The Heart of Corporate Worship

Sermon Transcript

Let me just add my word of invitation to first Tuesdays. We're not only a church that prays. Almost every church prays. We are a praying church. We are a church that firmly believes in the power of prayer.

And we gather on Tuesday nights, the first Tuesday of every month at 630, to seek the face of the Lord, to worship his name, and to pray. They are powerful times. If you want to know what brave church is about, that's the core of everything brave church is about. If we could be known as anything, I want to be known as a praying church. And just so you know, there are people from other churches now, pastors from other churches that come to our first Tuesdays because they want to know how to implement prayer in their churches, like what we're doing here.

So praise the Lord for that. So just want to tell you, be here, especially for those that are listening. I don't even know how to pray for like a minute. You especially need to come, come experience the power of God at work as we seek his face this week. Okay, so let's go before the Lord.

Let's just continue to prepare our hearts as we get ready to hear his word this morning. Lord Jesus, we give you all the glory, all the honor, and all the praise for who you are. And Lord, I just pray this morning, as we look into your word, that your word would be clear, Lord, that your word would be revealing, Lord, that I would be accurate in preaching it. Lord, I need your help this morning. And so, Lord, for all of us, help us understand who you are and how you relate to us.

And, Lord, that we would put into practice the very things that you show us. And, Lord, that we would leave here encouraged by all that you've done on our behalf. And so, Lord, now we just declare that our mind is ready to hear. Our heart is receptive to all that we are, all that you are. And, Lord, that we would put into practice everything that you show us and all God's people who are ready to receive his word and to do what Jesus showed.

You agreed very loudly by saying, amen. Amen. I want to encourage you, open up your bibles to first Corinthians, chapter eleven, first Corinthians, chapter eleven. And today I want to talk about the heart of worship. Everywhere you go, you have expectations for why you're going there.

As a matter of fact, if somebody tells you about a movie that you want to go see, there's expectations. Like, tell me about that movie. What's it about? What should I expect when I go into that movie. And based on your expectations, when you leave, you form an opinion as to whether your expectation expectations were met.

We all have expectations. I have expectations. And when I go to a sporting event, I have certain expectations in order for my heart to be in it, which is why there's so much pageantry that goes around sporting events, right? Like when I go to a Broncos game, it's not just the game. It's everything that leads up to the game.

Right? Like when guys are jumping out of an airplane from 2 miles in the air and thunderstruck's being played by AC DC, and people are watching these guys zoom in in the stadium and avoid the ropes and come down super fast and land, and your heart is beating. And then the national anthem and all sorts of things are going on, gearing our heart for expectation, right? What should be our expectation when we come into church? Like, for some of you that say, well, that's just secular stuff, you shouldn't put your heart into things like that.

Let me tell you what I think about when I see people jumping out of an airplane at Maha Stadium. You know what I picture? I picture what it's going to be like. Not when somebody jumps out of a plane from a mile in the air, but what's it going to be like when the Lord Jesus Christ returns and the sky is open, and instead of five parachutists, there's myriads of angels doing cartwheels and somersaults all in the sky, parachuting towards planet Earth, saying, he's back. Right?

What's that going to be like? Is that worthy of our praise?

But yet, when we come into worship, what's our expectation? Why did you come here today? I mean, and I know we come from all different places. Sometimes we become really joyous, and sometimes we become really hurt, and sometimes we become really broken. But why are we coming?

And what Paul is going to do today is he's going to explain to us what our expectation in worship should be. What should our heart of worship be every single time that we gather? Like, why gather for this? And he's going to give us three things that we need to make sure we do that will result in a fourth. And it's really important that we understand these three things when we come together.

And Paul, in one corinthians, chapter eleven in the first verse, we're gonna look at today in verse 17, tells us why he's just gotten done prior to getting into spiritual gifts, which we're gonna begin to talk about next week. Before he talks about spiritual gifts. He's talked about kingdom authority based on gender, which we talked about last week, and how we need to have that in alignment in order to understand how the church and our homes and our world even function properly. And today he's going to talk about the heart of worship and the expectations we should have when we gather. And here's why verse 17 tells us, but in giving this instruction, I do not praise you because you come together not for the better, but for the worse.

How about that? Do you know it's possible to gather in a worship service and leave worse off than you were before you got there? I mean, Paul's telling this christian community in Corinth, hey, when you get together and when you're gathering together, it's not for the better. It's actually worse that you got together in the first place. How about that?

I mean, that's not a very encouraging word to that church, which means there are some places that you can go and gather. And if the things Paul's talking about are not part of what's going on in worship, you can leave worse off than you did here when you got here. Now, I had a coach in college that used to say, hey, you're either green and growing or you're ripe and rotting. And his reason for saying that was, you have to work at something in order to get better. You can't just plateau.

