Commmunion Sunday

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We exist to awaken this generation to a new life in Christ.

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Good morning, awakening.

My name is Saye.

It's an honor to share God's word with you today.

We're going to have a special service where we're going to have Holy Communion.

Um, so if you haven't done so yet, please go ahead and grab the bread or cracker or what you use for Holy Communion and the juice, grape juice, uh, orange juice.

I've got grape juice here.

And uh uh I'm going to preach on the Holy Communion on that subject.

And then after I'm done with the message, we'll take communion together.

So please do ask your kids, if you have kids at home, to join you during communion so we could all take communion together as a family.

So I'd like us to bow our heads right now and pray for a short prayer.

Dear Lord, we thank you for this opportunity to share and to talk about your word.

Open our minds, Lord, to the amazing, powerful truth of your word.

In your name I pray.

Amen.

So if you have your Bibles, I'd like you to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, and uh, and we're gonna read verses 23 to 26, and it's gonna be shown on the screen here in a minute.

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you.

The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

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

Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me.

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

Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper, also known as the Holy Communion, the night of Passover meal, the night he was betrayed.

Now, if you turn time back to maybe like 1600 years prior to his time, the Old Testament, the second book of Old Testament, the book of Exodus, describes what the first Passover was like.

And I'm sure you've heard this story on how Moses led the Israelites out of Israel.

So Israelites were very familiar with this Passover celebration.

They were celebrating it for centuries.

And every year, this was very dear to them.

They celebrated their deliverance from slavery in Egypt.

And Jesus used the bread and the wine to explain the significance of what he was going to do on the cross.

Jesus used the bread and the wine to explain that this was pointing to his body and to his blood that was going to be shed for humanity.

He asked everyone to do this in remembrance of him.

And I like how it says, whenever.

So we can take communion whenever, just like Jesus says.

We can take that whenever we want to.

But he says, when you do it, don't do it just as a ritual.

Do it like in remembrance of what he's done, what he's done to earn salvation for humanity.

So just as Passover celebrated the deliverance of Israelites from slavery in Egypt, the Lord's communion celebrates our freedom from slavery to sin.

So my first point in the message is that the Holy Communion, first and foremost, is the celebration.

We get to celebrate.

You know, with people somewhere, there's laughter, and you could hang out, you could maybe hug a good friend.

And nowadays celebrations are done drive-by style.

We celebrated Shadi's birthday a couple of weeks ago, and her friends surprised her.

It was a surprise drive-by.

Surprised her.

And it was so nice, everyone who showed up, but it was like at the same time, everyone's wearing masks and they're passing on the gift, and we're not sure, you know, should we take it or should we sanitize it?

And it's a little awkward uh season, but isn't it awesome that even despite everything that's going on around us, we get to celebrate.

And it's interesting that we celebrate Jesus' death.

And that seems a little odd because we're so used to celebrating birthdays.

We celebrate Jesus' birthday in a big way, right?

I can't believe I just said that.

Christmas is around the corner.

It means 2020 is going to be over and we could put this year behind us.

But it's the purpose of Jesus that we're celebrating.

It's why he came to earth.

He came to earth to show us God's love.

As they were singing earlier, his reckless love for us.

And you know, he came to teach us about God and his ways, but he wasn't about just talk.

He actually demonstrated that for us with the most quoted verse in the Bible, that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him will have eternal life, will not perish, but have eternal life.

So we celebrate that.

We celebrate his work on the cross.

But we not only celebrate Jesus, but we celebrate our identity in him because we are eternal, we're not perishing, and that's worth celebrating.

And we celebrate our identity in him.

The scripture says, whoever is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old is gone.

So we are a new creation, and we get to celebrate that.

But I do.

You see, I came to know Jesus not until I was 40 years old.

I uh was born in Iran and I grew up there, and I immigrated to the US in the late 70s as a student.

Growing up in Iran, we were taught that there were many prophets that God has sent, but five of the great prophets were Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed.

So our notion of Jesus growing up was that he was another great prophet.

Back in the 60s and 70s, when I was a teenager, with the hippie movement that had started here in the US and was spread throughout the world, we were as young the younger generation fascinated with that movement, with the music, with Beatles, with men having long hair and beard and those cool glasses, you know, the John Lennon look.

