The Lord's Supper

Welcome to this week's message from the Church at Chelsea Westover.

Our core values are vibrant worship, intimate fellowship, fulfilling service, and clear biblical truth.

We pray that this message changes your life.

Let's tune in to today's message and see what God has in store for you.

Well, turn with me in your Bibles this morning to 1 Corinthians chapter 11.

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

1 Corinthians chapter 11.

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

This is the picture of the Lord's Supper.

It's a beautiful picture.

The picture.

Jesus was about to betray him.

And it's not an evening plan for the top salesmen or the honor students or the medal winners.

It is a meal shared by Jesus and his followers.

It is another time for him to tell them of his love for them in spite of their, oh is this not true, in spite of their jealousies, their misunderstandings, and their disbelief that we all have.

Perhaps even because of all these things, he's planned this meal because each of us belong at this table.

Doesn't matter who we are, how how bad you think you are, if you know Jesus Christ, you belong at the table.

Can I get an amen?

You belong at the table.

And as his followers, we're part of this group.

We need to be at the table.

For we need to feel his love meeting all of our needs.

And his love that he so willingly sacrificed on Calvary for us, meeting us at the deepest place of our lives, and to realize that it is being spoken out of the deepest place of God's heart.

We need to be at this table.

What a beautiful scene.

In fact, it is the Lord's first words recorded even before the Gospels.

This epistle was written before the Gospels.

So it's actually his first words spoken before the writing of the Gospels and how important the Lord's Supper is.

The Lord's Supper is an outward demonstration of the inwardness of our Christian faith.

In other words, all that Jesus is in our hearts, in our lives, is represented at the Lord's Supper.

It really is.

All that we are.

For some of you, it's brand new.

For some of you, you've just been saved.

And that's exciting.

For us that have been saved many years, it ought to still be as exciting.

Amen.

Because the older you've gotten, the more real you understand it really is.

As we mature in the likeness of Christ, the likeness of Christ ought to be more exciting in each of our lives.

It's so important that we understand that.

So today, I want us to look at this whole paragraph in 1 Corinthians chapter 11.

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

It starts at verse 17 and it ends at verse 34.

I'm not going to take time to read all the passage, but I want us to pick up at the meat in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 24 and 25, and then I will expound on some of the other verses as I share with you what it really means to us.

1 Corinthians 11:24

These two verses are the verses you normally hear at a Lord's Supper.

And so let's begin by looking at it.

1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 24.

1 Corinthians 11:24

When he had given thanks, he broke the bread and said, Take, eat.

This is my body which is broken for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same manner, he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

This do as often as you drank it in remembrance of me.

Now look at verse 17.

Now, in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not, that you come together for the better, but for the worse.

Not for the better, but for the worse.

Now here's what was happening.

Back at the church of Corinth, beautiful.

In fact, a lot of people have asked me several times, y'all really feed the whole church every Sunday?

I said, absolutely.

Well, I've just never heard of that.

I meant we do what they call, you know, uh homecomings every so often or every so often a special occasion.

But why do you do it every week?

I said, it's very biblical.

It's very biblical.

They did it at the very beginning of the church.

They broke bread together.

They went house to house feeding and eating together.

But even at the church at Corinth, here's what they called it.

And by the way, it was called an agape love feast.

It was called a love feast or an agape feast.

And what they would do, the church would meet once a week on their worship day, and they would have a real meal together.

People would bring food for their family and put it together.

That's kind of what you do at a potluck.

Sometimes you have a pot and no luck, but anyway.

Let the old folks do the cooking.

Amen.

Don't ever go to a young couple's potluck supper.

Just the thought, I've been there.

Like I said, you'll have a pot and no luck.

You may get some cold canned beans.

And you'll get some cornbread that you can use for hockey punks.

But but they were having a feast every week together.

They would worship and then they would eat lunch together.

And then after the uh lunch meal, they would have the Lord's Supper.

And what had happened, it was beginning to be abused.

