The Church of Eleven22 - Week 6: No Partiality

Episode Date: July 16, 2023

Every man, woman and child is an image-bearer of our great and glorious God and deserve to be treated that way. 

Amen. Amen. Amen. When I first met Paul, whose testimony we just heard, I met him at a dinner table at a discipleship retreat. And this is eight or nine years ago, and Paul was early in his walk with the Lord. And we had a great conversation. And one of the things I remember him saying was that at this point, in his walk with Jesus, he had never prayed out loud. And after this retreat, God grabbed Paul's heart and Paul just threw himself into the life of 1122 and discipleship and he joined about 16 disciple groups and I remember one Sunday morning at the end of the service Pastor Jobi gave the opportunity for people to be baptized if they felt like that was the right next step for them and Paul was the first one out of his seat and he was wearing all his Sunday clothes

his jeans and his shoes and his shirt had to slow him down to get his phone and his wallet it out of his pockets before he got into the water. And I was able to be a part of his baptism when he declared Jesus Christ as His Lord and Savior publicly. And man, we praise God for that. We praise God for the work in his life and in the work of so many. I get to serve closely with him through the boys and girls clubs. And it's just amazing to see how God has taken somebody who is a little bored in life

that begin to take faithful next steps. And now God uses them to break free great futures and better futures for children and teenagers all over the city. God's using him in a significant ways, and we praise God for it. And it makes me think this morning about you. I wonder what next step God might have for you in your walk with him. I wonder what next opportunity of obedience that God might put in front of you, that if you take it, you don't know what's on the other side.

We walk by faith, not by sight. I wonder what next faith step God might have you to take and how significant it might be in your life. One of the steps that many of you have taken, and a lot of us took over the last week, is sponsoring children through compassion and international and setting children free from poverty in Jesus' name. Over the last week, as a church, we have sponsored 3,340 children through compassion. Praise God for that. Praise God for you putting your yes on the table. Lifetime, over the last 10 years, we have sponsored 20,916 children all around the world in Jesus' name.

Amen for that. And praise God for the work he's doing in our lives. We have been studying the book of James over the last few weeks, and we're going to continue that this morning in Chapter 2. Last week we talked about the last part of James 1, where it says, pure and undefiled religion is going out and taking care of, widows and orphans.

This week we're going to pick up in chapter 2, verse 1. And as you make your way there, a couple of reminders about James is that James is the half-brother of Jesus Christ. He didn't buy into the whole Jesus thing. first, but then he saw his brother die on a Roman cross and then resurrect from the dead and the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead changed everything for James and James became one of the leaders in the early church. He was actually an elder or a pastor. And he operated as one of the very first pastors of Christians in the world. Everybody he would have been pastoring, grew up culturally

and religiously Jewish and then they began to follow in the way of Jesus. And so James writes this letter to them as their pastor. And the New Testament prescription for a pastor is that pastors are not motivational speakers, they're not life coaches. Pastors are shepherds. And as they mature, one of the ways that they're identified is as spiritual fathers. And so James writes this letter as a spiritual father to his brothers and sisters. And I have the blessing in my life to have had many spiritual fathers. But my most significant spiritual father was also my biological father.

And almost everything I learned about the Bible and learned, I learned it from my dad, and I learned it around our dinner table. You see, in my family, the dinner table was a really sacred, special place. Every night that we could, we would eat dinner together as a family, and I would sit right here, and my dad would sit right there, and my mom would sit right there, and my brother would sit right across from me, and this is where I learned to love the Word of God. And this is where I learned how to pray. The majority of my worldview was shaped through discussions.

