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[0:00] If you've ever had a toddler, you know there's a point where they reach, where they try to figure it out.

[0:11] When you say, come here, and instead of toddling over going, like, okay, they look at you and they think, they take one step forward and they look at you, like, is that enough?

[0:23] And then they take one more step and then they look at you and they think, is that enough? And they take one more step and they look at you and they say, is that enough? Is that enough? For some of you, you have teenagers.

[0:37] And if you've ever tried to get a teenager to do the chores, clean up their room, get out on a Saturday morning to help in the backyard, you know that what they're going to say is, do I have to?

[0:53] So, maybe that's unfair to those of you who are teenagers. I'm sure some of you are far better than that. I was like that as a teenager. So, when I was working with college students, I remember the conversation we had with dating and what are the limits of physical interaction on a dating relationship.

[1:13] And often it'd be like, well, how far can I go? Well, you know, how much can I get away with? And, you know, I think that that's what often we can fall into in our own lives.

[1:32] I think it's also what we can fall into with our spiritual lives. Oh, it's never a conscious thought. We don't set out to say, how can I do the least for God possible and still be okay?

[1:43] Okay. Very few of us have the bravery to say that that's what we're actually thinking. It might be that we don't know any better, that we've grown up in a church culture where going to church on Sunday was what it meant to be a Christian, to know God.

[2:01] It might be that you have at one time lived zealously for the Lord and then faced your own failure and thought, I don't know if I can continue with that kind of zeal.

[2:21] So, we lower our standards. Sometimes we've served and we've served and we've served and we've served and we've served and we've become exhausted trying to perform and trying to keep up and trying to be the good Christian servant.

[2:39] Sometimes we face great trial and we think, I have no more. I'm beat down. I'm spent.

[2:49] All of these things are things that we may have experienced in our Christian lives, trying as we seek to serve and to know God.

[3:02] And I want to acknowledge this morning that it's hard. The Bible describes the Christian life not as a walk in the park or a sitting by the pool, but as a race, as a marathon, as a battle, as a journey.

[3:15] And it is hard. But how often do we get to that point in our spiritual lives where we think, how little can I do and still be okay?

[3:29] Is one step enough? Do I really need to come all the way? How do we know if we've fallen into this? Well, I often think that it's how we respond when someone puts before us a challenge to do more.

[3:49] Well, nobody's perfect. You can't expect me to really follow God in every part of my life, can you? Everyone sins, right? Isn't that what the gospel says? We're all sinners, so get off my back.

[4:02] Sometimes we say, I'm not strong enough. I'm not mature enough. I don't know enough. And I know in my own heart and in my own life, one of the things that I've seen that is most indicative of what's going on in my own heart is when I see someone else who seems to be just living in that sweet spot of zealous pursuit of living for God in everything they do.

[4:36] And in my own mind, I diminish that. I dismiss it. Or I attack them in my own heart. I think, well, don't tell me how I ought to live.

[4:50] You're young. You'll understand more later. It's not always going to be like that. Who do you think you are anyway? Spiritually superior to me?

[5:03] Or, well, that's them. They're sort of special saints, but that's not for me. That can't be for my life. However it is, when we see someone else living a life fully to the Lord, we often can feel threatened.

[5:20] And feel insecure. And out of our heart flows these things to seek to justify ourselves. Justify the place that we are at with God.

[5:33] Justify this unacknowledged, but often deeply held conviction of, isn't this enough? How little can I do and still be okay?

[5:48] Or, on the other side, how far can I go away from God and still be okay? I think we often fall into this, what I call spiritual minimalism.

[6:02] How little can I do and still get by? I think as we look to our passage this morning, as we look to what the gospel speaks to us, we will find both a challenge and an encouragement in light of this question.

[6:18] So, if you want to turn with me, we are going to continue our series in 1 Corinthians. We're in chapter 10. We're looking at, starting in verse 23, it's on page 958 in your pew Bibles.

[6:31] We're going to be reading this passage together. Page 958, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 23.

[6:47] All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.

[7:04] Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any questions on the ground of conscience.

[7:25] But if someone says to you, this has been offered in sacrifice, then do not eat it. For the sake of the one who informed you and for the sake of conscience. I do not mean your conscience, but his.

[7:37] For why should my liberty be determined by someone else's conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks? So, whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

[7:59] Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.

[8:12] Be imitators of me as I am of Christ. Will you pray with me? Lord, we ask this morning that you will help us, Lord, help us to understand this passage.