And we're going to see that.

I mean, uh, and what was great about this, it didn't matter what social class you were, it didn't matter what education you had, everybody was one and everybody brought their own uh meals, but they put it all together for everybody to what?

Enjoy together.

And back then they had servants, and they had very little to eat, if any.

So every week this would be probably some of the best meals a lot of those people had because they couldn't afford to eat some of the meals that would be brought or some of the food that would be brought because they were very poor.

So it was a very special time.

And that's why this, every Sunday we eat together, it is a special time.

It's an agape feast.

It's a love feast.

And that's why I love for you to stay if you can and just participate so we can all love on each other and talk to each other.

I love just going around loving on you and getting to know you better.

And that, hey, what we have is yours.

We all share it together.

Amen.

It is a privilege.

So this is the setting that's taking place in the most powerful passage of scripture dealing with the Lord's Supper.

Now it was being abused, and we're gonna be looking at that.

But I wanted you to get this setting.

I wanted you to understand biblically why we feed every week.

It's an agape feast.

Say this with me: an agape feast.

A love feast.

Say it with me.

A love feast.

It is our love to each other every week.

Now you tell me that's not special.

That is very, very, very special.

And so this is the setting.

I want us to look at three things this morning about the Lord's Supper.

Three powerful things.

The first thing I want us to look at is the Lord's Supper reveals the sovereignty of the Savior.

It reveals the sovereignty of who he is, that Jesus is God and God is Jesus.

Look at it.

Look at verse 23.

For I receive from the Lord that which I also deliver to you.

Paul is telling his readers that the whole revelation of the Lord's Supper is associated, now watch, with the Lordship of Christ.

In other words, when we partake today of the Lord's Supper, we are saying that Jesus Christ is Lord of our life.

If Jesus is not Lord, hey, of all, he's not Lord at all.

Amen.

He will take second place to no one.

So we see that.

It's so important.

And we see this.

The word Lord is used, and the Greek word is kurios, which means Lord Jehovah, Jesus, master, owner, ruler.

That's what it means.

Kurios.

He's the master.

He's our owner.

He's the controller.

He's the governor.

He's the president.

He's everything.

He's the master ruler of our life.

It's used eight times just in this one chapter.

But it's used 60 times in 1 Corinthians.

60 times.

So let's look at it.

The Lord's Supper reveals the sovereignty of the Savior.

Number one, the sovereignty of his presence.

Look at what he says in 1 Corinthians 10, 21.

You cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons.

Woo! You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of the devils.

In other words, ladies and gentlemen, you can't have one foot in the world and one foot with Jesus.

You can't have one foot in the world and one foot in the church.

Amen.

You can't, let me put it another way.

You can't be politically correct.

Hello.

Either you're for him or you're against him.

That's what Jesus said in Matthew 12, 30.

Either you're for me or you're against me.

Either we believe this book or we don't.

There's no in between.

Well, there's a lot of gray area, only in your mind.

Hello.

There's no gray areas with the book.

So he says, it's so important.

In fact, there is no undivided service.

There is no, hey, half-heartedness with Jesus.

There's no neutrality with Jesus.

Either you're for him or you're against him.

And we are virtually guests at the Lord's table.

He should be the object of our attention and the center of our devotion.

Can I get an amen?

For God is my refuge and strength of very present help in time of trouble.

Look at Romans 14, 9.

I love this.

He says, For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

He's curious.

He's master.

So when we come today, we're coming to the master's table.

Can I get an amen?

We're coming to the master's table.

We have personally been invited.

In verse 24, he says, As often as you do this, you do it in remembrance of me.

Your whole attention.

Some of the children have been saved.

And we were talking about that day.

Now our next Lord's Supper will be right at in December, around Christmas.

It's a very special time.

It'll be a very special service.

And we're going to have a service, we're going to go to children's church, and what we're going to do is teach the children about this Lord's Supper, how important it is.