We would talk at length about significant things. and every night we would read the scriptures and we would discuss them. And as we would gather each night for a family without fail every night, the phone would ring in the middle of dinner. And I lived in, I grew up in a time, I still live, I'm still living. But at that point in the time, I grew up in a time where phones hung on walls, they didn't travel around in pockets. And the phone that we had had an eight-foot cord on it. This thing was a weapon. And you could get tangled up in there and be lost for days.

and every night during dinner, the phone would inevitably ring. And about 80% of the time, it was my grandmother who we call nanny. And nanny is a southern bell, and she speaks very, very slowly. And so I would hop up because we didn't have caller ID back then. And so it was like a fun game, right? You never know who was going to be on the other line. So the phone would ring, and I would jump up. And most often it was my nanny, and I'd say, hey, nanny.

And she'd say, hey, sweetie. Say, hey, how are you? What are y'all doing? or the same thing we've been doing the last 10 years at this exact time. But, hey, we're having dinner. Oh, I don't want to interrupt dinner. What are y'all having? Say, well, we're having some spaghetti, you know, maybe even some fish sticks.

Be honest, y'all. Who grew up eating fish sticks? Anybody eat some fish sticks up in here? I did, man. You hadn't lived until you had some fried fish sticks on a hamburger bun with a craft single right on top of them. That is living, my friends. I told that to my wife shortly after we got married and she was like, let's see. And we had it?

It ain't good, man. It's not. Funny how we remember things different when we were kids. So after, my nanny would always be like, hey, just have your mom call me after dinner. And every night, my whole life, we live three quarters of a mile for my grandparents. My mom and my grandma would talk on the phone for an hour every night after dinner. I still don't understand it, but to God be the glory. One of the things that was distinct about our dinner table that really set an image for much of my life was that at our dinner table, everybody was welcome.

And people from all different parts of our community ate at our dinner table, people from our church, people from all different walks of life. At our table, everybody was welcome. All of my brother's friends would come and my friends would come, and my brother didn't have a lot of friends. But my friends, that we would come, and it didn't matter who you were, where you came from, you were welcome at our dinner table. was it just the four of us there. I remember one time my friend Mike, he came over for dinner, and he had not been with us before for dinner, but Mike and I had been friends, and we came from very different places. We could not have been more different, but we were friends, and so Mike was over at the

house eating dinner one night, and it came time after we got done eating, my dad said, hey, who wants to read the scriptures for us tonight? And Mike says, I'll do it, and I thought, okay. See, Mike never had really, he'd never really been to church. He didn't grow up in church. He didn't grow up around the church, but he was eager. And so he grabbed the Bible, and he opened to the middle. And my dad said, hey, just read whatever you want, and we'll talk about whatever you read.

And so he opens to the middle of the Bible, and Mike says, I'm going to be reading from psalms. That's what he said. And at first I kind of giggled, and I leaned up to help him. And immediately I felt my dad snap his head toward me, and we made eye contact, and he just kind of shook me off. And so I sat back and didn't say anything. We read and we talk and the next day I remember walking up to my dad and being like, hey, what was that about? I was just trying to help him. And my dad said, he looked at me and he says, hey, at my dinner table, we don't ever embarrass people.

And this image and a hundred others like it have been so formative in how I approach the church. Did you know that when Jesus teaches us how to relate to God, that he primarily teaches us to relate to God as our father? that Hebrews even goes on to say that Jesus is our superior elder brother, that the design of the kingdom of God is to be experienced as a family. And at the Father's table, at God Almighty's table, when we get a seat at His table by Jesus Christ, there is no condemnation at the Father's table. There is no shame at the Father's table.

James picks up in chapter 2, verse 1. He says this. So when we read James, often when we approach the Bible, we have a choice to make. We can approach it as though it's like a university lecture, specifically the New Testament epistles. And it's like a cold exchange of information. But if we do that, it's really hard to get your head and your heart around. But if you approach it like you're having a conversation with a spiritual father at a table where he's imparting wisdom, then it's a totally different experience. And so this is the posture we bring to James chapter 2.