And all of us who've been christians long enough know if we start plateauing in our christian life, we're really not plateauing. We're going downward, right? And that we need to gather. And so when we come together, there are some things that need to be taking place in order for us to leave for the better. And I'm gonna point out three of those, and then which will result in the fourth.

And the first is this. At the heart of corporate worship, when we gather together for worship, it requires unity in his people. It requires unity in his people. Notice what he says in verse 18. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you.

And in part, I believe it. What's he saying? I know all about you. I've pastored you. I know how self centered you are.

He's telling the Corinthians, I know how licentious you are. I know how you live completely for your pleasures. So when I'm hearing all these report backs, I don't believe everything I'm hearing, but in part, I kind of believe it. And anytime that you have a church that gathers and the centrality of the church is about the people and meeting everybody's need. There will always be divisions in that church.

In other words, no matter how many people that you have, you can have 1800, you can have 5000, you can have 30. If each person comes saying, hey, church is about me, you will always have schisms, you will always have factions. And here's one of the devil's greatest tricks in the church. It's to get you to think that corporate worship exists for you, right? And when you think like that, here's the questions you begin to ask before you show up at church.

I wonder what songs they're going to play. I wonder who's going to be playing those songs. I wonder if my favorite singer is going to be singing. Hey, I don't even think they should have singers. I don't even think they should have musical instruments.

I mean, why do they do that? I hope the message is for me. I hope I like the way it's presented. I hope the stories really connect with who I am. Hey, I hope the children's ministry goes the way I want it to go.

I hope my kids leave happy. I hope my husband and I can join hands at the end. I hope we can walk out of here. I want it to be about me. And when you make church about you, I promise you one thing, you'll always be disappointed.

You'll always be let down. And the corinthian people were gathering and there were factions among the corinthian people because they were making church about themselves and so there was no unity. Paul says this for there must also be factions among you so that those who are approved may become evident among you. What's he mean by that? He's not approving factions.

He's not saying it's a good thing that there's factions. He's just saying this. When there are factions, you will find out who the Spiritually Mature People are very quickly when there are factions in a church, when you have self centered people living for themselves and talking about, well, the church is doing this and they shouldn't be doing that. And here's what I need, and here's what this mature people will always respond like this. I don't have ears for that.

I'm here to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and him only. And I'm getting fed and I'm here to give him something. I'm not here to receive. I'm here to give. And you can always see who the mature people are.

When factions exist, when factions start immature people always grab on. They always listen. They're always like, what did you say? Oh, you heard that? What else did you hear?

Let me hear something else. That's factious, people. And Paul says those things are kind of necessary in church. As a matter of fact, Jesus said the same thing Jesus said in his parable of the wheat and the tares, that in church there will always be people that look like christians, talk like christians, act like christians, that one day when all is revealed, guess what? They're not really christians at all.

There's always gonna be some of that in the church. And God allows that to strengthen those of us who really are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul says, listen, I believe that's going on. It goes on everywhere. I certainly believe that's going on with y'all, he says, because I know how self centered that you all are.

Then he talks about this. Therefore, when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in your eating, each one of you takes his own supper first, and one is hungry and the other is drunk. In other words, in the first century, oftentimes, the way that they would celebrate communion would be called a love feast or a gape feast, where they would get together and they would have a meal, and at the end of the meal, they would do the Lord's supper, which we're going to talk about here and how Jesus instituted it and what's it for. But what would happen in the corinthian church is because church was all about them.

The people that arrived early, the people that had means that were able to bring their own food, they ate first, they ate what they brought, and some of the people who couldn't afford food, who showed up, or some of the people that were late didn't get anything. So some of the people are sitting there saying, oh, that was the best KFC I ever had. Wasn't that awesome? Some people were actually getting drunk, and other people were leaving saying, I didn't get anything here. There was no sharing.

There was no care for anybody else. And you'll hear at the end of this message that if you really love Jesus with your whole heart, you will always care, care about the least of these. It's just part of what being a Christian is. And what Paul says is he goes on to say, he goes, what? He goes, do you not have houses in which to eat and drink?

Now, Paul is not saying you get drunk. I mean, if you're gonna get drunk, get drunk at home. That's not what Paul's saying, right? What he's saying is, if you want to serve yourself, if you need to eat and drink, eat and drink at home before you get to church, when you come to church, know this, it's not about you. You're not gathering for you.

You're gathering for the Lord Jesus Christ and for the other people that are there. There's something that God wants to do through his spirit in and through you, to God and to others that doesn't involve you. He goes, or he says this, or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? He goes, what shall I say? Shall I praise you in this?

