WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.259 All right, we are going to continue on in this service and we're grateful for the time already 00:00:15.259 --> 00:00:21.199 ! spent together in prayer and in worship. We gave you a little update on what's happening 00:00:21.199 --> 00:00:25.760 ! for the rest of this service in the children's time. We are going to partake in the Lord's Supper 00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:30.120 at the end of this service. We're going to have some specific instructions on how to do that. 00:00:30.440 --> 00:00:34.140 I gave you a little preview of that. We're going to step into these center aisles and then we'll 00:00:34.140 --> 00:00:41.240 all vacate out the outer aisles back to our seats to take it together. But before we do that, I'd like 00:00:41.240 --> 00:00:48.260 you to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, please. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 17. The kids kind 00:00:48.260 --> 00:00:53.799 of gave us an update. What is the Lord's Supper? Well, it originated with this concept of the Passover. 00:00:53.799 --> 00:01:01.419 We read about that in the Old Testament when God's plan to rescue His people from bondage and 00:01:01.419 --> 00:01:08.859 captivity in Egypt was for His death angel to pass over all the homes in Egypt in the middle of the 00:01:08.859 --> 00:01:16.159 night. And all of His people who had obeyed His commands would have taken a sheep and slaughtered 00:01:16.159 --> 00:01:22.900 it and used the blood to paint the doorposts of their home. And so the death angel would pass over 00:01:22.900 --> 00:01:32.219 the homes. And if He saw a doorpost with the blood on it, He would not strike dead the oldest, the 00:01:32.219 --> 00:01:37.340 firstborn son in that home. But all the other homes that did not have the blood on the doorpost, 00:01:37.660 --> 00:01:45.540 the firstborn son would die. What a horrible tragedy that happened from these heathen people 00:01:45.540 --> 00:01:52.100 who were holding God's people in captivity and would not let them leave against their will. And so God 00:01:52.100 --> 00:01:58.980 came through and rescued His people in that terrible manner. But it was a, what they probably didn't 00:01:58.980 --> 00:02:04.980 realize at the time is it was a sign of something to come and that would be Jesus' sacrifice on our 00:02:04.980 --> 00:02:13.259 behalf, just like the lamb was sacrificed to save them that night. And so someday, who is called the 00:02:13.259 --> 00:02:20.159 Lamb of God, Jesus Himself, would hang and be sacrificed. And the Jewish people would remember 00:02:20.159 --> 00:02:26.019 that night for centuries to come and they would celebrate with the feast of the Passover, God 00:02:26.019 --> 00:02:32.219 delivering them from that night when the angel would pass over their homes and not strike their 00:02:32.219 --> 00:02:39.379 firstborn dead. So they still celebrate this custom, the Passover. But Jesus, at the Passover feast, 00:02:39.379 --> 00:02:46.139 and you can read about this in Luke 22, as He's taking it with His disciples, He says, He institutes, 00:02:46.219 --> 00:02:55.019 this is now transitioning from the Passover into the first communion. The last supper that Jesus would 00:02:55.019 --> 00:03:01.280 take, the last Passover feast that Jesus would take with His disciples right before His crucifixion 00:03:01.280 --> 00:03:10.699 would become now the first time of communion, the Lord's Supper. And that tradition has now been passed 00:03:10.699 --> 00:03:18.379 down through all Jesus' followers, through the church, through all the ages of churches all around 00:03:18.379 --> 00:03:27.080 this world, gathering together and remembering not just the Passover that happened so many moons ago in 00:03:27.080 --> 00:03:32.580 Egypt, but Jesus Himself hanging on the cross. So that's what we're looking at. That's what we're 00:03:32.580 --> 00:03:39.640 remembering. And that's what we're thanking God for. So let's look at 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 17. 00:03:40.600 --> 00:03:49.080 The problem is, anytime you start to have a tradition, there's usually a reason for it. But over time, 00:03:49.180 --> 00:03:55.680 that reason starts to become lost. And the tradition just starts to take on a life of its own. 00:03:55.680 --> 00:04:02.520 And it no longer actually serves the purpose that it was there for in the beginning, in the first place. 00:04:03.099 --> 00:04:08.319 We see that in organizations. We see that in communities. We even see that in churches sometimes. 00:04:08.879 --> 00:04:14.920 And we see that with communion. And so as one of the chief leaders in the early church, 00:04:15.340 --> 00:04:22.639 Paul himself, who did not personally walk with Jesus, but God miraculously converted him into becoming 00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:30.199 a follower of Jesus. Later, he starts giving this instruction to the early church because he has 00:04:30.199 --> 00:04:36.779 visited these early churches that were mostly meeting in homes and kind of against the law and 00:04:36.779 --> 00:04:42.620 facing persecution for their, there was no freedom of religion. So for their faith, they're being 00:04:42.620 --> 00:04:49.779 persecuted. And he starts to see these problems start to pop up in the early church. So let's look in 00:04:49.779 --> 00:04:56.179 1 Corinthians 11, 17. Now in giving this instruction, I do not praise you. So the instruction he's about 00:04:56.179 --> 00:05:02.459 to give, he can't totally praise them for it. He loves to do that. He loves to go through and tell 00:05:02.459 --> 00:05:07.759 them what they're doing well. But he said, in this that's about to follow, this isn't going to be a 00:05:07.759 --> 00:05:15.399 good