood speaks. But what did his blood speak of? What did his blood cry out for? Vengeance. God, my brother, kill me, kill him. God, my brother, judge me, judge him. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. That's the old covenant, vengeance. The whole Old Testament in a nutshell is vengeance. Get what you deserve. If you're good, you get good. If you're bad, you get bad, done.

That's how a lot of you think about Christianity, but that's not how Christianity is. So Cain's brother cries out vengeance. You know that we have a brother? Romans 8 says Jesus is our brother. And his blood cries out, but it don't cry out vengeance. Come on, somebody. It cries out mercy. It cries out forgiveness. When our brother's blood cries out, it does not cry out judgment, condemnation, and vengeance. It cries out forgiven, forgiven, forgiven. To God be the glory, for the blood of Jesus. Preaching myself happy, number two. When you receive communion, get your shoes on. In Exodus chapter 12, the Bible says that when they were to receive the Passover, and this is all a picture of Christ. First, they kill the lamb. Then the Bible said they were to roast the lamb over fire, which was judgment. Then they were to ingest the lamb. They were to receive of the lamb. Then they were to take the blood of the lamb and put it on the doorpost, placing the blood of the lamb over their house. All of this is a picture of what Jesus does for us. Then they consume the lamb, but then here's a powerful thing. When they actually receive the meal, watch this, Exodus 12.

These are your instructions while eating the meal. Be fully dressed. Watch this. Put your shoes on, wear your sandals, and carry your walking stick in hand. Eat the meal with urgency, for this is the Lord's Passover. Why? Because by the time they were done with this meal, Pharaoh was gonna kick Israel out of Egypt. And they were about to leave bondage and go into freedom. They were about to leave Egypt and go into their promised land. They were about to leave one season and go into another season. And God said, I want you to receive communion with the expectation that something is about to change in your life. Something is about to break in your life. Something is about to move. You're about to leave addiction and go into freedom. You're about to leave sickness and go into healing. You're about to leave sin and go into salvation. You're about to leave Egypt and go into your promised land. This is the meal that heals. When I remember the Lord, Pharaoh has to take his hands off of you. Everything from your past has to let go of you. And you begin to walk in a freedom that only Jesus could give you. Come on, elbow your neighbor.

Say, get your shoes on, get your shoes on. Find the other neighbor. They were stuck up. Tell them, you too, get your shoes on. Your feet stink, get your shoes on. Come on. With a readiness, with an eagerness, with a willingness that when I receive from the Lord, something is gonna happen in my life. You know, you should come to church expecting God to do something in your life. Yeah, probably need to get to church. Probably good for the fam. All right, that's cool, that's cool. Well, got nothing else going on. That's cool, that's cool. Yeah, probably gotta go talk to the man upstairs. All right, that's cool, that's cool. Gotta go kiss the ring, that's cool. But I hope you don't think this is some mob visitation from the Tony Soprano in the sky. Making sure that you deal with the big guy for the week. That's not what this is. This is coming to church with expectation and gratitude, believing God has been faithful and God's going to continue to be faithful and God's been good to me and he's going to continue to be good to me and I'm going to get to church and I'm going to deal with that traffic and I'm going to deal with those buses and I'm going to deal with that long walk and I'm going to deal with the heat and with the, with the ushers telling me where to see now I'm going to have to get my kids in kitchen and it's going to be worth it because when I get to church I got my shoes on, I'm ready for God to do something in my life.

