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[0:00] All right, we are going to continue on in this service and we're grateful for the time already! spent together in prayer and in worship. We gave you a little update on what's happening! for the rest of this service in the children's time. We are going to partake in the Lord's Supper at the end of this service. We're going to have some specific instructions on how to do that.

[0:30] I gave you a little preview of that. We're going to step into these center aisles and then we'll all vacate out the outer aisles back to our seats to take it together. But before we do that, I'd like you to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, please. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 17. The kids kind of gave us an update. What is the Lord's Supper? Well, it originated with this concept of the Passover.

[0:53] We read about that in the Old Testament when God's plan to rescue His people from bondage and captivity in Egypt was for His death angel to pass over all the homes in Egypt in the middle of the night. And all of His people who had obeyed His commands would have taken a sheep and slaughtered it and used the blood to paint the doorposts of their home. And so the death angel would pass over the homes. And if He saw a doorpost with the blood on it, He would not strike dead the oldest, the firstborn son in that home. But all the other homes that did not have the blood on the doorpost, the firstborn son would die. What a horrible tragedy that happened from these heathen people who were holding God's people in captivity and would not let them leave against their will. And so God came through and rescued His people in that terrible manner. But it was a, what they probably didn't realize at the time is it was a sign of something to come and that would be Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf, just like the lamb was sacrificed to save them that night. And so someday, who is called the

[2:13] Lamb of God, Jesus Himself, would hang and be sacrificed. And the Jewish people would remember that night for centuries to come and they would celebrate with the feast of the Passover, God delivering them from that night when the angel would pass over their homes and not strike their firstborn dead. So they still celebrate this custom, the Passover. But Jesus, at the Passover feast, and you can read about this in Luke 22, as He's taking it with His disciples, He says, He institutes, this is now transitioning from the Passover into the first communion. The last supper that Jesus would take, the last Passover feast that Jesus would take with His disciples right before His crucifixion would become now the first time of communion, the Lord's Supper. And that tradition has now been passed down through all Jesus' followers, through the church, through all the ages of churches all around this world, gathering together and remembering not just the Passover that happened so many moons ago in

[3:27] Egypt, but Jesus Himself hanging on the cross. So that's what we're looking at. That's what we're remembering. And that's what we're thanking God for. So let's look at 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 17.

[3:40] The problem is, anytime you start to have a tradition, there's usually a reason for it. But over time, that reason starts to become lost. And the tradition just starts to take on a life of its own.

[3:55] And it no longer actually serves the purpose that it was there for in the beginning, in the first place. We see that in organizations. We see that in communities. We even see that in churches sometimes.

[4:08] And we see that with communion. And so as one of the chief leaders in the early church, Paul himself, who did not personally walk with Jesus, but God miraculously converted him into becoming a follower of Jesus. Later, he starts giving this instruction to the early church because he has visited these early churches that were mostly meeting in homes and kind of against the law and facing persecution for their, there was no freedom of religion. So for their faith, they're being persecuted. And he starts to see these problems start to pop up in the early church. So let's look in 1 Corinthians 11, 17. Now in giving this instruction, I do not praise you. So the instruction he's about to give, he can't totally praise them for it. He loves to do that. He loves to go through and tell them what they're doing well. But he said, in this that's about to follow, this isn't going to be a good job thumbs up. Since you come together, not for the better, but for the worse. To begin with,

[5:15] I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you. Nobody could ever imagine that happening in church, right? When you come together as a church, there are divisions among you. I'm sure that stopped back in the first century. It's not alive and well today in American churches, is it? Of course it is. A little bit of sarcasm there. Of course, there are still divisions in the church. Well, apparently we come by that honestly, because Paul had a problem with it back in the early days. In part, he said, I believe it.

[5:50] Why? Because he had visited them. He knew them. He said, look, I can see that there is a seed of truth in these divisions in the church. I believe that it's happening. Indeed, verse 19, it's necessary that there be factions among you so that those who are approved may be recognized among you. Some of you are actually trying to do what's right. So naturally, these divisions or factions are going to happen, and they should reveal who's actually really genuinely trying to follow Jesus.

[6:26] Verse 20, when you come together, then it's not to eat the Lord's supper. It should be, but it's not. For at the meal, each one eats his own supper. So one person is hungry while another gets drunk. Why do you think that is? If this Lord's supper, which was supposed to be, began as, was instituted as, and was observed as a remembrance of what Jesus himself did for us on the cross. Why then are people showing up and having their own meals? And why is that a problem? Why is that causing division? Economics is one basic answer, because some people are wealthier than others.

