Warnings from History (Jake Enns)

And worship together in the House of the Lord.

It doesn't seem to matter. Wherever we go, we run into

warning signs, whether it's by the beach telling us not to go

into the water or to be careful or you buy something in the

store and there's there's warning labels, not what not to

do with the product that you just bought.

There's warning signs that seem to be everywhere, and they're in

the Bible. There are warning signs in

Scripture that we do well to heed.

Our title this morning is warnings from history, and the

Bible has many warnings, right? Early on in Genesis, God warned

Adam and Eve what not to do. And we find Abraham and Isaac

and Jacob, They had all these, all these warnings in Scripture

warnings kind of sound drab or negative.

They don't have to be. Actually, we're glad when

there's a warning about something we shouldn't be doing.

But with the warning, there also comes responsibility to heed the

warning. But what if he can't?

What if you're stuck? What if you're a person who

can't heed warnings? And we'll go into that this

morning a little bit. There's a verse in First Second

2 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

Corinthians, chapter 3. The apostle Paul writes after,

wrote First Corinthians. He wrote this letter and I don't

have anything in between. But he says now the Lord is the

Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord

is, there is freedom. Only free people are able and

capable to heed warnings. Think of it this way, maybe you

have gone to the doctor and the doctor said, OK, you better stop

doing this or you're not going to get better.

Well, I can't stop that. Or maybe maybe it's a health

issue in the doctors, you better start doing this or this may be

it for you. Well, I can't start that because

we feel confined, restricted and bound in a certain lifestyle

choice we may have made and we can't.

And those are physical, material things and there's nothing maybe

salvation focused on that at all.

Perhaps maybe what you eat, that's maybe what you do

exercise wise. But there's things in the Bible

that talk about that have eternal consequences if we don't

heed those warnings. And that's what we want to focus

on this morning. Jesus did say in the Gospels, if

the sun sets you free, you'll be free indeed.

Free for what? Free to do as we ought.

We do what we do. We need to become free, free to

serve, free to give, free to love, free to deny ourselves.

We've heard about that in the last number of sermons in the

First Corinthians. Currently we are going to the

First Corinthians and this was written in response to some of

the problems that were going on. Lots of challenges in Corinth.

In today's passage, we will look at how Paul goes back in history

to draw a lesson from the people of Israel and their experience

when they were set free from slavery under Pharaoh, king of

Egypt, and how that history connected with the church in

Corinth in Paul's day. And I want to suggest to you

this morning, it connects to LDMC and to each one of us.

Personally, I want to point out that both the story of the

people of Israel, the Exodus, the desert experience, and the

letter to Paul in Corinth that all combines, we're part of the

same thread. There's an unbroken, continuous

thread through it all. Often times, freedom is very

much misunderstood. You see, Satan does not mind if

he can get people to believe they're free.

Maybe physical freedom or political freedom or financial

freedom, or any one of those freedoms.

Oh, great. Satan does not mind those as

long as he can hold the wheel, as long as he can be the guiding

force, because then he just directs it into even more

sinister, more darkness, more evil, whatever you want to call

it. And we, as long as we keep

missing the mark, he doesn't care for free, so to speak, as

long as we're and spiritual bondage to him.

The people of Israel are a very clear example of a very bad and

very sinful use of their freedom.

They've been set free. That was correct.

Pharaoh had let them go. They were out of the land of

Egypt. But then what they choose to do

with the freedom, well, that's another story.

That's what we want to look at today.

And we want to connect with our time today and reflect in our

own lives. How is it connected?

Sometimes to get a good definition of something, it's

good to look at what it's not. Freedom is not the absence of

rules. Freedom is not the release from

consequences for breaking the rules.

Freedom, rather, is deciding to live and act responsibly.

And freedom is putting God and others higher than self.

You ever thought of it this way? Free to deny self, free to

sacrifice, free to give, free to be generous, free to be honest,

free to be transparent. Or are we bound?

Well, I gotta hide this. Can't say that, can't do this.

What kind of life are we living? Some people have the idea that

they want freedom, but they have no idea what they're seeking.

A little word picture that that comes to my mind would be, for

instance, a kite. And you know how kites work.

You have a kite and you put a long string on there and you

lease it into the air and then it goes up, up, up, up to

hundreds of feet and this and the string holds it.

