Ancient Prayers, Present Power | Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer (Kevin Pent)

Ancient prayers present power. I hope you've been challenged

and encouraged. There's something incredible

about looking at Scripture and looking at the prayers of

Scripture and recognizing that these prayers are for us.

They're timeless, and hence the title of the sermon or the

sermon series. Ancient prayers present power,

and I just want to encourage each of us as we look at the

prayers both in the Old and New Testament, to take ownership of

these prayers because these prayers were given to us to

imbibe, if you will, to take ownership of.

And one thing I want to encourage you is when we pray

the words of Scripture, we are praying always according to the

will of God. So the more that we can pray

with Scripture and into Scripture, the more we're going

to see God do what only He can do.

And I love that the segue of that song.

And not, not I, but through Christ in me.

If you remember nothing else today, remember the truth of

those words. Nonetheless, we're going to be

looking at one of my favorite passages of Scripture yet.

I'll admit it's one of the most difficult patch passages of

Scripture for me to understand. You know, we're going to be

looking at a portion of it. We're going to be looking at.

I'd invite you to turn to John chapter 17.

John 17 · chapter mention

We'll be looking today specifically at verses 20

through 26. If you're using a Pew Bible, I

guess they're not really Pew Bibles anymore.

They're kind of like seat Bibles.

Whatever you know, it's on page 960.

But before we begin, I just want to provide a little bit of a

context to this passage. It takes takes place following

Jesus and the disciples upper room experience where they break

bread together. Judas has dipped the bread in

with Jesus, signifying that he's actually going to go out and

betray Jesus. Jesus knows this full well.

And so he takes the rest of the 11 disciples and he begins to

teach them over the course of about four or five chapters and

he reminds them of the things that he has taught them.

He reminds them that if you have seen me, you have seen the

Father. And I want to encourage you

today, if you have problem with God the Father as opposed to God

the Son, recognize this, that you need to go back to Jesus

life and teaching and recognize His own words where He says

everything that you have seen me do and everything that you have

heard me say is from the Father. If you have seen me, you have

seen the Father. And I think it's very important

for those of us who have a problem with the image of

Father. Or perhaps we've bought into

this false notion that there's the Old Testament God, He's

angry, he's mean, and then we suddenly come to the New

Testament. Jesus saves the day.

No, this is actually not the truth.

Jesus actually takes the wrath of God on himself.

There's a theological word for that.

It's called propitiation, so that we can experience without

the wrath of God, the full love of God manifest.

That's an amazing thought. So when you think of the cross

of Christ, which we'll get to a little later today, recognize

the full import of what Jesus went through, not just in terms

of his physical suffering, which which was absolutely immense,

but the spiritual suffering that he endured being sinless and

becoming sin for us. Then we come to John chapter.

So Jesus has taught his disciples he's he said, look,

abide in me. I'm the vine, you are the

branches. Unless you abide in me, you

can't bear fruit. He also warns them about the

fact that they are not of the world, just as he was not of the

world, and as the world hated Him, so they will hate of the

disciples. And he warns them of that fact

that they will be persecuted. But he also reminds them of the

secret which is found in Jesus alone, that even though Jesus is

going to ascend to the Father, he's not going to leave them as

orphans, but he is going to send what he refers to as the

counselor or the helper, the Holy Spirit who is going to

indwell the disciples. And of course that has specific

effects for us today because we who claim the name of Christ are

his disciples and have received the counselor, the Holy Spirit.

And so there is because of that there's nothing to fear.

And one of the Jesus most frequent commandments is fear,

not peace. I leave with you in spite of the

fact that there's turmoil in the world, in spite of the fact that

there's turmoil perhaps in my own family and my own

relationships and my own finances and all of these

things. Jesus says take heart for I have

overcome the World Peace. I leave with you so that in

spite of the circumstances of life, we can hold, we can hold

on to this anchor. We could anchor our hope and the

fact that Jesus is faithful to his word, and if he promises

peace, then somehow in the midst of our suffering, in the midst

of our pain, in the midst of the whirlwind, if you will, we can

find the peace and security of this that only found in Jesus.

We come to John chapter 17, and I think it's a beautiful thing

John 17 · chapter mention

that Jesus chooses to, in front of his 11 disciples, pray

directly to the Father. And he begins by praying for

himself, recognizing that he's accomplished everything that the

Father has sent him to accomplish, and that he's

glorified the Father, and he is glorified.

