Great Texts of The Bible: Be More Like Jesus | 1 Corinthians 11 | Pastor William Hixson

[clears throat]

Well, we're back to our messages on the

resurrection of Christ, but we're also

celebrating the Lord's supper. So, I

call your attention to 1 Corinthians 11.

We're going to start out with the Lord's

supper and then move into

what I want to say about the

resurrection of our savior.

1 Corinthians 11

23- 26.

Father, help us to prepare ourselves for

your

um

supper that you've given us to reflect,

to remember, to rejoice.

As we wait upon you tonight, we pray we

do it in a way that's pleasing to you

and honoring to our blessed Lord. Amen.

The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 11:23

11:23,

"For I received of the Lord

that which also I delivered unto you,

that the Lord Jesus the same night in

which he was betrayed took bread."

And when given and when he had given

thanks, he broke it and said, "Take,

eat. This is my body."

Underline that phrase in your mind.

This is my body which is broken for you.

This do in remembrance of me. After the

same manner also he took the cup when he

sang, this cup is the new testament in

my blood. This do as often as you drink

it in remembrance of me. For as often as

you eat this bread and drink this cup,

you do show the Lord's death till he

come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this

bread and drink this cup unworthily

shall be guilty of the body and the

blood

of the Lord.

But let a man examine himself and so let

him eat of that bread and drink of that

cup. For he that eateth and drinkketh

unworthily eateth and drinkketh judgment

to himself,

not discerning

the Lord's body.

So as we come to the Lord's supper

tonight, uh we are actively engaged with

our minds and our hearts in

uh and we're going many directions at

once

in the Lord's supper.

Um

I want to illustrate it this way. If

you're crossing a city street, I'm not

talking about the plains. way probably

in the plains, but in a big city street.

You're crossing a downtown city street

and you're looking around. You're

looking around, you look look to the

left, you look to the right, you start

crossing, you look to the right, you

look to the left, or actually you look

to the left and the right, [laughter]

unless you're in the UK. So, you're

looking around as you begin, and then

you're looking around as you cross,

right? you better be actively

engaged or a bus will take you out. So

in the Lord's supper, there should be

the same intensity. There should be

nothing casual or

uh mechanical

about taking the Lord's supper.

We should watch

what the Lord Jesus is saying here and

watch what the Apostle Paul is writing

here from him about the church and about

those that observe his supper.

And when I talk about

that looking that we're supposed to be

doing, the first look when we take the

bread and the cup is to look up.

Thanksgiving

We look up with thanksgiving.

We're not being overoccupied with what

happened or what will happen and what

happened in the past or what's going to

happen in our near future. We are

looking up

and thanking the Lord. A failure to give

thanks is a failure to observe the

Lord's supper correctly.

We're reminded of that.

I want you to it it it it's very very

important here for us to think about

that.

And it says in verse 23, Jesus, it says

Paul says, "I've received of the Lord

that which I delivered to you that the

Lord Jesus in the same night which he

was partake took bread when he had did

when he had done what?"

He gave thanks.

He gave thanks. Every time we celebrate

the Lord's supper, we should give thanks

to the Lord for dying for us.

It's just that we need to look up and

thank him. Uh um

failure to give thanks to God is a

failure to observe the Lord's supper

properly.

And we can even thank God for the things

that don't seem to go our way. We can

even thank God for unanswered prayers

where we pray for something and we don't

get it. I hope you've learned to do

that.

When we come to the Lord's supper, we're

giving thanks to the Lord for dying for

us and rising again. And we're not

letting our present situation get in the

way of that.

I told this in nursing home and I don't

think I've told it yet. I just was then

and I were watching a program on Amy

Carmichael

and uh the single missionary

and she died in I think 1951

and in the 1800s as a little girl um

[snorts] six years old

she noticed that her siblings in

Northern Ireland had beautiful blue

eyes.

