How To CHURCH // Called to Ordinance

Welcome to the Movement Church Podcast. We want you to know that God is

for you and so are we. You're about to hear a sermon from one

of our weekend services in Palmer Lake, Colorado. We pray that your faith

is provoked, your mind is renewed, and your heart is awakened as you

engage the Word of God. Stay tuned after the message for ways to get

connected with us. God bless you. Thanks for tuning in. So we're

in the series called how to Church, and we're continuing the series today.

The first couple of weeks that we did this, we were talking about reclaiming

the high ground of this word church and we're talking about out how to treat

the word church not as a noun, but as a verb. So when

we think about what we're doing together, we're talking about how to church as

a verb. That's the idea. A couple of weeks ago, John Wilson,

when he preached about the salt and Light and the salt of the earth

and the light of the world, he said, this series is not about

how to Christian, and I love the way he said that this series is

not about how to Christian. There are individual responsibilities that each of us have.

But this series is about how when we come together, when we as

a unit as a family as a force, how we verb how we church.

And so that's what the series is about. And so we've been talking

about how to reclaim the high ground of the weighty word church. And so

we talked about what we're called. We're called the Family of God, We're

called salt and light, We're called the Living Temple. And last week Jeff

Rutgers started with this next section, what are we called? Two? You

were called to governance? Last week one of the sexiest sermon you've ever heard,

I know was but it was about the fact that God very much wants

for his church to be meaningfully led, and to be led in a way

that shows honor, in a way that shows plurality and humility and integrity.

And so that's what we talked about last week. We are called to governance.

And this week we are talking about a word that none of you,

I'm sure used this week in your ordinary life, a word called ordinance.

We are called to ordinance. How many of you here would say I already

knew that, I already knew that we were called to ordinance? How many

of you would say that, right, Okay, good, you're the one

we are called to ordinance. Now, this is a strange word. It's

not a word that we use every day. In fact, it's a word

that local city governments use a lot. They come up with all sorts of

new ordinances, and they mean it differently than the way we mean it.

But when I think of this word, the first thing that comes to mind

is ridiculous, sort of silly. How did that become a law? Laws?

Ordinances and so like? For example, this one, did you know

that in the state of Colorado it is against the law to ride a horse

while intoxicated? Did you know that drunk driving is not just vehicles. You

cannot drunk drive a horse. Okay, that is an actual law in the

state of Colorado, It's an ordinance. How about this one. It is

punishable by law to let your lama graze on city property. So anybody got

lamas, keep them to yourself, that's the rule. And how about this

one? It is illegal, This is a great one. It's illegal to

throw missiles at vehicles designed to transport people, at least inside the city limits.

That is actually how it is written in the state code. It's crazy.

How about this one. It is unlawful to bring your horse higher than

the floor of any building. So that means it's totally fine if a horse

is in here, but if they come up to the balcony, we're in

trouble. We're breaking the law. How about this one. This is bad

news for some of you. Are you are not allowed in the city of

Denver. This is true. You are not allowed to drive a black vehicle

on Sundays in Denver. I don't know why this is. I think it's

probably because we hate the raiders so much. I think that's where this comes

from. But that's an actual ordinance. How about this in Pueblo. How

many of you know Pueblo. Man, they got all kinds of ordinances.

It's illegal to allow dandelions to grow inside the city limits. We are not

going to have anybody blowing any flowers in this city. Okay, that's how

Pueblo works. In Fountain, it is against the law to have any weed

on your lawn. That's actually not the rule. It's totally fine to have

weed in Fountain. It's not okay to have weeds. So think about think

about the city of Fountain, where They're totally fine if you have weed growing

in your front yard, but no weeds, you will cut and managure this

grasp By god, how about this one in Logan County. I'm curious about

how this law became a law, Like, who is the man that was

running around kissing sleeping people? Look at this. In Logan County, it

is strictly forbidden to kiss a woman while she sleeps. This is a real

ordinance. Okay, so don't do it, husbands, don't do it.

It's illegal. Okay, now this is good news. I like this one.

