Discerning The Lord's Prayer

Hey y'all, hallelujah.

Well, you may have noticed an usher has brought you a communion cup and so I want to.

I want to build up to that at the end of the service.

I mean, if you came here lacking something or anything or you just want to just seal your, your service, in the body of Christ, tonight we are gonna have it.

We're gonna have a little communion service at the end.

But on Wednesday tonight I want to talk about discerning the Lord's body and we'll be in 1st Corinthians 11.

On Wednesday night, during our live stream service, I ministered on the cup of salvation.

That's the purple part of this cup.

I picture it in my mind more, you know, like a goblet, silver something.

This is, it's plastic, but at least it's real great juice.

Y'all.

It is not.

It is real great juice.

And but we talked about the cup of salvation on Wednesday night and if you are interested in learning more, you can watch the.

You can watch it on on YouTube from our our feed on on Wednesday night.

But but let's just first I'll just read out of 1st Corinthians 11, starting in verse 23.

It says for I received this is Paul talking.

He says I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which he was betrayed, he took bread and went, and he had given thanks.

He broke it and said take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

And in the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood.

This do as often as you drink of it, remit in remembrance of me.

So Jesus gave us two things to remember him by.

And those symbols run so deep.

Everything with Jesus, it was never about the physical element, it was not about, you know, when he fed the 5,000, it wasn't about the bread they got.

It was him saying I am the bread of life.

He who eats of me shall never hunger, he that comes to me shall never hunger, he that believes in me shall never thirst, as he said in John 6.

And so it was never about the physical elements.

And so, yes, these are awesome reminders, but we're gonna dig in a little bit about what they mean.

And so, on Wednesday, we talked about the cup of salvation.

You know, we deserved, as, as children of Adam who fell, you know, we were born with a sin nature and from the moment we were even conceived, we had a propensity to sin and we walked in that and we felt the guilt and shame of that and we're just broken and so we deserve the cup of the wrath of God.

That's the cup that we deserved.

And Jesus didn't deserve that cup.

He was perfect.

He deserved a cup of salvation.

But what he did on the cross is he traded cups with us and he drank the cup of the wine of the wrath of God and he drank it down to its dregs so that we could have the cup of deliverance, of salvation, of life, of freedom, of favor with God.

God turned his back on Jesus so that he could look upon us.

It was awesome what Jesus did.

He traded cups with us and so we talked about that.

Now we have victory.

Now Jesus had looked like he had defeat for three days and then he had the ultimate victory and he gave that victory to us and shared it.

He shared his cup with us and he and he took away our, our nasty cup of the dregs of sin and death.

So awesome, awesome word that I mean just from God's word.

God gives us and so.

But tonight we're gonna focus on the bread, the bread of life.

You know, jesus is the bread of life.

He is also in John 1.

He is the word made flesh and so.

And then Jesus said you don't live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God shall man live.

So Jesus is that bread of life.

He, his word, is the thing that feeds our spirit.

His word is like food to us, and so we've got to have it every day.

A symbol of that is in the Old Testament.

Remember how the Jews, when they were, when they left the slavery of Egypt, god led them out.

He led them through the Red Sea.

It was a miraculous thing.

All the Pharaoh's army and the people chasing him down were drowned in the sea.

But the Israelites came through on dry ground and then, but there was no food.

They were wandering through the desert, they were trying to make it to the Promised Land and they had no food.

And what happened?

Every morning there would appear like dew on the ground and it was manna.

Manna means what is it?

I don't know what it is, but it was sweet like honey, and it was something that fed them and they could eat it every day.

And it came and it fell on the ground.

Every morning they could gather it, except if they kept it overnight.

It got eaten with worms and they couldn't.

It was nasty and was completely perishable.

And they would never be able to eat the two-day old manna, except for on one day of the week, and that was on the Sabbath.

That was a whole other story, but anyway, they didn't have to gather on the Sabbath, although one day the bread would last so they could have some rest.

But every other day they had to gather it fresh, every day.

And that's where God's word is.

We got to get it every day.

We got to get it fresh and hot off the press.

God has something new for you.

Yes, he wrote this book a long time ago, but it's a living word, it's alive, it's quick and powerful and sharper than it has.

So we need it every day.

Right, it's a thing that fills us, and so Jesus.

