All right, we are taking a short break because we have communion today and we want to make sure that we're all on the same page as we participate in this communion. And so we want to take some time to look at the passage in 1 Corinthians 11. The whole text that we're going to be covering is from 17 all the way to 34, but I'm just going to be highlighting the text in verse 23 to 26.

First Corinthians chapter 11 verse 23 to 26, "For I received from the Lord what that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread. 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 the bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.'" Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we pray that you would bless this time. May your word have power to change our hearts, our mind, and our very lives. I pray, Father God, that what you have intended in this text, that it would have its full effect in us. So we ask for your blessing and your grace.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You know, in our generation, we have a cliche that we've been saying. And the cliches are there for a reason, because at the core of it, there's some truth. But cliches are also very dangerous if you don't understand the context in which it is said, and then you kind of universally apply in all things.

I think one of the most commonly heard cliches in our generation is, "Christianity is a relationship and not a religion." You probably heard that before. You may have said that. At the core of it, it's true. And the problem that that cliche addresses is, because we are living in a post-Christian culture, that there's a lot of things that we do, we just automatically believe that we've been raised in a church, and if my parents are Christians, or my great-grandparents are Christians, that it would just kind of pass down to us.

In fact, they did a survey a while back to see what percentage of Americans consider themselves Christians. And so, again, this is a little bit outdated, and I think the number is a bit less than that now, but back in the '90s, the number was almost 86% of people surveyed said that they were Christian.

Obviously, we know that that's not true, right? We know that, based upon what we know in Scripture, that that number is exaggerated. That means there's that many people who believe that they're Christian because they were either raised in a church or have some sort of Christianity in their home, and as a result of that, that they themselves believe that they are saved.

Now, it is that type of culture that this cliche is addressing, that Christianity is not a religion but a relationship, that there needs to be a personal relationship with Christ, which is true. You can't just come to church and through osmosis and just by being in a Christian home make you a Christian.

There has to be a personal relationship with Christ. But along with all cliches, there's also the flip side of that, that if we're not careful and if we apply it to the fullest, it's not necessarily true because Christianity is a religion. Because the definition of religion is a set of doctrine or rules that distinguishes that particular religion with any other religion.

So Christian religion is distinct from Muslims or from Buddhism. There's a different set of doctrines that they believe that causes them to say that we are set apart and we're different in this way. So Christianity is also a religion where we adhere to certain doctrines, and if you do not adhere to these doctrines, you are not Christian.

And so, especially in our generation, because of this cliche has been applied, there's a lot of people who say, "Well, it doesn't matter if you go to church because it's just personal between me and God." Especially in this YouTube generation after the pandemic, we have so many people who say, "Well, physical church is not important because it's about my personal relationship with God." It is about your personal relationship with God, but there are specific, very focused teaching that distinguishes us and tells us that this is what a Christian ought to believe and ought to do.

Now along with that, the reason why I introduced my sermon this morning is because of the religious things that we talk about, there's two things that, if we're not careful, that we can just simply dismiss. We just do it. You just grew up doing it. The two ordinances that we're talking about.

So when we talk about religiousness, we say, "Well, I mean, that sounds very legalistic saying like we need to be baptized or we don't get saved because of baptism." So it doesn't really matter one way or the other. And same thing with communion, right? It doesn't save us. It doesn't give us any specific power.

So it must not be too important. It's just another religious activity. Well, as I said, religious activity is important because these are two ordinances that has been set apart as sacred. When baptism is done correctly, it is a public proclamation of our faith. It reminds us of our own testimony.

It is the entrance into the local church, the universal church. So when done properly, it reminds us of who we are, our identity, the power of the gospel. And so baptism is an integral part. It's the first act of obedience in the church. And that's why even Christ, when he was being baptized by John the Baptist, he says, "I'm doing this to fulfill all righteousness." Jesus himself submitted himself to baptism because that's what was established.

Communion is another one of those where we just practice it and maybe you grew up in the church practicing this and it just happens and maybe not understanding the significance of it. So whether we participate in it, how we participate in it, it doesn't really matter because it's just one of those duties.

You just come on Sunday and it just happened to be communion so you're just going to participate in it. When baptism is done poorly, you grow up thinking you got baptized so at some point in my life I got baptized so I'm saved. I'm covered by the blessing of God.