I will not praise you. I mean, what I love about Paul is he's honest. I mean, a lot of times in church we tend to praise things that we shouldn't praise because we think that to be good christians mean. We always tell people good job no matter what they do. And Paul's like, hey, what do you want me to do?

Do you want me to want me to praise you? Because you're not exalting the Lord Jesus Christ. He goes, I refuse to do that. I'm not going to praise you. When you come together and make the gathering all about yourself, there needs to be unity in the body of Christ in church.

Let me just tell you something. If you don't get kingdom authority and you don't get how unity works, when we get to spiritual gifts, we're going to have a really, really messed up church. And God knew that. And that's why, why he pinned this through the apostle Paul to us. It's important.

And you need to understand something about unity very clearly. Let me tell you, unity does not equal uniformity, okay? By that, what I mean is just because we're talking about unity does not mean you have to be like every single other person. Let me tell you something. You can't be like anybody else.

You are uniquely created in the image of God, okay? There is no other like you. There are no copies of you under heaven. There is only one you. And one of the problems when people don't have a heart for Jesus in worship and they don't have a heart for others when they gather, they get together and they just do religious things and try to be like whatever that religious service champion.

So if you go to a Bible church, I'm just going to learn the Bible. I'm just going to learn the Bible. And I don't care about Jesus and I don't care about anybody else. I'm just going to learn the Bible. If you go to a place that expresses spiritual gifts, you're going to go to a place, I'm just going to be loud and I'm going to sing and I'm going to be loud and I'm going to sing and then I'm going to go do my own thing, right?

I mean, God doesn't call us to uniformity. He doesn't ask you to dress like the person next to you, look like the person next to you, or act like the person next to you. That's not unity. Unity means when you are all united in the same mission, okay? I mean, I've taught on this before, but it bears repeating.

Unity is a byproduct of mission. Unity doesn't happen on its own. In other words, unity is not something we seek. We seek mission, which brings alignment in unity. In other words, think about this.

I mean, I've told all the military people, all of you guys that have served in the military, all the yowls that have served in the military, praise God for you. But I know when y'all go off to boot camp or you go to one of the military academies and you arrive, they don't meet you with a hostess like from the love boat and saying, hey, so glad you came. What are you looking forward to? What are your top things you're looking forward to during the boot camp? We really are here to service you and meet your needs because we want to make sure that by the time boot camp or military training's over that you're all besties.

Because if you're really good friends, we believe that you're gonna fight better together. And you ask, well, when are we gonna get guns? When are we gonna get equipment? That's kinda dangerous stuff there. We're just gonna have a lot of slumber parties, we're gonna watch movies and you don't wanna get your hair cut.

Totally fine. We liked you just the way you are. I mean, is that how it works? Is that how unity gets built? No, let me tell you how unity gets built.

There is a mission that needs to be accomplished and you just signed up for that mission. And they will tell you exactly what you need to do, when you need to do it, when you wake up, when you go to bed, when you will use the bathroom, when you will eat, what you will eat, how you will eat. So that by the time that you're done, what's happened? Unity among your comrades has formed. Why?

Because, hey, we're all doing this. And the only way we're going to get through this together is if we work together. Same is true. I mean, you watch any championship sports teams, watch them. They all have unity.

But if you were to meet each player on that team, whether it's football, baseball, basketball, it doesn't mean that they're all best friends. As a matter of fact, some of them may not even like each other, but when they come together for their mission, they're aligned in what they're doing. This is what the church is about. Yeah, we're called to love one another. It doesn't mean you're going to like every single person that comes to church.

It doesn't mean you're going to agree with everybody's opinion that comes to church. If you do, you can't have a church. It means if I have to agree with everybody, that means that everybody would have to be of the same political party as me. Everybody would have to root for the same sports teams I do, everybody would have to dress like me, everybody need to shave their head like me, all sorts of. That's not a church, that's a cult.

The Church of Jesus Christ is welcome to everyone. No matter what your background, no matter what your gender, no matter what your political party is, you may come and worship the Lord Jesus Christ. So what are we centered on? And that's what Paul gives us in the second point. If we're called to unity, then the heart of corporate worship, it remembers the centrality of Jesus Christ in the gospel.

The heart of worship remembers the centrality of Jesus Christ in the gospel. Notice what Paul says, for I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way he took the cup also after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Now, by show of hands on both campuses, how many have heard that before? Right? I mean, it's one of the greatest gifts we have in the church. But you know what?

Because we don't study God's word and because we don't see what Jesus is saying through his word, it can also be one of the most divisive things in the entire body of Christ, can't it? And a lot of times, based upon our tradition and our background and how we were raised and what we think about the meal that Jesus instituted. We have opinions that get formed that may or may not be unbiblical, and then we expect everybody to keep our opinions. But what was Jesus talking about? He was talking about himself.

