You for this day. We thank you for the fact that we can focus on you on the cross on what you have done for us and the gift that you've given to us of your son. We pray this morning that you would guide us that your Holy Spirit would accompany us in the very things that we are going to be doing that need your presence that need your spirit. I pray you would guide us direct us and again make this a permanent value. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Well this is the day that we remember Jesus Christ and his cross, Jesus on the night before he died. He met with his disciples and there he celebrated one last time a Passover supper with them. Matthew 26, 26 says now as they were eating Jesus took bread and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples and said take eat this is my body. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, drink of it, all of you. For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. So Jesus took bread and wine, and he offered them up as symbols of his flesh and his blood. And then he asked the disciples to eat the bread and drink the cup so that they might symbolically eat his flesh. and drink his blood. And then he asked them to repeat this remembrance of a sacrifice on a regular basis, and this is what we call the Lord's Table. And we celebrate it once a month by meditating on what it is the Lord Jesus did for us on the cross. By examining ourselves, that means asking God's Holy Spirit to point out areas in our lives where he's convicting us of sin, by confessing our sins, and then by participating in the elements. John 6.53 says, So Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Well, we are going verse by verse through the life of Christ in the Gospel of Mark, and we're up to chapter 14. And if you remember at chapter 14, the realization that Christ's execution is now imminent. Mark 14 opens up which says, it was now two days before the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him. For they said, not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people. As I pointed out last time, there's no longer any pretense that Jesus is merely a political or religious opponent. He's now considered to be such a threat that many of the religious community are openly seeking to kill him. Jesus is, you know, often portrayed as a victim, a victim of his enemies. I mean, we're told that he was somehow arrested, tried, and executed by evil people with bad intent who were breaking their own laws and doing so. And while we know that's true, I mean, all you have to do is look at the unfolding of events to see that Jesus was never, never a victim. You can see that he was always absolutely in charge, orchestrating everything that was taking place. And we looked last time at this event that took place that was during a party that was being held at Simon the leper's house. It was actually a celebration of his healing. And another guest there was Lazarus, who was, of course, raised from the dead. And both of these folks were honored guests at this party. And so during the party, Mary Magdalene anoints Jesus with this very expensive ointment, and Judas and others becomes offended at the expense. They ask, why wasn't this ointment sold and the proceeds donated to the poor? And again, the scripture tells us that Judas had no real interest in the poor. He was a thief. He was actually someone who helped himself frequently to the money purse. And so Judas is making a fuss over this act of love and care by Mary and anointing Jesus. And so Jesus takes that opportunity to rebuke all of those who were doing that. This is what he says in verse 6 of Mark 14. He says, leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. but you will not always have me. She has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her." And if you remember, we looked at Mary as a type, and we also looked at Judas as a type. Mary was someone who loved Jesus for who he was, Judas was someone who loved Jesus for what he could do. He was attracted to Jesus strictly for his utility, and he started to see that utility going up in smoke. If you remember, on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus had been brutally frank with the disciples, and he told them precisely what was going to take place. This is back in Mark 10. It says, as they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, Jesus was walking ahead of them, and they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles, and they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him. And after three days, he will rise. Now, if that wasn't jarring enough, this incident at Simon the leper's house could have easily pushed Judas over the edge. I mean, not only did Jesus rebuke Judas in his criticism of Mary, But during that time he also gives a very specific reason why she had done this beautiful thing at the party. This is what Jesus said. He said, she has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And so that comment coming on the heels of his lengthy in-depth description of exactly what was going to happen to him in Jerusalem That certainly disavowed Judas of any thoughts that he was about to enter this new political paradigm where he's going to be regarded as some kind of victor. And so shortly after Jesus rebukes him, Judas has a secret meeting with the chief priests. It says, then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the 12, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him. And so we read shortly afterwards, Jesus has arranged for his final Passover meal. It says, on the first day of unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, where will you have us go to prepare for you to eat the Passover? And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. and wherever he enters say to the master of the house the teacher says where's my guest room that I may eat the Passover with my disciples and he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready there prepare for us and the disciples set out and went to the city and found it just as he had told them and they prepared the Passover and it was evening he came with the twelve. This is where we were the last time I spoke about this confrontation that Jesus has at the Last Supper. If you remember, Jesus washes the disciples' feet and then afterwards he makes literally a bombshell statement. He says, truly I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me. Now it's one