1 Cor 11:23-34 | July 26, 2026 | Will Rutt

When you internalize something well enough, it's going to show up.

And there was some some brilliant marketing that was going on in the early and mid-90s around Gatorade.

You remember the question?

Gatorade.

Do you remember the question?

No, no, what was this just a me thing?

Gatorade.

Question, is it in you?

Okay.

Alright.

So we do know.

Gatorade, is it in you?

If you saw the commercials, then you know that they would like to drink the Gatorade.

And then when they would sweat, they would sweat out the Gatorade.

Gatorade.

Is it in you?

What's internalized is gonna come out.

And this morning, as we look at 1 Corinthians 11, there's something that Paul directs our attention to that I hope will internal we'll be able to internalize, and it'll be able to come out of us and change the way that we come to church and the way we take communion.

I don't know if if you just kind of recognize that the verses that we're in right now, the verses that we just read, are verses that we read basically every time we take communion.

And I hope, oh, sorry, deacons, I said that when I mentioned the Gatorade to get ready for communion.

That no, so that's that's gonna be later.

I'll tell you when to get ready, sorry.

This came out earlier than I've mentioned than I thought I would.

Okay.

Why is everybody moving right now?

We are gonna take communion at the end because that just makes sense because the text is about communion.

Sorry about that.

My fault.

Um Yeah, I want to be able to internalize what Paul directs our attention to so that we would come to church differently, take communion differently, and that it would be something that really does mark us, change us, affect us for the rest of our lives in how we take communion.

We know that Paul is in 1 Corinthians, he spent the first six chapters giving them these rebukes, and then he's in the last chapters 7 to 16 replying to questions that they sent him, the rebukes regarding favoritism, sexual immorality, lawsuits, and then he gives instructions, and throughout it he weaves the gospel, the visual that I've just keep keep coming back to is he he takes their odds and he lifts them up up to Jesus, that there's there are solutions, like really practical solutions that he's gonna give to all of these like flea sexual immorality.

Um, like in regard to favoritism, very practical solution.

He says, Let a man regard us in this way, servants.

Very practical, but he's not content to just give a practical solution to the problem.

He's going to give a gospel reality behind it that um that when it internalizes is gonna come out in a certain way.

So he's not content just to say, hey, let a man regard us in this way as servants in chapters one and four.

He's gonna say, he's gonna go back to the gospel reality that we plant, we water, God causes the growth.

By his doing, we're in Christ.

So he's weaving the gospel throughout it, lifting our eyes, and we're gonna see the same thing this morning.

That he's going to actually, in this time of instructions related to the corporate worship service, the gathering of the saints for what we would call church, he's gonna have some pretty harsh rebukes as we go through.

And I'm not gonna try to review all that, but if you've been here, hopefully all that makes sense.

So pick up with me in chapter 11, verse 17, is where we're gonna start.

Paul says, in giving this instruction, that's the instruction that he's about to give, I do not praise you.

Okay, the church in Corinth does not get a lot of praise, they get a lot of rebukes.

But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you because you come together not for the better.

But what?

What does he say?

Can you pause?

Can you imagine if Paul was writing to the church at Sandhurst and he wrote verse 17?

And giving us an instruction, church at Sandhurst, I do not praise you.

You get together for the worse.

It would be bet it is for the worse.

It would be better if the church at Sandhurst didn't get together.

Tough words.

And so it makes you go, well, what's going on here?

Well, whatever is happening is not just it's so severe that he goes, you get together for the worst, but then also jump over to verse 30 with me.

I just want to see the severity of the issue that's happening in the church.

Verse 30, he says, For this reason, in other words, because of what's happening, many among you are weak and sick, and a number asleep.

Euphemism for dead.

But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.

But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord, so that we will not be condemned along with the world.

Hard words that he gives to the church in this portion of chapter 11.

You get together for the worse.

And because of what's happening in your church, some of you are sick and have died because of what's happening here.

It makes you go, man, what is happening?

Like, it sounds terrible.