I've always thought that this was actually illegal, But in Colorado, somebody

decided to declare that it is legally allowable for persons to rip tags off of

pillows and mattresses. I don't know if you've been told your whole life that

that's illegal, but in Colorado it's totally fine. And they've created an ordinance

to make sure that you won't go to jail if you rip those tags off.

Okay, so you know we are called to ordinance. And by ordinance

I do not mean, and the Bible does not mean, and the people

who came up with this idea did not mean. Silly ridiculous. How did

those become laws? Laws? Okay, when we're talking about this idea of

ordinances, we're talking about something totally different. About three hundred and twenty five

AD, after about three hundred years of making sense of all the things that

Jesus had preached about and enacted and taught about, I think it was about

three hundred and eighteen, bishops got together and they finally settled once and for

all what it means to be a Christian. They finally settled it. They

said, look, this is what it means to follow after Jesus. They

had argued about it for three hundred years, and they were kind of building

the plane in the air, to be honest, because so many of the

things that Jesus said took a minute even for the disciples to make sense of

what it was he was teaching. And so they wrote this thing called the

Nice Seene Creed, and if you've ever read it, it's a beautiful document.

I'm going to show it to you here so you can kind of get

a feel for this thing. It's beautiful. It says, I believe in

One God, the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of

all things visible and invisible. I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,

the only begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages,

God from God, Light from Light, true God, from true God.

That sentence alone took about twenty years for them to settle, just that sentence,

begotten, not made. Jesus was forgotten, not made, consubstantial with

the Father. Through him all things were made for us men, and for

our salvation. He came down from heaven and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate

of the Virgin Mary and became man. I love this phrase for our sake.

He was crucified under conscious pilot. He suffered death and was buried,

and he rose again on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures,

he ascended into heaven and right now is seated at the right hand of the

Father. And he will come again, and you should say amen. He

will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his

kingdom will have no end. Now this is important. They wanted to make

sure that we understood the Trinity, so they said this, I believe in

the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from

the Father, and the Son who with the Father and the Son is adored

and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. I believe in one Holy

Catholic and Apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins,

and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the

world to come. Amen. Now, I don't know if it poked out

to you, but every time I read this, there's one phrase, because

I'm not one that stands out to me. Did it stand out to you?

This phrase here? I believe in one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Now, the early Church elders when they were writing this, they weren't talking

about Roman Catholicism. They weren't talking about the Holy Roman Empire. That's not

what they were talking about. When they said the word Catholic. They were

talking about this word Catholic, meaning the whole of or universal. And so

what they were saying is Jesus doesn't have many churches. Like the Movement Church

is a church, and there is another church down the block, and there's

many churches in our city and in our state. But Jesus doesn't have many

churches. He has one church, and it's the church that he predicted.

It's the church that he set into place when he said to the apostle Peter,

he said, upon this rock you, Peter, I will build my

church, and the gates of Hell will not avail against it. Now,

just as a total parenthetical thought, what I love about this passage of scripture.

This has nothing to do with ordinances, but I just want to just

sort of say this to you so you understand this. The gates of Hell

will not prevail against it. What does a gate do? Okay, it's

right, goods things out? What does a gate is standing still? So

I want you to see this picture that the gates of Hell are crumbling at

the weight of the Kingdom of God at the Church of God, because we

are you ready for it on the move. That's the idea, This is

the whole concept. Upon this rock, I will build my church. The

gates of Hell have no chance against the force and the weight of the Church

of God. And you really ought to say amen. So that's what they

were talking about. They believe in one Holy Catholic universal, one Church,

one Apostolic Church. Now that word Catholic. In the past seventeen hundred years

since they wrote the Nicene Creed has taken on different dispensations, different meanings,

different weights. It has meant different things over the years. And so a

group of people came along and sort of investigated, interrogated. They wanted to

reclaim the high ground of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

And so these guys came along and they wanted to make sense of this word

ordinance. They wanted to understand it. They wanted to do the etymology of

the word. They wanted to get deep into it. And so they looked

at this word mysterion, mysterion, and what that word means is matters that

God once hid but has now revealed through their gospels, mysterion. And what

I love about that word, it's a cool word. It's a Latin word.

