Yeah, just the hard backs and
then we're going to start by standing and singing number 37.
How great thou art, number 37. Actually, let me check something here. Actually, number
39. 39. This is my father's world. This is my father's world, and
to my listening ears, all nature sings and round me rings the
music of the spheres. This is my father's world, I
rest me in the thought Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas,
His hand of wonders brought. ? This is my father's world ?
? The birds their carols raise ? ? The morning light, the lily
white ? ? Declare their maker's praise ? ? This is my father's
world ? ? Light shines in all that's fair ? In the rustling
grass, I hear him pass. He speaks to me everywhere. This is my father's world. Oh, let me ne'er forget. That though the wrong seems oft
so strong, God is the ruler yet. This is my father's world. The battle is not done. Jesus, who died, shall be satisfied,
and earth and heaven be one. You would turn to 511, face to
face, 511. Face to face with Christ my Savior. Face to face with Christ my Savior,
face to face what will it be? And with rapture I behold Him,
Jesus Christ who died for me. Face to face I shall behold Him,
far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all his glory
I shall see him by and by Only faintly now I see him With the
darkening veil between But a blessed day is coming When his glory
shall be seen Face to face I shall behold Him Far beyond the starry
sky Face to face in all His glory I shall see Him by and by But
rejoicing in His presence When our banished grief and pain When
the crooked ways are straightened And the dark things shall be
plain Face to face I shall behold Him Far beyond the starry sky
Face to face in all His glory I shall see Him by and by Face to face, so blissful moment. Face to face, to see and know. Thank you. You may be seated. Morning. Good to see everyone.
I'm going to be reading this morning out of John chapter 17. John 17. I'll be picking up in
verse 1. I believe I'll be stopping around verses 9. Jesus spoke these words, lifted
up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify
your son, that your son also may glorify you. As you have
given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal
life to as many as you have given him. And this is eternal life,
that they may know you, the only one true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom you have sent. I have glorified you on the earth.
I have finished the work which you have given me to do. And
now, O Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory
which I had with you before the world was. I have manifested
your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, you gave them
to me, and they have kept your word. Now they have known that
all things which you have given me are from you. For I have given
to them the words which you have given me, and they have received
them, and have known surely that I come forth from you. And they
have believed that you sent me. I pray for them, I do not pray
for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they
are yours. Father, we thank you once again,
Lord, for the ability to assemble here, Lord, in this location. And we're very thankful for everything
you've provided for us, Lord. We ask that you give your messenger
this morning, Lord, give our pastor, Eric, the words to encourage
and edify this church, Lord, to comfort us in Christ. And
please direct our hearts to shut out the distractions we have
This world and whatever's going on in our life, Lord, just give
us the ability to focus on your son. And we pray for those who
couldn't make it today, Lord, that you'd look over them and
give healing to everyone who is sick and down and whatever
they're going through, Lord. In many circumstances we don't
even know about, we do pray for. In your name we pray, amen. Okay brethren, we're going to
be in Romans 12 and we're going to look at verse 9 and maybe
verse 10. Romans 12 verse 9 for sure. Now,
so far in Romans 12 we see there's a practicality that's discussed,
that Paul talks about. There's a sanctification, if
you will, that the Lord performs in his people. We're sanctified. It's not our sanctification. It's not our work of sanctification.
We depend on the sanctification, the power of our God to turn
our hearts, to give us a heart and a desire for him and a willingness
to serve him, to set us apart for his use. And so this sanctification
of ours is first witnessed in the devotion, the setting apart
in our hearts for the Lord. It's something that he does,
that he creates in us to where we understand that my acceptance,
my entrance before God the Father is only in the Son, Jesus Christ. And so we come in Christ, the
living sacrifice, right? at that in verses one and two
and not being conformed to this world. And then we saw how that
our devotion and consecration is made to the body through the
gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to each of his children. according
to his measure, as he equips them and enables them to serve
in the body. And that was more so regarding
the offices in the body, but we saw how every one of us is
made a minister and is made to minister to that body. But now we come to an exhortation
of what some might call precepts, and I realize that some may not
like that term, precept, but what we do see is that this word
is given to us in the context of the law of love. There is
a commandment to love our brethren and to love the body, the people,
our God and Savior and so whether we like that word commandment
or precept or law there is a law of love spoken of and our Savior
our Lord and Savior did give us the commandment to love our
brethren. It says in John 13 34 and 35
and it's in a few other places but there in John 13 34 it says
a new commandment I give unto you,
that ye love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love
one another. By this shall all men know that
ye are my disciples. When they see us walking in love
toward one another, they'll know What's with these people? What
are they doing? Why do they care and show love, show charity and
love toward one another? What is it about them? And the
Lord says, this is how they're going to know that you are my
disciples if ye have love one to another. so you'll notice as we go through
the rest of Romans chapter 12 that every word of instruction
that Paul gives us here, it's preceded by love. We'll read verse 9 in a moment,
but it's preceded by love and every word that he says, every
exhortation, every precept, everything that follows for the rest of
this chapter is all born out of that fruit of grace that we
call love, which is the love of the Spirit born in us. And so it flows from that fruit
of grace in every child of God as the Lord teaches us and instructs
us to love one another. I've titled this Loving One Another. Loving One Another, all right?