thing, as you recall, it's one thing for Jesus to speak about his upcoming arrest, his flogging, and his crucifixion. It's another thing entirely to have Jesus announce to the twelve that his betrayer is going to be one of them. It says, they began to be sorrowful and say to him one after another, is it I? He said to them, it is one of the 12, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me. Now when Jesus says this, when he says it's one of the 12 who's dipping into the dish with me, he's really doing two different things. Number one, he's narrowing it down to one or two persons. Because that's how these dinners worked. I mean, there's a bowl of mashed fruit and vinegar and other spices that the individual disciples all dipped in. And there would have been a number of those small bowls scattered around the table. But number two is the fact that it was Judas who was right next to Jesus. And that indicates that Jesus had given them the highest position of honor at this dinner, the place right next to himself. But then Jesus goes on to make this terrifying statement. He says, for the son of man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born. You know, I once heard someone bring up this statement in a debate. And they said, well, wait a minute, if God is all loving and he admits it would have been better for Judas if he had never been born, then why in the world Did he allow Judas to be born? I mean isn't God agreeing ahead of time that something that's not just bad for somebody but eternally bad is okay? At least compared to not even existing. But you know Jesus wasn't making a hypothetical statement. He wasn't making a theological statement. It's very important to see he was doing something that he often did. He was using a figure of speech. He was speaking hyperbole, which is intentionally exaggerating something in order to make a point. Like when he said in Mark 10.25, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. Or what he said in Matthew 5.29, if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away, for it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And Jesus is clearly not speaking literally in both of those instances. And in this case, he's clearly doing the same. In fact, there's an instance in Matthew's gospel where Jesus clearly shows his frustration at being taken far too literally at something that he clearly spoke figuratively. This is the situation, the disciples of Jesus are rowing across the Sea of Galilee having just had a confrontation with the Pharisees and the Sadducees. This is described in Matthew 16, 5. It says, When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. Jesus said to them, Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, We brought no bread. But Jesus, aware of this, said, O you of little faith, Why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves and the 5,000 and how many baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the 4,000 and how many baskets you gathered? How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Then they understood that he did not tell them to be aware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees." I mean, literally here's Jesus growing frustrated with his disciples taking every single word that he said literally when his intention was to speak figuratively. You know, I have folks ask me lots of times, do you take the Bible literally? And I always respond to that by saying, well, literally, what do you mean by that? I mean, I understand literally to mean taking the Bible to mean exactly what the author intended his words to mean. And sometimes that means accepting things literally, and sometimes that means accepting things figuratively. And it all depends on what the author's intent was. I mean, the leaven of the Pharisees is not about bread, it's about sin. And it actually bothered Jesus that the disciples were so spiritually dull that they couldn't discern the difference. Well, that wasn't the issue with Judas, though. Jesus could not have been more forthright and literal in telling Judas, you are that person. And the question that that raises with regard to Judas, it's a pertinent question. The question is, did Judas have a choice in this matter or did he not? And I believe the answer is, of course he did. Understand the cross was an inevitability to Jesus. But how he got there was not. I mean, Judas could have taken a different pathway and God would have found a different way to accomplish the very same thing as he's done countless other times. And what's really important to see here, particularly with regard to communion, is just how Jesus is using language to convey truth. I mean, Judas made the worst possible decision a human could ever make. But the evil of his decision rested far more with the amount of light that he received than with the actual decision that he made. I mean, every one of us is going to be judged on the amount of light that we have been given. And in all of the world, there is no one outside of those 12 who received more light. No one had more light than Judas. I mean, he literally, he spent three years with God physically among them. And then in spite of that, Judas, having seen the miracles, having seen the blind gain sight, having seen the crippled given the ability to walk, having seen the dead raised to life, he decides he's still willing to betray this Jesus. That's why it would have been better for Judas to have not been born. As the elders begin distributing the bread, I want us to focus in on the love of Jesus. The love that he still had for this betrayer, Judas. First Corinthians 11 28 says, But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world." And what Paul is saying here is what we repeat each time. We say that communion is an extremely serious undertaking, and to enter into it in an unworthy manner is to court disaster. What that means is this, if you're not absolutely confident that you are a child of the King, if you haven't by faith trusted in Christ as your Savior and Lord, perhaps if you first need to be reconciled to your brother or your sister before you bring the sacrifice of yourself here to the altar, then just pass the elements on. If you don't feel right about participating, then err on the side of caution and first get right with God. And as I always say, you can also make the mistake of thinking that unless, okay, unless I'm spotlessly perfect, I'm unworthy to receive communion, and