If you would please remain standing and open your Bible to First Corinthians, chapter 11. First Corinthians, chapter 11, we'll pick up where we left off last week. We'll start in verse 17 and not to scare you, we're going to go all the way through verse 34. It's a large chunk, but it all is together here. Hear the word of the Lord through the Apostle Paul. But in the following instructions, I do not commend you, because when you come together, it is not for the 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 in part for there must be fractions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord suffered that you eat for an 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. For I receive from the Lord what I also deliver 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. In the same way, he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is a new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it. And remember to me for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and the blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup for anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. But if we judge ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home so that when you come together, it will not be for judgment about the other things. I will give directions when I come. Let us pray. Father, we. We come this morning to hear from you through the Apostle Paul. Father, we ask that you would speak to us today, that you would send the spirit to work in our hearts. that you would break down our walls of pride, that you would convict us where we need to be convicted, that you would humble us where we need to be humbled. We ask that you would encourage us where we need to be encouraged. And Father, we ask that you would help us to see the beauty of this Lord's Supper, this communion meal that we celebrate together and remember the work of the Lord Jesus. Father, most of all, we ask that you would mold us and shape us, that you would chip the hard edges off of us and that we would become more and more like the Lord Jesus each time that we come to your Word. Father, we ask that this will be true today, that you would change us. And Father, we ask that you would be pleased with and you would be honored with the preaching of your Word. We pray these things in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen. May be seated. Well, it's my expectation that many of you are familiar with the passage that we read today. You probably have heard it a lot of times, at least here. If you've been here for very long, you've heard us read parts of that on a monthly basis as we celebrate the Lord's Supper. And then my estimation, I imagine that most of you have probably experienced the Lord's Supper in several varying ways at other churches. And in fact, we hand out the elements differently than some other churches. And there have been times we've changed that up a little bit and it's looked a little bit different. And in many aspects of how the bread and the wine are distributed and the way that we celebrate the Lord's Supper, there's some freedom. For example, those little metal trays that we use to pass the elements out, those weren't used in the first century. I guarantee you in Corinth, they didn't have the little clear plastic cups with grape juice in it. And that's that's a that's a freedom that we have to to distribute the elements in that way. And we have freedom in those things. But there are other parts of the mill and there are things that that are to be done where we don't have any or much wiggle room and how they are to be performed. The meaning of the mill is not to be changed. But this is exactly what was happening in Corinth. The church at Corinth took celebrating the Lord's Supper wrongly, and they took freedom in areas that there should be no freedoms. And so Paul writes in this part of the letter to correct the way in which they have messed up their handling of the Lord's Supper. So Paul is going to go about fixing this problem, and he first points out what their problem is. They have divided themselves. They are not celebrating the Lord's Supper as a church body together. They have they have they have separated themselves out, as you may have picked up when I read some are going away hungry, others are full and drunk as they leave from the mill. And it's completely it's completely not ordered and people aren't even together. And then we're going to see that he's going to remind them of the the proper order and focus of the Lord's Supper. And then thirdly, he's going to give them a solution to their problem. And then lastly, he's going to apply the Lord's Supper by showing them what the what the I guess what the main idea of the application is and that the Lord's Supper is a fellowship meal to be shared with all the church and not just your favorite people. And this is Paul's main idea through this, and we've seen him talk about the Lord's Supper and compared to the celebration feast of the idol worship. And it's a it's an important part of the church. And now he's saying you're not doing it correctly. And this fellowship meal is to be shared with everyone together. And he's going to point out their problem. He's going to remind them of how it's supposed to be done. And he's going to apply and tell them how to fix their problem. We're going to see him do that today. So let's start and look at the problem that Paul sees with their their handling of the Lord's Supper. Now, if you remember a few weeks back or I guess last week in the previous part of