I think she's about six

and she had brown eyes

and she was an intense little girl and

with a little girl's faith she prayed to

the Lord to give her blue eyes like her

brother and sister

like a little six-year-old prayer.

And so she prayed to the Lord, give me

blue eyes, change my brown eyes into

blue eyes. And as a little girl, she

went to bed and fully expecting God

would hear that prayer. When she woke up

the next morning, she'd have blue eyes.

Well, she woke up the next morning and

looked in the mirror and was shocked her

eyes are still brown.

I mean, this really happened. This is in

her biography.

And still brown, deeply upset and

puzzled by this. You know, God's all

powerful. I prayed for blue eyes. Why

didn't I get blue eyes?

Now, at six years old, she prayed a

prayer that she felt was a good prayer

for a good reason.

And God said no.

No is an answer, right? [laughter]

No is an answer.

And God doesn't have to answer yes for

all our prayers. Sometimes he answers

no.

What was the interesting thing if you

follow the career of Amy Carmichael

where she went to Japan and China and

finally India and then she spent decades

in India and one of the things she was

doing in India was rescuing little

Indian girls from the temple

prostitution

where these poor little girls were being

prostituted to old men

and she's rescuing them and actually

part of the rescue was to not only give

bring them to her place, but to get them

out of the country to another place

where they'd be safe. She was smuggling

kids out of India.

Some of them were staying, others were

getting smuggled out.

But to do that effectively, she had to

dress like an Indian person, an Indian

woman, an Indian dress. I'm talking

about India, the country.

And she even put use coffee to darken

her skin.

but she couldn't change the color of her

eyes

to brown.

And when she realized this is my life

work I've been doing, I could never have

smuggled these girls out and been

recognized as just somebody in the crowd

if I'd have had blue eyes.

Did God have a good reason for not

answering that prayer?

Very, very good reasons.

Hundreds of reasons. All those little

girls that were going to benefit from

her being able to get her out of that

situation.

So all of us, there's not a person in

this congregation

that has not had prayed sincerely and

fervently for what we thought was a good

thing, even a very good thing, maybe

even a necessary thing. And God said no.

And then we wonder, why'd he say no?

Why? Why'd he say no to that? That was a

reasonable request.

But decades later, we can look back and

say, "Thank you, Lord, for saying no to

that prayer."

Uh, and she learned to say no. She

learned to thank God for that for that.

What a comfort to know. God is smart

enough to say no. God is wise enough to

say no. God's good enough to say no to

something that seems reasonable and

right and even beneficial and maybe even

almost necessary. No,

because he knows what he's going to do

with our life.

And so I that's a fascinating

illustration

and I'm very thankful for the nose in my

life from the Lord.

So when you when we look up with the

Lord's table, we might even be coming to

the Lord's table where God has said no.

We've been praying for something

fervently, faithfully, zealously,

intelligently. It seems reasonable to

our minds and God said no.

We have to remember that God's God's

viewpoint of our life and God's

viewpoint of our lives is bigger than

ours. We're like in the parade down on

the parade ground. We can't see the

beginning of the end of the parade. He's

up He's He's up above everything. He

sees the end. He sees the beginning. He

knows when to say no.

So, we need to look up, but we need to

keep looking up. In everything give

thanks, for this is the will of God in

Christ Jesus concerning you. That's the

good things and the bad things and the

in between things.

So the night he was betrayed, he took

bread. The night he was betrayed, he

gave thanks.

He was thanking God for something really

hard. He was thanking God for what he

would later say, "Lord, if if it's your

will, let this cup pass from me." He did

pray that God would let it pass. But he

also said, "Nevertheless, not my will

patern be done."

So the Lord, we need to look up and give

thanks.

And

may God help us to do that tonight as we

take the Lord's supper. The next look is

look back.

This do in remembrance of me. So we look

up giving thanks. We look back in do

this do in remembrance of me. We look at

God. We look up with thanksgiving and we

look back in remembrance of the Lord

Jesus Christ and who he is and what he

did.

