One Bread, One Body | Pastor Loren Covarrubias

I want to open with the scripture I also shared last

week from First Timothy. It says these things I write to,

though I hope to come to you shortly.

But if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought

to conduct yourself in the House of God, which is the Church of

the living God. It is the pillar and the ground

of truth that Scripture says a whole lot, and it certainly

tells us how important the church is.

It is the very foundation of everything that God is doing in

the earth. We know how important truth is

because the Bible says you will know the truth and the truth

will make you free. I'm glad there's freedom in

Christ Jesus, but the very ground on which that truth is

planted and the pillars that support it, well, it is the

church. And also I want to point out

today how important it is for us to recognize the purpose of the

church in our lives, to help train us so that we can go on to

maturity in God. But also, especially in this

day, we need to see how important the church is in God's

divine protection and impartation of knowledge and

wisdom for us in this great day, because we need to understand

this is a very special time in the plans and purposes of God.

God has an eternal purpose to be again being revealed in the book

of Genesis and goes all the way to the Book of Revelation.

And part of that is to recognize that God's eternal purpose from

the very beginning was that he would have a church, meaning

also that he would have a people and whom he would dwell and

through whom he might make a blessing in the world in which

we live. That's God's eternal purpose.

Now this next verse of Scripture I want to share is from the book

of Acts chapter 2. It says And with many words he

Acts 2 · chapter mention

testified and exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this

perverse generation. Then those who gladly received

His word were baptized. In that day about 3000 souls

were added to them, and they continued steadfastly in the

apostles doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of

bread and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul,

and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

Now, the day of Pentecost is very important because after

Jesus Christ died on the cross and through His blood we have

forgiveness of sin. We have the opportunity to open

up our lives that we can receive the very presence of God in us.

That's why the Bible says that we are the temples of the Holy

Spirit. How do you know that's an

awesome thing to believe that God lives inside of you?

We also want to balance that with our understanding.

There's both our individual expression as the temple, but

also, as you notice in the Scripture, it talks about the

church, which is the place of God's habitation and God's

dwelling. So on the day of Pentecost,

that's when the church was born, everybody looks back and says,

Yep, that's when it happened. Because when the Holy Spirit

came, the seed of God was planted.

Jesus said unless the corn of wheat falls into the earth and

dies, it abides alone. But if it dies and goes there,

when it comes up, it becomes a great tree with many branches.

And so Jesus Christ planted a seed that from that would come

the church. And even each and every one of

us must see ourselves as a branch on that tree.

He is the vine and we are the branches.

I also want to take note here that on the day of Pentecost, as

He's preaching the message, He didn't say to them.

And I want you to hear this message so you can get saved and

go to heaven when you die. And we understand, of course,

eternal life is a part of God's provision.

But he was speaking to them something very important that I

believe each and every one of us need to hear in this day.

And that is you need to hear and you need to respond to this

message by repentance and water baptism in order that you might

save yourself from this generation.

Now this is important for us to understand because our

generation is the greatest influence upon our lives that

hinders us from walking fully in the things that God has for us.

In Ephesians chapter 2, it says that we were once dead in our

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

sins and trespasses, but then God has made us a lot.

When we were dead in our sins and trespasses, the Bible says

we lived according to the course of this world.

We followed the spirit of the age and we were under influence

of the Goddess world. But when we are born again, God

delivers us from that, so that when we're going through the

waters of baptism, we see ourselves being translated into

the Kingdom of God. And Jesus said that when we're

born again, we can both see and enter into the Kingdom of God.

And that's important for us to understand because there's

really 2 dimensions to the world we live in today.

It is the dimension of God which is his Kingdom, and there is the

dimension of the opposing force, which is under the dominion of

the God of this world and the spirit of the age.

And so when we come to the Lord, we have to realize that God

delivers us from the power of that generation.

Peter was preaching his message. Do you understand that?