We have people coming into our church all the time. And I got baptized when I was two or three or five or even when I wasn't a Christian I was at some camp and we just jumped into the water. You know what I mean? Everybody who came out, we were all baptized and so therefore I'm good.

So we have a generation filled with people because of the way that baptism was done have a misunderstanding that that somehow covers them from their sins. And same thing with communion. If communion is done poorly, you have a generation of people who just because they're taking communion that somehow it has some magical protection power and that kind of connects us to God and so we're safe at least for this period until next communion comes around.

Obviously communion in and of itself has no power to do that. What I want to look with you this morning through this text, four things that it points out that the communion was given us for. If communion is done correctly, it reminds and refreshes our worship to our Savior.

That's number one. Number two, if communion is done correctly, it causes us to examine ourselves and see if there's any hurtful ways in us. It's for our sanctification. Third, if done correctly, it restores and unites the fellowship of the body of Christ. It sanctifies and unites the church. Four, when communion is done correctly, it proclaims the gospel until he comes.

So I want to go through these four points that are listed in this text and as we go through it, hopefully when we participate in the communion that we would have a renewed sense of commitment, renewed sense of reverence toward what it is that we're doing this morning. One, when done correctly, it reminds us and refreshes us of our worship to our Savior.

First Corinthians 11, 24 through 25. 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." So first and foremost, we participate in communion. Communion has been set apart in order that we can remember and focus our attention upon Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. The reason why this is so important is because you and I have a natural tendency to forget.

How many of you, you don't need to raise your hand, but how many of you were adults when 9/11 happened? A handful of you, right? If you remember when 9/11 happened, I mean, it was a shock for all of us to see the Twin Towers fall that morning. We've read about war, we've seen movies about wars, but all of a sudden war became real, that United States is being attacked.

Thousands of people just perished just instantaneously. And I remember after that, I saw something that I've never seen in my lifetime, and I'm not sure if I'm going to ever see it again. I saw the Democrats and the Republicans linked arm to arm, came out in public at Capitol Hill and basically saying that, "We will never forget.

You attack us, we're united, we're resolved." And as a result of that, it changed the way we flew. You couldn't wear shoes anymore to go to the airport. All of a sudden, all kinds of liquid had to be banned. But at that time, people were more than willing, more than willing because they said, "We will never forget." That was the mantra of that period, "We will never forget." And the reason why they kept on saying that is because they were reminded, we were reminded that we have people around the world who hate this country and what it stands for, and that they will do everything in their power to attack us.

So we're going to be ready. We're going to be resolved. We're going to be united. We're going to do whatever it takes. And so Republicans, Democrats came together, arms linked, saying, "We will never forget." Well, guess what? We forgot. Decades have gone by, and now the TSA has become a joke, an inconvenience.

And so, right or wrong, all the stuff that was implemented at that time being so resolved that we're going to be ready to fight and go to battle, for the most part, we've forgotten. Whatever your politics may be, at that time, the reason why it was so important that we never forget is because of the consequences that if we do forget.

When Jesus says, "Do this in remembrance of me," God knew our tendency to drift. And so this that Jesus is referring to was the Passover meal that they were participating, that God commanded the nation of Israel. As soon as they left Egypt, God commanded the Passover meal to be celebrated every year.

This is what he says in Exodus 13, 3. "Then Moses said to the people, 'Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by strong hand of the Lord brought you out from this place.'" He said, "Do this." And he implemented this as soon as they left Egypt.

Not a year, not 10 years later, but as soon as they left, because God knew the moment that you forgot why or how you became a nation, you're going to start to imitate all the other nations. That the whole reason why Israel even exists is because of God's power and his mercy and his covenant.

Again, he says in Deuteronomy 7, 18, "To remember that in the midst," when you go out there and then you run into troubles and powers that are greater than you physically, remember who God is. Remember how he delivered you, Deuteronomy 7, 18. "If you say in your heart, 'These nations are greater than I,' how can I dispossess them?

You shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember that the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and all of Egypt, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. So will the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid." In the time of distress, in the time of trouble, and you begin to think that the powers that surround you, that are suppressing you, is greater than you can handle, he says, "Remember, he who began a good work in you, he will carry it unto completion to the day of Christ.