Now imagine if the kite was alive.

Imagine if the kite had a mind of its own, was thinking, boy,

finally could get rid of this string.

I could go miles, I could fly very high.

And you would think, how foolish is that?

It's the string that holds the kite that gives it's freedom to

fly. It's the boundaries that make it

able to fly. This string is not hindering the

kite. This string is enabling the

kite. It's because there are

boundaries that freedom exists. Kites with no strings don't fly.

And that's how boundaries in life work.

And God said the people of Israel free from the land of

Egypt, not for the purpose to do whatever you jolly well please,

but so you can be free to obey me, to obey him.

It's a process that takes time. It's challenging.

Often in life it happens that once restrictions are removed, a

person very quickly derails their life.

And the reason for that is because they were maybe

outwardly free, but not inwardly free.

Inwardly they were slaves. As ever, nothing in this temp,

in this life that's temporary, that does for here and now, will

bring true and lasting freedom. It's not money, it's not jobs,

it's not stuff, no reputation, not even loosening of the

restrictions. And sure, it's frustrating when

life doesn't work out, but that's not what we're talking

about. Yes, life throws us curve balls

and we think, well, no, I'm not free has nothing to do with

that. You see, most often it's not

what seems to us as as the problem.

That's not, in fact, the real problem.

The problem is not necessarily the problem.

When we experience something, an event that doesn't work out, the

biggest problems usually first and foremost react negatively.

We react to the problem. We'll get to 1st Corinthians in

a second here, but let me use a familiar story to illustrate

this. And this is a Bible story, the

story of Joseph. You know, he was hated by his

brothers. Dad loved him more than the rest

of the guys. And so that was a problem.

His brothers grabbed him one day, stripped off his coat of

many colors, threw him into an empty cistern.

That was a problem. The same day some Ishmaelites, a

caravan of Ishmaelites come travelling by with their camels

and hey, let's sell our sell our brother.

They sold him to the merchants and he was gone.

That was a problem. They took him to Egypt where he

sold as a slave to Potiphar's to for the captain of the guard and

now he was a slave serving the serving the captain and that was

a problem. He worked for Potiphar and he

was a handsome looking man and his wife noticed and she had she

lusted after him, wanted to seduce him.

That was a problem. And Joseph says how can I do

this great wickedness, sin against God?

He refused. She continues to pressure him

and one day she grabs him and he runs away and she accuses him to

her husband of doing the thing that she wanted him to do.

That was a problem. He's put in prison and in prison

he was put in charge of the prison, but eventually he was

forgotten in prison for two whole years.

And that was a problem. In the story, in this, you can

find this, Genesis 37 and onward.

All the problems Joseph faced, God was with him in each one of

them. But from God's standpoint, they

were not problems. They were, we could call

education, they were college or they were courses, they were,

they were training. That's what they were.

There were classes for him to become the man God had intended

him to be. On the other hand, his brothers

at home, who would have seen. Yeah, free.

They just lied to the dad about Joseph, dipped the the robe in

blood. Yeah.

Look, this is your. Is this your son's clothes?

I guess it is. So he's torn to pieces.

Jacob says. OK.

And then no. Out of sight, out of mind.

No, I won't go into the story of Joseph's brothers, but we do

know they were stricken. They were guilty.

They had no freedom, none whatsoever.

And when Jacob, the old man died, Joseph's brothers come to

him and says, you know we're your servants.

They, they talk among themselves.

Will he now take revenge on us? They never were free from the

day they sold him. Joseph was free all the time.

Joseph never was a prisoner. He was prisoner physically, but

not spiritually. All the problems Joseph faced,

he used a stepping stone to shape and mold his life to

become the man God wanted him to be.

This morning in First Corinthians we come to a passage

where Paul talks about the story of the Israelites coming out of

Egypt and how that all panned out wasn't very good.

In today's passage we will see how Paul warned the Corinthians

that just because God's people have been given physical

freedom, that freedom is not an indicator of spiritual freedom.

It would be revealed how they lived and did it ever.

They were very much in bondage to them.