I'm sorry, it's a Greek word. What I love about it is

that Christianity comes with mystery. There is a level of spirituality, there's a

level of unknown. The Bible says that we see through a glass dimly.

We don't see the whole picture of everything that God is, everything that Heaven

is, everything that the Kingdom of Heaven is. We don't see it all.

There's a mystery to it. I think very many of us want to

sort of solidify and know and know that we know that we know everything there

is to know about Jesus. And I think it's beautiful for us to understand.

They're supposed to be mystery. It's not a bug, it's a feature.

We're supposed to be interested and intrigued by the mystery of God. So

anyway, they took that word mystery on and then in the Latin it became

sacramentous sacrament us. So these are hidden things that are now revealed. Do

you recognize that word sacrament us, the word sacrament, that's where we got

this word. So a guy named Augustine of Hippo in the fifth century he

said this about the word sacrament. He said, a sacrament is an outward

and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace. Isn't that a beautiful phrase.

It's an outward, invisible sign of an inward and invisible grace. So

what happened next is the Catholics. Somewhere around fifteen seventeen or so, or

actually seventeen hundred, the Catholics came up with what they called the Seven Sacraments.

Anybody here grow up Catholic. And I don't know if anybody here,

ed, do you remember the seven sacraments? Do you remember this piece?

Okay, probably should have paid more attention, that's all right, ed.

But the seven sacraments were baptism, the Eucharist, which is the Lord's table,

confirmation, confession, the anointing of the sick, marriage, and ordination.

So this is their practice of those inward graces as invisible things that you

can't see. They would do outward signs to express them. The seven sacraments.

Well, along came Martin Luther and some other guys around fifteen seventeen,

and they said, it's time for reformation. It's time for us to interrogate

the Christian experience. It's time for us to talk about what it is we

actually believe. There were a lot of spooky, weird, extra biblical things

that were happening in those days of Christianity. There were, you know,

things about you know, how do you actually get into heaven? How much

do you have to pay to make sure that your loved ones get into heaven.

These were things that are not in the Bible. And these guys were

like, we need to fix this. So the Reformers came along and they

were frustrated because they felt like God's plan a the church had become a business

and the estimation of the Reformers, so they were revolted. They protested,

which is where we get the word Protestant. Okay, by the way,

everyone here in the room, whether you knew it or not, you are

a Protestant. Okay. So they revolted, they protested, and they marked

their disaffiliation with the Holy Roman Catholic Church. The reformers wanted to reclaim the

high ground of Christian faith, exactly what we're talking about in this how to

Church series. So through their hard work and parsing through biblical text, the

practice of Christianity became symbolically simple. And they they did away with the terms

mysterion and sacramentos and they replaced those terms with our word today, ordinances.

And you know, the Catholics had seven, they had seven sacraments, but

we have ordinances an outward sign of an inward change. That still means the

same thing. But the Reformers decided to limit the expectation on ordinances to only

what Jesus prescribed and what he practiced. So if you think about some of

the ones that the Catholics had. They didn't always do these, but these

ordinances were initiated and instituted by Jesus Christ himself. And so our two ordinances

are these believers, baptism and the Lord's Supper. So they really simplified it.

And the reason they picked these is because these are the ones that Jesus

initiated, instituted, prescribed, and practiced. Okay, that's why we practice

these things in outward signs of inward change. Now do we value confession,

Do we value anointing the sick? Do we value matrimony? Of course we

do, but not all of these things are universal realities for all Christians.

And so that's why the reformers said, let's limit it to just the things

that all of us can experience as Christians. And so like this morning we

did parent child dedication. Is that a sacrament? No? Is it an

ordinance? No, it's just kind of the way we're going to church together.

It's the way we're going to value and love moms and dads who are

doing their best to pour into kids so that they will know Jesus. It's

not a sacrament, it's not an ordinance. But it's going to be part

of our practice, so that's why we do it this morning. But it's

not an ordinance. The Reformers limited our list of ordinances just to the practices

that were initiated and instituted by Jesus himself, outward expressions of inward change.