this letter, Mike preached through. Paul says that he commends them. He says, I commend you because you remember these things that I passed down to you. And so no doubt they're probably feeling, even though they got a little correction through that section, they probably feel somewhat good that Paul says, you remember these things. I commend you for that. But he starts in verse 17 and he wants them to know clearly. This is bad. He says, I do not commend you because when you come together, it's not for the better, but for the worse. That ought to scare us to think that gathering with the beloved is actually for the detriment of believers and not for the building up of them and the proclamation of the gospel. And they're messing up with the Lord's Supper has actually made their gatherings for the worsening of the of the people there. He does not commend them. This is not a healthy life for the church. And Paul's going to jump into the explanation of the problems, and I want to read that section to you and then point out the problems that Paul is pointing out and that we see here. Starting in verse 18, he says, For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear there are divisions among you, and I believe in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat. For an 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. Now, I hear the frustration in Paul's writings. Now, that's me reading into that. But Paul saying, I do not commend you in this and says, will I commend you? No, I will not. He is he is obviously frustrated with the way that they're handling this this Lord's supper. So let's look at the problems that they have. He outlines for us and then some of the underlying problems that we can assume are going on in the Corinthian church. There first is a problem with the way they are dividing themselves up. We have seen that earlier in this letter, this is clearly a problem in the Corinthian church. They are divided up. Some follow Cephas, some follow Paul. I remember when I preached to that part, I said some follow MacArthur, some follow Piper. We have the same problems. And they're divided up. And apparently it's much deeper than just who they follow, but in the way that they celebrate this Lord's Supper. We've seen ever since the beginning of this this letter over and over and over again that Paul corrects their views on how they're treating each other, that they aren't loving each other. We see another outflowing of that here. They're divided up and there's fractions, even when they're supposed to be together, celebrating and remembering the Lord's work. Secondly, The language of Paul's comments here points to a division, most likely between the wealthy and the poor members of the church. Almost everyone that I've read about this agrees that that that because he says one goes away hungry, that there's this idea of the people in the church that that aren't getting to participate in these meals and there's others who are overly satisfied. He says you're getting drunk, which which would assume a feast is happening. And it's common in the first century to have big meals or feasts where the wealthy people would get together and have these meals because they could afford to do that. And that's OK. You can get together with your friends. But what seems to happen is when the church gets together, the wealthy people are are hosting the church in their home. Their wealthy friends are eating this large meal that they're calling the Lord's Supper, this feast. And the poor members are not allowed to come. They're to come late. They are not part of the church. They are they are eating maybe outside if they get any food of all and they're going away hungry. And Paul says, don't you have your own homes to host these type of meals outside the gathering of the church? And he's emphasizing that when we celebrate the Lord's Supper, we are not to be divided up. We are not to be divided up by our stature in the world, by our skin color, by our language, by our age. We are to come together as one body and celebrate this supper. The gospel is the great equalizer. I've heard people say, well, the gospel is the great equalizer, and I'm like, no, no, no, no, it's not. The great equalizer is the gospel. Because when you come to the table, it doesn't matter if you're the president of the United States or a janitor, you stand in equal standing before the Lord as a redeemed sinner. And Paul is pointing out that you are messing this up completely. In fact, it's no longer the Lord's Supper. You eating a meal together and calling it the Lord's Supper is not the Lord's Supper. You're divided up. And I think the idea here is to you're just eating a feast. You're not even remembering the Lord's work. You're just eating together. And this is wrong. Thirdly, seems to be that the Lord's Supper was being used for the advancement of people's pride. Why else would you separate people out except to show that you're important? Paul even says, I guess this is is necessary because it will. The genuine ones among you will be recognized, but we'll see who's actually a real Christian. The ones who I think the assumption is are not doing this, that these people are building themselves up with the feast. They're using this was supposed to be a remembrance of Jesus's work for their own ambitions, to build up their own pride and to worship their own idols of their hearts. And what they're doing is they're saying Christ's work is not for everyone. Christ's work is for us, this group here in this in this small Mill. Fourthly, by