the devil loves that mistake as well. Because being a child of the king doesn't mean that you don't sin. It doesn't mean that you're flawless and that you never fail. It means you recognize the salvation that you have been given is a gift that no one is capable of earning by being good. And so we repeat those words that Dane Ortlund spoke. because they're so prescient and they so sum up everything about what communion is. He says in the kingdom of God the one thing that qualifies you is knowing you don't qualify and the one thing that disqualifies you is thinking that you do. It also means that when we fail we are aware of we sin because we have God's Holy Spirit living inside of us and it's God's Holy Spirit who convicts us And so we grieve. We know that we have a father who longs to forgive us and cleanse us. A father who said, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So again, being a child of the king doesn't mean that you are flawless. It doesn't mean that you are without sin. It means that you understand that when we do sin, we have an advocate with the father. We have someone in heaven right now speaking out on our behalf. First John 2 says, My dear children, I write this to you so you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And so because we have Jesus's righteousness and not our own, thank you, we are free to eat from his table. So if you love your Lord, don't deny yourself the privilege that he purchased for you. As we said he lived the life that we were supposed to live then he died the death we all deserve to die in our place just so that we could be worthy of this moment. Understand God will not love you any more tomorrow than he does right now right here today. Any more than he did from before the foundations of the earth because God loved you from then to the max. Back then God saw every sin you would ever commit. And yet he still chose to shower his love on you. It's the same love that Jesus was extending to his betrayer. So think on that for a moment. First Corinthians 11 23 says for I receive from the Lord what I also delivered to you. that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. So take and eat. As the elders begin distributing the cup, I just want to comment on how appropriate it is that we just finish doing exactly what Jesus is speaking about next. You see, we go verse by verse through Mark's gospel. And it just so happens that Mark's gospel is at this particular place. We're at Mark 14, 22. It says, And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to them and said, Take this as my body. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for the many. Truly I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God." Well, here is where language becomes highly arguable. For literally thousands of years now, Christians have been arguing about just what this passage of scripture means. And among the many different Catholic-Protestant debates is this debate about the Catholic view of transubstantiation, the Lutheran view of consubstantiation, and the view most evangelicals take about communion. And it's a debate that's filled with some strange-sounding words. There's the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. And again, that comes from the Latin trans, which means to move or to change, and substance, which is something's absolute essence. See, Catholic doctrine says that during the consecration of the Mass, the bread is miraculously changed in its substance from bread to the blood and body of Jesus Christ. Now, the church acknowledges that the physical appearance of the bread doesn't change at all. Only its substance or its essence changes, so they say. Hence, transubstantiation means a miraculous change of substance. Now, Martin Luther disagreed with the trans part of transubstantiation. And instead, he embraced consubstantiation. Con in Latin means with. It means with the substance of bread. Which means instead of communion resulting in the bread changing its substance, it was more a unique form of Christ's presence with the bread while not changing its substance. Protestant evangelicals believe in the view that was stated in various ways by Swingly who saw communion strictly as a memorial service designed to bring our minds and our hearts back to the cross by physically partaking in the signs of bread and cup. that Jesus designated. To further complicate it, Luther disagreed with Swingly, saying communion was more than just a memorial service pointing to signs and signals. After all, he said, Jesus said, this is my body, not this signifies my body. So Luther saw a deeper sacramental connection in communion. And I know it gets very, very confusing. So to sum it all up, Catholics see transubstantiation as a change in the very substance of the bread into the very body and blood of Christ. Lutherans see consubstantiation as Jesus sacramentally coming alongside the bread while it still remains bread. And most evangelicals see communion as a memorial service using the symbols of bread and wine to direct our minds and spirits to the body and blood of Christ. and that's the view that I hold, and this is the standard evangelical view, is that Jesus was referring to the bread and the cup as symbols. And the reason why we believe that is because he made that statement, this is my body, thank you, and this is my blood, while he was literally standing in front of his disciples holding the bread and the cup. I mean any common sense understanding of what Jesus was doing would lead one to believe that he was clearly as I mentioned before speaking figuratively. Any logical response would have pointed out the obvious. I mean Jesus this can't be your literal body because you're holding this piece of bread with your hands that are attached to that same literal body. And Jesus this can't be your blood because you're holding up a cup of wine and we know you are at present not bleeding. And I hate how juvenile and silly that sounds, but you have to understand, you have to understand the people that Jesus was addressing. These were not philosophers. These were not theologians. These were tax collectors. These were fishermen who thought Jesus's warning about the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees was actually a complaint about not having enough bread. I mean, they also didn't understand him when he told the disciples that he was the door for the sheep. This is another instance, Jesus is telling