He who did not spare his own son, he loved you so much that he gave his only begotten son," and that same power, that resurrected Christ, dwells in you. That Holy Spirit dwells in you. How much of our depression, how much of our anxiety comes because we forget. We forget.

We're children of God. He loved us so much that he says he counts our very hairs, and yet when our finances don't meet or we fall ill or something doesn't seem quite right going forward, and maybe we didn't save enough for retirement, or whatever causes anxiousness, how much of that is because we have forgotten what it is that we already have in Christ.

Why was this so essential for the nation of Israel? Because the success of the nation of Israel was directly linked to their faith in God. The moment they begin to drift from focusing their eyes on Christ, not just their finance, not just the nation, everything begins to crumble. Same thing with all of us.

If our whole life is connected to Christ, the moment we begin to forget what it is that we have, it's just some theological thing that we check off, but it's not real. We sing about it. We memorize. We study the scripture. But when we examine our life carefully, how much of our life actually reflect the faith that we profess on Sunday morning?

How much of our anxiety and depression or whatever it is that we struggle with is directly linked to forgetting what it is that we have in Christ? See, fourth and finally, why we need to remember, he says in Deuteronomy 8.18, and I believe for us who live in Orange County, this is probably our greatest struggle.

He says, "Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping the commandments and his rules and statutes which I commanded you today, lest when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them," listen carefully, "when everything is going well, you have a nice house and you have a nice car and your bills are paid, when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart will be lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." Let me stop right there.

I know how we are when we're in college. I know many of you students are in college, but in college, you don't have a lot. Your parents have a lot, not you. So when we're younger, everything's wide open, and you say, "Oh, I believe in God. He's my treasure.

He's all these." Then you get married, have kids, your salary begins to increase, you start getting into your career and you start becoming a boss, and then you have more money than you actually need, and then after a while, you look at your faith, it's nothing like it was when you were younger.

And you begin to convince yourself that this is normal. This is just what happens. Nobody maintains their first love, and you just kind of accepted that as normal. You remember what it was like when you wanted to go out to missions and the possibility of doing work for the Lord and all these things, but now it's just, it's like, "Yeah, it's good.

It's for some people." But you're busy raising your children, paying off your mortgage, saving enough money for retirement. Next thing you know, your heart is hardened toward God, and so you're going through the motion and you have a form of godliness, but there's no power. All your bills are paid off, everything's going well, and so the temptation is there is no desperation for God anymore.

You want God, but you don't need Him. He says the communion table was given to the church for the purpose of reminding us that everything we have is because of Him. As soon as we begin to say, "We're proud and I did this," we begin to forget God, we start to just be religious.

We sing songs, but there's no passion behind that. You have to have a new song every few months because now all these new songs become old so quick. You need to constantly have new songs because the songs in and of itself, it's not the words that are causing you to sing praises to God, it's just the newness of things.

Even the sermons, great, but after you hear it for a while, it's like it's another sermon. It says in verse 17, "Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.' You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may confirm His covenant that He swore to your fathers, and it is this day.

And if you forget the Lord your God, and you go after the gods and serve them and worship them," now we may look at that and say, "Well, we don't worship idols." Sure we do. Anything that has possessed your heart, any pursuit that is greater than your pursuit of Christ is your idol.

Israelites never shook their hands at Yahweh and said, "I don't trust you. I'm going to trust Baal instead." No, they added Baal to the worship. They added Asherah to worship of Yahweh. They never rejected God. They just added that and they just ran to it whenever it was more convenient.

So whatever it is that we run to instead of God is our idol. He says, "When you run to your gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish." He says, "Once you become proud, once you become independent, once you begin to forget God, you are that close of perishing." And in order to prevent them from this danger, He inaugurated the Passover meal so that every, every year that they would be reminded the whole reason why you exist as a nation is because God's power and His mercy and the covenant that He made with you.

And it is that meal, He says, "Do this." What God has implemented with the nation of Israel, do now do this in remembrance. All of the Passover was to point to what He was going to do at the cross and that our health, our ability to live, to function, all of it is connected to how connected we are to this cross.

