Receiving Nourishment

Praise the Lord. Amen, it wasn't worshiped just like it's just I don't

know. I don't know. Spirit of God's moving in this place, Amen,

Spirit of God's moving. I hope he's moving in your homes too,

not just not just this house, but your house. And I just want

to tell you first of all our pastors they greet you this morning there in

Italy, and they're they're running around in Italy and an RV and just having

a great time. They will be back with us next week and refreshed and

well and ready. Amen, And we just speak blessing over them and their

travels. Would you just stand back up with me for a moment. I

just want to to who want us just to invite the spirit of God to

hover over us right now as we begin to reach deep into His word.

We're saying that all we need is you. But I'm telling you that all

he needs is you. His desire is you, his desire, his relationship

with you. Don't forget that. So Father, this morning, we say,

Presence of God fill this place, speak deeply your word into our lives.

God Lord, we just speak Spirit of God into every heart that is

in this place. Who thank your Lord for what you're about to do in

our lives. In Jesus name, Amen, you can be seated. We're

going to continue this morning on our Receiving series with Receiving Nourishment. Last week

we invited you to join our thirty day Communion Challenge, and if you didn't

get a chance to do that, the ushers have these cards for you.

We'd love to have you joined it. We had a lot of people sign

up and and and they will be getting you'll be getting a devotional in your

inbox every day for the next thirty days. And and then there's a chance

you can go on to Facebook and like our our Facebook page as well,

and there there's devotions, there's all kinds of stuff. We're putting things on

to encourage you in receiving communion in your home every day. I believe and

well I know for sure that if you'll do it for thirty days, you're

not gonna want to stop. And it will change your family, it will

change your marriage, and it will change your life for the good. Amen.

And another resource we've got if you, if you'd like, you can

grab this. We have this communion book that we wrote. It's back in

the back and available, and we'd love to get this into as many hands

as we can. I talk to a pastor the other day that's using this

for once a month communion in their church and they're just going through the book.

And he's a local guy here in Tacoma, and he said, he's

just it's blowing up their church with with what God's doing. So we're excited

about that. Amen. Does somebody not have this? Anybody? Anybody not

have it? Anybody want it? Oh? Okay, good right here,

come back up here. You hand that to her right behind you. Yeah,

nicely, nicely done. Way to go, Roman. We love Roman.

Amen. Well, this morning, I want to talk with you about

the importance of daily nutrition and then, and if you live around my house

at all, you would have heard a lot about daily nutrition from my wife

as our kids were growing up about daily nutrition. And our middle daughter,

Megan, if she's watching this, I'm reminding you eat your fruit because that

was her thing that she hated and we were always dealing with that and I

was like, honey, you got to eat your fruit. And the poor

child would constantly catch colds and stuff, and then she'd eat her fruit and

she'd get well. Mom would be like, you need to eat your fruit,

you know, but there is a daily nutrition that we all need that

can only come from our Father in heaven, and as a communion. We

need communion every day. We need that interaction with the Lord every day,

and it is so important, you know. It's interesting. And Exodus sixt

it says this. In the Passion translation, it says, it says sixteen

four says then Yahweh said to Moses, behold, I will rain down bread

from Heaven for you. Each day, the people must go out and gather

their daily portion, and I will test them in this way to see if

they will follow my instructions. Now, what's interesting is that that manna was

a foreshadow of that manner, the communion table. Each day we should be

going out and gathering our portion. Each day, we should be grabbing our

portion of that manner, because that is life's daily bread. I don't know

about you, but I grew up in a home where we had the little

card deck in the little ceramic loaf of bread, and on the side of

it has said our daily bread and weak we'd take the lid off and grab

a card and read the Bible. You'd write anybody here with that. Yeah,

seen that they still sell them. I think they probably they probably make

them, and you probably can't even get one in an antique store or something

if you really want to be authentic and read the King James so but but

that's what it is. It's our daily bread. Consume that every day and

you will stay healthy and strong. Amen. This morning, I want to

talk to you about the importance of this nutrition, because see in Psalm twenty

three it says this. It's kind of an interesting thing. I want to

read Psalm twenty three, verses four and five to you in the In the

new King James version, they'll they'll throw that up in a moment, but

it says, yea, though I walk through the valley of death, I

will fear no evil. Guess heard this? For you are with me,

your rod and your staff. They comfort me. You prepare a table in

the midst or in the presence of my enemies, and you anoint my head

with oil, and my cup runs over. When you receive communion, not

only are you feeding on his word, feeding on what he has for you,

but you are being anointed to live it out. At the same time.

