WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.140 Amen. Amen. Thank you so much. Choir praise saying, I think we could just read the words 00:00:08.140 --> 00:00:13.140 ! The words of those last two songs as we prepare for communion and go straight into it because 00:00:13.140 --> 00:00:19.460 ! Those words are powerful. They're very true in our lives and I pray that the message of 00:00:19.460 --> 00:00:26.300 those songs is something that we will take with us each and every day this week as we think 00:00:26.300 --> 00:00:33.679 and reflect back on the good news of what Jesus has done for us. You know, when you start a sermon 00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:38.840 series at the beginning of the summer called Summer in the Psalms, you think about all of 00:00:38.840 --> 00:00:43.640 these wonderful psalms that you're going to be going through and you think about how upbeat that 00:00:43.640 --> 00:00:47.880 it's going to be. It's going to be praises to God, all of these things that you go through and then 00:00:47.880 --> 00:00:52.920 you get through the first two psalms and you're thinking these are powerful messages, these are 00:00:52.920 --> 00:00:59.380 powerful psalms and then all of a sudden you get into this group of psalms that are a little more 00:00:59.380 --> 00:01:08.359 difficult to read. They're a little more challenging to think about. The words that are in them are not 00:01:08.359 --> 00:01:13.180 these upbeat words that a lot of times you think of when you're reading through the psalms, but these 00:01:13.180 --> 00:01:20.219 words are somewhat difficult and challenging to think about. They remind us of difficult times in 00:01:20.219 --> 00:01:27.920 David's life and all of this talk about anguish and how many foes that we have in this life, crying out 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:33.480 to be heard by God. Honestly, when you read through some of these things, they can be a little bit 00:01:33.480 --> 00:01:43.420 disheartening. But at the same time, as you read through these psalms, you recognize the authenticity of 00:01:43.420 --> 00:01:52.480 it. You recognize that these psalms are written by real people going through real challenging times and what 00:01:52.480 --> 00:02:01.200 they're writing, what God is wanting us to remember, what is canonized in scripture are real, authentic and raw 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:10.300 examples of what it means to live in this life. This is not the prosperity gospel that oftentimes is prevalent in 00:02:10.300 --> 00:02:15.460 our country and throughout this world where if you just, if you just have enough faith and everything's going 00:02:15.460 --> 00:02:21.439 to be okay. If you just have enough faith, then, then life is going to be easy. You'll have all the money you 00:02:21.439 --> 00:02:27.140 want. You'll have all of the health you want. That's not the message that you see in these psalms and that 00:02:27.140 --> 00:02:33.740 is not the message that you see throughout scripture. When you look at King David's life, that's not the message 00:02:33.740 --> 00:02:40.480 that his life is proclaiming. When you look at Jesus's life, his life is not proclaiming a prosperity gospel. 00:02:40.640 --> 00:02:49.460 It is real. It is authentic. And this is what we find ourselves looking at today. Psalm 6 is one of those 00:02:49.460 --> 00:02:57.020 psalms that is real, that it's authentic. And I hope that as we read through it today, that it will be a psalm 00:02:57.020 --> 00:03:04.980 that very clearly prepares us for communion this morning. So if you have a copy of God's word, I want 00:03:04.980 --> 00:03:11.000 to invite you to turn with me to Psalm chapter 6. And we're going to start in verse 1. And this is what 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:13.400 the word of the Lord says. It says this, 00:03:13.920 --> 00:03:23.900 O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am 00:03:23.900 --> 00:03:32.480 languishing. Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. My soul is greatly troubled. But you, 00:03:32.640 --> 00:03:42.780 O Lord, how long? Turn, O Lord, deliver my life. Save me for the sake of your steadfast love. For in 00:03:42.780 --> 00:03:50.719 death there is no remembrance of you. And she, O who will give you praise? I am weary with my moaning. 