I want you to think about holidays, traditions, anniversaries, birthdays, growing up, uh, what memories come to mind for you? Think back, what are traditions that your family did or experiences that you had as a child that you look back on with fondness. Yes, there's trauma and things that we worked through, but for right this moment, I want you to think about fun memories. Uh, for me, I want to think about Christmas as a kid or, or birthdays as a kid. I know for Christmas, I, I remember like, let me tell you, you wanna know how I'm Midwestern. I had a great grandmother named Gertrude and another relative named Bertha. OK, you can't get more wet Midwestern. Than Gertrude and Bertha, can you? Uh, but we would see them, and I remember sledding down Gertrude's Hill that at the time I thought was just a mountain, but it's like yay big. But we would sled down, uh, we'd have some holidays there, it'd be great. I think of my mom's like homemade mustard sauce that went with the ham that we pulled out at Thanksgiving, Christmas time. It was great. I think about, uh, opening as a kid, getting that Nintendo, um, the, the first one was Super Mario with my brother being Super excited about those things. Uh, you know, there's so many fun experiences that you can have, and maybe you had a tougher childhood, and I want you to know that's OK, that God works through those situations as well. So maybe it's not Christmas, maybe it was a birthday or maybe it was an anniversary or a moment that you had where you won the big game, or you, and you want to remember it, right? Like I think of, you know, uh, being a child and I remember being so excited to go to Chuck E. Cheese for a birthday. And then I didn't realize until I got there that I was deathly afraid of Chuck E. Cheese. We were excited and I remember I actually had my friend pretend to be his birthday cause I was so terrified of the mascot coming towards me. But if you, in my defense, like, that's a little freaky, right? If you're a child and this large mouse comes at you like wanting a hug, you're kind of like, uh, OK. Um, but I think too about, uh, you know, going golfing with my dad or, uh, you know, having those experiences now, you know. With my wife having our own kids, uh we just had a birthday for my daughter. Uh, I had a little bounce house, and I've reached the age where I no longer have a desire to go in the bounce house because I just see injury, you know what I mean? You're like, OK, kids, have fun, I'll watch from here. Um, but we think about these memories, and maybe it's an anniversary, maybe it's, maybe you're like, well, OK, we don't celebrate this, but we celebrate that, right? Whatever that is for you. OK. Understand that holidays and traditions come in to help us remember the past and then also give us hope for the future. So what I want to do for the next 30 minutes is that I want to take a deep dive into the origin story of one of the most Important traditions of the Christian faith, and that is communion. Now some of you might be thinking, OK, John, I thought this was the study of the Book of Exodus in the Old Testament. It is. And so today, we're gonna make the connection between Passover in Exodus chapter 12 and then communion in Luke 22. So if you're taking notes, I want you to write this down, that communion is Passover completed in Christ. And continued in us. Communion is Passover completed in Christ and continued in us. Now the word Passover, in its simplest form, it literally means to pass over, which is gonna make sense when we go into that story. But it comes from a Hebrew word Pasak. Well, there's a similar sounding root word that is also found in Isaiah chapter 31 that describes, it's such a fun picture. It describes a mother bird hovering over its baby birds to protect them. So similar sounding root word of Passat. And in a way, what we're gonna see, it's God hovering or protecting, covering over us to protect us from danger, OK? And so there's this picture. Now, why am I gonna make this connection between communion and Passover? Well, I wanna make this connection because actually Jesus makes this connection. And so my hope for you at whatever stage on your discipleship journey you find yourself, this is gonna be helpful. So for those that are seekers in the room, they're just curious about Christianity, we wanna give you some explanation into why do we take communion, right? Cause you maybe this is your first time in the church and you walk in and they're just singing, it's all about the blood. We're like, oh, what is? What is this a cult, like what is this? Like, we're gonna explain it, OK? Um, for those that are are of a fresh new believer, follower of Jesus, uh, we wanna give some context to why we, we practice this. Why is communion important? For those who've been in faith for a little while who are considering themselves like a worker in Christ, like equipping the saints for the work of the ministry. Again, we wanna help remember the depth to it, right? Cause if you've been married a while, understand that an anniversaries and important dates are still important dates, aren't they? It it's not like, well, yeah, we did that 20 years ago. Like, OK, no, that's still important, right? To remember. And then also for those disciple makers, we wanna give you some language and some context and history to actually have a deeper understanding of something that we do on a regular basis that maybe you can share with somebody else as well. So I think this is gonna be, it's gonna be a little bit more historical today, uh, it, but I think it's gonna be helpful because communion is so important. To the practice and the rhythm of church. And so if you can understand that, then if you