So we're going to talk about these two kind of in detail. Let's talk

about this phrase, believers baptism. I didn't just say baptism. Did you

notice that, believers baptism. Let's talk about what it is. Obviously,

first, it's an outward sign of an inward change. That's what a believer's

baptism is. This word baptism is a word that means immersion, or to

dip. So you might baptize your hot wing in some blue cheese, right

right, you might. Right, Judah baptizes his French fries in ketchup.

I'm like, is there any fry left? I mean, it's all ketchup,

that's how he rolls. But that's what it means to dip, to

be immersed in the water. Now, it symbolizes the end of one thing

in the beginning of another, in the same way that Jesus was raised from

death to life his resurrection. That's what baptism symbolizes. You were buried in

Christ and raised to walk in new life and new relationship with Jesus Christ.

That's what it symbolizes. It's the beginning of eternal life. I did a

funeral on Friday, and well, it was a hard funeral a fella that

I knew pretty well. He took his own life. And so I'm doing

a by the way, is the first funeral I've ever done, and so

I'm sharing a funeral service. I'm presenting the gospel to a bunch of people

that were just absolutely broken hearted and distraught after what had happened. And one

of the things I said Friday, and I believe this deeply, is that

if our friend Mark could be here today, he would tell you that eternal

life doesn't start the moment that you take your last breath on earth and open

your eyes in heaven. That's not when eternal life starts. Eternal life starts

the moment that you receive salvation, the moment that you accept the grace of

the cross of Jesus because you have a new life and that life is going

to last forever. You're living in your eternity right now. And so that's

what baptism symbolizes. It symbolizes the beginning of this person's eternity right here before

our eyes. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. The Baptist Faith and Message

describes baptism like this. It says, it's an act of obedience. Everybody

say obedience. Obedience, that's an important word. It's an act of obedience

symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen savior, the

believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection

to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It's an outward symbol of

an inward change, an inward change. And I want to focus on that

word for a moment, because change is what baptism is all about. Now,

you're not changing because you're baptized. You're already changed because you've accepted Jesus

as your Lord and savior. But you're symbolizing that change for everyone. And

that's why Jesus got baptized. Jesus got baptized because something had changed in his

life. For thirty years, he walked the earth and he got to know

people he got to understand the world. There's a beautiful passage in Luke that

says this, Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, in favor with God and

all the people. Jesus grew. Think about that God. Jesus was God.

He came to earth and he grew. So again, growth is a

part of the Christian experience. If you're not growing in your faith, if

you're not growing in your relationship with God, if you're not growing and your

understanding of your mission on the earth, then you're doing it wrong. Right.

Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and all people.

Jesus grew, and it was time for him to symbolize a change that

had happened. Because for thirty years he was anonymous. Nobody really knew who

he was. But this was the moment when it was time for him,

and this is a key phrase, to go public. It was time for

him to go public. And so to do that, he found a dude

named John the Baptist. And if you've ever read the Gospels, you've ever

read about John the Baptist. He was a crazy man. He was out

in the Judaean wilderness, and he was preaching about the Kingdom of Heaven,

and people were absolutely attracted to what he was preaching. By the way,

what he was preaching was repent. People were coming from miles and miles around

to hear this man say to them repent sinners. It's kind of incredible.

Matthew says it like this. Now, John the Baptist wore a garment of

camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locust

and honey. He was on that John Wilson diet. I don't know if

you remember the super foods. Who's on that? John Wilson died. He's

probably training for a triathlon. John, you never know. Then Jerusalem and

all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him,

and they were baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins.

How many people from Judea all, how many people from the region of Jordan,

all all the people were coming to see this man. John talks about

the moment that the apostle. John talks about the moment that Jesus and John

the Baptists interact. John answer didn't know about exist he who comes after me,

the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie. These things

took place in Bethany, across the Jordan, where John was baptizing. The

next day, he saw gee Way coming toward him, and he said,

behold the lamb God, this hate this man, this guy, This is

he of whom I said, after me comes a man who ranks before me.

