[0:00] it's one thing to be grateful, and all of us should be grateful people. It's another thing to give thanks. And gratitude is what we feel, but thanksgiving is what we do.
[0:10] And as God's people, we don't wait until Thursday to have thanksgiving. We will share tonight. We'll give testimonies after we have the Lord's Supper together, after we express our gratitude and thankfulness for the cross.
[0:21] We have an opportunity to share testimonies. But there's no better place for us to start than at Calvary, than at the cross. In the book of Titus, as we've been going through it, it calls us something in Titus 2.14, a word that we don't often use today in the same meeting, but it says that we're a peculiar people, that we're a set-apart people, that Jesus has changed our lives, and that those of us that are peculiar are those that have been redeemed.
[0:47] He has redeemed us. Sunday morning, if you're with us, we rejoice in the fact that He saved us. And being a peculiar people, we do peculiar things, all right? Some of you do weird things.
[0:58] That's not Christian. That's just you being weird, okay? I'm talking about peculiar things. I'm talking about things that are set aside just for us. And this is one of those. The Lord's Supper and baptism is something that's peculiar to us as a Christian people.
[1:12] It's been given to us as God's people, as a church, to watch over and take care of. We're now citizens of heaven. You may remember when we were in the book of Psalms, we went through a section called the Pilgrim Songs, songs that they sung when they were passing by.
[1:26] Well, we are also pilgrims, citizens of another country, citizens of heaven. And so the Lord's Supper is a pilgrim food, like the Passover and the book of Exodus that they had together.
[1:38] We are also people that are just passing through this world to the next to be with Him. So I want to help remind you of some things as we're called to do.
[1:48] Matthew 26, 29, That passage just seems so precious that Jesus told them when He instituted the Lord's Supper, that's what He shared with them, in anticipation.
[2:07] He said, I look forward to the day. Pastor Bo was speaking about it. We are people that wait for His return. And so we look forward to that day. But before we look forward, just real simply, I want to help all of us make sure that we fully take advantage of this moment.
[2:24] The Lord's Supper is wonderful in the fact that it's something you see, it's something that you taste, it's something that you hear. Kids in here, there'll be some that are taking the Lord's Supper for the very first time with us as a church, who have been recently baptized.
[2:37] And it's a special gift that God has given us. As we consider how do we make much of the cross, how do we make sure as a church family that we don't go into the Thanksgiving season and minimize the importance of the cross.
[2:50] The Bible prescribes for us a way in which we can do that, the way we can encourage each other in this. So we're going to look in several directions. My son Thatcher's learning to drive, and you should, when you drive, only have to look in the direction cars should be coming from, right?
[3:04] But if you're learning, if you drive around here, you say, no, you look to your right, you look to your left, you look upward, you look downward, you look at every direction, because you don't have any idea where the cars are going to be coming from.
[3:15] I want to take a moment and look at just about every direction before we come to the Lord's table together. The first one would be backwards, which is our gratitude. 1 Corinthians 11, 24.
[3:27] If you visited other churches, you probably saw a table in front of the pulpit. Many churches have this due in remembrance on that table. That's the table in which they serve the Lord's Supper from.
[3:37] It comes to 1 Corinthians 11, 24. And when he had given thanks, he break it and he said, take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me.
[3:48] So we take time now, and we look backwards to the cross. We look backwards to the time that Jesus willfully gave his life to die in our place.
[3:59] And so as we will take the bread, and as we will take the juice, when we hold the bread in our hand, and I'll give you, we'll have time to do that before we take of it, but as you take the bread, you'll taste it in your mouth.
[4:09] That's as real as the fact that the Son of God became a man and gave up his body for you so that you might have eternal life. As you taste the sweetness of the juice, you remember the sweetness of having your sins forgiven because Jesus poured out his blood for you.
[4:26] And here are some things that you can remember. You can remember that you were once an enemy of God, but now you've been born into his family. You can remember that you stood condemned in your sin, but now you're counted as righteous.
[4:39] Remember when we were slaves, but now we've been set free to serve God. That we were dead in our sins, but we're now made alive in Christ. We were headed to hell, but now we're citizens of God's heavenly kingdom.
[4:51] And so we remember that time, and we look back. The next thing that we do is we look around. You might be told in church often to not look around. Pay attention. Look forward, right? Some of you with little kids by you might have already said that tonight.
[5:03] But I will tell you at the Lord's Supper is a time that we look around at the body of believers in whom we share the supper with. Sharing the bread together is a sign of unity. 1 Corinthians 10, 17, this says it as clear as it can be.
[5:16] It says, For being many are one bread and one body for all partakers of that one bread. Every one of us in here, regardless of where you were born or what social class or financial class you may be in, we're all one, and we partake of the same bread and of the same juice, and it reminds us of the unity that we have.
[5:37] And Paul repeatedly, as he speaks about the Lord's Supper, reminds them that it's something you do when we come together. 1 Corinthians 11, 17 says that you come together.
[5:49] 1 Corinthians 11, 18, for first of all, when you come together in the church. 11, 20, when you come together into one place. 1 Corinthians 11, 33, wherefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, tarry from one another.
[6:02] When you come together and somebody's running late, wait for them because we're supposed to do this together. You probably know this, so I want to make sure our young people know. You know our missionaries, when they go to the field, they don't join us by the Lord's Supper over Zoom.