Because I don't want anyone taking of the Lord's Supper that doesn't understand it.

Amen.

So, first of all, we realize that the Lord's Supper reflects his sovereignty.

In fact, it's the sovereignty of his person, he's controller.

Number two, it is the sovereignty of his provision.

Look at verse 20.

The Lord's Supper, the word Lord there.

And the word here, the Lord's, it's found here and in Revelation 1.10 in the New Testament.

It stresses the intimate connection that this feast has with the Lord Himself.

It helps us understand Jesus' words that are found about the Lord's Supper in Luke 22, verse 15.

Luke 22:15

Look at this.

Let me show you how important it was to Jesus.

And he said unto them, the disciples, with desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before our supper.

On that last night, his greatest desire was to sit down and break bread with his disciples to show the picture of how important it was for you and me to have that covenant with the master, with the governor, with the president of our life, the Lord Jesus Christ.

What a picture.

Notice the word fervent.

We ought to fervently, and I can't help it, and you've got to realize I watched football for six and a half hours.

Well, not quite that long.

But I watched football a lot yesterday.

I fervently like football.

Amen.

I do.

So don't think I'm bashing sports.

But let me tell you, I fervently love Jesus more.

And why can't I put the same fervency serving him and even more that I do about football?

Amen.

I can, you can.

Hey, I'm going to the football games on Saturday.

Sometimes I'm on my couch, but I'm going.

But give me a ticket, I'll go with you.

And I'm going to shout with you.

But bless God, Sunday morning, you coming with me.

And you're going to shout as loud as you did in that ball game for Jesus.

Oh Jesus.

Amen.

Why not?

Guess what?

You won't be near as heartbroken with Jesus as you are with your football team sometimes.

Hello.

Hello.

Good point.

That's good preaching, preacher.

Fervent.

We ought to be fervent about what we're doing.

You ought to be fervent about your job.

You say, ooh.

Hey, aren't you glad you got a job?

Hello.

I'm not going back.

You've already heard the truth about how important work is.

I love work.

Say that with me.

I love work.

I love work.

And you ought to be fervent about it.

You ought to be fervent about Jesus.

He's saying the Lord's Supper is a time that you rekindle that fervency for Christ.

You remember when you were saved.

You remember how He's, hey, He's been with you through thick and thin.

You remember how He's provided for you.

You remember how when nobody else was there, he was there all the time.

Somebody says, I don't have any.

I had to get another trying to die, I don't have any friends.

I said, Well, there's, yeah, you do.

I said, you got one.

He said, well, I'm not talking about you.

I said, well, I'm not talking about me either.

I may not be your friend.

You keep acting the way you act, now I'm going to be your friend.

He looked at me.

I said, you got a friend that's sticketh closer than a brother.

His name's Jesus.

Amen.

His name's Jesus.

He'll be there when nobody else is there.

Jesus will be there.

I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee.

Hebrews 13, 5.

Never.

By the way, let me tell you what the Greek word for never is.

Never.

The sovereignty of his provision is giving back.

Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that gives thee power to get wealth.

Can I get an amen?

2 Corinthians 9.8.

Oh, all grace is given.

All grace, all sufficiency in all times that his work may be carried on.

2 Corinthians 9.8.

Whew, that's good.

And then thirdly, it's the sovereignty of his passion.

The sovereignty of his person, the sovereignty of his provision.

My God shall supply all hey your needs according to his riches in the Lord through Christ Jesus.

Aren't you glad that He said He'll provide all your needs?

And most of us sitting here, not only has He provided for all our needs, He's provided for most of our wants.

You say, Well, I don't have everything I want.

Well, maybe you don't need it.

And most of us could do with less than half of what we have in now.

Amen.

I walked in my closet the other day, and I'm not even going to tell you what I thought.

Because it was sinful.

I looked at my let me ask something.

Here's, let's do, let I got an idea.

I'll probably be the only one that'll do it.

And I'm not going to do it unless you don't, unless you do it with me.