He was talking about his body and his blood being the most central thing of everything that happens in worship. It means this. The exaltation of Jesus Christ as God's one and only son is the heart of what should happen in every single time that we get together to worship. If it's not, we've missed the whole heart of worship. If you gather and Jesus Christ is not exalted through his word, he's not praised in his name, you will leave worse off than you were when you got there.

Why? Because you're part of something that Jesus Christ is not a part of. And anytime you're in a worship service that Jesus Christ is not central to, it takes you away from what God created you for, which is to worship him. Now, jesus gave these same commands in the night he was betrayed. I'm going to point out a couple things to you.

Isn't it interesting? It says, in the night in which he was betrayed, he took bread. I mean, you could read that this way. It'd be a correct reading. While he was being betrayed, he took bread.

While he was being betrayed by Judas Iscariot, who was sitting right next to him, he took bread. I mean, while all this. What do you like when you're betrayed? What do you like when people speak ill of you? Are you ready to give something to them?

Ready to give your life for them? No. Jesus, on the night that he was betrayed, while he was being betrayed, while roman soldiers were assembling to take his very life, that's when he said, I'm going to give it all. Now, what does that tell you about the heart of our savior? It tells you he's humble to the point of death.

Even death on the cross. That's our Jesus. He was instituting a meal. Now, this isn't the first time he's talked about this. If you flip your Bible back into John chapter six, you'll see Jesus when he was talking to his disciples, and it didn't go over very well.

In John chapter six and verse 47, it says this. John 647. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. He's just gotten done saying that he's the one and only from the father. He's saying this, the same thing he said in John 14.

I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. Jesus is saying, I'm the only way of having a relationship with God, and I can give it full authority because I am God. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was with God. And this word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

So this is what Jesus is talking about now. Look what he says in verse 50. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven so that 1 may eat of it and not die. What bread? What he's going to say about.

He says, I am the living bread that came out of heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. And the bread also, which I will give for the life of the world is what? It's my flesh. Now, Israel was familiar with the bread that came down from heaven.

Do you remember when they were in the wilderness and they had nothing to eat, and God sent bread from heaven, and it was called what? Manna, which meant, what is this? Right? And God provided for them bread in the wilderness every day until they got into the promised land and celebrated the Passover meal, at which time the manna stopped and they ate off the produce of the land. Right.

Jesus was saying, hey, you know how my dad provided bread in the wilderness? I'm the bread that came out of heaven. I'm the bread of life. The Jews began to argue with one another, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Why?

Because they're not thinking spiritually, they're thinking physically. Then he says this. So Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. And I will raise him up on the last day.

For my flesh is true food, and my body is. And my blood is true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him, as the living father has sent me. And as I live because of the father, so he who eats me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven, not as the fathers ate and died.

He who eats this bread will live. How long? Forever. What's she just saying? I'm the bread you've been waiting for.

Manna was just a foreshadowing of the true bread that is to come. I'm the bread. Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part of me. And if you go down and drop down to John 666, people that were looking with earthly eyes, not spiritual eyes, it says from that time on, many of his disciples left him and no longer followed him. This guy's like a cannibal or something.

I mean, we got to eat his flesh. He's not talking about his earthly body. He's talking metaphorically about what he came to offer and what he's going to do on the cross. And everything that's central to worship is the fact that Jesus Christ is God's one and only son, who's incarnate flesh, whose. Who fulfilled the law, who lived a perfect life, who went all the way to the cross, who had nails driven into his hands and his feet, who bled out and died for all the sin of humanity, and with his body and his blood went to a grave.

And because of that, God raised him to life. He offers life to anyone who will believe that through his death, through his body and blood being shed, that they could have life in him forever. That's why the Lord's supper was instituted, right? He goes on to say this same thing about the blood. This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it. In what? Remembrance of me. You see those two words? Remembrance, remembrance, remembrance.

What are we doing every time we gather? We're remembering what Christ has done. Because I tell you what, we as christians get pretty cavalier with our sin, right? I mean, how many of you would say, just by show of hands, maybe this week, you sinned at least once, okay, nudge your neighbor. If they didn't raise their hand, tell them they're really prideful.

That's their sin, right? I mean, all of us. But we can get pretty cavalier about it. I mean, the longer we're with Jesus, there can be certain sins in our life that at one time felt kind of bad or we felt guilty for, but now we do. And like, I'm forgiven anyway.

I'm forgiven. Thank God I'm forgiven. I can swear, but thank God I'm forgiven. Hey, I can, I can yell at my spouse, thank God I'm forgiven. You know, I got a little angry last night.