[7:21] Some people have a lot to eat. Some people have a lot of resources. Some people are barely scraping by, even within the church, often especially within the church, especially in those early days of persecution. And, you know, people would be coming together from very different walks of life as they were captured by this person of Jesus and the following that he was attracting, even after he was gone. So they would have some who were wealthy, and they would bring in a big old spread, and everybody would eat together, but they wouldn't share. They would eat their own food. Somebody else is bringing scraps and trying to get by. And so it's naturally breeding strife. It's breeding discord. And Paul says, that is not what this is about. Now, we had a potluck Wednesday night, and you know what we did?

[8:14] Everybody brought food, and we all shared it. We all ate together, and it was fun. It was great. We everybody got to try a little bit of everybody's food. Nobody was shamed because they didn't bring anything, or nobody was shamed because they only brought a little. We all shared together, because we're trying to learn from what Paul is teaching here. So he says, one person's hungry. Another gets drunk. Don't you have homes in which to eat and drink, or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? Now, thank God we're not practicing that as they were here in this church, but maybe we can understand and apply the lesson behind this is sometimes we look down on those who are not quite as we are. They're maybe not as far along in their faith as we are. Maybe they don't dress as nicely as nicely as we do, or maybe they don't necessarily act exactly how we think they ought to act. Maybe somebody wears a hat in church, and they're thinking, how dare you wear a hat in here?

[9:23] Maybe they weren't raised like you. Maybe somebody comes in and smells a little bit, or thinking, man, there's no place for you. You're supposed to wash up and make yourself smell good before you come to church. And we can apply the same sort of division that they were doing back then with food. We can certainly take it and apply it in our context. Paul says this is not what the church of God is about.

[9:52] We're all supposed to be able to come from every walk of life, every background, every financial condition, and gather together and worship Jesus together. Because Jesus went everywhere. He loved everyone. He offered salvation to everyone. He came to seek and to save everyone. Thank God, or we wouldn't be included. So that is what Paul is trying to remind them of. So he says, what should I say to you?

[10:24] Should I praise you in this? I can't. I don't praise you in this matter. Verse 23, for I received this from the Lord. God gave me this instruction. I received from the Lord what I also then passed on to you. On the night when Jesus was betrayed, he took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it. He said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. We're going to read that verse again in just a few minutes, and we're going to do this in remembrance of him.

[10:54] His body broken for us. In the same way, he also took the cup after supper and said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do it as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Thank God. And back in last time we gathered together, I think it was April, and we observed the Lord's supper, then we talked about proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes. But let's keep reading this time. 1 Corinthians 11 and down in verse 27. So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord. Can we pause right there for a second? You don't want to be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord. Now, we are all guilty of sin, and that's why his body was broken. That's why his blood was spilled. But after understanding that, coming to the knowledge of that, you don't want to be guilty of sin against his sacrifice, what does he mean by this? Verse 28, let a person examine himself.

[12:26] 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 setting the stage. You have the wrong heart. Folks, all throughout this series that we're in, and we took a break from it today for the Lord's supper. But we've been talking about the parables of Jesus, this series called Stories of the Kingdom. It's amazing these stories that Jesus tells about the kingdom of God and how different it is from the kingdom of this world. Do you know why it looks so different? Because the heart of God is different than your heart and my heart. His priorities are different. What he cares about is different. We put ourselves first. He puts people first. He cares about us. He wants us. He wants us so badly, he sent his one and only son, Jesus Christ, to die for the sins of the whole world.

[13:23] So anyone who then believes in him will never perish, will never die spiritually, but will have eternal life forever. So he has offered this to us. It matters to him. It's a big deal.

[13:40] That's where his heart is. So it's a heart matter. And that's what Paul is trying to teach this church. If you're going to follow Jesus, trust me, Paul would say, I know, because my heart was completely different.

[13:55] It was wicked. It was doing everything I could to advance my career, even to the point of killing the followers 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 people like you and me. So he said, God changed my heart and God has to change your heart.

[14:20] God's continuing to change my heart. He reveals some of his heart struggle as he tries to follow Jesus. So we're all going to have this struggle. And he says, this is a time when we are remembering Jesus' sacrifice, this is a time to examine yourself. In this way, let him eat the bread and drink from the cup.

[14:43] For whoever eats the bread, I'm sorry, eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. This is why many are sick and ill among you and many have fallen asleep or passed away.