job thumbs up. Since you come together, not for the better, but for the worse. To begin with, 00:05:15.399 --> 00:05:21.099 I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you. 00:05:22.419 --> 00:05:27.079 Nobody could ever imagine that happening in church, right? When you come together as a church, 00:05:27.159 --> 00:05:31.899 there are divisions among you. I'm sure that stopped back in the first century. It's not alive 00:05:31.899 --> 00:05:37.139 and well today in American churches, is it? Of course it is. A little bit of sarcasm there. Of course, 00:05:37.219 --> 00:05:41.879 there are still divisions in the church. Well, apparently we come by that honestly, 00:05:41.879 --> 00:05:49.879 because Paul had a problem with it back in the early days. In part, he said, I believe it. 00:05:50.420 --> 00:05:58.279 Why? Because he had visited them. He knew them. He said, look, I can see that there is a seed of truth 00:05:58.279 --> 00:06:05.199 in these divisions in the church. I believe that it's happening. Indeed, verse 19, it's necessary that 00:06:05.199 --> 00:06:13.120 there be factions among you so that those who are approved may be recognized among you. Some of you 00:06:13.120 --> 00:06:20.500 are actually trying to do what's right. So naturally, these divisions or factions are going to happen, 00:06:20.759 --> 00:06:25.579 and they should reveal who's actually really genuinely trying to follow Jesus. 00:06:26.740 --> 00:06:33.500 Verse 20, when you come together, then it's not to eat the Lord's supper. It should be, 00:06:33.500 --> 00:06:43.259 but it's not. For at the meal, each one eats his own supper. So one person is hungry while another 00:06:43.259 --> 00:06:52.060 gets drunk. Why do you think that is? If this Lord's supper, which was supposed to be, 00:06:52.680 --> 00:07:00.680 began as, was instituted as, and was observed as a remembrance of what Jesus himself did for us on the 00:07:00.680 --> 00:07:11.780 cross. Why then are people showing up and having their own meals? And why is that a problem? Why is 00:07:11.780 --> 00:07:19.920 that causing division? Economics is one basic answer, because some people are wealthier than others. 00:07:21.199 --> 00:07:26.600 Some people have a lot to eat. Some people have a lot of resources. Some people are barely scraping by, 00:07:26.600 --> 00:07:32.500 even within the church, often especially within the church, especially in those early days of 00:07:32.500 --> 00:07:37.560 persecution. And, you know, people would be coming together from very different walks of life 00:07:37.560 --> 00:07:46.080 as they were captured by this person of Jesus and the following that he was attracting, even after he was 00:07:46.080 --> 00:07:52.780 gone. So they would have some who were wealthy, and they would bring in a big old spread, and everybody 00:07:52.779 --> 00:08:00.579 would eat together, but they wouldn't share. They would eat their own food. Somebody else is bringing 00:08:00.579 --> 00:08:08.219 scraps and trying to get by. And so it's naturally breeding strife. It's breeding discord. And Paul says, 00:08:08.379 --> 00:08:14.179 that is not what this is about. Now, we had a potluck Wednesday night, and you know what we did? 00:08:14.739 --> 00:08:20.039 Everybody brought food, and we all shared it. We all ate together, and it was fun. It was great. 00:08:20.040 --> 00:08:25.939 We everybody got to try a little bit of everybody's food. Nobody was shamed because they didn't bring 00:08:25.939 --> 00:08:31.140 anything, or nobody was shamed because they only brought a little. We all shared together, because 00:08:31.140 --> 00:08:37.060 we're trying to learn from what Paul is teaching here. So he says, one person's hungry. Another gets 00:08:37.060 --> 00:08:45.620 drunk. Don't you have homes in which to eat and drink, or do you despise the church of God and humiliate 00:08:45.620 --> 00:08:54.799 those who have nothing? Now, thank God we're not practicing that as they were here in this church, 00:08:54.799 --> 00:09:04.600 but maybe we can understand and apply the lesson behind this is sometimes we look down on those who 00:09:04.600 --> 00:09:12.820 are not quite as we are. They're maybe not as far along in their faith as we are. Maybe they don't dress 00:09:12.820 --> 00:09:17.860 as nicely as nicely as we do, or maybe they don't necessarily act exactly how we think they ought to 00:09:17.860 --> 00:09:23.020 act. Maybe somebody wears a hat in church, and they're thinking, how dare you wear a hat in here? 00:09:23.620 --> 00:09:31.220 Maybe they weren't raised like you. Maybe somebody comes in and smells a little bit, or thinking, man, 00:09:31.260 --> 00:09:36.000 there's no place for you. You're supposed to wash up and make yourself smell good before you come to 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:44.500 church. And we can apply the same sort of division that they were doing back then with food. We can 00:09:44.500 --> 00:09:50.960 certainly take it and apply it in our context. Paul says this is not what the church of God is about. 