In verse 1, he says this, my brother, show no partiality. as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. Now, I don't know if you have a brother, but if you do, how do you talk about him? Have you ever called your brother the Lord of Glory? I don't think so. Your brother also didn't resurrect from the dead, so he doesn't have that going for him. James' brother does. What James is pointing at, he's like, hey, the wisdom I'm about to share, the things that I'm about to say that we do as Christians,

the reason that they matter is because they honor the Lord of Glory, who is Jesus. Christ. The reason obedience matters in the life of the believer, the reason the choices we make and how we treat each other and how we act toward one another, the reason that matters is because of Jesus Christ. He's the one that gives it all the weight and all the significance. And James says, because of Jesus Christ, show no partiality. Show no partiality. The central issue of the New Testament epistles is the Lordship of Jesus Christ. If we love Jesus, we do what he says, is what 1. John says. To know Jesus is to love him and to love him is to trust him. When James says show no partiality, this word partiality or favoritism translated means receiving the face. What James is

saying is that Christians don't make judgments or distinctions based on physical appearance, gender, social status, or race ever. Over the last couple of weeks, I had the opportunity to lead a family mission trip to Costa Rica. I've been on many mission trips and have been able to travel over the world, but this is the first time I ever led a family trip. And I took my kids with me and many other kids from all different walks of life and all different shapes and sizes. And one of the things that was distinct that stood out to me about this trip with children is how uniquely remarkable it is, how the children treated each other. They're from different places. the majority of the communities that we were doing ministry in were completely impoverished communities.

But our kids would roll in there, and kids just don't treat each other the way that adults so often do. The kids would see each other and be like, you got a soccer ball, I got a soccer ball, let's play soccer. You want to color, I want to color, less color. You want to sing and dance. I want to sing and dance. I want to sing and dance. And the thing that marked me was just how quickly the relationships were formed and joy that was experienced. through these children.

Jesus talks about this in Matthew chapter 18. In Matthew 18, Jesus, it says this, that at that time, the disciples came to Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? What are they trying to do? They're trying to make distinction.

They're trying to see who is better than who and based on what. And so they say, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And calling to him a child, he put the child in the midst of them and he said, truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. These are serious words from Jesus Christ. Do you ever think about how you came to see the world? How you came to have your worldview?

When you size people up, when we size people up based on short, tall, bald, rich, poor, brown, black, white, large, or small, why do we size them up the way that we do? Well, the answer is somewhere along the way you were taught to. And you would push back maybe and say, well, pastor, I thought, I thought, I thought, everybody was born a sinner. And I would say, yes, everyone's born a sinner in that they're born self-reliant instead of God-reliant, in that they're born seeking their own self-interest first, instead of God's interests first. That's what it means to be born a sinner. But in regards to how we judge each other based on appearance, in regards to how we perceive each other based on our appearance,

those behaviors are tragically taught. Jesus says, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Humble people listen. Prideful people demand to be hurt. Humble people put themselves in the position to learn. Prideful people want everybody to know who's right and wrong according to their opinions. As Jesus followers, one of the things that we want Jesus to do as he overthrows us with his love is we want him to change the way that we see each other and we see the world. We want him to break our hearts for what breaks his. We want him to give us his passions and his worldview so that we can live the abundant life that he has called us and purposed us for.

The question I asked myself in James 2 is, if this dinner table were a picture of my life, who fills the seats? If this dinner table were a picture of your life, who fills the seats? Is my life an echo chamber of me and all of my thoughts? Or do I have beautifully knit relationships with people who are different than me,

with people who look different and think different? Is my life filled with rich, relationships unto the glory of God. We all know this, that opinions about people are dangerous, but relationships with people are transformative. See, in my life, it's not even often humans that I invite to take the primary seats at my table. It's usually my friend busy and my other friend comfort. And when I bring busy and I bring comfort in close, do you know what goes far, calling and purpose? The more I surround myself with busy for my own sake and the more comfortable I want to be, for my own sake, the less I walk in the calling and the purpose that God's got for me.