the disciples to beware of false shepherds who, he said, sneak into the sheepfold by going around the gate. And what he was talking about is the Pharisees constantly held up keeping the law as opposed to Christ. And again, Jesus used a figurative speech, and guess what? The disciples didn't get it. It says in John 10 6, this figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. And so Jesus responds by speaking again in a highly figurative way, speaking of himself literally as a door to the sheepfold. This is what he said. He says, so Jesus again said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture." Jesus clearly did not mean that he was a little door with hinges and a latch. He clearly didn't mean he was a loaf of bread and a cup of wine. I mean, if you picture the Last Supper the way I do, it seems perfectly reasonable that Jesus was pointing to the bread in a cup as symbols rather than sacraments. Now, I've also seen some dire warnings by Catholic apologists who suggest if you don't see it this way, if you don't see it as a sacrament that turns bread into the living body of Jesus, then you are guilty of taking communion in an unworthy manner, which is what we just spoke about. We spoke about the warning that Paul gave to his people in First Corinthians 11 27. It's this, 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. I understand that's a warning, but it is not remotely connected to the context of not seeing transubstantiation as real. It's not remotely connected to the context that Paul was warning his people about. He wasn't telling them that they have to see this as a sacrament that changes the substance of bread into the actual body and blood of Christ. Instead, he was complaining bitterly about how they were turning a communion service into a sectarian sacrilege where everybody was out for themselves. I mean only six verses before he described what receiving the Lord in an unworthy manner looked like. This is what he said. He says when you come together it's not for the Lord's Supper that you eat. For in eating each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry another gets drunk. What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No I will not. And again, to understand the context, you have to understand what the very next verse that Paul spoke was. And it was this, for I received from the Lord, but I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Those are the very words we just spoke. In fact, only a few minutes ago, they were the words that we used in our communion service this morning. And so Paul's giving us these wonderful words literally seconds after giving this brutal critique of the Corinthian church, which was clearly receiving communion in an unworthy manner. And it wasn't just drunkenness. In fact, we find out it was worse. Again, Paul gives us the full description in 1 Corinthians 11, 17. He says, but in the following instructions, I do not commend you, because when you come together, it is not for better, but for the worse. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear there are divisions among you, and I believe it in part. For there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. And again, when you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What, do you not have houses to eat and drink in, or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. So to sum up, Paul says he's looking at a church that's filled with division, it's filled with factionalism, with profound degrees of separation between the wealthy and the poor, with so much disdain for Christ and his sacrifice that people are actually showing up for communion drunk. And the very bride of Christ, the church that Christ went to the cross in order to redeem, is now returning the favor with heaping doses of scorn. And that's what Paul means by participating in the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner. It's not rejecting the idea that the communion bread has become the literal body and blood of Christ. It's treating something absolutely sacred in a sacrilegious way. So, okay, so knowing what is highly displeasing to God in terms of a communion service, we would logically ask, okay, what is its opposite? What is the communion service that God is well pleased with? Well, we open up our communion service with an explanation that it consists of four different parts. First part is meditation. That's fixing your minds, excuse me, fixing your minds on the enormity of the cross. And what is astounding is the paradox that the cross represents. You know, on the one hand, it's the most profoundly ugly expression to have ever occurred in the history of humankind. I mean, just think about it. God himself is put on display, having first clothed himself in humanity, having lived out his humanity flawlessly, He's now willingly allow himself to be put on display before the entire universe as the ultimate living sacrifice offered up by himself, by his father, and by the Holy Spirit as payment in full for the sins of anyone willing to put their faith in him. And the ugliness of the process now involves displaying the perfect son of God having been beaten, flogged, stripped naked, and now nailed to a cross. I mean God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit all insist on displaying before the entire universe the full price that God had to pay in order to forgive our sins. I mean in terms of the height at which God occupied as king and creator of the entire universe being dragged down to the depth that he is now in there is nothing more profoundly shocking or ugly or awful than a cross. At the very same time there's nothing in the entire universe that is more heroic and lovely as what the cross represents. It is the most profound expression of the depth of a love that cannot be fully understood or expressed by anything other than the divine. I mean nowhere in the entire universe for all time could you ever begin to find an expression of love like that the cross represents. It's the most profound paradox that has ever existed. God has put on display the absolute extreme of brutality and humiliation while at the same time displaying the absolute extreme of extraordinary love. That's what we meditate on. And secondly, there's an examination of conscience. Okay, how do you do that? How do you examine your conscience? Well, it's actually very simple. We simply ask God for the ability to agree with him. We ask for his Holy