00:09:52.100 --> 00:09:57.700 We're all supposed to be able to come from every walk of life, every background, every financial 00:09:57.700 --> 00:10:07.040 condition, and gather together and worship Jesus together. Because Jesus went everywhere. He loved 00:10:07.040 --> 00:10:15.379 everyone. He offered salvation to everyone. He came to seek and to save everyone. Thank God, or we wouldn't 00:10:15.379 --> 00:10:24.420 be included. So that is what Paul is trying to remind them of. So he says, what should I say to you? 00:10:24.419 --> 00:10:31.360 Should I praise you in this? I can't. I don't praise you in this matter. Verse 23, 00:10:32.179 --> 00:10:38.959 for I received this from the Lord. God gave me this instruction. I received from the Lord what I also 00:10:38.959 --> 00:10:43.819 then passed on to you. On the night when Jesus was betrayed, he took bread. And when he had given 00:10:43.819 --> 00:10:49.599 thanks, he broke it. He said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. We're 00:10:49.599 --> 00:10:54.099 going to read that verse again in just a few minutes, and we're going to do this in remembrance of him. 00:10:54.419 --> 00:11:01.599 His body broken for us. In the same way, he also took the cup after supper and said, this cup 00:11:01.599 --> 00:11:08.719 is the new covenant in my blood. Do it as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as 00:11:08.719 --> 00:11:14.599 you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Thank God. And back 00:11:14.599 --> 00:11:21.219 in last time we gathered together, I think it was April, and we observed the Lord's supper, then we 00:11:21.220 --> 00:11:27.639 talked about proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes. But let's keep reading this time. 1 Corinthians 00:11:27.639 --> 00:11:37.139 11 and down in verse 27. So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy 00:11:37.139 --> 00:11:47.440 manner will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord. Can we pause right there for a 00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:58.000 second? You don't want to be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord. Now, we are all guilty 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:08.260 of sin, and that's why his body was broken. That's why his blood was spilled. But after understanding 00:12:08.259 --> 00:12:19.179 that, coming to the knowledge of that, you don't want to be guilty of sin against his sacrifice, 00:12:19.179 --> 00:12:26.939 what does he mean by this? Verse 28, let a person examine himself. 00:12:26.940 --> 00:12:37.380 That's what it's about today. That's what we're going to focus on. He hits that. It's all leading up. He was 00:12:37.380 --> 00:12:43.640 setting the stage. You have the wrong heart. Folks, all throughout this series that we're in, and we took a 00:12:43.640 --> 00:12:49.800 break from it today for the Lord's supper. But we've been talking about the parables of Jesus, this series 00:12:49.800 --> 00:12:55.680 called Stories of the Kingdom. It's amazing these stories that Jesus tells about the kingdom of God and how 00:12:55.679 --> 00:13:00.579 different it is from the kingdom of this world. Do you know why it looks so different? Because the heart 00:13:00.579 --> 00:13:07.120 of God is different than your heart and my heart. His priorities are different. What he cares about is 00:13:07.120 --> 00:13:18.239 different. We put ourselves first. He puts people first. He cares about us. He wants us. He wants us so badly, 00:13:18.239 --> 00:13:23.679 he sent his one and only son, Jesus Christ, to die for the sins of the whole world. 00:13:23.679 --> 00:13:32.819 So anyone who then believes in him will never perish, will never die spiritually, but will have eternal 00:13:32.819 --> 00:13:38.319 life forever. So he has offered this to us. It matters to him. It's a big deal. 00:13:40.679 --> 00:13:47.279 That's where his heart is. So it's a heart matter. And that's what Paul is trying to teach this church. 00:13:47.279 --> 00:13:54.740 If you're going to follow Jesus, trust me, Paul would say, I know, because my heart was completely different. 00:13:55.120 --> 00:14:02.279 It was wicked. It was doing everything I could to advance my career, even to the point of killing the followers 00:14:02.279 --> 00:14:10.279 of Jesus. That's what Paul's job was before he got saved and God turned his life around. His job was to go out and kill 00:14:10.279 --> 00:14:18.839 people like you and me. So he said, God changed my heart and God has to change your heart. 00:14:20.379 --> 00:14:26.659 God's continuing to change my heart. He reveals some of his heart struggle as he tries to follow Jesus. 00:14:26.959 --> 00:14:32.799 So we're all going to have this struggle. And he says, this is a time when we are remembering Jesus' 00:14:32.799 --> 00:14:43.039 sacrifice, this is a time to examine yourself. In this way, let him eat the bread and drink from the cup. 00:14:43.979 --> 00:14:50.620 For whoever eats the bread, I'm sorry, eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks 00:14:50.620 --> 00:14:58.000 judgment on himself. This is why many are sick and ill among you and many have fallen asleep or passed away. 00:14:58.719 --> 00:15:02.779 Now, this verse has been taken out of context. Sometimes somebody would say, well, that means 00:15:02.779 --> 00:15:07.679 if anybody in the church is sick or if anybody dies, it means that they were out of the will of God and 00:15:07.679 --> 00:15:11.839 they were not living right and their heart wasn't right. That is absolutely not what Paul is saying 00:15:11.839 --> 00:15:17.179 here. He said, but it could manifest itself that way. And in this particular church in Corinth, 00:15:17.720 --> 00:15:22.779 you read a little bit about what they were doing. I can see visibly there was visible fruit that their 00:15:22.779 --> 00:15:29.839 hearts were not after God. And so probably this was why many of them were sick and dying. 00:15:29.840 --> 00:15:37.780 Sometimes it was an actual result of the way they were living, which was naturally going to lead to 00:15:37.780 --> 00:15:47.379 sickness and death. He said, if we were properly judging ourselves, we would not be judged. But when 00:15:47.379 --> 00:15:54.280 we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned with the Lord, 00:15:54.279 --> 00:16:01.839 with the world. You don't want to be condemned with the rest of the world. You want God to save you 00:16:01.839 --> 00:16:11.100 from your condemnation. You want God to save you from the judgment spared that he can spare you from, 00:16:11.220 --> 00:16:16.899 the judgment that's reserved for all those that are not followers of Jesus. Therefore, my brothers and 00:16:16.899 --> 00:16:24.120 sisters, when you come together to eat, welcome one another. If anyone's hungry, he should eat at home. 00:16:24.519 --> 00:16:30.100 Guys, this isn't about fattening yourself up and pigging out and having a big feast. This is about 00:16:30.100 --> 00:16:36.060 remembering what Jesus did. So when you come together, when you gather, you will not come under judgment. 