The statement that James is making to all of us on an individual level and to every believer throughout the world in history is that God shows no partiality based on appearance, and neither should we ever. Let it be so in Jesus' name, and let it be so in Jesus' church. Amen? As I studied these scriptures, one of the testimonies that Pastor Jobi's given many times was running around in my head and it's about the time that he was in grad school and he was working at a gym part-time

and he was working at a country Baptist church part-time. And in this part-time job he had at the gym, he was there partly trying to get his swole on. And the other part, he'll appreciate that. But while he was there, he started a Bible study. And four or five, six different people came to this Bible study and while they were there, they would just study the Word of God together. And one day, while they're doing Bible study, Pastor Job was like, hey, does anybody want to go to church with me. And one lady that was studying, that was in the study said, I'll go. And she was the only one that day that said she would go. And so Pastor Job was like, yeah, that's fine. Well, let's go on Sunday. And so he takes her to church. Now, this lady's profession was that she was an exotic dancer.

And so she came to this church and she didn't look like everybody else at this church. She didn't dress like everybody else at this church. And you can go back and listen to the whole testimony, but it does, it does not end well. She left and she was marked by this because she had never felt more judged. She had never felt more ashamed and she had never felt more condemned. And Pastor Jobi was marked by this so much so that the mission and vision statement of this church is in large part based on the conviction from this testimony, which is that we are to be a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And amen.

So when I think about Pastor Jobi sharing this testimony, one of the things that he always says when he shares this is he'll say some version of, hey, if you're here and you've ever been hurt by church people, I just want you to know that I'm sorry. And as I was reading through verse one, I was compelled to do the same. If you're here and you have ever experienced the sinful behavior that James is talking about,

you have ever experienced prejudice based on appearance, particularly from someone who would call themselves a Christian, I just want to say as a Christian, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. It's not wrong. right. It's not God glorifying. It's not Christ honoring. In Genesis chapter 1, verse 26 and 27, God says, let us make man and woman in our image. And it says, and equally, he made them in his image because every person who's ever born has created in the image of God, they are worthy

of dignity, respect, and honor, and should be treated that way. Everybody is equally created in God's image. And everybody is equally loved by God for God so loved the world. The world. that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. So we're equally created, we're equally loved and we're uniquely

designed to fulfill God's purposes. Did you know that there has never been another you in the history of the world and there never will be? You're the only you who can glorify God in your life. The table of your life is the only one of its kind. Ephesians chapter 2 says that you are

God's masterpiece created for good works in and through Christ Jesus, that nobody can live your life except for you. Nobody can give glory to God with your hands and with your feet and with your mouth except for you. Nobody can treat others with respect and dignity and honor for you. That is something God has called us all to do. And as believers in Philippians chapter 2, it says that we're actually to treat each other as though we're more significant than ourselves,

that I'm supposed to treat you like you matter more than me. That's the call of the Christian. that we would honor one another, equally created, equally loved, and uniquely designed to fulfill God's purposes. As a believer in Jesus Christ, you've been invited to the table of God. You've been adopted into the family of God. Are you living your life like you've got a seat at the king's table or like you're hanging out in the cheap seats just trying to catch the scraps? For those of us who have been found in Jesus, we know this, that we will feast on the flay mignon of grace for all of eternity. because he is good.

And at our father's table, we're welcome, equally created, equally loved, uniquely designed. James drives home the point he's trying to make with a hypothetical, and he uses a socioeconomic example to do so. He says this, he says, for if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, now in the first century, when Christianity started in Israel, in Jerusalem, it started in the Jewish synagogues. And this letter was written probably about two decades after that. And so almost certainly they had moved out of the synagogues.