That was the generation that literally crucified Jesus

Christ? And Jesus in preaching shortly

before he left, taking his disciples through the temple,

said to them, now one stone is going to be left upon another.

In other words, this temple is going to be destroyed.

And he said this generation will see those things come to pass.

And that was literally true. 40 years later, the temple was

destroyed, completing the process from the old covenant to

the new covenant and really bringing everybody into a whole

new dimension, into the things that God had for them.

And so God deals with generations.

It's important for us to understand that, and we have to

understand that we are the generation of the righteous.

We are those that God has chosen to be his force in the world

today and to save us from this generation and also to give us

the power to bring salvation to our generation.

And I feel so emboldened in my faith today to believe God for a

greater dimension of understanding and greater

dimension of influence and reaching out to the world in

which we live. But as he began to preach this

message, he said to them that they needed to be born again.

And then it says, and the church continued in the apostles

doctrine and in fellowship and breaking in bread and prayers.

And that's basically the foundation of the Christian

Church today. It's so important that we would

understand doctrine. The Bible says if you don't have

the doctrine of Christ or the teaching of Christ, you don't

have Christ. You have to understand who he

is. You have to respond to him.

And so we need to understand how important it is even as a local

church to this day to have Bible classes.

As you notice in our website and we showed you a screen, we have

Bible classes here at the church.

We have smaller group discussion classes, I think emphasizing the

book of First Corinthians at our coffee house.

You can join one of these different classes that are

available at various times so you can have a time of

fellowship with each other and also hearing the Word of God.

For those who want the higher level of understanding, we have

our minister training classes at the Mount Zion Center on

Clintonville Rd. So we certainly are continuing

to walk in the apostles doctrine.

Breaking of bread represents to us communion that we will share

today. But as you'll notice in the book

of First Corinthians that we read today, it's talking about

the Lord's Supper, it's talking about the Gad in the church.

And they also had what was called an agape feast where they

would have dinner together. Back in those days, it was very

hard to fit a schedule in where you could actually get to 1

place at one time for a gathering of people.

And so they'd make it into a big time together where they'd have

a meal and then they would celebrate the Lord's Prayer or

the Lord's Table together. And finally, how many know the

House of God should be a House of prayer?

Jesus said my Father's house should be a House of prayer for

all nations. That's why when I preach, I talk

about what God's doing here, but also in the nations because he's

given us a mandate to go to all the world and preach the gospel.

Amen. And also emphasizing how we have

a prayer service on Tuesday morning where we pray, and also

we have opportunities for those of you who would like to turn in

prayer requests. And the group that comes on

Tuesday morning intercedes for all of us as they pray.

So that's such an awesome thing. And we also have a prayer time

on Saturdays at 10, we called the Lord's Prayer because we

just open with the Lord's Prayer and then people just have an

opportunity to pray for one hour, then we close.

Some people come a little later, some people a little earlier

leave, but it's an opportunity just to get together in a group

of people and have corporate prayer together.

So these things continue for us. But one of the words mentioned

was the word fellowship, and I wanted to exert on that for just

a little bit when I was growing up in church, when we talked

about having a fellowship, to us that was having some event where

we'd be having a meal together, some type of an activity.

But it's important when we think about fellowship that it's much

more than that. We should be in fellowship with

one another. And when we're in fellowship

with one another, the word in the original Greek is actually

transferred in different ways in the New Testament.

Sometimes it means partnership, sometimes it's used for

participation and also of course, social exchange.

When we are born again, we become a part of the body of

Christ and the Bible says we are members in particular and that

each and every one of us as members of the body of Christ

have something to give and we all have something that we need

to receive some somebody else. So how many know we need to be

in a partnership where participation just builds on

that by saying each part has to give their part in order for the

fullness to come. And then of course, the social

exchange is important. That's why at Mount Zion we do

offer different opportunities through our community centers,

through the different age groups to get together for fellowship

because our social exchange is very important.