[14:58] Now, this verse has been taken out of context. Sometimes somebody would say, well, that means if anybody in the church is sick or if anybody dies, it means that they were out of the will of God and they were not living right and their heart wasn't right. That is absolutely not what Paul is saying here. He said, but it could manifest itself that way. And in this particular church in Corinth, you read a little bit about what they were doing. I can see visibly there was visible fruit that their hearts were not after God. And so probably this was why many of them were sick and dying.

[15:29] Sometimes it was an actual result of the way they were living, which was naturally going to lead to sickness and death. He said, if we were properly judging ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned with the Lord, with the world. You don't want to be condemned with the rest of the world. You want God to save you from your condemnation. You want God to save you from the judgment spared that he can spare you from, the judgment that's reserved for all those that are not followers of Jesus. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, welcome one another. If anyone's hungry, he should eat at home.

[16:24] Guys, this isn't about fattening yourself up and pigging out and having a big feast. This is about remembering what Jesus did. So when you come together, when you gather, you will not come under judgment.

[16:36] I will give you instructions about the other matters whenever I come. But right now, he had to write a letter in advance. He had to say, look, I'm coming to visit you, but this one couldn't wait. This is a big deal. And so it's a big deal as we prepare to do the same thing that they were doing and observe this Lord's Supper. What we can take away from this is to examine ourselves, examine our hearts. There's a comedian named John Crist. Anybody ever watch any John Crist? He has this thing called check your heart.

[17:05] And it's funny, but look, there is a real seed of truth in there. Y'all, we all got to check our hearts. Every day we got to keep checking our hearts. Why? Because the heart is deceitful above everything else. And it's desperately wicked. That's a Bible verse, by the way. Who can even understand it and really know it? Our hearts will lead us astray. Our hearts are vulnerable.

[17:28] So we've got to examine our hearts regularly. Now, number one, we've been in 1 Corinthians 11. We're going to go on to number one. Write this down if you're keeping notes. Leave your ego behind.

[17:43] How do you check your heart? How do you examine yourself? Number one, you've got to do it by leaving your ego behind. You can't genuinely check your heart. Genuinely. Genuinely. We have a little inside joke in our family. We're not going to take any more time for that, but I just wanted to catch the boy's eye. Genuinely. You can't genuinely check your heart or examine yourselves until you check your ego at the door. You've got to leave it behind. Now, this is hard. You know who it's especially hard for? Members of First Baptist Church. Why? Because we're kind of proud of that.

[18:27] Maybe you grew up in this church. Maybe it's more recent that you've become a part of our church. Maybe you're a guest today and you're not a part. That's okay. Just listen and observe right now because I'm talking to the others in the room. We have to leave our ego behind that says we are nice-looking church members and we dressed up and we don't live like all the rabble out there.

[18:50] We're a cut above. We're different. We live cleaner, more holy, more moral lives. I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I'm pretty close. You know what I'm saying? It's that kind of attitude that will absolutely prevent you from truly examining your heart before God. You have to humble yourself. Do you know who humbled himself? Jesus did. Christ himself humbled himself.

[19:22] Took upon him the lowest form, the form of a servant. And if you actually look at that word in Philippians, it almost means more of a slave. He took upon himself the lowest form of society.

[19:39] That's why the rabbis of the day, that's why the Pharisees didn't respect him. There's no way he could truly be the Messiah. There's no way he could truly be from God. Not with how he lives. He doesn't even have anywhere to lay his head. He doesn't even have a home. Come on now. We have to be like Jesus if we're going to open ourselves up and truly examine ourselves. Now look, you can sit there, you can come forward, you can grab the elements, you can go back to your seat, you can take them with everybody else. That's between you and God. But if you're going to do this how Jesus asked you to do it, then you've got to examine yourself. You've got to open up your heart and leave your ego behind.

[20:24] Psalm 19, people cannot see their own mistakes, so don't let me commit secret sins. Don't let me do what I know is wrong. Don't let sin control me. Man, that should be all of our prayer.

[20:41] If you even want to open up your Bible and put a little bookmark in there or just kind of hold it open to that page, and when we come back together to observe the Lord's Supper together, if you want to read that and pray that silently as a prayer to God, God, I can't see my own mistakes. My ego gets in the way. My vision is clouded. My heart can deceive me, so don't let me commit secret sins. Don't let me do what I know is wrong. Don't let sin control me. That's the kind of examination that God wants from us when we observe this time of communion. Richard Rohr said this, salvation is not sin perfectly avoided, as the ego would prefer. In fact, salvation is sin turned on its own head and used in our favor.