Paul begins here with an exhortation regarding our actions toward
one another, regarding our actions, not the feeling, but the actions
and how we interact with one another and how we move and have
our being among one another, how we fellowship together, it's
in love. And he says, verse nine, let
love be without dissimulation. Now, dissimulation means to pretend. It's hypocrisy. It's to feign
or to pretend that you love someone when in your heart you really
don't love them. And that's what he's saying.
Don't let your love be with dissimulation. Don't let it be with hypocrisy.
Dissimulation would be to hide the truth of something, right?
You're pretending like you care about them and you really don't.
And we've known people, maybe we've even done it, where we
interact with someone that we really don't care for, and yet
we put on a happy face and we go about interacting with them,
but that's dissimulation, when there really is no love or heart
for them. will take it further, you know,
and go and talk behind their back and do other things that
are hurtful to that person's character or that person among
their peers or something like that. That's dissimulation. And
so Paul's saying, don't let your love be fake for your brethren.
Don't let it be fake. Let it be sincere. Let it be
sincere. You know, there's scriptures
that teach us about loving our brethren. Turn over to 1 John
4. I'm gonna look at a few verses
there, so don't be too quick to turn away from 1 John 4. And look at verse 7 and 8 at
first with me. He says, Beloved, let us love
one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. And so what he's telling us is
that we that are the Lord's, God is love, and His love is
going to flow to us, and what he brings to us and teaches us
is going to, of a consequence, flow toward our brethren. There
will be love for our brethren. And it's not in the flesh and
of the flesh. We know what love of the flesh
is, right? We have love for our family. and our spouses and our children
and those that we count good friends and people that we like
to be around. And there's that kind of love
and there's loves of feeling and things of that sort. But
this is a love of action, right? And it's formed in the new man
by the Holy Spirit. It is a gift of God and we have
this understanding of love from the Lord and it's created by
the Spirit of God in us. And so it's a spiritual work
in the regenerated child of God. Those that are alive spiritually
and love the Lord, they are the ones who experience this love
of God and then show this love to others. And being alive, that
means the Lord's going to give us an understanding. He's going
to teach us. necessarily have this deep understanding of love
for one another all the time or right away, but the Spirit
teaches us love. And I mean, that's why we come
to passages like this, where we can see His love and gain
an understanding and be pricked in the heart to want to know
this love and how to have this love for our brethren, right? And so, you know, it begins really
when We speak of the new man because the new man, we know
what we are in the flesh. We know our shortcomings. We
know our sins and the things that we do, even willfully, even
in rebellion, the things that we've done and the things that
we're ashamed of now. And yet the Lord loved us. Knowing what we are in ourselves,
the Lord loved us and had mercy upon us. You know, we're not always lovable.
You know, I know that I'm not always a lovable person to my
wife, meaning I know that I don't always do things which cause
her to feel love for me or want to love me in that moment. And in the same way, we don't
deserve God's love, right? It's not because we've done things
to deserve his love that he loves us. He loves us in spite of what
we are and who we are and what we've done and still do. We know that the love that we
have wasn't taught to us or given to us in this flesh and by this
flesh. Even the willingness to want
to know how to love our brethren isn't of the flesh. It's born
in us by the Spirit so that we're made willing to hear. To see
the word and say, Lord, teach me this. I don't think I love
the way I should love my brethren. Teach me this. Help me, Lord.
Give me your spirit and enable me to love your people the way
you love me, the way you care for me. And so we hear this grace
of God towards unlovable sinners, and that should cause us to say,
what is this? What is this love for unlovable
persons and people that are rebels and sinners against Holy God.