We need to be around people like minded in the faith who

understand the ways that God has called us to walk in so that we

can walk together with God. Amen.

I heard someone say you can't soar like an eagle when you're

just hanging around the turkeys. How many want to soar like an

eagle where we are eagles together as we walk in the

fullness of all things that God has for us.

And it's important for us to recognize this.

Again, this scripture I shared last week from First Corinthians

1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10 says, therefore, let him who thinks he stands take

heed lest he fall. The cup of blessing which we

bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?

The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of

Christ? For we, though many, are one

bread and one body, for we all partake of that one bread.

And again, the word communion, there is the same word in the

original Greek as fellowship. And so we have fellowship with

God as we are called to have fellowship with one another.

But I think it's important to hear that admonition.

Be careful if you think you're going to stand lest you fall,

because that tells us as Christians, it's very important

for us to have a cautious preparation in our Christian

experience so that we're prepared to receive and to live

the world in the world that God has called us to live in.

And when you think of the perverse generation and the

apostles, Peter's day, and you think about the perversity of

the generation we are living in church, we need to be cautious.

I think one way that we need to be cautious is sometimes we get

our eyes caught on big events and don't really realize it's

the smaller events that the enemy of the God of this world

is trying to rob us of our Christianity and our strength we

have in God. That's why I wrote the book Why

is the Devil in your Garden? Because Jesus had only two

encounters with the devil in his three years of ministry.

The 1st when he was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness.

And there the devil tried to tempt him with the same thing

that was tempting to Adam and Eve in the garden, the lust of

the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

Jesus Christ resisted the devil and that's what the Bible says.

If he resist the devil, he will flee from you.

And that's when he began again his ministry and preach, repent,

for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.

That's the door in which we go through.

Now. The only other time that it's

important for us to understand is at the time of this

crucifixion. And this is important for us to

understand because the Bible said had the rulers of this

world known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

They were motivated by the enemy himself to crucify Jesus Christ.

He thought he was winning a war and he was just falling into

God's trap. How you know, That's the lesson

we should all learn. Now, I want to point out

something because as Jesus Christ was getting ready to go

to the cross in which he would defeat Satan and make a spoil of

principalities and powers in heavenly places, you know where

his opposition came from. It came from his friends.

They said, Oh no, you don't have to do that.

You, you don't want to go to the cross.

I mean, they had a vested interest in him as his

disciples. They had walked with Jesus

Christ for three years. They had witnessed many miracles

that he had performed. They had heard his public

teaching. And they also has opportunity to

sit with him on the sidelines and get deeper, deeper insight.

So you can imagine they didn't want him to go, but they also

love Jesus. And they were like, you can't

die in a cross. And Jesus said to them something

very important, but for this purpose I was born.

And so his purpose was fulfilled in that going to the cross.

And I want to emphasize the caution was his friends were the

ones who were resisting him from fulfilling His eternal purpose.

And that's why we have to be very cautious because sometimes

people are advising us not according to the Word.

We're not just thinking about our real purpose in life.

Well, people just want to be nice to us and give us what they

would consider advice that's for our good.

But how many know we need to know what God's advice is?

Amen. That's why the Word is so very

vitally important because we don't always know what's going

on. This past week, there was a

major event that happened in our country and that was when an ICE

agent shot someone. That's the big event of the

week. But I want you to understand we

have a lot of big events like that.

We are in a time of crisis in our country where there's many

political debates, many social debates.

But I want you to understand something as citizens of the

United States of America, that's something that we should be

aware of and know what's going on so we can vote properly and

be involved properly. But I want you to understand

that's sometimes robbing people have seen really what God is

doing and that's why I have my new YouTube site.

I'm explaining all these things because I want you to know how

we operate at Mount Zion. We operate according to the

scriptures and according to what God has spoken to us and have a

TV show called Spiritual Perception because I believe we

need to have spiritual perception in our time.