Let's read First Corinthians chapter 10 and beginning verse

1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

one to the end of 13. For I do not want you to be

unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the

cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized

into Moses in the cloud, in the sea, and all ate the same

spiritual food. All drank the same spiritual

drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed

them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them

God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the

wilderness. Now these things took place as

examples for us, that we may not desire evil as they did.

Do not be idolaters, as some of them were, As it is written that

people sat down to eat and drink and rose to play.

We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did

and 23,000 felt in a single day. We must not put Christ to the

test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor

grumble, as some of them did and they were destroyed by the

destroyer. Now these things happen to them

as an example, but they were written down for our

instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he

fall. No temptation has overtaken you,

but that is, that is not common to man.

God is faithful and He will not let you be tempted beyond your

ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of

escape that you may be able to endure it.

In Paul's writing to the Church of Corinth, he frequently

mentions the word immorality and idolatry and so on.

And it's because that's what that city was rife with.

That city was just saturated and marinated with that.

And in this environment, Paul had planted a church.

And so it was stands to reason why that was a challenge.

The people had been set free from the in the Book of Exodus

that was set free, but they were still enslaved.

And so Paul now draws the parallel.

He draws the parallel from the people in Egypt that had come

out of Egypt and we're in the desert.

But that doesn't mean now they could throw all warning and all

restraint off. And what the people in in Egypt

experience, Well, the Israelites in the desert experience, Paul

draws the comparison and what's happening to them.

The truth of the matter is, whatever it is that we do when

we have freedom, that is the benchmark of our character.

When restraints are gone and you're not free to do with

nobody looking over your shoulder, or you're not free to

make decisions, decisions that you would make when there's no

consequences or you think there's no consequences.

That's the real me. That's the real you.

But just imagine the feeling. Let's put ourselves back into

Israel's shoes for just for a second.

Imagine the feeling. Years and years and years,

decades and centuries go by. Every morning the slaves go out

to work and get beaten and get pushed and oppressed.

Oh, they had lots to eat. But then one morning they're

free. No more kings and taskmasters to

bully them and oppress them. They're free, finally free.

You would think that this is so special, so precious, so sacred.

Under no circumstances ever will we argue, complain or whine ever

again. Disrespect God.

Anyway, God has seen us through. We're not going to be

worshipping God forever, right? No, someone put it this way.

Years ago. They had been taken out of

Egypt, but Egypt had not been taken out of them.

And that was true. If the people of Israel thought

that getting out of Egypt was crossing the finish line, they

would learn later on it was leaving the starting line.

They had no idea of how far they still had to go in order to

understand God, to learn to fear God and obey His commandments.

They were not truly free inside. Yet.

As I said, when a person's free to make decisions for

themselves, what they do is a true revelation of what's in the

heart. And did it ever show?

So the first point we want to look at this morning is a

relationship with God is more than spiritual blessings of

outward freedom. The people of Israel had

experienced God in a number of ways.

God had freedom physically. God had then parted the Red Sea

for them to get to walk through on dry ground.

They got hungry. God provided water and food for

them. God gave them his laws on the

mountain. We may question why then did

they rebel and complain and worship idols and give

themselves to immorality? Simple.

They lived out what was in the hearts.

They'd been set free. But we're not free spiritually

in their hearts. They did not have a relationship

with God. Spiritual freedom is

relationship based. And of course there are rules as

there are rules to every relationship.

But the rules in a relationship are not for the sake of putting

a person on a leash or restraint as as a direction guidance.

Paul reminds his readers in Corinth that as far as the

Israelites being set free from slavery in Egypt, that did not

automatically put change them on the inside.

They had been set free outwardly, but inwardly they

were still slaves to sin. They all experienced the same

blessings, Paul writes, all the same experiences.

No one would have detected that as they trudged out of Egypt

towards the Red Sea. Nobody would have seen any

difference. And so we have to admit material

blessings in this life are not an indicator of being saved or

being in God's favour or being in a relationship with God.

There are some very successful, immoral, idolatrous people in

this world. There's some very devote and

sincere Saints of God in this world who don't experience any

physical blessing hardly, and may even be killed for their

faith. God provides earthly blessings,

material blessings according to His grace.

He's materially generous to people according to his grace.

It's not all based on are the believers or not.

Otherwise our country would be poor by now.

Some poor countries might be rich by now.