And then he goes on to pray for his disciples, and he prays that

they would be protected from the evil 1 He prays that they would

be rooted in love. He prays that they would be

sanctified. In other words, set apart

through His Word as being distinctly His disciples and

that they would live on mission. And then something really

amazing happens in starting in verse 20 is that Jesus prays for

us here today, sitting in the service, those of us who have

claimed the name of Jesus. Jesus is praying for us.

And that's where we begin in verse 20 of chapter 17.

I invite you to follow along as I read.

Jesus says. I pray not only for these being

his disciples there in the room with him, but also for those who

believe in me through their word.

May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in

you. May they also be in us so that

the world may believe you sent me.

I have given them the glory you have given me so that they may

be one as we are one. I am in them and You are in me,

so that they may be made completely one that the world

may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have

loved me. Father.

I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so

that they will see my glory, which you have given me because

you loved me before the world's foundation.

Righteous Father, the world has not known You.

However, I have known you, and they have known that you sent

me. I made Your name known to them

and will continue to make it known so that the love with

which you have loved me may be in them and I may be in them.

And I want to begin by making a statement that might actually

surprise some of you and might challenge some of our thinking,

especially in terms of the fact that we live in a fairly

individualistic culture. But the first thing I want to

state based upon Jesus words here is that the most powerful

witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ is not personal

testimony, but congregational unity.

The most powerful witness to the world is not your or my personal

testimony, as powerful as that can be through the Holy Spirit.

The most powerful witness to the world is the unity of the

congregation, the unity of the body of Christ.

And I'm going to talk a little more specifically about the

unity within the body of Christ locally as we know it as forward

church. But know that that also spills

out into the greater church, all those who name the name of

Jesus, the unity of the church, that is the greatest witness.

And if you look at the book of Acts, you'll notice that the the

largest growth within the church is when the community witnesses

what is happening amongst this group of ragtag disciples that

claim that Jesus rose from the dead.

That is the most significant factor.

You see, when I go out into my community by myself, I'm not the

body of Christ. I'm a member of the body of

Christ, but I'm not the body of Christ.

And that's why Jesus says we're two or three are gathered in my

name. There I am in their midst.

That doesn't mean that Jesus like abandons me when we go out

by ourselves. No, actually his Spirit indwells

us. But what he's saying is that we

are the body of Christ. And that way when we are

together as diverse as we are and we are living under the

lordship of Jesus Christ, something incredible happens.

He refers to it as oneness. We're going to kind of call it

unity because he says in verse 23, I am in them and you are in

me so that they may be made completely one that the world

may know you have sent me and have loved them as you loved me.

So the world may know when people see the unity of the body

of Christ, there is something argument.

It's, you know, argument doesn't make any difference.

When they see something that only could explain

supernaturally, that's when they begin to believe.

So I think when we talk about unity, it's important for us to

recognize what unity is not. Unity is a word that can mean

many things in many different contexts.

But first of all, unity is not uniformity, OK?

I think it's, there's, there's context in which uniformity is,

is very important. And that would be, for instance,

the army, some sort of military where, you know, the same

uniform, the same sort of disciplinary regime, the same

sort of procedure in terms of military strategy.

These are things that are highly important.

And for there to be unity, there needs to be a degree of

uniformity. But when we're talking about the

unity within the body of Christ, we're not talking about a group

of people that all look and talk and smell the same, if you will.

That's really not what we're after.

OK, So it's not uniformity. It's also not agreeing on every

matter. I think we would recognize if

you've been to a business meeting, you know, not everyone

agrees on every matter. Yet the fact is, is we can still

maintain unity even though there is some disagreement.

I mean, I think there's a beautiful picture of it in the

book of Acts where Paul and Barnabas are arguing over John

Mark. John Mark had kind of abandoned

Paul in his first missionary journey.

Paul said, I don't need someone who's not going to be

dependable. And Barnabas, being a son of

encouragement, said, look, he needs to stay with us because

he's an important part of our team.

And Paul and Barnabas had a dispute.

They ended up splitting and going their own way.

So it but but at the same time unity was maintained and we'll

kind of get to how that unity was maintained even within that

context. And then thirdly, unity is not

beige based on age, race, gender, socioeconomics, hobbies

or personal preference. And in other words, homogeneity

is not unity, OK? And I think the more diversity

that we can see within the body of Christ, or at least a

diversity that represents the community, then I think we could

say that there's something unique going on.