With communion comes anointing so important to walk in the anointing of God after

we've received communion with Him. That'll change your day. It'll change your steps.

It'll make you to recognize that I can do what I've been called to

do. I can do what I'm purposed to do. That Psalm goes on

to say this, and the Passionnes says, you become my delicious feast.

Come on, he's inviting us to consume him. You become my delicious feast.

Come on, come on, he becomes your delicious feet. When my

enemies dare to fight, you annoint me with the fragrance of your Holy Spirit.

I'm telling you, when you walk in a room the anointing of the

Holy Spirit is on you, you will change the atmosphere. They say that

when Catherine Coolman died that she had she had one request, and that was

that they bring roses to her funeral when she passed away, and she prophetically

told them when she would die, the time and the hour everything, and

when she passed away, the station nurse who was on duty in the ICU

they actually were upset with her. They thought that she had allowed someone to

bring roses into the ICU unit. And that wasn't allowed. But they say

that there was so much of a fragrance of roses when she died, that

it not only filled the icy room, icyu room she was in, it

filled the floor, It filled the hospital, and it filled the adjacent buildings.

Come on, when you walk into a room, the fragrance of the

Holy Spirit is upon you, and it will change the atmosphere. Come on,

that's what I want to be. I want I want to be a

thermostat, not just a thermometer. I want to be one that changes the

atmosphere when I walk in to a room. Come on, when you come

to his table, and remember it is his table. He's invited us to

it. There are different portions in this table. I love this scripture.

I want to read this to you. In Lamentations three, verses twenty two

through twenty four says this says, through the Lord's mercies, we are not

consumed. Come on, his mercies protect you because his compassions fail not they

are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion,

says my soul. Therefore I hope in him. Come on, he

is your portion. He's your portion. If you come to the table hungry

for salvation, he's your portion. If you come to the table hungry for

healing, he's your portion. If you come to the table hungry because you're

out of you don't have love in your life, he's your portion. Come

on, if you come to the Day of Oh, hungry for deliverance,

he's your deliverer. He's your portion. Well, that's the God that we

serve. He's your portion. He is your portion. Come hungry and come

to the table. There are a lot of times that we walk through difficulties

in our lives, and we begin to pull back from things, and we

begin to not do the things that we once did because of whatever reason that

we might have. But Jesus showed us at the Last Supper how to handle

your enemies when they're sitting at your table. And I remember last week we

read through Matthew, and there was a couple of parts that I actually skipped

over because I wanted to come back to him this week. But this one

part I want to read now. Matthew twenty six twenty through twenty three says,

this is when evening had come, he sat down with the twelve and

now as they were eating, he said assuredly, I say to you,

one of you will betray me. And they were exceedingly sorrowful. I can

only imagine the atmosphere of that room changing upon those words. We've gone from

celebration of the passover to acknowledging that somebody in our midst is not really with

us. And it goes on, and it says that each of them were

exceedingly sorrowful, and each began to say to him, Lord, is it

I? Am I? The one? Am I? The one that's going

to betray you? And verse twenty five says then Judas, who was betraying

him so he'd already started, answered and said, Rabbi, is it I?

And Jesus said to him, you have said it. I want you

to notice a couple of things here. One is that Jesus stayed on course

even amongst his enemies. And see here's what happened with Judas. You know,

if you remember back to the story of Gideon Gideon, the Bible teaches

us that when Gideon went to battle, that it says that the Lord basically

entered Gideon and wore him like a glove, put him on like a glove.