And they were meeting primarily in people's houses or in public gathering places. And almost always at the center of the heart of the assembly of the Christians was a meal, was a dinner table, the Lord's Supper that they shared every time that they met. And so James is saying when you invite, when people come into your gathering, into your dinner table, into your Christian gathering, he says, a rich man comes in and he says, well, and a poor man and shabby clothing also comes in. If you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, you sit here in a good place, while you say to the poor man, you stand over there or you sit down at my feet,

have you not then made a distinction among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs to the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? I mean, just imagine that if somebody rolled into our parking lot here and they get out of their Mercedes G-Wagon with a $100,000 fur coat on, and they're making their way through the parking lot and they throw one of our welcome team, the keys to their Mercedes, like they're a valet and they continued on. Well, one, if you throw your keys, a Mercedes keys to one of our welcome team, you probably won't see it again.

And so just letting you know what kind of church you're at right now. comes in, got his fur coat on, and all the accessories, and he just met and welcomed and celebrated and brought down and put in a seat of honor, and everybody's like, oh, my goodness. And then somebody else comes in, right? Somebody else comes in, not in a fur coat. They're wearing jeans shorts and maybe a Florida Gator shirt, and we just normally assumed that they don't wear deodorant. So we put, I'm just kidding.

I'm totally kidding. Too far, guys. It was too far. I took it too far. God help me. Forgive me, friends. What if it comes time in our service where we bring our ties and offerings? And this is even hard to get your head around in this church because we don't pass the plate.

And a lot of churches when it comes time for us to respond in that way, they pass a plate around. We don't do that. And the reason we don't do that is because the Apostle Paul says that God loves a cheerful giver. And that we are never to give under compulsion. And so we teach here that we bring in gratitude our first and our best back to God. Most people do that digitally. Some in giving boxes discreetly placed around our campus. but we don't pass the play.

Let's just say it came time where we were bringing our first invest through ties and offerings. And this fur coat man just stands up and he holds up a $5 million check, one of those big cardboard like publishing clearinghouse checks. And he holds it up for everybody to see. And then he sits it on the stage and everybody's like, oh, that's so great. That's so great. If any of us saw that with our own eyes and we had any Christian ethic in us, every one of us would look at that and go, that's disgusting.

Something's not right. Something's not right. Something's not right. We would say, I have many questions. Like one, why would you wear a fur coat in Florida? It just don't make any sense. James is using an extreme example here to make the point. 1 Samuel 16 says,

The Lord does not see as man sees. The Lord sees the heart. Jesus actually dealt with this very situation head on in Mark 12, and you can turn with me there, starting in verse 41 of Mark 12. And it says, and he, Jesus, sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums,

and a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all of those who are contributing to the offering box, for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, has put in everything she had, all she had to live on. Now, in the first century, when offerings were given, it was done at the temple.

And the way that they received offerings at the temple were in these large brass receptacles that look a lot like a trumpet. And the currency that they used was primarily coins. So can you imagine the sound that it made when people emptied their pockets of their coin and dropped it in these brass receptacles? Right. And not only that, this often happened in what was known as the women's, courts. And so men would fill their pockets with coins, parade into the women's courts, and make their offerings. Have you ever seen a man try to oppress a woman with money? It never goes well for the long term. So this is what's happening, is they're dropping their coin and it's making

this incredible ruckus and there's a whole lot of pride involved. And then you have this one widow who walks up with two pennies, two mites, and she drops them in and Jesus calls his disciples over and He's like, hey, don't miss this. Don't miss this. Don't be distracted with the parade. You see that woman? God sees her heart. So don't be distracted.

They're tipping at best. They're not trusting. They're offering, they're doing this for show. They want people to see and notice them. Their heart is not, their heart is not giving attention to God. But do you see her? God's got her attention. Brendan Manning says that trust is our gift back to God.

and he finds it so enchanting that Jesus died for the love of it. Jesus is saying, trust comes out of a heart, captivated with God. What does James mean those who are poor in the world are rich in faith and heirs to the kingdom? Well, part of what he's pointing at is that need is necessary for salvation. That if you don't know that you need Jesus, then you can never truly receive Jesus. The Bible gives plenty of instructions and warnings to the rich and lots of encouragements to the poor, but the great equalizer is this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. James is also pointing to the truth that if you can medicate your spiritual and emotional needs

with material possessions, it can make it very hard to receive and believe the good news of Jesus. If you can medicate your spiritual and emotional needs with material possessions, it can make it very hard to receive and believe the good news of Jesus. Those poor in the world don't have that temptation. So it is often easier for them to put their hope in God's hands because they don't have the same kind of choices that rich people do. And the Bible says they're blessed because of it. James continues on and he says this, but you have dishonored the poor man when you treat people this way. Are not the rich ones who oppress you and the ones who drag you into court?