understand the meaning of the memory, it's gonna add more importance and value to your life when we practice this as a church body. Does that make sense? OK, let's jump into it. Luke chapter 22. It's the story of Jesus. We're in the New Testament. It's the Holy Week. It's before Jesus is gonna be crucified. And it says here in verse 7, it says, then came the day of unleavened bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John saying, go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it. They said to him, where will you have us prepare it? And he said to them, behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters. and tell the master of the house, the teacher says to you, where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large upper room, furnished, prepare it there, and they went and found it just as Jesus told them, and they prepared the Passover meal. So think of the famous, you know, Last Supper painting, OK? This is the place, is the upper, called the Upper Room. OK, it's convenient that they all sat on one side of the table for the painting, right? You'd think they'd split it. But anyway, um, sorry, sorry, we're just gonna move on. Um, so it's in the upper room, when Jesus is not ins just instituting communion as we know it, he's actually having a Passover meal. What is a Passover meal? Well, to give us some context for our story today, we're gonna read through this, that Moses was sent to set free the people of God. So Moses goes to Pharaoh. They're about 1500 years before Jesus, so about 15 1600 BC-ish, give or take. And so there he says, let my people go. Here is the evil pharaoh, who's not just like, oh, he's not a great guy. No, he's killing babies. Like he is worshiping false gods. He has enslaved the people of God, and he's making it harder and harder and harder and killing them without any recourse. And so God has used chosen Moses to come be the redeemer or come and set free the people of God. So he challenges Pharaoh. He says, God says, let my people go, to which Pharaoh goes, no. And so then he unleashes a series of 10 plagues that aren't just plagues as punishments, but rather, they're actually dethroning specific Egyptian gods and idols. And they're progressively getting worse, and we talked through that last week. And how after each plague, it was dethroning an Egyptian god, and and Pharaoh says no. And then, and another plague happens, and he says, well, maybe, uh, just kidding, no. And so it's getting worse and worse and worse. And so we get to the final plague, the 10th plague, but where there's gonna be the killing of the first born. But As a direct challenge to Pharaoh, who viewed himself as a god, but there's gonna be a way out. There's gonna be a way in which a family can save their child. So there is a judgment on wickedness, but then there's gonna be a way out, and what is this way out? Well, that's where we're picking up our story here in Exodus chapter 12, verse 3. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the 10th day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their father's houses, a lamb for a household, and if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and the nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons. According to what each can eat, you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male 1 year old, 1 year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the 14th day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat. They shall eat the flesh that night, roast it on the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs that they shall eat it. Now do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts, and you shall let none of it remain until morning. Anything that remains until morning, you shall burn. In this manner you shall eat it, and with your belt fashioned, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hands, and you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover, for I will pass through or pass over the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, on all the gods of Egypt that I will execute judgment, for I am the Lord. The blood shall be assigned for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be for you a memorial Day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations, as a statue forever. You shall keep it as a feast. So this day, which becomes Passover, becomes a memorial for God's people. And even you don't have to be religious to even understand the value of a memorial. Think about all the memorials in Washington DC. Some, you know, help us remember presidents. Some help us remember the sacrifice of people who gave their life for our freedom. I remember going as an annoying, smelly middle schooler to on a field trip to DC and I remember even as a middle schooler, Having a sense of awe, like here I'm just like like joking, like, I remember um I had my buddy named Matt who just kept listening to Britney Spears Hit Me Baby One More Time all the way on the bus and so I wasn't set up for like this real cool experience and uh but we got off the bus and I remember like standing at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and there was like a seriousness. And you see The tomb, you see the soldiers, you see the flag, you see the graveyard, you're like, oh. This, this took sacrifice. My freedom costs something. Right, even as a teenager was able to pause for a moment and realize something happened here, right? OK. In a way, we have this picture of Passover that was gonna forever become a memorial for God's redemption of his people. So let's talk through some of these details, OK? Why was there a sacrifice? Well, it says in Leviticus 17 that there, there is no uh atoning for