Come on, anybody believe that God could do something right now? He's the God of moments. He's the God of destiny. He's the God of time. He's the God where he can break into your life. Praise God. Thirdly, thirdly, get ready. When I receive communion, I give thanks. When I receive, receive communion, I get my shoes on. When I receive communion, I get ready. Get ready for what? The Bible said in verse 26 that we are to remember the Lord, watch this, until he comes again. So this is one of those crazy things that us Christians believe. Get ready. Look at me. We believe Jesus is coming again. We actually believe that. We actually believe that he, he's coming back. The Bible calls it the day of the Lord. The day the Lord comes back and takes his people. What a blessing. What a beautiful day. The day he makes all wrong things right. The day every tear is wiped from our eye. The day he finally and permanently and eternally deals with the devil. What a beautiful day that will be. And now people are talking a lot about the end times right now. Is Jesus coming back in our generation? You know, you get on YouTube, you get on TikTok, if you, if you're kind of like on a Christian

algorithm, you know, people are talking about is Jesus coming back and is Jesus, are we going to live to see the return of Jesus and is Jesus going to come back in our lifetime? And I just tell you, I don't know. I don't know. There's a lot of preachers on YouTube that say they know. I'm not one of them. I don't know. Are we in the last days? I think, but I don't know. Because my, my favorite Bible teacher ever, my favorite Bible teacher told me to never set a date. And he actually told me we'll never know the time when he, when, when, when Jesus returns. My favorite Bible teacher told me that. My favorite Bible teacher is Pastor Jesus of Nazareth. He's an amazing Bible teacher. Read about him. He's, he's in the, he's in here. He's awesome. And he told me, you won't know the day you won't know, but now there's a lot of guys on YouTube that know. And shout out to you guys. You're amazing. You know more than Jesus. I don't know more than Jesus. You know more than Jesus. I don't know more than Jesus. Your TikTok knows more than Jesus, but I don't know more than Jesus. And Jesus doesn't know more than Jesus, but you do, and you're amazing. So are, are we in the last days? I think, but, but, but let me, let me say this.

I think we are, but here's what I know for sure. You are in your last days. No, I'm not, I'm only 18 years old. No, I'm not, I'm only 65 years old. No, no, don't, don't say that. I'm only 50 years old. No, no. You're actually in your last days. Let me tell you why. Because the Bible said, what is your life? Your life is a mist. Another translation says a vapor. It's here and it's gone. It's like, we don't have this in Vegas, but it's like that early morning fog that rolls in on the East coast and you wake up and it's foggy and you blink and it's gone. It's like that dew that covers the grass in the morning. If you're from a city that has humidity and there's a dew on the grass and then the sun hits it and it's gone. It's here and it's gone. And I want to live a long life. I really do. I'm hoping with these new peptides, I'm trying to live to 200. You know what I'm saying? I'm going to get one of those peptides, put it right in my heart, put one right in my liver and just, whoa, I'm trying to live to 207. Amen. I'm trying to live to. I don't know. I think we're living longer. I love that.

But you know, you know, I've buried one month olds and I've buried a hundred year olds. And at every funeral, it feels like they were gone too soon. You know why? Because I think you're just reminded even the, even the person that lived a hundred years, oh, that was so fast. If you compare this vapor of a moment compared to eternity. That's why I'm living my whole life for eternity. Because I'm only here for a moment. I'm only here for a brief moment, but man, one day I'm going to stand before God. And I'm excited. I can't wait. I'm not scared. I'm excited about heaven. But communion, here's what it does. It reminds me. This isn't home. This is my temporary address. But I've got a home in heaven where the streets are gold, where there are no more tears and no more sickness and no more cancer and no more death and no more racism and no more hate and no more pride and no more addiction. And that day's coming. And every time I receive communion, I get a little closer to heaven. So are we in the last days? Yeah. Because we're all in our last days. And communion gives me peace. That I do not have to fear death. There was an old preacher on his deathbed. And his assistant came to him and said, Pastor, are you afraid of dying? Are you afraid of crossing that river of death?

That old preacher looked at his mentee and he said, Son, I'm not afraid. Because I serve the God who is on both sides of the river. One day these eyes will close for the last time and they will open again. And I will stand before Jesus, not with my resume, not with my church attendance, not with how much I gave to the kingdom of God, not with how nice I was to my wife. I will stand before Jesus and say, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.