Uh the opposite of remembering is

forgetting.

I'm pretty good at forgetting.

Pretty good.

You know that. I know that.

And

uh it's very important for us to get

pretty good at remembering. Even those

of us that are absent- minded or those

of us that are getting a little

dementia, we may not be may not be able

to remember everything anymore, but we

need to remember who Jesus is and what

he did. If we can remember that, that's

enough.

Get where my car is in the mall parking

lot. I can walk it down, hit the key

thing, and the lights will come on. Oh

yeah, it's over there. I thought it was

over there.

But one thing I don't dare forget

is who Jesus is and what he's done.

That's what the Lord's supper is. This

do in remembrance of me.

So let's not forget to look up. Let's

not forget to look back. Uh and uh and

then we we not only have to do that, we

have to look around. When we take the

Lord's supper, we're doing it in a

public way with other people. We are

proclaiming his death till he comes. Who

are we proclaiming it to? Everybody else

in the room.

We're reminding everybody else, "My

faith is built on nothing less than

Jesus blood and righteousness.

And we are we are proclaiming his death.

We're saying something to everyone

present in that service, saved and

unsaved, to all the others that are in

the local assembly that day. We are

proclaiming his death. We're proclaiming

it.

And so we're looking around and not just

looking up with thanksgiving or looking

back in remembrance. We're looking

around. Not that we're watching what

other people are doing, but we're

wanting them to see what we're doing.

I'm a Christian. I'm trusting the death

of Jesus for my salvation, and I'm going

to do it till he comes. That's a silent

sermon. The best sermons you may ever

give or I may ever give are the silent

sermon of communicating your faith in

the death, burial, and resurrection of

the Lord. You say, "Well, what's a

silent sermon?" Let me give an

illustration.

Police offer officer sometimes hand

signals you to stop your vehicle or to

do something else, right?

Yeah. They give you hand signals.

They're communicating. They're not

talking. It's communicating.

Pull over your car. A turn right.

Whatever they're communicating.

It's it's a silent message, but it's

clear. It's it's it's loud. You get the

point. A hitchhiker when he goes like

that, you know what they want. They

don't have to say anything. They got

their thumb out.

the beggar who sits on the the sidewalk

or in the subway with a hat in front of

him upside down. You know what he wants.

So all those are silent communications.

If your dog walks to the door and stands

there looking out,

you better open the door and let them

out.

They're telling you something, right?

They're t that's nonverbal

communication.

And so if a young man pulls out a ring

and gets on one knee in front of his

girlfriend, she doesn't need a megaphone

to tell what the guy's trying to say.

He's waiting for the words, but she's I

had my suit on when I proposed to Lind.

I didn't get on one knee because I

didn't want to get my need money.

But you know the point is you you know

you know you know what the person's

doing.

So that's what I'm talking about when

talking about the Lord's supper. Look up

in thanksgiving. Look back in

remembrance and look around and look

ahead proclaiming his death till he

come. We're also looking ahead. He's

coming back and he's going to know if I

did this or not. He's told me to do it.

Have I done it?

Have I been doing this? reverently,

reflectively, collective, uh,

collectively,

all that is very, very important.

And so hopefully this is a little bit of

a,

uh, helpful illustration of what we're

supposed to do. This is probably a

little irreverent illustration, but

we're multitasking when we do that,

right? We're preaching his death to

others. We're thanking the Lord for his

death. We're we're looking up to the

Lord. We're looking back to the Lord.

And all these things are going on at the

same time. We're looking ahead till his

coming. I'm going to do this till he

comes.

And you ever seen those one-man bands

where they're playing drums and harmonas

and symbols all at the same time? And

and you know, they got persons

multitasking.

It's a lot going on at the same time.

And the Lord's supper has all of these

factors in it. We are not certainly to

enter into it. Here I'm at the Lord's

supper. I absent mindedly. Okay. Turn to

this hymn. Hear this sermon a little

bit. Take the bread. Take the cup and

not engage ourselves.