Jesus does say in Matthew chapter 545, he says for he

makes his sunrise on the evil and on the good and sends rain

on the unjust and the and the just and the unjust.

We can't use that as a standard. Oh boy, he must be a real good

Christian because he's really rich or must be a very bad

Christian. He's really poor has nothing to

do with that. Now granted, people who make who

have good jobs and are are frugal, they will earn they will

they will have a better income. That's true, but that's not the

benchmark from which we measure people.

When God set the people of Israel free, he set the whole

nation free from bondage to Pharaoh and the word all is used

in this passage five times. All were under the cloud,

benefited from the from the guiding, the guiding light at

night, and the guiding of the cloud.

All benefited. All passed to the Red Sea,

symbolizing identification with Moses.

All were baptized into Moses, so to speak, identified with his

cause. All ate the same spiritual food.

All went to the same church, we could say all received the same

instructions, all the same teachings, all drink the same

spiritual food, the spiritual rock that represents Christ.

From God's standpoint, they were supposed to trust God to be

taken care of. They had physical needs, sure,

but God promised them to bring them safely to the land of

Canaan and they needed to completely trust Him.

But instead, they repeatedly allowed circumstances and

temptations to get the better of them.

Now, we're exempt from that, right?

We never do that, right? How often don't we?

We're no better than they are. Let's look at a few incidents in

Exodus, right after the crossing.

They had just finished crossing. Well, the first they complained

before they got into the water and into the sea.

Actually, they complained to Mose.

Why have you done this? Now we're going to get killed by

Pharaoh. And you, you shouldn't have done

this. Moses prays and lifts his rod up

to God. And they see parts and they walk

through. And then they have a great song.

They sing three days later. Only three days later they get

thirsty. Of course, there's no water.

And finally they find water. OK, now we have water.

And they come to Mara and they can't drink the water because

it's bitter. And then they complain.

It says in Exodus 15 verse 24, it says and the people grumbled

Exodus 15:24

against Moses saying what shall we do?

This was less than a week or so after they went through the Red

Sea like three days after the out.

Maybe it's less than a week. It's I don't know how many days,

but it's very, very short time. They've forgotten already while

then Moses, Christ to God, he prays to God, God chose him.

A log he throws in the water. Water becomes sweet and they

learned their lesson right. No, they start out from there

and all the congregation if Israel comes to the wilderness

of sin, it says in chapter 16 was Exodus and Exodus and this

is now quite some time again. Well, not it's actually only a

number of weeks. It says on this on the 5th and

Exodus 6 verse one to four, it says on the 15th day of the

second month, month and a half. Here's here's what's happening.

And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumble

against Moses and air in the wilderness.

And the people said to them, would that we had died by the

hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat

pots and ate bread to the full. For you've brought us out in

this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I'm about to rain bread

from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and

gather at his portion every day, that I may test them, whether

they will walk in my law or not. They had left Egypt, experienced

miraculous deliverance, first from the king, then the Red Sea,

then the waters at Meribah, and now they complain again.

How often do you have to repeat the same course to pass the

course? Now?

They would have learned, right? No, we and I won't go into all

the details, but we know that they built an idol, actually

literally built a golden calf and worshipped it.

Unbelievable what those people did.

Let's go look again at 1st Corinthians 10 where Paul says,

I do not want you to be unaware. He says and he he gives that

whole, that whole detail of what happened.

Let let's be honest with ourselves.

What is it in our hearts that trips us up?

It's not the circumstances that trip us up.

It's a response to the circumstances that trip us up.

And I will say it this way. Without repentance, there is no

true freedom. And that's where they were

lacking. The path to freedom from slavery

to sin is always through repentance.

There are no exceptions. And they learned that the hard

way. And a journey that should have

taken them only a matter of weeks from Egypt to Canaan

lasted 40 years. The testings they faced, the

trials they they they met, they were not the problem.

In a sense they were issues to deal with, yes, but there were

opportunities to self examine, to reflect, to evaluate how they

were doing in relation to God. That never crossed their minds.

They only thought, hey you Moses, we've got a problem with

you. It's your fault.

We deny you do something about it.

Blaming him, everything except themselves.

When sin came knocking, they sure very quickly fell, fell in

defeat. So we must remember a

relationship with God is more than spiritual blessing.

