Well, perhaps the single most drastic thing that takes place in a person when they come to saving faith in Jesus Christ is the complete forgiveness of all their sins. It is not uncommon for new believers to experience a sense of joy and excitement and zeal for the Lord because they understand that their entire life of sin has been removed, it's been washed clean, and they are now new creations in Christ. They're forgiven, they're free, they're redeemed, However, as time goes by, Christians can also start to forget these elementary truths. Doubts begin to creep in. Guilt over newer sins can pile up. Confession becomes less frequent as they neglect to walk in grace and forgiveness. Of course, this is not the way that it's supposed to be, but sometimes this is our experience. And so how do we fight off these kinds of tendencies? How do we keep ourselves from becoming religious legalists? How do we live in light of God's grace and mercy? Well, I think one answer for us is that we remember that our salvation was accomplished for us on the cross. And we do so with a tangible symbol that we can taste and touch. We remember the Lord's sacrifice by partaking in the Lord's table. And so if you would, with me this morning, turn to Matthew 26. Matthew 26 in your copy of scripture here. All of this is taking place in the context of the narrative of Matthew's gospel. He's moving through all the events of Passion Week. We are now less than 24 hours from the time where Jesus is going to go to the cross, he's going to die, he's gonna be buried, in less than three days he will rise again from the grave. But this night is the night before he goes to the cross, the night he's betrayed by Judas, The Lord Jesus celebrates one final Passover together with his disciples in Jerusalem. And as they're gathering in the upper room and prepared to eat dinner, they remember the Lord's deliverance of Israel from bondage to Egypt. They had already selected their Passover lamb. which they had sacrificed at the temple that day. They prepared the meal with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They poured the four cups of wine to be imbibed at the remembrance of God's promises. They prayed. They sang Psalms from the Hallel, which is Psalm 113 to 118. But at a certain point in the evening, the Lord Jesus announces the creation of a new observance. Because they had been observing this meal for 1,500 years, now there's something new taking place and the inauguration of a new covenant. And so on this particular night, everything would change forever. Matthew 26, starting in verse 26. while they were eating. Jesus took some bread and after a blessing, he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body. And when he had taken a cup and given thanks, he gave it to them saying, drink from it, all of you. For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until the day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom." After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. So this remarkable event is recorded in four places in scripture. It's in here in Matthew 26, it's also in Mark 14, and it's in Luke 22. It does not appear, interestingly enough, in John's gospel, but it is featured in Paul's letter to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 11. This event is frequently known as the Lord's Table. We used to call it the Lord's Supper. I don't even know if New Englanders use the word supper anymore, but it used to be a good word to use. Of course, we also call this communion. Communion, particularly because of how the King James version of 1 Corinthians 10-16 renders a specific verse pertaining to this observance. We read, "...the cup of the blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?" And so that's where we get the word communion referring to this observance of the cup and of the bread. And while Matthew only records for us a few verses, and if you were to just read this in context, you might just speed right over and keep on going, there's really a lot of depth here and there's a richness that's virtually unparalleled elsewhere in Scripture. I was just telling my wife this morning that, I mean, this exposition really could be two or potentially three sermons. There's so many rabbit trails we could go down, so many strings we could pull on, so we have to be a little bit restrained today. But there's so much here, I want to make sure we catch the kernel of this truth here this morning. Matthew records that this all takes place while they were eating. The disciples are in this upper room with Jesus. They're eating, they're drinking, they're talking in fellowship, they're singing praises to the Lord. And at some point during this long meeting, these dinners would have gone for several hours, maybe three or four hours. They were required to stop by midnight, but you figure that even that's a six hour meal. So somewhere in the course of this long evening, Jesus offers up this new symbolic gesture. Matthew records that Jesus, at that time, took some of the bread. Scholars have debated over the kind of bread that this was. What was this? Was this leavened bread, unleavened bread? Was it a wafer? What was this? It seems only logical that since all of Israel was observing the feast of unleavened bread at this time, this would have been a piece of matzah that was sitting on the table. He grabbed this little matzah and sort of a round wafer, and at that point he would have been doing this with this in his hand. Frankly, the kind of bread is not as important as the significance of the bread. Interestingly enough, in Deuteronomy 16.3, the unleavened bread that's served at Passover is called the bread of affliction. The bread of affliction. And so Jesus picks up this symbolic bread of affliction and he offers up a blessing. In other places, at the feeding of the 5,000, of the 4,000, Jesus also offers a blessing for what he's about to do, and people would ask, well, what did he say in this blessing? Scripture does not record what he says, but there is a traditional blessing that's been offered, and it's something like this. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth. And so after a blessing maybe of that kind, the Bible says he broke it and he began to give it to the disciples. And so there's something even here that's happening that's communal that's taking place. They're partaking in this gesture with him. At this point, he instructs all of them to take and eat, take and eat. And so they would have all done this and obeyed this instruction together. However, his next words infuse this gesture with profound significance. As they're placing the bread in their mouths, Jesus says, this is my body. This is my body. This one phrase. has been the cause of centuries of debate. Some have even been violent. Incredible discussion, incredible discourse, incredible scholarship, and incredible prayerful discussion about what this means. What does this mean? Well, we're gonna talk about that this morning. We're gonna come back to this. In verse 27 then, he takes a cup from the table, a cup of wine here from the table, And the Bible says that he gave thanks. The Greek word here is eucharisteo. It's to give thanks, to be thankful. Again, the traditional Passover meal would have included four cups of wine that were drunk together in the meal. Each one of them symbolized a promise that was made to Israel in Exodus chapter 6, verses 6 and 7. Just as a quick review here, The first cup that would have been partaken of was called the cup of sanctification, and it represented God's promise to Israel to call them out of Egypt. The second cup they would have partaken in was called the cup of deliverance, representing God's promise to rescue them from bondage. The third cup, it's called the cup of blessing, which represents God's promise to redeem the Israelites with an outstretched arm. And then the final cup, the fourth cup, is called the cup of praise, representing God's promise to take Israel as his people and make them a nation. Again, they would have partaken in these four cups over the course of 1,500 years. Every year they would have done this as a ritual. And scholars have often believed that the cup that Jesus would have picked up at that point was, in fact, the cup of blessing. Elsewhere, there's another name given for this cup of blessing. This is also called the cup of redemption. The cup of redemption. And so he takes this cup in his hands and he offers up a blessing of thanksgiving. He gave thanks, eucharisteo, he gave thanks to God for this cup. Again, traditionally a blessing would have been something like this. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings forth the fruit of the vine. The phrase fruit of the vine is a term for the cup of wine that they're about to drink. Then he gives this cup to the disciples and they partake and he says, drink from it all of you. The word all here is important. Again, a communal aspect to this. It is to give this communion with all of the true disciples of Jesus Christ. They don't parse out here which one gets to be partaking in this. All of the disciples there in the upper room are partaking at this point. And then he assigns the significance. He says, this is my blood. This is my blood. Whereas bread symbolizes Christ's body, the wine then symbolizes His blood. But then he elaborates here in verse 28. He declares, Let's talk about this. The word covenant here. What is a covenant? It is a solemn agreement between two parties. But in the context of the Bible, of biblical history, it's how God engages with his people. He engages with his people through covenant. At that time, Israel is still under the Mosaic covenant, the covenant that was given through Moses. This is an agreement where if the people of God would obey the Lord and keep his commandments, he would bless them. However, if they disobeyed, He would punish them. And so that's what the covenant they were living under. Blessings for obedience, curses and punishment for disobedience. And so like all the covenants, the Mosaic covenant would have been ratified in blood. And we read about this even earlier. today out of Hebrews chapter 9. Moses had given Israel the law, he commanded them to keep it, and then in Exodus 24 the covenant is then ratified. It's put in force through sacrifice. The priests offered the sacrifices on the altar, and then Moses, according to Exodus 24, 7, takes the book of the covenant, the scriptures, the Bible, and as you read it, in the hearing of all the people, they said, all the Lord has spoken, we will do, we will be obedient. So the people are pledging to God as they're about to ratify this covenant, we will obey. Everything. At that point in the solemn ceremony, which would echo through the ages, Moses takes the blood of the sacrifice and he sprinkles it on the people. He sprinkles the blood of the sacrifice on the people and says, Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made in accordance with all these words. And so for 15 centuries, Israel was under the mandates of that covenant, obedience to the law of God. But what happened? Was Israel able to keep the law of God? No, they weren't. No, they weren't. Furthermore, is anyone able to keep the law of God in full? Well, the answer is no. No one can keep the law of God in full. In fact, the Apostle Paul teaches us in Romans chapter 7, if you were to read it and even study it out, that there's a purpose of God's law apart from establishing the righteousness of God. The law reflects the character and