Let's go into our closets and everything that we haven't worn in six months, or really three months.

Let's bring it down here and sell it and give it to missions.

I know, I knew.

And some of you, hey, some of you go in there like I did, and I started going through my closet, and I looked and I said, Whoo! I forgot I even had that.

Hello.

Some of it you've only worn one time.

Some of you can't wear it anymore anytime.

My wife made me buy new britches.

Mine started going down like the teenager.

She said, It's time to buy britches.

Men ought to wear the britches up.

Amen.

I'm serious.

You don't wear your britches down around your knees.

There's nothing cute about that.

Nothing stylish about that.

It's just the britches are too big.

Hello, you're okay out there.

You said, get back to the Lord's Supper.

I will.

Hello.

My job is to love you and teach us all the truth.

Can I get an amen?

But we need to do that.

We need to clean out our all the stuff that we stuff, stuff, and we need to sell it and give it back to Jesus.

That's what we need to do.

Somebody head that up.

Y'all got quiet on that.

That'd be a shame.

Number three.

And here's what's really good.

The sovereignty of his passion.

Look at verse 26.

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

Mm-mm-mm.

Man, man, man.

Breaking the bread and drinking the cup gives the proclamation of the fact and the significance of the fact of the Lord's death till he comes.

We are partakers and we are to declare to all that Jesus Christ is the Lord of the death, he's the Lord of the resurrection, and he's the Lord God Almighty.

We are to proclaim it.

That's why I love, we give these out.

I meant everywhere now.

I'm seeing them.

Jesus is awesome.

We're not ashamed of the gospel.

We see right here that the sovereignty of his passion was to tell the disciples to go into all the world and love God and love people and bring them to Christ by exalting me.

And Jesus said, if I be exalted, I'll draw men unto myself.

Amen.

Wow.

Do you share Jesus every day?

Every day.

Every day.

Jesus is also it's my belt, it's it's my arm, it's everywhere I go.

I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

I'm not ashamed.

And then number four, it's the sovereignty of his purpose that the Lord's supper is.

The sovereignty.

Of his presence, his provision, his passion, to remind us what he did for us, he died for us, he suffered for us, and with a go-tail, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

Mark 16, 15, Acts 118.

I mean, Acts 1.8, you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you should be witnesses unto me in all Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the utmost parts of the world.

Tell it where you go.

And then the sovereignty of his purpose, look at verse 29.

For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner, eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

It is a generally accepted, and it is, a fact that the word body here denotes two things that are reverent and very relevant to us today.

It speaks, number one, of the body of Christ, his physical body.

And number two, it speaks to the church body as a whole.

So it's very relevant for both of those tremendous truths.

Yes, he physically lived.

Jesus Christ was, hey, a person.

He was born of a virgin.

He lived 33 years on this earth.

He was as real as Danny Lovett is real.

He was as real as you are real.

He was a physical person.

But at the same time, he was as much God as God ever has been or ever will be.

He was the God man, his incarnation.

He was God.

And he birthed his church upon this rock.

I'll build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

Matthew 16, 18.

This is God's church.

CCW is not Pastor Danny's church.

It's not our leadership's church.

It's not your church.

It's his church.

Can I get an amen?

It's his church.

We're just part of the body.

And we're we're functioning and using our gifts and our talents in his body.

And that's what makes it such a beautiful purpose.

We're not only recognized the person of Christ and his sacrifice for us, but the purpose of Christ and His sovereignty over us, that He's Lord of all.

Romans 12, 1 and 2.

Here's what it means.

Here's what it means.

The sovereignty of his purpose is that He would have lordship over you and me, that He would rule our lives.

I beseech you therefore.

Read church.

I want you to read Romans 12, 1 and 2 for me.

Ready?

Read.

I beseech you therefore, brethren.

Be not conform to this world.

In other words, everything you are, you present to him.

What?

Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, which ye have a God, you're not your own, for you're bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are God's.