sin without sacrifice. So think about it this way, like you, you can't just take stuff from a store, you have to purchase it, right? Um, our freedom as a country was purchased by what? By the sacrifice of the military who fought for us, right? There's a cost for things. OK? If you have a perfect God, eternal God. And that since the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve sinned against that God, humans then have continually and repeatedly rejected God. Well, that rejection of a perfect holy God. Requires a payment. So that's either going to be eternal damnation, which is where we get hell, or there is a sacrifice on behalf of uh really before God saying like, this will take my payment in my place as I humbly ask for your forgiveness, God. So that was the concept. OK? So they have now take this lamb unblemished. They take this land unblemished. And notice it's per house, per family, so it's personal. It's also surrounded with a feast, so it's communal. And then that lamb is gonna be killed as a sacrifice. They would later take sacrifices to the temple on a regular basis. Now, we don't do that today. Why? Because Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice. John the Baptist in the beginning of the Gospel, says these words in John 1:29. He says, behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. And so there is a sacrifice of the lamb, and then the blood from that sacrifice is placed on the doorposts, on the outside of the door. So that when God passes over, there is not judgment, but rather there is payment from that sacrifice. So check this out. This is really cool to think about this. That in the Passover story. The people of God are saved by grace. They didn't earn it, right? Covered by the blood. Received through faith. Why do I say that? Because why else would the Jewish people have to do this? It wasn't enough to be Jewish. It wasn't enough to be born into the right family. It wasn't enough to be really moral, by the way. God didn't say, and if you're really good, and you follow all the rules, then you don't have to do this. No. They are saved not by their heritage. They are saved not by their good works. They're saved because God passed over them because of the sacrifice of the land. You start to see where these connections are gonna come into play, right? Because as, as believers, some of us think that I'm saved because I, my, my parents were Christian. My family was Christian. I'm a good person. I'm not as bad as that guy, right? And, and we point to things, we make this relative. But understand, even in the story of Exodus, 1500 years before Jesus enters the story in our humanity, we see that God saves people by grace, covered in blood, received by faith. Placing the blood on the on the door frame was an act of faith because you're saying, God, spare me, God save me. God redeemed me. And so we have this picture here beyond that. Uh, why unleavened bread? So you will eat unleavened bread. Well, leaven was seen as a symbol for sin. Like 11 piece of leaven or liver or the yeast within that bread, it would, it would fill the whole thing. In the same way, one sin makes you a sinner. So unleavened bread is really a sign of purity and it makes it a lot faster. It takes time for the yeast to rise, right? And so they're saying you're gonna have to leave and you're gonna have to leave quickly. And so you, you're gonna eat this meal, but I want your sandals on. I want your staff ready. I want your bags packed. So you don't even have time for the yeast to rise. So it's a sign of purity, it's a sign of urgency that you have to do this now. So, think about the story and we're gonna go even deeper in it. So you have people of God, who are oppressed by the slavery of the Egyptians. Who then get delivered or redeemed by God by an act of grace, that God's gonna judge the wickedness of the world, that they will be that their sign by faith that they trust God for their forgiveness and deliverance, is that the lamb is killed and that blood is placed on the door of their household. It's communal, it's personal. And ultimately, it sets them free. Because after this, Pharaoh, who rejected God, his son dies, the Egyptians lose life. He's finally had enough and out of that rejection says finally go, go. And he sends the people out. Because remember, communion is passed over, completed in Christ, and continued in us. All right, so here's a little bit of backstory, but it gets way cooler. OK. Here's what I mean. The word Passover, like if you've heard of a Passover Seeder, that's still practiced today, uh, Seer is just a Hebrew word for order. And when they have a Seer meal, the Seeder meal typically has 4 cups. OK. And so when somebody has a Seder, Passover Seeder, they come in with the family and they drink the, and so the question is, what are these 4 cups and how are they connected to the gospel story? Again, it was practiced for years, 1500 years. They do it perfectly? No. A lot of times in the Old Testament, they didn't do it, and they got in trouble for it, and they kind of come this, this up and down. We obey, we don't obey, we obey, we don't obey, and we get to the point of Jesus. But they're still doing it to where when Jesus has the last supper with his disciples, he is having a Passover seder. OK, that's the context. We think of it as like, oh God, institute of communion. He was having Passover, but this is where it gets awesome, OK? So track with me. If you've been not paying attention for the last however many minutes, it's OK. I forgive you, but lock in cause this is cool. OK? All right, here we go. The first cup, the first cup here is, you know what, let me actually read this passage because this is gonna set up the 4 