Um, if we're gonna make guesses as to what kind of things would be behind this, we would think things like really severe, like, man, is the church like covering up some sort of abuse or covering up some sort of scandal, or is there some like really pervasive false teaching, or um, is is the church leadership beginning to celebrate sin in a way that God never does and scripture never does?

Like, what is happening?

Because these are strong words.

We're gonna see what's happening, and uh it has nothing to do actually with the leadership or any scandal that's being covered up.

It has everything to do with the church and how the church takes communion.

Let's read it.

Verse 18.

For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you.

And in part, I believe it.

Okay, he already talked about that in chapters one through four.

For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved to me become evident among you.

Therefore, when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord's supper.

For in your eating, each one takes his own supper first, and one is hungry, and another is drunk.

What?

Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink?

Or do you despise the church of God and shame those?

Or maybe your Bible says, humiliate those who have nothing.

What shall I say to you?

Shall I praise you?

In this I will not praise you.

What's going on here?

It's not some cover-up of a scandal.

What's happening is the church is taking the Lord's Supper in their gathering together, and here's what's happening.

Here's some of the cultural backdrop that we see.

That when we take the Lord's Supper now, we take it with a little juice and a little cracker inside.

That's not exactly how it would have happened in the early church in in Corinth.

The book of Jude talks about love feasts.

And uh so what it appears happened in Corinth and in the early church is when they would get together to remember the Lord's Supper, communion, they would do it with an actual meal.

And what would happen is you would come and you would kind of like a potluck, but you don't share your food.

You just kind of bring your own food and you would eat together, and in so doing, you would share the Lord's Supper.

You would remember Jesus.

But what's happening?

You have in the church, you have people who are well off, rich, and then you have some people who don't, who are not well off, who don't have a lot of money, and they're coming together, and it seems like we'll see at the end, verse the last verse, that the rich people are coming early and bringing their best food.

They're bringing like the good stuff.

And then when the poor people are showing up to their church service to remember Jesus, there's already been like a little pre-church tailgate, and the rich people are full and drunk, and when it's time to remember the Lord's Supper, the poor people have nothing.

That's what's going on.

The little tailgate before the church, rich people, a lot of money, a lot of food, a lot of stuff, gorging themselves, having a good time, getting drunk, and then others who have nothing.

And Paul goes, in one word.

What?

So, like, what's the problem here?

You could say it a bunch of different ways.

Here are some ways that I just tried to go, okay, what is like we see what's happening, but what is really happening that makes Paul go, this cannot be happening in the church.

Like it's because of this that the church is getting together for the worse.

And here's what's going on.

And remembering their love of Jesus through communion, they were failing to show the love of Jesus to one another.

That's what's happening.

And Paul goes, What?

Or to say it a different way.

They had the right practice in taking communion, but the remembrance of Jesus was marked by utter selfishness.

So we've brought out the I a bunch of times.

And even in their communion, it's marked by me.

What do I want?

What food do I want?

What friends, what friends can I be around?

No consideration for the rest of the church in the gathering.

What's the problem?

Well, you could say it this way.

They attended church and were acting like they despised the church.

Now, now, look, that I pulled that from verse 22.

What?

Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink?

So, like, eat first, don't come to the church gathering and get full and drunk.

Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?

They attended the church, they're acting like they despise the church.

Paul goes, What?

Or maybe another way to say the same thing.

What's going on here is the gospel they believed wasn't working its way out into the way they treated one another.

And Paul goes, What?

It'd be better if you didn't even come together.

You're just worse off.

See, the in communion, we're coming before the Lord with this heart posture right there.

Not an inflated ego, but a coming before the Lord, remembering his death.

And you got a bunch of people in the church, not everyone, but a bunch of people who are in the church, and their hot their heart posture is not that, their heart posture is that.

Dress up nice, shake a few hands, kind of get in with the people, pay my dues, and um what's in it for me?

And Paul goes in one word.

What?

Will I praise you?

And this, I will not praise you.

So I tried to say what I think is about kind of the deeper issue here in a couple different ways.

Um, and I think we could just say that we who gather to remember God's love fail to show it.

That's the problem.

When saints who gather to remember God's love in communion fail to show it.

Paul goes, What?