But but when you think about the body of Christ, when we say we're gonna eat the body of Christ, this is my body, it was broken for you, everything that happened on the cross when the body of Christ was broken, everything on the cross was the antitype of what God wants for his, for you and for his body.

It was the opposite.

It was all the horror of what Jesus suffered on the cross, it.

You just take that and flip it over and you have the wonder, the ah, the glory of the opposite of that.

And so when Jesus's body was broken, he for you.

He said I want you, I want my body on the earth to be whole.

In the Old Testament they had this.

This concept is Shalom.

Every time you see the word peace in the Old Testament, it's the word, it's a Hebrew word, shalom, and it was often it was a greeting, and then you usually don't say it.

One time they'll say Shalom, shalom, shalom, which doesn't mean just mean peace, it means perfect, awesome, comprehensive everything, peace, everything, and and peace that comes from wholeness.

You know, there's a heavenly Jerusalem, there's an earthly Jerusalem and one of these days, those that Jerusalem and those, those two were gonna become one and on earth, as it is in heaven, and we're one with that, with God, and he is gonna be awesome and we have that peace that comes from wholeness, that there's no part broken, there's nothing missing, everything, and God wants that for his body and he wants his body that there be no schism in the body.

Behold how good, how, how, how pleasant it is.

Home 133 that brother and dwell together in unity, the unity of the body.

And so you know, god is the.

Why am I talking about this?

God is moving this church.

I mean, we are.

We are a church.

We all, most of us, believe mostly the same things because we've been coming here, we hear the same word.

We're word of faith, we are Holy Ghost, word of faith, charismatic Bible, believing Bible, thumping excited believers, and we have a certain way of looking at the world and through the word praise God and and and so and we've lived some common experience together.

We've been through this COVID mess that we saw.

We had to all fight and you know the devil and the spirit of this age together and we stood together and y'all are strong.

You did not bow to the spirit of fear.

I'm so proud of this church, but God is moving us into a.

I just see him increasing our reach, he's increasing our network and I am just seeing that in just in my own life.

That used to be completely all glorious way was my life, and then my kids had, you know, they went to school but I we didn't really largely fellowship with any.

We just didn't have a life a lot there.

We had the kids played sports, but that wasn't our lot.

Our life is here and and I see that other that now all other parts of our life are coming in to the church.

As James has been called to do ministry in the political realm, then those people have been coming in and and some of you are here tonight because maybe you knew James in that world.

Actually our Sunday night crowd is just mostly church people.

I love y'all I could just be honest but a lot of our Sunday morning crowd is is from that world and then, and then I've got my school.

My kids go to a Christian school now.

That didn't used to happen.

And so I am in a place and I know many of you are in this place where we are having to discern the Lord's body.

Like it's really easy when we all agree.

But when we don't all agree and when one person has this matter of conscience over here and I have this matter of conscience over here and we got like you know, you got 10 Christians and 11 opinions and how do you balance all of that?

It's so nice just to have unity.

I love coming to Glorious Way because it just feels y'all are my family and we can just be honest, and but there's this pull on us all, and so I just wanted to talk about some of those things tonight and to see what the word had to say.

And first of all, when we take communion, we're participating in that symbol.

We've got the cup of salvation over here, we've got the bread of life right here.

That represents when we take it, we're taking Jesus into our body.

Thereby he is part of us and we are part of him and we are all doing this together.

So we are all one body when we do this.

It's a holy thing, it unites us and it unites us to every believer in the church of Jesus all across the world, people who take communion.

We are one flesh with them.

It is a covenant, it is a reminder of our covenant, like a marriage is a covenant and we're not married to everybody, dear Lord.

We're not married to everybody, but you know, it's a holy thing, it's a covenant, and so when we take communion, we're partaking of and what we're saying is everything that Jesus deserves we get.

It's a lot of benefit, and so it's a holy, weighty thing and we should not do it flippantly.

So it says we're going to just keep reading.

Do this in remembrance of me.

We're still in 1 Corinthians 11.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes.

How awesome that we have a faith where you can proclaim the Lord's death.

And it's not bad news, it's actually the best news, because he died and rose again.

Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

That's heavy, but so here's the antidote for that.

But let a man examine himself, so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

Let him do that, let him examine so he won't be unworthy of it.

