So the Last Supper, you know, when we read it in the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, okay, we read basically what I had just shared with you. But when you go to the Gospel of John, chapter 13 through 17, you have all these other things that occurred during the Last Supper. And I think that's where a lot of times, you know, people think, okay, Jesus, he took the bread, he broke it, he said, this is my body, he took the cup, right, he said, this is my blood. There are so many other dynamics that are going on with the Last Supper that again, really apply to us and speak to our hearts. So it's again, it's filled, it's just filled with wealth. The entire story of the Last Supper, it's an opportunity to really enter in and to put into practice and enter into a greater peace, a greater joy, a greater love in the Lord. So we started last week, we covered four things. I'm gonna cover four things with you today. The first thing we looked at last week, this truly amazing, this is to me, just such an amazing thing that Jesus did. It's mind blowing and he washed the disciples' feet. This is God, the creator, Elohim, the sustainer, the Lord of all. who was incarnate in Jesus Christ, became a man and then washed the dirty, filthy feet of sinners. And he gives us this and he says, this is an example that this is what we are to do. This is our purpose in life, to go and to serve other people, to minister to other people. Then the second thing that we looked at is the koinonia, the interaction between man and God And man and man, this thing, koinonia, it's called fellowship, it's called communion. And it could be absolutely one of the most painful things in life and also one of the most joyful things in life, right? Think of most of the pain we experience as human beings occurs from what? From other human beings. And the greatest joys we experience as human beings occurs from what? From other human beings. So it is this very daring adventure that God calls us into this thing again called koinonia and I'm really glad to see the church. The church is filled and I'm glad for that. As we fill up the last remaining seats we're going to have to now again begin thinking about going to another service. So I'm just very glad that you're coming out. Because what has happened in the church since COVID all across the United States, we are losing koinonia and what we have is zoomonia. And so there are people today who stay home. Now look, if they're sick, God bless you. If you're, you know, you're having a hard time getting out of bed, we have people who are ill. God bless you that you're, you know, a part of our service today. We have people in other parts of the country who are watching this, other parts of the world. And that's good. But I would say to everyone, if you're not plugged into a church, that's not good. So we're really grateful that you're here and you're being a part of our service. I know that, look, a lot of churches are not preaching the gospel anymore. They're preaching little self-help messages, giving little anecdotes. So it's good that you're partaking of us and joining in, but that is not koinonia, that is zumonia. By the way, Zumonia took over in England. The church is dead in England. The church is dying in America. I hope you understand that. Christianity is that there are right now for the first time since the start of the United States of America, there are less than 50% of people who claim to be Christians for the first time in our history at this time. So we are becoming much more of a pagan. I mean, you can see that. You see it with everything going on. But again, I see people that are so, they're so offended at what's going on. Yet again, they're Zumonia Christians instead of Koinonia Christians. And I hope some of you are getting convicted right now. I'll say that, I'll say this to you because you are a part of the problem. We need to meet together. And by the way, if you are truly a Christian, the Holy Spirit will be yearning in you for fellowship. I wanna assure you of that. And if you don't have that yearning for that fellowship, I would stop and ask yourself, are you truly born again and you're saved and have the Holy Spirit within you? Because I can tell you this, when we get away from this fellowship, and sometimes we're traveling. If I miss a Sunday or I miss a Wednesday, and I missed some Sundays and Wednesdays when I was battling this virus, my soul begins to yearn. And that's the spirit in me yearning for the koinonia in the church. And if you're not experiencing that, is the spirit of God dwelling in you? because there should be that yearning to be here, right? We like to be here. We like to be together. We like to fellowship together with Bible studies, all the different things, the servant things that we do, the things we go out and do, the partnership, just meeting sometimes one-on-one with your brothers and sisters in Christ, that again, that is something that the Holy Spirit, he yearns for. So again, they had koinonia and not zumonia, okay? The Laodicean church, the last church in history, I believe, in Revelation chapter three, read about it. Revelation three, a Laodicea, that's the period we're in right now here in America. And I believe, again, that's a