[21:36] Boy, that's a weird way to think of it, right? Sin used in our favor? How would that even work? There's two ways that works. First, sin qualifies us for God's grace and substituted righteousness.

[21:54] Romans chapter 5 and verse 20 puts it this way, God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful grace became more abundant.

[22:09] Boy, God set up this law with the Old Testament. You see the Ten Commandments. You see all these laws given all the way throughout the Old Testament. And you see this impossible standard to live by.

[22:23] Nobody can measure up to this standard. We can try. We should try. It'll help us live in favor with God and man in right standing. But listen, you can't ever completely obey the law. You're always going to mess it up. So God's law was given to show us our sin. But you know what that does? Jesus came to save sinners, Paul tells us. So if you're not a lawbreaker, you don't qualify for God. You don't qualify for heaven.

[22:58] You don't qualify for Jesus's grace. Salvation is offered to those of us who have sinned.

[23:09] That's turning sin on its head and using it for our favor. What do we mean by that? Romans chapter 7. I think I put the wrong reference up here, but it's actually Romans chapter 7 and verse 4 down through verse 25. And I think this is, tell you what, let's go there real quick. Romans chapter 7.

[23:28] Would you turn there with me? Yep, that's verse 24.

[23:43] Romans chapter 7 and verse 24. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, for sake of time, I'm going to read while you turn. For sake of, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another, somebody else. That's Jesus. You belong to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. For when we were in the flesh before Christ, the sinful passions aroused through the law were working in us to bear fruit for death. What does it mean, the sinful passions aroused through the law? You ever been told by somebody you can't do something? What did it make you want to do? That, right? The thing they said you can't do.

[24:31] You're not allowed to do this. Okay, now I want to do it. You can eat every fruit from every tree except up the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden. Oh, well, now I want to eat that one.

[24:46] It's the one you can't, you tell me I can't do. So the law aroused these sinful passions in us and they bore fruit for death. But now we have been released from the law. Did you get that?

[25:04] Y'all, some of y'all, little rabbit trail, but we're coming right back. Some of y'all have been walking for Jesus a long time and you've never realized you're released from the law. You're still living and forcing yourself to live under the law. And you're looking down your nose at anybody else who is living in freedom because they realize they're released from the law. I'm here to give you good news today. Jesus released you from the law. He's now given you a different standard to live by.

[25:36] It's called grace. It's called grace. We experience it for ourselves and we give it to others. That's God's new plan. So we have been released from the law since we have died to what held us, that law, so that now we may serve in the newness of the spirit, the Holy Spirit, and not in the old letter of the law. Verse seven, what should we say then? Is the law sin? No, the law is not sin.

[26:09] It revealed our sin. But I would have not known sin if it weren't for the law. If you never told me what the rules were, I wouldn't have known I was breaking them, right? For example, I wouldn't have known what it is to covet if the law had said, do not covet. But since the law told me, don't covet, now I want to go out and covet. And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law, sin is dead. Once I was alive, apart from the law, but then the commandment came, sin sprang to life again, and I died.

[26:47] The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment deceived me, and through it, it killed me. So then, the law is holy, the commandment is holy and just and good, therefore, it did what is good become death to me? No, absolutely not. But sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure. Y'all, you got to take this. Go home. If I can give you any homework this week, I know it's summer, okay? Nobody wants homework. But if you can take this, Romans chapter 7, these verses, and study it out, and see what God did for you, your view of God and yourself will change. I promise you it will change.

[27:47] Now, he's going to elaborate a little bit more. Verse 14, for we know that the law is spiritual. Got that? We're not talking about the police code or the laws of the land. We're talking about the spiritual law that God laid down. The law is spiritual, but I'm of the flesh, sold as a slave under sin. I don't understand what I'm doing, because I don't practice what I want to do, but I 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, right? So now I'm no longer the one doing it, but it's sin living in me. There's these two natures.

[28:23] 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. For I know that nothing good lives in me that is in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. That spirit is there saying, don't do that, do this.

[28:43] 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 want to do, but I practice the evil that I don't want to do. So if I do what I don't want, I'm no longer the one that does it. It's the sin that lives in me, so I discover this law.