And in this reference, the same thing as said of what Satan did

with Judas, that he entered him like a glove and he began to use

him. And what's interesting to notice is that there were twelve disciples, and

eleven of them said, Lord, is that I? And one of them

said, bye, is it I? You see, when he's your lord,

you won't betray him. When he's your lord. You may fall away,

you may make some mistakes, but you're not going to betray him.

There are many people in and out of the church who see Jesus as a

good teacher, but they do not see him as their lord, and so

they will betray him because they do not see him as anything more than a

good teacher. But I'm telling you, when you see him as your lord,

we see him as you savior, you see him as the one that

wants to commune with you. You will not betray him. Thank you,

Jesus. We'll go back just for a moment and talk to you for a

second, because when things get difficult, a lot of times we'll pull back

and we'll do things, or we'll stop doing things that we once did.

How many of you have been around somebody who goes through a traumatic event and

all of a sudden, you're like, Hey, would you like to eat

something? And you're like, no, I'm okay, prefer not to.

Would you like something to drink? No, I'm okay, I prefer not

to. And they begin to pull back from the very things that will preserve

their life and make them better as they fall deeper and deeper and deeper into

their situation. It's interesting, But what I want to tell you is we

can't starve ourselves during difficult situations. We can't pull back from his word,

from communion, from prayer, from all the things that will preserve our lives.

In Acts twenty seven we read the account of Paul as he's going to

go on a ship and be tried before Caesar. And this is an interesting

account. We're gonna walk through this together. But it's an interesting account because

of how it demonstrates what I'm talking about right now. But says this that

in Acts twenty seven says that after they had began to sail, a storm

came in and settled over them. Wow. Ever felt like you've had a

storm come in and just settle over your life? Well, we've all had

it happened. And in Acts twenty seven fifteen, it says, says the

sailors weren't able to turn the ship into the wind, so they gave up

and let it be driven by the gale winds. The Aramaic actually says that

this way, It says, we surrendered possession to its power. How many

you have ever been going through something and you just kind of take your hands

off the wheel, so to speak. You're like, I'm just gonna let

it whatever happens happens, Okay, Sarah, Sarah. Right. You know,

well, if it doesn't happen, must not have been God's will.

If I didn't get that job, all right, went through that difficult situation,

must have been God's will. How about what if we are supposed to

stay strong through the storm and not let go of the wheel. Sometimes we

can arrently think that it's part of his plan when it has nothing to do

with his plan. This passage goes on to say this, It says,

the next day, because of being battered severely by the storm, the sailors

jettisoned the argo, and by the third day they even through the ship's tackle

and rigging overboard. That's interesting because see the very things that they needed they

got rid of to lighten their load, thinking that was going to help them

through the storm. We've all been guilty of that. Well, maybe I'll

stop leading that small group because it's a time killer and I need to lighten

my load. Or maybe maybe i'll I'll just I just won't go to that

small group because that's two or three hours a week and I need to lighten

my load. Or maybe we don't get up extra early for prayer because we

need to lighten our load. Or maybe we don't continue to give when our

income has dropped a little bit because we need to light in our load.

I'm telling you God is saying this morning, don't jettison the things that you

need. Don't jettison the things that you need. It's interesting that word jettison.

I want to read this is as a powerful definition that says to get

rid of as super flus or encumbering omit, or forego as part of a

plan or as the result of some other decision to lighten the load in the

time of distress. See, I'm telling you you can't lighten your load in

a time of distress. My buddy Craig, when we go fishing, the

last thing we would ever do is lighten the load with the things that we

need. Don't get rid of the bait. It's how you're gonna catch the

fish. Don't get rid of the net, because how you're gonna get the

fish in the boat. Come on, don't get rid of the very things

that got you to where you are. Don't lighten the So many times when

we're battered, we're beaten, we think, if we could just lighten the

load, things would be better, If we could just get out from underneath

the pressure, things would be better. Not necessarily, don't lighten the load.

Don't get rid of the things that you need. Amen. It goes

on and says, after many days of seeing neither the sun nor the stars,

that's a big storm. And with the violent storm continuing to rage against

us, all hope of ever getting through it alive was abandoned. When we

abandon hope, trouble is sitting in. Your hope is in the Lord,

Your hope is in communion, Your hope is in the things of God.