Last week I shared with you how excited it was because I looked

at the news and I found out that there was some international

events happening in Venezuela. And I was excited about it

because we have a church in Havana and I would be concerned

about, even if we didn't have a church about that.

But I want Havana, Cuba to be set free from the tyranny that

they've been under for many, many years.

So I'm excited about those events.

I'm also excited about what's happening in the Middle East

because I know and what I see in the Scriptures, that the

gospel's been travelling around the world and that's the great

fortress of the enemy and God's tearing down the walls there so

the gospel can go into the land. It's an amazing time church and

the reason I said it's important to be spiritually perceptive

because a lot of people have an eschatology, which is an

understanding of the last times that they're always looking for

the Antichrist, looking for the beast, looking for the mark of

the beast. And they see world events and

like, oh, the end is near, the base is arising, the Antichrist

is coming. When I look out there, I say,

wow, God said to Abraham, your seed will be a blessing in every

nation of the world. And right now God is tearing

down the strongholds in the Middle East.

God's tearing down the strongholds and countries

because I want you to understand it's time for us to rise and

shine so the glory of the Lord can be seen upon this church.

And so if we have the wrong thinking about what God is

doing, we'll be looking for the wrong things.

I want to look for the right things.

How about you? And that's why I also want to be

looking for the right things. And that's something I'll be

sharing with you today. How important it is have

spiritual perception so that we can be aware of, well, what

exactly is going on in our world today.

And we need to be cautious and we need to understand there's

something that's happening in our nation and also in the

world. But when we look at it, we have

to say, well, what is it that God's doing?

There's a political debate. Again, there's a social debate.

And that will always seem like the bigger thing because that's

what we see on the news. And unfortunately, a lot of

Christians are looking at that as the spiritual issue or the

religious debate, if you would. And we have to understand that

God's Kingdom is not a visible Kingdom.

The Bible says it arises in the hearts of men and in the hearts

of God's people. God is doing a very special work

right now, church. We need to give him our whole

heart and we need to recognize that the Kingdom of God is

arising in the hearts of men and God's going to raise up a people

right now. That's why I want to be cautious

and listen and be perceptive as what it is that God is doing in

the earth. Now, what that Scripture said is

that when we take communion, we remind ourselves of something

very important, that as we're taking the bread, we should

understand we are all eating from the same source of life and

we need to understand, and this is something I want you to see,

the undercurrent of society today is people are looking for

something. We've got to recognize it

because God is the God of the whole earth and he's working in

the earth and he's working in our society to prepare people to

receive the gospel. And, and having said that, I

want to talk to you about having a shared experience versus a

shared life. It's very possible for us to

have a shared experience, but not really experience the life

that's supposed to come to us. Now, I wanted to point out that

each and everyone of us have been created by God.

And because we were created by God, we need to understand that

God did it for a purpose. And the deepest motivation of

the human experience is something that God has given to

us for His purpose. And unfortunately, because

people don't understand that, often times they'll take it in

the wrong direction. I'm a part of what's called the

baby boomer generation. That's why generations are

important, because generations very much influence us and we

have to understand how that all works.

But it's important to think about this in context of what

we're experiencing right now, because this is a time of

generational change. They called my generation of the

baby boomer generation because after World War 2, when the war

was over, the soldiers came back, people got married,

started having kids, and it was indeed a baby boom.

Now, my father actually was too young to have served in World

War 2. And so we don't exactly fit the

description, if you would, but we're still lumped into that

era. And you can see certain things

about this generation and really over the last 80 years, some

influences that have been moving in a certain direction.

But I want you to understand this as a time of a new day and

a new direction. So we have to understand what

exactly is going on. One thing my generation loved is

having a shared experience. In the 1950s we saw the real

birth of rock'n'roll. By the 60s, one of the big

events that people loved was a concert.

When you go to a concert and you like the music, and often times

there was influences that came even from that group, if you

would. So people would all come

together, they would sing the songs they like and there would

be a shared experience That would be really wonderful

experience in people's minds and that's why it became so popular.