cutting out some of the people away from the mill, they are showing that they despise the Church of God. So what Paul says, do you not have your own homes to eat with or do you despise the church? He says you're actually for the worse for gathering together because of this division. He said, by doing this, you are actually showing that you don't love the church and affect the love Christ and the gospel. You despise it and you're doing what is right in your own eyes. Fifthly. Other actions, this Corinthian church is showing that their own desires and ideas are more important than those handed down, handed down to them by Jesus through the Apostle Paul. Paul says. I have received from the Lord and I am giving this to you. By their action, they're saying that that their own wisdom and their own ideas are more important than what the Lord Jesus has sanctioned and instituted. Let me say here for just a second that there are times in the life of our church when we have freedom to change some of the things that we are doing. We change things based on preference. We change things based on the culture that we're in. For example, it's OK if we decided we want to change the style of music that we're using. It's OK if we change a few of the orders of the things we do in the worship service. That's OK. We have some freedom in those things. But there's also things we don't have freedom in. that have been set for us, and one of those is the Lord's Supper. We can change the way in which we we put the elements out. It can look a little different. We've done it several ways, but there's certain core parts that must be done. We must gather together as a church and not be divided up, we must follow exactly what Jesus is saying here and remember what the body and the blood were actually for. We should be proclaiming through that, that we are all sinners in desperate need of a savior and that we all stand together proclaiming that Christ has died on our behalf. Those things we must do. We shouldn't seek to serve our own desires with war supper. We shouldn't seek to make it more culturally pleasing. By changing, changing necessary parts into something that is that is tried or cute or we think would make people happy. For example, clown communion is not an appropriate way to do communion. And some of you laugh. I've stepped through it more than once, and it is it is awfully offending. Because people are not together, it's making a mockery of what happened on the cross. There are certain things that we cannot and should not change. We must come together as a one big body, as a church family, and we must proclaim that the Lord has died for all of us. And we must see each other as equals in that. We have different functions in the church. We have different functions in the world. But when we stand together at the table, we are equals. Because we all have been redeemed by the Lord Jesus. So Paul points out that there is massive problems, you're not together, you're eating a meal that's just a feast, that's not even the Lord's Supper at all. So we come to the second point, Paul provides the proper order and focus of the Lord's Supper. There are certain things that we should do in the Lord's Supper. We don't we don't get to do whatever we want and celebrate however we want. We do it in a way and we do that. We're also connected to all believers everywhere who do this same thing, proclaim the same gospel. Paul starts in verse 23. I want to read it again. We read it already in the Luke account of Jesus doing this. I want to read it here one more time. For I receive from the Lord what I also deliver to you. I'll stop there. Paul has already instructed them on how to do this. They should know better. That the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given things, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And in the same way, also, he 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. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Here's how the Lord Jesus instituted this Lord's Supper. We read it back in Luke. during the Passover feast is they were going through the normal liturgy of that feast. Some of you may be familiar with that. There is a liturgy they went through and the Passover took several hours. It was actually designed to teach children about the coming Messiah. If you read through it, it's really, really awesome to see how they are pointing towards the Messiah. And it is saddening to me to see how many people celebrate every year and they don't recognize this Messiah they are looking for has already come. And in the middle are there are parts of this liturgy when it came to the appropriate times. He took the cup and the bread and he related them to himself. And this piece that is pointing towards the Messiah in it, he says, I am this one. I am this one. And he models to them how they are to take the Lord's Supper from here on out, how they are to remember what his what his work is. So every time that we come to the table, We walk through this passage. We are proclaiming what Jesus proclaimed, that his body was broken for us, that his blood was spilt for us. And when you make it just a feast to eat and you exclude people and you change it to be however you want in our culture, you aren't proclaiming Christ's work. You aren't proclaiming that Christ's work was good enough for everyone, regardless of stature in this world. That's what they were doing. They may not have realized it, but they were proclaiming a false gospel. So, brothers and sisters, when we eat this meal together, we are proclaiming the gospel. We are proclaiming that there's a holy God. That men are sinful, but there is one who has come and with his body and the blood on the cross, he has taken the full wrath of God's judgment and he has stood in our place and he's been resurrected for us and those who believe in him will be saved. Regardless. of your socioeconomic standing, regardless of which neighborhood you live in, regardless of your skin color, the language that you speak. Regardless of any of that, Christ has died for his people. So Paul's pointed out this problem, he has reminded them of the proper order and the focus, and then he provides a solution to their specific problem, and he says this starting in verse 26. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and the blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That's why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged for when you are judged by the Lord. We are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home so that when you come together, it will not be for judgment about the other things. I will give directions when I come. I call this solution, it's long, I think it can be summed up really easily. Be careful. Be careful, maybe be mindful about what you're doing. Be careful that when you participate in this meal, you are doing it together and you are mindful of your actions towards your fellow brethren. Now, oftentimes in evangelical churches, this portion of Scripture is read and it's related in a way that we should have a deep, introspective time of evaluating our own lives and our sins. And then maybe some of us should not take the meal if we're unworthy. And what ends up happening is we have the Lord's Supper taken with a bunch of individual people not celebrating as a group. We have people that that that don't take it and some that do. I think there's time for us to reflect on our sin. I'm not saying that's a bad thing to do. And that may be the time for you to do that. But that isn't the context here. That's not what Paul is talking about. In fact, none of us are worthy in and of ourselves to come and take those elements. We're just not. We're all sinful. It is only because of Jesus and his work in our lives that we are able to do that. He is the one who makes us worthy. The context here is the divisions that they've had and the way in which they are treating each other. They are treating each other poorly. We have seen that over and over in 1 Corinthians. In fact, it's gotten so bad that when they come together, it is for the worse. It is better that they not meet than to meet and do what they're doing. That is terrifying to me to think that you can go to a gathering of believers, it is worse for you. What Paul is saying here is that you aren't doing it right, Corinthians. Now, here's what he says, I've given you the proper manner now, you should examine yourselves, you should examine yourselves in the way in which you're taking the meal in relation to the body. Are you doing it? Then that that would mean if we look really deeply at the context here, you read the whole section and not just part of it. When you examine yourself, you should be discerning the body. Are you discerning the others around you? We should examine ourselves and test our own attitudes about the table and those that we take the table with. Now. Next week, we'll celebrate the Lord's Supper here. I've come up with some questions that might be helpful for you to consider this week and also as we take the meal in examination. Not deep introspective look at your own self per se, but do you see the table as the meal that we share with the entire congregation as a celebration of the remembrance of the work of Jesus for his people? Or is it just a private matter? Might ask yourselves, how do you treat those at the table with you? Are they equals that have been redeemed centers like yourself, or are they some sub person? Because maybe you have a job that pays more than them, or maybe you live in a nicer house or or maybe because you've been on the mission field at some point and they have it, or maybe because you're serving the body in some other place and they just work a secular job. How do you see the brothers and sisters that you share this table with? Do you see them as all equals before you? I love that when we come into the church, there's this great equalization. There should be. The CEO of a company and the janitor stand together and they proclaim that they're both redeemed sinners. Maybe you should ask yourself, would you be willing to wait and eat this meal with all the beloved? Regardless of their social standing, if standing, if we needed to wait, would you be too hurried or would you say it's not important that we wait? Those people are late or whatever the case may be. If we decided we needed to delay and everyone stay around, would you be willing to do that? Because it seems the Corinthians were not. They didn't care about their brother. Maybe you need to ask yourself, do you really see yourself connected with these people here? More than just on a friendship level, do you see yourself connected as redeemed sinners, part of God's kingdom that have been called and redeemed? Do you see yourself connected in that way? I love meeting Christians from other cultures, because with almost what outfell, there's an instant connection and bond. You know what that connection and bond is? Christ. It's not our skin color. It's sure not our language. I barely speak English. It's not our cultures, but there's this instant connection