00:03:50.719 --> 00:03:59.599 Every night I flood my bed with tears. I drench my couch with weeping. My eye waste away because of 00:03:59.599 --> 00:04:10.500 grief. It grows weak because of all of my foes. Depart from me, all you workers of evil. For the Lord 00:04:10.500 --> 00:04:19.680 has heard the sound of my weeping. The Lord has heard my plea. The Lord accepts my prayer. All my enemies 00:04:19.680 --> 00:04:27.720 shall be ashamed and greatly troubled. They shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment. And so 00:04:27.720 --> 00:04:34.579 as we read this, we must remember that this is one of seven penitential Psalms that we see throughout 00:04:34.579 --> 00:04:44.879 this altar. You have Psalm, this Psalm 6 here, you have 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143, meaning that this is 00:04:44.879 --> 00:04:53.379 traditionally seen as a Psalm of reflection and repentance of sin. Where David is made very aware 00:04:53.379 --> 00:05:00.060 of the sin that is going on in his life and the consequences of that sin. And the real realities 00:05:00.060 --> 00:05:06.920 that go along with that, where David is grieving over his sins. And so as we look at this, in this 00:05:06.920 --> 00:05:14.340 passage, in this, this penitential Psalm here, I want us to see two truths very clearly today. 00:05:14.980 --> 00:05:22.020 I want us to see both desperation and hope that is being proclaimed in this passage. So to begin with, 00:05:22.080 --> 00:05:30.200 what I want us to see very clearly, let us clearly see our need. Let us clearly see our need. Let us 00:05:30.199 --> 00:05:37.899 clearly see our desperation in this passage. Let us clearly see that we are in desperate need of 00:05:37.899 --> 00:05:43.639 saving. And so as we look through this, we're going to see this, this theme come throughout the entire 00:05:43.639 --> 00:05:52.620 Psalm. In this Psalm, David is in anguish. He is in the valley. Life is suffocating him and apparently 00:05:52.620 --> 00:05:59.240 because of some interpersonal strife. If you look at verse eight, it says, depart from me, 00:05:59.240 --> 00:06:05.720 all you workers of evil, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping. There's this deep personal 00:06:05.720 --> 00:06:12.000 side to this Psalm, but we also recognize that this Psalm is to the choir master. So it's, it's designed 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:19.220 to be sung corporately together. And so there's this deep need that is personal for David, but it's also 00:06:19.220 --> 00:06:26.980 recognizing that this is a deep need that we all have. And so as we come together as a church, we can sing 00:06:26.980 --> 00:06:33.280 this and we can all identify with this and we can all bear one another up as we proclaim this. 00:06:34.220 --> 00:06:42.840 Verse three shows us his soul is in agony, but this suffering that we see is physical too. Verse two says 00:06:42.840 --> 00:06:50.060 it is affecting his very bones. And Christopher Ash notes the combination of all of these descriptions 00:06:50.060 --> 00:06:57.319 that we find here. He says he is languishing. He is very weak and he's troubled both in bones and in the 00:06:57.319 --> 00:07:04.500 inner substance of who he is and the soul, the whole person that is every facet of his being is troubled 00:07:04.500 --> 00:07:11.259 here. The desperation is so real that it reaches every part of who he is. It reaches, it reaches the 00:07:11.259 --> 00:07:18.240 heart, the mind, the emotions. It reaches his entire self. And how many of us have been there before 00:07:18.240 --> 00:07:23.720 where we're grieving through something? And it's not just something that is temporary, but it reaches 00:07:23.720 --> 00:07:30.100 every aspect of who we are, where it touches us deep down, where we feel it in our bones, where we feel 00:07:30.100 --> 00:07:35.920 it in who we are. We can even have wonderful things that are going on around us and we can experience some 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:41.439 of those things, but we can't let them sink deep down in because of the grief that we're going through. 