[8:28] Lord, I pray this morning, Lord, for you know my own weakness and my own frailty. Lord, you know my sinful heart. Lord, will you work through me this morning and may my words be useful to build up.

[8:47] Lord, may we, those of us who sit here under your word this morning, be ready to hear what you have to say to us. Help us, Lord, we pray. In Jesus' name.

[8:59] Amen. Amen. What does the gospel say to us? How does the gospel address our spiritual minimalism?

[9:12] We're ending a large chunk of 1 Corinthians. We've been in a three-chapter conversation about the issue of food offered to idols, which in the first century was a very common reality, particularly in a place like Corinth.

[9:29] In lots of the world today, it's still a common reality, but it's not so much here in America, at least in the same kind of a form. And so, but Paul has been answering a question that the church has asked, the Corinthian church has written to them saying, hey, what are we supposed to do with this?

[9:47] And as we've noted a number of times, Paul takes not five verses to say, well, this is how you should do it with three simple instructions, and then he's done. He spends three chapters because he wants to engage not simply what's the right answer to the question, but also how do we think Christianly?

[10:07] How is it that the gospel shapes how we think about a question like this? And as Paul is summarizing at the end of this, end of chapter 10, he's going to bring together some threads, and that's what we're going to do this morning.

[10:23] We're going to spend less time talking about meat offered to idols and more talking about a broader perspective on how we think about these things. But first, let's make sure we think through what has been the argument so far.

[10:36] Chapter 8, Paul has encouraged the Corinthians, you may be thinking rightly about this, but don't use your knowledge to destroy your brothers who may not have the same knowledge you do.

[10:50] And then chapter 9, he talks about his freedom and his rights, and he says, you are to use, you are to, though you have rights, you are to defer them so that the gospel will flourish in the lives of others.

[11:06] And then at the end of chapter 9, he says, and you have freedom to do all things, but use your freedom to serve others so that they might know Jesus better.

[11:18] And then at the beginning of chapter 10, what is, it's mostly a warning to say, be careful. Be careful that in your freedom you do not compromise your soul and imperil your spiritual life and worship.

[11:35] And so that's been the flow. He's given these broad principles so far, and then as we come to our passage, you see he returns to some of the things that Corinthians have been saying. All things are lawful.

[11:46] Don't I have the freedom? And Paul says, yes, but. Yes, but. And he gives two little, he gives two more case studies, and in these two case studies, he gives answers two and three.

[11:59] Nick helpfully outlined this a couple weeks ago. The summary of what Paul's answer is. What do I do with food offered to idols? You don't go to the temple and eat it there. It's participation in worship of idols.

[12:11] You can't do it. And then he gives two more answers here. He says, but if you're in the marketplace where most of the meat would have been provided probably through the sacrificial system in the pagan temples, and certainly the best foods would have been offered in the temples, sacrificed there, and then taken to the market and sold, he says, if you're going into the market, eat, enjoy.

[12:35] It's all from God. It's just meat. It's good. There's nothing magical about it. So you can enjoy the meat in the marketplace. And then he takes one more example, and he says, and if someone invites you, and he specifies an unbeliever, someone who probably is involved in this pagan worship, if they invite you to their home and they put meat before you, you don't have to make a big deal of it.

[12:59] You don't have to make... He actually says, don't ask. This is the best application of don't ask, don't tell. Lots of bad ones in the world, but this is one where Paul says, no, use it.

[13:12] Don't ask about the meat. Just enjoy it, and enjoy the gift of this unbeliever's hospitality in your life. But, and then he puts a little qualifier in.

[13:25] But, if he says, hey, this is part of idol worship, maybe that's a comment made to you out of concern for you. Like, hey, I don't want you to eat this if this is wrong.

[13:36] Maybe it's simply them saying, hey, this is a part of who we are that we worship God, or we worship these idols and this meat came from the temple. It says, for their conscience sake, so that they will understand the gospel clearly.

[13:51] Don't eat. Don't eat it, not because it has, it impinges on your own convictions or your own freedom, but don't eat for their sake, so that they will understand that the gospel claim is that there is only one true God, and he demands unswerving loyalty.

[14:11] And that's basically the argument that he gives. Leading up to, in verse 31, what for any of you who have grown up in church or have been around for a while, this, one of those famous verses.

[14:26] Look with me again, verse 31. I gotta find it so I can read it. So whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

[14:38] Friends, this is the answer that Paul is giving to how, what do we do with meat offered to idols?

