Communion

This podcast of the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

Helping people know enjoying Grant.

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Father, we've come today to get our head around what it means to be loved by God and to be the beloved of God.

And so we rest in the fact that you're a good father.

And so we don't want to be uh we don't want to labor under the illusion that we have to be perfect, but we want to be good sons and daughters that reflect the sufficiency, the glory, the rightness, and the goodness uh uh of our dad.

And so, Lord, uh, let today uh increase our capacity to do that.

We pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You can have a seat.

Uh, let me just by way of explanation, if you're visiting today, or if you've been a few times here at Grand Park, you've never been here when we observe communion, that's what we are doing today.

Uh and so you'll get some instructions about that in just a minute.

But let me say off the top, we practice open communion, which means if you're a Christian, you have a relationship with God, uh, that you're welcome to receive communion with us today.

Uh, if you're not yet there, if you don't have a relationship with Christ, we encourage you just to kind of observe.

You're just saying we do it in the context of worship.

Uh uh, but but I want to give you three words that are this is what we've come to to celebrate and to acknowledge today.

We've come to celebrate and acknowledge our inability, God's ability, and also God's willingness.

Let me say that again.

Our inability, God's ability, and God's willingness.

And then I'm gonna read a passage of scripture from Ephesians chapter two, just to kind of frame our minds around this.

You said, What do what do I mean when I say our inability?

I sent you an email yesterday, uh, and in the email I referenced the national debt, and one of my friends texted me and said, What's this got to do with tomorrow?

Uh and I was like, Thank you for your support.

I did not know this, but there's a national debt clock.

You can go to this website and it just scrolls and it shows you how much the national debt goes up on a daily basis, and I'm like, I could not live with that pressure.

Uh but as of yesterday, the national debt was$20.1 trillion.

That is 20 with 12 zeros behind it, okay?

That just blew my mind, and the thing just keeps rolling up every day.

We rack up more and more and more debt.

I mean, who does that?

Who can live with that?

Apparently, our country can.

Uh, but anyway, uh, you say, why do you tell us that?

Because if you had$20 trillion and you gave it to God, it would not change your status or standing before God one iota.

We're that incapable, we're that inable of doing anything.

The Bible says that we're born dead in our trespasses and sins, so we can't do anything to effect a change in our lives.

All we can do is become more frustrated and more depressed and more sad about the separation that we naturally incur is being born people who are separated from God by our sinful nature and our sinful choices.

That's the first thing we've come to celebrate.

So when you come to one of these stations, there's three in the front and there's two in the back.

When we start receiving later on in our service, you go to one of these stations, what you're confessing is I am in, I am incapable.

Uh I the only way I can do this is because of the life, the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus.

That's my only hope.

Uh we're also here, our inability, but we're also here to celebrate and recognize God's ability.

He has the capacity.

Uh the Bible says that God's rich in mercy and he makes us alive.

And so the Bible doesn't have categories of good and bad.

Uh the Bible has categories of dead and alive.

And so being a Christian is not being good.

It's about, I used to be dead, but God made me alive, okay?

He has that capacity to take the heart of stone and turn it into a heart of flesh.

But the last thing I want to draw your attention to before we read the passage is that God has not just that, we have our inability, God's ability, but God's willingness.

Uh, there's not a higher form of cruelty than this, to be able to do something and choose not to.

Now, let me say that again.

There's not a higher form of cruelty than to be able to do something and choose not to.

And if you have children, you you understand this.

Because your kids have asked you for something before and you've said no.

And and and and they they're like, well, why?

Because you could do that, and you say something parental like, yeah, but I just don't want to.

Or it's a no this time, okay?

You need to learn with a no.

And every once in a while, our kids get so frustrated because they cannot compute.

You have the capacity, you have the ability, and yet you're not willing.

And so sometimes they point out things like, I hate you.

And you're like, Well, thanks for the affirmation.

No one can ever say that to God because he has the ability, but he also has the willingness.

And so anything you do in this life is not gonna make God more willing.

He went on the record before you got here as a statement of his willingness.

The Bible says, but God has demonstrated his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

So before we ever got here, before we showed up, God said, I'm gonna make the first move.

But if you're not careful, you'll relate to people based on this thing like just this is my confession of the week.