Remember, in fact, the whole nation of Israel's downfall is summarized in this text, Hosea 13.6, "When I fed them, they were satisfied." Let's dissect this. What do they mean by satisfied? They were thankful. They were blessed. They worshiped God. They praised God. When God fed them, when you got a job, when you were sick and you became healthy, when you have relational problems and it gets solved, when you wanted something, you desire it.

Whatever it is that you desire, that God gave it to you and answered your prayer and He was gracious and He said, "They were satisfied, thankful, worshiping." He said, "When they were satisfied, they became proud." That urgency, once it goes away, it's like, "Oh, I could do it." Tomorrow morning, whether you prayed this week or not, whether you clung to God or not, if you don't see any difference from Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, that's a good sign you've forgotten Him.

Whether you crack your Bible Monday or not, whether you're praying to Him and seeking Him, whether you feel this urgency to share the gospel or not, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday doesn't look any different other than the external pressure to meet whatever schedule that has been placed on your table.

Outside of that, it doesn't look any different. Whether you prayed for, didn't pray for a day, whether you didn't pray for a year, your life doesn't look any different. You've forgotten God. You want Him, but you don't need Him. And as a result of that, whether you admit it or not, your heart is proud.

You may have the reputation of being humble, and maybe compared to other proud people, you may be humble, but in God's sight, you have become proud. Because He said your very life depends upon you being connected to Christ. But you're not connected to Christ, other than out of religious duty.

See, the communion table was given to us as a result because God knew our tendency to drift and get entangled. And again, most of the time, not with sinful things, just raising kids, paying bills, doing a good job at work, having friends, having a good marriage, serving the church sometimes.

And in the midst of all of that, if you're honest, your heart has drifted far from God. You can't think of the last time you came in with expectations and wanting to praise God. You can't remember the last time that God drove you to your knees with deep sighing, this groaning that the Holy Spirit has, desperate for Him, like wanting to connect with Him, wanting to commune with Him.

You can't remember the last time that has happened. And so you're just kind of like, "Well, I'm just going to do what I'm supposed to do." And you've been doing that for weeks, for months, maybe for years. Next thing you know, for decades. So you are what the Bible says.

You have a form of godliness, but there's no power. There's no power of the Holy Spirit. Everything you say is calculated. It's scripted. You say what you're supposed to say. You say what you say in reaction, but it is not an overflow of your heart. You sing because it's time to sing, but it's not an overflow of worship.

You evangelize because it's time to evangelize, but it's not an overflow of your heart wanting to see the lost come to Christ. Maybe it's because we have forgotten. Oskin is in his book, "No God But God," basically chronicles three generations of what leads to apostasy. First generation are the people who believe Christ, and they're the ones who go out to missions and sacrifice, and they're faithful to church and building up the body of Christ.

And he said, eventually, as they begin to drift, they raise nominal Christian kids because they raise a generation of children who don't have any skin in the game. They've sacrificed nothing. They've given nothing. So they know Christianity from a distance, from set of doctrines, from things that you profess, from Sunday school, from VBS.

But it is not an active faith. It is not a sacrificial faith. They've just inherited what the first generation has, and they just adopted it for themselves. And so now you are raising a generation of lukewarm Christians who are just going through the motion, but they don't really know the power.

And so their worship is always flippant. They go to church, but give the minimum amount of time and effort. And then he says the third generation is where apostasy happens. Children who are raised in a lukewarm home have no purpose for this religion. It does nothing other than take away what they want to do on Sunday morning.

Giving is just throwing away money. What is this for? Sacrifice. Evangelism. It's just weird. And so all they see religion as sacrifice and no benefit that comes from that, other than some sort of a security blanket that when I die, that maybe I'll go to heaven. And it leads to apostasy.

And he says from his study, he's not saying that every generation, every family falls into that, but even just the years that I've been a pastor and a Christian, I've seen that. In Revelations chapter 2, 4 to 5, you know that passage when he is warning the church of Ephesus.

He said, "I have this against you, that you have left your first love." Left. In NIV, it says, "You have forsaken." Forsaken is more of the translation. It wasn't just something that happened. It wasn't an accident. You didn't just lose it. He says, "You deliberately have forsaken it." You know what's interesting?