Because he was before me, I myself did not know him. But

for this purpose I came baptizing with water that he might be revealed to Israel.

And John bore witness. He says, I saw the spirit descend from

heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. Matthew completes the story.

He says this, then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John

to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying I need

to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? But Jesus

answered him, let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for

us to fulfill all righteousness. And then John the baptist consented, I love

that phrase. He consented, okay, I'll baptize you. And when Jesus

was baptized. Immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the

heavens were open to him, and he saw the spirit of God descending like

a dove and coming to rest on him. And behold a voice from heaven

said, this is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.

Beautiful moment. Now, there are other traditions of baptism, And if you

grew up in a different form of Christianity, maybe you got sprinkled, scattered,

smothered, and I don't know, maybe some other way that you were

baptized. Right, that was a waffle house joke. If none of you

caught it, that's okay. I love waffle House. No nobody else,

just me, all right? Uh so. But but there are there are

beliefs that led to those practices. Some people believe that because of original sin,

because of the sin that we inherit throughout him, it is impaired arrative

that we sprinkle a child and baptize a child even though they don't understand anything

about sin, to get that original sin off of them. That way,

if they die, they'll be able to go to heaven. People deeply believe

this. There are some hardcore folks that believe this idea, Now listen,

that's extra biblical. I mean those moments you can't really find that in scripture.

You can surmise it. You can make sense of some of the principles

and go, We've got to do whatever we can to protect these children.

And so I would say anything other than believers baptism is surmised and not commanded.

And here's the thing about surmising something. You have just as good a

chance as being right as being wrong. So if you want to sprinkle your

children and get the original sin off of them, God bless you have fun.

But what Jesus commanded was that believers who accept him as their Lord and

savior be baptized. That's what he commanded. And here's some other things.

We know. We know that for all have sinned, how many all have

sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We know this. We

know that if you openly declare that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your

heart that God raised him from the dead, that you will be saved.

I was able to say on Friday at that funeral, because I know this

to be true about my friend Mark. I was able to say I'm going

to see Mark in heaven because he did that. He openly declared that he

believed in Jesus. He confessed it with his mouth, and he believed it

in his heart. He just was tormented by all sorts of mental anguish and

chemical addiction, and he just ran out of fight. But I believe I'll

see my brother in heaven again because of that. Right there. We also

know this. We know that eternal salvation can only be granted through the provision

of the work Jesus did on the cross. What do I mean? I

mean that we can't earn our salvation. Salvation isn't earned, but it's received.

There's nothing you can do today to make God love you you any more

or any less than he already does. And there's nothing you can do to

make him save you. He already did the work. It's your job to

receive it. And that's right, amen, Thank you, John Wilson.

We know that every one of us needs salvation, and every one of us

is offered salvation. We know this, and we know that Jesus initiated the

practice of baptism, and we know that Jesus commanded us to do what he

did to go public with our faith. Now where did he command it?

He commanded it in what we call the Great Commission. We spent some time

with a church in Nashville a few weeks ago called Long Hollow, and this

is one of their famous phrases that they've kind of coined. I really love

it making Christ's final words our first work. That's kind of their mission statement.

I love the way that sounds the idea that the last thing that Jesus

said before he ascended into heaven is the first thing that we ought to be

doing with our lives. Here's what he said in Matthew twenty eight. He

said, all authority, how much authority, all authority in heaven and on

earth, has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all

nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and

the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you, and

behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age. So Jesus

initiated it, He instituted it, he prescribed it, and he practiced it.

That's what Jesus did, and that's why it's an ordinance. And so

my question to you today, friends, as have you taken this step of

obedience? If you have accepted Christ as your Lord and savior. And we'll

get to that towards the end of the sermon. But if you have done

that, have you done this? Have you stood before a body of people

and demonstrated with an outward symbol and inward change? Because it's so important.

