2024-09-08 - "The Lord's Table" - Bro. James Ruffin

[Music] m this is what stay up here [Music] away my CR [Music] chair always chair chair J [Music] that's good morning good morning church so glad that you are here this morning and we're excited for what the Lord has in store and uh we're we're about to Worship in in just a moment but just a quick few announcements before we get started I want to do it at the beginning um this morning um but first of all just uh if you received a worship God when you came in a bulletin when you came in take a look there's several announcements I'm just highlighting a few first off is our oill Bunch we'll be meeting this Tuesday at 2:00 to go sing at at two different nursing homes you see that there in the listings I encourage you to come and be a part of that see that there's a bridal shower um on Sunday September 15th at 3:00 forlo again and Justin Irby and so excited to be able to love on them and celebrate with them and you see where they are registered there and then also just want to encourage you about our candy donation and sign up to help for our fall festival if you haven't already signed up to serve and if you're interested in doing so please do so as soon as possible we we'll be uh gearing up and and getting those details knocked out soon so go ahead and sign up or if you are able to donate candy um for for the festival so we definitely would appreciate that um but those are the announcements you see there's others in there um to highlight as well um but just wanted to uh specifically highlight those few Church As We Gather this morning in worship um as you can tell we we are excited um for the day as we get to Worship in a unique way the way that the Lord called us to in the Lord's Supper um and and the first song that we are going to sing is there is a fountain a very wellknown him but I do think that sometimes we lose sight of the fact that we're talking about a fountain of blood and to Outsiders that may seem odd or strange but to Believers what we hear when we hear there is a fountain of blood that flows from Emmanuel's veins is that is declaring that that blood of Jesus that he shed on the cross for us is the way through through which we are made clean and whole amen made wide as snow so we gather this morning to reflect to remember to rejoice and to give thanks for what Christ has done and so if you're willing and able let's let's Stand Together As we sing [Music] there is a [Applause] [Music] with and S must that L all the loose all the guil Lo all that guilty and S L all the you he s [Music] rej to see this is why and there may I and see all my sins away was all my sins away all my S there may I see my SS away let's sing it out was all my sins [Music] away all my away and may I see all my S [Music] I was AR I remember I was I was lost I was blind I was running out of time s separated the prach from the of the C you hel me in your side so you made a way across the Great Divine left behind Heaven home bu here inside at the cross you P the de I broke my chains free my soul for the I [Music] am thank you Jesus for the thank you Jesus [Music] has thank you Jesus you have Sav my life brought me from the darkness into glorious [Music] you took my place laid inside the empty you are buried for 3 days and then you walked right out again and now has see and has for I have been transformed by the blood of the Lamb thank you Jesus for the thank you [Applause] Jesus be thank you Jesus you have my brought me from the darkness into glor let's sing out Church there's nothing strong there is stronger than the wondering power of the the son and da we are Ransom by of all the the the there is nothing stronger than the wondering power [Applause] [Music] of all the sons and da wey our heart [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you Jesus for the blood of [Music] CH thank you Jesus it has me than you Jesus you have dark me from the darkness into glorious glory to his name glory to his there to my heart was the blood of Glory to sing sing glory glory to glory to [Music] his to my heart was a blood of GL to [Music] his amen church I'm going to ask if you would be seated as we continue to worship scripture declares in in First Corinthians chapter 11 verses 26 through 28 says for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord let a person examine himself then and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup so as Mr Yaki plays this is a moment for you to pause in light of what we have just declared in song Let Us spend some time in confession in Thanksgiving wherever you may be this morning let it be between you and the Lord as we continue to worship as we prepare to partake in the supper together let's pray together [Music] [Music] sh [Music] for [Music] as Caleb indicated the scripture is found in 1 Corinthians iians chap 11 I hope you have your Bible open to that passage and especially verses 23- 28 a priest announced to his congregation that he was going to preach on the love of God the next Sunday morning and so when Sunday morning came the cathedral was filled to capacity as everybody in the congregation came to hear the priest's sermon on the love of God he had the lights turned down low and there was a statue on the platform of Jesus on the cross the priest lit a candle and he walked up to the Statue and he held the candle up to the thorn on the brow of Jesus and then he moved the candle down to illumin the nail in the hand and then the nail in the hand on this side and then he moved the candle down to the feet to show the nails that were holding the feet of Jesus to the cross the priest blew out the candle and walked out that was his sermon on the love of God showing the cross the death of Jesus as we come today to observe the ordinance of the Lord's Supper we come to focus on the love of God because it was the love of God that put Jesus there 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 the Lord's Supper is a time of remembrance and you find that mentioned twice in the scripture in verse 24 the Lord Jesus Took bread gave thanks broke it and said this is my body which is for you this do in remembrance of me in the same way he also took the cup cup after supper