Well, we see it, you know, in John 3 16, just stay in John
4, 1 John 4, but we know John 3 16, right? For God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish but have everlasting life and we
see how his love moved him to action to gracious action toward
his people right verse 17 says for God sent not his son into
the world to condemn the world but that the world through him
might be saved. And so our God walked in love
toward us in sending his son Jesus Christ to do for us what
we could never do for ourselves. In spite of who and what we are,
he sacrificed himself. He provided and graced the sacrifice,
the propitiation, the substitution who of Christ who died in our
place that we should go free and we should go free from that
penalty and wrath of God and so that love of God he's saying
that's the love that we have toward others and and and that's
that's born out of that hope that right when we're dealing
with others who are sinners or not hearing us or or just where
we want to tell them the truth and speak of the grace of God,
but they won't hear it. Well, that hope that steps back
and takes a breath and remembers, I'm a hard-hearted sinner, and
I can't hear it in the flesh, but makes us willing to pray
for them and to labor among those that we do care for even in the
flesh, right? Friends and family that don't
believe but that we care for. We have that hope that God would
be merciful to them even as he was merciful to us. And so when
we remember how that God saved us, in mercy, it's easier for
us to hope and pray for those that God would richly bless them.
All right, now, in 1 John, back in 1 John 4, let's just look
at two more verses there in 19 and 20. 1 John 4, 19 and 20.
He says, we love him because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God and
hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?"
Right now, you know, he's saying that, you know, if there's a
willful hatred of somebody, right? We just don't care about them,
and yet we say we love God. John's telling us you're lying.
You're deceiving yourself. You're not being honest. You're
not being truthful in this matter. You say you love God, but God
creates in the new man. He creates a heart of love towards
your brethren. Now, if we're being honest, we
know that some people are more lovable to us, right? There's
always somebody for somebody, but I mean, you know, there's
certain people that each of you with your personalities, there's
people that you just click with. They get you, you get them, you
talk very easily, there's no, you're not guarded in any way
because they get you and you just get along with them, right?
So there's people that are easier for us to have feelings of love
and friendship for than others. And I don't believe Paul's talking
about feelings, right? Because again, if we're just
looking at that, there's going to be differences in how we feel
toward one another. But that doesn't mean that we
don't love our brethren and wouldn't sacrifice for them or minister
to them in a manner that shows love, that lays down one's life
for their brethren in service, right? And serving them. And
so the love that we have for one another isn't to be phony
or pretend, right? If, you know, you're not always,
the Lord's not saying, you know, go and just hang out with this
person that you can't stand all the time and just make it, you
know, have a phony love. That's not it. But there's a
love and a fellowship in the sense of your brethren that we
do love them in that service. And so we would want to have
a true friendship and a true fellowship with others. And we
hope that the Lord helps us to do that. But it never causes
us to despise one, right? If we see two need help, right,
it might be easier to help this one that you're good friends
with. But just turning away from this one over here that you're
not as good friends with, that's despising them compared to the
one that you do love. And we should be willing to help
anyone the same as we help our other brethren. He says in Ephesians
5 too, he says, walk in love, right? It's an action love, right? Not necessarily the feeling,
but the action. Walk in love as Christ also hath
loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet-smelling savor." So, what do I do then? If I feel
cold and indifferent towards my brethren or certain brethren,
what do I do? And I was thinking about that,
and honestly, the best thing I can tell you is to pray for
that one. Because when you pray for a brother
or a sister, you'd be surprised what you do know about them.
And as you're praying, you're thinking about them and their
struggles, right? They may have kids, and you have
kids, and you know how kids can be stressful, and so you begin
to feel a bit of their burden, or you know that they've lost
someone or that they've you know that they're sick and you know
what it is as you pray for them you begin to feel that burden
and there's a there's a fellowship there's a there's a mutual understanding
that we can enter into because we're all human and we've all
suffered loss we've all suffered pain we've all had successes
we've all had failures and and we all have family and we all
friends and jobs and and things of that nature so we As you begin
to pray for somebody that maybe you feel indifferent towards
or cold towards, it really does create an understanding and a
warmth that wasn't there before. As an illustration, I remember
At my old job, we had roles, three primary roles in the company. One was what we called a developer.
They coded on computers and wrote business applications to make
business easier. They solved problems with their
development skills. And then you had testers who
tested those applications they wrote to make sure that they
worked the way they were supposed to work. And then we had what
are called project managers. And project managers, they understood
the project. Most of our project managers
dealt with clients, and so they would collect those requirements
and give them to the development and the testing team. And some
project managers were better than others. meaning they understood
what the client wanted and conveyed that message really well to their
development team and it didn't create extra work if they got
it wrong, you know, because they got it right the first time.