Book of Revelation was written in 96 AD, which means it was about 60 years removed from the resurrection of Christ. So it's about three generations where you have children, parents, and grandparents, maybe still alive. Maybe the first generation have already passed away. Second generation are the ones who are leading the church, and then the congregants are the third generation.

He says to them, "You're doing all the right things. You test the apostles to see if they're true, and you do not tolerate false doctrine. So you know on paper what to do." But he says, "You have forsaken your first love. Your hearts are far from me." And then he says, "Therefore remember from which you have fallen." He doesn't say to innovate.

He doesn't say to find new ways to worship God. He says, "Remember the height from which you have fallen. Remember when you were younger. Remember when you first met Christ, when he meant everything to you? Every time you heard someone else's testimony, how it stirred you because it reminded you of your own testimony?

Remember when you first became a Christian, you were so eager to share the gospel to other people because you can't possibly imagine even strangers coming into the judgment of God? Remember how you dedicated your summers to go overseas to places that are uncomfortable? That you were open if God called you to full-time missions?

How you were willing to do all of that? But you can't remember now the last time you wept for the lost. You can't remember the last time you pleaded on your knees for even your family members who may not be Christians. That our hearts have drifted so far away that we don't remember.

So we just revert back to religiousness. We just do what we're told to do. And yet we know that our hearts have drifted so far. See, the communion table was given to us for that purpose because he knew our tendency to drift. He knew our tendency to forget. He knew our tendency to be wrapped up in our lives and just do what we're supposed to do with no real power.

If done correctly, it's supposed to revive us, renew us, and refresh us. That we would continue what we had from the beginning. Number two, if done correctly, it causes us to examine ourselves carefully. It leads us to repentance. In 1 Corinthians 11, 27-32, it says, "Therefore, whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord." In an unworthy manner.

Again, this is just religiousness. Whether you do it or don't do it, I mean, yeah, great. I mean, you showed up today and we're going to have grape juice and this little chip that we have in here. So if you have it, oh, you did it. If you didn't do it, it means nothing.

You're not going to see any difference today, tomorrow, or any day. It says here, if you participate in a day because they participate in an unworthy manner, he said, verse 28, "But a man must examine himself and in so doing, he is to eat the bread and drink of the cup for he who eats and drinks and eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body correctly." In other words, if you don't understand the sacredness of what this is, that this is not just grape juice, this is not just some piece of bread, but this symbolizes his blood.

This symbolizes his flesh. And if you participate in an unworthy manner, he says, you are deliberately, willfully bringing upon judgment upon yourself. In fact, the early church, people were actually falling sick. And then some say, he says, they were falling asleep, which means they were dying. Imagine how seriously we would take communion if that was happening today.

If we took it today and then some of you are just vomiting, running to the bathroom. Even if one person died, out of seven, eight hundred people, even if one person died, my guess is next time we have communion, there's going to be some seriousness. There's going to probably be a church early praying, repenting, examining that you make sure that you're not participating in an unworthy manner.

But here's the issue. We don't see it happening. I don't remember the last time I saw somebody who got sick and said, "Oh, it's communion." I didn't take it seriously. Like somebody passed away, it's like, "Oh, it was an unworthy manner. They didn't judge the body correctly, so they died." We haven't seen that.

But let me ask you a question. Are you sure that's not happening? It's just a question. It's just a question. Don't call me a heretic. It's just a question. What if God is actually disciplining the church, but you just haven't connected the dots? What if a sickness that was coming on maybe didn't happen that hour?

Maybe it happened way later. What if it wasn't sickness? What if there was trouble in your life? Turmoil in your marriage? Struggle with your children? What if that was a result of an unworthy participation of the Lord's table? We just haven't connected the dots. Now I'm not saying that that is, because I can't prove to you that that is, because I don't have any revelation that that is.

But what I do know is that's what it says that happens in the church, in the early church. And maybe they didn't even know. Maybe that's why Paul is saying, "Some of you are falling asleep, and you don't know, but that's as a result of your unworthy manner." Maybe some of them didn't know that that was the connection, and that's why Paul is pointing that out and telling them, "You don't realize the sickness and the trouble that you're having is because you're participating in an unworthy manner." Imagine the revival that would break out in the church.