00:07:41.439 --> 00:07:49.740 And so what David is saying here is that what I am going through is deep, is personal, and this is 00:07:49.740 --> 00:07:56.759 something that we all must come to grips with and we must all understand is this need that we have for 00:07:56.759 --> 00:08:04.060 God. Now we don't know the exact context of this psalm like we do some of the other psalms, but it is clear 00:08:04.060 --> 00:08:12.540 that David is realizing his sin. This sin is most likely played out into being disciplined by God, 00:08:12.620 --> 00:08:18.300 and there's some consequences of that sin at play. But regardless of knowing the exact context, 00:08:18.860 --> 00:08:25.740 I think we can all relate to this to an extent. This is one of the many places in the Bible that we 00:08:25.740 --> 00:08:32.259 get to and we realize that scripture is authentic. It's not going to just paint a pretty picture that 00:08:32.259 --> 00:08:38.519 that's a fairy tale for us, but it's going to be real. It's going to show us that we all experience 00:08:38.519 --> 00:08:45.700 difficult times in this life. This desperation and grief that David is describing is real life. 00:08:46.299 --> 00:08:52.379 And many of us have experienced grief that triggers a whole body response like what we see David is 00:08:52.379 --> 00:08:59.059 going through here, where grief wears you down. As Christopher Ash goes on to know, he says, 00:08:59.059 --> 00:09:07.059 this psalm opens a window into the human sorrows of Jesus and invites us onto the sacred soil 00:09:07.059 --> 00:09:15.659 wet by his tears. We weep many tears from bereavement, from sickness, from tragedy, from childlessness, 00:09:15.819 --> 00:09:24.299 through broken relationships and disappointments. He says, this psalm is about tears. The new note in 00:09:24.299 --> 00:09:32.740 in Psalm 6 is the king's intense sorrow as he bears the wrath of God and faces death. And yet, 00:09:33.259 --> 00:09:40.019 at the end of this psalm, he speaks with kingly authority to banish his enemies because he knows 00:09:40.019 --> 00:09:49.059 God hears his prayers. His grief floods into our sadness as we pray this psalm with him and his 00:09:49.059 --> 00:09:57.439 confidence will stir us to perseverance for this kind of sadness leads to gladness. 00:09:58.339 --> 00:10:04.619 For this kind of sadness that David is experiencing here leads to gladness. When I think of this passage, 00:10:04.779 --> 00:10:10.139 my mind immediately goes to the Beatitudes. There at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, when you 00:10:10.139 --> 00:10:17.139 read in Matthew chapter 5, my mind immediately goes to many of these Beatitudes, especially the first two 00:10:17.139 --> 00:10:23.759 and the fourth Beatitudes, where it says this. It says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the 00:10:23.759 --> 00:10:31.299 kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are those who hunger 00:10:31.299 --> 00:10:39.600 and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. When you look at these verses, blessed are 00:10:39.600 --> 00:10:46.980 those who are poor, who mourn and hunger and thirst. They don't seem to be blessings when you see that. 00:10:47.139 --> 00:10:53.919 However, recognizing our need is a blessing because when we see our need, when we understand that we 00:10:53.919 --> 00:11:00.960 have this great need within us, all of a sudden it becomes a great big deal of God's grace. Once we 00:11:00.960 --> 00:11:08.799 clearly see our need and this desperation, then it points us to seeing how beautiful God's grace is in 00:11:08.799 --> 00:11:15.159 our lives. And that's what's being described here in these Beatitudes. Briefly, let's look at blessed are 00:11:15.159 --> 00:11:23.399 those who mourn. For this Beatitude ties so well into this passage. When first looking at this passage, it almost 00:11:23.399 --> 00:11:30.799 seems like there's an oxymoron going on here. Blessed or joyful are those who are grieving. Blessed are those who 00:11:30.799 --> 00:11:38.639 mourn. How is that a blessing? How is that a blessing? How is it to be joyful when we are grieving? So this brings us to the 00:11:38.639 --> 00:11:48.279 question, what kind of sorrow can it be that brings joy of Christ's blessing to those who feel it? I think John 00:11:48.279 --> 00:11:54.699 Stott hits the nail on the head when he says it this way. He says, it is plain from the context that these 00:11:54.699 --> 00:12:04.100 here promised comfort are not primarily those who mourn the loss of a loved one, but those who mourn the loss of 00:12:04.100 --> 00:12:13.220 their innocence, their righteousness, their self-respect. It is not the sorrow of bereavement to which Christ refers, but the 00:12:13.220 --> 00:12:21.620 sorrow of repentance. This is for those who see the hole needing to be filled inside of them, who see the void that needs to be 00:12:21.620 --> 00:12:27.860 filled inside of us, and they recognize that there's nothing in this world that can fill that hole, that can fill that void 00:12:27.860 --> 00:12:53.980 except for Jesus. And so blessed are those who see this need, because now we have one who can fill it, who can fill that void, who can take us from death to life. So blessed are those who mourn the loss of their righteousness, the loss of their innocence, because they shall be comforted and comforted with the blessed assurance of knowing Jesus as their Lord and Savior. 