the purity and the righteousness of God. But the law also, for the sinner, exposes our sin. The law aggravates our sin, it ruins us as sinners, and it demonstrates the absolute sinfulness of our sin. You don't know how fast you're going on the road until you read the law, the sign that says 30 miles an hour. You look down and see you're going 50 and you become convicted, I've broken the law. But you weren't aware of it beforehand. So the law reveals the sin, exposes the sinner, and demonstrates the sinfulness of sin. However, the law is good. There's nothing wrong with God's law. The Bible says the law of God is perfect. We're the ones who are shown to be sinners in need of a Savior. We are the one who need forgiveness. This is why God foretold, not of just the Mosaic covenant of obedience, but of a new covenant, a better covenant. Turn with me to Jeremiah 31 in your copy of scripture. Go back to the Old Testament, end of the prophets, Jeremiah 31. The ministry of the prophet Jeremiah occurs sometime around the middle of the 7th or early 7th century BC. It's during the time of the Babylonian captivity. Much of this prophecy is a denunciation of Israel's sinfulness. In fact, you read through Jeremiah and it's just judgment, judgment, judgment, judgment. But sandwiched in the middle of his prophecy here, in chapter 31, it introduces a measure of hope. And starting in chapter 31, Verse 31, Jeremiah introduces this concept of a new covenant. Not a covenant of obedience, but rather a covenant of promise. Jeremiah 31, 31. If you've known your Bible for a while, these are very familiar verses to you. Jeremiah 31, 31. Behold, days are coming, declare the Lord. When I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord, But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them, and on their heart I will write it, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they will all know Me. From the least of them to the greatest of them, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more." This is so important. Not just for them, but certainly also for us. Jeremiah here is foretelling a future day, a future sometime coming where the Lord God will enact this new covenant. But he's also careful to explain that this is not like the former one. And he says the covenant that was given during the time of the fathers who were wandering and coming out of Egypt, he's referring to the Mosaic covenant. That's what he's talking about. He says this is not gonna be like that. This is not gonna be conditional on obedience. This is going to be an unconditional covenant of grace made with the house of Israel. Rather than requiring external obedience to the law, God promises to put His law within our hearts. He says, I'm going to write the law on their hearts. And He says elsewhere in Ezekiel 36 that He's going to do this by way of giving the Holy Spirit and putting the Spirit of God within His people and causing them to walk in His ways. This is something completely unheard of in Jewish thought before this time. And even when they were hearing this prophecy, they could not have conceived of what this would be. Even the disciples struggled to understand what's going on here. This is nothing short of the promise of regeneration, which is also promised to Nicodemus in John chapter three. He says, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So something has to happen inside of the person, inside of the believer. They're not just obeying out here, keeping laws and doing things. This is something that's happening A heartfelt obedience to God. A Spirit-born obedience. The law of God manifest in the heart and on the conscience. This is a whole new world for the people of God. Furthermore, we see the fulfillment of the Spirit's arrival in Acts 2 at Pentecost. But all of this is really the substance of the New Covenant. We're talking about new life. We're talking about spirit indwelling. We're talking about heartfelt obedience. These are all elements of the New Covenant. But there's another aspect of this that's significant here. It is the complete and final forgiveness of sin. He says, I will forgive their iniquity, declares the Lord, and I will remember their sin. No more. It's not that he forgets and it slips his mind and gets lost somewhere. The Lord God who is perfect in wisdom, perfect in all knowledge, chooses to not remember the sins of his people. That is profound that God would do such a thing. Whereas in the Mosaic covenant, Israel, they needed to multiply sacrifices regularly for the hope of forgiveness. I've sinned again. Oh, I have to go back to the temple. I have to bring my spotless lamb, make sacrifice, sprinkle the blood, go home. Oh, I sinned again. Come back, come back, come back, come back over and over again. But now God is offering complete and utter forgiveness for all sins. Yet it would come by way of one true and final sacrifice made for all. The Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. And who is that? That is Jesus Christ. He is the Passover Lamb who was sacrificed for us. And it's His blood that will ratify the new covenant. Go back to Matthew 26. I'm getting excited now. Be careful. At the Last Supper, Jesus announces the inauguration of this new covenant which is going to take place once the sacrifice is made on the cross and His blood is shed. His blood here is the required payment. I don't want you to miss that. His blood is the required payment for the forgiveness of sins. This is what ratifies the covenant which is poured out for the sake of the forgiveness of our sins. This is necessary because as Hebrews 9.22 teaches, and we've already heard here, all things are cleansed with blood. He's talking about sacrifice now. All things are cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. God