Zumaonia church. You can quote me, I invented it. I haven't had an original thought in my whole life. I had an original thought, I coined it Zumaonia. Okay, then Jesus, he shared the promise. And he shared the promise of the indwelling of the Spirit of God. Right? We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. And God dwells within us. And that is one of the greatest privileges and honors that we can experience in this life as human beings. And then the fourth thing that I looked at last week was Jesus, again, his challenge, abide in me. And he said, if you will abide in me, you will bear what? And then he said, you will not only bear fruit, but more fruit. And then he said, not only will you bear fruit and more fruit, then he said, you will bear much fruit, right? You're gonna become fruity, okay? We need fruity people in the church. fruitful people filled with the fruit of the spirit, filled with the fruit of good works, filled with the fruit of praise and the fruit that comes from our lips that brings life to other people instead of death. So the fifth one is the guarantee. So Jesus gives us a guarantee. This is something, when a company gives you a guarantee, Sometimes the guarantees aren't so guaranteeing. Jesus gives us a guarantee here and you can count on it. I was talking to somebody this past week and this is somebody who claims that they were walking with the Lord for years. And as I'm talking with them, they're kind of like, they're expressing their doubts about Jesus and about the word. And almost like trying to bait me into weaning in with them and I just I began to laugh because I want to tell you that my faith is so grounded and so solidified and so rooted in my relationship with Jesus and just the reality of his revelations to me on a daily basis and me experiencing him and seeing the fulfillment of what he said in the scriptures that are being fulfilled before my eyes every day in this world. Every day. I just see the prophecy unraveling before my eyes in the world around us with things that are coming to us through people, coming to us through media, coming to us through the internet. And I just laughed. because my faith is just becoming stronger and stronger. The guarantees of Jesus, right? His word you can count on. When he promises us something, it's going to be fulfilled. So he makes here a guarantee. Now the guarantee, it's a little bitter and a little sweet. It's got kind of a mixture of vinegar and honey in it. And here is the guarantee from John 1633 from the Last Supper. He says, these things I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. So he says that we can have what is called in the Greek, Irene, in the Hebrew it is Shalom. Shalom Irene is a word when most people think of peace, right? I'm in a place of calm. Shalom, Irene is a peace of mind. It is a peace of body. It is a peace of spirit is to be at peace with God. It is really a great interpretation of the word is it is wellbeing. That we can have this amazing wellbeing in this life of mind, of body, of spirit. Then he says, in the midst of that, you will have philipsis, you will have trouble. Pressure, translated anguish, persecution. Why do troubles come into our lives? Why do we experience tribulation? And I wanna share, there are three things that scripture tells us as to why we experience, well, you call it suffering, you can call it pain, you can call it difficulties, you can call it challenges, you can call it problems. One is that we reap what we sow. So Galatians 6, 7, for whatever a person sows, he also reaps, it's repeated over and over and over. Some people are really good at bringing trouble into their lives. Have you ever noticed that? Like just there's some people it's like they just are continuously everyday stepping in poop. It seems like it just follows them around. And they're basically creating, they're creating their own tribulation. They're creating their own troubles. Financial troubles, relational troubles, physical troubles, all kinds of troubles. Jack Pour used to be the host of the Tonight Show years ago. He said, if I could kick in the rear end the person who has caused me the most problems in my life, I wouldn't be able to sit down for a year. And I'll tell you, I think that's true of me. That most of the troubles I've experienced in my life, it wasn't the devil. It wasn't my personal enemy. It was me. Just the bad decisions, the bad choices that I've made. The book of Proverbs is filled, I read Proverbs every day, chapter a day. Chapter a day keeps a lot of tribulation away. It really does. And I read Proverbs every day, and Proverbs is just filled with, you know, wisdom. Wisdom, it's, the word is hachma in the Hebrew. It's practical knowledge. Practical knowledge. And the benefits that come, that through hachma, through wisdom, comes health, comes peace, comes joy, comes relationships that become strong, success in your career, success in finances, security, all of these wonderful blessings that come through this thing called wisdom. And when you harness wisdom, you know what, see, you begin to sew things into your body, into your relationships, into your career, into your relationship with God, and you begin to reap good things. But when you're sowing bad seed, you