Unconfessed sins that we will bring to the forefront. People who are lukewarm, who just kind of let it be because we're busy. How much that would affect the church if we actually approached the communion table the way it is established in the early church. That's what it was meant to do.

If you don't believe it, all this is nonsense. Just nonsense. I come to church, and this guy's making a big deal about communion. This guy's making a big deal because as long as I go to church, it's a personal relationship. As long as I have a relationship with God, all this doesn't matter.

Of course it matters. It's in the Bible. What I read to you is straight out of the Bible. The communion table was meant for us to take time to examine ourselves carefully. Am I walking right with God? Is my confession true? Have I swept sin underneath the rug and just forgotten about it?

I don't see any consequence. Even though there's all kinds of turmoil in your life, you just don't connect it to the fact that maybe it could be as a result of a discipline from our Father. The Bible clearly says that those whom He loves, He disciplines. You don't recognize even when you get disciplined that this is discipline from God.

You seek counsel. You seek direction. You seek like right things, right decisions, and you seek people. But did you ever consider maybe it's a discipline from God to bring us, to make us desperate, to remind us, to get on our knees, to pray, and to cry out to God, to take our sins seriously?

Could be. At the minimum, we should consider it because it's in the Bible. Thirdly, done correctly, it restores and unites the fellowship of the body. First Corinthians 11, 18-22. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear the divisions exist among you and in part, I believe it.

For there must also be factions among you so that those who are approved may become an evident among you. Therefore, when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in your eating, each one takes his own supper, and one is hungry and the other is drunk.

And he says that if you come and you don't consider the other people in your church, he says you're not judging the body correctly. That's not Lord's supper. There's a reason why we don't take the Lord's supper, we don't take the communion in our homes. Because it was meant to be done in the context of the body of Christ.

This is not something personal and romantic that you do between two people. This is meant to be done in the context of the body of Christ. Because part of the meaning behind it is that you and I are all one. We're one. So when you say, I like these people but I don't like those people.

I want to spend time with them but those people I don't like. These people, I don't like the way they talk. Those people I have nothing in common. You know, I want to stick with my friends. When you do that, you may not be saying that but what you're doing is, I want to stick around with other mouths.

I'll tolerate the hair because it's close. Feet, no. No thank you. I don't like feet. Like fingers, I don't like fingers. Something near the mouth. I can tolerate that. So you come to church, especially as the church gets bigger, you have a sphere of friends that you can tolerate.

Anybody you don't tolerate, they're like acquaintances but they're not family. So I don't feel any obligation to love them. I can tolerate them but to love them, I'm not obligated. So we make a tight group of friends. And we practice everything that we're taught. Hey, I love them. You have to be patient with them but only with these people.

Outside of this that I've created, that's not my response. The church is too big anyway. God only called me to these people. By doing so, you're being disobedient. We're a family of God whether we're 60 or 600 or 6,000. The only criteria for my brothers to be my brothers is that we have same parents.

I mean, one could be athletic, the other one may be rich or poor or someone maybe, you know, like to joke around, the other one's serious. But we don't say, "Oh, my brother doesn't like joking around so he's not my brother. I like playing basketball but he doesn't play basketball so that's not my brother." No, the only criteria for them to be my brother is that we have same parents.

It's no different in the church. They are my brothers as long as they have the same father, which is God. And if that is the case, then everything that the Bible tells me applies to that person. Imagine the early church. The early church had Jews and Gentiles in the same church, right?

They hated each other for centuries and because of the resurrection of Christ, they were together. Imagine how difficult that must have been. I don't think that Christ resurrected and all of a sudden this benevolent love came over themselves and all that. I love these Jews. All that time of trying to avoid us and calling us unclean and filthy pagans, like, yeah, just disappear.

You think it just disappeared? I don't think so. They did it in obedience but it exists. You know how I know that it exists? Because the very first problem that came into the early church was that the Jews were not feeding the Hellenistic widows. They considered them compromised because they started adapting to the Greek culture and they said, "Well, you guys are not as bad as the Gentiles but might as well because you compromise," and they wouldn't feed them.