[14:49] It's also the answer that he gives to us as we wrestle with the question of spiritual minimalism. How far, how far can I go? How little do I have to do? He says, do all things to the glory of God.

[15:06] Now, brief, brief side note or excursus or a definition because the glory of God is something that we talk about all the time. But what is it? I mean, really, it's a word we use all the time, but what does it mean?

[15:22] Right? Think about it this way. the glory of something is when the attributes, the character, the nature of that something is somehow displayed or exhibited or recognized and reflected in such a way that all the admirable qualities of that thing are seen and recognized and honored.

[15:51] And in God's glory, what He's saying to us is to do all things to the glory of God is to say everything in our life, every moment of our day, every thought, every action, every aspect, all of that is given to us to live in such a way that the nature and the character and the work of God is seen in the world.

[16:20] This is what it means to glorify God. in all that we do. And in fact, what we've seen in this discussion about meat offered to idols is two core principles of what does it look like for us to live a life that glorifies God.

[16:38] Two principles are this. We glorify God by a pure, single-minded devotion without rival, without compromise, a pure devotion to God.

[16:54] And then secondly, we see that we glorify God with a sacrificial love for others. So that's what I want to explore this morning.

[17:05] And we'll see it in the passage and we'll think about it a little bit more broadly for our own lives as we go. So first, glorify God with a pure devotion to God.

[17:17] Jonathan Edwards, a great American theologian, as he lived his life, he wrote out a list of resolutions. You may know them.

[17:28] If you're not familiar with Jonathan Edwards' resolutions, you should go read them. They will challenge you. He compiled it over a period of time, but his first one was this.

[17:41] Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God's glory and for my own good, profit, and pleasure in the whole of my duration, that is, for my whole life, without any consideration of the time, whether now or never, so many myriad of ages hence.

[18:06] Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this whatever difficulties I meet with, how many and how great so ever.

[18:24] A little 18th century language in there. But he said, what I want to do most of all is to make everything that I do be clearly for the glory of God.

[18:40] And so, how did Paul play this out? In this particular case of food offered to idols, what does it look like to have this pure devotion to God, this pure, this clarity of devotion to God in the issue of meat offered to idols?

[18:56] And in some ways it's very simple. This is actually what Pastor Greg preached on a bit last week. It goes back a little bit in chapter 10. He basically says when you go to the temple courts, when you go to those places, and the interesting thing is the temples ran places that were kind of like the restaurants of the day.

[19:15] And they were significant social places. There were places where you would go to do business. There were places where you would go to see and be seen in society. There were places where you would hodnob with the power brokers and the significant people in the city.

[19:35] And the food that would be served there would be a part of temple worship and temple ritual. And Paul says don't muddy your devotion with Christ by being sucked in to eating at those meals, eating that meat that has been offered to idols.

[19:54] It was a costly choice for the believers to not do that. They gave up opportunities to do that.

[20:06] They gave up the opportunity to be welcomed and to be brought in and accepted by the society in a particular way. I'm trying to think I don't know if there's a good example because I don't know the power brokers of New Haven enough but somewhere between Union League and Goodfellas and somewhere else there's a restaurant that's like this where if you want to go, if you want to see where the power brokers of the city go that's where you go.

[20:35] I don't know where it is but I believe it's out there somewhere. Right? But if you knew that you couldn't go there because of your religious convictions, because it was attached to and associated with worshiping a different God that you know that you could not do and maintain your purity, this would be the cost.

[20:57] You'll never get in on some of those conversations. You'll never be able to broker some of those deals. It was a high cost for them to do it. And friends, the evangelical movement in the West at least set out 50 years ago to re-engage with our culture after fundamentalism had sought to disengage from our society.

[21:23] And it has been a great blessing in many ways. But this is perhaps where we most need to be careful in that evangelical impulse to re-engage our society, to believe that as we live out our lives following Christ among our neighbors and within our society, to do good to our city and to our neighbors, we need to maintain the purity of our devotion to Christ.

[21:53] And sometimes, out of a desire to not look weird or to not be accused of being unloving by our neighbors or because we live in a very tolerant society and to draw hard and fast lines based on your religious conviction is pretty out there.

[22:16] we cannot do it. We can hide behind I don't want to offend and fail to have a pure devotion to the Lord.

[22:30] We need to care more about what God thinks than what others think of us. So purity of devotion may be saying no and setting boundaries to this, but I also want you to see that the pure devotion to God also gives us this beautiful freedom.