Just yesterday or last night, I texted my daughter, who's a freshman off at college, and I said, Hey, you do anything this weekend?

No response.

And so, my first thought, this in a nanosecond, this went through my mind.

Hey, you know how much your mom and dad are paying for you to be there?

And so an hour later, I broke her off another text, and she wrote me back, Dad, I'm with my gal pals.

You need something?

I need you to recognize who this is when you say dad.

And I went, Oh, I didn't want to interrupt.

Okay, later.

I had the very unchrist-like response because I thought, you know how much this is costing me?

For you to hang out with, to make new gal pals to hang out with?

Who are these gal pals?

I gotta drive the way go look into this.

And so I sat there in my chair in the corner of my bedroom, watching my TV, watching the Gonzaga basketball game, laughing at myself because the Holy Spirit said, I don't respond that way to my children.

I never throw up how much it costs in your face.

Well, I wasn't really thinking that.

That was just the devil tempting me to think that.

No, he's willing.

He's not just able, but he's willing.

The Bible says it like this in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1.

Ephesians 2:1

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is not work and the sons of disobedience.

Let me just point out one thing.

Uh, when the Bible talks about us before we came to Christ, it's singular in the pronoun.

You, you.

But when it refers to you after you come to Christ, it's always plural.

He says, You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is not work, and the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing, it is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

As we prepare to come to the table, the Bible just kind of reminds us, hey, we did not do anything to initiate this.

This was not our idea, this was God's idea.

This is his gift that he gives us.

We're no longer just a you.

We're part of the we and the us and the our.

That's why we do this communal act as a faith community.

The Bible not only tells us uh uh uh this about ourselves, but it tells us how to approach this.

Jesus is observing Passover with his disciples, and which, by the way, what we call communion didn't start in the New Testament.

It started way back at the very beginning in Exodus, and when one of the plagues that God sent on Pharaoh to demonstrate that God was all-powerful and God was sovereign, not a man, is he sent the death angel.

He's gonna kill all the firstborn of man and beast.

And he told his people, he said, If you have faith in me, sacrifice a lamb and apply the blood of the lamb to the doorpost of your house, and the death angel will pass over your house.

And that's exactly what happened.

God spared these people because they had faith in the blood of the Lamb.

So when Jesus shows up at the beginning of the New Testament and John the Baptist looks up and says, Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, the little picture gets bigger.

And people begin to realize wait a minute, this is the Messiah.

Maybe this is one story that God is telling from the very beginning of in the see the gospel story.

Christianity doesn't start with Jesus died on the cross.

Christianity starts, the gospel starts with in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

And it's one big story.

And Jesus comes.

He's observing Passover with his disciples, and he says, This bread, take this bread and eat it in remembrance of me.

This is my body that is offered up for you.

Then he takes a cup of wine and he says, This cup is a new covenant in my blood.

As often as you drink this, do this in remembrance of me.

And what Jesus is doing is he is filling full with meaning and purpose this tradition they've been observing for hundreds of years, thousands of years.

And Jesus comes and kind of says, I'm the person this all pointed to.

And the Bible not only tells us that, it tells us in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul says, Hey, when you do this, here's some things you need to do.

One of the things it says, he says, hey, do not receive this.

Don't come to this in an unworthy manner.

In other words, don't just go, okay, it's communion.

I kind of got this.

No, the Bible says, hey, examine yourself.

Take some time and get your head and your heart around what you're about to do.

And when it says examine yourself, it's not now purposely feel bad.

Not at all.

Matter of fact, in just a minute, Clyde's going to sing a song over us, and there's a great line in the song.

It's a song about Jesus kind of looking out over communion.

And there's a sign in the song that says, You bring all your history, and I'll bring the bread and the wine.

And we'll have ourselves a party where all the drinks are on me.

And some of you will be like, mmm.

It's not the intent of God that you come today and like, all right, now let's feel bad for the next 45 minutes.

No, here's the intent of God that you have your mind blown over the fact.

Look at me.

Everything you've ever done, even the things that nobody knows about.

Right after the last service, a man said, Can we stop me right there and say, Can we go somewhere in confidence?

I need to tell you something in confidence.

I said, Absolutely.

We'll go to my office, close the door.

He said, Now, is this can this be kept in confidence?

Because I know where you live.

And I started reaching for my pistol.