and said this cup is the New Covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me so twice the Apostle Paul tells us that Jesus called the disciples to remember as they observed that first Lord's Supper this was a sacrifice the death of Jesus was a sacrifice and we sometimes forget that it was a voluntary sacrifice all of the Roman armies could not have put Jesus on the cross if he had not wanted to go he could have called thousands of angels down from heaven to deliver him from those who were hang in him on the cross but he did not and so that death that sacrifice was voluntary he was there because he wanted to be there as awful as it was as agonizing as it was as painful as it was he was there voluntarily is our sacrifice on the cross on March the 15th 1985 Kenneth welburn appeared on the Today's Show and that date was particularly significant because it was the anniversary of when he was wounded in the second world war one of the first American soldiers to cross over into Germany and a German threw a grenade that landed close to him and wounded him knocked him down he shot the Roman he shot the German Soldier but a machine gun opened up not far away and because he was wounded he couldn't get up and run or find shelter but a friend a fellow Soldier threw his body over Kenneth welburn and saved his life and so he appeared on The Today Show 40 years later and with a choking voice he said I can never forget what my friend did for me he saved my life he threw himself through his body over my body to protect me from that machine gun fire he saved my life I'll never forget it well as we think about the cross of Jesus he saved us he sacrificially hung on that cross and it is through his blood that our sins can be washed away and so today we come to remember the sacrifice now a lot of churches especially rural churches have a cemetery and sometime during the year they have a Memorial Day my home Church up in North Mississippi the Memorial Day for them every year is Mother's Day and churches have different different times where people come and put flowers on the graves and remember their loved ones who are buried there and we have have a National Memorial Day the last of May every year it started after the Civil War and it had has become over the years a time for us to specifically remember the men and women who have died in the service of our country and we remember them on that day well today is a memorial day when we remember Jesus and and we remember his death and we remember what he did for us the Lord's Supper is a time of remembrance and secondly the Lord's Supper is a time of reflection and I want to call your attention to a word that's found in verse 28 so a man should examine himself now that word examine means to put to the test it means that we are to reflect on our lives and we are to see what's in our lives that should not be there it is a time of reflection when maybe we need to confess some things to God maybe we need to repent of some things as we reflect on our lives but we don't only want to reflect on the things that maybe we've done we shouldn't have done we need to also reflect on those things that we should be doing that we're not doing reflection goes both ways are we faithful are we faithful to our church are we faithful to witness for the Lord Jesus are we faithful to minister to people to care for those who are hurting this is a time of reflection ction but not only the things we do that we don't shouldn't do the things we're do and we shouldn't do but also the manner in which we observe the supper so a man should examine himself in this way he should eat of the bread and drink of the cup there were some people in the church at carth that were misusing the Lord's Supper they didn't have church buildings of course so they met in homes and some of them were drinking so much wine they were getting drunk and some of them were misbehaving as they observed the Lord's supper and what a terrible thing that was for them to to not observe the Lord's Supper in the proper way so as we come today we must come with great reverence we come worshiping we come with a worshipful Spirit we come with a spirit of gratitude and we we come to the table with great reverence because the Lord's Supper is a time of reflection thirdly the Lord's Supper is a Time of rejoicing in verse 24 it says that when Jesus was leading that first Lord's Supper that he gave thanks an attitude of gratitude and in Matthew's account of the Lord's Supper he says at the close of it they sang A Hymn which was probably a PSAL so there was gratitude and there was singing there was rejoicing and so today we Rejoice because our sins are forgiven and comeing into the table and partak in of the juice and the bread reminding us of the blood and the broken body of Jesus and we realize that through that we have the opportunity to receive Jesus as our savior and his blood covers our sin and we are forgiven up in Pennsylvania there is a Simeon family and they have huge truck Farm where they raise all kind of vegetables they have huge Orchards where they grow all kind of fruits and they at first they they fixed a little stand out on the road so people could stop by and buy their produce but it grew so so many people were coming by that they had to expand and they built a large building and they also brought in some antique farming equipment that people would like to stop by and see so that business just flourished and they had people coming from all over the country to see their produce bu produce to see the antique farming equipment well one morning the sbian family was getting up and getting ready to start their day and they got a phone call and the person on the other end of the phone said that President Bush was going to be touring in their area that day and he wanted to come by their produce market you can imagine what that would do to your schedule and to your thinking for your day if you got a call that the president and his folks were going to be coming by to see you so they rushed around get everything ready well there was a little girl who was in school and they thought well you know it would be worth her missing school today to meet the president and so they