00:16:36.500 --> 00:16:41.240 I will give you instructions about the other matters whenever I come. But right now, he had to write a 00:16:41.240 --> 00:16:47.080 letter in advance. He had to say, look, I'm coming to visit you, but this one couldn't wait. This is a big 00:16:47.080 --> 00:16:53.159 deal. And so it's a big deal as we prepare to do the same thing that they were doing and observe this 00:16:53.159 --> 00:17:00.539 Lord's Supper. What we can take away from this is to examine ourselves, examine our hearts. There's a 00:17:00.539 --> 00:17:05.099 comedian named John Crist. Anybody ever watch any John Crist? He has this thing called check your heart. 00:17:05.879 --> 00:17:10.259 And it's funny, but look, there is a real seed of truth in there. Y'all, we all got to check our 00:17:10.259 --> 00:17:16.500 hearts. Every day we got to keep checking our hearts. Why? Because the heart is deceitful above 00:17:16.500 --> 00:17:21.920 everything else. And it's desperately wicked. That's a Bible verse, by the way. Who can even 00:17:21.920 --> 00:17:27.799 understand it and really know it? Our hearts will lead us astray. Our hearts are vulnerable. 00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:37.420 So we've got to examine our hearts regularly. Now, number one, we've been in 1 Corinthians 11. 00:17:37.759 --> 00:17:43.460 We're going to go on to number one. Write this down if you're keeping notes. Leave your ego behind. 00:17:43.460 --> 00:17:50.640 How do you check your heart? How do you examine yourself? Number one, you've got to do it by 00:17:50.640 --> 00:18:01.779 leaving your ego behind. You can't genuinely check your heart. Genuinely. Genuinely. We have a little 00:18:01.779 --> 00:18:04.940 inside joke in our family. We're not going to take any more time for that, but I just wanted to catch 00:18:04.940 --> 00:18:12.820 the boy's eye. Genuinely. You can't genuinely check your heart or examine yourselves until you 00:18:12.820 --> 00:18:20.100 check your ego at the door. You've got to leave it behind. Now, this is hard. You know who it's 00:18:20.100 --> 00:18:27.799 especially hard for? Members of First Baptist Church. Why? Because we're kind of proud of that. 00:18:27.799 --> 00:18:33.839 Maybe you grew up in this church. Maybe it's more recent that you've become a part of our church. 00:18:34.099 --> 00:18:38.200 Maybe you're a guest today and you're not a part. That's okay. Just listen and observe right now 00:18:38.200 --> 00:18:45.619 because I'm talking to the others in the room. We have to leave our ego behind that says we are 00:18:45.619 --> 00:18:50.980 nice-looking church members and we dressed up and we don't live like all the rabble out there. 00:18:50.980 --> 00:18:58.440 We're a cut above. We're different. We live cleaner, more holy, more moral lives. 00:18:59.400 --> 00:19:05.299 I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I'm pretty close. You know what I'm saying? It's that kind of attitude 00:19:05.299 --> 00:19:12.500 that will absolutely prevent you from truly examining your heart before God. You have to humble 00:19:12.500 --> 00:19:21.940 yourself. Do you know who humbled himself? Jesus did. Christ himself humbled himself. 00:19:22.880 --> 00:19:28.859 Took upon him the lowest form, the form of a servant. And if you actually look at that word 00:19:28.859 --> 00:19:39.039 in Philippians, it almost means more of a slave. He took upon himself the lowest form of society. 00:19:39.039 --> 00:19:47.480 That's why the rabbis of the day, that's why the Pharisees didn't respect him. There's no way 00:19:47.480 --> 00:19:53.079 he could truly be the Messiah. There's no way he could truly be from God. Not with how he lives. He 00:19:53.079 --> 00:20:00.299 doesn't even have anywhere to lay his head. He doesn't even have a home. Come on now. We have to be like 00:20:00.299 --> 00:20:05.980 Jesus if we're going to open ourselves up and truly examine ourselves. Now look, you can sit there, 00:20:05.980 --> 00:20:09.880 you can come forward, you can grab the elements, you can go back to your seat, you can take them with 00:20:09.880 --> 00:20:15.440 everybody else. That's between you and God. But if you're going to do this how Jesus asked you to do it, 00:20:15.839 --> 00:20:22.680 then you've got to examine yourself. You've got to open up your heart and leave your ego behind. 00:20:24.259 --> 00:20:32.180 Psalm 19, people cannot see their own mistakes, so don't let me commit secret sins. 00:20:32.180 --> 00:20:40.860 Don't let me do what I know is wrong. Don't let sin control me. Man, that should be all of our prayer. 00:20:41.740 --> 00:20:46.100 If you even want to open up your Bible and put a little bookmark in there or just kind of hold it 00:20:46.100 --> 00:20:51.759 open to that page, and when we come back together to observe the Lord's Supper together, if you want 00:20:51.759 --> 00:20:58.740 to read that and pray that silently as a prayer to God, God, I can't see my own mistakes. My ego gets in 00:20:58.740 --> 00:21:05.579 the way. My vision is clouded. My heart can deceive me, so don't let me commit secret sins. Don't let me 00:21:05.579 --> 00:21:13.019 do what I know is wrong. Don't let sin control me. That's the kind of examination that God wants from 00:21:13.019 --> 00:21:23.319 us when we observe this time of communion. Richard Rohr said this, salvation is not sin perfectly avoided, 00:21:23.319 --> 00:21:35.299 as the ego would prefer. In fact, salvation is sin turned on its own head and used in our favor. 