And that was not a small problem because if you don't feed the widows, what happens? They get annoyed, irritated. They die. So if they didn't deal with this problem in a wise manner, it could have completely divided the church from the get-go. And in fact, every letter that's written in the New Testament addresses that issue between Jews and Gentiles, Jews and Gentiles, that we're one, we're one, we're one, because they had such a hard time bringing them together.

But yet they did it. And the slave owners, I mean, think about that. Think how difficult that would have been to go to someone's dinner and have the slave owner sitting there and the one who ran off coming for dinner. Maybe the slave became more mature and he became a leader in the church and he's directing the dinner and the slave owner who used to own this guy is sitting there having to submit to his leadership.

Imagine what that would have done to the church. It would have ruined the church. The rich and the poor. I mean, in our generation, we have the poor in one town and rich in another town. You know why that happens? Years ago when I was actively in homeless ministry, when I used to take the students out to feed the homeless, it was a very popular ministry.

People say, "Oh, we get to go to homeless and we come back, we fed the homeless and then we go back, play basketball, we go to our normal lives." Well, I had an idea to bring them to church. And so we had guys who were off the street and they, you know, they're mentally fine, but they didn't have any money.

But once they came into our community, it completely changed. Because every time they have to go eat, they have to pay for him. He doesn't have a car, so you got to pick him up. He can't afford clothes, so you got to buy him clothes. We want to play basketball, he didn't have shoes, so we have to buy him shoes.

So they couldn't talk about normal things that they would talk about. "Oh, let's go get Boba." You can't say that when he's around because he can't afford Boba unless somebody's going to feed him. So it was one thing to temporarily be uncomfortable over there, but once they come here, it's like, "Ah." And they couldn't articulate it, but people were not happy about it because it just disturbed their peace.

How much of that happens here in our church? And I'm not talking about homelessness. There's certain people that make you feel uncomfortable. Maybe it's the way they talk. Maybe it's their background. Maybe it's their socioeconomics, that is. Maybe it's their personality. Maybe it's their family. Maybe it's where they came from.

Maybe it's their age. Maybe it's their experience. Maybe you're a Dodgers fan and a bunch of Angels fans. It could be as frivolous as something like that. How much of our friendship and our unity is based upon, "I like him, I don't like him. He just says things, I don't like that." And so we comment, "You've created your own community within the community." He says, "When you do that, that's not the Lord's table that you're participating in.

You're just eating. You're just drinking grape juice. You're just participating. You're just having a piece of chip in your mouth. That's all it is." But when done correctly, when done correctly, we examine ourselves carefully. Am I doing that? Am I guilty of that? Do I see them as my brothers in Christ?

There's reasons why God put us all together. In the church, we have young and the old. We have some who are educated, some are not. Some are successful, some may not be. Some who are poor, some are not. We have various backgrounds, various cultures, and there are some people who are sitting around you.

If you weren't a Christian, you would never cross paths. And you would never want to cross paths, because you have nothing in common outside of Christ. So the moment that we begin to drift away from Christ, it begins to get highlighted you have nothing in common with Him. So as soon as you stop talking about Jesus, there's nothing to talk about.

There's nothing to talk about. You don't have the same interests. You're not similar in age. You don't have similar backgrounds. You don't have similar personalities. You don't get each other's jokes. And so as soon as you stop talking about Jesus, all the differences become highlighted. There's a remedy to that.

There's a clear and simple remedy to that. Don't stop talking about Jesus. Don't take Jesus out of your relationship. Make Christ central, because the only reason why we're here together, that brings all of us together, is because of Christ. So the moment we begin to drift away from Christ, we begin to talk about all our differences, all the things that causes me to think that, you know, it's going to be hard for me to be around you.

So the communion table is meant to bring us back together again and again and again and again. It is not within our power, but it is our natural instinct to find our communities, our niche. It goes against our nature to be surrounded by people that make us uncomfortable, and yet that's the power of the cross.

One of the greatest witnesses in the early church was their fellowship. Why is a slave owner and a slave? Why did the Jews and the Gentiles, even to this day, the secular scholars can't understand how the church got started. So they'll say blanket statement, "Oh, it's because they're all poor." And then they realize Barnabas and all these people who are rich sold their land and they spread it out.