And for you eat and drink in an unworthy manner or in an irreverent manner or in a manner that does not properly respect the covenant, then he drinks judgment to himself.

So we get the opposite effect.

If we do it wrong.

If we do it with the right heart, we get awesome benefits.

If we do it with the wrong heart, we get negative things happen.

He drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

Not discerning the Lord's body, not giving deference, not giving preference to the Lord's body.

Man, the Lord's body is really important.

Jesus wants you to put that up on a big old pedestal right there.

And when you take this bread, you got to know man.

I want to make sure that my relationship—so because I'm communing with the Lord vertically, I'm doing that—but I want to make sure, when I take this body, I want to make sure that all my horizontal with all of you is right where it needs to be.

And so there are so many parameters in the Word that God helps us.

Thank God, because we don't know how to do this.

It does not come naturally.

It does not come naturally sometimes.

It says we should discern the Lord's body.

For this reason, many are weak when we don't do it.

Many are weak and sick among you and many sleep.

In other words, we could die early because our body can't handle the glory of God.

When we break this covenant, when we deviate this covenant, it's bad for our health and it says for if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged, but when we are judged we are chastened by the Lord that we may not be condemned With the world, though actually, the judgment of God is actually good.

It's actually good for us.

It's helping us get right with Him.

So, therefore, and brother, when you come together to eat, wait for one another One—anyway.

So in other words, just prefer each other in love.

So there is a—we want to discern the Lord's body, we want to be so—we want to so love the Lord when we—and honor Him when we take communion, and not just—because again, communion is a symbol the church together.

We do this about once a month, you know, maybe once every six weeks or so.

We don't do it a lot.

Many of you take communion in your personal worship and devotions at home.

That's awesome, but really, we need the bread of life every day.

We need the cup of salvation every day.

We better be drinking, we better be drunk on that.

We need that.

We need some anesthesia for the things of this world.

Right, we just need to be on this stuff every day, but it's not the physical stuff.

We can drink of the Holy Spirit, we can read the Word, we can listen to the Word.

Dear Lord, if you come to my house in the morning, you will hear Mr King James' voice.

You know the guy on the Bible app that speaks like this.

Yes, you will hear that in my house because I like to do stuff while he's reading to me, you know.

But I—I mean God talks to you in all kinds of ways, but the Word—you need it fresh every day.

Get it however you will, but get it every day, all right.

So let's go to John 13.

John 13,.

These are the words of Jesus.

In verse 34, he says A new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you.

That's a pretty high bar there, because Jesus has loved.

That's how we're supposed to love one another.

That by this, all will know that you are my disciples if you love—if you have love for one another.

Okay, wow, jesus, that's a high bar.

And in fact that's not—that's after.

He said that like I want you to love each other, like I love you.

But he's telling them, if you rewind a few verses to the very top of the.

So, john 13, sorry, if I could only turn in my Bible.

John 13.1 is the story of Jesus washing the disciples' feet.

And Lee, did you get my email, or did anyone get my email?

No big deal.

If you didn't, I have a picture that I sent to sound at GWCCC that if you could possibly display it.

Oh, there it is, there it is.

So I'm going to.

That's our visual for us.

That is an artwork and it is.

I believe it is on display in Curville, texas.

It is by Max Griner.

Jr is the artist on that.

He's my second cousin, but I like this because it's a visual and it's very symbolic.

Why is Jesus naked?

Why is Jesus not wearing?

You know he's wearing a little cloth there.

What happened to his clothes?

Let's read it.

It says now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew his hour had come and that he should depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world.

He loved them to the end.

So there's an idea never quit, never give up on people.

And supper being ended the devil having already put it in the heart of Judas is scary.

It's I'm an Son to betray him.

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things to his hands and that he had come to God, was going to God and rose from supper and laid aside his garments.

So what does that mean?

He laid aside his garments.

Jesus had some valuable garments.

The next day on the cross.

The soldiers took his garments from him and the soldiers cast lots to see who would keep.

First they split one of them.

They said, oh, we can split this one up between us.

But then the outer garment.

They said, oh, this one's really nice.

It doesn't even have a seam.

It would have been so expensive and fancy.

It was woven from one whole piece of cloth.

That was his outer garment.