Uh and so just want to think.

It's it's not too hard to see, okay.

Well, what happened then happens now.

That we who gather to remember God's love often fail to show it.

We who gather to remember Jesus only have ourselves on our mind.

We who gather to remember his forgiveness harbor bitterness in our hearts towards other people.

What?

We who gather and remember how God has initiated towards us to welcome us and to his family, and we take zero initiative towards other people.

Paul goes, What?

When we gather to remember the love of God and then fail to show the love of God, Paul says, Man, you get together for the worse.

And so uh what I just want to help us see is that what happens then happens now.

But I don't want to just help us see that what happens then or what happened then happens now.

I I want us to have a sense of, man, I see myself in the mirror here and go, man, I don't like this.

And you you know who hates this kind of hypocrisy?

God.

Let me read you Amos 5.

Amos 5 says, I hate, this is God speaking.

I hate, I reject your festivals, nor I nor do I delight in your festive assemblies.

Even though you offer up to me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, things that they were commanded to do by God.

I will not accept them.

And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fattened oxen.

Take away from me the noise of your songs, I will not even listen to the sound of your harps.

Listen, why?

This is next verse.

But let justice roll out like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

See, this is God through Amos saying, hey, when you're gathering, doing these festivals to remember who God is and his love for you, that's gotta, that can't just be a vertical thing.

That's gotta be a horizontal thing where that love flows out.

And when it only is vertical, you're just remembering God's love and failing to show it, he says, What?

God hates it.

And you know, you know who else hates it?

Unbelievers.

I was thinking, oh, this is this is one thing that God and unbelievers have in common.

I hate this kind of hypocrisy.

I know many of us have identified uh one person that you are going to intentionally invest in to win to Jesus.

Okay?

Daily prayer, monthly relationship, quarterly truth.

And uh at Frisbee, uh I played Frisbee at McLeod Fitness on Mondays, and it's it's just a good time talking to different people who aren't kind of in church world.

And this this exact kind of conversation just came up a couple weeks ago where a guy who plays married to a girl who has no interest in church, and the reason is hypocrisy.

The people who believe things like the love of God for us and fail to show it.

God hates it, unbelievers hate it.

You know who else hates it?

We do.

There is something in us that goes, man, I don't like that either.

None of us want to be part of a church that is so kind of head up in the clouds of doctrine that it doesn't actually make its way into our life.

We hate it too.

And so I was starting to think, man, if God hates it, unbelievers hate it, we hate it, why do we do it?

Why are we so prone to remember God's love and then fail to show it?

And um, that's a good question.

I'm almost amazed at the human propensity to continue doing things that we hate.

But just hating something is not um a good enough sort of fuel to sustain the kind of change that we want.

So, what does Paul do anytime he calls them out for something?

What does he do?

Look up.

And as he has done throughout the book, he gives both a practical sort of solution and a, you might say, gospel heart solution.

Let's look at the practical solution first.

It's in verse 33.

Verse 33, this is the practical solution to the love problem happening and the way that they're celebrating Jesus in communion.

Verse 33.

So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.

If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you will not come together for judgment.

The remaining matters I will arrange when I come.

If you're a practical person, then you appreciate Paul's practicality here.

He's like, we got a problem.

Uh people are showing up early, they're getting drunk, and leaving other people out.

So here's what love is gonna look like in our church.

In one word, what was it?

Wait.

Sometimes love just needs a script.

Like in my house, uh my girls are getting just a little bit older, which means, you know, my oldest is 10.

And um, so there was a time when I would come home and it was like the celebrity just entered the house.

Oh, dad, dad, dad, dad.

And then more recently, I've been walking in, they're all there, and nobody cares that dad just walked in.

And I was like, okay, I was like, all right, this is uh, you know, this is part of, you know, this part of it, part of life.

And then I thought, no, no, okay, here's what we're gonna do.

I was like, I need to teach my girls how to show someone love when they walk in the door.

So I was like, here's the new rule.

When dad walks in, you stop what you're doing, and you speak to me, and you come up to me and give me a hug.

Okay, this is very practical.

I'm going to show you what love does.