There's something that only God could be doing.

So it's not based upon any sort of homogeneity.

Rather, and this is kind of my big statement for unity, unity

in general is achieved amid diversity when a common purpose

and vision are kept front and center and pursued corporately.

Now, what do I mean by that? Well, let's, how many of you at

one point in your life owned a Kodak camera?

Raise your hand. A Kodak camera, OK, It kind of

betrays your age, but, you know, Yeah.

So quite a few of you owned a Kodak camera.

How many of you today own and operate a Kodak camera?

Raise your hand. I don't think I see any hands.

Now, if you did, you'd be super cool because I think that's kind

of in vogue is to kind of go retro.

But anyway, the fact of the matter is if you are say, north

of 40, you lived at a time where Kodak camera was or Kodak was

kind of synonymous for camera or film.

There was the the adage that they had, which was the Kodak

moment. I think that came about in the

1970s. And the Kodak moment was an

adage that Kodak coined, which basically said you kind of take

a frame of life and that becomes a moment, a slice of time.

And that kind of became the mantra kind of like Kleenex

becomes the, the, you know, we say, can you hand me a Kleenex?

Even if it's got tissue, right? It's one of those things that it

becomes so common. They've got in the corner on the

market. Well, what happened to Kodak

where none of you, to my knowledge, use Kodak today?

Well, Kodak lost a sense or didn't have a strong enough and

compelling enough purpose and vision so that when the camera

industry changed and became more of a digital camera industry and

eventually phone industry, they weren't able to pivot.

There were a number of reasons for that, but by and large, they

did not have a vision that drove their people to innovate

effectively. And by 2012, they declared

bankruptcy. And Kodak today is marginally

used among some corporations for printing and other such matters.

So Kodak either didn't have a strong enough vision or lost

that vision and purpose and weren't able to to kind of

navigate that. Whereas in contrast, we have a

company like Toyota. Last I checked, Toyota comprises

about 2 / 12% of the entire automobile market.

Now Toyota, Toyota has always had, has always had a philosophy

based upon, it's a Japanese word called Kaizen, which means

continuous improvement. And some of you, whether you

work for Toyota or not, probably have some knowledge or

experience with what's called the lean manufacturing or the

just in time production. And Toyota, this is their this

is their purpose and mission. It says Toyota will lead the

future mobility society, enriching lives around the world

with the safest and most responsible ways of moving

people. They're not like held to the

automobile as we know it. Even through our commitment to

quality, ceaseless innovation, and respect for the planet, we

strive to exceed expectations and be rewarded with a smile.

We will meet challenging goals by engaging the talent and

passion of people who believe there is always a better way.

So there's a large vision, but they tap into the human

resources. They're open to innovation.

And this is not to tout Toyota because I'm, I don't think

Rachel, I'm, I won't get anything for this from Seth if I

OK, because I'll keep going if I do.

Now Seth, my friend Seth Burt works for Toyota.

But anyway, all I have to say, Toyota had has had a vision for

over 50 years that has driven their automobile industry and

enabled them to navigate within the context of rapid change.

Another example is Chick-fil-A. I don't know if you've ever read

the read their mission statement.

I kind of like this. To the glory.

To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is

entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on

all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.

Wow. Our core values reflect our

purpose, which is we're here to serve, we're Better Together,

we're purpose driven, We pursue what's next.

For over 50 years, Chick-fil-A has offered quality chicken

products in an atmosphere that is hugely positive.

You've ever been in Chick-fil-A, whether it's in Florida or in

Kitchener or Cambridge. Now to, to a great extent, the

experience is very much the same.

Why? Because they've created a

culture, a culture of community, of support, of innovation with a

driven by a larger vision. Now I will say this, if I've

whetted your appetite for Chick-fil-A, I do apologize

because you'll have to wait till Monday.

Because part of their core values is opening up a day of

the week to allow their employees a day of rest and also

an opportunity to worship if they so choose.

That's part of their mission or part of their purpose.

So we can see then that having a common purpose and vision,

keeping it front and center and pursued corporately or pursued

as a community, is highly important to success.

So what does that have to do with the church?

What does that have to do with a biblical perspective?

Well, first of all, it's important for us to know that

foundational to Christian unity is love, love for God and love

for others. One of the reasons why Forward

Church has a purpose, envision statement that is making

disciples of Jesus who love God, love others and serve the world

is we know that is an eternal vision for this life and the

next. And So what we do is we make we

filter every decision what we make and we don't do this

perfectly, of course, but we filter every decision that we

make through the terms of to what extent is this program or

ministry or event, to what extent is it contributing to

making disciples of Jesus who love God, love others and serve

the world. And so it's very important for

us then to understand that as a community of faith.