We are to be engaged.

It's not a cold kiss to the Lord. We're

to be engaged. And then there's this

this inward look of examining ourselves.

And so let him eat of that bread and

look and drink of that cup.

So our attention this morning or excuse

me this evening

is

we realize

we owe Jesus everything

and I owe him

these moments

and to proclaim his death till he come.

That's the forward look.

So may God help us to do it. Now the

bread and the the bread and the cup the

cup represents his blood. The bread

represents his what?

His body

and that's the body he was born with.

That's the body he died with. And that's

the body he arose with. And that's the

body he's coming back with.

And our lowly body is going to be made

like his glorious body.

about that.

So his the body he was born with, lived

with, died with, was resurrected with,

it's called a glorious body. And our

lowly bodies are going to be conformed

to his glorious body with the capacities

and abilities that he had uh when he

showed himself alive and with a

wonderful likeness to Jesus physically

in some way.

We will still retain our identities.

We'll still look our like ourselves. But

and when someone looks at us, they'll be

able to see something even physically.

You look like Jesus.

There's something of Jesus in you that I

never saw.

Or

I don't know how that'll work out. Is

that a Is that a a a spiritual likeness?

Is that a uh character likeness? Is it's

a physical likeness? I think it's all a

little bit of that.

And that there's a connection to

relatives, isn't there, who look like

us.

We feel some kind of connection.

When my uncle Art died, I've told you

this before, it's an old illustration,

but when my uncle Art died, we were

cleaning out his house and we found a

box and in the box was my grandfather's

driver's license.

And my sister pulled it out. My brother

pulled it out and they said, "Who's this

look like?"

And they gave it to me and they said,

"It was me. I looked like my

grandfather."

I could show it to you sometimes. It's

like kind of scary.

And that was my maternal grandfather,

but I also looked like my dad.

And I remember when I turned 50, I was

driving my car and I said, "Those look

like grandpa's hands."

Where grandpa's hands come from? 50

years old. color in my body was starting

to look like his.

So we we we have a we have a physical

likeness to our relatives on both sides.

Somehow we're a mixture and I believe

we're going to look like ourselves, but

we're als we're going to retain that and

we're not going to lose that.

I will know you in heaven. You will know

me in heaven. But we there's something

going to be added in our character in

who we're going to be like the Lord

Jesus Christ and even in some ways we're

going to look like him and therefore

we're going to look like each other in

some way that we never did before. I

think that's exciting. I don't know

about you, but I like the whole subject.

So just think about that with me if you

would turn to 1 Corinthians 15.

and verse 12.

Now if Christ be preached that he rose

from the dead, how say some among you

that there's no resurrection of the

dead? For but if there's no resurrection

of the dead, then Christ is not risen.

If Christ be not risen, then is our

preaching vain, and your faith is also

vain. Yeah, we're found false witnesses

of God because we testified of God that

he raised up Christ whom he raised not

up. If the dead rise not for if the dead

rise not, then is not Christ raised. And

if Christ is not raised, your faith is

vain, you're yet in your sins. Then they

also who are fallen asleep in Christ are

perish. If in this life only we have

hope in Christ, were of all men most

miserable.

Paul was logical. He had a logical mind.

He was logic on fire. And then he said,

' But now Christ is Christ risen from

the dead. Here is where we come in.

Christ is the first fruits of them that

slept.

For since by man came death, by man came

also the resurrection of the dead. For

in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall

all be made alive. Now he's taking

Christ resurrection and applying it to

our resurrection. But every man in his

own order, Christ the fruits fruits

afterwards those that are Christ at his

coming.

And so it it it's all very precious and

all very important. Slip down to 49. And

as we borne the image of the earthly,

that's Adam, we shall also what? We will

bear the image of the heavenly. We are

going to bear the image of the heavenly

in our character in some way. You got to

believe in our physicality.