This is how we do it in my family now.

And so when I walk in, they say, hey, dad, and they come with such a love skin.

Um, but that they just needed a script for love.

And I appreciate Paul's practicality here.

Uh, we're gonna be in a church and the shows love, and here's what that's going to look like for us right now.

One word, wait.

Now, we have timers and you know, countdown clocks, so I don't think waiting is our sort of practical solution to a love problem in the church.

Um, but I do want to ask.

If Paul is going to, let's take it out, not Paul, if the Holy Spirit was going to video, just kind of video you the whole time in the gathering in church, and then you're gonna sit down with the Holy Spirit and watch.

Would there be any points at the in the service where the Holy Spirit would go, that was love, way to go?

Or would he say, Where was the love?

Because it kind of seemed like a country club at the church.

Find your spot, shake some hands, get some coffee, comment on whether it's strong or weak, stronger is better, but whatever.

Uh if the Holy Spirit was gonna nudge you towards an action of love in the gathering, what would it be?

For for them, Paul said, wait.

What would be your one word of what the Holy Spirit would nudge you towards for the sake of love in the gathering of the saints?

Maybe maybe it would be cook.

When I went to uh I went to first pres in Columbia when I was at CIU, and I went the first week I went there, I met an elder and um introduced myself, whatever, or he introduced himself to me, and he goes, You got lunch plans?

I was like, I'm in college.

I'm like, he's like, Wanna come over?

I'm like, Yep.

And he invited uh my friends and I and come to find out that every week he and his wife had just would prepare a crock pot lunch in the morning so that they could come to church ready to invite somebody to their house.

And so they invited us over, we had a great lunch, and then they put us to work, like helping them clean up, which really actually helps me.

I enjoyed it, and that that's what, in one word, love was an expression of love for them.

That it's not like a universal everybody needs to cook, uh, but how the Holy Spirit had nudged them to show love in their church.

So if the Holy Spirit is gonna nudge you towards an expression of love in the church, what would it be?

Cook, greet, smile, sing, follow up?

What would it be?

We don't want to have country club, church, country club, Christianity.

And Paul is quite content, and so am I, to um give a kick in the pants with one word.

For them it was wait.

What's your word?

Come back to that later.

Um that's the practical uh solution to the love problem that's happening in communion.

Uh but if all we have is the super practical, then man, God help us.

Because while he does give a practical solution in verses 33 to 34, verses 23 through 32 are all about this.

They're about they're the gospel solution.

So so let's look at what he says in verse.

Uh go to go to verse 22, because I just like to be able to capture the flow, and we're gonna read through verse 32.

All right, verse 22.

What?

Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink?

Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing?

What shall I say to you?

Shall I praise you in this?

I will not.

Uh in this I will not praise you.

For, this is what we read, this is what we read in communion almost every time we celebrate it, which is once a month.

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you.

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

Do this in remembrance of me.

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

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

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

Okay, actually, I want to pause there.

I did this a couple weeks ago, and I don't know.

Sweet, do you see my notes?

Bummer.

Sorry, I know I did I just did this.

Oh, sweet, thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um do you see what he did?

We we have the practical solution.

He says, for them, wait.

But then um he doesn't just point them in the context of this love problem, he doesn't just point them to a new way, he points them to a past event to point them not just to the event, but to who?

A person, Jesus.

And he tells them that if we're gonna remember Jesus and let the and have an internalization of the gospel, we're gonna, it's gonna involve looking.

Okay?

Uh looking back and looking forward, and what we haven't read yet is looking in.

When we look back, we're looking back on what he says.

We proclaim the Lord's death.

Looking back at what Jesus accomplished on the cross and his resurrection.

We are looking back, but that's not all we're doing, we're looking forward.

It's in verse, both of these are in verse 26.

We proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

So we're looking back, we're looking forward.

He's coming back.

And that matters, man.

We're memorizing Romans 8 in my core group.

And uh, Romans 8 has so much like future gospel hope where he says, I consider the sufferings of this life not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Like the what is to come and looking forward really mattered to Paul in terms of endurance for the long haul.