This, I think it was yesterday, whatever in the news I heard

that one of the Co founders of a band called the Grateful Dead

passed away. I don't know if he's grateful

now that he's dead. Time will tell.

But anyway, the reason I wanted to point that out is because I

used to work at a grocery store at the corner of Navy Rd.

Sasha Bob worked at Food Town and up the road was Pine Knob

Music Theatre, where people have come to go to concerts.

It was a good time for us whenever there was a big concert

because people come into the grocery store and buy things, or

whether it was the tailgate party or when they stuck it into

the theater, I don't know. But there was something

different when the Grateful did. We're at Pine Dog because they

had a group of followers followed them all over.

They had vans and they dressed a certain way.

When they came in the store, everybody was on alert.

We'd stand behind the one way mirrors and watch everybody

because what they did is they didn't come in and buy, they

came in and shoplifted. So that's what I think about

when I think about the Grateful Dead.

But anyway, it's very true that people pick up something from

these shared experiences that often dive and influence them.

And so we have to understand how that works.

And we also can see how happens in sports.

A lot of people like sports and sporting events is a big deal in

our country today. And the reason for that is, you

know, people do like sports, but there's something bigger than

that and that's affiliation need.

You have your favorite team from your favorite town, your

favorite players, people come together, there's a big crowd

and people have the very strong a feeling when they're in that

shared experience. And because of that, it's very

big business, of course, and something that's very popular in

our country. Unfortunately, my generation

also brought that into the church experience without even

realizing it. Because the church growth

movement, the secret sensitive movement, part of what was

called the mega church movement was built on that same premise

is build a big buildings and give people a shared experience.

And people would come and have a shared experience.

Churches could grow. They usually set aside side

doctrine because that would keep people away.

They set aside serious conversations that would cause

people to not come to church. And so they wanted everybody to

have a shared experience. And there was a great sign that

wonderful things were going to happen.

But over time, and we're in this transition period where all of a

sudden people are looking for something more than just a

shared experience. Because you see, the deepest

heart need that God has given through each and every one of us

is not just that we have a shared experience.

I mean, when we come to church, we have a shared experience.

But if it's only that you're not going to get what you need

completely. You have to realize that we come

in our part of the church to have a shared life, a shared

source of life, which is the bread of life, Jesus Christ

himself. Can I hear an Amen on that?

So it goes beyond a superficial kind of affiliation to something

deeper than that. And we as Christians need to

understand in this time of transition that God is speaking

to us. OK, it's good to have a shared

experience, but I want you to know that we have a shared life

and that shared life we have comes through Jesus Christ

himself. That's what communion is all

about. And we need to understand how

that we relate to that. Now this takes us back to the

creation in the very beginning in this is chapter 2, that when

Isaiah 2 · chapter mention

the Lord God created man, He said it's not good that man

should be alone. I will make him a helper

comparable to him. So out of the ground the Lord

God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air,

brought them to Adam to see what he would call them.

Whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.

So Adam gave names to all the cattle, to the birds of the air,

and to every beast of the field, But for Adam there was not found

a helper comparable to him. Now it's important that

recognize that when God said it's not good that man should be

alone, he wasn't talking just about being lonely.

The word literally means to be a part or disconnected.

It's a word used in the Old Testament.

If you cut a branch off a tree and the branch is sitting there

and it's not connected to the tree, that's the alone he's

talking about. And this is important for us to

understand because like I said, Jesus Christ is the vine and we

are the branches in church. We can't be cut off from the

vine. We need to be a part of the Vine

Amian, and how we do that is through our affiliation and our

sharing of the life of Christ together.

And that's why we need to see that all the more like I

mentioned the Scripture last week, all the more as we see the

day approaching. We need to understand what it

means to be assembled together and not disconnected.