And he laid aside that pretense, any pretense that he had, and he said I'm going to put that aside and I'm going to look to you like a slave, because that's how slaves dressed.

They didn't have any garments.

He said I'm going to take away my garment and I'm going to be like a slave.

And he took a towel and he girded himself.

And after that he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded.

And then he came to Simon Peter.

Peter said to him Lord, are you washing my feet, like I need to be washing your feet.

I'm the servant here, not you.

You're the king of the world, the universe.

Jesus answered and said what am I?

What I am doing?

You do not understand now, but you will know after this.

And Peter said to him you shall never wash my feet.

Jesus answered if I do not wash, you have no part with me.

And so then Peter said well, wash it all.

And Jesus said no, no, you're already.

He was bathed, needs only to wash his feet.

But it's completely clean.

And you are clean.

But not all of you, for he knew who would betray him.

Therefore, he said you were not all clean.

So who was also in the room there?

Judas was in the room.

Judas was in that room.

So he modeled that.

He modeled that to.

That's how we love people.

It's an unconditional love.

And so I drew about five things out of that that we'll just go through and just things that I want to stick tonight before we take the cup.

Jesus, obviously that was a symbol.

When he washed their feet.

It was a symbol of service, of servitude.

He looked like a slave.

It was a valuable service because people wore sandals and they walked through dusty streets that were covered with donkey and horse manure or whatever.

People had to ride not everybody, you know.

There were no cars, so animals were everywhere and the streets were nasty.

The streets were dirty, and so it was a practical service that Jesus did, but obviously he said the Son of man had cue-de-feat him.

Matthew 20 says Jesus called them to Himself and said you know, the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them.

Those who are great exercise authority over them.

Yet it shall not be so among you.

But whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant.

Whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave.

Just as the Son of man did not come to serve, not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many, so Jesus was a servant.

He is saying I serve you.

And you know, we all have this idea in our mind.

You know Jesus, you know, and all the Israelites at the time were expecting this king, this regal king.

Well, he dressed like that and he's washing feet and even in this world.

You know, when we serve, that's how God can bless us, that's how he opens the door.

My dad owned his own business for many years and sometimes that looked like real prosperity and sometimes it looked like hard times and our family learned to just depend on God.

But one thing my dad learned and says often you know, you want to own that business.

You want to be the head honcho, you're the boss.

Oh, I don't have a boss.

Yes, you do.

You have a million bosses.

They're all your customers and you better make them happy.

You got to do all the things and so so serving is really.

It is the way if we serve with the right heart, it is the way God can exalt us.

And I'm going to brag on my girl because and I had to leave her at home one day this week for longer than I would have liked to, but she likes it.

She is a little bit of a hermit in her personality and she just likes to read and read and read and read, and she doesn't mind being alone at home.

And she was also being the youngest child, was the kid that everyone had to pick up after Ben, pick up after your sister.

You know she left a mess over there, ben, go clean that up.

And so Anna was not always learning to be the most organized and neat child, and so, anyway, she was home alone and normally and I've never, ever seen that y'all, y'all love your kids, put good stuff in them and eventually maybe it'll come out.

I came home, I walked through the door after work and there's a mop, a wet mop, in the land by the back door and I just wondered what I was going to find.

And then I kept walking and a few steps later there was a mop bucket over there.

But the floor was clean, y'all the floor was clean, and I have a dog, so that was a big deal.

And so she had swept, mopped and she had vacuumed the upstairs and she had baked a whole and the cookies were like hot in the oven and we're, and I was just so.

I was so proud of her.

But anyway, this was like no one asked her to do that.

I didn't give her a long list of tours when I left.

It was just the sweetest thing, y'all.

I got a brag on my kid but she was serving the family.

I said, maybe, why did you?

What made you do all this?

She said, well, the floor was dirty, mom, like well, the floor's been dirty for your whole life and you never did anything about it.

But I didn't say that.

But anyway, it was sweet and I just know that God has a that she's already serving.

She loves to serve, she loves to serve the Lord here in the church, she loves your kids in children's church, and so I was proud of her for that.

But Jesus served and that was the way.

Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for he cares for you.

1 Peter Anyway, but humble yourself that he may humble yourself, that he may humble yourself, that he may exalt you in due time, didn't happen today, doesn't happen today.