00:21:36.700 --> 00:21:43.019 Boy, that's a weird way to think of it, right? Sin used in our favor? How would that even work? 00:21:43.019 --> 00:21:53.539 There's two ways that works. First, sin qualifies us for God's grace and substituted righteousness. 00:21:54.639 --> 00:22:01.359 Romans chapter 5 and verse 20 puts it this way, God's law was given so that all people could see 00:22:01.359 --> 00:22:09.440 how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful grace became more abundant. 00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:15.559 Boy, God set up this law with the Old Testament. You see the Ten Commandments. You see all these laws 00:22:15.559 --> 00:22:22.960 given all the way throughout the Old Testament. And you see this impossible standard to live by. 00:22:23.660 --> 00:22:30.320 Nobody can measure up to this standard. We can try. We should try. It'll help us live in favor with God 00:22:30.320 --> 00:22:37.420 and man in right standing. But listen, you can't ever completely obey the law. You're always going to mess it 00:22:37.420 --> 00:22:47.960 up. So God's law was given to show us our sin. But you know what that does? Jesus came to save 00:22:47.960 --> 00:22:58.779 sinners, Paul tells us. So if you're not a lawbreaker, you don't qualify for God. You don't qualify for heaven. 00:22:58.779 --> 00:23:09.319 You don't qualify for Jesus's grace. Salvation is offered to those of us who have sinned. 00:23:09.899 --> 00:23:16.639 That's turning sin on its head and using it for our favor. What do we mean by that? Romans chapter 7. 00:23:16.920 --> 00:23:23.259 I think I put the wrong reference up here, but it's actually Romans chapter 7 and verse 4 down 00:23:23.259 --> 00:23:28.259 through verse 25. And I think this is, tell you what, let's go there real quick. Romans chapter 7. 00:23:28.619 --> 00:23:29.640 Would you turn there with me? 00:23:39.640 --> 00:23:40.879 Yep, that's verse 24. 00:23:43.440 --> 00:23:45.160 Romans chapter 7 and verse 24. 00:23:45.160 --> 00:23:50.240 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, for sake of time, I'm going to read while you turn. 00:23:51.080 --> 00:23:57.540 For sake of, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in relation to the law through 00:23:57.540 --> 00:24:05.300 the body of Christ so that you may belong to another, somebody else. That's Jesus. You belong to him who was 00:24:05.300 --> 00:24:11.980 raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. For when we were in the flesh before Christ, 00:24:11.980 --> 00:24:18.900 the sinful passions aroused through the law were working in us to bear fruit for death. What does 00:24:18.900 --> 00:24:23.380 it mean, the sinful passions aroused through the law? You ever been told by somebody you can't do 00:24:23.380 --> 00:24:30.500 something? What did it make you want to do? That, right? The thing they said you can't do. 00:24:31.579 --> 00:24:40.779 You're not allowed to do this. Okay, now I want to do it. You can eat every fruit from every tree except 00:24:40.779 --> 00:24:45.759 up the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden. Oh, well, now I want to eat that one. 00:24:46.660 --> 00:24:53.240 It's the one you can't, you tell me I can't do. So the law aroused these sinful passions in us 00:24:53.240 --> 00:25:03.899 and they bore fruit for death. But now we have been released from the law. Did you get that? 00:25:04.519 --> 00:25:08.899 Y'all, some of y'all, little rabbit trail, but we're coming right back. Some of y'all have been walking 00:25:08.900 --> 00:25:16.580 for Jesus a long time and you've never realized you're released from the law. You're still living 00:25:16.580 --> 00:25:23.320 and forcing yourself to live under the law. And you're looking down your nose at anybody else who 00:25:23.320 --> 00:25:30.180 is living in freedom because they realize they're released from the law. I'm here to give you good 00:25:30.180 --> 00:25:36.900 news today. Jesus released you from the law. He's now given you a different standard to live by. 00:25:36.900 --> 00:25:45.640 It's called grace. It's called grace. We experience it for ourselves and we give it to others. 00:25:46.740 --> 00:25:54.500 That's God's new plan. So we have been released from the law since we have died to what held us, 00:25:54.580 --> 00:26:02.440 that law, so that now we may serve in the newness of the spirit, the Holy Spirit, and not in the old 00:26:02.440 --> 00:26:09.000 letter of the law. Verse seven, what should we say then? Is the law sin? No, the law is not sin. 00:26:09.200 --> 00:26:15.120 It revealed our sin. But I would have not known sin if it weren't for the law. If you never told me 00:26:15.120 --> 00:26:19.960 what the rules were, I wouldn't have known I was breaking them, right? For example, I wouldn't 00:26:19.960 --> 00:26:25.840 have known what it is to covet if the law had said, do not covet. But since the law told me, 00:26:25.839 --> 00:26:33.000 don't covet, now I want to go out and covet. And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, 00:26:33.199 --> 00:26:41.259 produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law, sin is dead. Once I was alive, 00:26:41.359 --> 00:26:47.759 apart from the law, but then the commandment came, sin sprang to life again, and I died. 00:26:47.759 --> 00:26:56.619 The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me. For sin, seizing an opportunity 00:26:56.619 --> 00:27:04.799 through the commandment deceived me, and through it, it killed me. So then, the law is holy, 00:27:05.460 --> 00:27:12.740 the commandment is holy and just and good, therefore, it did what is good become death to me? No, 00:27:12.740 --> 00:27:19.680 absolutely not. But sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is 00:27:19.680 --> 00:27:25.140 good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure. Y'all, you got to 00:27:25.140 --> 00:27:30.579 take this. Go home. If I can give you any homework this week, I know it's summer, okay? Nobody wants 00:27:30.579 --> 00:27:39.220 homework. But if you can take this, Romans chapter 7, these verses, and study it out, and see what God did 00:27:39.220 --> 00:27:45.480 for you, your view of God and yourself will change. I promise you it will change. 