00:12:53.980 --> 00:13:17.899 And so as we come to this passage today, and as we come to this table of communion this morning, let us understand that rightly seeing our sin produces great sorrow and great mourning for what it does to our relationship with God, but let us not stop there. Let us see where that leads to. 00:13:17.899 --> 00:13:33.379 And so next from this passage, what I want us to see here in Psalm 6 is this. Let us clearly see where hope is found. Let us clearly see where hope is found. If you look at starting in verse 8 of Psalm 6, it says this, 00:13:33.379 --> 00:13:56.700 Depart from me, depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping. The Lord has heard my plea. The Lord accepts my prayer. All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled. They shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment. In a moment they will be put to shame. 00:13:56.700 --> 00:14:19.480 Three times in a moment. Three times in a moment. Three times in a moment. Three times in this passage, David makes the point by saying that the Lord has heard me. He's clearly showing us the assurance of knowing that the Lord has heard his plea. He is clearly emphasizing that in the midst of this great struggle, whatever it is that he's going through, that God hears his cry for help. 00:14:19.480 --> 00:14:45.259 There is a renewed sense of confidence. You can almost see the shift in the tone as David is writing. At the beginning, there's this grief that is going on. He's languishing. He's hurting. He's going through this. And then at this point, he begins to speak with kingly authority again. He begins to share of his hope and where his hope is found. And there's a shift in the tone of this message. 00:14:45.259 --> 00:14:58.519 Now, we don't know if his enemies have departed at this point. But that doesn't seem to be the focus. The focus is on the fact that God has heard his prayer and his plea for help. 00:14:58.519 --> 00:15:18.360 This understanding is now what gives David confidence. Knowing that God has heard him and knowing that God has heard him is what gives him confidence because he knows the character of God. He knows that God is unchanging. He knows that God always does what he says he's going to do. 00:15:18.360 --> 00:15:34.759 And so understanding that he knows that God has heard him changes everything for him. And so when we come together to take communion, to take the Lord's Supper, there is a real need to clearly see our desperation. 00:15:34.759 --> 00:15:57.580 There's a real need to see our desperation, to understand that apart from Jesus, we are hopeless. Our sin has separated us from God, period. There's nothing that you can do about it. There's this weight that has been placed on us with sin that we can't get off of us, that we can't all come together and try to help get it off of somebody. There's nothing that we can do about it. 00:15:57.580 --> 00:16:27.560 There's this real sense of sorrow and desperation that we can't do about it. There's nothing that we can do about it. There's nothing that we can do about it. 00:16:27.580 --> 00:16:28.020 desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde desde 00:16:57.580 --> 00:17:05.019 beauty of the gospel, but let us not stay there. Let us not stop with the desperation, but let us 00:17:05.019 --> 00:17:11.480 be filled with the joy that comes from knowing that Jesus has met our greatest need. This is 00:17:11.480 --> 00:17:17.160 what we are remembering when we come to communion. So if this is something that you've done today, 00:17:17.640 --> 00:17:23.960 maybe you are where David is at the beginning of this song. You clearly see your need for a Savior. 