[29:03] When I do, when I want to do what's good, evil is present with me. It's still there, working against me, right? For in my inner self, I delight in God's law, but I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin and the parts of my body. What a wretched man I am. That's where we land. Basically, that's Paul saying, boy, I'm a mess, aren't I? He just went on this long explanation that's a little hard to follow, and it kind of has these twists and turns, but what you come back to is, I'm a mess. What a wretched man I am. Who can help me? Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And that's where we end. Who can rescue us from the mess that we are?

[30:10] First of all, you got to set your ego aside and admit that you're a wretched man, that you're a wretched woman, that you're a mess. You got to admit that. And sometimes we don't even just admit it to God. Sometimes we need to humble ourselves and admit it to each other and be accountable to each other. I'm a mess. I have an addiction problem. I'm addicted to sin. I keep going back to it time and time again. I'm addicted to fear. I'm addicted to lust. I'm addicted to pride.

[30:44] I'm addicted to selfishness. I'm addicted to the idea of security. Whatever it is that you're addicted to and you can't seem to break away from and open yourself up to God, just echo with Paul, what a wretched person I am. Who will rescue me from this? I thank God because he can and he has and he will continue to. So sin reminds us of our weakness and his strength.

[31:18] That's how sin can be turned on its head and used in our favor. And God can work to help you. He can work in and through you to help deliver you from that sin. So leave your ego behind. And then secondly, and lastly, finally, look for evidence right now. As you examine yourself, leave your ego behind and look for evidence right now. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 11.

[31:46] 1 Corinthians 11, verse 28. Let a person examine himself. How do we do that? How do we examine our hearts? How do we know if we're eating or drinking in a worthy or unworthy manner of remembering Christ and his sacrifice? Well, we've got to check our heart for evidence. We've got to look for evidence.

[32:11] What does that word examine mean? I don't do this often, but I got to do it today. Dokimazo. I took Greek back in Bible college and seminary. And by the way, the New Testament wasn't written in English.

[32:24] It was written in Greek. Some of you, that might be a shocker. Are you kidding me? Bible, English Bible wasn't the first one? No. But when they wrote it down in Greek, translation happened, thankfully, in English and so many languages around the world. And so we look at this original word that was written down. What does it mean to examine? It means to prove. Dokimazo means to examine, to prove, literally, to put to the test, to reveal what is genuine. So when you examine your heart and your life, you put it to the test to reveal what is genuine. You're going to prove to yourself what you're all about. What does this look like? Psalm 92. Psalm 92, verses 14 and 15. They will still bear fruit in old age to declare the Lord is just. He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him.

[33:25] What does this mean? They're finding evidence. In old age, their lives are still showing evidence of where their heart is and what God is doing in and through them. So when you're going to set out to prove something, I don't know if we got any scientists in the room or people that just got to nerd out on science, but if you're going to take a scientific theory and try to prove it, you're going to look for evidence that supports it, right? So if you are going to examine something and prove your own heart, you're going to look for evidence of what God is doing in and through my life. So the question is, are you bearing fruit? What is the fruit? What's the fruit you're supposed to be looking for? It's the fruit of the spirit. Thankfully, the Bible gives us a list. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Does that describe you?

[34:21] And if not, or maybe yes, no, yes, yes, yes, no, no, yes. I practiced that ahead of time. I think I got it right. Now you're trying to remember what areas did he say no in? We got to get him on that. What areas would you say no in? Examine your heart. Prove it. Put it to the test.

[34:46] Am I full of genuine love or do I love myself more than anything else? Am I full of joy or does that disappear as soon as something goes wrong? Am I full of peace in the midst of the storm like Jesus promises he'll give us? Am I full of patience? Ooh, that's hard. Am I genuinely kind?

[35:09] Am I full of God's goodness or does my lust get in the way? Faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

[35:24] What's the evidence in your heart and in mine? We put it to the test. We search for evidence. Second Corinthians 13, five for the final verse tonight, this morning. Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves or do you yourselves not recognize that Jesus Christ is in you? Do you fail the test? That's the second letter that Paul wrote to this church. We're reading from the first one when he talks about the Lord's Supper. Apparently they hadn't had it all figured out yet by the time he wrote the second letter. Because he said, look, examine yourselves. Some of you might recognize I'm failing the test. Jesus is not in me. Then before you take anything, bread, juice, before you do anything to remember Jesus' death, you first memorialize it in your heart by saying, God, I accept your sacrifice and payment for my sin. That's the most important thing, folks. If you walk out here today and you do not know without any doubt, 100% sure that God is your father, you are his child, he will never kick you out of his family. And someday when you die, whenever that time comes, you will go straight to heaven to be with Jesus because he's forgiven all your sins through his death and resurrection.