cups. Exodus chapter 6 verses 6 and 7. It's 4 phrases that give us the 4 cups. God is speaking to Moses, and he says, say therefore to the people of Israel, I am the Lord. He says, I will bring you out. That's the first phrase, from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will deliver you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. Number 7, I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I'm the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. So there's 4 phrases there. I will bring you out, I will deliver you, I will redeem you, and you will be my people. I will be your God. OK, what are these 4 cups? The first cup that they take at the beginning of a Passover seder is called the cup of sanctification. Some call it the cup of, of blessing, but either way, it's, it's this idea that I will bring you out. As God brought the people of Israel out of slavery, um, here that God brings us out of even a worse Pharaoh, us, our own sin, right? And it says in here and they, and they take this cup of blessing. And so they, they pray over the meal. Usually there's a few questions asked back and forth with kids in the family. It's communal, it's personal, it's a family. Uh, but then this is where it's really interesting. They pull out, then they have 3 pieces of matzo bread, which matzo is just unleavened bread. And they put it in a matzo tosh or a, uh, a special pouch, and there's 3 pieces of unleavened bread. They pull out the middle piece and it's called the Afikomen. And the afikomen, which that means that which comes later. Check this out. The leader of the Passover seder takes the middle layer of the three pieces of unleavened bread of matzah, takes it, breaks it. Then places the Aficomen, wraps it in linen, and gives it to a child to hide somewhere in the house. You're starting to track here, it's, it's so cool how this goes. So then they go after that, they go to the 2nd cup, which is the cup of deliverance. They have the cup of deliverance. First is God's promise, I will bring you out. Then he says, I will deliver you from slavery. At which point, it's also called the cup of plagues, at which point it actually, they recount the 10 plagues. Sometimes people will take a finger into the cup and, and take a dip in and reciting each plague that the people faced, and that was really representing God's judgment, right? I will bring you out. I will redeem you with what an outstretched arm and an act of judgment. OK? So you have the cup of blessing or the cup of sanctification. Then you have the cup of deliverance. Now, this is what's great is that you have this picture and then they have a large meal. Uh, I love the fact that our faith includes a lot of eating. They have a feast, OK? They have a feast, they have a meal. There's a lot of things connected within the story of the Passover. Uh, for right now, we don't have time for all of that. We're gonna keep it focused on the cups. But beyond just those food, there's a lot of food involved. And even beyond the Jewish faith and the Christian faith, so much of what happens in ministry is actually centered around food, and I love it because even the kingdom of God is described as a feast with our Heavenly Father. Right? So there's a feast, and they're recounting how God not only sanctified them, but also delivered them out of the hands of slavery and Pharaoh. And as Christians, now, we can understand that God deliver us, delivers us from sin. So, they go to the 3rd cup. At the end of the meal, they bring up the 3rd cup, which is the cup of redemption. And to redeem something is to purchase back what is rightfully yours. It comes at a cost, right? Here's where it's, it's so cool. So they finish the meal, the kids go and search for the hidden afikomen. They bring it back. Whoever finds it gets a little prize, kind of a fun component. They bring it back and they take it out. So the Afi Ken is blessed, is broken, is wrapped in linen cloth, hidden or buried, and then brought back. When it is brought back, then the person that breaks the bread, passes it to everybody around and talks about the redemption that is found in Jesus, and they take the cup. This is the cup that Jesus is sharing with his disciples when he says, hey, that bread. Is me. The bread that people have been taking for 1500 years, the bread that was blessed, that was broken, that was buried, that is brought back, that comes in the cup of redemption, that is my body. This has been the plan the whole time. They then passed the cup and say, this is the cup, this wine is not just wine. This is my blood, which I shed for you. This is how I will redeem you. In the Egyptian story in Exodus 6, it says that he will redeem how with an outstretched arm and an act of judgment. In the New Testament, the outstretched arm and the act of judgment is Jesus dying on the cross for you and me. He is blessed, he is broken, he is buried, he is brought back to purchase your freedom. And then he tells this incredible story, and it's not just the first time, by the way. John chapter 6, the miracle feeding of the 5000. Do you know when that happened? It tells us in John 6:4, it says, and the Passover was at hand. Earlier in his ministry when there was another practice of the Passover. He takes a little boy's lunch, some bread and some fish, breaks it, blesses it, breaks it, passes it out to 5000 men. If you include women and children, almost 20,000 people, feeds them and has leftovers for the disciples. One of the greatest miracles in the New Testament. And if when he finishes this incredible miracle, he says these words in John chapter 6 verse 35, he says, I am the bread of life. He's been telling us the whole time, it's about me. Now, the people