[22:51] Look with me verses 24 through 27. Right? Verse 25 in particular he says hey, if you go to the market eat whatever's there enjoy it.

[23:07] And then he quotes this psalm that we read earlier Psalm 24 where the psalmist says the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof and then he goes on in the context of pure worship rejecting the idols and he who can approach God on this holy hand of pure hands and a clean heart and this single-minded devotion to God the psalmist says everything we get from God is good and in fact the Jewish tradition took this verse as the basis for what is now both Jewish and Christian tradition to thank God for our food.

[23:46] This is actually where in the Old Testament and in the Jewish community this is where the thought of why should we pray before we eat because the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof everything God has given us he has given it to us to enjoy and to eat and as long as it doesn't have these overbearing associations with worshiping an idol we can enjoy it freely and interestingly then he says when you go to your friend's house and they offer you food don't fall into the trap of getting all tied up in knots about oh I don't know maybe this was offered to an idol do I have to eat it maybe I shouldn't what do I do do I have to ask he gives them immense amount of freedom there's this great joy to say hey this food is yummy that's all you have to say to your friend unless he attaches it and associates it with idol worship and then you have to say oh brother thank you so much you are so kind but I couldn't eat that because I can only worship my God and this

[24:57] I need to separate from the worship of idols which is incredibly offensive we talked about this a couple weeks ago it's incredibly the food you didn't eat meat that often when you were offered meat it was a real gift and there's a huge social cost to doing that but in general the principle is once we have this clarity of devotion in our heart then we live freely and we get to enjoy this world we get to enjoy the things in it we get to enjoy our neighbors and our friends because we know and we have this clear and unbending devotion to the Lord it's not always easy you can think about the book of Daniel as some interesting case studies Daniel 1 he and his friends have been taken forcibly from their home brought into the highest levels into sort of a training program to be in the highest levels of government in the

[26:06] Babylonian empire which is an idolatrous nation that worshipped a false god and Daniel has to think how do I respond to this situation right in Daniel 1 there's this meat from the king's table and it says Daniel determined not to defile himself it doesn't seem that it was a violation of Jewish law to eat that food but he had determined not to defile himself so I had to think what do I do if I say I won't eat that they might just kill me I'm basically a slave they might throw me out in the salt mines you know rather than having this place of influence I'm risking my opportunity to influence by taking a stand and in this case Daniel is creative he goes and he asks for leniency and he asks for a chance for him to try something a third way a different way not simply saying yes or no but can I try something different here and maybe it will actually serve what you most want to see happen and in God's grace he opens that up and the chief steward gives them this opportunity and by God's grace he sustains them through the food that they eat which is not from the king's table such that it actually exalts them and they have this great wonderful opportunity then to witness to

[27:31] Christ because of his creative engagement in the third way but then you go to Daniel 6 Daniel is now in he's the secretary of state or whatever he's up in the cabinet right he's risen to the highest levels of leadership again what a great opportunity how can I use this for influence for the kingdom of God how can I witness to the God that I serve and yet the leaders his peers who are jealous of him and his popularity go to the king and work out a deal where they raise up a huge statue and then they say king don't you think everyone should bow to this you're such a great king why don't you do this and and so the king passes a law everyone must bow to my statue Daniel says I can't do that I can only bow to my one God he doesn't make a big fuss he doesn't make a big stink but what he does do is he simply goes about his faithful life of prayer I will pray only to my God I will not bow down and pray to this God as I've been told to do and

[28:45] I will not limit my prayer the the command was actually you may not pray to any other God you must pray to this one Daniel said I can't do that he got thrown in a lion's den sometimes that may be happen that may happen to us too and then God may deliver us the way he did or he may not read the end of Hebrews 11 not everyone who is faithful to God is delivered from those consequences of being in conflict with the world because of their pure devotion to God some will suffer some will die some will lose lots of things you may lose your standing in your company you may lose your job you may lose the respect of your peers you may lose a career track that you hope for but through the lens of meat offered to idols Paul wants us to think about how is it that we live a life of pure devotion to God how does it how is it that my money my sex life my job as a parent my studies my career track the movies that I watch on Friday night the nightlife I engage in the food that