And we liked, as developers and testers, we liked those project
managers and despised those project managers. that created problems
and trouble for us. And I remember there was a manager,
a people manager, who couldn't stand this one project manager,
this guy. And it turned out that they had
a training together. They went off to training. And
the manager got to know this project manager. She realized
that, you know, he has a family. He has a wife that he cares about. He has children that he, cares
for and raises. And he has what he does in his
extra time. He gives his time. He's gone
to countries and built houses and done other nice things for
other people. And he has other interests outside of this. And
what it did was it humanized her. It humanized him for her
so that there was a certain level of respect that she began to,
when she went and spoke to him, when he disappointed her again
with bad requirements for her staff, At least she had that
mutual ground, that she had an understanding of him. And I think
that's what prayer, when we pray for one another and carry their
burdens, our brother's burdens and sister's burdens before the
Lord, it creates a, it reminds us that, you know what, they
also are struggling. They've also had bad days. They've
also had difficult times, just like me. And I want understanding
when I have a difficult day and going through hardships. Maybe
they need that too, and it makes us more willing, because we're
reminded of our own weaknesses and faults and shortcomings,
and so we're more willing, having a heart warmed with prayer, that,
you know what, let me not lose my temper with them, or always
see them in the worst light possible, right? Because we can do that
very easily. We create stories in our own heads about people,
and tell us those stories. I know why they did that. Well,
we don't really know why they did that, and we could be wrong,
and we've been wrong, and so, We know we can be wrong. So Paul
says, let love be without dissimulation. Don't let it be fake, but let
it be honest. And it should be there. And we
know it's not always there. And when you see it's not there,
take it to the Lord in prayer and pray for them. And the Lord
will create. Because if you're his child,
he's going to warm your heart for your brethren and be made
willing to do for them exactly what you do for one that you
do love more. There'll be a willing to sacrifice for them just like
you would for the others. Then Paul says, abhor that which
is evil, cleave to that which is good. Now, when I was looking
at this, many noted that those are some strong words. Those
are strong words. Abhor, hate that which is evil,
and cleave to that which is good, right? Hate your sin, hate those
things that concern your wickedness, and despise those things, and
then cleave all right, cling to that which is good. The word
actually means glue. Glue yourself to that which is
good. Attach yourself so firmly to it, fixed to it, that which
is good. And we are to hate our sin and to loathe it and we do,
we do. We know what we are and we see
those things that the Lord has been dealing with us, you know,
each one personally on things that the Lord deals with us,
right? We know our weaknesses and the Lord's enabled us to
hate many of those things that he's dealing with in us. And
so it's good to have a right understanding of that, right? It's good to understand that.
And we are to glue ourselves to that which is good. But as
I mentioned earlier, this is in the context of our love toward
one another. It's our love toward one another.
And that our love is toward our brethren is to be without hypocrisy,
without dissimulation. So as I was looking at this, you
know, some noted something I believe is very helpful to understand
about what he means by abhor that which is evil and cleave
to that which is good. And if we look at the words,
he says, you know, evil and good, and some actually soften it to
say injurious or kind, right? Injurious for evil and kind for
good. so that the verse would actually
read, Romans 12, nine, let love be sincere and avoid what is
injurious or hurtful to others, right? That's evil. If we're
hurting or willing or seeking or even willing to hurt our brethren,
that's injurious to them and that is evil, right? And earnestly
endeavor to do that which is kind and useful to them. You see the action of that love?
Don't do that which you know is going to hurt them. Don't
speak behind the back of your brother or sister, because it's
going to hurt them. It's going to injure them in
the eyes and the esteem of others. And if they hear that you've
said these things, that's going to hurt them as well. It's not
good. It's not profitable to do that. Instead, earnestly endeavor to
do that which is good. Love covers a multitude of sins. Love covers a multitude of sins,
and if we remember that, to close the curtain with love and grace
upon their sin and cover it from others. Don't just go and say,
did you hear what so-and-so did? Because it's gonna injure them,
and that's evil. That's not walking in love, because
thankfully our God hasn't exposed every one of our sins to everybody,
because it would be painful. be painful to the one who does
it, and it'd be painful to you that hear it, and you don't wanna
hear those things either. So let me give you a few scriptural
examples that explain this further in the context of loving our
brethren, of hearing that word, right? He's not just talking
about don't do what's bad and do what's good, it's in the context
of love, how we walk towards one another in love, all right?