Are they not the ones who blasphemed the honorable name by which you were called? If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. You are doing well. James is quoting Jesus, who's quoting Deuteronomy in Leviticus. And one time a scribe comes up to Jesus, and he says, Jesus, what's the most important command God ever gave? And what he's asking is, up until this point in time, what's the most important thing that's ever been said?

And Jesus responds to him, and he quotes the Shemah out of Deuteronomy chapter 6, and he says, the most important thing that God's ever spoken is that you shall hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. And then he tags in this verse from Libidicus, and he says, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Up until the point of Jesus's invasion of this world,

when an Israelite would have heard that, they would have heard love your neighbor as yourself and thought, I'm supposed to love my fellow Israelite as myself. But Jesus completely expands this ethic to the entire world, and he says that we are to love everyone who would ever cross our path as much as we love ourselves. James uses these phrases like the royal law or the law of liberty, and they're pretty much unique to James. The royal law, the new covenant law of grace, the fulfilled law that Jesus Christ came to bring on the earth.

The royal law, the essence of it is love. Well, why is the essence of the royal law love? It's because the one who makes it royal, he is love. The king of the law is love. James goes on and he says this, but if you show him. partiality, you are committing sin and convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, do not commit adultery, also said, do not murder.

If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. mercy triumphs over judgment. What makes sin such a big deal? James says that not just this sin, he says that actually all the sins. If you break one, you've broke them all. And so all of them are a big deal.

What makes sin such a big deal? What makes judgment such a big deal? Well, it's the same thing that makes the table such a big deal. The thing that makes sin a big deal is not even just the act itself. It's whom we're sinning against, which in this case is God Almighty. What makes judgment a big deal? Well, it's not just that things are judged, it's the one who's actually doing the judging,

which is God the Son, who is Jesus Christ, the judge of all things. What makes mercy a big deal? Well, it's that God Almighty is the one who's given it. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Mercy is a big deal because the giver of mercy is God himself, and his mercies are new every morning. What does that mean?

When Scripture says His mercies are new every morning, what does that mean? Well, for the believer in Jesus Christ, here's what it means. Every morning when you wake up, your sins are forgiven. Every morning when you wake up, His mercies are new and you are saved. You are justified. Jesus has made it just as if you never sinned. You are loved, and that's the most important thing about you. Of all the things that are true about you, the most significant reality, the most identity-giving thing that you will,

every experience in your life is the fact that God loves you. You are loved by God, and that is your highest calling in life to walk in. Every morning, you're loved. You are adopted into the family of God. You have a seat at the table by your brother Jesus, and God is so glad that you're there as a part of his family. You are cleansed. You are healed.

You are being healed. You are redeemed. You are free. You are rescued. You are triumphant. You are more than a conqueror in and through Christ Jesus. You have hope. You have an enhanced.

inheritance of the riches of grace for all of eternity, you have peace in Jesus, through Jesus, for Jesus, and because of Jesus, you have rest. His mercies truly are new every morning. Every morning. When you really think about the grace of God, the scandal that is while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. When we really think about the scandal of grace, it has summed up nowhere better than in these words, mercy triumphs over judgment. When I was in college, we were coming up on Thanksgiving break. And I was talking with a friend of mine a couple of days before we got out. And he was just sharing with me some things going on in his life.