I'm forgiven. We get very cavalier with our sin. We gather corporately so that we are no longer cavalier with our sin. I mean, when we take the Lord's supper, here's what Jesus is saying. Can you see the nails going into my hand?

Can you hear the pounding of the hammer as the nails were driven through my flesh? Can you hear me crying? Out to my dad, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Do you realize that every time you. That that was the payment that paid in full?

What? You just sinned. Can you be reminded of that fact? That's what communion's all about. And what do we do?

We take what Jesus Christ instituted as the greatest gift in the world of dying for all the sins of the world, and we turn the Lord's supper into a tradition where only certain people can participate in it. You have to do it a certain way. I mean, I've been in traditions where if you're not part of that tradition, you have to come forward for communion and like cross your arms or something. So the priest or whatever can bless you, but you can't take blood and you can't have. You can't have the bread.

Says who? Jesus doesn't say that. That's man made religion. It's wrong. Right.

Now let me just dispel a little truth. I mean, they were sitting at the table that night. We don't know what kind of bread they had. It probably didn't look like this. But I mean, just think about this.

Jesus took bread, okay? And he broke it. After he gave thanks for it, he broke it and he said, this is my body. Now. Think about this, okay?

You got these twelve guys sitting around a table that are just like, twelve guys like us. Do you think one of them would dare ask the question, Jesus, are you saying that your body just dove into the bread? They would never ask that question. Jesus is like your body becoming the bread. No, they wouldn't ask that.

This bread is representative of my body, which is going to be broken and given for the whole world. That's what this is. There are certain traditions that believe. Roman Catholic would be one of them. It's called transubstantiation, which is a fancy word that means this.

When they eat the bread, when they drink the blood, they believe that magically, as they swallow it, they get Jesus body and blood in their life. Therefore, the more you go to mass, the more Jesus that you get. Here's what my Bible says, that God has given us everything we need for life and godliness. Okay? I don't go to church to get more of Jesus.

I already have all of Jesus through the Holy Spirit. And I am remembering what Jesus has done. Do you know in there? It doesn't say you have to be ordained to take communion. Where do we get that?

Do you know? I've taken communion in lots of different places. I've taken it in hotel rooms. I've taken communion on the beach. I've taken communion at camps.

I've taken communion in prisons. I've taken communion in church. I've taken it with all different kinds of bread. I mean, it's representative. I've had it with crackers.

I've had it with whatever. I mean, if you come to harvest now, I mean, you even get gluten dairy free Jesus. I mean, we break up so that everybody in Denver can have it. I mean, we are representing the body of Christ. This is not the body of Christ.

This is a cracker. This is not the body of Christ. This is bread. That's why if you go to some of these traditions, you'll notice that a priest, if you've been to a catholic wedding or something, they will drink all the leftover wine, which I'm sure they enjoy, but they do it because they're believing that that's the actual blood of Christ. And we can't let the blood of Christ go to waste.

Let me tell you. It's not the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ was shed on Calvary and is dispensed to every heart who believes in him. And what we're doing in communion is remembering what he's done on our behalf. You know, after a supper, jesus did the same thing.

He took a cup. It certainly didn't look like this cup, I'm sure. But he took a cup. He said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. What's the new covenant?

The new covenant. Hebrews tells us that he died and is paid for all of our sins so that we can have eternal life with God. Here's what we're remembering every single time we come together as a church. We are remembering that through the exaltation of Jesus Christ, through him being high and lifted up, all our sins are forgiven. They're all washed away.

That all are welcomed at the foot of the cross. And that I have eternal life with God forever. And that Jesus Christ has totally approved me, believes in me, and will present me faultless before the father someday. Because by faith, through his grace, I believe in him. That's what communion is all about.

Amen. And that's what Paul is saying. He's saying, hey, when you gather, you've forgotten all that. You're just going through the motions. You're just eating and drinking and doing whatever you want.

And you're forgetting that it's all about Jesus. That's why he's saying, it's pretty important that we get this. It means this when we come and we celebrate this supper, it's a reminder of this, that there should be nobody that comes to a place where Jesus Christ is exalted and high and lifted up, where they leave with shame, guilt, doubt, fear. I'm not good enough. I'm not worthy enough.

Why? Because if Jesus Christ is lifted up, none of us are worthy enough. It says in that passage, you know, anybody who comes to the Lord in an unworthy manner. It doesn't say anybody who's unworthy can't come, because that'd be all of us. He's saying an unworthy manner, that we have to prepare our hearts and be right before the Lord when we come.