[36:52] You have life today. If you can't say that with 100% certainty, and I dare say in a size, a group that's this big, there's probably a handful of people who maybe couldn't say that with 100% certainty.

[37:08] Please don't leave this place today without accepting the good news of Jesus, the free gift of God's grace and forgiveness. That's the best way you can remember the sacrifice that Jesus made.

[37:19] And then you can come back as often as we do it and remember him with this bread and juice. But examine yourself. Would you bow your head with me right now? Let's enter into that time of examination. I'm going to ask the deacons to start to make their way forward. They're going to help us in this process. Ladies are going to softly play. Unless enter into this time of self-examination, we were literally told to do it in the scriptures. Number one, are you in Christ? Is Christ in you?

[38:06] Are you in the faith? Or are you still trying to earn it with your own good works? You'll never get there. You're never going to keep that law completely. You can keep it in every part, but fail in one. And Jesus taught us it's like you failed in all of it. Don't depend on your efforts.

[38:32] Don't depend on your good works. Surrender that to Jesus. Accept his grace and say, God, make me your child. I can't do it on my own. You make me your child. I receive your forgiveness today.

[38:45] 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 God's forgiveness for my sin today. I want to know 100% sure that he's my father and I'm his child.

[38:56] Would you slip your hand up right now? And I'll pray for you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You can put your hands down. God, I pray for these right now. If they need to settle something in their heart, in the quietness of this moment, reveal to them how much you love them.

[39:12] Give them the words to say, born from the faith in their heart that says, God, I surrender to you. I'm a sinner in need of your forgiveness. Thank you for dying for me. Thank you for rising from the dead.

[39:25] I can put all my faith in you to save me, to make me your child and take me home to heaven someday. Give them the courage to make that decision today, here and now, and become your followers.

[39:37] For the rest of you in the room, let me ask this question. Is there something in your life as you examine yourself that you need prayer for? Say, God, God's working on me about something in my life. I want to surrender that to him right now. Before I take this bread and juice, I'm examining my heart and I want to surrender something to God right now. Would you pray for me? Would you slip your hand up and I'll pray for you as well? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. God, all across the room, you see these hands. You know what's going on in their hearts and minds. We can't and should not even begin to try to guess.

[40:09] But whatever they're struggling with, whatever they're dealing with, give them the courage and the faith to just surrender it to you and say, God, clean me, cleanse my heart, recenter it on you, God. You held nothing back from me. I don't want to hold anything back from you.

[40:27] We'll give you all the glory for it in Jesus' name. Amen. Our takeaway this morning is right now, am I a living proof of Christ in me or is he hidden by my pride? I pray, I pray that as a church, we would not be a church of pride. We would not be a church of ego. We would be a church of humble hearts, surrender to Jesus, failing, but rising back up in God's forgiveness. And that's living proof of Christ in us. Let's go ahead and enter into the time of the Lord's Supper. We've given you some instructions. I'm going to give them to you again more clearly. But we're going to have, men, if you want to start distributing the trays, we're going to have a couple of deacons up front at each of the two center aisles. Starting in the back, the deacons will come back and dismiss you. But if you will stand up, enter file into the center aisles, we can probably have two lines of people in each center aisle coming down. The deacons will come and they will dismiss you by row. But if you'll come down these two center aisles, take your elements of the Lord's Supper, the bread and juice, and then file out. Would you slide that warmer over? File out down the sides and back to your seats. If you need to come back to the inside, you can go all the way back around and then down the middle aisle back to your seat. But let's try to avoid any traffic disruption that way. So let's go ahead and have a word of prayer and then we will come forward to receive these elements. Let me remind you, this is for those, just like I taught the kids a little bit ago, this is for those who have already placed their faith in Jesus as Savior. We might have had a couple new ones today do that and we celebrate and rejoice with you if that's you. Please come talk to me after the service and let me know if that's the decision you made today. But if you know for sure in your heart that you are God's child, then we invite you to take this with us. If you're still struggling with that, you're not for sure on that, you just observe, 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 have that conversation with you. All right, let's pray. God, we love you. We thank you for your sacrifice for us. Thank you for your body broken for us. Thank you for your blood spilled for us. I pray that we would remember it as you wanted us to by examining ourselves, examining our hearts and saying, God, you change my heart. Cleanse me. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.