1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20.

So that's our purpose is to purify ourselves, to be holy before Him.

Which leads me to the second thing.

The Lord's Supper reflects the unity of the Spirit.

Well, this is good.

Look at 1 Corinthians 10, 17.

For we being many are one bread and one body.

For we all partake of that one bread.

Also, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, for by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body.

Nowhere on earth does the church of Jesus Christ reflect her unity as when gathered around the Lord's table together.

That's another thing about the love feast that we partake of every week.

There's no greater time for us to express our love to one another than when we sit down and break bread together.

There's something about that.

That's why let me go on in record saying, listen to me, family, parents, it's very important that y'all sit down and have a meal together every day.

It is so important that you have that time.

You put everybody aside and you take time for each other as you break bread together.

And you call it a love feast.

It's your love time for your family.

And you share your hearts and you share what God's done in your lives that day and what kind of day you had at school, what kind of day you had at work.

And always make it, hey, make it a sharing time, but a good time.

Not a complaining time, not a griping time, but an encouraging time.

That was very important in our family.

So it reflects the unity of the Spirit.

Now let me show you.

In fact, listen to what he says in Galatians 3.28.

I love this.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, there's neither male nor female, for you're all one in Christ.

Ladies and gentlemen, you know what makes this church so different?

Everybody's just talking about it.

Is that, hey, our place is a place for every race, every social class, everybody.

We do not discriminate.

Never.

This never will be here.

You walk on these grounds, you drive on these grounds, we love you for who you are and what Christ wants to do in and through you.

And we're not interested in your past, we're interested in your future, and he's got a fantastic future for you.

Give him a hand on that.

We're dwelling in the past.

Don't dwell in the past.

Jesus is not interested in the past.

He's interested in your future.

And he's got a fantastic future for you.

Yeah, but there are no buts.

There's nothing you've done that can outdo what the apostle Paul did.

He was the chief of sinners.

You hey, are you the chief of sinners?

No, you're just a sinner.

So if he can love the chief of sinners, save the chief of sinners, restore the chief of sinners who ended up, let me tell you what that chief of sinner ended up doing.

Wrote most of the New Testament.

Amen.

Amen.

Woo! That's good.

So there's nothing you can do that's gonna surprise him.

Now what you do can hurt, hey, break his heart, but he still loves you.

He'll love you when we all walk out on you.

He'll still love you.

When everybody else cussing you, he'll love you.

When everybody else says you're no good, he'll still love you.

When you think nobody cares, he cares.

That's what the Lord's supper is all about.

You spending time with him.

Let me show you what it is.

It's a unity of covenant.

Look at verse 25.

In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Now let me tell you what the word covenant means.

The word covenant means an agreement, and in celebrating this feast, we show that we have come to an agreement with God and with one another.

When we partake today of the Lord's Supper together, we're saying that you and I agree with God.

What are we agreeing with God about?

That Jesus is the way, the truth, the life.

No man can come unto the Father except through Jesus Christ.

There's no other way.

Amen.

There's no other way to heaven.

There's no other way to salvation except through Jesus Christ, the blood on the cross.

Amen.

No other way.

Neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved but the precious, holy, majestic name of Jesus, Acts 4.12.

Can I get an amen?

We agree with that.

I had a person recently I was witnessing to.

Well, you know, it really doesn't matter what we believe as long as we believe.

I said, you're so wrong.

It does matter what you believe.

You may believe that that snake's not gonna hurt you, but you put your finger down there and he bites you and he's poisonous, you're gonna die.

Hello?

It does matter.

And then secondly, we agree.

Now here's where people quite often ask me about the covenants class.

Why don't we do the covenants class?

Why don't we just, anybody want to join the church, come down, fill out a card, already saved, yeah.

I'm saved, been baptized.

No, well, we're gonna dunk you, and now you're a member.

Why do we do the covenants class?

Because right here, it's very important.

You're making a covenant with CCW.

You're making a covenant.