Not looking for that's not even our motive, we're just serving the Lord.

But look, jesus didn't happen today for Jesus.

He humbled Himself, he served and he then he gave everything.

But then, three days, he three to in due time.

He was highly exalted and gave Him the name that is, above all names, and of the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess Awesome.

So there's time.

There's time for us, but we have to humble ourselves, which is another.

One of the points is just, that was humility that Jesus modeled.

He modeled that he bowed down, he wasn't afraid to be, to look like a slave, to work hard, and he wasn't afraid to prefer other people.

So let's talk about that.

Preferring each other in love.

That's another thing we do when we take communion.

Are we preferring one another in love or are we doing something out of selfish ambition, trying to make our trying to push up on other people's shoulders, or are we preferring them and pushing them up?

Are we pushing Jesus up?

And, ooh, obviously the cheerleader moves up there.

Tara was a cheerleader, she says she knows.

So yeah, there was a base, there were the bases, and those were the stronger girls that could lift.

And then there were little twiggy girls that got thrown around and stuff, and those are the girls that got to do the fun little, you know, stand up on the top, high and whatever.

Sometimes we got thrown around a little bit too, and sometimes we landed on our forehead on the carpet and have a scar right there.

But anyway, but we're not.

But are we lifting up other people?

Are we lifting up Jesus?

Are we lifting up other people?

And so when I think about that I got to touch these three.

There's three different passages and I won't read all of them, but you're going to.

Paul leads us through how to get along with other believers who don't see things the same way we do, and in their time it was the litmus test how Christian are you?

How Christian are you based on whether you eat food offered to idols or not.

I'm going to you know I can judge you, I can trust you or not based on how much do you eat if the food was offered to idols?

Because they had a lot of paganism in every.

You know, in all of these towns, in the Corinthian church, in the Roman church, there was idolatry everywhere and there were these issues.

And so in Romans 14, here says it's the law of love.

I'm going to read this literally.

It says that in my Bible, the law of love, paul says I know and I'm convinced that the Lord Jesus, there is nothing unclean of itself but Him who considers anything to be unclean, to Him it is unclean.

So I've got this matter of conscience and I, if I don't want to eat this food because it was offered to an idol in an idol worshiping ceremony and somebody then offers it to me, I've got it.

Now I have a matter of conscience.

Do I eat it?

Do I not eat it?

What am I going to do?

I mean, there's a pride display in that store.

Am I going to buy the shoes or am I not going to buy the shoes?

You know, like all the things.

Oh, my neighbor's having a Halloween party and I love my neighbor.

They're so sweet to me.

But I don't celebrate Halloween, it's a demonic holiday.

What am I going to do, you know?

I mean, I've always drank a little alcohol.

Sometimes I like to drink.

I'm not going to drink, but then that really man.

I have a.

My Christian brother over here used to be an alcoholic.

I really like my wine at night.

I need to go to sleep.

You know, we have these issues that come up that are just like little burrs and we've got to live together in unity and we've got to find our way to not offend our brother.

And none of any of that stuff is worth offending.

The brother for whom Christ died.

And the concept always is in 1 Corinthians 10,.

So I'm jumping around here because there are like three different passages that all deal with the same thing and in all of them I don't want to—therefore, if this is 1 Corinthians 10, 13,.

Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

Well, you know, I eat meat because I know it's not going to make you stumble.

Hallelujah, but it did you know?

And specifically, but if it was meat offered to idols, then I wouldn't be able to eat it.

So, for example, this was a helpful—maybe this will be helpful to you.

I've used these scriptures a lot.

My child—I'm going to use this example.

My oldest child had a friend in junior high and she—so sweet, they were really good friends and she was of a different denomination and she loved Jesus so much and she was so, so modest, which is wonderful, and I really wish, you know, modesty like that would rule our entire, you know, world.

But sadly it does not Anyway.

And so this child, whenever she would swim, she would not swim with a boy at present at all.

Only girls could be around when they swim.

And we don't have that—we swim, we just swim.

I have a son, I have daughters, we all swim, and you know what?

We were a swimsuit when we swim, and it's modest wine, you know, but it's a swimsuit.

And this child wore like lots of baggy clothing that flopped around in the water and my child did not want to wear that.

And so we walked through these scriptures.