receiving that miracle didn't get it, and many of them walked away. So he turns to the disciples and said, hey, are you gonna leave too? And at the end of chapter 6, Peter says, where are we gonna go? You have the words of eternal life. So John 1, John the Baptist comes in and says, hey, behold the lamb who takes away the sins of the world. John 6, during the Passover season, he, he feeds 20,000 people in a miraculous fashion. He says, I am the bread of life. I am what you need. They enter Jerusalem for the feast of unleavened breads right there to take Passover. They're in the upper room. They have the cup of sanctification and blessing. They have the cup of deliverance, and they retell how God brought out the people of Egypt. Then they bring back the Afi Ken, and it was the cup of redemption. He says, oh, by the way, that's me. And then he doesn't even take the 4th cup. Which is the the cup of praise or the cup of fulfillment. So I will take you to be my people. Now, in Jewish practices, they take the 4th cup because it's a promise of fulfillment to become the people of God, that he's gonna send a Messiah. Jesus, which we'll read in a second, doesn't take that final cup, and, and he says, I'm not gonna take it until the coming of the kingdom of God. Maybe it's the ushering in the time we're in now. There are even some commentators though that point to the fact that he's referencing what is described in Revelation 19 as the marriage supper of the lamb. That when God restores all of humanity, new heaven, new earth, it's there where we're going to take this final feast together. But don't just take my word for it. Just, now that you know a little bit of the context, let's, let's continue reading here. Luke chapter 22 verse 14. And when the hour came, he reclined at the table, and the apostles with him, and he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, Take this and divide this amongst yourselves. For I tell you that from now on, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom comes. I'm not gonna take the 4th cup. But then he took the bread, and we had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise, the cup after that and he said, this cup that is poured out for you is the new blood, our new covenant in my blood. See, communion is Passover completed in Christ and continued in us. Now how is it continued in us? Cause he says to keep doing this. Jesus institutes communion. They're in Luke 22. The church begins in Acts chapter 2 and say, OK, well, how's the early church doing it? Well, we, Paul writes to the church in Corinth, in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, and he writes these words. For I received 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 he said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And 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. And so here's the key verse, verse 26, as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you shall proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Now, the word Eucharist really comes with a word of like celebration or Thanksgiving. And so there are differences depending on the denomination or background. So some people believe that when you take communion, it becomes the literal body and and blood of Jesus. Some people believe that it's just a symbol. Uh, and some people say it's kind of in between, like it's, it's maybe not the actual body, but there's something more than just a symbol, like it's, there's, there's like the presence of God there. OK. There are Christians and brothers and sisters on all three camps, OK. And so we respect where you've come from in this. And the reason I say this is because if we can pull that last verse back up, there verse 26, um, If we can go to verse 26, is that the importance, I think, is, is fully in what it represents, right? As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you will proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. That is the purpose of communion. Some churches do it every week. For us, we practice something called uh really reverent and rhythmic, so we do it, we sit a little bit longer. We take the elements together. Uh, we do it once a month as well as additional times. We're gonna take it here in just a moment. And it doesn't say there's like, you have to do it 10 amount of times and 10 amount of ways. It just says when you do it, as you do it. What do we do? We Proclaim the Lord's death until when? Until he comes back. It's, it's why we remember. We're gonna take communion in just a few moments and so, uh, we'll have some ushers that can come down that will pass out the elements. If you don't have one, we're gonna take it here in just a few. But I encourage you to, to invite uh or to take these elements out. We're gonna take them in just a moment. Um The ushers, you can go ahead and pass them down now. If you still need, if you didn't grab one on the way in, um, we'll have somebody walking out or down the aisles where if you need the elements. But understand, this is why we take communion. This is why we sing songs like with the word blood in it. Cause it's to remember that Jesus Christ died on the cross. Right? Saved by grace, covered by his blood, received through faith. Jesus, can you imagine being there in the upper room with him? Taking the Passover meal. Getting through this meal. Getting to the end and Jesus says this. Is my blood given for you? This is my body given for you. So let me ask you two questions today. Number one Will you receive Jesus today? See, each family had to do something, had to had to sacrifice that lamb and put the blood over the doorposts. It wasn't good enough to be just Jewish. It wasn't good enough just to be nice, to be