I'm making a covenant with you, you're making a covenant with me, and I'm not talking about me being a pastor, I'm talking about me being as a member.

We're making a covenant with each other that we believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, the life.

No man cometh and father except through Jesus.

And we believe that our purpose, we believe in Jesus' presence in our life.

We believe in his passion, that we are to share the gospel with our community, and we're to believe in our purpose that we're to be pure, he's to be Lord of our life, and that we are to hold each other accountable to be, hey, for him being Lord of our lives and to hold each other accountable for being involved in reaching our community, sharing the good news, and that we are to be unified in that.

That's what the covenant class is, what we believe in clear biblical truth, vibrant worship, hey, serving at home and abroad.

That's who we are.

And we've made it even easier for many of you that would like to come become members.

We've got it online now, but also we'll have it on CDs by the end of this week, I think.

So you can take it home.

We got the booklets.

You can go through and see if you want to be a part of that.

And by the way, if you don't, that's okay.

We we still love you.

And that doesn't mean you can't be here and worship.

The only difference, hey, you can't be in leadership and you can't vote, but you can do everything else.

So you've got to decide if you want to be that committed or, hey, be a covenant member.

That's your choice.

We're not gonna pressure you.

I was disappointed that the mayor had already been baptized.

I really wanted to hold him under.

Actually, I was gonna I was gonna change my baptism just for you, mayor.

I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

A unity of the covenant.

Coming together, coming together, has been ratified by the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ.

The Old Testament.

We read again and again how God extended, hey, and entered into a covenant with his people in Exodus 24 and Deuteronomy, time and time again.

God took the initiative through the bloodshedding of his beloved son to establish the ground of reconciliation.

He made possible the covenant by the sacrifice of Christ.

As we participate in the feast of remembrance, we reflect our agreement and we affirm the unity of our covenant with God.

When you partake of the covenant, I mean when you partake of the Lord's Supper, you're saying that you've made a covenant with God the Father through Jesus the Son.

Is that not beautiful?

To serve Him.

And then number two, the unity of communion.

Look at what it said.

1 Corinthians 10, 16.

The cup of blessings 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?

Just as the covenant is coming together, the communion, the cup is sharing together in the life and love of Christ.

In fact, in the early church, there was only one big cup for communion.

And it was a small group.

It wasn't like thousands of people.

They were going to house at house.

So they'd have one big cup and then they'd have one loaf of bread.

And they'd break off the same bread and drink out of the same cup.

Why?

Signifying their unity and their relationship with God the Father and each other.

What a beautiful picture it was.

What a beautiful, beautiful picture.

So let us always bear in mind that the Lord's Supper reveals the sovereignty of the Savior and it reflects the unity of the Spirit.

And then lastly, number three, the Lord's Supper requires the purity of the saints.

Look at verse 27 and 29.

Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord is of the Lord in an unworthy manner.

Verse 29, eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

Now, it's very important to recall that the believers addressed in this epistle were called in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 2, saints.

1 Corinthians 1:2

They were saints.

Therefore, sanctified in Christ Jesus.

But let me remind you that saints can become defiled and defeated and discouraged just like anybody else.

Can I get an amen?

Now he's writing to save people here.

He's not writing to the lost.

Okay?

But he also knew that there were some problems in the church.

Okay?

So here's what he said.

Number one, here's what we've got to do personal examination.

Look at what he says in verse 28.

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

Now, examine means to test.

That's the word.

The term was often used in the testing of metals.

Personal examination is to be severe.

It's to be searching, and it's to be sanctifying.

In other words, yes, you get out into the little most closed parts of your heart.

Search me, O God.

Psalms 139, 23 and 24.

Search me, O God, know my heart.

Try me, know my thoughts.

See if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting.

You get up, you get those secret sins, those secret faults out.

You confess them to the Lord Jesus.

By the way, you say, I don't want, I don't want everybody to know.

Everybody doesn't have to know, but I got news for you.