We were on our way to piano lessons and I said Thea, you know, turn to Romans 14.

Here's my phone, get it, look it up and read what it says.

And she read this law of love right here.

Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food or for the sake of your swimwear or for the sake of whatever that thing is that you're offended about.

All things are indeed pure, but it's evil for the man who eats it with offense.

So if it's going to bother your conscience, it's going to bother her conscience, for you to dress like that, then you can't dress like that when you're with her.

So then we've got a thing We've got to get along.

We've got to discern the body.

It's good neither to eat, mean or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother stumble or is offended or made weak.

Do you have faith?

Have it to yourself before God, happy as he who does not condemn himself when he approves.

So I have no problem.

My child had no problem wearing a swimsuit and swimming with her brothers and other boys in a modest swimsuit.

We don't have a problem with that.

But you know what, if that child, the other friend, did, then we were not going to do that.

We were going to have our faith between us and God, because we didn't want to cause her to sin.

And then there's another scripture in 1 Corinthians 10, 32.

It says give no offense, neither the Jews, nor the Greeks, or the church of God.

There's three people, groups really, in the world, all right now Jews, unsaved Gentiles.

Jews have a covenant with God.

Unsaved Gentiles, we didn't have no covenant with God, but then we got one and now we're in the church of God.

So we're not supposed to give any offense to any of those people.

Oh my Lord, how would we do that?

Everybody lives to be offended, all day long, every day, offense, everywhere, people offended.

Well, we have used the word offended in a.

Really we have overused that word.

Dare, I say that we have overused the word offended.

People are offended, they're outraged.

And that phrase because look, the devil will use that phrase right there to make you the most milk toast, lily-livered Christian that never stands up for your faith.

Give no offense to the Jews or the Greeks, make everybody happy.

That is not what that scripture means.

It does mean this Don't lead anyone to sin.

That's what the scripture means.

Do not lead them to sin.

It does not say do not hurt their feelings, because I can't control their feelings, but I can't and I can't really control whether they're going to sin or not, but I don't have to be the one that leads them into it.

And so when I look at that, I want then does that help give you clarity?

If it's going to cause someone to sin, then we don't need to do it.

It's not worth it, it's not discerning the Lord's body to do that.

And if we do it, then we're really outside of the full blessing of God.

It's bad for our health, it's bad for our full blessing when we are leading other people to sin, even if we didn't mean to, just by our freedom.

Wee, yes, yes, I'm going to do all these questionable things.

And who's watching?

What new believer, what person on the verge of getting saved, who hadn't quite gotten saved?

And they're watching our behavior.

Man, what is that saying to them?

And a man having toddlers around the house?

That'll keep you honest.

They're watching everything.

Kids, kids are 10 year old.

Oh, with that sense of justice that they have a 10 year old right there, they will keep you honest.

And then you think well, if I wouldn't do that while my 10 year old was watching, then I shouldn't do it.

Maybe I shouldn't watch that show if I couldn't watch it with my 10 year old.

Ouch, all right, so it.

God, jesus modeled that and I'm going to rush through these other ones because but he modeled forgiveness, having already he modeled humility, but forgiveness did I say forgiveness already?

He modeled forgiveness because he washed Judas' feet.

He washed Peter's feet, even though Peter was, he dried around.

He washed Peter's feet.

Then he told them you know, you're about to betray me three times, you're about to deny me, you're about to deny me three times.

Peter.

He was already forgiving Peter.

He was already forgiving Judas while he was washing his feet, he was already forgiving you and me.

He had already.

And he was about to give the cup and the wine.

He was about to give that as a symbol.

And then the next day he was about to give it all and he was already forgiving.

And even when he hung on the cross he said Father, forgive them.

They don't know what they're doing.

So just a quick word on forgiveness.

The forgiveness is important in discerning the body, because if we have, we're taking communion and we need to be sure that we don't have any schism in the body that we're not letting.

So.

Mark 11, 25, we're always excited to quote Mark 11, 23, and 24 about how we move mountains.

With our faith and with our words, we'll have whatever we say, hallelujah.

We'll have mountains removed and cast into the sea, hallelujah.

But then, right after that, it says and when you stand praying, if you have anything against anybody, forgive them.

When you stand praying, forgive.

When you stand praying, forgive.

And the Beatitudes, matthew 5,.