It is found founded upon love, a love for God and a love for

others. But I hopefully won't want to

dive a little deeper and get a little bit more practical here

because I think it's important for us.

It's one thing to say all you need is love.

I mean, The Beatles said that they sang it beautiful song.

And it can be really meaningful or meaningless depending upon

your experience and your definition of love.

So we need to understand then what does it mean for us to

build a foundation of love where we love God and love others?

So I've as I was reading and meditating on this passage,

there are 6 fundamental elements that are essential to Christian

unity. The first one being is that we

agree on who we worship. We agree on who we worship.

In other words, the what's the object of our ultimate

affection? Now Acts 432 says that the early

church was of one mind and one heart and as a result the church

grew. What does that mean?

They had one focus in mind, both from a standpoint of the mind.

They were focused on this one vision and mission which was to

make disciples of Jesus. But furthermore, they have war

of 1 heart. And what does that mean?

That is the driving affection, the thing that moves us forward,

the thing that gets us out of bed, the thing that makes us

make daily decisions. That is what our driving

affection is. And that's what we need to ask

ourselves is what is it ultimately that is driving my

affection? Because I could quite easily say

that I love God, but what does that mean if I'm making all

these other decisions that would seem to contradict that core

value. And so we need to, it would seem

obvious that we need to agree on who we worship.

And but even churches have been faulted for this.

Probably many of you have seen the American Gospel, which is a

documentary on the prosperity gospel.

And the problem is in a very general sense is that we can see

Jesus as a means to an end. Now, the prosperity gospel is a

very obvious example where Jesus is a means to wealth and

prosperity and health. That's kind of in a nutshell,

what the prosperity gospel is about.

But it's a little bit more insidious than that when you

think in terms of what is my primary motivation for being a

follower of Christ? Is it his glory?

Is what I'm doing out of love for what Christ has done?

Is that what drives me? Am I OK not taking credit and

allowing Christ to receive all the glory?

Am I OK taking a backseat? Am I OK washing someone else's

feet as it were, and no one sees?

Am I OK making sacrifices that no one acknowledges?

Because I'm so in love with Jesus, I'm so intent on Him

receiving all the glory. The rest is inconsequential.

We as a church body can quite easily lose who it is we

worship, and we see Jesus simply as a means to an end.

Is he the ends or is he just the means?

And so #2 we need to identify and eliminate idols in our

lives. In other words, those things

which compete for our affections.

And we should do a daily heart check.

We're at where we're asking the Holy Spirit of God as we've

engaged the Scriptures to reveal areas that are robbing my

affection from Jesus. We all have them.

And usually they're more subtle than we think.

And we think we're doing really well, but if we actually

honestly ask the Holy Spirit and spent time in His Word, spend

time listening, He will reveal things.

The great thing is, is that we don't have to do penance, but we

do have to confess, confess our sins and clear those pathways so

that our worship will be uncorrupted.

Uncorrupted. Thirdly, we learn the Scriptures

by listening to them, reading them, meditating on them, and

praying them. Now this is not meant to be

complicated. What it's meant to do is it's

meant to emphasize the centrality of the Word of God in

our lives. If we are going to live a life

of faith and if we are going to live a transformative gospel

driven life, we need to listen to His Word, we need to read His

Word, we need to meditate on His Word and we need to pray His

Word. And I can assure you that if you

are doing these things, something miraculous is going to

happen. Notice verse 17 of chapter 17.

Jesus says, and it's going to back up to something we haven't

read, but He says this. He says, Father, sanctify them

by the truth. Your word is truth.

How are we set apart and made holy for His purposes by the

Word of truth when the Holy Spirit and His Word come

together in our lives and begin to transform us from the inside

out? And I noticed there I didn't put

memorize the scriptures. Why?

Well, for one, I think memorize feels like a big fat chore.

And for two, I can assure you that if you're listening to the

Word, you're reading the Word, you're meditating on the Word,

and you're praying the Word, you will memorize the Word by

default. It's probably a better approach

#4 We obey the scriptures through repentance and spirit

filled prayer and action. Let us not be guilty of being a

people that are driven by tasks. If you feel like it's your task

to go out there and be salt and light in the world and share the

gospel when given the opportunity, if that to you is a

burden and a task, then there's something missing there.