The Lord already knows.

He knows your secret thoughts.

He knows everything about you.

He knows your thoughts before you think them.

Does that not bother you?

That bothers me.

I mean, when I have a bad thought, bam! I think, whoa, Lord, I'm sorry.

That was a bad thought.

You know what I'm saying?

When I say that, I'm thinking, he says, yeah, I know that.

But it helps me to say it.

Can I get an amen?

And that's why in Psalms 19 I say, cleanse me from my secret faults.

That's a good psalm.

Cleanse me from my secret faults that I have.

You ever, no, I'm not.

Anyway.

Here we see he refers to.

By the way, now let me tell you, let me tell you what was going on.

And I'm not going to exergetically do it, but here's what was going on in church.

I want you to understand.

So, so you, a lot of people when I, you know, they get scared and say, well, I'm not going to partake because I got this, this, this.

Well, but now's the time for you to confess it and put it under the blood and repent from it.

Can I get an amen?

But it is serious business.

Because look what was happening.

He refers to ill health and even a death of those who refuse to apply self-judgment and a correction of wrong in their lives.

He says in verse 30, for this reason, many are weak.

That means sick, uh weak and sick among you, and many sleep.

The word sleep there means they died.

That's pretty serious, don't you think?

Hello?

Let me tell you what that means to me.

You can't play with God.

You can't claim to be something that you're not.

What you can claim is, I am, hey, I'm a Christian, but I'm still a rotten, no good Christian.

Hello, some of y'all didn't get that.

All my righteousness is a filthy rags.

Amen?

So we're gonna sin.

And when we did sin, we got to deal with it.

Amen.

We don't, hey, we gotta deal with it.

We gotta deal with it and turn from it.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Did you hear that?

All unrighteousness.

You gotta deal with it, you gotta deal with it.

Well, what if I do it again?

Well, you gotta confess it again and quit doing it.

And get somebody to hold you accountable.

Well, nobody knows it but me.

Yes, the Holy Spirit and God knows it.

That's enough.

Personal examination.

Listen, are you ready?

There were divisions in the body.

Verse 19.

There were clicks in the body.

Oh, we don't have cliques in churches.

What's a click?

You know what a click is?

It's somebody that you want to hang around.

Hey, somebody you want to hang around that likes what you like, thinks like you think, and you don't want to have anything to do with anybody else.

That's a click.

Well, but they're my friends.

I know.

But don't you need some new friends, maybe?

Loving people.

Hey, listen, I like people, I like all kinds of people.

And that's why when we have our love feasts, you know what was happening?

I'm gonna tell you what exactly was happening in this love feast.

What was happening, the rich people decided they're gonna bring their food and eat together with the rich and forget the poor.

That's what was happening.

They were neglecting the poor.

Let them fend for the self.

That's their fault they're that way anyway.

God help us.

Jesus said, the poor you have with you always.

And when you, hey, hey, when you give to the poor, it says is lending to the Lord.

Amen.

That's why our church helps people, all people.

We love people.

Amen.

We want to love people like Jesus loved people.

And by the way, Jesus loved them all.

He loved the down and outers, the in and outs, and the up and outers.

Amen.

He loved them all.

So, hey, there was a spirit of self-deception.

They were claiming to be something they weren't.

Hello.

Spirit of selfishness and indulgence, verse 21.

Neglecting the poor, verse 21.

And guess what?

Now this is pretty bad.

They're getting drunk at the love feast.

They were drinking too much wine.

Getting drunk.

God help us.

That's why we serve grape juice.

We're not going to tempt you.

Number two.

Purposeful participation.

Look at what he said.

Purposeful participation.

And I'm through.

And we're going to partake.

Look at what he says in verse 28 and 29.

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, drink of the cup, for he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner.

By the way, let me just say, we're all unworthy.

Go ahead.

Say amen.

We're all unworthy.

Say this with me.

I'm unworthy.