That everybody has to come in the exact same way that Jesus Christ is the level ground. He levels the whole playing field for anybody, anywhere that wants to come to God in church. Sometimes we forget that when we don't exalt God's son and we become religious, the world thinks there's no hope for them. I remember reading a book by Philip Yancey years ago that Jesus, I never knew. And he talked about a story in there where he had met a prostitute in Chicago, and he was talking to her, and he got to learn a little bit about how she had had a child, obviously out of wedlock, and was trying to raise her little girl, and she was prostituting herself out to make enough money to feed her kid.

And he just came of naively asked. He goes, well, hey, have you ever considered going to church? And she said, I already feel horrible about myself. Why would I ever want to go there? I'd only feel worse.

See, when Jesus is not high and exalted, that's how people feel. But when Jesus is high and exalted, that person prostituting themselves out for money can come and realize this. There's equal ground at the foot of the cross, and you can be completely forgiven and be part of our family, and you are 100% welcomed here through the glory of Jesus Christ. Amen. That's what the gospel is all about.

And notice what he says. He says, do this as often as you do it. It's not a religious thing. I mean, Jesus took this supper for the first time on a Thursday night, and it was symbolic of the passover. Remember the Passover back in Exodus, chapter twelve, where by faith they were called to paint blood on the doorposts, which we don't think much of.

Oh, yeah, they painted. Would you do that tonight if I called you to do that? Hey, if you want to save your firstborn tonight, you need to paint blood over your doorpost for everybody in your neighborhood to see. It was an act of faith, and those who did it, the angel of death passed over. And this meal is a reminder that God passes over.

God gives life where there should be death. That's what the Lord's supper was all about. It was a foreshadowing that Jesus Christ was going to come and pay for all the sins of the world. And so that every time we take this meal, we don't have to take it every time we gather. But every time we take it and every time we gather, we're exalting God's one and only son, and we're remembering and being reminded of the fact that he died for my sins and he died for yours.

And that's why we're a family of God together. Amen. Now, that's the heart of worship, and it requires unity, and it remembers the centrality of Jesus. Let me tell you what else it does. The heart of corporate worship reflects a proper approach to God.

It reflects a proper approach to God. Because of this, Paul goes on to say in verse 27, he says, therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Now, we just talked about this. It's not that you're unworthy, because that's all of us. He's worthy.

We're not. It's an unworthy manner. So, Paul, what do you mean? Like, what does it mean to be in an unworthy manner? He goes on, but a man must examine himself, and in so doing, he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks, judgment to himself. If he does not judge the body rightly, it means that when we come to communion, it is a great time to look at the glory of Christ and who he is in our life. Because two things happen when you see the glory of God. Two things happen when you're aware of the glory of God. Number one is this.

It's awe or reverence or holy cow. I mean, when Jesus Christ shows up in all of his glory, that's gonna be your statement. Whoa. Right? I mean, that's what you're gonna say.

If Jesus were to descend here in all of his glory and stand right here, no matter what you're doing, whether you're listening to the sermon, paying attention, not taking notes, you would just be like, whoa. Everything just stops because the glory of God is here. Second thing that would happen immediately is you'd be so aware of your sin. In light of the glory of God. He reveals our sin patterns.

Remember back in Isaiah six? When Isaiah six, when King Uzziah died, when Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up and his train of the robe filled the temple with glory. And God gave him a picture of what the throne room of heaven was like. And seraphim and cherubim were all circling around all these beings, floating and doing all this stuff. And he experiences the glory of God.

And what does he say? I'm ruined. Why? Why Isaiah? Cause I'm a man of unclean lips, and I'm from a people of unclean lips.

Cause I know my sin and I know who I hang with. And they sin the same way I sin. I'm done. This is not gonna be good. And what happens?

Well, the seraphim grabs a coal with the tongs from the altar and flies to him. You can imagine how terrifying that would be, knowing your ruin. And what's he do? He touches. What?

His lips. I mean, God goes and touches the place that you've sinned the most. That's what he does. Isn't that awesome? I mean, the more you sin in an area and the more you confess, God's like, I'll give you more grace there.

I'll give you more grace there. You don't keep it to yourself. You confess it, right? There's awe for Jesus. And then what happens is he hears the Trinity talking.

After he's forgiven, the Trinity's talking, who will go for us? He's like, hey, here am I. Send me. I'll do whatever. I mean, if I can experience your glory and your awe and your reverence and be scared to death, but know that that being the God of the universe can still love me and forgive me.

I'll do whatever you want me to do. That's his posture. That's what it means to examine ourself when we examine ourselves. We're reflecting on the fact that Jesus Christ died for all of our sins. And sometimes in christian churches that teach the gospel rightly, because it's a moment in time where we trust Jesus.