00:17:23.960 --> 00:17:30.340 Your sin is ever before you and the weight is overwhelming. If this is where you are, then let 00:17:30.340 --> 00:17:37.720 me encourage you to do what David did. Maybe you're at a place this morning where your sin is very 00:17:37.720 --> 00:17:43.799 present, where it almost feels overwhelming, where it touches every aspect of who you are, and you're 00:17:43.799 --> 00:17:51.539 feeling the weight of the sin that separates you from a relationship with God. Let me encourage you 00:17:51.539 --> 00:17:59.700 this morning to do what David did. Cry out to God. Recognize he's the only one that can meet our 00:17:59.700 --> 00:18:07.539 greatest need. Romans 10 9 says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your 00:18:07.539 --> 00:18:15.859 heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And then just a few verses down from there 00:18:15.859 --> 00:18:22.519 says, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Everyone who calls on the name 00:18:22.519 --> 00:18:28.579 of the Lord. If you are here today, you're part of that everyone, and you can call on the name of the 00:18:28.579 --> 00:18:34.099 Lord and be saved if this is something that you've never done before. So as we prepare our hearts and 00:18:34.099 --> 00:18:40.740 our minds for communion this morning, I pray that we see that sin very present. And if it's something, 00:18:40.740 --> 00:18:46.140 if there's somebody in here that's never placed their faith and their trust in Jesus, maybe today 00:18:46.140 --> 00:18:51.700 you're realizing that sin really is a big deal, and that it does separate you from God, and you're in 00:18:51.700 --> 00:18:59.500 the midst of that sorrow, that's a good place to be. But let it point you to understanding Jesus as your 00:18:59.500 --> 00:19:07.539 only source of hope in this life. Saying, God, I need you. I realize that I'm a sinner, and there's 00:19:07.539 --> 00:19:14.859 nothing that I can do about this, but I need you to save me. And there's comfort in this because we 00:19:14.859 --> 00:19:21.460 know that the Lord hears our plea. The Lord hears our cry when we call out to him. And there's hope 00:19:21.460 --> 00:19:27.359 in this because anybody who calls out to the name of the Lord, they may be saved. And so if you're here 00:19:27.359 --> 00:19:33.720 today, and you need to get that right, then I pray that you will not leave before we get that right. 00:19:33.720 --> 00:19:41.039 But if you are here today, and you've placed your faith and your trust in Jesus, may we all let our 00:19:41.039 --> 00:19:47.500 sin point us to that need for our Savior. If you have cried out to him, and you've received that, then let 00:19:47.500 --> 00:19:55.460 me encourage you to see this as a moment of thanksgiving. To see this moment as a moment to remember where 00:19:55.460 --> 00:20:02.720 you were, but don't say where you were. Let it point you to where you are now as a child of God 00:20:02.720 --> 00:20:10.420 who has hope that nobody else in this life has. That has joy that nobody else in this life can 00:20:10.420 --> 00:20:17.759 experience apart from Jesus. I love how Danny Akin, he said it like this, talking about the Lord's 00:20:17.759 --> 00:20:23.640 Supper. He says, the Lord's Supper should certainly be a time of careful meditation and reflection, 00:20:23.640 --> 00:20:34.040 but it should also be a time of joyful anticipation and celebration. Yes, Jesus died, but he rose again 00:20:34.040 --> 00:20:40.320 from the dead, and he's coming again. This understanding of the Lord's Supper has really 00:20:40.320 --> 00:20:45.560 been what's excited me the most about coming together as a church. And this is one of the reasons that I 00:20:45.560 --> 00:20:52.400 love coming together for this, is because we remember where we were, but we don't stay where we were. 00:20:52.400 --> 00:20:58.480 We remember where we are now in Christ, and we get to experience the joy that comes from knowing him. 00:20:59.040 --> 00:21:07.019 And so yes, we come to the table with sorrow, with a sense of reverence, but we also come to the table 00:21:07.019 --> 00:21:14.259 with a deep sense of joy and celebration for what God has done for us. Jesus says, do this in 00:21:14.259 --> 00:21:22.180 remembrance of me, not in remorse of me. He's not dead anymore, he's alive. And because of that, 00:21:22.180 --> 00:21:29.460 we have life in him. And so when we come to the table, we remember where we were, but we don't 00:21:29.460 --> 00:21:36.779 stay there. We let it point us to where we are in Christ. And that's the hope that we have. That's the 00:21:36.779 --> 00:21:43.720 joy that we get to experience as believers, is that we're not dead anymore. That sin, that death doesn't 00:21:43.720 --> 00:21:52.579 have the final say, Jesus does. And that's what we come together to remember. The Lord's Supper is a 00:21:52.579 --> 00:21:59.799 proclamation. Sorrow and joy are partners in this meal that we are about to share together. 