And so there's times when When we will make it personal for
us, there's times where we do something that offends our brother.
There's going to be a time where I'm going to offend you if I
haven't already. Either I say something foolishly
or say it wrongly, and whether I meant it that way or you misunderstood
it, it still hurt you. Or if I do something, it hurts.
It offends you, and it's a sin against you. Well, how do we
remedy this? Turn over to James 5. James 5,
and look at just verse 16 with me. James 5, 16, he says, confess
your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye
may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much and my understanding of what
Paul of what James is saying there is If you've sinned against
your brother, if you've offended them, and you know it, and you
know they know it, go and confess. Just be honest. Say, I was wrong. Or if they were offended, and
you don't necessarily know, but they come and say, I was offended,
just confess your fault to them. Don't hide it. Don't say, well,
wait a minute, I'm perfect. I don't ever make mistakes like
that. I don't do that. You know, you don't have to make
excuses for it or justify it. Well, you were a jerk to me,
so I was a jerk to you, right? Maybe that is why you did it,
but be willing to confess your fault. Be willing to confess
what it was that, you know, in your part in it. And not to articulate
and say, well, I'll admit to this, but you've got to admit
to that. He's saying, confess your fault and pray one for another. And if your brother or sister
confesses to you and they say, yeah, I was wrong, pray for them. Pray for them. Remember them.
and be forgiving and remember them before the Lord. Be willing
to forgive that you may be healed, right? That there is that restoration
of peace and fellowship again in the brethren, in the body
of Christ there. Because the Lord will bless it. He calls us to it. You know,
it doesn't mean, like some people say, confess your sins to one
another. It does not mean go and enumerate your sins, like
put them on a list and then go share them with your brethren.
Because you know that that's not healthy or good for anybody.
And, you know, when we hear of what another person has done
out of context, you know, like we don't know what was going
on, it's very easy to say, huh, what? I can't believe they would
do that. And yet we do the same thing
in our heart, right? Maybe things are a little different,
or we do something just as bad, but we have all these justifications
for it. But we hear what someone else
has done, and we get like, whoa, I can't believe anyone would
do that, you know? I remember it was, I think, William
Gatsby, and he sounded like a pretty, pretty, pretty good guy in the sense
that he did not practice sin. He didn't make justification
for his sins, but he had heard of somebody in the church that
got drunk, and he thought, whoa, that's awful. How can you get
drunk? And he said, it wasn't a week
later before I went to the tavern, and it was in England, and they
typically drank beer with their meals, and he said, I had one
beer, and I was drunk, and I was ashamed, and I saw how one could
get drunk. And so it's very easy to hear
of other people. So that's why we don't just put
out a list of all our sins because it's just really, it creates
a spirit of judgment in other people. But if you've done something
wrong and they say it to you, then confess it to them and seek
that peace and that restoration there in it, all right? And so
the Lord, makes known to us, you know, what, what we are in
ourselves. And so walking towards love,
it's not about being phony. All right. And, um, I remember
where there was a guy I worked with too. He, um, he said, uh,
we were talking about sin. He's like, I don't sin. I don't
sin. So I make mistakes. I make mistakes. And that was his excuse. I make
mistakes. Well, I mean, it's sin. And, uh, Yeah, it's a mistake
when we get caught, but it's still sin. A lot of times that's
when we feel like it's a mistake, but because we only got caught,
but the Lord enables us to see it and to do it. And so, you
know, well, how do we then cleave to that which is good, right?
How do we earnestly endeavor to do that which is kind and
useful toward our brethren? We'll turn over to 1 Corinthians
16. 1 Corinthians 16. and let's look at verses 14 and
15. He says there, and I think it's
very much the same context here of what he's teaching the brethren
in Rome, in Romans 12, but he says there in 1 Corinthians 16,
let all your things be done with charity. In that word, charity
is love, but it gives us, it puts in our mind that actionable
love, that giving love, that sacrificial love in that sense,
how we walk toward our brethren. He said, verse 15, I beseech
you, brethren, ye know the house of Stephanus, that it is the
first fruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted or ordained
themselves to the ministry of the saints. And Paul's saying
they've made it their responsibility to be accountable. to ensure
that the saints in that body there, or whoever comes visiting,
are taken care of, that they are ministered to. And you see
it, he says, walk in love, just like he's telling us here. Let
love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil, cleave
to that which is good. Ordain yourselves. Make it your
responsibility to minister to your brethren. That's cleaving
to what is good, and I believe that's what Paul is saying here
in cleaving to that which is good. Being made a willing minister
and a servant for your brethren, because that's charity, that's
actionable love, that's sacrificing and giving to your brethren.