We think back to that moment in time and think, I was moment. And it is, and it was. But we forget that every day we should be experiencing that same special moment. Jesus doesn't love you any less right now than he did the day you got saved. And he loved you just as much before you got saved.

I mean, Jesus is just a God of love. It's who he is. So when you come to take the Lord's supper, examine yourself because you don't want to be cavalier. Being cavalier means this. Yeah.

It's your job to forgive my sins. I'll eat the bread. I'll take the juice. Good job, Jesus. Thanks for forgiving me.

I'll go on my own sinful way and keep living. Paul says that's exactly what was happening in Corinth. There was no glory of Jesus. There was no glory of God. There was no repentance of sin.

There was none of that. And that's why I love God's word, because God says this. If we're saying in one, John one, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from how much unrighteousness, all of it. That when we celebrate Jesus, he forgives it all.

All are welcome with Jesus, no matter what they've done. And I'll hear people talk like this sometimes. You mean like the axe murderer? The guy who was sexually deviant? The guy who's in prison, the guy who's on death row?

The guy who's about ready to die this afternoon at 430? You mean God would take a guy like him? Not only would God take a guy like him, God would take you, too, right? I mean, that's who our God is. He's willing to forgive all sin.

And if we don't see ourselves in light of the glory of God, we'll think we're better than somebody else. And what God wants to kick out of the church more than anything is the pride of his people thinking that they deserve what God gave them. It is a gift. It's unmerited favor, and you can have it. And that's why we respond in worship to our Lord by remembering who he is.

So examine yourself. In a few minutes, we're going to be taking communion on both campuses. And it's an opportunity for us to go before the Lord and not wallow in our sin and not make promises to God about how we're going to be better and not make seven different commitments to how it's never going to happen again. But no, in humility, we come before the Lord to tell the Lord, yes, you are glorious. Yes, I'm unworthy, and yes, I want to receive your grace one more time.

That's the beauty of this meal. Amen. Verse 30. He says, when we don't come that way, notice what happened in Corinth. He said, for this reason, many among you are weak and sick.

And a number, sleep. That word sleep means died. Paul tells the corinthian church, hey, a number of you are weak. A number of you are sick. And some of you have even died prematurely who are Christians.

Because you've been so cavalier about your sin, God's taking you home. Now, let me just be clear on something. If you feel weak today or if you're sick today or you know somebody who died, it doesn't mean they drank judgment on themselves, okay? In this world, we'll get sick. In this world, sometimes we'll be weak.

And at some point, if Jesus tarries, all of us are gonna die. That's not what he's saying. But there is judgment for the Christian who says for a period of time, and God is a loving father, he knows what it's like. Hey, I know I'm a Christian, but I'm just gonna live for me. The Bible says in Hebrews twelve, God disciplines those he loves.

God will go to great measures to bring you back to him. But if you can tell, continued to rebel against him. God loves you enough that he could bring sickness or weakness or even take you prematurely home. And I don't know about you, but the way I want to enter into the kingdom someday is not, sorry, God, sorry. I was living for me.

I mean, thanks for bringing me home. I'd like to run through the tape with everything I have. If I had hair, I'd tell you with my hair on fire, but it's already burned off a long time ago. I mean, I want to get my best for Jesus. And Paul is telling the church, we're serving the glorious God of the universe, who's all powerful.

Don't be cavalier in your worship. Make sure your heart is right, that you're postured in a way where you don't think you're better than somebody else, where you don't think their sins worse than yours. Right? Make sure you individually come and examine yourself rightly, because he says in verse 31, but if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. In other words, there's no judgment for those who say, yeah, I know I'm worthy of being judged again, God, but thank you again, because your mercy triumphs over judgment every single time.

Amen and amen. Right. He says, but when we are judged, we are not disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world. That God judges us, and he disciplines us because he doesn't want us to look like the world. The world is judging.

He's judging the world because of sin. Through the gospel, we're forgiven of sin. Through the Gospel, we can have ongoing relationship with God so that we not continue in sin. Victory over sin. And where we stumble and fall short, we confess our sins and we repent of our sins and we turn from our sins.

And that's what he says. I mean, that's the heart of worship. The heart of worship is unity in the church because we're surrounded by the same mission, which is, number two, to glorify and exalt the resurrected Jesus Christ. Which leads to number three, that we come with a proper approach and total humility, saying, lord, I'm completely undeserving of this. There's nothing in me that deserves this meal more than the worst sinner in the world.

But I thank you that by your grace, you've shown me yourself which results in this final thing. The heart of worship always results in a preference for one another. Always results in a preference for one another. You see verse 33. So then.