00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:51.740 Now, he's going to elaborate a little bit more. Verse 14, for we know that the law is spiritual. 00:27:52.059 --> 00:27:58.059 Got that? We're not talking about the police code or the laws of the land. We're talking about the 00:27:58.059 --> 00:28:04.140 spiritual law that God laid down. The law is spiritual, but I'm of the flesh, sold as a slave 00:28:04.140 --> 00:28:09.160 under sin. I don't understand what I'm doing, because I don't practice what I want to do, but I 00:28:09.160 --> 00:28:16.240 do what I hate. If I do what I don't want to do, I agree with the law that it's good, and I'm not, 00:28:16.420 --> 00:28:22.220 right? So now I'm no longer the one doing it, but it's sin living in me. There's these two natures. 00:28:23.280 --> 00:28:28.920 There's God's spirit in you, and then there's you in the flesh, and that's the part that's doing the sin. 00:28:28.920 --> 00:28:37.440 For I know that nothing good lives in me that is in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is 00:28:37.440 --> 00:28:42.840 with me, but there is no ability to do it. That spirit is there saying, don't do that, do this. 00:28:43.800 --> 00:28:50.960 But I can't help it because my flesh says, ah, I want to do that. For I do not do the good that I 00:28:50.960 --> 00:28:57.000 want to do, but I practice the evil that I don't want to do. So if I do what I don't want, 00:28:57.000 --> 00:29:02.460 I'm no longer the one that does it. It's the sin that lives in me, so I discover this law. 00:29:03.420 --> 00:29:10.740 When I do, when I want to do what's good, evil is present with me. It's still there, 00:29:11.259 --> 00:29:18.859 working against me, right? For in my inner self, I delight in God's law, but I see a different law 00:29:18.859 --> 00:29:25.740 in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin 00:29:25.740 --> 00:29:33.980 and the parts of my body. What a wretched man I am. That's where we land. Basically, that's Paul 00:29:33.980 --> 00:29:40.180 saying, boy, I'm a mess, aren't I? He just went on this long explanation that's a little hard to 00:29:40.180 --> 00:29:47.200 follow, and it kind of has these twists and turns, but what you come back to is, I'm a mess. What a 00:29:47.200 --> 00:29:58.880 wretched man I am. Who can help me? Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God 00:29:58.880 --> 00:30:10.640 through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And that's where we end. Who can rescue us from the mess that we are? 00:30:10.640 --> 00:30:17.700 First of all, you got to set your ego aside and admit that you're a wretched man, that you're a 00:30:17.700 --> 00:30:24.440 wretched woman, that you're a mess. You got to admit that. And sometimes we don't even just admit 00:30:24.440 --> 00:30:29.259 it to God. Sometimes we need to humble ourselves and admit it to each other and be accountable to 00:30:29.259 --> 00:30:37.040 each other. I'm a mess. I have an addiction problem. I'm addicted to sin. I keep going back to it 00:30:37.039 --> 00:30:43.159 time and time again. I'm addicted to fear. I'm addicted to lust. I'm addicted to pride. 00:30:44.659 --> 00:30:53.579 I'm addicted to selfishness. I'm addicted to the idea of security. Whatever it is that you're 00:30:53.579 --> 00:31:00.639 addicted to and you can't seem to break away from and open yourself up to God, just echo with Paul, 00:31:00.640 --> 00:31:10.600 what a wretched person I am. Who will rescue me from this? I thank God because he can and he has 00:31:10.600 --> 00:31:16.840 and he will continue to. So sin reminds us of our weakness and his strength. 00:31:18.620 --> 00:31:26.700 That's how sin can be turned on its head and used in our favor. And God can work to help you. He can 00:31:26.700 --> 00:31:33.720 work in and through you to help deliver you from that sin. So leave your ego behind. And then secondly, 00:31:34.080 --> 00:31:41.519 and lastly, finally, look for evidence right now. As you examine yourself, leave your ego behind 00:31:41.519 --> 00:31:46.440 and look for evidence right now. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 11. 00:31:46.440 --> 00:32:00.960 1 Corinthians 11, verse 28. Let a person examine himself. How do we do that? How do we examine our 00:32:00.960 --> 00:32:07.759 hearts? How do we know if we're eating or drinking in a worthy or unworthy manner of remembering Christ 00:32:07.759 --> 00:32:11.799 and his sacrifice? Well, we've got to check our heart for evidence. We've got to look for evidence. 00:32:11.799 --> 00:32:18.659 What does that word examine mean? I don't do this often, but I got to do it today. Dokimazo. I took 00:32:18.659 --> 00:32:24.859 Greek back in Bible college and seminary. And by the way, the New Testament wasn't written in English. 