The reason why ordinances matter so much is because we get to see the Gospel

in action. There is nothing more powerful than the testimony of someone whose life

has been changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We're going to get to

see that at Easter. We're going to get to see folks right up here

in this stage who are going to be baptized, and who are going to

talk about the fact that they once were this and now they're this. They

didn't know Jesus, now they do. They're going to symbolize for us with

an outward symbol, an inward change. And if you haven't, I would

challenge you, what are you waiting for? What are you waiting for?

The Lord said we should do it, Let's do it. I think of

it like this. Have you ever seen a sign on a building that says

under new management. Have you ever seen this before? What is the message

that these people are trying to communicate to you. You probably had a bad

experience with the old owners. You probably came and tried to get your dry

cleiding done at this place and you came back with stains all over your shirt,

or maybe they lost your shirt. Well, they want you to know,

come try us again. We're under new management. I love to ask

the question, if you heard of a restaurant they got shut down by the

city for you know, health coats, right, they got shut down.

Oh, there's like roaches in the kitchen, there's all kinds of problems.

They shut them down. If you heard about that, and then a few

months later you see now open under new management. Would you go eat at

that restaurant? Most people say no. I say, that's the cleanest restaurant

in town. You better go eat there if you want some clean food today.

Right, think about like what happened. Oh, by the way,

I found this online under new management. That's not this is not the idea.

This is not biblical. Okay, this is not how it works.

Just want to make sure you understand that. But think about this. When

I when I, when I googled the phrase under new management, the enchanted

Tiki room came up like twenty seven times every time I googled it, Like

there was like lists and lists of bad things that had happened at the idol.

They didn't say what happened at the enchanted Tiki room. I don't think

we want to know what happened at the enchanted tiki room. But bad things

happen there, and they're under new management, so now you can trust the

enchanted tika room. How about in January when a door blew off of an

airline of the Alaska Airlines Boeing jet come on, chump McKenzie Boeing, Right,

so a door flies off of it, right, So here's the question.

A couple weeks later, Alaska Airlines reopens. Are you going to get

on an Alaska Airlines flight? Most of us would say no, I'm telling

you it's the safest flight you're ever going to get on. They're looking through

that thing with a fine toothed comb, right, that's the idea. They're

under new management. And so here's what I want you to understand, because

I think a lot of the people that I hear say I'm not ready to

get baptized. They will say that the reason they're not ready to go public

with their faith is because they don't feel like they've got it all figured out

yet. Like, I know, I accepted Jesus, but I'm still trying

to figure out how to follow him. You know how to do all the

right things. I'm still trying to figure it out. I don't know how

to make sense of everything yet. I'm afraid if I go public and then

I relapse. Right, people say these kinds of things. Here's the point.

It's not a symbol of an outward change. Baptism is not a symbol

of an outward change. So does it mean that you've got to have it

all figured out? No, do you have to wait to be baptized until

you become a perfect Christian. You're going to be waiting a long time if

you keep waiting to become a perfect Christian. There's no such thing. Baptism

is your public announcement. I'm under new management, and it gives people a

chance, just like we did with moms and dads today, to say I'm

going to pray for you, I'm going to pray with you, I'm going

to pray that as you grow in your faith, that the Lord will protect

you from the snares of the enemy, that the Lord will provide for you

everything you need to become strong. Baptism is a public service announcement. So

what are we called to believers baptism? And here's the second one we're called

to this ordinance the Lord's Supper. The night before Jesus was crucified, it

was the pass overseason, so he gathered his guys together for a meal.

He got them together and it was actually a final meal. A lot happened

that night. This is the night before he's betrayed. He looks to Judas

and he says, right to Judas's face, whatever you're gonna do, go

ahead and do it now. He tells Peter, hey, just say,

you know, I know you're like all in and you love being everything,

but before the rooster crows, you're going to deny me three times. It's

kind of an incredible moment. He went on to predict his death, his

burial, and his resurrection. This was a powerful moment. He instituted the

practice of what we call communion the Lord's Supper. This is how Paul recounts

that moment. He says, for I received from the Lord what I also

delivered to you. That the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was

betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it,

and he said, this is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, also he took

the cup. It wasn't coke zero. He took the cup after supper,

saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as

often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you

eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he

comes. Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in

an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and the blood of the Lord.

Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread

and of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body,

eats and drinks judgment on himself. I love that phrase as often as

you drink it, because what it allows for is it just a little bit

of ambiguity, A little bit of ambiguity. There are people that are just

like, every time we get together, where it's whether it's a discipleship group,

a small group, a pot luck, whatever it is, we're going

to take communion together. And what Paul is saying is, look, whenever

you get together, as often as you do communion, it's not so much

about how often, it's about how right. There's a sense of ambiguity on

how often we're instructed to take communion, but there's no ambiguity as to how

there's a spirit that we're supposed to come to this table with. We've decided

at the Movement Church that we're going to take communion every time we get together

on Sunday mornings. When we gather, we take communion. It matters to

us. And I love the way that Eugene Peterson wrote that same passage.

Listen to this kind of modern language. He says, what you must solemnly

realize is that every time you eat this bread and every time you drink this

cup, you reenact in your words and your actions the death of the Master.

You'll be drawn back to this meal again and again until the Master returns.

You must never let familiarity breed contempt love that, he says, anyone

who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Master irreverently, is like

part of the crowd that jeered and spit on him at his death. Is

that the kind of remembrance you want to be a part of. Examine your

motives, test your heart, come to this meal in holy awe communion.

Our time together is an outward symbol of an inward change. I've accepted the

fact that Jesus Christ came from heaven to earth and he died on a cross

from my sin. And so when I drink this cup, I'm remembering what

he did for me. When I eat this bread, I'm remembering that he

died for my sin, that my sin put him up on that cross.

It's an outward symbol of an inward change. We're outwardly symbolizing the one thing

that has changed everything about our lives. It cleanses the guilt of our sin

anew, It quiets the claims of the enemy. It launches us into our

mission fields. That's the idea that there would be no shame on you,

that there would be no guilt on you when you leave this place, because

you've left it all at the table. You've said Jesus thank you for what

you did for me. So the Ordinances, all of them, they deserve

weekly practice. I would love it if we did baptisms every week. That

would be exciting. That would mean that lives are being changed all the time

in our community. It would mean that you guys are living on mission in

your community. You are deciding to be disciple makers, that you are deciding

to take the last words of Christ and make them your first work. I

would love it if we didn't have sermons because we had so many baptisms.

That would be an incredible day for me. I don't know about you,

but I would love that very much. The ordinances deserve weekly practice. There's

really no perfect metaphor for this time we have together. You've heard me say

that Sunday mornings are a pep rally right, that the idea is that we

come here and that we get fired up about the big game that we have

before us. That Monday through Saturday is what matters most. This Sunday gathering

is about us remembering who we were called to be and what we're called to

do. Some people like to talk about Sunday mornings as a halftime speech of

the big game, like some people have come in to the halftime locker room,

and yes, I used LSU pictures on purpose. Okay, I'm from

Baton Rous, deal with it, okay. But some people believe that it's

like this idea that some people are walking in beleaguered and tired, and some

people people are walking in fired up and excited because they've lived their life on

missions. Some people are going, I don't know if I can make it

another down. I don't know if I can go out there back on the

field, coach. And so this time is your pastor's job is to fire

you up to get out there and go play the big game. I have

a good friend Brian Poppy, who he says that Sunday mornings, he used

to think of them as calisthenics, that we would come together on Sundays and

we would practice our faith. So we practice communion, we practice praying,

we practiced worshiping, we practice fellowshipping, and then we go out and we

go play the big game. There's no perfect metaphor for this time together,

but they're all pointed in the right direction. And I'm gonna give you just

three quick rs. If you like to take notes, this is what you

should write down. We gather around the table for communion to remember his suffering.

Remember what Jesus did for you. Remember his nail pierced hands. Remember

that they spat on him, they yelled at him, they cursed him,

that they abused him. We're going to remember that together on Good Friday.