Everybody was like after that.

And Jesus, I remember that was my image of Jesus too.

Maybe from some of the paintings or pictures I'd seen, you know, tall, blonde, long hair, blue eyes with a smile.

And he was cool in my book.

But growing up, nevertheless, my family wasn't religious.

So I grew up as an agnostic and atheist.

So fast forward, so about like 20 some years, I'd already done school here in the US and was married and had two beautiful children and lived a good American dream, a good life.

Shadi and I were pretty happy for the most part, but it was like something was missing.

Purpose, meaning was missing in life.

We were like, is this it?

So we just come to this world, and I remember my parents were visiting us, and my dad had aged, and and I realized, you know, and then one day we pass away, and and is that it?

So at the invitation of a friend, we attended a church service for the first time.

Generally, we like that very first impression that we had at church.

I really relate to music, so I was really like really relating to the worship and the song and the joy, but it was the preaching that blew my mind.

The preacher explained what Trinity was what was that God has revealed Himself in the persons of Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and he kept referring to Jesus as the Lord.

And I kept wondering, why hadn't anyone ever told me about this?

And and we started attending church for like a month.

We liked it, we liked the community, we liked the love that was in the air, we liked the compassion that people had.

And I remember thinking, if I attend maybe a year or so, and if I get my act together, and if I clean up my act, that maybe I could earn my way in.

That maybe God one day will look and say, Say, you're okay, you can come in.

And then a few weeks later, I heard the message of the cross, and it blew my mind.

I heard that we as human beings can not earn our salvation, that Jesus, the Messiah, was crucified, was buried in a tomb, and was risen, and that his work paves the way for my salvation, and that all I had to do was to believe.

It sounded too good to be true, but the preacher at the end of the message says, if you want to accept Jesus in your heart, I want to invite you to stand up.

So I stood up, and to my surprise, everyone else was still sitting, so I felt a little awkward standing up.

But he looked at me and he smiled and he said, Pray with me.

And I remember I closed my eyes and I lifted my hand, and as he prayed, I prayed along, and I tell you, this wave of peace and tranquility just like took over me.

I felt weightless.

All the weight of life on my shoulders, my worries, my fears, my question for meaning, for purpose in life disappeared in the state of bliss.

I later found out that I was born again of spirit.

You know, that was a turning point in my life.

The Holy Communion points to a turning point in the history of mankind.

The end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament, an era where God was going to pour his spirit on his people like in a way never experienced before.

Which takes me to the second point of today's message: that holy communion is a time to experience God's presence.

You know, as we take the bread and take the cup, we can't help but be reminded that we are forgiven.

We can't help but we be reminded, as the scripture says, that we can approach God's throne of grace with confidence to receive mercy and to find grace to help us in our time of need.

So at the table of communion, his grace and his mercy is available to us.

And for a season like this, where we're so exhausted and weary, this becomes our opportunity to come to Jesus and cry out to him and say, Lord, I need help.

Take this from me.

You know, the last six months have been so hard on all of us.

The pandemic, the racial issues we're facing in the country, the protests, the division, and then the fires here in California and the hurricanes, bad news, sad news, just keep piling on.

You know, Ryan referred to this as being a marathon, unlike what we originally thought that it was just a sprint.

And I was thinking today, it's actually worse than a marathon, because at least in a marathon, the runners know how much time, how much more running they got left.

And here we don't even know where the end is.

And I think that aspect of life, that uncertainty and not knowing when it will all end is what is what's wearing us out.

I don't know about you, but some days I feel just so tired.

By like my midday by noon, I'm exhausted and I'm wondering what's going on.

I had a good night's sleep and I'm so tired.

And I think the table for many of us offers that opportunity to bring that weariness, that exhaustion to Jesus and to offer it to him.

For some of you, it may be a habit that you've been struggling with and you're just tired of trying it out on your own.

The communion offers that opportunity to bring it to Jesus and admit that you need help.

For some, it may be forgiveness that you've been mad at someone for so long, maybe a spouse, maybe a parent, maybe a child.

And the communion offers us the reality that just as how undeservingly we were forgiven, we are to extend that forgiveness.

So at his table, we could bring it all to him and offer it to Jesus.

Nothing is too big for him to handle.

And you know what?