00:32:24.940 --> 00:32:29.399 It was written in Greek. Some of you, that might be a shocker. Are you kidding me? Bible, English Bible 00:32:29.399 --> 00:32:34.200 wasn't the first one? No. But when they wrote it down in Greek, translation happened, thankfully, 00:32:34.359 --> 00:32:39.339 in English and so many languages around the world. And so we look at this original word that was 00:32:39.339 --> 00:32:46.939 written down. What does it mean to examine? It means to prove. Dokimazo means to examine, to prove, 00:32:47.059 --> 00:32:56.179 literally, to put to the test, to reveal what is genuine. So when you examine your heart and your life, 00:32:56.179 --> 00:33:04.720 you put it to the test to reveal what is genuine. You're going to prove to yourself 00:33:04.720 --> 00:33:16.600 what you're all about. What does this look like? Psalm 92. Psalm 92, verses 14 and 15. They will still 00:33:16.600 --> 00:33:25.319 bear fruit in old age to declare the Lord is just. He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him. 00:33:25.319 --> 00:33:34.599 What does this mean? They're finding evidence. In old age, their lives are still showing evidence 00:33:34.599 --> 00:33:44.399 of where their heart is and what God is doing in and through them. So when you're going to set out 00:33:44.399 --> 00:33:49.039 to prove something, I don't know if we got any scientists in the room or people that just got 00:33:49.039 --> 00:33:54.559 to nerd out on science, but if you're going to take a scientific theory and try to prove it, 00:33:54.559 --> 00:33:59.779 you're going to look for evidence that supports it, right? So if you are going to examine something 00:33:59.779 --> 00:34:05.200 and prove your own heart, you're going to look for evidence of what God is doing in and through my 00:34:05.200 --> 00:34:11.659 life. So the question is, are you bearing fruit? What is the fruit? What's the fruit you're supposed 00:34:11.659 --> 00:34:16.320 to be looking for? It's the fruit of the spirit. Thankfully, the Bible gives us a list. Love, joy, 00:34:16.480 --> 00:34:21.279 peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Does that describe you? 00:34:21.280 --> 00:34:29.440 And if not, or maybe yes, no, yes, yes, yes, no, no, yes. I practiced that ahead of time. 00:34:30.160 --> 00:34:34.260 I think I got it right. Now you're trying to remember what areas did he say no in? We got to 00:34:34.260 --> 00:34:46.400 get him on that. What areas would you say no in? Examine your heart. Prove it. Put it to the test. 00:34:46.400 --> 00:34:54.220 Am I full of genuine love or do I love myself more than anything else? Am I full of joy or does that 00:34:54.220 --> 00:35:00.960 disappear as soon as something goes wrong? Am I full of peace in the midst of the storm like Jesus 00:35:00.960 --> 00:35:09.840 promises he'll give us? Am I full of patience? Ooh, that's hard. Am I genuinely kind? 00:35:09.840 --> 00:35:22.019 Am I full of God's goodness or does my lust get in the way? Faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. 00:35:24.820 --> 00:35:32.000 What's the evidence in your heart and in mine? We put it to the test. We search for evidence. 00:35:32.660 --> 00:35:39.260 Second Corinthians 13, five for the final verse tonight, this morning. Test yourselves to see if 00:35:39.260 --> 00:35:48.560 you are in the faith. Examine yourselves or do you yourselves not recognize that Jesus Christ is in 00:35:48.560 --> 00:35:57.580 you? Do you fail the test? That's the second letter that Paul wrote to this church. We're reading from 00:35:57.580 --> 00:36:02.260 the first one when he talks about the Lord's Supper. Apparently they hadn't had it all figured out yet by 00:36:02.260 --> 00:36:10.180 the time he wrote the second letter. Because he said, look, examine yourselves. Some of you might recognize 00:36:10.180 --> 00:36:20.240 I'm failing the test. Jesus is not in me. Then before you take anything, bread, juice, before you do 00:36:20.240 --> 00:36:26.200 anything to remember Jesus' death, you first memorialize it in your heart by saying, God, I accept your 00:36:26.199 --> 00:36:32.139 sacrifice and payment for my sin. That's the most important thing, folks. If you walk out here today 00:36:32.139 --> 00:36:40.659 and you do not know without any doubt, 100% sure that God is your father, you are his child, he will 00:36:40.659 --> 00:36:46.739 never kick you out of his family. And someday when you die, whenever that time comes, you will go straight 00:36:46.739 --> 00:36:52.379 to heaven to be with Jesus because he's forgiven all your sins through his death and resurrection. 00:36:52.380 --> 00:37:01.099 You have life today. If you can't say that with 100% certainty, and I dare say in a size, a group 00:37:01.099 --> 00:37:07.539 that's this big, there's probably a handful of people who maybe couldn't say that with 100% certainty. 00:37:08.140 --> 00:37:13.880 Please don't leave this place today without accepting the good news of Jesus, the free gift 00:37:13.880 --> 00:37:19.200 of God's grace and forgiveness. That's the best way you can remember the sacrifice that Jesus made. 00:37:19.199 --> 00:37:27.699 And then you can come back as often as we do it and remember him with this bread and juice. 00:37:30.460 --> 00:37:36.179 But examine yourself. Would you bow your head with me right now? Let's enter into that time of 00:37:36.179 --> 00:37:44.939 examination. I'm going to ask the deacons to start to make their way forward. They're going to help us 00:37:44.940 --> 00:37:57.480 in this process. Ladies are going to softly play. Unless enter into this time of self-examination, 00:37:57.619 --> 00:38:06.220 we were literally told to do it in the scriptures. Number one, are you in Christ? Is Christ in you? 00:38:06.219 --> 00:38:17.319 Are you in the faith? Or are you still trying to earn it with your own good works? You'll never get 00:38:17.319 --> 00:38:23.899 there. You're never going to keep that law completely. You can keep it in every part, 00:38:24.000 --> 00:38:32.039 but fail in one. And Jesus taught us it's like you failed in all of it. Don't depend on your efforts. 