And that's what we're looking to in communion.

We're looking back at his death, we're looking forward to his return.

And there's a third place that we look.

And that's not back, it's not forward, it's in.

Look at verse 27.

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

How do I how do I take communion communion in an unworthy manner?

Well, let's look at how to take it in a worthy manner.

Verse 28.

But a man must examine himself.

And in so doing, he is to eat the bread and drink of the cup.

So Paul's there.

Not just looking back, not just looking forward, looking in.

A man must examine himself.

Say, search me, oh God, know me, test me, try me, see if there be any wicked way to end me.

I'm examining myself so that I can look back again and see how the sin is actually made atoned for by Jesus.

The sin, the sin dealt with by Jesus and his death.

And he's coming back.

This is I I cannot um I wanna I want to be able to stress like emphatically how helpful this was to me.

I think I heard this in high school, and how I I hope I said that the internalization of something, and we'll get to that thing in a second, would lead us to come to church differently.

And that we'd come come to church ready to love.

Okay, but also to take communion differently.

And I would say, come to church ready to love, take communion ready to look.

During that whole time when when the elements are being passed out, this is what I hope we will do truly for the rest of your life.

You're like, okay, it's time to look.

It's time to look.

Look back at his death, look forward to his return, and look in.

And I was helped by this thought.

I'm no stranger to looking for things because I'm very good at losing things.

Um I'm using my backup Bible right now because I don't know where my actual Bible is.

And you know, the the question that anybody asks you when you're looking for something is well, where did you see it last?

If I knew that it wouldn't be lost.

Um but in terms of looking in, this was a helpful thought for me.

Retrace your steps.

You kind of go by, well, first I went here, and then I didn't hear, and then I hear I'm I'm not very good at finding things until I retrace my steps.

And when it comes to looking and looking in, uh, it has helped me to actually look back at his death and forward to his return.

If I retrace my steps and looking in and go, okay, Lord, where did I fall short moment by moment?

And that when when I'm able to name the sin, then I'm able to declare where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.

Retrace your steps.

That was helpful to me as well.

But there's one thing that I want to zoom in on that uh I think in reading this, I thought, man, this would serve me, this would serve our church.

Something that maybe doesn't get a lot of airtime when we're talking about communion, and it's in verse 25.

We talk about looking back, looking forward, looking.

And this is specifically about looking back.

In the same, this is verse 25, in the same way, Jesus took the cup also after supper, saying, This cup is the what?

New covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

This is the new covenant.

If there's a new covenant, that means there was an old covenant.

What's the old covenant and what's the new covenant?

And how does this help me?

I hope we get here.

Okay, so here's what the old covenant was in a nutshell.

The old covenant was God's good promise to cover sin through the mediation of a priest and the continual sacrifice of animals in the temple.

This was the old covenant that God gave to his people, Israel, through Moses.

We're gonna have a priest.

This priest is going to make sacrifices where the blood of the animal is going to cover the sin of the guilty.

And this was God's grace in it, but it was, it required the mediation of a priest and the continual sacrifices.

That's the old covenant.

So what's the new covenant?

What's the new covenant?

Um, join me in Hebrews 8, because um we're just about to like, my hope is that we'll just be like, oh shoot.

Every time from now on, when we read 1 Corinthians 11, we're gonna hear new covenant, and it's going to be like, oh, I know, I know about that.

And this actually helps me in terms of looking back.

So uh Hebrews 8, we're gonna read a fair amount, um, but honestly, we're gonna read a lot less than what I would love to read, but good news, uh, Hebrews 8 through 10 is gonna stay in your Bible for a long time, so you can read it later.

Okay, Hebrews 8, verse 6.

Hebrews 8:6

We're just gonna pay attention to what he says about the old covenant versus now the new covenant that Jesus identifies when he takes the cup.

This is the blood of the new covenant.

This is the new covenant in my blood.

Okay, verse uh chapter Hebrews 8, verse 6.

Hebrews 8:6

But now he, that's Jesus, has obtained a more excellent ministry by as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.

Okay, so whatever this new covenant is, it's better and more excellent.

Verse 7.