Now I said, We're in confidence.

If I get subpoenaed, they can't make me talk.

And he's like, okay.

He tells me something.

The thing that you pray to God never comes to light.

He already knows.

And his mind cannot be changed about you.

That's what I want you to know.

So when you come to one of these stations to receive, to remember the body and the blood of Jesus, that's what you're saying.

You're saying, I'm coming to a party hosted by God who says, All this is on me.

Because just like these doves and sheep, you shall be set free.

What if that is the intent of God all along is to set you free from all the fears that no one knows anything about?

Let's take a few minutes and just kind of get our head and our heart calibrated as we prepare to receive communion today.

Let me voice a prayer.

Father, our confession is that we are enabled.

We are incapable.

So we celebrate our inability today.

Which is not something that we do in America very often.

But we celebrate that we can't do anything to pay the debt that we owe you.

We also acknowledge your ability and your willingness.

And you're not a God that thinks like I do.

How much this is costing me?

You're the God that says, hey, you never say, hey, remember the price.

You say, hey, enjoy.

And so we've come to the table today to enjoy.

That's what the Bible tells us in 1 Timothy 6.

It says that you freely provide everything for our enjoyment.

And so, Holy Spirit, lead us into the proper enjoyment and the remembrance of the body and the blood today.

And we're going to do, Father, what the Bible tells us to do, and that is to examine yourself.

And to let the song wash over us as we prepare our hearts for what we're about to do.

We pray and we listen in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Take a minute, just stay standing if you would.

We're about to be dismissed.

Just ask yourself, what do you take away from today?

Remember, he's not the father that's looking at you today, kind of communion is not about God looking down and going, I hope you know how much this has costing me.

No.

He's the father that looks down because the Bible tells us that he freely provides everything for our enjoyment.

He's the father that looks down and says, Enjoy.

What could you do today that would express your enjoyment of God?

How could you live and only explain it by saying, I'm enjoying God?

That the Bible teaches is Christianity.

So take ten seconds and ask yourself, what's my takeaway from today?

Now take ten seconds and just pray a prayer for yourself.

Just whatever's on the top of your heart, put words to it.

Father, I want to add my prayer to the prayers of my friends in this room.

Thank you that you're not a stingy, miserly Father.

You're generous, and you freely provide everything, even Jesus, for our enjoyment.

Increase our capacity to enjoy you.

That's what we were made to do.

We understand that today, and now we resolve to do it in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Before we speak a blessing over you, let me remind you of two things I want you to be aware of today by way of announcement.

Number one, today's the first day we uh open restoration for our women's retreat.

Uh it's an incredible time of just rest, your restoration.

Uh, a lot of planning and thought goes into this.

Uh, a lot of ladies go up on Thursday.

The retreat starts Friday night.

Uh, and so you're just they'll they'll give you more information in the lobby.

Uh, there's cabins, there's dorms, and then there's some hotel units.

We have just a few, not not many of those.

I would ask you to consider leaving the hotel units for some of our ladies that are older.

Uh, 36 is not older.

Can I say it like that?

I I get it.

I get it.

We do the men's retreat there too.

Uh I get it.

But we want as many people to go as can go.

And sometimes if some of us say, you know what, I'm gonna suck it up and stay in here so somebody else can have that.

It increases the number of people that get to enjoy what God's gonna do there.

Second thing I want to make you aware of uh is that we have a men's breakfast once a month, and the next one is this coming Tuesday out at the warehouse.

And so uh uh each one standalone.

Uh and so I talk for about 10, 15 minutes, about 15 minutes, and then we just have some discussion questions around the table.

You're welcome men to come and just sit and check the whole thing out.

You don't have to do anything.

Breakfast is free, starts at six, ends at seven, so you can get on to work.

It's also Valentine's Day, so I'll have some discount prices on some Valentine's cards.

I'm here to help.

Usually we I speak a blessing over you, a benediction, but in this time today we're gonna have it sung over us, so hold your hands out in peace to love and to serve let your ears ring along with what you have heard.

May the bread on your tongue leave a trail of crumbs to lead the hungry back to the place you are from, and to the world is love, open faith, to the world is rare, let it straight, like the three in one.

No, you must become you wanna say that still the way he takes to the world in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

You are dismissed, bless you, and the body.