can't and won't just say, you know what, it's okay, and sort of shove the sins to the side and forget it and just move on and pretend like it never happened. He can't do it, he won't do it. There has to be some sort of payment. That's what atonement is, it's payment. And what is the payment that God requires? It is blood. Why blood? And again, if you're one of those medical people that doesn't like the sound of it, I apologize for the sermon, but it's in the scriptures all throughout the blood of the covenant. Why is that so important? Well, Leviticus 17, 14 tells us that the life of all flesh is identified with its blood. It is the life force of all living things. That's what binds us together. I'm not talking about insects which have something else, I'm not even sure what they have, but any animal that we're aware of, right, any red-blooded animal has the same life force in it, and without that life force, there is no life. You can break a bone, and it's probably not gonna kill you, depending on the bone, I guess, but you get my point. There's something about a person's life force, something about their blood, And so for Christ to shed His blood is to give up His own life. Therefore, His body and His blood are symbolized here by the bread and by the wine. Of course, we know that it's prophesied in Psalm 34 20 that His bones would not be broken. And they weren't according to John 19 36. And so when he talks about here the bread being broken, it has to do with Christ's body being destroyed in death. The breaking of the bread, it's symbolizing death, destruction of the flesh, destruction of the life. And again, the blood that was shed, a life for a life, for the forgiveness of our sins. Now, the scriptures in 1 Corinthians 11 teach that although the events are unique to the Last Supper, the remembrance of it is intended to be repeated as an ordinance of the church. This is where we all come in. There are two recognized ordinances of the church, that is baptism and the Lord's Table. Well, the question is, what is an ordinance? What is a Christian ordinance? Well, in very simple terms, it's a practice that's established by Jesus for us to faithfully observe. So anytime the Lord says, make sure you do this, that is an ordinance for us. Now there's lots of things he commands, but only two things in the scriptures that we see are commanded for all of us to observe together as official ordinances. Again, that is baptism and the Lord's table. And while scripture never tells us how often to do this, Paul does say as often as you eat the bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. And so there is some level of Christian liberty. Some churches observe the Lord's table weekly. Other churches like ours do it monthly. I've even known churches that do that quarterly. We do this again monthly, but he says as often as you do, do it. There's a certain way, a reverence, there's a certain specificity to how it is done. This observance is both memorial, but it's also a declaration of the sacrifice made by Christ on our behalf. It leads us to consider then the nature of this ordinance. What is actually taking place when we partake of these elements? What's going on? Well, as you can imagine, Protestants and Catholics have been debating over this for hundreds of years. And many of you, I know for a fact, many of you came to Christ out of the Roman Catholic Church. But the main point of the contention about this debate centers around Christ's words here when he says, this is my body, this is my blood. What does he mean? Just to give some level of context to the discussion here, Roman Catholic theology teaches something known as transubstantiation, whereby the substance of the elements are transformed in some way into the body and blood of the Lord. During the Catholic Mass, the priest offers up what is called the Eucharist. It's from the word Eucharisteo, to give thanks or give praise. And literally, what this is doing is the elements are offered up, and according to their catechism, it says it's offered up as an unbloody sacrifice. An unbloody sacrifice. Now, I want to be very clear about something. They do not believe that they are re-sacrificing the body of Christ. That's a common myth. At one point in time, I even understood it that way, but it's not true. Rather, what they believe that they're doing is they're re-presenting the sacrifice over again. They see a connection between the sacrifice that they're offering now, in terms of a memorial, and the sacrifice of Christ. They see it as one thing. However, what's different about it is this is actually an unbloody sacrifice. And what does Hebrews say about that? But there's problems with this even beyond that. First of all, there's no biblical basis for this practice. Transubstantiation is neither taught, nor prescribed, nor modeled in the New Testament. There is no example of this given. In fact, this doctrine does not officially get taught by Rome until the fourth Lateran council in A.D. 1215. So there's a long time between when they established themselves as the Roman Catholic Church and when this doctrine becomes in vogue here. And it was primarily taught and realized or recognized by Thomas Aquinas, but even Aquinas had no basis for teaching this doctrine, supposedly a miracle whereby the substance of the Eucharist has changed. In truth, this is a misunderstanding of the biblical text. Why do I say that? Well, because of this Greek word estin. Estin, which is what we render is. The word is. And estin is a relatively elastic term. What do I mean by that? Meaning that Christ does not say, nor does He intend to say, that the bread or the wine is His body or is His blood. Exactly. Esten can be rendered represents or even equals. It's no different