We're all unworthy, but we can partake in a worthy manner.

So let me help you.

I'm going to go ahead and help you there.

We're all unworthy.

For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

So often people, like I said, they refrain, refrain from not partaking the Lord's Supper.

Now let me say this if you refuse to repent of your sin, okay, you don't need to partake of the Lord's Supper.

Hello.

If you can't deal with your sin, by God's grace, don't partake of the Lord's Supper.

But why not get free?

From that sin.

Can I get an amen?

It's the time to be liberated.

The Lord is that spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty.

2 Corinthians 3:17.

2 Corinthians 3:17

Hallelujah.

Now notice what he said.

Here's what we got to do to participate worthy.

We're to take every occasion to remember our Lord, to show forth his death, anticipate his return, and this is what the Lord's Supper is doing.

But here's how you do it.

Number one, you judge, you examine yourself.

We are not to be living in sin, verse 28.

Number two, we're to accept the chastening of the Lord, verse 32.

By the way, look at verse 32.

But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me tell them why you want to deal with your sin.

If you don't deal with it, God's going to deal with it.

Hello, come on, amen.

He will take you to the woodshed.

You can't get away with it.

Numbers 32.

Hey, numbers 32, 23.

You can be sure your sins will find you out.

You can't get away with it.

Deal with it so he doesn't have to deal with it.

Can I get an amen?

Man, that's good.

We deal with it so he doesn't have to.

Let him forgive it.

That's good.

Man, that was really good.

Number three, we're to serve one another.

Verse 33, look at what he says.

Wherefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, tarry one for another.

In other words, give to somebody.

Look not on your own self, but on the things of others.

Be a servant to others.

And then number four, don't bring condemnation upon yourself.

Straighten your life out and sin no more.

Look at what he says in verses 31 through 34.

For if we would judge ourselves, that means examine ourselves, confess our sin, we should not be judged.

But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

Wherefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, tarry one for another, look after one another, love one another, put other people before yourself.

And if any man hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come not together unto condemnation, and the rest will I set when I come.

What he was saying is, for those that were being just outright belligerent and self-indulgent, they were bringing a lot of food and they were just having, they were gorging themselves and getting drunk and not paying any attention to anybody else.

He said, The Lord's Suppers, hey, and even the love feast was not for you to come and be a be a glutton.

It was come, it was, hey, the purpose of the love feast was for you to bring and share and love on each other, and especially those that were underprivileged.

Give them an opportunity to partake.

Is that not beautiful?

And that's what we do here every Sunday.

So now you see the biblical reasoning behind our love feast every Sunday.

And that's what it is.

We love you.

We want you to partake with us.

And that's why, for you that bring food and bring yours, thank you for that.

The church provides for the meat, and then you people bring things, so thank you.

And you know what you ought to do?

You ought to bring something special that you like, that's special to you.

Because you know why that's special?

That's why my wife usually she'll she she fixes stuff that I like a lot because I know if I like it, I know you're gonna like it.

But it's our way of giving back to you and and wanting you to be part of our family and partaking of what we like and what we love.

And Granny's anything Granny makes, it's good.

Granny good.

Granny good.

But but I wanted you to understand the love feast why we do it.

And then I want us to partake of the Lord's Supper today.

Now we do not partake of the Lord's Supper every week.

We we make it more, and by the way, there's no biblical reasoning to how many times and how often.

He just says, as often as you do it, remember me.

We we do it quarterly because we make it very special.

It's not just something we want to do to the point, okay, it's time for the Lord's supper.

No.

Now you understand why it's so special here after you've heard you've heard a full message on the real purpose of the Lord's Supper.

What a picture.

What a picture.

Thanks again for tuning into this week's message.

We pray that your life has been changed.

If you would like to find out more about us, visit us on our webpage at thechurch at cw.com.

You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at TheCurch at CW.

Need prayer or more information?

Send us an email at office at the church at cw dot com.

We hope you have a wonderful day and again, God bless you.