there because of Christ's. Do you feel yourself connected with those around us right here? Do you feel yourself connected maybe with a larger body of Christ's, even those who are different than you, even those who hold a more or less prestigious job, even those who serve in a leadership capacity or those who don't? Maybe those who have different skin color or have an accent that's different than yours. Do you see yourself connected? Exclusion and improper form and function is an unworthy way to take the Lord's Supper. We cannot exclude people, we cannot take this supper in an unworthy way, because if we do that, We're proclaiming a false gospel. Christ died for his people, and if we do this and we're suffering incorrectly, or we have enmity between us and our brothers and we just hate their existence because of who they are, we are proclaiming a false gospel. We are saying that Christ's work is only good for people like me. Christ's work is good for all people who come to him. So Corinth was to examine their attitudes towards the table. When Paul says, are you are you coming worthily that we can be properly or in the right way? They were doing this wrong and they are to examine their attitudes towards the table and the body of Christ around them, and we should do the same thing. We should be asking ourselves these questions as we come to the table. If we if we see Christ's work is sufficient enough as we are, we are we looking at people in this right way? Are we loving? Because that seems to be the theme the last few chapters. Are you loving those in the church? And then I love this. And then Paul doesn't say and then don't don't eat the meal. He says, eat, eat together, proclaim together that this Christ has forgiven your sins. Brothers and sisters, if we don't consider those around us, fellow heirs in Christ, we aren't doing it right. When you don't do it right, Paul says you drink judgment upon yourself. When we do that, we aren't showing that we believe the gospel, but that we believe doing what we want is better or we believe we have a better plan or to use the Old Testament phrase, we do what is right in our own eyes. If you see that in the Old Testament, it always goes wrong. Don't do what's right in your own eyes. Paul says God has provided corrective discipline upon them. Some of them have been sick, some of them have died, and Paul says it's because of the way that you're treating each other. We may not have illness that strikes the church, but the message is clear. We don't care for the beloved. We don't see those around us as being saved by Christ like us. We run the risk of being lovingly disciplined by the Lord Jesus. That's the place we do not want to be as a church. It's for our good, so that we will not be condemned like the rest of the world, but that is not where we want to be. So Paul has pointed out their problem. He's reminded them of the correct way in which they are to apply or do the Lord's Supper. He has given them a solution to their problem. Just be careful. Love one another. So he's going to give them one last little bit of application. So then. I love that. So now what? They're asking, so what do we do, Paul? He says, so did my brothers. And I love this. He still calls them brothers. He still calls them part of the beloved. He says, my brothers, very pastorally here, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home so that when you come together will not be for judgment. Stop doing what you're doing. That's what he's telling them. Just stop it. Eat at home. Don't come hungry. This meal is not about satisfying your bodily hunger. It's about something much bigger than that. It's about proclaiming the Lord Jesus. So we could sum all that up by saying love those in the church, just love them, care for them. And I think on the surface of these passages like this over and over, we might be inclined to shake our head at those in Corinth. We know those people are crazy. Why would you do any of those things? I guarantee for the preacher, for those of us that do this in and out every week here, it's really easy for us to go, all right, go home right now. But there's more to it than that. We have to look in. Is there anything that we can we can glean from this that applies to us in Kingwood in 2016? And first, the first way I want to I want to apply this to us is I want to encourage you. I heard a I heard a speaker a couple weeks ago say oftentimes it was a pastor's conference. We don't encourage people from the pulpit well enough. They hit me like a ton of bricks because it's real easy to find the places that I'm convicted and I see my problems in my own life. I see issues and preach on those and try to correct them and gloss over where the Lord is actually doing work in the church. It's OK for us to see what's going on around us and say the Lord is doing this good work. So let me encourage you in this. What Corinth did is not what we do. We're not actively separating people out in this church. We're not telling you that you're not allowed to come to those doors or you need to go to a side room or trying to hurry up and have the meal before you show up. We're not doing that. This is good. I don't see you. I haven't yet, anyway. I don't see you like scooting away from the person next to you because you don't want to be part of the Lord's supper with him. I don't see you making mean glances over at people. When I hear you speak, I don't hear you speak down towards other church members. I don't hear you. I don't hear you doing that. Maybe I need to talk to more