Jesus said if you're going to bring a gift to the altar, leave it there and go be reconciled to your brother and then come back, be reconciled.

Are you kidding me?

Is that possible Reconciliation with people?

Well, let me give you the balance.

Let's go through Matthew 18.

This will be my last point.

Oh, there's so much more to say on this, but we got to.

We'll move Forgiveness.

How do we walk out day to day and really keep short accounts with people because they hurt our feelings?

That's just the truth.

Somebody's going to hurt your feelings today.

I'm going to hurt your feelings.

I don't want to, but I'm going to accidentally.

I'm going to hurt your feelings.

You're going to hurt my feelings.

You didn't mean to, but oh, my God, it's just hard, goodness.

So Matthew 18, 15, this is a wonderful template for how to deal with conflict in the church.

This doesn't work outside the church all the time, but this is a good conflict in the church with other believers.

And, moreover, if your brother sins against you, go tell him his faults, between you and him alone, in other words, just, and you don't have to beat him over the head that he did this wrong, you sinned against me.

You could just say, you know when you did that you might ask a question or two because maybe you just misunderstood the situation.

And then if it really was like man, I really felt this made me, this hit me wrong when you did this and I felt I just need to get this right between us and if he hears you you have gained your brother.

But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

So if it really is that egregious and he he didn't see it your way then maybe you take somebody else who was around at the time who can help you understand, who can help bring really the word.

Because the word it didn't always easy, but it it works.

And so when we use not we use the speaking the truth in love.

Ephesians four says when we speak the truth, not as a bludgeon to beat someone into submission, into our will.

You sinned against me.

The Bible says not to do the thing you just did, and yet you did it.

But there's a better way.

We can just in love, we can share the word and we and we can share our, our experience that we had, and then maybe we'll win them back.

But if we don't, then we take another person and if he refuses to hear them, then we've got to tell everybody, because now we know that person is a wolf.

That's not just a sheep that made a mistake, it's not just a goat wandering through, eating the stuff and moving on.

That person is a wolf.

They could be dangerous, they could hurt others.

So now we've got to warn other people.

Tell it to the church, but if he refuses to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.

So here we see that not always will we be able to be reunited, to be restored completely into fellowship with that person.

I wish we could, dear Lord.

I wish we could always be restored to fellowship, but sometimes it just can't be.

It can't be, and because it's their choice, but we had at least the honor to go to them.

Now I'm going to use an example, my child Anna.

Again, I'm throwing Anna under the bus tonight.

She's not here to gripe at me, but she was on a junior high basketball team last year and the junior high basketball team has older girls that had a lot of drama.

Anna was just in sixth grade.

These eighth graders were all feuding, oh, so-and-so didn't invite me to their party and then so-and-so likes the same boy that I like.

I can't believe she likes him too.

It's my boy that I like.

And there was a lot of drama.

And instead of you know so, I heard the coach.

The coach said girls, let's go back to Matthew 18.

Y'all are not doing Matthew 18.

What y'all are doing is you're telling everybody else your problem and your drama and you never given this person that hurt your feelings.

You never gave them a chance to make it right.

I mean, you think you owe that to them, according to the word here, to make it right with them.

And then you know, and then, if they don't hear, you just come talk to the coach.

You know I'll handle it, but give them a chance.

Give them a chance to make it right and if we love each other, we'll give each other a chance.

We'll give each other the benefit of the doubt.

Love does that.

I'm not even talking about 1st Corinthians 13 tonight.

That's not even on my list.

But you can go home and read it.

It's not proud, it's not rude, it doesn't puff itself up.

It believes the best you know.

So those are things we want to do when we're forgiving people.

We've got to forgive because then it says whatever is bound on earth is bound in heaven.

Whatever is loosed on earth is loosed in heaven.

Not that heaven itself allows people to sin.

That's not the—it's saying that the heaven—it's bound in the—so if we allow people to treat us—if we allow people to violate the word in our church, if we allow people to go around and machine gun people with rudeness or whatever that sin of pollute other people, that we shouldn't allow that, because what we allow, god's going to allow it.

The heavenlies allow whatever we allow.

So let's not allow it, let's bind it on earth.