[30:22] I eat the exercise that I do or don't do social media that I engage in how can I do all of these things with a pure devotion to God here's some questions that you might want to ask yourself first of all there's a bounded question which is is it sinful does scripture say don't do this because then you don't have to think about it anymore then scripture has told you what you need to do and then you just need to decide to obey but for many many things and as you see here with food with the meat it was a complicated question right there are lots of discernment questions we want to ask so here's some questions we want to ask does it help me love God more to do these things do I represent God well to others when I do these things that might both be in inherently what I'm doing but also in the character I've seen some seminary students who don't know how to represent God on the intramural basketball floor it's an ugly sight sometimes they ought not to do that until they can do it for the glory of God that in registration lines those are the two places where you see the true character of seminary students do I represent God well when I'm doing this is this activity encouraging or corrosive to my spiritual life does it lead me to worship something other than God himself if we ran the totality of our life through the filter of those questions then we're beginning to see what it would look like to live for the glory of God with pure devotion to God but it's not just that Paul goes on he says it's not just pure devotion to God then I could go be a monk and live on the top of a pillar in the desert and not be distracted by the world but in fact God has actually put me in the world and Paul says that living for the glory of God also has to do with loving with loving our neighbor you see this so clearly in this passage verse 24 here's the principle let no one seek his own good but the good of his neighbor look down again in verse 32 and 33 give no offense give no offense to the Jews we're going to be sensitive to what kinds of food you eat and your ritual purity and you know I live in a Jewish neighborhood where there are a lot of Orthodox Jews

[33:13] I've learned you don't shake hands with them it's crossing boundaries they don't want you to cross boundaries and so it's at least that's a maybe I misunderstood it I haven't developed great relationships yet but even in the few interactions I've had I've learned like I need to be restrained in my sort of gregarious Americaness and just go oh I shouldn't do this right don't give offense to the Jews or to the Gentile or to the Greeks which really means to the Gentiles people don't know God people or to the church of God Paul's vision of loving those around us is encompassing both people in the church and the people outside the church and saying our love should be comprehensive in how we do this the hard part about this is that it means that in every situation to love our neighbors is going to be a matter of context isn't it this is why you can't give a hard and fast rule about many things and oh how we love rules don't we we just want someone to tell us if you can just tell me if it's right or wrong then I can wield that rightness or wrongness like a bat and barrel my way through life and it doesn't matter what you think but that's Paul is saying explicitly through these chapters that's not what the Christian life looks like the Christian life looks like the gospel transforming our lives changing our hearts and then sending us out to glorify God displaying who he is through our worship of him and now our love for our neighbors and so loving our neighbors doesn't have a set of rules right so when your unbelieving friend invites you enjoy it eat it be thankful for it unless he associates it with idol and then you have to give offense for his sake so that he understands the gospel better not just so you can be a prudish

[35:23] Christian or you can go back and say I did it right look at me I did it right but for his sake so that he understands the gospel better it's tricky it's tricky to not do something stupid that will wreck of another person's understanding of the gospel it's tricky to neither accommodate sin nor allow legalism to be imposed in a particular situation it's hard to know how to surprise your friends with love and with grace how to explore the world and their lives to see the fingerprints of God in their lives so they might see a little bit of God's glory in it and yet not accepting or condoning the things in their lives that are not of God and don't reflect his kingdom it's tricky there's no doubt about it and yet this is what it means to glorify

[36:35] God it means to think about them and not us here's an analogy for you you know when you first start dating not the first couple of dates those are awkward and you're like I don't know what is going on here but right when you get over that right you sort of like get into this sweet spot of like man I love this person and you know what you go through your day and you're thinking about them all your time and everything in your disposal sort of like how does this relate to this person this is the interesting thing is that God wants us to live our life like that all the time to be thinking about this is the neighbor that I rub shoulders with when I'm pulling in my trash in the morning this is the neighbors I rub shoulders with hopefully not literally as I'm driving through New Haven this is this is the neighbor that I'm called to love this is the brother that I'm called to love in my workplace and so on and so forth every the gospel pictures us being freed from a selfish impulse of how little can I get away with and it frees us to then look outward and to see how much can I love