reap bad things. So sometimes we are just experiencing, we're experiencing tribulation and trouble in our life, and it basically is because we're sowing the wrong things. Second, second reason there's tribulation, 1 Peter 5.8, Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil is a roaring lion walking and seeking whom he may devour. We have an adversary, we have an enemy, his name is Satan, his name is the devil. And notice he seeks to devour us. In John 10.10 Jesus said the thief, right, that's Satan, does not come except to steal, to kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and to have it more abundantly." Notice, He is a thief. He comes to steal. He wants to steal away your salvation. He wants to steal away your joy. He wants to steal away your peace. He comes to steal. He comes to kill. He wants to kill your body. He wants to kill your soul. He wants to kill your spirit. And He comes to destroy. And He wants to destroy. He wants to destroy the precious things, the gifts that God has given us in our life. He wants to destroy your marriage. He wants to destroy your children. He wants to destroy your family. And he's active. And look, you don't need to be a rocket scientist or a brain surgeon to just look at the world and you see his destruction all around. He is the destroyer. People like, what amazes me, how many people I've met in the church, they look at the world as a playground. The world is not a playground. The world is a battleground. And we have an adversary, let me tell you, he's diligent, right? He's there to meet us every day. He wants to destroy us. And when we are yielding to him, when we are not obeying God, when we are not arming ourselves with the armor of God, right? He can bring a whole lot of trouble and tribulation into our lives. I'm gonna tell you, I wanna challenge you with something. I know we're called sheep. I don't wanna be a sheep. I wanna be a sheep dog, okay? I'm really not interested in developing sheep at living word, never have been. God laid this on me, not just to build a church filled with people who claim to be Christians, but to build a church filled with people who are disciples of Jesus Christ and true followers of him. But there's a time right now we need to be sheepdogs and not merely be sheep. I'm going to do a series in the next few months. I'm gonna spend probably a few months on it, on the armor of God, because I believe that right now with where we are as a church in this world, we really need to understand the very armor of God. So again, second reason why we experience tribulation is because we have an enemy. Now third reason is because we live in a fallen world. And again, there are things that happen to us that we have not directly brought on ourself by sowing. And there are things that happen to us that are not always directly the work of Satan. We live in a fallen world where there is bacteria, there are diseases, There are natural disasters, tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, cyclones, earthquakes. We live in a world. Have you noticed that, right, this thing is decaying, right? Now, man, let me tell you, I work out. I eat really good. I get a good night's sleep. But no matter how hard I try, this thing is wasting away. It's wasting away day by day. But the inner man is being renewed. in a really wonderful way. I used to have hair like Stalin. I used to have hair like Al Sharpton, you know? When Al had hair. They were once, it was just like roving waves. And now it's a sandy beach. And that's not because of my sin. That's not, I don't think the devil made my hair fall out. But we live in a fallen world. And just sometimes just bad things happen. So in the midst of that, in the midst of trial, in the midst of tribulation, what does Jesus say? You can have peace. I wanna show you, this is a famous portrait It is basically, I think it's called Peace in the Storm. And you see this storm raging in this painting. I just want you to notice there's one place where there's a little bird nestled away in the rocks. Can you see it? Peace in the storm, right? Here's another, I'll make it a little bit bigger. Right there, right? Just we can have peace. And we, folks, we can. I don't know what you've experienced in your life in these last years. We have experienced tribulation. Okay? There has been some tribulation that has come into our lives, my family. And all I can tell you is in the midst of it, we have had Shalom. We have had Shalom. Or look at Paul, what Paul said in Romans chapter 8, 35 through 39. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, as it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long by tribulation. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter, yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. More than conquerors, we are victors through Jesus Christ in the midst of trials and tribulation. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. What shall separate us from the love of Christ in Christ Jesus? No thing, right? No thing. Nothing, nothing, nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ, right? That has come to us, right? That is peace in the midst of the storm. One day the storm will be over and then it will just be peace. All right, second, the prayer. So Jesus prays in John 17, and I want to encourage you to read this this week and meditate on it, but Jesus prays for himself, then he prays for the apostles, and then he prays for us. Do you ever know that Jesus prayed a prayer for you and for me? And in John 17, 20 through 23, I'm gonna look at the prayer. This is the third part of Jesus's prayer that he prayed for us. He says, I do not pray for these alone, meaning the apostles, but also for those who believe in me through their word, right? I don't know about you, but that's me. I came to believe in Jesus through the word of the apostles, right? Matthew and Mark and Luke and, right? The apostles that are, you know, wrote in the scriptures. Paul that they now watch what he what he prays here he prays that they all may be one as you father in me and I am in you that they also may be one that the world may believe that you sent me and the glory of which you gave me, I have given them, that they may be one, just as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them as you have loved me." Now, he's praying for us to be one. Why? What happens when we are one? Notice that the world may believe that you sent me." When the church is one, we are a force. When the church is divided, you know what we are? We are a force. The world looks in at us and mocks us. But when we are one, we become a force. So let me talk to you about this concept of being one. Philippians chapter two, one and two, it's a good little commentary, it says, If there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded. Altos fronio. Altos fronio. By being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Basically, being like-minded, right? We're all different. Look around this place. Very different church. Different colors, different cultures, different nationalities, different sexes. We're different. So he's not teaching here conformity. Okay, what he's teaching is this like-mindedness is essentially that we would have the same interest. And you all have different interests about different things, right? I have different interests than you. But there's one common interest, I think, that we all should have. And that is interest in what? In who? In Jesus. In his word. In doing his will. In glorifying him. In worshiping him. In proclaiming the gospel to the world. So this is not conformity. I've been in churches where you have conformity. where everybody dresses the same? I mean, I'm telling you, I went to churches, I thought I was in the twilight zone. I was waiting for Rod Sterling to come out and say, you are in the twilight zone. Some of you don't know what the twilight zone is. But I went to churches where everybody, right, they all dress the same. Churches, when I was preaching, when I started preaching years ago, all the men, right, you wear a suit or a jacket. All the women wear a dress. they always wore a flower and had their hair up. But that's conformity. And you look at churches, and this is something that has always bothered me. You have white churches, black churches. Did you ever hear that? Well, that's a white church, that's a black church, that's a Spanish church. I look at the scriptures, and I see that we are all called to be one in Jesus Christ. Look at the flags up behind you, because there's about 75 different nationalities here this morning. 75. And look around, you see all different shades, right? And I've been in churches where everybody's black. I've been in churches where everybody's Spanish. I had an interpreter. I've been in churches where everybody is white. And I don't think that's, you know, it. Sometimes when we've traveled, we've gone to churches where, again, it's one color. Boy, I love coming back here, and I just love, I love seeing multicolor. Because I think that's really what the Lord intended. So he's not advocating conformity here, where everybody is the same nationality or the same color, right? I mean, the church, a healthy church is made up of unique individual characters, characters. You know when you say that guy's a character? We have a lot of characters in this church. So it's again, it's not conformity. Right? It's that we share in Jesus. You know what? I just want to say this to you. You look at a lot of churches with conformity where, again, everybody looks the same. Everybody dresses the same. And everybody claims, right? They just claim to believe the same. Yet they can't explain their beliefs. And they couldn't show you in scripture, right, where the doctrine that they claim to believe is. All they're doing is parroting what the pastor says. So they don't think for themselves, right? They're not Bereans examining what's being said to see whether it's true or false. And we encourage you to do that. We encourage you to be Acts chapter 17, 11 of Berean because, right, they were more noble than the Thessalonians because when Paul was preaching, Paul the apostle was preaching and they checked to see if what he was teaching was true. That's what we encourage you to be. Go back and check to see if what's coming out of our pulpits, coming from our teachers, coming from our Sunday school teachers to your children to see if it's true. You have a response instead of sitting there again and just conforming. Right? I'm