Something very important missing.

Because when you read the scriptures and you see a person

or group of people making a traumatic or making an

incredible impact upon the world around them, they're spirit

filled. They are spirit filled people.

So how do we get, how do we become filled with the Spirit as

we read the Scriptures and as the Holy Spirit brings things to

light in our lives? We confess and we repent.

We confess and we repent. And you know, he doesn't get

tired of our confessions and our repentance.

If he did, we'd be in trouble because we should be doing this

every day. And then as you confess and as

you repent, then ask him to fill you with his Holy Spirit so that

you can go out in power. But don't leave it there at home

or in your car or wherever it is that you spend that time alone

with with God. Rather come back to it and say,

God, fill me with your Spirit. Give me a heart of discernment.

Give me a heart of love. Because one of the most powerful

things that Jesus taught in these concluding chapters of

John is that he would not leave us orphans, but he would send us

the helper, the counselor, the Holy Spirit.

And so if you are in Christ, you have the Holy Spirit.

And we have to be filled with the Spirit in order to do the

things that Christ has called us to do.

We must be filled with the Holy Spirit and that is a daily,

ongoing discipline of inviting Him to have unhindered sway in

our lives #5 We practice humility, grace, and hospitality

within the body of Christ. An attitude of humility is

paramount. Consider others as more

important than yourselves. If we all live that way, that

would eliminate 3/4 of our battles.

We exercise grace. Grace is the willingness to

overlook a fault. There are simply people, through

no fault of our own or their own, who simply rankle us on the

inside. How are we going to respond to

that? Are we going to exercise grace?

Are we going to exercise love? Are we going to overlook

offences or are we going to take offence and then suddenly become

proud? And these are my rights.

So we need to approach with an attitude of humility, grace and

hospitality. And I love, I mean, hospitality

is not something that in in our culture we understand very well

in general. But what does hospitality have

to do within the body of Christ, within the local church here in

this room or wherever you are? Well, hospitality is yes it, it

is inviting people into your home, but it's more than that.

It's an attitude. It's it's an openness to invite

the stranger to become friend, to invite the stranger to become

family. I met a lady a few weeks ago

who's brand new to forward her first Sunday here, and she was

invited to sit with three sisters who have been in going

to forward church for many decades and who sit in the same

seats every week. But you know what, they get it.

They understand hospitality. They invite the stranger to

become part of the family. That in essence is hospitality.

And if we as individuals here this morning, if we took it upon

ourselves to have an attitude of hospitality, to an attitude

where we're inviting the stranger in to become part of

our space, to be loved by us, to be befriended by us, regardless

of who they are, regardless of their age, regardless of their

background. If we would simply be prayerful

about that, praying that God would send across our path at

the end of the service or at the beginning of the service,

someone that I can connect with and that I can bless, that I can

love. See, a culture of hospitality is

going to transform the church, the community, the world,

because hospitality is a lost discipline, but it is commanded

by scripture. If we all exercise hospitality,

I'm afraid we'll just disband the hospitality team because

everyone will be part of it. And then number six, we keep in

mind, or rather we keep the end in mind, manifesting our hope.

Look at verse 24. Father, I want those You have

given me to be with me where I am so that they may see my

glory, which you have given me because You loved me before the

world's foundation. You know what Jesus is saying

there? He's saying if you're in Christ,

and that would be any of us in Christ here today.

Jesus is inviting us to be in his presence in glory that

should rock our world, that should infuse our hope because

regardless of our circumstances, and I don't want to diminish

the, the difficulties that many of you are enduring right now,

but I pray that the the hope of Jesus would infuse us because

he's invited us to a seat at the table.

He's invited us to the end upper room at the end of days where

it's not going to be mournful, it's going to be celebratory.

And so how we steward our time between now and that day makes

all the difference. So let's steward it well so that

when we sit at the table with Jesus and he gives us this feast

to celebrate, we can say, I'm so glad I invested it and didn't

waste it. Let's keep the end in mind

manifesting our hope. And that's why Paul says, if

anyone, you know, be ready to give an answer to the the person

who asks you for the hope that you have.

And I think you know, he's talking not just to the

individual, he's talking to the church.

If we're for a body that's infused with hope that what we

ultimately want is to be in Jesus presence as Job did, you

know, in my flesh I will see God.