And that's why I say, I know that's a deep need because God

recognized it. He declared it, and He gave us a

solution for it. He said he didn't find someone

comparable. If you notice, the Lord brought

all of the beasts of the field and all the animals to him, and

not one was good enough to be his helper.

So that means when somebody says a dog is man's best friend,

that's not true. I'd like to say if a dog is your

best friend, that's not good. You can have a dog that's your

friend. You can have a dog that's a pet,

and you can love your pet completely.

But we still need people. That's something important for

us to understand. I've always joked about me and

my sister Pam, She didn't have kids, so of course her dogs are

especially important in her life.

And one day her dog died. She calls me on the phone and

said, Lauren, do dogs go to heaven?

I said, well, the only scripture I can think of is Ecclesiastes.

It says that when a man dies, his sphere goes to heaven.

When an animal dies, his sphere goes to the air.

She says, I forget it, I'll call mom, see what she says.

How about me? And I'm sure Mama Gene figured

out a way around that. Whatever.

But it's important for us to understand that we can have

these things and they can be wonderful and very big part of

our life. And certainly there's all kinds

of psychological evidence that pets add to our life.

But how, you know, we still need people.

It's so important that we would understand that in the day and

hour in which we Live Today, probably something that's going

to be more of a temptation is the chat boxes they have these

days where literally it becomes a video and the chat box becomes

familiar with us. So you can talk to it.

And over time, it looks like the person you want to talk to says

the things that you want to hear.

And so you develop a relationship.

And unfortunately, there's a woman suing one of the major AI

companies because and her feeling her son killed himself

because of advice taken from a chat box.

Technology is very good in the world in which we live, but how

many you know that it should not be a substitute for reality.

That means when you're having dinner with somebody, maybe you

shouldn't be on your phone. I'll just throw that in.

Maybe you should actually talk with the people you're having

dinner with. But anyway, God said it's not

good that you should be alone. You need Someone Like You.

Believe it or not, God is a father of the fatherless, a

defender of widows. Is God in his holy habitation?

God says the solitary. There's that word again in

families. It brings out those who are

bound into prosperity. But the rebellious dwell in a

dry land. So God's solution for being

alone is make us a part. Not that we're set apart, but

that we've become a part. Now, I know their initial story

is about being married, and that can be a wonderful experience.

And then, of course, when you have children, there's a family

and then there's extended family.

But that chapter in Psalm 68 also talks about fivefold

ministry. Because we know that not

everyone gets married and not everybody stays married.

And sometimes people become widowed or become a widower.

There's all kinds of things that happen.

But how many know the family got still there.

So we all should be a part of the family of God because of the

family of God transcends our human experience.

So marital relationships is a gift of God.

Family, nuclear family as they call it, is a gift from God.

That also we have to understand that transcending those things

is an opportunity that we all have, and that is to be a part

of a family that's bigger than our own individual life.

And so this is something that's very vital in our day because we

live in a world where people sense themselves as being alone,

set apart, disconnected and territory.

We have a message for the world in which we live and we need to

understand we have a powerful message that people connections

is very important. And that's actually what you're

looking for, which brings me to the Scripture that doesn't kind

of flow in one sense, but it really is a very important

scripture to what I'm saying here today.

This is from First Chronicles. This is when David is succeeding

Saul as the king. And as it happens, there's two

parts of Israel that have to come together in order for this

to happen. So it says now these were the

numbers of the divisions that were equipped for war came to

David at Hebron to turn over the Kingdom of Saul to him according

to the word of the Lord of the sons of Issachar.

This is what I emphasize here, who had understanding of the

times to know what Israel ought to do.

Their trees were 200 and all the brethren were at their command.

I put over this what's happening because God had spoken to Samuel

to anoint a man by the name of Saul is king because he was

disobedient. God had to take the Kingdom from

him. He anointed David to be the next

king. All kinds of things happened

between when the Lord spoke and the word was going to come to

pass. But the setting here is Saul has

died. Now David had actually been

anointed and made the king of what we call the southern part,

which was the land of Judah. But at the death of Saul, there

was a big dispute going on because Saul's mind, David was

his enemy because he was supposed to be the king.