00:22:00.279 --> 00:22:06.420 They are both present when we look at this. And it is my prayer that as we approach the Lord's table, 00:22:06.420 --> 00:22:15.779 that we do so with a deep sense of reverence and sorrow, but at the same time, with much joy and 00:22:15.779 --> 00:22:23.420 anticipation. Jesus again said, do this in remembrance of me. And so we remember all the aspects. We 00:22:23.420 --> 00:22:30.300 remember that he lived and died for us. We remember that sin, what put him on the cross, but we also 00:22:30.299 --> 00:22:37.240 remember the power that couldn't keep Christ in the grave, that he rose again. And because of that, 00:22:37.579 --> 00:22:45.759 we have new life in him. And so as we prepare our hearts and minds for the Lord's Supper, listen to 00:22:45.759 --> 00:22:54.759 these words that we find in 1 Corinthians 11. Starting in verse 23, it says this, for I received from the 00:22:54.759 --> 00:23:02.299 Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night that he was betrayed took bread. 00:23:02.839 --> 00:23:09.839 And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in 00:23:09.839 --> 00:23:16.980 remembrance of me. In the same way, he took cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my 00:23:16.980 --> 00:23:24.720 blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this 00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:34.600 bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. And so what are we proclaiming 00:23:34.600 --> 00:23:41.799 today when we take this? We're proclaiming our deep need for a savior and we're proclaiming that Jesus 00:23:41.799 --> 00:23:49.759 is the only one that can meet that need. So as we come to this table, let us come with thanksgiving. 00:23:49.759 --> 00:23:55.400 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was 00:23:55.400 --> 00:24:03.299 betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it. The table is a time where we proclaim 00:24:03.299 --> 00:24:10.839 our thanks to God. Also, when we come to the table, we recognize that this meal is for sinners. And it 00:24:10.839 --> 00:24:16.500 says, and when you had given, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which 00:24:16.500 --> 00:24:25.199 is for you. If you are a you here today, I have good news. No matter your background or the things 00:24:25.199 --> 00:24:33.000 that you've done, what Jesus accomplished on the cross can be counted for you. By placing your faith 00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:39.579 and your trust in Jesus, you can go from death to life. And if this is something that you have done, 00:24:39.579 --> 00:24:45.279 if you've placed your faith and your trust in Jesus, then this meal is an invitation for you 00:24:45.279 --> 00:24:51.879 to remember that. This meal is an invitation to proclaim what God has already done in your life 00:24:51.879 --> 00:24:58.799 to show the world that yes, I was dead in my trespasses and sins, but because of Jesus, I am no 00:24:58.799 --> 00:25:06.939 longer there and I have life with him. And so this is my prayer that this morning, as we prepare our hearts 00:25:06.940 --> 00:25:13.000 and our minds to take the Lord's Supper, that we would do so with a deep sense of sorrow, 00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:23.539 but at the same time with much, much joy. Father, we thank you for the Lord's Supper that calls us to 00:25:23.539 --> 00:25:32.779 both sorrow and joy at the same time. Be with us as we prepare our hearts and our minds to remember, 00:25:32.779 --> 00:25:39.299 to reflect, and to proclaim what it is that you have done in our lives. And so Lord, I pray that 00:25:39.299 --> 00:25:45.680 you'd be with us this morning. I pray that you would prepare our hearts and our minds to remember 00:25:45.680 --> 00:25:52.899 well all that you've done, not just the difficulties of this, but we will remember our desperation, 00:25:53.259 --> 00:26:00.799 but we'll also remember that you came in and met us in our greatest need. And so Lord, because of that, 00:26:00.799 --> 00:26:07.259 we give thanks. Because of that, we have joy and happiness. And we ask all these things in Jesus' 00:26:07.259 --> 00:26:09.440 precious name. Amen.