just, I'm just going to go. It's like sometimes the church, right? And we live in a society right now where it's all about conforming. You don't understand what woke you look at woke, woke was supposed to be. that basically it recognized differences. And that's not what it is. It's now you conform. You conform or we basically are gonna cancel you. You conform. So there's no place for free thought, free thinking, comparing different ideologies and believing in what you believe in. And that again, that's like most churches. I was talking to a pastor and it was like, If they don't believe in pre-tribulation, we don't want them here. And I'm a pre-tribulationist. I'm going to be teaching it on Wednesday night. But you've got to come. I started out, I was a post-tribulationist. Then I was a mid-tribulationist. Then I was a pre-rat-tribulationist. Now I'm a preacher, but I think I've grown wiser to come to that place. But I gotta tell you, boy, we need to have that freedom to be able to explore the scriptures and come to a place where we have truly wrapped our hearts and minds around our beliefs and we can articulate instead of just sitting there and saying, yeah, yeah, this is what the church believes, but I don't know where it is in the Bible. This is what the pastor says, but I don't know where it is in the Bible. And that again, that's conformity. We need to be one and come to be one right in our interests. I wanna show you, this is a funny commercial. I've been in churches that are similar to this commercial. This goes back, it's a Wendy's commercial from the 1980s. Wendy's had such great commercials. And I don't know if they're doing it anymore, but it's a mock on communism when Russia was completely communist. And I wanna share this. Can we have sound? This is good. What did I do? What happened here? I'm clicking on the window. There we go. Okay. I was clicking, but it wasn't coming up. Okay. I'm lost there. Let me come back. Pay attention, please. Thank you. Is next day where? Very nice. Is next evening where? Very nice. Very nice! Having no choice is no fun. That's why at Wendy's, every hamburger isn't dressed the same. You get your choice of fresh toppings, fresh tomatoes, fresh lettuce, fresh onions, cheese, bacon, and more. Having a choice is better than none. He's next! Swim there! That's conformity, that's communism. By the way, that's being pushed on us here in America right now. But it's in churches. Again, you go, I've been to that church where everybody wears the same thing. Very nice. So Jesus says that we should be one. But again, it's not conformity. It's there, we should be one in our interests with uniqueness. We're all unique individuals. We welcome you to be unique and come here to bring your cultures here, their nationalities, your own interests. And it's a beautiful thing, but we all share, right? That interest in the Lord. Now watch one other thing that Jesus prayed here. He says, father, I desire that they all say also whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. which you have given to me for you love me before the foundation of the world. Oh, righteous father, the world has not known you, but I have known you and these have known that you sent me and I have declared to them your name and I will declare it that the love which you love me may be in them and I in them. I want you just to look that they may behold his glory. How do we behold the glory of the Lord? Where do we see the glory of the Lord? in Yeshua. He is the glory of the Lord. His love, His grace, His holiness, His truth, His righteousness, His compassion, His mercy. And the ultimate place where we will truly experience the glory of the Lord, you see the glory of His sacrificial love as He hung on the cross and He died for us. Now watch, I wanna share this with you. We have an opportunity to experience the glory of the Lord. A day is coming when we will actually, He will impart His glory to us, and we will be glorified. Look at 1 John 3, 2, Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Notice that we shall be like Him. We're not gonna be God. Okay, there was only one God, Father, Son, and Spirit. What it describes, though, is we shall, again, be like Him. We will have glorified bodies like His. This is an incredible thing, because He was able to move through space and time, yet still be able to eat. We will have glorified minds, no more of the confusion, no more of the wandering thoughts. You know what I'm talking about? No more of the, I mean, our minds can be all over the place. We will have minds that are steadfast on Him, and we will have glorified spirits, where we will have perfect communion with God. we will be glorified. So right now, we're not in that place of glorification. That's something that is in the future for us. How many of you like Star Wars? Okay, look, half the hands went up in the church. Remember, I think it's the first Star Wars where Obi-Wan Kenobi is having that laser battle with Darth Vader, and all of a sudden, Obi-Wan, he does this, he stops, and he says, If you kill me, I will become something like, I'm paraphrasing, so if you're a Star Wars, he misquoted Star Wars, he's a Star Wars heretic, because I'm not a Star Wars buff. Okay, but I remembered as a kid, and it hit