Come out with freedom. But second, spiritual blessings

do not protect us from consequences for willful

indulging in sin. Some people have the idea that

when things are good, God must be happy with him.

When things are not good, now God must be angry.

That is not the case. Then he would have been very

angry with Joseph and OK with the brothers because nothing

happened to them for the longest time.

But even though God may be gracious, our sins do not give

us a free pass. We have to repent of them.

Many people reap the consequences of their sins and

they never repent. Others repent, but the fruits

still follow. Actions still may come.

Jesus died for a sins on the cross, so you and I will not be

judged when we repent and come to him.

The sins are all paid for, but we may still reap the

consequences. And there's a story that tells

us what happened to Moses. And the one case, and I'll just

briefly mention this, he got angry at the people because God

told him, go talk to the rock and it'll produce water and

they'll stop there complaining. Moses gets so mad, why must I

put up with you rabbles? He hits the rock, the rock

produces water, and God says to Moses, uh oh, you ain't going in

either. And Moses did not go in either.

We know Moses isn't heaven with God.

We have the stories. But Moses himself forfeited his

opportunity to go into the land of Canaan simply because of the

way he responded. God says you refused to honor me

before the nation. These people had some deep, deep

seated problems they need to deal with.

Somebody wants to put it this way.

The hard thing to do and the right thing to do are usually

the same thing. The easy thing to do and the

wrong thing to do are also usually the same thing.

Think about that for a second. We don't like that.

We want the easy thing to do the right thing and the hard thing

to do the wrong thing. That's how we would like it, but

that's not what we want. One of my favorite authors is CS

Lewis and he wrote a fictional book called The Screw Tape

Letters. It's somewhat a satirical

fictional story and how 2 demons have the conversation between

themselves. One's name is Screw Tape, he's

the uncle and Wormwood's the nephew and it's the setting is

the in the 1940s, World War 2 era.

That's the setting of the story in the book.

The war has started in Europe and it's World War 2 and Uncle

Screw Tape is trying to get Wormwood to deal with the

patient, the man they're trying to to destroy deal with him

properly so that it works. I'll just read a few pieces from

that this morning. And so screw tape is not is

very, very worried about uncle and nephew Wormwood.

He's going to mess it all up. And let me just read this.

Screw tape writes to Wormwood. He says, I know it seems strange

that your chief aim at the moment should be the very same

thing for which the man, the patients lover and his mother

are praying for, namely his bodily safety.

But so it is. You should be guarding him like

the apple of your eye, Screw Tip's worm.

But don't let him die. Don't let harm come to him.

He we don't have him yet. He's not ours yet, in other

words. And Screw Tip continues his He

says if he dies now, you lose him.

If he survives the war, World War 2, there's always hope.

The enemy mean the Holy Spirit has guarded him from you through

the 1st great wave of temptation.

But if only he can be kept alive, you have time for itself

as your ally. He goes on.

He says the long, dull, monotonous years of middle age

prosperity or middle age adversity are excellent

campaigning weather. You see, it's so hard for these

creatures, people to persevere. The routine of adversity, the

gradual decay of youthful loves and youthful hopes, the quiet

despair hardly felt, this pain of ever overcoming, the chronic

temptations with which we have again and again defeated them,

the drabness which we create in their lives, the inarticulate

resentment with which we teach them to respond to it all.

All this provides Admiral opportunities for wearing out of

soul by attrition, erosion and slow destruction.

He continues on, he says. If, on the other hand, the

middle years prove prosperous, our positions even stronger.

Prosperity knits a man to the world.

He feels that he's finding his place in it, while really the

world is finding its place in him.

His increasing reputation, his widening circle of

acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure

of absorbing and agreeable work build upon him a sense of being

really at home and on earth, which is just what we want.

You will notice that the young generation is usually more

willing to die than the old. So far of his reading.

I've read that part many times, numerous times, and I can't help

but always reflect on it. Isn't that the objective of many

people, even those who go to church?

That's the objective in life, An easy life, convenient, safe,

secure. What's that different than the

people of Israel were hoping for?

What's that different? See, the pathway out of Egypt

was their exodus to freedom. And it was, but they botched it.