That was what kept him going. If we have that, that is going

to be such a testimony to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So inevitably disagreements will come.

So what are just some practical ways that we can keep

disagreements from undermining unity?

And just just three quick ways here.

First of all, we need to learn to communicate humbly, lovingly,

and respectfully. We may disagree strongly with

something, but you need to keep ourselves in check before we

actually begin the conversation. Are we communicating humbly?

Are we communicating lovingly? And where are we communicating

respectfully? I think it's important for us in

any sort of crucial conversation like that is to ask the Holy

Spirit to guard my heart and my mind and my mouth so that what

is said ultimately is loving. Because we can have conflict.

Conflict is inevitable, but conflict also can be loving.

And conflict causes growth. If we had no conflict, there

would be no growth. Secondly, we need to show a

willingness to concede in areas that amount to personal

preference. Everyone in this room has

different preferences in different areas of how we do

church. That's OK.

Those areas that are simply preference, we need to have a

willingness to concede. Doesn't mean we can't open up

conversations, make suggestions, or so forth, but let's not make

it a point of contention. Don't allow bitterness to root

in your heart over something that in the end really boils

down to my preference. And then thirdly, we need to

pray for and submit to spiritual authority.

Submission is a very unpopular world word rather.

And in our culture, the idea of submitting to authority in

general is looked down upon, not practiced by most people.

In fact, it's, it's a, I can't even think of the word of it

word. But, but as you go around and

you see bumper stickers and flags and so forth and so on,

that can be so hurtful and negative.

It reminds us of what Scripture is calling us to.

And that's to pray for and submit to authority.

And in this instance, within the body of Christ, God has placed

the elders as spiritual authority.

Are we praying for our elders on a daily basis because they are

working sacrificially on your behalf, seeking to shepherd you

well, And so are we praying for them?

And ultimately, are we trusting that the way that they are

leading our church is one that is ultimately for the glory of

God? They don't do it perfectly.

None of us do it perfectly. But the more that we support

them in prayer, the more God will illuminate the decision

making and the thinking, and there will be unity as a result.

In conclusion, the ultimate purpose of Christian unity is to

manifest the truth of the gospel that Jesus was sent by God to

redeem humankind. It's amazing that our unity is a

living expression and proof that Jesus was sent by God to redeem

humankind. That is the hope of the world.

That is what's at stake here. And that's why the devil is

having a heyday in the church today, in the broader church

today, by creating division and discord.

And there have been church splits and so forth and so on.

And we know the story. We know the narrative.

But you know what, the devil shouldn't have any space for

that because Christ has already won the victory.

We just have to choose to live within that victory and we need

to choose to get over ourselves so that we can be unified in the

body of Christ. So I ask you to take Jesus words

this week and to pray them, to live them, to make them part of

your soul, and to ask the Holy Spirit for you individually and

as a community of faith to actually fulfill Jesus words

here at Ford and the rest of the world.

And you know there is no greater symbol of unity than communion.

And so we rewind to the Upper Room, the Last Supper, and Jesus

gathers with his disciples and he takes the bread and he takes

the cup and uses it as a symbol of his broken body and of his

shed blood. Paul reminds us in First

1 Corinthians 11:26

Corinthians Chapter 11, verse 26.

For as often as you proclaim the Lord, whereas law, for as often

as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the

Lord's death until he comes. And so this morning we're going

to take an opportunity. If you haven't received a

communion wafer and cup here, you can go ahead and raise your

hand. Someone will be around to give

that to you and take out the wafer here symbolizing Jesus

body. And Jesus took the bread, and

he, when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his

disciples. And he said, take, eat.

This is my body which is broken for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. Let's take the bread and take it

together. And then Jesus took the cup and

he said, this cup is my shed blood.

It's a symbol of the New covenant.

My blood poured out on your behalf.

He took on himself our sin, our shame.

His blood was poured out for us. And so we come together, humbly

and gratefully. As a community of faith to the

only one worthy of our worship. And we say thank you Jesus, that

you shed your blood and that because of your shed blood my

sins are forgiven past, present and future.

Let's not take it lightly, but let's take it together as a

community of faith, remembering Him until he comes again.

Father, you have made known to us the path of life.

You will fill us with joy in your presence.

Eternal pleasures are at your right hand.

You are the God of the past, present and future and we give

you thanks and praise for your goodness, for in love you sent

your only Son to redeem the world.

So may we live a life that is pleasing to you in Jesus name.