moral. In the same way, it's not enough just to come to church. It's not enough just to have Christian parents. It's not enough to be immoral. Have you personally? Trust that Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Have you believed in the gospel? What is the gospel? John 3:16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. God loves you. He made you on purpose with a purpose. But because we sin, we have separated ourselves from a perfect holy God, and that separation requires a payment. Because unholiness cannot associate with holiness. But Jesus loved you so much that he gave his son to take that payment. To be the perfect Lamb of God. The once and for all sacrifice. That he took on the payment of sin, the wrath of God, so that we could bear the name of God. And have forgiveness and hope. How do we do that? Well, we believe. God love, God gave, we believe. What do we believe? We believe that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus is savior. If we confess with our mouth. That he died on the cross for our sins, that he rose again on the 3rd day. If we believe in our heart that he is fully God, it says that we will be saved. Not anything that we've done, but only what he's done and who he is. God loved, God gave. We believe, we lived. We live abundantly now, eternally forever. I'll give you a chance here to receive him in just a moment. But let me ask you also, if you are saved, will you remember Jesus today? It's so easy to get caught up in the to do's and the list and the stressors and the questions and I gotta pay bills and I gotta do this, I gotta go here, I gotta we start rolling through all the stuff. Communion forces us to stop. Understand that there is nothing we can do. Good heaven, but that Jesus did something. He sanctifies us. He delivers us. He redeems us when he died on the cross and rose again. And someday, wherever, no matter how difficult your day is, someday we will sing his praises forever in heaven. Fully known, fully seen. Fully clean, fully healed, face to face. In a feast with the king. Will you remember that today? If you wanna receive Christ today, I wanna give you an opportunity to do so. So we could just do me a favor, bow your heads and close your eyes for just a moment. And I wanna ask a question, and it's not like you have to do this over and over again, but I, I just wanna ask a question today, like, do you want to receive Jesus Christ here for the first time and make that decision today? Not like, OK, I wanna recommit, not like, no, like, do you wanna place your faith today in Jesus, not in church attendance, not in just being a nice person. But do you, are you feeling prompted right now to say, you know what, John, I wanna put my faith in him. I wanna respond to the gospel. I wanna believe that Jesus is Lord and Savior. You've never done that before, but you're feeling moved to do that right now. Will you raise your hand so I can see you? Amen. Yeah, raise your hand. Don't be shy. A a raised hand is an is a spiritual act of faith. Amen. Oh man. If you raise that hand, I want you to pray with me right now. And there's not magic in these words. There's, there's power in who we're praying to. I want you to pray along with me. Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner. I know that I can't make it to heaven on my own. But God, I believe that you are Lord and that you are savior. That when you died on the cross, you died in my place. You took on my sin But when you were buried and rose again, you defeated death. And now offer eternal life and forgiveness. Forgive me of my sins, Lord. I place my faith in you. I put my hope in you, my Lord and my Savior. Thank you for saving me. Tell your son's name we pray. Amen. Those that prayed that received him in your life, I'd love to talk to you, love to meet with you. But here's what we're gonna do now here in just a minute. Is that I want us to spend this time remembering. So I want us to Go ahead and open up. The bread. And I understand that it was there in the upper room. Now that you have some more context to the story. Now you know why we take this every month, why we do this at churches around the world. Is that until he comes, until he returns. We remember that this is his body which he gave for you and for me. Let us take this in remembrance of Him. Then passed the cup Again, this is for believers. This is imitation of who we are. The body of Christ They passed that cup, the cup of redemption. He said, this is my blood What I shed for you. Let's take this and drink this in remembrance of him. Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for Bringing deliverance and redemption to your people, 3500 years ago to the Jewish people there in Egypt, setting them free. From the slavery that that just hurt them, oppressed them, kept them down. But God, thank you for 2000 years ago, coming and setting us free. Freeing and redeeming us from our own sin, our own shortcomings in the darkness that you provided the way out, that we were a member. That's your body, your blood. With sacrifice on the cross as payment for your sins or for our sins, God. So that ultimately now we take this in remembrance, but we also take it from a place of celebration and a place of victory, and a place of feasting with the king who is alive and well. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for forgiving us. Thank you for freeing us. May we remember, even in the busyness of our days, the weight of worry on our shoulders, may we constantly remember that ultimately our freedom, our victory, our purpose, our love, our joy comes from you, Heavenly Father. May we remember who you are and what you've done. We love you, God and your son's name we pray. Amen.