me, he stops and he says, if you kill me, you will make me more powerful, far beyond anything you could imagine. And I want you to think of that because When we are glorified, we will become more powerful. We will become more glorious, so far beyond what we are right now. Again, just look at Jesus when he was glorified. And that's something he prays for us, that we would be able to taste that glory right now. We can look on his glory. We can experience his glory by focusing on him, but we will be glorified and we will be glorified like him in the next life. So yesterday, Harriet Davis, one of the early Founders of Living Word Community Church. She's up at Valley Hospital and Sue and I went up there and Harriet was wonderful She's like a mother. She's a mother to us. She's been a mother to many of you Sunday school teacher here for years and She said to us that I just want to go home to be with the Lord So she's been a lot of pain. She's got this lung disease and she said I'm sick of being Stuck and prodded and you know, she just she wants to go home to be with the Lord. She's got strong faith She's been a Christian since a kid And I'm looking at her and she's frail, but I'm looking and I'm thinking as I'm looking at her right now, right? He's gonna come, he's gonna take her home, right, if this is his will, and she is going to receive such an incredible power. She is going to be, I don't know, a million times more powerful, more incredible than she is right now. And again, that's what Jesus prayed for us. Okay, number seven, the establishing. Okay? Mark chapter 14, 22 through 24. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread blessed and broken and gave it to them and said, take eat, this is my body. Then he took the cup. And when he had given thanks, he gave it to them and they all drank from it. And he said to them, this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you. So again, first he says, takes the bread and he says, this is my body. Or he gave his body for us. His bones were not broken. The Passover lambs' bones were not broken, but his body was broken. It was pierced. He was wickedly scourged. I want to tell you, I was reading this this morning. Let me just go off. I'm going to go off content here. You saw what happened down in Memphis, Tennessee. And it's very difficult. And I was reading Mark chapter 15 this morning, and I thought what they did to that man is what they did to Jesus. Men of power, the soldiers, the Roman soldiers, beat Jesus to a total pulp. That's what they did to that poor man. I don't understand this. Sometimes people, when they are given power, they can become incredibly wicked and evil. And I pray for that man's family and his mother and his father, stepfather, family, friends. But it's a very hard thing to watch, seeing that done. But Jesus gave his body, and they broke it. They pierced it. Now, come back to the Passover Seder. We covered this last week. At the beginning of the Seder, he takes the afikoman, right, the bread, and he breaks it. And then he puts it into a napkin, and it's hidden. Likely John, the youngest, would have taken it and hidden it. Now he brings it back. And this is, I believe, when he institutes the breaking of bread and says, this is my body. They bring back the napkin, okay? They open it and then they break it up and everybody eats of it. The bread was hidden in the napkin, okay? Jewish people celebrate this every year. What is that symbolic of? He was put in the tomb. And then on the third day, he was raised from the dead. And that is, I think, right at this moment when Jesus, again, he takes it out of the napkin, he breaks it up, he gives it to them, and he says, now take this, eat this, this is my body. Then, at the end of the meal, you have the fourth cup, okay? Then he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it, and he said to them, this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many, okay? This is the fourth. Remember, there are four glasses of wine, This is the last glass and he now takes it and he says, this is my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. He says, do this in remembrance of me. So when we share communion, which we're going to do here in a few minutes, you hear me say this all the time. I quote from Leviticus chapter 1711 for the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement for your souls." This was written about 1400 years before Jesus came. The life is in the blood. It's given on the altar of atonement, the altar of burnt offerings, that's symbolic of the cross. It's a typology of the cross. And again, to make atonement, to make a covering over your soul for your sins. So the life is in the blood. Follow me now, okay? Scientific evidence that there is life, right, in our flesh that comes essentially from the blood. There are over 100,000, listen to this, this is 100,000 miles of little minuscule blood vessels that basically carry the blood to every cell in your bodies. So just to imagine, You know when you're shaving and you cut yourself? Right, it's amazing how just a little cut on your skin bleeds, right? There are all these little microscopic blood vessels that go throughout your body that are basically bringing oxygen, nutrients, and carrying away the toxins, okay, from your cells. Now, the life is in the blood. 