[6:17] They don't take it on their own. They take it among a church and a church that they started. This is something that's given to us as a church. We meet together. We come together for the Lord's Supper.
[6:29] And so as a church, we're a group of Christians who commit to follow Christ's commands. We gather regularly around God's Word. We gather together to care for one another. They help take care of one another.
[6:40] And we recognize and affirm one another's faith through baptism and the Lord's Supper. As we have testimonies before our baptism service where people share their testimony, when we come here together, we're celebrating the fact that we know that we're part of a church family of the redeemed.
[6:58] 1 Corinthians 11, 29 says, For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. In a moment, we'll see that there's a need for personal examination, but it appears here that Paul's speaking something even more concrete.
[7:13] As people, in this passage here, where there was people that were despising the poor and treating the Lord's Supper in an irreverent manner, and he was warning them, it just reminds us that we have a responsibility one to another as we come to the Lord's Supper.
[7:28] That's the reason we promote it weeks in advance. We talk about it because we come together prepared for this. Bo is always reminding me of this expression, clarity is kindness. I like to say clarity is charity because it rhymes a little bit more, but clarity is kindness.
[7:43] It's a little more clear the way he says it, all right? Well, clarity is kindness. Well, here's some kindness from God's Word. The Bible teaches that the Lord's Supper is a celebration for the redeemed of God. Unbelieving people should not take of this.
[7:56] The Lord's Supper is not open to all people. I was reading this week why so many churches got away from having it weekly, and there's some good reasons, but one reason I saw that wasn't good was because it felt like there was a tension in the service between there's two groups of people, and we didn't feel welcoming to remind people there's two groups of people.
[8:14] That's not a good reason not to have the Lord's Supper weekly because when we gather together, it's a loving thing to remind people that you're either in Christ or you're in your sin and in Adam.
[8:24] So it reminds you tonight that this is only for believing people. The Bible teaches the Lord's Supper is for those who have been baptized. Your entry into the local church will hold you accountable. It starts with the public profession.
[8:36] The first thing that you're to do when you become a believer is you're to make a public profession. Let other people know that I am one of you. I'm part of the redeemed, and that we live together, not judgmentally, but we live together holding each other accountable.
[8:49] The Bible teaches that the Lord's Supper belongs to the church and those that belong to it. It's been given to us as a church to enjoy this together and want to come together. If you're with us today and you're a member of a church of like faith, and you're believing and you're baptized and you belong to that church and you're here with us today, I invite you to join our church in taking the Lord's Supper.
[9:12] It's not for all, but it is for the believing and those that belong and those that have been baptized. And then we look inward. So we were to look backwards in gratitude. Then we were to look around at other people and recognize who we're here with tonight.
[9:26] Then we look inward. We examine our lives knowing there's an aspects of our lives that others cannot see. Others cannot see aspects. People could come to me knowing the Lord's Supper's coming and saying, hey, you and I have ought against each other.
[9:40] There's something going on. We need to have this resolved as God's people as we gather around the table. Remember the church I grew up, the pastor would often say that and he would say, if there's somebody right now that you have something against, when we're praying, why don't you go up and speak to them?
[9:53] And I'd always have my eye closed thinking, who's going to come up? Who's going to come and interrupt my prayer and tell me that they've been upset with me? And I appreciate that, that he considered that we shouldn't come to the table with unresolved issues one to another, but also we don't come with unresolved matters of the heart.
[10:13] Let every man examine himself, so let him eat of the bread and drink of that cup. You know if you're a believer. You know that you're living in a way that's honoring and pleasing to him. Not perfect, but repenting.
[10:25] Meaning that when you sin, you don't change the definition of sin. You say, you're right, Father, and I am wrong, and I repent. So one of the reasons we announce that in advance, and we should not come together from this place with unresolved matters, and so we shouldn't bring that to the Lord's table.
[10:42] So as we have a special and as we pray, you should speak to the Lord. Allow him to search your heart. Then we should look upward to heaven where the risen and ascended Christ intercedes for us as our great high priest.
[10:55] Yes, Jesus died on the cross. We celebrate that tonight. We look back to that, but we look upward knowing he rose from the grave and he intercedes for you and I as Hebrews 4, 14 through 16 tells us that we now have intercession because of our heavenly Father.
[11:09] And we think about that, and we praise the Lord for that. And before I give you the last one here, I'm going to ask that the cook sisters that we're going to have our special will come forward, and we're going to distribute the bread and the juice.
[11:26] And afterwards, I want to share a few things with you while you hold those things in your hand and then we will consider that. But let's pray together and then afterwards, the men will assemble themselves here to help us distribute these things.
[11:39] Heavenly Father, we come tonight remembering and looking back with a heart of gratitude. I thank you, Lord, that those that have come to the Lord's table tonight are people that can look back and they can know the significance of the cross upon their lives.
[11:55] And Lord, we look inside, Lord, we examine. I pray that's been done, Lord, by my brothers and sisters before they come here tonight that they would examine. And Lord, we also look around and we rejoice knowing that we take this together as a family, a family of the redeemed, those that get to do things that are different in this world because you have made us different.
[12:16] So, Father, tonight, I want to thank you for the cross. I want to thank you for your church family. I want to thank you for this beautiful opportunity that we have to remember all that you've done on our behalf.
[12:32] In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.