It might feel like your darkest season, But when God shows up, the

lights are coming back on. Come on, when God shows up, the

storm is gonna calm. When God shows up, the clouds are gonna part

when God shows up. The winds are gonna calm, and there's going to

be clear sailing. Stay in faith, Stay in faith. Amen. I

love this because then Paul is in the middle of this. Now, remember

Paul was a prisoner. And it goes on and it says that Paul,

the Lord of the world over these guys was this. Then Paul says to

them, he says, now listen to me, don't be depressed. They

probably are about ready to throw him overboard, for no one will perish,

only the ship will be lost. For God's Angel visited me last night.

And the Angel of my God, the God I passionately serve. I love

that line. Come on, I love that the God that I passionately serve.

If you passionately serve him, he's got angels coming after you. Come

on, if you passionately serve you to serve him, he's gonna protect you.

He says that he came and he stood in front of me and said,

don't be afraid, Paul. You are destined to stand and stand trial

before Caesar. And because of God's favor on you, he has given you

and the lives of everyone who is sailing with you. Wow, come on,

and the lives of everyone who is sailing with you. See, here's

what happened. Paul was their prisoner. They're sailing, he's you know,

this whole thing looks like they're not gonna make it. They're all gonna die.

And they begin to do all of these different things. And then God

shows up and he flips the script and he says, you know what,

Paul, You're not their prisoner. They're settling with you because you have a

destiny. You have a place to be. You've got an appointment with Caesar

that you're gonna keep. You see, when when you have a destiny,

the enemy cannot stop you from hitting your goal if you're in faith with God.

I love this. In the acts twenty seven thirty three through thirty seven,

it says, if I can get the band to come back up,

says just before daybreak, come on, there's something about just before daybreak.

How many of you wake up sometimes you just have that dream right before daybreak,

you have that thought come to you just before daybreak, you have that

sit wastioned, Will the solution come to you just before daybreak? It's because

we finally cleared all the cobwebs, and God can speak to us sometimes,

but says, just before daybreak, Paul urged everyone to eat. One translation

in the footnote says he served them communion. He said, today makes two

full weeks that you've been in fearful, peril and hunger, unable to eat

a thing. That's a that's a tough thing to describe. You've been in

fear, you've been peril, and you haven't eaten anything for two weeks.

He says, Now eat and be nourished, for all of you will come

through this ordeal without a scratch. Eat and be nourished. Then Paul took

bread and gave thanks to God in front of them, and he broke it

and he began to eat. And there were two hundred and seventy six people

who ate until they were filled and were strengthened and encouraged. But I'm telling

you, when you eat the communion that you've been invited to, you will

be strengthened, you will be encouraged, and you will be fulfilled. The

new King James says it this way. It says, therefore, I urge

you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival. Since not a

hair will fall from your head for anyone. Come on, I urge you

to take nourishment. Remember when the Angel Lord visited Elijah under the broom tree,

and the Angel brought Elijah food, and the Angel said to him,

So the journey ahead of you is too long without this nourishment. Can I

just tell you today that the journey ahead of all of us is too long

without the communion table a part of your life every day. I can't survive

in the real world of the situations I deal with every day if I haven't

partaken of the Lord's table. I'm convinced that the act of communion, the

receiving of the Lord's body and of his blood, is why a lot of

really good things have happened in my life, because the Angel of the Lord

protects me. Make sure that I'm thinking clearly. Who want to urge you

today that as you received communion, that maybe we ask God to forgive us

for some of the tackle that we've jettisoned. As the Lord. I'd like

to take some of that back. I want to walk in your favor.

I want to do the things that that I know I should be doing because

God, I need your nourishment. I don't need to reduce my load,

need to increase my relationship with him. I don't need to reduce my load.

I need to increase my communion with him. I need more of Him,

not less of him. I need more of Jesus, not less.