1620, an English doctor named William Harvey found the circulation of blood pumped throughout the body by the heart and basically came out and made the claim that the blood preserves and supports life, transporting again nutrients and oxygen throughout the body. Have you ever heard of bloodletting? Bloodletting was done for thousands of years, and it was done only up until about 200 years ago in the United States. So if you got sick, guess who you would go to for bloodletting? That's right, you would go to the barber. And you know the barber's pole, notice the pole, it's the red and blue. And your barber would actually, these were the experts who would basically open you up and cause you to bleed out, thinking that it was going to cure you. So in a typical average human body, there's between about 140 and 160 ounces of blood. George Washington, our first president, got a cold. He was 67 years old. They took him to the barber. They bled him out for 125 ounces. And that's how he died. Have you ever heard that? But where's the life? The life is in the blood. By the way, your blood vessels, 100,000 miles, that goes around the earth four times. I thought I'd throw that little tidbit in for you. So the life is in the blood. So the picture here, again, when Jesus bled, he was giving his life. Ephesians chapter one, verse seven, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. It is by His blood that we receive forgiveness. It is by His blood that we receive redemption. It is by His blood that we receive pardon, that we receive justification, that our sins are totally covered by the blood of the Lamb. But again, in the blood, that was His life. There's a beautiful ending if you've ever read the book Ben-Hur. Ben-Hur was written by an English general who, set out to disprove the resurrection. His name was General Wallace. He actually, after researching the resurrection, he wrote the book Ben-Hur, which is the greatest story. It's the greatest Christian epic ever written. But at the end of the book and at the end of the movie, the picture is Jesus is on the cross. The rain is pouring down. His blood is coming down into puddles. and it's slowly flowing out. Have you ever seen the movie Ben-Hur with Charlton Heston? The blood is flowing out, and that's the picture. His blood is flowing out. His life is flowing out into all the world. It's flowing out over you today. Flowing out in people in Russia, in China, in the Ukraine, in South America. It's the blood of the Lord. That life, that forgiveness, that grace, is flowing out to all who will come and receive it. Last point, quick one. The last word, Mark chapter 14, 25 through 26. Surely I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. He says, I will not partake, okay, of the vine. He will not partake of the Passover until he enters into his kingdom. When does he enter into his kingdom? If you say, well, right after the resurrection or the ascension, he's talking about the kingdom, the millennial kingdom. Revelation chapter 20, okay? Ezekiel chapter 40 through 47, Isaiah chapter 11. I mean, the millennial kingdom, it is when the Lord returns, right? When he returns in Revelation 19, he will establish an earthly kingdom of 1000 years. It's 1000 years. Mentioned six times in the book of the Revelation chapter 20. And he will establish his kingdom. Guess what we're gonna be doing when he establishes his kingdom? We're gonna be partaking in the Passover. How do I know that? Because that's what it tells us in Ezekiel 45 verse 21. In the first month on the 14th day of the month, you shall observe the Passover, a feast of seven days on leavened bread shall be eaten. That's a millennial context. That's a lineal passage. So the Passover was a celebration of the Jews that ultimately really was finalized when they went through the Red Sea and God destroyed the Egyptians from pursuing them. Our fulfillment of our Passover through Jesus will occur when he comes back and Satan and his demons are locked up and we enter into the millennial kingdom and freedom. Now that's whether we have been glorified, whether we have been experienced the resurrection, because I believe when the rapture happens, we're going to be back here during the millennial. And then those who populate the earth during the millennial kingdom, okay, they will be experienced, but we will go up. Hey, let's go up to Jerusalem. This could be just a few years in the future. Let's go up to Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover with Jesus. How cool is that, right? That's where he ends the Passover meal, the Last Supper. Okay? So key things, right? Key takeaways here, right? I'm going to do this real quick. Hey, take up the basin and the towel. We're called to be servants. Take up and be a minister. Have the heart of a minister, right? It's not volunteerism. It's having a heart of a servant. Koinonia, right? Not Zumonia, Koinonia, entering into the lives of other people. It's a beautiful thing. You heard me just now speaking about Harriet. Harriet is a mom to us. You enter into relationships with people, and it's a beautiful thing. As we care for each other, love each other, and sometimes we pass them off to Jesus, and