Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 3/23/16

Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 3/23/16

Paul was telling the Corinthians that they were not doing the communion right.  We want to do our best to realize what a powerful experience the communion represents.

1Co 11:20  When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper.

1Co 11:21  For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken.

1Co 11:22  What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.

1Co 11:23  For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:

1Co 11:24  And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

Jesus did not go through the suffering for His own good.  He did it for you and me.  I believe that whatever the individual’s need is if they will own their need and begin to seek God and His word and seek what Jesus went through, I believe beyond the shadow of a doubt that every need is supplied through the broken body of Jesus Christ.

This do in remembrance of me:  Let us remember how we got where we are.  For me, part of my remembering is that I know what I was before I got saved.  I know to some degree where I was headed.  I don’t know where I would have ended.  On the broad road of sin you don’t choose your own destiny. 

Millions say, “I don’t know how I got here.”  We know:  They choose to disobey and forget God.  It is unreal!  How can people forget God?  There is an intoxication.  Don’t forget where you were headed, how sin was treating you, and how it was designing to treat you.

Jesus’ body was broken for you and for me. 

1Co 11:25  After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

1Co 11:26  For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.

There are times when death comes that we begin to remember the individual.  It is always pleasant when the memories that we are left with are pleasant memories. 

Jesus was already the Son of God.  He did not have to go through what He went through to make heaven.  He did it for you and me.

Know what Jesus accomplished by His broken body: 

Gen 3:14  And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

Gen 3:15  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Way back shortly after creation, God left this promise and prophecy that “Yes, Satan will bruise my heal, but I am going to bruise His head.”

Rom 16:20  And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

You might be here tonight in a very narrow place.  These narrow places are good for us.  We have to get through the narrow place to get to the large place.  Psalms 113 to 118 may have been the hymns that were sung after the feet washing in Jesus’ day. 

In Psalms 118 it speaks of being closed in and then says, “The Lord will lead you to a large place.”  This I know:  Jesus went through a narrow place.  All men forsook him.  His sweat was as blood coming out of His pores.

He did it for us.  Today He is seated on the right hand of the Father making intercession for us.  There is one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt.  The communion is a remembrance of what Jesus has done.

The conviction point to me is that we recognize what Jesus made available to us: healing, victory, salvation, sanctification. 

We talked to a precious lady last night that was totally confused.  The seed of division is pride and carnality.  Someone wants their own way outside the authority of the Word of God.  God came to deliver me from all sin and all traits of carnality.

The desired effect of Jesus being bruised:  He is able to enable us to overcome.  He overcame all the bruising.  We feel bad and feel beat up when someone treats us bad and says bad things about us.  Jesus already went through it.

When people become bruised, if they don’t get the bruise taken care of, they will become bitter.  We will become bruised.  Sometimes people willfully bruise us.  Sometimes they bruise in ignorance, and they don’t mean to bruise you.  When I was sick someone said, “What in the world is wrong with you anyway?” 

We cannot afford to get bitter over anything.  If someone mistreats you unknowing in the fellowship, if someone says something that causes you to feel bruised, it is fine to go and clear it up, but get to Jesus.  He suffered all the bruising.  You and I don’t have to be bruised.  You and I don’t have to get bitter.  He suffered all the bruising.

Isa 42:3  A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.

I can apply this to my life.  Thank God we didn’t keep a journal of all the bruising.  There have been times when, not well-meaning, people have gotten Karen and I in their sights.  We walked into one meeting and the preacher didn’t know who we were and yet started preaching at me things that he thought and was way off track. 

Well-meaning people will decide they want to tell you something because you need to know it.  At that time you need more grace than they have.  You need to have it settled that you will not be bruised.

The Corinthians were making a meal of the Lord’s supper and failing to realize what the bread and wine represented.  They failed to realize what it meant pertaining to salvation and the deliverance that accompanies salvation.

Are we allowing all that Jesus bought for us to work in our life? 

You are so blessed to know about divine healing.  God, His Son, and the Holy Spirit have answers.  They are not just practicing.  They have emotional healing.  There are a lot of things in the world that ruin people’s emotions. 

There are a lot of stresses in this world.  If you are stressed out, then get a hold of God.  He deals with me: “Trust in the Lord.  Don’t just talk about it.”

He went through Gethsemane.  The just suffered for the unjust.  Remember the trials, the mockings; remember the crown of thorns.  He suffered for us and He didn’t lose His direction.

Pray for me that when the battle gets hot and I am exhausted that I don’t lose my focus of being the church of God 2016

He bore the cross; He bore the weight of our sin.  It was heavier than the literal cross.  That is what this communion service is all about.  When we break that bread, it shows that His body was broken for us.  When we eat of the bread then we do it because we realize what Jesus bought for us.  It is because of His body and His blood that we are saved today.

He shed His blood that He could sanctify those without the gate.  May we examine ourselves carefully:  Am I living to all the benefits that Jesus bought for me?  Am I living to them? 

Every time I preach this message I am under conviction.  I love conviction.  I love being stirred in my heart.  Jesus suffered that we could be a healthy body of believers: the church of God. 

LET ME BE WORTHY

When I think about the Cross that My Savior had to bear
And how He died for me upon the tree
Then my heart with fervent plea cries
Oh Lord is was for me
Let me be worthy of the price You paid for me

Let me be worthy of the price that set me free
Let me be worthy of the blood You shed for me
Let me be worthy of the pain that You suffered for my gain
Let me be worthy of the price You paid for me

Oh, the beauty and the grace, Love, and pity on His face
All through His suffering and His awful pain
Made the thief upon the tree cry,
“Oh Lord, remember me”
Let me be worthy, Let me some day with You reign

Oh, what mercy and what love, as He prayed to God above
Forgive them for they know not what they do
In my heart there rings a prayer
Let me of his mercy share
Let me be worthy of the price He paid for me

Author: Lois Rosenquist Irwin