let her stay home where the president came right on schedule looked over the produce and the farming equipment and everything and he was introduced to the girl told that she met school today just to see him so he got a piece of paper and got out his pen and he wrote an excuse for her to give the teacher actually it was a pardon she was pardoned from school that day because of the president's visit and he gave that to them and they laughed and they took it and the president went on his way well they made a photocopy of that letter and they sent the photo copy to the teacher and they kept the real thing it was a presidential pardon well we have a greater pardon than that we have a greater pardon than that the Cross of Christ is our pardon and we have forgiveness in him so we rejoice in forgiveness and we also rejoice in the fact that we proclaim the Lord's death look in verse 26 as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim the Lord's death you are sharing the gospel you proclaim the Lord's death you you make it known to others and that's our task as Christians that's our task ask as a church that we proclaim the gospel we make it known to other people so we Rejoice because of forgiveness we Rejoice because we proclaim the gospel and we Rejoice because of the return Jesus is coming back look at that 26th verse proclaim the Lord's death until he comes so you see the Lord's Supper is also about the Resurrection it's not just about the cross and the death of Christ it's also about the resurrection because the scripture says you show the Lord's death till he comes well if he's coming back he's alive he's alive today he's on the right hand of God he's standing by the Throne of God right now and Jesus is coming back he's alive now I don't know when Jesus is coming but the Bible teaches that he he could come any time he could come before we finish today he could come while we're eating lunch he could come during the afternoon he could come tomorrow the important thing is that we be ready whenever he comes and that we look forward to that coming we rejoice in the fact that he is coming again so the Lord's Supper is a time of remembrance a time of reflection and a time of rejoicing sometimes married couples have a renewal of vows Ceremony this is especially something that people do on their 50th wedding anniversary when uh they'll they'll have a pastor come to their anniversary celebration and Lead them in a renewal of vows it's a way of renewing their love for each other their commitment to each other it it's a very very meaningful thing well today as we partake of the Lord's Supper May each of us renew our vows May each of us renew our love may each of us renew our commit commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ one lady said whenever I observe the Lord's Supper it just makes me love Jesus more and it should we renew our vows and we love him more would you bow your heads with me Father we thank you for the ordinance of the Lord's supper and as we partake of the bread and the juice reminders of a broken body and shed blood may we renew our love our commitment to our Lord Jesus Christ just now may we be still reverent may this be a holy and blessed time in the precious name of Jesus Jesus we pray amen for for [Music] for [Music] [Music] Jesus gathered in an upper room to observe the Passover with his disciples and it was at the close of that Passover feast that he instituted what we have come to call the Lord's Supper Jesus Took bread and he passed it around so each of the disciples had a piece and he said this is my body which is to be broken for you and after a prayer of thanks they did eat may we now bow our heads for a prayer of thanks for the broken body of Our Lord Our Father we pause to remember and to thank you for the cross of Calvary for the death of our Lord Jesus who through his sacrifice paid for our sins and we pray in that name which is above every name Jesus Christ Our Lord amen may we now partake of the symbol of the broken body of Our Lord for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for for [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] then Jesus Took the cup and he looked into it and he said this is the New Testament of my blood which is to be shed for you drink ye all of it and as often as you do so do it in remembrance of me and after a prayer of thanks they did drink may we now bow our heads for a prayer of thanks for the shed blood of Our Lord Our Father we thank you for the shed blood of Jesus we thank you for the love that put him there and kept him there and we thank you that that love still extends to us even today and we pray in Jesus name Amen Let Us prot take together of the symbol of the shed blood of Our Lord then the Bible says that Jesus and his disciples stood together they sang A Hymn and they went out into the night so we're going to stand and sing A Hymn these men here at the front will move over to one side and if you feel impressed of the Holy Spirit to come receiving Jesus Christ as your savior are uniting with this church family by transfer of membership or rededicating your life or any decision the Lord lays upon your heart maybe you want to come to the Altar and pray we invite you to come so let's Stand Together As we sing [Music] Grace how sweet the sound that save the rich like me I want was lost but [Music] now was but now I see what Grace that all my heart to feel and Grace my fears [Music] Rel how preious be that Grace of we are on first my chains are gone I've been S free my God my savior his Ransom me and like a BL his [Music] Mercy unending love amazing gra my chains are gone I've been set free my God my savior has ransomed me and like a his Mercy [Music] unending [Music] love [Music] amazing amen Lord Lord Jesus Christ we thank you for the privilege to honor what we've done here today Lord Jesus we thank you for shedding your blood giving your body Lord Jesus for each one of us we pray Lord Jesus if there's been Souls Chang and Minds Chang Lord Jesus that make that commitment to you today Lord Jesus we thank you for everything that you've done for us and everything that you're going to do for us in the future in your mighty name I pray amen [Music]