So after Saul dies, the people are getting together and

talking, and somebody who had understanding of the time said

we got to recognize what's going on.

We have this army, we've had this battle, but now it's time

to make a big change. We got to recognize Saul was an

error. David Scott's anointed and we

have to make him king of our whole nation.

And so it was a beautiful event, but there was somebody there in

the midst of them who said, OK, I know we've we're all ready for

war. We're all ready for conflict,

but it's time for us to have a change now.

And we got to find out what it is that God is doing and flow

with it. I shared this from time to time

because in March of 2020, the Lord spoke to me and said it's a

chiros moment. It's an important time and this

is a time of transition. I still believe it started then,

and we're seeing it unfold since that time.

The next week, the church was shut down.

The COVID situation increase the conflict in our country, create

a lot of problems that we didn't have before.

While they were trying to save us from our problem, they were

creating many more problems, and we're in a time of great

conflict. But I believe that what God was

doing was setting the pace, setting the motion, setting for

everything for a great harvest like we've never seen before.

And we have to be careful to understand the debates that are

in the world is not what God is doing.

God saying, church, you need to understand the times.

You need to be aware of what's going on in the world.

And what I want you to understand concerning the times

is it's becoming very obvious that this next generation, this

being raised up, if you would, they want more than what my

generation had to offer. We offered an experience, but

they realize we need more than that.

We want a shared life. There's an increase in socialism

in our country. New York City, they elected a

socialist as mayor and stuff, and people see that as a

political debate. And it is.

They see it as an economic debate.

And it is. And we should have an opinion

about that as we're living in our world.

But I want, you understand, God says, I want you to see what's

really happening here. Because of the younger

generation, socialism is just a sign of something they're

looking for. They're looking for a shared

life. They're looking to be a part of

other people's lives and even willing to accept responsibility

for other people's lives. They really have a need and a

desire inside of them. That's God-given.

And God says to his church, you need to understand what's going

on. Don't let the political day

debate deter you from what it is that God is wanting you to see

and understand because this generation is right for the

Kingdom of God. Give the Lord a praise on that

church. One day Jesus was with his

disciples. They were hungry, so they went

out to get food. While he was gone, he met the

woman at the well, and he instigated A revival that would

change this whole part of Samaria.

When his disciples come back, they come back with food and

they say we're here with the food.

Jesus and I have meat to eat, you know, not us.

And they're thinking, did he get carried out while we were gone?

What's going on here? No, Jesus is wanting them to see

something very important. He said you guys need to lift up

your eyes because the fields are ripe for harvest.

And thus saith the Lord to his church today the fields are ripe

to harvest. I'm setting in motion in the

earth. I'm setting in motion in your

country, in your community, and even to your family, even though

you might not quite see it yet. God says be ready, because this

is harvest time, says the mighty God, and we need to recognize

what God is doing in the earth. Therefore whoever eats this

bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in unworthy manner will be

guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.

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

and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an

unworthy manner, eats and drinks judgment to himself.

Now discerning the Lorde body, for this reason, many are weak

and sickly among you. Many sleep.

Again, this is a scripture that I shared last week, but again

today with a little bit different perspective because I

said, you know, when they were coming to the table of the Lord,

they were respectful that this is the Lorde table.

This is a holy moment. And because of that they were

irreverent. And Paul writes to them, says

you're not getting the blessing of the Lords Supper.

That's why many of you are dying prematurely.

Many of you are sick. You're missing out on the

blessing. You got to begin, begin to

understand that you're approaching the table of the

Lord in an unworthy manner. And when I shared with you last

week, that doesn't mean that they were unworthy.