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and

blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,

neither does corruption inherit

incorruption. Behold, I show you a

mystery. Will not all sleep, but all be

what? Changed. In a moment, in a

twinkling of an eye, at the last trump,

for the trumpet shall sound, that the

dead shall be raised incorruptible,

and we shall be changed.

For this, he's talking about saved dead,

be raised, incorruptible,

and we will be saved, changed. For this

corruptible, that means body capable of

decay and aging, must put on

incorruption, incapable of decay or

aging. And this mortal must put on

immortality.

Immortality. Unable to die, unable to

get old.

If you asked to ask me, pastor, when did

you look better? Your senior picture in

high school or now,

there is no question about that.

But when we get our resurrection body,

we are going to look better than our

best

in this life.

In our own body, it's going to be

better. And added to that, the family

likeness of Jesus is going to be there.

In verse 54, so when this corruptible

shall put on incorruption, and this

mortal shall put on immortality, then

shall be brought to pass the saying

that's written, "Death is swallowed up

in victory. Oh death, where's your

sting? Oh grave, where's your victory?"

Sting of death is sin. The strength of

sin is the law. But thanks be to God who

gives us the victory through our Lord

Jesus Christ.

So all these are precious truths and

wondrous truths, aren't they? Nothing

could be more practical if you read

verse 58. All the things you do and how

you do them. Therefore, my beloved

brethren, be steadfast, unmovable,

always abounding in the work of the

Lord. For as much as you know your labor

is not in vain in the Lord.

Have you ever done a job for somebody

and not get paid for it? I have. I've

been stiffed.

And uh it happens in this life. But

we're not going to we're not going to

lose those of us that know the Lord as

our savior.

We'll get all the reward we need and

more than we'd ever imagine.

And we're not going to the world there

is not going to it's going to be like

this but different. And if we're going

to heaven, we need an immortal

incorruptible body. If we're going to

reign in the thousand-y year reign and

in the new heavens and new earth, we

need an immortal incorruptible body.

And we'll get one.

When I was traveling to South America a

lot, I often went in the end of December

or early January. many many times. But

when I when I go to South America in

January, I don't pack a winter coat.

Why? It's summer down there.

It's summer down.

And if I go to southern Chile, it's you

might need a jacket once in a while.

Maybe one day out of time you're down

there. If I go to Uruguay, it's going to

be 90 or 100. And my roommate one time

when I was down there by myself got so

sunburned we had to take him to the

hospital and that was in January.

He was out playing soccer.

Didn't know it. Didn't have a hat on.

Wasn't watching himself. He was mess.

So the point is if you know you're going

somewhere, you prepare for that and you

wear the clothes that are appropriate.

And so it's it's it's kind of a hard

thing to do, by the way, for South

America because there's been time one

time I I didn't pack a winter coat.

always have the one in the car for when

Linda picks me up or somebody picks me

up in Columbus, but I I I remember one

time I went and it's like 80 90 degrees

down there and I left my coat in in the

car back here to be picked up in

Columbus and the plane got diverted to

Toronto

and I never got back to Columbus much

later and it was blizzard conditions and

I was freezing.

soul. Uh, and it was a cold experience.

Love Toronto. Love the Toronto airport,

but I'll tell you that that wasn't a

pleasant experience.

Now, our bodies

here are made to function in this world,

in this life, and made to function in a

world that is fallen.

And our bodies will take us from womb to

tomb.

Right? You'll have this body from womb

to tomb.

And in that body, you learn to walk, you

learn to run, you learn to eat, you

learn to do all that kind of stuff. Womb

to tomb. But the body doesn't stop with

the tomb. The body's coming out of the

tomb. And out of the tomb, it's going to

be bloom and zoom.

It's going to be we're going we are

going to look better than we ever did

down here. And our body that would went

to the tomb is going to be made like his

glorious body. There is a connection.

He's going to change our lowly body that

it might be like his glorious body.

Philippians 3 21.

Therefore Jesus said, "Fear not those

that could kill the body."