So I'm gonna wrap it up there so that we can digest that and
just think about that little bit, and we'll come back and
look at the other things in the context, the other verses in
the context of love as we go, but you know, so you may not
feel loving towards your brethren always, but there's a desire
that the Lord creates in us and will and does create in us where
we see our shortcomings and how we're not sacrificing or ministering
to one the same way we minister to another and You know, it doesn't
mean the warm fuzzies, right? It doesn't mean everybody wants
a hug when they come in here, and you know, not everybody likes
hugs. And not everybody gives hugs. But it's not just a warm
fuzzy, it's that actionable, like, I'm going to care for you
the same way I care for them, and Lord, help me to pray for
them, and where I see my shortcomings, Lord, teach me, and give me love,
that it be done not in hypocrisy, but in honesty, and and willing
to do that. So I pray the Lord bless that
word to our hearts and that he help us. All right, let's close
in prayer and then we're gonna take the Lord's Supper today. Our gracious Lord, Father, we
thank you for your word and we see your command, Lord, to love
our brethren. Lord, we have such convoluted
ideas of what love is and so much of it is shaped by how we
were raised or what movies or books we read and the people
that we speak to and so much of it is of the flesh. But Lord,
we know that you've given your spirit to your people. Help us,
Lord, to walk in love toward our brethren in the manner in
which You've purposed it, Lord, as we see our Savior who sacrificed
himself and gave himself that we should likewise sacrifice
ourselves and give ourselves. And Lord, we see the failings,
the weakness in our own flesh and in our own heart. But Lord,
we trust you and ask that you would bless your word and that
you would give us that measure of the spirit where we would
indeed have that fruit of grace and love toward our brethren.
And Father, we pray that you would help us to exercise it
rightly and in accordance with your word, with an understanding
and the light and the knowledge that we have of our Savior. Father,
we pray that you would bless our time of fellowship. We're
so thankful, Lord, to come together again for a meal. It's been so long. It's just
so good to have that fellowship with our brethren. We pray that
you would bless it. Lord, if any of us are sick,
that we not pass that on to anyone, but that you would protect us
and keep us, Lord. And indeed, bless our time of
fellowship with one another. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. All right. Well, could I ask,
Ken and Levi, can I call on you again to come up? And then hand out the elements. Levi, would you pray and then
we'll pass them out. Father, thank you for giving
us this day, Lord, to in particular celebrate your son's death and
resurrection, Lord. We pray that you'd clear our
minds and consciences as we do the Lord's Supper, Lord, to just
simply trust, trust Christ, Lord. Trust the person He is. In your name we pray. Amen. I'm not like this kid, and he's
not shy. Mommy, you have that. I'm not like this kid. So I'm gonna read from 1 Corinthians
11, and we'll read the whole passage together, and then we'll
take the bread and the wine together. I'll just sit down, and then
Joe, after maybe a minute, just come up and close us in the hymn. So 1 Corinthians 11, Paul says
in verse 23, he says, I have received of the Lord that which
also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night
in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given
thanks, he break it and said, take, eat. This is my body, which
is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me.
And after the same manner also, he took the cup, when he had
supped, saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood. This
do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me. For as often
as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's
death till he come. Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Let's stand and sing a closing
hymn, 512, Saved by Grace 512. Through a silver cord we'll break,
and I no more as now shall sing, but o'er the joy when I shall
wake within the palace of the King. And I shall see Him face
to face and tell the story saved by grace. And I shall see Him
face to face and tell the story saved by grace. day my earthly house will fall
i cannot tell how soon it will be but this i know my all in
all has now a place in heaven for me and i shall see him face
to face and tell the story saved by grace and i shall see and
face to face, and tell the story saved by grace. Someday when fades the golden
sun beneath the rosy-tinted west, my blessed Lord will say, well
done, and I shall enter into rest. And I shall see Him face
to face and tell the story saved by grace. And I shall see Him
face to face and tell the story saved by grace. Someday, till then, I'll watch
and wait, My lamp all trimmed and burning bright, That when
my Saviour hopes again, My soul to Him I'll give. Thank you.