And his family was just in a bad situation. And so he didn't really have anywhere to go for Thanksgiving. And so I said, hey, man, why don't you just come to our house for Thanksgiving? And he was like, oh, yeah, really? I was like, yeah, man, just come on, no problem. And so I went to my room and I printed out some directions from MapQuest. Do you remember MapQuest? You're welcome, fish sticks and MapQuest.

If you don't remember anything else, you hang on to that. So I printed out some directions and I said, hey, you know, in a couple of days, just be at my house around this time and I'll see you there. And he was like, oh, yeah, cool. And so I just kind of go on about my day. Well, I forget to tell anybody in my family that he's coming. and so I pull up at my house and honestly I had just had even forgot what time we said and so I pull up and I see my friend's car in the parking lot in my dad's parking space and behind his car I see my dad's car and I thought uh-oh I probably should have told somebody I wonder what's going on and so I walk in

and I'll come around the quarter and sure enough my friend is sitting in my seat at the dinner table. And my dad's sitting in his chair and I was like, oh, dad, I am so sorry that I didn't tell you that he was coming. My dad looked right back at me. He was like, don't worry about it. I knew he was with you. And since he's with you, he's welcome at this table anytime. You know what makes the table of the Lord so significant? It's not just that we're there. It's who brought us. See, because of Jesus Christ, we get adopted into the family of God. And we're sons and daughters of the most king. Jesus took all the bad that sin had to offer, and he gave everyone who believes in him all the good that was due to him. We are credited with his righteousness. Tim Keller once said that

the gospel is this, that we are more sinful and flawed than we ever dared believe. Yet at the same time, we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope. And so that brings us to the Lord's table, to the table of communion. So today we're going to do one of the things that Jesus told us to do, and he told us to do it often. We're going to share communion as a church. At all of our campuses, our teams are going to come out, come around, and they're going to be passing out communion. And a couple of things as we pass out communion. I'm going to share with us some thoughts to prepare our hearts for communion and to receive the table well.

But also, as they're passing around, don't get distracted. to kind of hang with me, if you will. But when the elements come to you, make sure you do this number right here. We're going to go flat hands, right? These are trays, and we're going to pass them with flat hands because it would be sad if you dump the symbolic blood of Jesus down the person in front of you's back, right?

And so we're going to practice steady hands as we pass the bread and the wine or the juice for all you recovering Baptists. As we prepare to receive communion, I want to give you three thoughts. Number one, when we come to this table, we celebrated an infinite number of things, but none more than the forgiveness available in and through Jesus Christ. The fact that sins are forgiven because he paid the debt. We are truly healed by his stripes.

The demand for justice was completely satisfied. By his sacrifice, we are redeemed. And anybody who puts their faith in Jesus Christ, that exchange of grace and faith and trust in Jesus Christ is what forgives sins and makes us wrong. right with God. And so we celebrate forgiveness. The work of Christ on our behalf. Communion is for the believer in Jesus Christ only. The second thing we remember today and we celebrate is our future. One day, as believers, we will gather with every tribe and tongue and nation at the wedding feast

of the Lamb and our faith will have become our sight. What we experience now and see through a glass dimly on that day, we will see face to face. And we look forward. we look forward to that day, and we know that today we join with believers all over the world from every tribe, every tongue, and every nation, as they gather in their Christian assembly to give glory to God, and they break bread, and they drink the juice, our hearts are united in one, knowing that our future together is full of hope and is full of passion, is full of purpose, and it's redeemed in and through Jesus Christ. So we celebrate forgiveness, and we celebrate the future, and we also celebrate family. Communion means common union.

That for all of the things that are unique about us, that there is one thing that binds us together. There is one person that draws us to the table, and he is worthy of all of our attention, he is worthy of all of our focus. That we are in the family of God, brothers and sisters, united by grace and promised a glorious future. every believer from the day of Jesus to this day has done this practice

and so we stand on the shoulders of giants in Jesus name remembering what Christ has done for us when Jesus was having the last supper before he offered himself up to be sacrificed he gave the prescription if you will for communion and he held up a piece of bread and he said when you break this bread I want you to do so in remembrance of me This is my broken body, broken and shed for you. And this was significant because up until this point that this meal was the Passover meal. And so the thing that was being focused on from the time of the Passover when God saved Israel from the nation of, from the tyrannical rule of Pharaoh and Egypt, and he brought them out of slavery from that time until the time of Jesus.