[38:01] God and how much can I love other people so that they will know Jesus more now I want to be honest it's costly it's going to cost you your comfort and your preferences it will cost you things that you think are your right personal space time comfort being in the right circle of friends it will cost you emotional and spiritual energy because when you love people it's hard it demands things of us our attention our thoughts our prayers it may cost you success if you choose to help others rather than simply advance yourself may cost you prestige as you associate with people who aren't in the right crowd loving people sacrificially is costly but friends it is so worth it because it is the way we display God's glory in the world because the God who is love has set us here so that we might love others for his glory and so in the same way that we think about the our devotion to God let me think about how do you love others with your money with your sex life with your parenting with your career pursuits with your movies with your nightlife decisions with your food with your exercise with your use of social media how can I do these how can I take all of these things that are parts of my life and array them so that I might be encouraging to my brothers and sisters in their devotion to Christ how might I use these things to help clarify what the gospel is for my friends who don't know Jesus yet conversely we need to ask the question how might these things feed my own selfish agenda my own comfort my own ease of life and friends Paul at the end of this passage beginning of chapter 11 says imitate me follow me because this is how I have done it not seeking my own advantage but the advantage of others but the only way I have known how to do this is that I followed in the footsteps of the one who went before for me I've imitated Christ because this friends is what Christ came to do to glorify God with pure devotion and love for others he came and he said behold I have come to do your will oh God and he lived a sinless life a perfect life of devotion everything he did was with a view to God and that God would be known and God would be worshipped and God would be loved in the display of his person in his actions in his ministry in his times both doing and in his times of resting they showed a display of the perfect devotion to God and then this same Christ who in his devotion to God came not to be served but to serve and to give his life

[42:01] a ransom for many he came for us to rescue us from sin and death he came for us friends this is the savior that we serve he came for us to point where he suffered on the cross and died he took upon himself the penalty and the pain and the guilt of our sin when he died on that cross so that he might win us back so that we might be his what a beautiful savior we have that in his redemption he not only secured for us the possibility of salvation for all who have placed their faith in this Jesus but he's given us a pattern to follow so that we in following in his footsteps might live whether we eat whether we drink or whatever we do we might do those things to the glory of God friends I think this is what rescues us from minimalist spirituality it rescues us from simply trying to get by with as little as possible this is what we were created for and in Christ this is what we were redeemed for to display God in this world so that the greatness of the God that we know and that we serve and that we worship would be known and extended to the ends of the earth that they too would see how great this God is and that they would turn from idols to serve the true and the living God and he calls us to engage everything we have for that everything we have needs to be run through the filter of how do I worship God in this everything we have run through the filter of how do I love my neighbor and if we do that then we have something worth living for let's pray

[44:22] Lord this is a hard word for we see how often we fall short of these things and Lord we thank you for your grace that covers us Lord that you do not like a harsh taskmaster demand perfection and then cast us off when we are imperfect but God in fact you have given us the perfect one to be our redemption and that in him you have given us a new life to live that we might live it not for ourselves but for him who died for us God I pray that you will help us this morning Lord if we are if we have fallen into spiritual minimalism if we are defending Lord a life that is not being lived to your glory

[45:24] Lord I pray you would help us to see that and repent of it Lord I pray that we would see the greatness of you and of your gospel and of your kingdom and of most of all of your Savior and our Savior Jesus and that in seeing him we might be moved to live a life to your glory whatever we do be with us we pray in this in Jesus name Amen Well friends this is a beautiful day for us to celebrate communion because when we think about where do we see the glory of God it is what we remember here most fully when Jesus said I have come to do your will I have come to bring you glory it is when we recognize and see God's love and his mercy his justice his righteousness and his love in this in this table the bread that represents

[46:32] Jesus' body broken for us the cup that represents Jesus' blood shed for us and so we come here to display God's glory as we partake together of these things if you are here this morning and you are visiting you have not placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior we would ask that rather than taking these elements that you would consider what the significance of them is and see the greatness of who Christ is you would think of ponder what it is to live a life to God's glory this morning but if you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ if you have known him as your Savior then take and eat these things as a joyful reaffirmation of your trust in Christ and of your taking hold of this great work for you can I ask those who are serving to come on forward and as they are coming up just so you know we will pass out the wafers together you can hold on to them and at the end we will eat together and then we will pass out the cup similarly hold on to it we will drink together and then we will close so

[48:01] John will you pray for the bread this morning Lord may we see in this broken bread your broken body and in it the measure the horror of our sin that put you there on the cross as we consider the cross and the bread as we take it may we be cured from slight regard for our sin that would minimize it may we also see in the broken bread of your body the magnitude of your mercy and the greatness of your grace the lavish nature of your love toward us and may we eat to your glory by as we eating exalting you as Savior our Savior in who

[49:15]  Christ worth and thank you for having me to share and let me describe God Waters and yourуб Tao and side and itsvis and it through and our good Gift and everything