There is no shame and there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

So you are not to feel any shame when you approach him.

What it does take though is humility and courage.

It takes humility to admit that our brokenness.

It takes humility to admit that we need help.

But humility is the way of God.

Humility is the way of Jesus.

Humility is the way of cross, where Jesus so perfectly modeled humility for us.

God favors, shows favor to the humble.

And when we reach moments like this in life, is when God and his presence appear.

God often meets us at those low moments of life when we admit our brokenness and our need for his help.

You know, the scripture says that the love of God has been thrown into our hearts, has been filled into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Thank God for the Holy Spirit.

Thank God that Jesus didn't leave us alone to handle life's challenges on our own.

The scripture says, when you and I believed, when you and I believed, we were sealed.

We were marked with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit that's in us.

The Holy Spirit is like a well of living water.

It's like a well of water of life that we could draw from endlessly to quench our thirsty, weary souls.

And all of a sudden, in God's presence at his table, our perspectives shift.

And that long-awaited deep breath reminds us of his awesome promises.

And I have so many of my favorites.

Like I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.

That nothing in all creation can separate us from God's love in Christ.

That cast that you can cast your anxiety on him because he cares.

And I'm reminded of him saying, Be still.

And this is a season where I really need to be still.

Be still and know that I'm God.

I will be exalted among the nations.

I will be exalted in the earth.

I'm reminded of my grace is sufficient for you, Siah, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Isn't it awesome how the Holy Spirit changes our perspective?

So during Holy Communion, we are reminded that this is a celebration.

We're reminded that it's an opportunity to feel his presence.

And my third and final point is that it offers us an opportunity to respond by recommitting ourselves to Jesus.

So Holy Communion is a time to recommit ourselves.

And I'm reminded, you know, He's got everything.

He doesn't need, there isn't any, there's nothing that He doesn't have that I could offer.

And I'm reminded that what He wants is all of Me is all of you.

So this season, this commitment, season of commitment for all of us, is like thinking less of my own concerns.

You know, we live in a consumer society, and I think we're not just consumed with material goods, but we're also consumed with ourselves.

And I think this is a season to lay that aside.

You know, it's a mindset.

The scripture says, like in your relationships, have the same mindset as Christ.

And don't just look at your own interests.

Look out to the interests of others.

So this season is our chance, church, to look around us, to look at what is going on, to look at needs of others.

But it takes commitment.

I know often I've committed something to God, but I didn't really carry on.

And this season is the season that we need to recommit ourselves.

You know, I was thinking about the fires last week and the firefighters, and how like 15,000 firefighters from everywhere were here fighting the fires.

And I was just thinking how much commitment that takes for them that they actually chose a profession to help others, even though it was this risky.

I was thinking they're not going to say, wait a minute, this fire is too big.

You know, I'm having a change of heart.

The desire to help others, the commitment was far greater than the fear.

Then I'm reminded of all the doctors and the nurses who in this pandemic risk their lives.

I was thinking every morning they say farewell to their spouses and kids and go face this crazy pandemic, risking their lives.

Shadi and I were talking to a friend doctor of ours in Arizona who lost her dad to COVID, and we're just asking her how she was doing with work, and she said, you know, this is what we signed up for when we took this profession.

Then I'm reminded of all the other commitments we make in life, like when we marry, we're committed to our spouse.

When we have children, we're committed to raising them.

There's commitment everywhere.

And, you know, I thank God for awakening, for our commitment in this pandemic to reach out to the community when it started to help out with the gift cards.

It wasn't like even the dollar value, but it was the thought.

It's like it's what church is supposed to do.

And thank God for what we're doing in this fire season to help out the Del Mar community, the teachers who have suffered loss of property, the evacuees who have who are going through a tough time.

I thank God for the homeless ministry that started in this pandemic season.

And you know, when I think about it, we don't have to really think hard or think of some new ministry to be effective.

For some of us, it's just picking up the phone and reaching out to someone.

It's maybe calling a friend that you haven't spoken to in a while.

It may be someone in your small group that you don't see their face on Zoom anymore.

And maybe it's just like you should call them and make sure you don't just tell them join the meeting so they don't think like they're trying to fulfill a duty, but just love on them.

So Holy Communion helps us to recommit and learn from God how He committed Himself to us by loving others.