I need more of his word, not less. I need more worship,

not less. I need more of all that He has for me, not

less of him. When would you stand with me this morning if you didn't

receive your communion elements when you walked in this morning. We have those at

the front. They're going to walk through as well with some And this morning,

as you receive communion, my prayer is that you will be strengthened and

encouraged and filled, because without this communion, the journey ahead of you is

too long. So today as we receive it, we're gonna receive it to

be full, completely filled with His presence, filled with His anointing. As

we receive the body of Jesus, be filled with healing, be filled with

deliverance, be filled with purpose. He won't be filled with all that Jesus

has for you. Lord, we thank you for your body, hold it

up high. We thank you for your body. We thank you for what

you did for us. Jesus. We thank you for your call on our

lives. We thank you for this broken body, and because of your broken

body, our bodies our whole, and we praise you for that. Let's

receive it this morning. Would you take the cup and lifted a pie.

We acknowledge the blood of Jesus to be the highest authority on the earth.

The Bible says that the government shall be upon his shoulders. He is the

highest authority. It doesn't matter what you're going through. Let him be your

high authority. It doesn't matter what things have come against you. I'm here

to tell you he's your highest authority. He cancels out every negative thought that

you have. He cancels out every negative word that people have said over you.

He cancels out everything that has been in your past that was abuse.

Jesus says you are loved. He says you'll fulfilled. Come on. He

doesn't call you an attic. He says you are free. He doesn't call

you a sinner. He says you're saved. Come on. He doesn't say

you're sick. You are healed. Thank you Jesus, as you receive this

cup today, allow the DNA of the Holy Spirit to change your life.

His blood will change you forever. And as you receive it, dream deeply,

eat well, be fulfilled. Father. We thank you for the blood

of Jesus. We thank you Lord, and we all age you as the

highest authority over our lives over this world. Can we give you praise for

it today in Jesus name. Come on, receive it this morning. Come

on, just begin to praise him right where you're at. Thank him for

what he's done for you this morning. Thank him for reminding you of some

things that maybe you've you've put aside, and you said, Lord, I

want that back. I want to do that thing. I want to be

in your annointee. I want to be in the things that you've called me

to duca. Thank you Jesus for all that you're doing for us. Thank

you Jesus for your word. Thank you Lord for your blood. Thank you

Jesus for your body. Thank you Jesus for an invitation to the table of

communion. Thank you Lord, Thank you Jesus for having authority over all of

our homes. We spear the blood post with your blood, and we say,

Satan, you cannot enter our homes. You cannot touch our families.

You cannot. We take authority over every attack of the enemy, over our

homes, over our lives, over our offices, over every situation. Hey,

Lord, today we declare who we are, a marked people walking with

the mark of the blood of your son Jesus on us. Thank you Lord,

Thank you Jesus. Can you can you just give him a shout of

praise us when he's so worthy? Oh, we give you praise Lord.

If we thank you Jesus for what you've done for us, We thank you

Jesus. You alone are worthy. You alone are worthy of our worship.

You alone are worthy. God. Oh we praise you this morning. God,

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, Thank you Jesus.

Just before we close, I just want to give an opportunity. If you

came in here this morning and you don't know him, or maybe you've not

been walking with him as close as you should have, if you'll just slip

your hand up, we want to pray with you. I don't want you

to leave here the same as you came in. Come on, church.

People are raising their hands across this building. He's here to touch us this

morning. We came here to worship him. Some of us may have come

here because it's just what we do on Sunday. But I'm telling you,

don't let this be an ordinary day in your life. Jesus, We thank

you. We thank you for your touch God, thank you for your forgiveness.

Come on, just pray with me this morning. Let's repeat after me.

Father, I thank you for the blood of Jesus. Thank you for

the body of Jesus. I thank you for your healing. I thank you

for your wholeness, and thank you for your salvation. I thank you Father

that today I am made whole, that today I don't leave this place the

same as I came in. I thank you for that in Jesus name.

Come on, let's give me one more shout of praise this morning. Lord

You're worthy, Lord, You're worthy. Lord You're worthy. Lord, You're

worthy. Hallelujah. Thank you Jesus, Thank you Jesus.