And after that they can't do anything.

So may God help us. Now we don't want to

dishonor our own bodies. That's Romans

chapter one. A horrible thing. We don't

want to let sin reign in our mortal

body. Uh we want to present our bodies a

living sacrifice,

holy acceptable to God.

And we know that being absent from the

bodies to be present with the Lord. The

body's in the tomb. We're in heaven. But

we know the body's coming to out of the

grave as well. And that's always very

precious to think about.

Renee Posh the French Bible teacher in

his book the future life

that's writing on the resurrection of

our lord and he said the resurrection of

Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of all

biblical teaching regarding the future

life

and it's very interesting what he writes

please bear with this he said we can

compare man's present state to that of

gestation life has been given us in

principle but it's limit ed and has need

of daily growth. Soon the resurrection

will set us free when we shall know

forever the full-blown and perfect life

of heaven.

We can also learn a great deal from

insects, especially the caterpillar that

becomes a butterfly.

It's an old illustration, but it's a

good one. The cat caterpillar becomes a

butterfly. Its development has three

phases. The caterpillar, often

nondescript in appearance, which crawls

and which lives on leaves. the crosales

into which the creature is placed as in

a casket immobile and inanimate and

finally the butterfly with brilliant

wings which flies in the sunshine and

which is sustained by sweetness of the

flowers and this is what he said that's

an old illustration we all know that if

we had not learned by experience

who could make us believe that these

three in reality form a single entity

In other words, the caterpillar and the

uh the creature that lives in that

little cocoon casket and turns into a

butterfly are all the same.

Same creature changed.

But the change is marvelous. Now, why

did God do that? I think to illustrate

the resurrection from the dead.

One reason.

And he says, "If we had not learned by

experience, who could make us believe

that these three in reality form a

single entity at different stages of his

development?" So man's earthly existence

is often dull and sad. He's put into the

grave where all seems ended, but then

he's raised glorious into the presence

of God. Then he goes to the larvae of

the dragonfly that lives in water.

But the perfected insect changing

elements takes off into the air.

Is it anymore to be wondered at to see

man departing from the earth for heaven?

God's illustrating in nature his

capacities and abilities

uh that amaze us.

So we retain our identity

but we are the same

yet

different.

That's a good thing.

Now, our Lord's death and resurrection

assure Christians of their own

resurrection.

This is something that couldn't be

clearer in the Bible. 1 Corinthians 6:4

1 Corinthians 6:4

9-11 and 14 and 15. Don't sin with your

body and in sexual sin. Why? Because

you're going to take that body into

heaven.

And so it's not what the just what the

body is now. Now, if you've sinned and

done those sins, you can be forgiven,

but you you don't want to be loose about

those things.

And 1 Corinthians 15 talks about it.

Romans 4:25 the chapter 5 talk about it.

Romans 4:25

There's plenty of passages on the

resurrection.

and our own personal resurrection of the

dead is certain because of the work of

Jesus Christ on our behalf and our

relationship with him. The same Holy

Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead

is in you. Think about that if you're a

Christian.

And the same Holy Spirit that raised

Jesus from the dead is going to raise

your body from the dead.

My body's not going to be any dead than

Jesus's was.

And the Holy Spirit that raised Jesus

from the dead is going to raise us from

the dead. And that's a blessed thing to

think about. So as we come to the Lord's

table tonight, we gather as those who

owe Jesus Christ everything.

Our

existence doesn't end

when we die

in this life.

And we gather as those who will be

together for all eternity, immortal,

incorruptible.

And as the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians

4, so shall we ever be

with the Lord.

will all appear before the judgment seat

of Christ that we might receive the

things done in the body that is in this

life. So there's all that continuity

going on.

John Christom was a church father, not

the earliest of church fathers, but he

has writings on first Corinthians

and he uh he was called the golden mouth

for a reason. He was a great preacher.

He said, "For if the body rise not

again, the soul abides uncrowned."