than when Jesus says elsewhere, I am the true vine. Or He says, I am the door of the sheepfold. Or I am the light of the world. We understand Jesus is not saying, I am the light, like literal light. He's not saying, I'm literally a door. We don't erect doors and then say, oh, that's the body of Christ. He's speaking in metaphorical phrases. He's illustrating a greater reality. He's using language we can understand and we can access to try to get some view into what he is saying. And so when they're holding these elements, this piece of bread, when they're taking a sip of the cup, he's saying, this is my body, this is my blood. But again, this is one of Martin Luther's great issues, the transubstantiation. There's no basis for it. Of course, Luther offered his own unique view, which I won't get into, which was something called consubstantiation, and the other Reformers like Calvin and Zwingli, they rejected even his position. Well, where does that leave us? Well, we as a church and as believers of the Scriptures, we see the Lord's table as something memorial. a memorial observance whereby we are reminded of the cost of Christ's sacrifice. But why do we do this? Well, we do this because Jesus specifically says, and it's commanded in the Bible, to do this in remembrance of me. This is for our memory to remind us that there's something that happened on the cross. But then you start to ask questions about what about places like John 6? And I was thinking about this this week. John 6 where Jesus quite earlier in his ministry tells the disciples and tells his people in front of him to eat his flesh and to drink his blood. And we read about this in John 6.40, and I'm just going to read this for you, where Jesus says, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven so that the one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." Then the Jews begin to argue with one another saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Now just pause right there. This is a huge issue, a stumbling block for them. Why? Because the scripture says you're not to, cannibalism is completely out of the question altogether, but you're not to drink from blood. That was forbidden in the scriptures. It's not a good idea today, by the way, either. So eating flesh and drinking blood, this would have been repugnant to them. Are you really saying, Jesus, that you want us to imbibe your physical body? Certainly not. Certainly not. But they stumbled over these sayings. Why? Jesus says again in verse 53, 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 yourselves. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. Listen to this, for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will also live because of me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven. Not as the fathers ate and died. He who eats of this bread will live forever." What is he talking about? Well, even in John 6, he's making similar connections. Body and bread are connected. He's making that symbolism. And even the idea of drinking, and we would say even in the Last Supper here, the wine, but the idea of imbibing, of drinking, likening to his blood. Again, is he talking about spiritual cannibalism? No, he's not. He's not. What is he talking about then? He's speaking to our greatest needs. And for a human being, and all of us have the same common experience, what is our greatest earthly physical need? It's for eating and drinking, right? You can go without a lot of things in this world. In fact, most things you could probably find a way to go without. But if someone were to take away your food, At a certain point, you would cease to exist, but if someone were to take away your drink, water even, you would die. And so germane to the most essential part of who we are as human beings is eating and drinking. We have to have it, else we die. And so Jesus is putting his finger on something that is most essential to who we are as people, but he goes further. Basically he's saying, you understand eating and drinking, right? And yet I am true food and true drink. Touching even deeper than our most essential needs as people is the essential need of spiritual nourishment. In the same way that we hunger and thirst physically for those things, our souls, especially the souls of believers, the souls of the world, they're hungering and thirsting, they don't know what for, but we understand, don't we? When we feel that yearning inside of our souls, we recognize our sinful condition, we recognize our need for more of Christ's presence in our life, we recognize, Lord, I am thirsty for you. Lord, I am hungry for righteousness. You hate your flesh, you hate your sin so much that you're just dying inside. You need his righteousness, otherwise you'll perish. It's that same hunger and thirst, that's what he's talking about. If you don't eat my spiritual flesh and drink my spiritual blood, you will die. And so germane to who we are as Christians is to want to commune with God in the most intimate way, as if we were eating and drinking. Lord, I can fast, I can starve my body, but please don't starve my soul. We need him like spiritual food and spiritual drink. That, I believe, is closer to why we do this. Again, it's not the elements themselves. And when you partake, when you eat of a piece of bread, now we don't use wine here because we're Baptists, but we use juice and it symbolizes for us, but there's something about this, right? When it touches your tongue, when you imbibe this, there's something tangible happening in your body where you recognize there's a connection here. This isn't just an idea in my head. This is real. I can feel that I'm taking something in. Again, your mind knows it's just bread and juice, but it's meant to symbolize to your senses, there's