We bind it with the word by bringing the word to the situation and helping that person, helping them in love, helping to restore them and trying everything we can do, if it's if, to strain every nerve, ephesians says, to try to get it right so that we can discern the Lord's body.

And then, if none of that works, man, we still—God, we did the word, we did everything we could and we have discerned—we have rightly discerned the Lord's body and then we can have all the benefits of His covenant and we'll never hunger and we'll never thirst.

Okay, one more thing I can do.

I can do edification.

When we discern the Lord's body, we're edifying each other.

We're building each other up.

I mentioned that we have a covenant with God, ephesians 5.

Paul compares it—Paul compares the way God takes care of his church to the way that a wonderful husband would take care of his wife.

And he said husbands verse 25, notice how I conveniently skipped over the wife part.

Husbands, love your wife.

Just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her.

So we know Jesus loves us, he loves his body, he gave himself for his body for us and that he may sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word.

There's the word again.

Whenever we speak the word, it's like water and it washes through this relationship and it cleanses out impurities.

It's Jesus washing our feet.

It's our feet getting clean of all the junk along the road.

It's Jesus.

His God's word is a cleanser and it's washing the water by the word that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot, a wrinkle or any such thing, that she should be holy and without blemish.

So it's a cleansing, it's a purifying, it's edifying her.

So in verse 29, no one ever hated his own flesh.

So we don't hate our own flesh.

If I'm your own flesh because we've been drinking the same communion and eating the same bread, then I want to nourish and cherish you.

I want, when I speak words about you, I want those to build you up and not tear you down.

We have a ruling children's church about that Build up, don't tear down.

We have to remind the kids sometimes Build up, don't tear down.

But we've got to nourish and cherish, just as the Lord does the church, and so those are things that we do.

We edify each other, we build each other up, and so that's all part of just our horizontal rightly dividing the word.

So can we haul off and take communion tonight?

Let's just do it, because I can't talk about it and then not do it.

So now we know exactly all the stuff that we need to do and I'm not going to ask anybody to actually wash anybody's feet.

Tonight there will not be a foot washing ceremony.

I have been in that.

Raise your hand.

If you've ever been in church service where somebody did that, it's embarrassing, but it's just a symbol though.

But anyway.

But we are going to do this symbol right here because Jesus said to do it in remembrance of him, so we're going to do it.

So, lord, first of all, let's get our bread ready, because Jesus did that first, and you can open your little cup there with the bread and let's just say this Say Jesus, you are my bread.

I do not hunger because you sustained me.

Thank you for your body.

You are broken, so I would be whole.

My body is whole, my relationship with other believers is whole and I take this in love and worship of you.

Right now, I receive blessing in Jesus' name.

So with that you can break it, hallelujah.

And after he did that, he lifted up the cup and he gave thanks and he said this is a cup of the new covenant.

Drink all of it.

Jesus drank all of our cup of judgment.

He drank it all and he took it all away.

So there's nothing left of our sin.

There's nothing left of our judgment.

His blood did not just cover our sin, but it completely wiped it away.

And so when we take it, we are applying the blood of Jesus to every part of our life, every part of our heart.

We're receiving what he did.

It's a finished work.

It's not going to happen someday, it's done.

When Jesus shed his blood, he said it is finished.

It is finished.

And the veil of the temple tore from the top to the bottom.

God himself ripped it apart and said I am now one with my people.

I'm not behind a curtain anymore, separated from you.

We're now one and we can come boldly into the throne of grace because of this blood right here.

It's the blood of the new covenant.

The oldest passed away, and so we're going to take it and we're going to drink all of it now, in Jesus' name.

But, lord, we just worship you tonight.

We worship you.

You can stand up.

Hallelujah, lord, we are now one with each other.

We are one with every believer across this world who calls upon the name of the Lord.

We're a part of something so much bigger.

In Holy Spirit, we call upon you, lord, to help us.

Help us when we don't know what to say, when we don't know how to handle that situation.

Holy Ghost lead and guide us into all truth, that we would fully discern your body, that we would love each other with the love of the Lord.

That would be agape love unconditional, unending, never fading and never failing Lord.

In the name of Jesus, lord, we just thank you for your goodness.

Your faithfulness Never gave up on us, that we can't give up on each other, and certainly never on your covenant, lord.

Your covenant is true.

We keep it with honor and with worship in Jesus' name.