It's like, "Okay, they weren't all poor." "Oh, it was all because they were up this political things." And then they do some research and realize that wasn't the case. Oh, the Jews and the Gentiles, like, how did they get together? They don't have an answer. So the power of the early church was their fellowship.

The people who would have hated each other got together and called each other brothers and sisters in Christ and loved one another deeply. Let me ask you, because I'm at the end of this, how much of your life you've created to make you comfortable? How much of your life have you created to glorify God?

Let me ask you that question again. How much of the life that you've created, even inside the church, even as we're active, was created to make you feel comfortable, make your children feel comfortable? How much of the decisions that you're making, how much of the money that you're spending is about building up the church in the body of Christ?

When somebody is weak in the church, the strong is responsible to care for them, to come alongside them, to be patient with them, sometimes have to rebuke them, but to come alongside them, not to stiff-arm them, but to learn how to care for those who are weak, instead of just pointing fingers.

How do we learn patience? How do we bring our family together so that we can be a greater witness for Christ? Fourth and finally, when done correctly, it proclaims the gospel until He comes. The word "proclaim," kata angelo, basically means "intense proclamation." It basically means to keep the major, major, and minor, minor, which means you and I have a tendency, every generation, and I've seen maybe about two or three huge movements come along just during the period that I've been a pastor, and every time these movements come, people jump on board, "Oh, this is what the church needs to be.

This is what we have to do." The latest movement in our generation was the social justice movement, with all that was going around the world and saying, "We need to do this. How come we're not doing this?" The problem wasn't that we should care for the poor. Of course we should care for the poor.

Of course we should care about sex trafficking and all that has gone wrong. But when that replaces the gospel, when the movement and what's going on around the world causes us to stray from the real power of God, all you've done is commit to put a band-aid on cancer.

And the only answer to this fallen world is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Poverty exists because of sin. Sex trafficking happens because of sin. Racism happens because of sin. Division happens because of sin. War happens because of sin. We're divided because of sin. Family marriages break apart because of sin.

The core of every human suffering is sin, and the only power to deliver mankind from sin is the gospel. Not politicians, not money, not better organization, not the right politicians in the right place, but it's the power of God. Foolishness to the world, to those who are perishing, but power of God for those who are being saved.

So the communion puts the gospel and constantly reminds us to put Christ at the center. Love people, be generous, work, vote, do all of that thing, but never forget that the true power is in the blood and the body of Christ. So this morning, as we participate in the communion table, as I ask the praise team to come up to prepare, I pray that you would take a few minutes to reflect.

Take every part of what you heard this morning seriously. Have you come into this room this morning completely distracted? The thought of communion was the last thing on your mind? Let's get this over with, because I got an appointment, and you drifted, and Christ is not central. To take some time to ask the Lord to get you focused on Christ, that maybe you've taken your eyes off of Him, or you have a hazy vision of who He is, to fix your eyes upon Christ.

Take this opportunity to ask the Lord that it would fix my eyes upon Christ, the author and perfecter of my faith. When's the last time you prayed, "Search me and know me, try me and see if there's any anxious thoughts in me, and see if there's any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way." When's the last time you came before the Lord, not just asking to change your circumstance, but change your heart, change your attitude, change your perspective, change your compromise, things that you just kind of allowed.

Search me, Lord, see if there's any hurtful ways in me, and be ready to confess that and put that behind. Is there bitterness, division, people you've stiff-armed, you've allowed, because you intensely love this person, that you excuse not loving the other person? Have one side of obedience, you've justified the disobedience on this other side?

Is there division in your heart to come before the Lord, to participate in a worthy manner, to recognize the whole body of Christ, not just the ones that you've selected? Is the gospel central? Is it truly central? Or is it just an addendum of your life? After you've done everything, after you've pursued everything, and then you sprinkle some Jesus on all of it, or is it central?

Is what's major, major, minor, minor, or has that been flipped? Let's take a few minutes to come before the Lord and ask the Lord to let the communion have the effect that it was meant to have, and to revive our hearts, renew our hearts, unite the church, and keep Christ centered.

So I'm going to give you a few minutes to pray, get ready, and then I'll call everybody together and we'll participate in the communion together. So let's take some time to pray first.