that's a good thing. The promise, the fullness of the spirit, the baptism of the spirit, he promises us that we can be temples of the living God. His challenge, abide in me, right? Abide in me and be fruitful, right? His guarantee, hey, we're gonna be in a world of tribulation, but we can have peace. His prayer for us is, right, that we would be one, right? One in interest, yet still very unique, and that we would experience His glory. And again, the establishment of the Lord's Supper, right? We do this in remembrance of Him, and we're renewed. We're renewed in His death. We're renewed in his resurrection and life. And then the last thing, right? We will enter into a millennial kingdom at some time in the future, whether with glorified bodies, resurrected bodies, or hopefully not in physical form because that meant that you went through the tribulation. But we will share in the Lord's Supper at that future time. Amen. Christ is our Passover lamb who has been sacrificed. So I'll ask the worship team to come up and I'm gonna ask you to take your cup, take your bread. I hope that the messages over the past two weeks makes the Lord's Supper significant to you. And let me just emphasize this to you two folks, you don't need to only share, you know, people come to us, wow, you only do the Lord's Supper once a month. And you know what, it's likely next, I've done it three times this month. And maybe next month we won't have it at all. But we usually celebrate it once a month and occasionally at other times. You can have the Lord's Supper any time. You don't have to be an ordained elder to do the Lord's Supper. You can share the Lord's Supper at any time. You sit down at dinner at night. You know what? You can break the bread and right there with your family have the Lord's Supper. And you, again, take the cup. And you can do that. It could be something that there's no rules. There's no rules, right? He just said, do this in remembrance of me. It's nice that we do this as a church together once a month, but we have the freedom to do it any time. I frequently have shared the Lord's Supper by myself. I just take some bread and take a cup of juice. And I did that with the births of my children. My wife was up in the hospital with them when I came home. Rachel. When she was born, I came home and I just took the bread and the cup. And sometimes I haven't even had grape juice. I take whatever juice. God will honor it in remembrance of me. So the Lord Jesus, he took. the bread, and he broke it, and he gave it to his disciples, and he said to them all, take this and eat this, for this is my body. He said, do this in remembrance of me, and in remembrance of the body that the Lord laid down on the cross for us, a body that was broken, pierced, his hands, his feet, his side. We give you thanks and praise, Lord Jesus, for laying down your body for us, and we do this in remembrance of you. And then the Lord took the cup, he gave it to his disciples and he said to them, take this all of you and drink this for this is my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. And as you drink of the cup, drink in his life because he gave his life. And maybe today you're here and you're saying, I need more life, right? This world kind of has a way of sucking it out of us. I need more of your life, more of that, that fervent, vital life, that love, that passion, that excellence, that joy, that peace. Let us all partake. The altars are open if you'd like to come forward for prayer. And folks, as we did last week, I'll ask the elders and deacons to come over here to the right If you'd like to be prayed for, for any sort of illness or sickness, God is making us healthier as a church. I see far more people coming here. So you have that opportunity. We have the elders over here and they will pray for you. Amen. Thank you, Pastor Frank. What a great word from the word of God. Amen. God is so good. In the morning when I die In the morning when I rise In the morning when I rise Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. You can have all this world. Give me Jesus. When I am alone Oh, when I am alone Oh, when I am alone Give me Jesus You can have all this world ♪ You can have all this world ♪ ♪ With Jesus ♪ ♪ When I come to die ♪ ♪ When I come to die ♪ Lord, when I come to town, give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. ♪ All this world ♪ ♪ Give me Jesus ♪ ♪ Give me Jesus ♪ ♪ Give me Jesus ♪ ♪ You can have all this world ♪ You can have all this world. You can have all this world. It may change you. So I'm gonna ask you as you leave, we have the fellowship in the Rock Center. Feel free, go and have some fellowship with each other. Just kind of be quiet, and there's a lot of prayer going up. There's people in need of healing, right? So we just respect, we just respect that, what's going on. May God the Father, Son, and Spirit, who loves you dearly, you are His, you are His children, His sons and daughters. and you are privileged, for He has a great inheritance that awaits you. May God go with you all, may He protect you, provide for you, may He bless the work of your hands, and may He accomplish your life with His shalom, that great well-being of God. May the Lord God be with you all, in Jesus' name, amen.