For if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second.

For finding fault with them, God says, Behold, days are coming, says the Lord.

He's quoting Jeremiah 31 here, which he quotes again in uh chapter 10.

Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant.

So the new covenant talks is talked about in the Old Testament as well, with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hands to lead them out of the land of Egypt, for they did not continue in my covenant, and I did not care for them, says the Lord.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord.

Here's the new covenant.

I will put my laws into their minds, I will write them on their hearts, and I will be their God.

So the new covenant is gonna have internalization.

And they shall be my people, verse 11, and they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen and everyone his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all will know me.

So it's not just internalization, there's intimacy here.

They will know me.

From the least to the greatest of among them, yep, the poor and the rich.

For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.

When he said a new covenant, he made the first obsolete, but whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.

He keeps going, but um, I want to jump to now nine, chapter nine, verse eleven.

Continuing to talk about the new covenant.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle.

Okay, that was like a temporary temple.

Not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, he entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, in other words, um, like a ceremonial cleansing of the body, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve a living God.

For this reason, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

Whoo! That's the new covenant.

Well, that was a lot of words.

Let's use a few lesser words.

Here's what he said the new covenant is more excellent, it's enacted on better promises, laws in their minds and hearts.

He says, I will be their God.

They shall be my people, they shall know me from the least to the greatest, merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.

He says, more, but here's that in a sentence.

The new covenant is God's better and more excellent promise to transform the inner man in the mind and in the heart, that we should know him, his mercy and his forgiveness through the mediation of Jesus, who offered himself as a sacrifice to God once for all, thus securing eternal redemption.

That's the new covenant.

That's a lot of words.

Let's use a few less words.

It's God's better promise to transform the inner man through the mediation of Jesus, once for all, securing eternal redemption.

That's still a lot of words.

Let's go here.

Old covenant, works, continual, human mediation, new covenant, grace once for all.

Jesus, this is the new covenant.

And so when Jesus took the cup, and he said, This is the new covenant in my blood.

He's going, Grace once for all through Jesus.

And in where there's a love problem, there's a gospel solution.

And yes, the practical solution is good.

Wait.

Or whatever your word would be.

But the deeper solution for a love problem, and you know, Jesus said, uh, a new commandment I give you.

And what's the new commandment that he gave?

To love one another as I have loved you.

Where there's a problem with the new commandment, there's a solution in the new covenant.

Where there's a problem in the new commandment, there's a solution in the new covenant.

That there would watch.

This was a really helpful image to me that when he took the cup and he said, This is the cup, the new covenant in my blood, that there would be an internalization, not of Jesus' literal blood, but of the new covenant blessings.

And that the internalization of the new covenant would lead to like an authentic expression of the new commandment to love one another.

I'm saying that the gospel of the new covenant is the solution to any love problem that you have or I have or we have in this church.

And so it makes sense, and deacons, uh you guys can begin passing out the elements.

It makes sense for us to finish our time this morning remembering Jesus, declaring the new covenant.

And as they put it out, I wanted to ask you two questions.

Well, the questions are intended to help us move, okay?

Move from country club club to love culture.

Uh as they're as they're taking, bringing us the elements, I want us to look back, look forward, and look in and go, Holy Spirit, is there a way that you're nudging me away from country club Christianity and towards love culture Christianity?

I want to move us in that direction.

God's Spirit wants to move us in that direction.

But the second question that I have, and I want to move us, that I think for many of us, we have operated as if we're under the old covenant, when in fact we are not.

And that is damning.

When you believe that that this whole Christian thing is about your works, about making continual apologies to God, continual obedience, so that your good outweighs your bad, that you are your own mediator before God, then you are living like the old covenant, like you're under the old covenant.

And you're not.

And so I really want to I want to like implore us to say, God, as the elements are coming out, am I taking communion but living as if the old covenant is still in effect?

That it's up to me and my works.

And if so, then I invite you to believe in Jesus, who inaugurated, who brought in the new covenant that is grace once for all in Christ Jesus.

Let's take this, and um, I will lead it, I'll lead us in taking it together, and then we will sing a new covenant song.