It means the manner by which they were approaching it because

how you know, it's the blood of Jesus Christ that makes us all

worthy, Amen. Some people are afraid of the

Lord's Supper because they think, Oh no, I might not be

worthy. Only Jesus can make you worthy.

And if you confess your sins, he's faithful and just to

forgive you of all your sin and cleanse you from all

unrighteousness is what the Bible says.

He wants you to know that his blood makes us all worthy.

But the problem is, is their manner of approach which

affected their viewpoint. And so I say that when we

understand there is a spiritual dimension to communion that is

not just a ordinance or not just something that we're doing as an

outward show, it helps us develop spiritual discernment.

That's why I often emphasize when we come to church, there's

more happening than singing. Jesus is worshipping with us.

The Bible says there's something more happening in the Lord in

the preaching of the sermon. It's not just instruction.

It's God wanting to give us faith.

Something happens in every aspect of what we're doing

church, and developing that spiritual discernment helps us

when we leave church because we realized, wow, there's something

going on in the world today and it isn't always what's

happening. That is what we are really

needing to understand sometimes. We got to see beneath it, the

spiritual dimension. Now, in giving these

instructions, I do not praise you since you come together not

for the better, but for the worst.

For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear

there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it, but

there must be factions among you that those who are approved may

be recognized among you. They had a problem in church.

You have to understand people, relationships create problems.

You have the experience of love, you get married and you have a

shared life. How you know that does create

some problems. You have relationships with

people, you're excited about having a shared experience, but

to workout any relationship, there's going to be conflict.

And that's basically what Paul said into the Corinthian church.

He said there's factions, there's conflict here, but you

have to understand God will even use the conflict if you will let

Him to make you that person that God has called you to be.

Because for everything there is a purpose.

And the purpose that we need to understand is God's purpose.

And how is it that we can allow God to change us in the process?

Therefore, when you come together in one place, you're

not coming for the Lord's Supper.

It's not for the Lord's Supper for an eat.

And each one takes his own supper ahead of others.

One is hunger and another's drunk.

What, Do you have not have houses in drinking?

Or do you despise the Church of the Lord, and share those who

have nothing? What shall I say to you?

Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you.

Now it's important for us to note, and I put it in quotes.

There it is, the Lord Supper. Now this is important because we

have a tendency in our own experience to be looking at

everything from our own perspective, what we're looking

for, what we want, what we desire.

The Lord says, take yourself out of top spot and put me there.

Make it the Lord's Supper, make it the Lord's life, make it the

Lord's relationship, make it the Lord's marriage, make it the

Lord's children and church. That changes everything and

that's what we should understand.

God teaches us that it's not about just our individual, but

when it's collective, it's about the other people, but it's also

about God. That's why Jesus said we should

love the Lord our God with all of our heart, with all of our

soul, with all of our mind, with all of our strength and our

neighbor as ourself. Isn't that powerful?

So This is why Paul said, For I've received from the Lord that

which I also delivered you, that the Lord Jesus on the same night

in which he was betrayed, took bread.

When he 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 the same manner also took

the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in

my blood. This too as often as you drink

it in remembrance of me, as often as you eat this bread and

drink this cup, you do what you proclaim the Lord's death till

he comes. You see when we close out our

service. By taking communion and then

offering our self before the Lord, we're understanding that

everything that we do ultimately comes back to Jesus, The visible

image of the invisible God. The Holy Spirit is among us, but

the focus is always on the person of Christ.

He's the One who has given his life for us, and he is the bread

that we all have in common When we've received the Holy Spirit,

that always actually makes us a little bit different from each

other because it gives us gifts, it gives us callings.

But when we come to the table of the Lord, we all have one need,

and that is God's strength, God's life, God's sacrifice.

And he says it's a proclamation, and it's a proclamation we must

make together. This is Pastor Lorne Coverbius

from Mount Zion Church. We thank you for joining us

today and invite you to connect with our church family by

visiting mountzion.org and following us on social media.

God bless you.