Spirit to point out those areas of sin that we need to deal with. Which again leads to our third point, which is confession. Now the Greek word for confession, as most of you probably know by now, it's a combination of two different words, homo, which means the same, and logeo, which means to speak. stick those two words together and it means to same speak. And what confession genuinely is is a willingness to speak and hear the same language of God when he speaks to your conscience about the things in your life that you need to deal with. To same speak with God is to agree with his Holy Spirit. Now that's a lot harder than you think. Because to agree with God that sin is sin means that you also have to agree to repent of it and move away from it. And so each time at communion, I always repeat God's words in 1 John 1 9 about confessing our sins. But you have to understand that that verse is wrapped fore and aft with verses that speak about pretending that sin is not sin. Here's how God puts it. 1st John 1.8, he says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. And then the verse we're all familiar with, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. We can feel very comfortable deceiving ourselves by calling sin anything other than sin. So we can continue to enjoy it. Because to agree with God that sin is sin means that you are agreeing that you need to repent of it and move away from it. And so to same speak with God is to literally agree with His Holy Spirit. And finally participation in the elements is that as I partake in the cup, as I partake in the bread, I'm recognizing the part that I play in the body of Christ. You may be an ankle. You may be an arm. You may be a head. You may be a foot. You may be even one cell, any part at all. And again, those roles can change as well, but the body itself exists to bring glory to God. And all of us are part of that body. Now 1,000 years from now when every single thing that you and I have ever done has turned to dust, we're going to look back and recognize that probably the most important thing you do this month is participating in this service. As we're called to remember the sacrifice of the cross on a regular basis, which is precisely what we're doing right now. And the place that we're at in our study of the life of Christ brings us back to that very last Passover supper that Jesus wants us to remember. This is verse 22 of Mark 14. It says, and as they were eating he took bread and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them and said take this is my body and he took a cup and when he had given thanks he gave it to them and they all drank of it and he said to them This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many. Truly I say to you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. As you take the cup just ask God for the grace to enter into the heart of communion. To ask God to enter into the heart of what it is that makes Jesus so beautiful. and we're helped by Paul's words in Philippians 2. He says this, have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus. Who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. We conclude with first Corinthians 11 25 in the same way he also took the cup 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 take and drink. Well, this is the part that we call head, hands, and feet where we try to come up with something practical as to what it actually means to remember Christ. As I said, communion is this time when we reflect upon our role as members of the body of Christ. And just last week, we talked about the four different parts that make up what it is a church does that is taken from Acts 242, which says, and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers. Well, of those four things, the first part is obviously the church's responsibility, and that's biblical preaching. But the next three parts, that is fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers, that's all of our responsibility as well. I mean, we just finished up a communion service, and next week after the service, we are going to once again try to strengthen our fellowship by having a community meal together. And you know, I say this all the time. You know, you can't build one another up if you don't know one another besides two or three sentences that you say to each other on a Sunday morning. There is a purpose in these community gatherings. And that's to begin to develop relationships beyond simply saying howdy. Because this body matters and we matter to one another. You see, a truly functioning body is something that earth and the spirit world are intensely interested in as well. And there's many in the spirit world who want nothing more than to trash it and see it explode. God says in John 13 35 by this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. You see grace at grace is designed to foster a love that's incredibly important. And you have to find your place in it and you have to find the time to participate in it. And finally, there's a fourth part. That fourth part is prayer. And again, I just invite you to participate in our corporate prayer, which is designed to further knit us as a community. And again, you can come to the church. We meet every Wednesday at seven o'clock. Or you can meet in the convenience of your own living room by virtue of your laptop or your phone on Zoom. We can't make it any easier than that. 2025 is a brand new year right in front of us. And so I plead with you, let's make it one in which fellowship, communion, and prayer make a difference. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the gift that you've given us of this service. I thank you for giving us the opportunity to just meditate on who you are and what it is you've done. I praise you and thank you for that gift that you've given to us. I pray, Lord, for this year in front of us. I pray for all the different parts that we can participate in. I pray for the fellowship. I pray for the community. I pray for prayer. I pray that you would continue to give us the ability to see this body as of utmost importance, supernaturally and eternally. thousand years from now, what happens here is going to matter. What happens usually in the rest of those other six other days is going to kind of fall by the wayside. So I pray you would give us a vision of what it is you would have us be as a body, what you would have us do as a body. And I pray this in Jesus name.