So then as a result, so what's the result of all this? I mean, how do we know if we're doing this right in our church? So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another, in other words, if the issue is that you've been so selfish that you've been taking food for yourself and you worship right, you won't be doing that anymore. As a matter of fact, you'll be preferencing one another. Do you know in the Bible that Jesus talks like this?

In Matthew 25, he says, whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me. Whatever you do not do to the least of these, you do not do to me. Do you remember when Saul was converted on the road to Damascus? Jesus says to him, and he asks him a question, he's like, saul, Saul, why do you persecute what me? And Saul says, who are you, Lord?

In other words, Paul's saying, what do you mean, persecute you? I don't even know who you are. I'm not persecuting you. It's just those little people calling themselves the way out there. I'm persecuting them.

What's Jesus saying? If you hurt other christians, you're hurting me. If you don't preference other Christians, you're not preferencing me. If you see yourself better than other Christians, you see yourself better than me, right? Philippians two says, your attitude should be the same as that which was in Christ Jesus, who laid down his life on a cross it says, do not merely look at your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

It means if we're truly worshiping God, it will result in the way we care for others. One john four says the same thing. We love because he first loved us. Anyone who says he loves God and hates his brother as a liar for how can you say that you love God whom you haven't seen, when you can't even love your brother, whom you have seen? I mean, the litmus test of your worship results in the way that you preference one another.

If you leave a service and you say, that was great teaching, that was great worship, that was great awesomeness, and you walk out and you see yourself better than everybody else, you didn't worship at all. There should be an incredible humility and submission to the Lord that when you leave, there's a great and a filling and a joy and a hope. Because while you're unworthy, Jesus sees you as his own beloved daughter or son. Can't stop thinking of you. And because of his love for you, you go out and tell the world, you need to get in on this thing.

This is the greatest thing the planet has to offer. It's called the gospel of Jesus Christ. Come worship the Lord with me. Amen. Like, that's what it's all about, and that's what communion is all about.

And that's why we take it as a remembrance of all that Christ has done. Verse 34 says, if anyone is hungry again, if you have needs, let them do it at home. Let them eat at home so that you will not come together for judgment. And then he says, the remaining matters I will arrange when I come. He's obviously got more to talk to him about than he just did in two letters.

Just like God would say to our church, he's got a lot to talk to us about, too, as we continue to grow to a place where we can honor and glorify him. Amen. And so today, as we end our service on both campuses, I want us to spend some time reflecting about what God's doing done in our life. We're going to hear a song played over you that was penned by Sir Isaac Watts centuries ago called when I survey the wondrous cross. And as you hear the words to this song, I want you to reflect in your own life.

We'll have the ushers pass out the elements on both campuses. You hold them in your hand, you hold the wafer, you hold the juice. And remember, that's not the body and blood of Christ. That's a remembrance of the body and blood of Christ. Let me tell you who can take this supper.

Anyone who has claimed Jesus Christ as Lord. And what does it say every time we take it? We proclaim his death till we come. Yeah, I proclaim it. I'm an introvert.

When we take this as a church, you know what we're doing? We are shouting to all the demonic in the world. We are shouting at all the demons in the world that Jesus Christ is Lord. And that's who I follow. We're joining with all the angels in heaven saying, Jesus Christ is the Lord.

And thank that's who I follow when I survey the wondrous cross on which the prince of glory died my richest gain I count but loss and I pour contempt on all my pride forbid it, Lord, that I should boast save in the death of Christ my God all the vain things that charm me most I sacrifice him to his blood. See from his head, his hands, his feet sorrow and love flow mingled down did ere such love and sorrow meet or thorns compose so rich a crown. We're the whole realm or the whole world of nature. Mine. That would be an offering or a gift or a present far too small.

Why? Because love so amazing and so divine demands my soul and my life and my all. Amen. And as you hear the words of the wonderful cross, I want you to think about that wonderful cross for you individually and what God intended. When Jesus was dying on that cross, he was dying for.

For you in your place. For all the sin that you're carrying today, that you can lay it on him. And as you're holding those elements, just think about his body and blood. Hear the sound of the nails. Hear the piercing of his skin.

Hear the cries. Hear the pain that he had from his back being shed. Why? Cause he loved you so much. He died for you.

Picture the sky turning deep black and the silence that fell over the whole earth when he died and he was laid to rest. And think about this. Three days later, he vindicated himself as God and got up out of the grave and said, this is my body and blood, and I'm offering it to you so that you can have life with me. Amen. Let me pray for us, Lord, as these elements are past, do a work in our hearts.

Prepare us to take this meal. And, Lord, as I come back up and we take it together, or as Pastor Michael comes up in Broomfield and we take it together, Lord, we are proclaiming your death. Until you come back, which we know is soon, we give you all the praise. In Jesus name, amen.