of you, but I don't hear you doing that, at least on the surface. This is good when we gather each month to celebrate We don't have separate meals for those who are elite. We're not going to. And I love that when we do that, I don't see people being mean towards each other. I don't see I don't see this going on, even though. We we are we may all look somewhat similar because where we live, but we are very different. We have different backgrounds. We come from different parts of the country, different parts of the world. We have different jobs. We live in different places. They're different, different looking families. We vary on many second and third tier issues, and that's OK. But I don't see open hostility towards each other when we eat this meal, and this is good. Let me provide a warning for you, though. As we puff ourselves up, we need to be on guard that we not go down the path that the Corinthians went down. or that we forsake the Lord's Supper. There are churches that I know of that have the Lord's Supper on a Wednesday night or a Sunday night in a back room, and they'll celebrate it with the whole church. We need to make sure that we don't go down that path. And while I don't see an opening shining of people or hatred, I can't see your hearts. I can see my own heart, but I can't see the way that you may have love or disdain for other people, but let us be careful about the way we see others worth and value here. Don't look down on others because of their status or their wealth or their skin color or their language or part of the country they're from, the clothes that they wear, the jobs that they have. We can't be divided as the Corinthians were. We have to come together. You see, these these physical missteps, they always start in the heart every single time they start in the heart. Read Matthew chapter five. Jesus tells us that very clearly. Don't murder, but I said, if you even hated someone, you've already done that. It starts in the heart, so we need to be on guard that our hearts don't lead to a physical outworking that is wrong. Thirdly, as far as use of the table, let us use the table in the way that Paul proclaims each time that we celebrate a meal together. When we meet to eat this meal, we are aligning ourselves with Christ. Therefore, we need to examine the way that we see this table. We should see it as a public affirmation of the work of Christ on part of the entire church. And we should examine ourselves to see how we view each other around here. And then we should repent of that. And then we should actually proclaim the gospel through participation in the mill. Examine yourself next week to see if you have a proper view of the table, if you have the proper manner in which you are you are you're taking this. Do you see yourself as a sinner that's redeemed like everyone else in this room and that you've been saved? And lastly, as we celebrate the Lord's Supper, we should be reminded that without Christ's work on our behalf, we will receive punishment for our sins. We will. Every time that we take that bread, we use the wafers and the grape juice, every time we take the bread, we drink the wine, we should be reminded that without that work, we would be punished. And as we proclaim the gospel here, that we affirm that that God is holy and we are not. And Christ has come and done this work. And those who who repent and believe will be saved. We should be we should be energized, I hope, to go out into the world and proclaim this very thing. It should it should make us want to go and proclaim the gospel to a lost and dying world. So let me encourage you this week as we close up here. You go through this week. Examine yourselves, how do you see the table? How do you see those around us here? Do you have any derision towards each other? And if you do repent of that and then come next week and as a body, let us let us proclaim the Lord's work. Let us pray. Father, we. Are so grateful that you have. Given us a physical way to participate in worship that you have given us this physical way to proclaim. That you have come and that you have spilled your blood and you've broken your body, that you receive God's wrath for us. Father, thank you for allowing us to participate in that and to to proclaim this gospel. When we gather together. Father, we ask that you would But it always be our mind to be examining the way that we look and treat each other here. Now, we would truly love one another. We may not always like each other, but that you would help us to get past that and that we would we would love each other, not because of our own desires towards another person, but because Christ has died on their behalf in the same way that he has died on our behalf. Father, help us to see that we are all in the same boat when we come to the table. Let us have a refreshed and renewed view of each other in this room. We ask that you would change our hearts, that you would give us a desire to love each other more. You give us a desire to proclaim the cross faithfully to a lost and dying world. And you would give us a desire to come here and to publicly, with our dear brothers, proclaim the Lord Jesus when we gather for that. Father, we ask that you would keep us from error. We ask that you would keep us from sin. We ask that you would guard us, that you would help us to weed out these sins in our heart before they become something that manifests itself physically. Father, we know that you can and you do protect your people. We ask for that here. We pray all these things in Jesus name. Amen.