You know the stories. The sad part isn't the world

today in the church? Some people are part of the

church and never become free. Just because we sit in a Pew on

Sunday morning does not mean we're saved or walking in

victory. I know it sounds scary, but

people think they're free when in actuality, not really.

The world has found its place in them.

Or they made a confession. They got baptized, are a good

standing member, just window dressing people of Israel proved

it. And in Corinth the same problem

existed, it says in verse 5. Nevertheless, with most of them

God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the

wilderness as Paul writes. This story is not some

disconnected faraway story from the past.

It's history and relevant for the Corinthians, relevant for me

and you today. So we've seen that, number one,

a relationship with God is more than spiritual blessings of

outward freedom. Spiritual blessings do not

protect us from the consequences for willful indulging of sin.

And #3 without a relationship with God, we remain under God's

judgement. We cannot have it both ways, no

matter our standing, our position, all of that.

We can be as lost as an unbeliever if we don't have a

relationship with God, if we're rejecting Him.

Throughout the New Testament, we find that God wants

relationships with His people through Jesus Christ.

It's only as we get to know Jesus, repent of our sins,

surrender to Him, allow Him to be Lord of our lives that we

walk in freedom and get out from under the judgment of God.

You see these people, the Israelites, they were low on

faith and high on worry, low on thankfulness and high on

complaining, low on worship towards God, but high on idol

worship. Idol worship is anything we put

above God, anything that we put before God.

Worship is, is when we surrender to God, when we get together as

a body, when we devote our time to God.

And remember, Paul wrote this letter to a church.

It was planted in a very corrupt and immoral place.

They were had a reputation for being immoral and corrupt when

the people of Israel had been rescued out of Egypt.

They still have the trappings of Egypt in their hearts.

They were they were not quote UN quote free in the in the

spiritual sense. Paul saw the same thing in

Corinth. That's why he used the

illustration God judged the nation of Israel.

Paul saying be careful, take warning from that.

And he says anyone who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall.

To let our guards down to become complacent is very dangerous.

These people could not resist temptation.

They could not get over it and so they fell one after another

after another after another, till finally the whole nation,

21, age 21 or older, except two men all died in the desert.

The costume Paul says in verse 13, no temptation is overtaking

you. That's not common to man.

If it's pride, it's common. If it's moral, it's common.

If it's idol worship, it's common.

If it's money or stuff, it's common.

We must learn to trust Christ to trust in God and rely on him to

overcome. God did not create us to be

victims of defeat. Paul writes a different place

that in Christ for more than conquerors.

God did not create us create us. His image bears in this world to

fear and falter and walk in slavery.

And yet the truth is so many people live in defeat and

failure. In verse 13 Paul writes he says

God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted

beyond what you beyond your ability, but with the temptation

also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure

it. You see, we don't have to fear a

Red Sea in front of us. We don't have to worry about the

waters of Mera. We don't have to worry about the

things that we lack. We don't have to fear when we

face hard times. We're free to flee from

immorality. Just if Joseph did, that's sure

it cost him, but we don't have to give in to idol worship.

The children of Israel had their struggles.

The people Corinth had their struggles.

We at OEMC have our struggles. Who do we follow when we repent

of our sins? We believe the gospel of Jesus,

put our faith and trust, and we're born into His Kingdom.

Then let's walk in freedom. This morning we again want to

celebrate communion. We want to celebrate what the

Lord Jesus did to make this possible, what the Lord Jesus

did on the cross when he died and shed his blood so we could

be free. This freedom was bought at a

huge cost, a huge price. We must value it, we must

receive it, and we must live it. The stories of God's people in

the past are for us to remember, for us to learn from, and for us

to apply the principles of those stories to our lives.

They truly are a warning from history.

When Jesus was ready to lay down his life as a sacrifice for the

sins, he had one final supper with his disciples.

He taught them this important lesson on the last even before

he was arrested. And he distributed the elements,

the bread and the juice or the wine for them.

And he claimed it as the new covenant under which all of us

now receive our freedom, our salvation, and our relationship.

Let's pray before we go into communion.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for this morning, for your scripture, for

the words you have for us. Lord, I pray that as we move on

from here, as we celebrate communion, that our hearts would

be deeply touched with by your grace, and we would experience

what it means to walk with you. Jesus, thank you again for this

morning and joining me pray. Amen.