00:38:32.039 --> 00:38:38.579 Don't depend on your good works. Surrender that to Jesus. Accept his grace and say, God, make me your 00:38:38.579 --> 00:38:43.500 child. I can't do it on my own. You make me your child. I receive your forgiveness today. 00:38:45.940 --> 00:38:50.059 I'm going to ask you to be bold enough to slip your hand up if that's you and say, I need to receive 00:38:50.059 --> 00:38:56.279 God's forgiveness for my sin today. I want to know 100% sure that he's my father and I'm his child. 00:38:56.360 --> 00:39:00.139 Would you slip your hand up right now? And I'll pray for you. Thank you. Thank you. 00:39:00.139 --> 00:39:05.859 Thank you. You can put your hands down. God, I pray for these right now. If they need to settle 00:39:05.859 --> 00:39:11.559 something in their heart, in the quietness of this moment, reveal to them how much you love them. 00:39:12.940 --> 00:39:19.639 Give them the words to say, born from the faith in their heart that says, God, I surrender to you. 00:39:20.059 --> 00:39:25.159 I'm a sinner in need of your forgiveness. Thank you for dying for me. Thank you for rising from the dead. 00:39:25.159 --> 00:39:31.379 I can put all my faith in you to save me, to make me your child and take me home to heaven someday. 00:39:32.960 --> 00:39:37.119 Give them the courage to make that decision today, here and now, and become your followers. 00:39:37.539 --> 00:39:39.879 For the rest of you in the room, let me ask this question. 00:39:41.239 --> 00:39:45.299 Is there something in your life as you examine yourself that you need prayer for? Say, God, 00:39:45.519 --> 00:39:48.819 God's working on me about something in my life. I want to surrender that to him 00:39:48.820 --> 00:39:54.120 right now. Before I take this bread and juice, I'm examining my heart and I want to surrender 00:39:54.120 --> 00:39:58.559 something to God right now. Would you pray for me? Would you slip your hand up and I'll pray for you 00:39:58.559 --> 00:40:03.580 as well? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. God, all across the room, you see these hands. You know 00:40:03.580 --> 00:40:09.220 what's going on in their hearts and minds. We can't and should not even begin to try to guess. 00:40:09.620 --> 00:40:14.120 But whatever they're struggling with, whatever they're dealing with, give them the courage and 00:40:14.119 --> 00:40:18.739 the faith to just surrender it to you and say, God, clean me, cleanse my heart, 00:40:19.400 --> 00:40:24.119 recenter it on you, God. You held nothing back from me. I don't want to hold anything back from you. 00:40:27.119 --> 00:40:34.480 We'll give you all the glory for it in Jesus' name. Amen. Our takeaway this morning is right now, 00:40:34.480 --> 00:40:41.659 am I a living proof of Christ in me or is he hidden by my pride? I pray, I pray that as a church, 00:40:41.659 --> 00:40:48.059 we would not be a church of pride. We would not be a church of ego. We would be a church of humble 00:40:48.059 --> 00:40:57.619 hearts, surrender to Jesus, failing, but rising back up in God's forgiveness. And that's living proof 00:40:57.619 --> 00:41:04.519 of Christ in us. Let's go ahead and enter into the time of the Lord's Supper. We've given you some 00:41:04.519 --> 00:41:10.440 instructions. I'm going to give them to you again more clearly. But we're going to have, men, if you want 00:41:10.440 --> 00:41:16.900 to start distributing the trays, we're going to have a couple of deacons up front at each of the two 00:41:16.900 --> 00:41:23.019 center aisles. Starting in the back, the deacons will come back and dismiss you. But if you will 00:41:23.019 --> 00:41:29.059 stand up, enter file into the center aisles, we can probably have two lines of people in each center 00:41:29.059 --> 00:41:35.500 aisle coming down. The deacons will come and they will dismiss you by row. But if you'll come down 00:41:35.500 --> 00:41:40.940 these two center aisles, take your elements of the Lord's Supper, the bread and juice, and then file 00:41:40.940 --> 00:41:49.980 out. Would you slide that warmer over? File out down the sides and back to your seats. If you need to 00:41:49.980 --> 00:41:55.599 come back to the inside, you can go all the way back around and then down the middle aisle back to your 00:41:55.599 --> 00:42:01.400 seat. But let's try to avoid any traffic disruption that way. So let's go ahead and have a word of 00:42:01.400 --> 00:42:05.599 prayer and then we will come forward to receive these elements. Let me remind you, this is for 00:42:05.599 --> 00:42:08.800 those, just like I taught the kids a little bit ago, this is for those who have already placed their 00:42:08.800 --> 00:42:14.740 faith in Jesus as Savior. We might have had a couple new ones today do that and we celebrate and rejoice 00:42:14.740 --> 00:42:19.019 with you if that's you. Please come talk to me after the service and let me know if that's the decision 00:42:19.019 --> 00:42:25.680 you made today. But if you know for sure in your heart that you are God's child, then we invite you to 00:42:25.680 --> 00:42:30.320 take this with us. If you're still struggling with that, you're not for sure on that, you just observe, 00:42:30.320 --> 00:42:34.220 you just watch, maybe be in a moment of prayer. If you'd like to come up and talk to me, we'd love to 00:42:34.220 --> 00:42:38.160 have that conversation with you. All right, let's pray. God, we love you. We thank you for your sacrifice 00:42:38.160 --> 00:42:44.519 for us. Thank you for your body broken for us. Thank you for your blood spilled for us. I pray that we 00:42:44.519 --> 00:42:51.539 would remember it as you wanted us to by examining ourselves, examining our hearts and saying, God, 00:42:51.700 --> 00:42:56.820 you change my heart. Cleanse me. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.