a greater need that I have. And what is that greater need? I need Jesus. I need him more every day. I need him regularly. And every time we partake in the Lord's table, we're reminding ourselves at the very minimum, monthly, that we need him for life. But we ought to be reminded daily, hourly, minutely, if that's even a word. I need him now. Lord, I don't want to go a moment without partaking in blessed communion with you. Because if I don't have communion with you, my soul will shrivel up and die. I need you, Lord. That's what we're doing. That's why this is so important. As for the ordinance itself, the Bible teaches that we will not always have this specific ordinance. Well, why? Because on the very same night the Lord was betrayed, the very same night that He inaugurated this new covenant and this new ordinance, He also declared something else in verse 29. Jesus said, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until the day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. And so for believers, we are commanded to partake as often as we do so until the Lord returns. And so the church of the Lord Jesus Christ will do this ordinance, will partake in this ordinance as often as we're gonna regularly do this. We're gonna do this all the way until he comes in glory. Every church will do this until we see him face to face. But he declares here that that's the last time he was gonna do this. That he would not partake in this with us again until he returned. When's that gonna be? The Bible teaches no man knows the day or the hour. So we don't know. But we do know that there is a day coming when Christ will return and he will establish his kingdom on the earth. And in that day, according to Revelation 19, verses 6 through 8, there's going to come a time at the heels of all that happening that there's going to be a marriage supper of the Lamb. Before the return of Christ, there is in heaven a marriage feast. just like the Lord's table, but grander, heavenly, wonderful. At that point, He will partake in the heavenly fruit of the vine with us. And on that day, we will dine with Him face to face. But for now, until He comes, we commune with Him at His table. We do so spiritually. We do so memorially. reflectively, prayerfully, and we remember the new covenant. And so going back to my original question from the very beginning, because again, there are tangible effects to all this. As our soul longs for Christ, we recognize that there are other issues to be dealt with. What do I do with my sin? What do I do with my guilt and my shame? We bring it to the cross, where Jesus Christ shed his blood, and we lay all of it at his feet in confession, and we humbly receive his forgiveness. At the very minimum, when you come in here, and many of you on Sunday mornings, you come in on your face. I know you do, because there are days that I do. where you show up and you're like, boy, it is by miracle that I'm here. I almost didn't make it today. I didn't want to be here today. I've been struggling so bad. I've been away from the Lord. I haven't touched my Bible all week. I barely prayed. I know for some of you, that's a reality. And so you come in and you're just weighed down with the burdens and the guilt and the shame. What do you do with that? Beloved, lift your burdens. Go to the Lord. You come to Him. So I ask you, what are you holding on to? What's keeping you bogged down and burdened down? What is oppressing you? What shame, what guilt, what pain, sin, anger, hurt? Maybe it's pride or self-righteousness. Maybe it's despair or depression, fear or doubt or grief. What is weighing down your soul? What is starving you of communion with God? What is it, beloved? Whatever it is, here is your opportunity. Each day and every day, but certainly now, here is your chance to lay it down at the cross of Jesus Christ. Lay it down and say, Lord, I don't want to carry this anymore. He's not asking you to. Lay it down and say, Lord, I confess. I've been trying to do this alone without you. I confess, Lord, I've sinned against you. I confess I've withheld myself from your grace. I confess I don't love you as much as I want to. And yet in doing so, when you lay this down, here's your opportunity to remember his love for you. He loved you so much that he gave his life for you. He shed his blood, he gave up his body so that you would have forgiveness and life and hope and peace. Let's pray. Oh Lord, we're so grateful to you for the sacrifice that you've offered on the cross. You have inaugurated this new covenant You have put your spirit within us. You've removed the heart of stone and you've given us a heart of flesh. You've caused us to walk in your precepts. You've given us forgiveness of sins. Oh Lord, this is not something that we ever asked for or even knew we needed. We didn't think this was even possible. And yet in your divine love and forbearance, you gave yourself for us. And Lord, none of us are worthy. And so often we come in and we say, Lord, I don't deserve it. That's right, we don't. And yet you are fully deserving of our praise and our worship and our adoration, our love and our longing, O Lord. And so as we gather today, Lord, to partake of your table, even though we understand that these are merely elements, this is bread, this is juice, Yet you have told us that when we partake, we are to do this and remember that your salvation cost you your life and you gave it freely because you loved us and gave yourself for us. Let us not come to this table lightly. Let us not come to this table pridefully, oh Lord. Let us come with a spirit of reverence and awe thankfulness and contrition, self-examination and praise. Lord, let us do so now in humble reverence. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.