If the body rises not again, the soul

abides uncrowned. Without that

blessedness

which is

which which is in heaven, and if that be

so, um

we shall enjoy nothing at all. We can't

even enjoy this life if the body remains

in Christ.

But we got something to enjoy in this

life. We got something to celebrate in

this life.

And the Eric Sour said the resurrection

of the air of all things is the

guarantee of the new heavens and new

earth. In his risen body, matter was for

the first time transfigured.

Matter was transfigured.

And he used that in John 20:27 and Luke

John 20:27

24 39:43.

And therefore, the principle that matter

is capable of transfiguration was

revealed in history of salvation and

guarantee. How can I illustrate what

he's trying to say?

Let's contrast it. Mankind after all

these thousands of years finally learned

how to split atoms.

Oh, that was a mixed blessing, wasn't

it?

But we learned how to split atoms and

atomic energy and atomic bombs and now

the war in Iran and all the problems

that come with all all that.

And man has learned how to split atoms.

And we can now demolish things in a far

greater way than anybody else could even

imagine because mankind knows how to

split atoms.

But there's a greater thing than

splitting atoms.

There's a transfiguration of matter

to make that which is temporal eternal

to make it which corrupts incorruptible.

to make it that which is u um mortal

immortal

that is something great

we think we've achieved everything when

we can split an atom but Jesus Christ is

is doing something greater than that

with his own resurrection

and with ours

mun said the grain harvested is the same

identity with that which was put in the

ground. This suggests that believers

will have the same general identity and

physical features in the resurrection

they had in this life. But then he says

the glorified body will be the same in

identity, different in substance.

It'll be incorruptible instead of

corruptible. It'll be immortal instead

of mortal.

The Bible says our salvation is nearer

than when we believe.

And I would add at the close of this

sermon, our salvation is greater than we

can imagine.

We are celebrating the death of the God

man.

We are celebrating his death looking

forward to his return. We're celebrating

his death looking forward to when we

will be with him.

If someone's listening to this message

online,

are you saved? Do you know the Lord? Are

you going to miss out on what life is

all about?

You feel sorry for aborted babies or you

feel sorry for miscarriages, but you

don't feel sorry for yourself going to

the grave without being saved. And

you're missing out. You had this life,

but you're missing out what this life

was meant to prepare us for, that

eternal life in heaven with the Lord.

Why would you miss that?

And our Lord has previously displayed

who he is. He also reveals who we will

be saved by his grace.

And I pray that anyone who's not yet

saved that hears my voice and has

listened this far in the sermon, I pray

God will make you so uncomfortable, so

uh so shocked of what you're missing out

on in this life and the next that you

will not be able to wait anymore.

Missing the resurrection of to life is

not like missing the school bus.

If you miss the school bus, there's

other ways to get to school.

You can walk or you can get another

ride. If you miss the resurrection of

the just, the only other resurrection is

the resurrection of the unjust.

And that has a whole different

eternal difference.

I missed the bus in third grade, fourth

grade, fifth grade. I missed the bus a

lot.

But you know there's missing the bus is

one thing but you don't want to miss out

on eternal life.

The life that this life was meant to

prepare us for.

Father, as we come into your presence

today, we come to remember the body and

blood of our Lord. We do it with

reverence.

We do it with

joy.

We do it with anticipation.

We do it with thanksgiving. We look up.

We look back.

We look forward.

And we thank We look around. Father, we

know many don't know the Lord yet. And

we pray for those who in our families

and in our neighborhoods and

people that we know.

Give us a heart for their salvation

in Jesus name. Amen.

>> Amen.

Would

you thank our Lord this holy body?

>> Lord, thank you for your goodness that

you would leave your throne in heaven.

Lord, [singing]

as we go from this [music] place,

loving [singing] you more,

trusting you more.

May the power of your love

[singing and music] and the light of

your word shine to a sin [singing]

darkened world. As we go from [singing]

this