You've heard it the last couple of weeks. I am so pumped about what's

happening with Good Friday. We're going to do an Anglican worship service at Holy

Trinity Anglican Church seven pm. We're partnering with Cathedral Rock Church and Holy Anglican

so three congregations are coming together to worship the Lord for what he did for

us at Calvary on Good Friday. Man, don't miss it. It's going

to be a special night. And yes, if you were at last year's

Good Friday service and you really really enjoyed nailing your sin to the cross,

I went in and asked them if that could be a part of the service,

and they've completely agreed to do it. So they've never done that before.

This will be the first time for them that they've ever had a cross

in the room that people are nailing their sins at the cross. I said,

you're not ready for what you're going to experience, because last year it

was so powerful. Just the sound of the nails. I don't know if

you were here for it, but the sound of the namel. I remember

Brett, he was just pounding his sin into the cross. I mean,

I don't think anybody was hitting that nail as hard as Britt was. It's

powerful. So be a part of that. Remember his suffering. Here's the

second one, rid yourself of disconnection. The primary thing that sin does is

it separates us from God. It creates a chasm. Well, when we

come to the table and we confess our sins, we get rid of the

chasm. We're reconnected with him. And the last one is rededicate ourselves to

his will. Lord. I want for my life what you want for my

life. I want to be the man, I want to be the woman.

I want to be the child. I want to be the leader that

you want me to be, and just surrender that to him. That's what

the table's about. Or called to ordinance or called to these outward symbols of

inward change believers, baptism and Holy communion. So there's a moment and I'll

close with this. There's a moment in the Gospels after Jesus has resurrected,

and there's a guy named Thomas who's one of the disciples. All of us

are very mean to Thomas because we call him what doubting Thomas with shame on

you. Come on, Would you believe that this guy who you just saw

killed and crucified on a cross, would you believe that he was alive?

Hey, he's alive. Uh huh uh huh. I'll believe it when I

see it. And there's this moment where Jesus hears about Thomas's doubt and he

meets him in his doubt. He says. A week later, his disciples

were in the house again, and Thomas was with them, though the doors

were locked. Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with

you. Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and see my

hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting

and believe. Thomas said to him, my Lord, my God. And

then Jesus said this, it's an incredible thought. He says, because you've

seen me, you've believed. But blessed are those who have not seen and

yet have believed in. Guys, that's every one of us in the room.

If you have believed in Jesus as your Lord and savior. Blessed are

you who have believed and not seen. But here's the thing, these ordinances,

communion and baptism, it's our opportunity to see, to see the Gospel

in motion, to see a symbol of an inward change on the outside.

That's why it matters so much. That's why we're called to it, to

put it in our language, each step of our faith is a movement of

God. Every time that we express these ordinances, we are exhibiting an exerting

faith. And that's what it's all about. So if you're curious about how

to church, this is a big, big part of it, practicing these

ordinances, leaving in them. Now, I told you I was going to

say this at the end, so I want to be faithful to say it.

Maybe you're here today and you've never taken the first step of faith.

You've never accepted the grace of Jesus Christ. You've never embraced what He did

for us on the cross. You've never said, Jesus, I confess with

my mouth, and I believe in my heart that you are the Lord.

That is all it takes to get your name written in the Lamb's Book of

Life. Now, there's a lot of work that's going to come after that.

There's a lot of development that's going to come after that. There's a

lot of refining and sanctifying that's going to come after that. And I don't

want to put it in a sunshiny, rosy place for you. Christianity is

tough, and all the Christians should say Christianity's tough. But I'm gonna tell

you there's nothing better on this planet than to know the love and the grace

of Jesus Christ and to know that your eternal life has already begun. So

what's God leading you to do next? And how can we help? Would

you send us an email to info at Movementchurch dot co and tell us how

we can pray for you and help you take the next step in your spiritual

journey. If you'd like to contribute financially to our ministry, text the amount

you'd like to give to the number eight four three two one, or look

us up online at Movementchurch dot c. You can find the Movement Church on

all social media platforms, and we hope that you'll give us a follow.

God bless you, and remember God is for you, and so are we.