They were remembering this event. And Jesus is holding up this bread. And he was like, hey, that's super important. but I want you to know that what I'm about to do is going to be the most significant event in human history. That I'm about to offer myself up to pay the full price for sins. And so when you break the bread, I want you to do so in remembrance of me. And I'm not just saying, remember that something happened way back when that I now get to benefit for. When Jesus says, remember, he's talking way more like a wedding anniversary done right.

When you do your wedding anniversary right, you go back in your mind to that point in time where you made that covenant. where you made that commitment, where you were enthralled with someone else, when you were overcome with emotion for the thing that you were stepping into, that you didn't even know the full weight of. When we remember, we reached back in time, and we bring all the weight of that emotion, all the weight of that commitment, and we try to bring it into this present moment and feel the weight of its significance. When we hold the bread, church, do you feel the weight?

When James and John and Peter, maybe they gathered 10 years after Jesus ascended back to the right-hand the father. What do you think it was like for them? One of them grabs the bread and holds it up and says, do you remember his face? John, do you remember when he leaned back up against your chest? Do you remember when he cut his eyes at you? Do you feel the weight? Jesus says, when you break this bread, you do so in remembrance of me. And then he holds up a cup. He says, when you drink this wine, I want you to know that this is the blood of the new covenant. That all the trying and all the striving and all the doing in order to try to earn, I'm about to do it all. It's my trying.

It's my effort. It's my living that's going to make it all count. I'm going to take all the bad that the law has to dish out, and I'm going to give you all the good of the grace of God. This is a new covenant. I am fulfilling the law so that you can be free by faith. And he holds up the cup and he says, every time you drink of this, you do so in remembrance of me. I'm not going to drink it again until we all drink it together anew in my father's kingdom.

And so today we eat the bread and we drink in remembrance of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let us eat and let us drink. Let's pray. Father, we love you because you first loved us. We trust you because you're trustworthy. We have good because you are good. Father, we often need to be reminded of how desperately we need you, but also how available you realize.

So we draw near to you, knowing that you draw near to us and that your nearness in our life is our good. It's by mercy that we hang on and we believe. We know that you have given us more than we could ever dare hope. in and through Jesus Christ, and for that we say thank you. We remember your body, Jesus. We remember your blood. We remember your sacrifice.

We remember your resurrection. And it is in your victory. We stand confidently, knowing that we are loved by you, that we are accepted because of you, and that we have all we will ever need through you. Father, I pray that as we respond to the good news of your gospel, that you would help us to do it well and in obedience, that we would not be distracted, Father, but we would be focused, that our minds would be set on you.

And as we sing and as we bring and as we pray, Father, we pray that you would convict us and comfort us and challenge us and change us as only you can. I pray for my brothers and sisters, wherever they may be as they listen. I pray that they would be filled with the peace of the kingdom of God and they would be overcome with your rest in this moment. We pray all these things in the beautiful and the wonderful name of Jesus. And all God's people said, amen. Amen. So we're going to respond to the good news of the gospel of Jesus, and we're going to do it like we always do. We're going to sing songs about Jesus, knowing that he likes it and that it brings joy to our heart when we declare his infinite worth. We're going to bring, we're going to bring our ties and our offerings back to God because out of gratefulness for all that God has trusted in our hands.

And we're going to pray. At all of our campuses, our altars are open. We would invite you to come and put your body in the posture that you want your heart to be in. come and pray for someone else living as though they are more significant than you. We're going to respond to Jesus through singing through bringing and through praying. Would you stand with me as we respond together?