Communion Message
(It's not the church's table)
November 13-14, 1999
Pastor Don Sheley

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me." In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, 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 till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 

Our church is unique in that we do have the communion service every Lord's Day, and as I frequently tell my friends, we drive the cross in the middle of the service wherein the entire congregation is confronted with its own spirituality. You stood there or sat there as the emblems were passed and those very emblems made you for a moment think deeply where you stood before almighty God. And I respect a number of you who may have chosen not to partake of the communion. Maybe you felt that this was something that Christians do that's very, very sacred to them, and you just did not feel at this point comfortable in partaking. And I respect you for that, but surely you're here and you're searching. You're in God's house because there's a hunger deep down. You may not know how to identify it. You may not know what the answer is. You just know you're here because you're looking, you're searching. And it's our deep conviction that Jesus Christ is the one that fills those empty spots in our life; in fact, He fills our hearts to overflowing with His presence and with His peace. And what I might suggest to you in just a moment we will all kneel for prayer, and if you're here today why don't you just say a simple prayer to Jesus as you kneel with us. Just simply say it any way you want to, Jesus, I'm here at church today. I don't know what I'm looking for. I just know I'm, hungry spiritually. I know something inside of me is missing, and Jesus, I open my heart to You today. I want to believe in You. I want You to be my Savior and I want to be a follower of You dear Jesus. I want You to fill my heart with Your peace and Your presence. I want to leave my life of sin and I want to live for You dear Jesus. 

However you voice your prayer just talk to God, and just commit your life to Jesus and then it will be our prayer and our joy that when you come back again next Lord's Day you'll be able to reach for those elements as they pass by and with a joy and a happiness knowing that you're a follower of Christ and you've committed your life to Jesus. We do not build fences around this table. It's not the church's table. It doesn't belong to the church, and as I talked with you last week, I think it's one of the greatest thieveries of all time as when the church stole the table from Jesus, and we built all of our theological fences, all of our restrictions, all of our requirements. For people to participate you've got to be a member, you have to do this, you have to do that. The church has no right to do that. This is the table Jesus has left for His church, and it's a table that represents peace and reconciliation and forgiveness and cleansing. Someone said to me the other day, Pastor, you amazed me, you said that the table was for sinners. I always thought it was for saints. Somehow the church makes that implication, but I need Christ just like you do. I've sinned this week. I need His grace. I need His forgiveness, and I don't come to this table with any sense of perfection whatsoever. I'm a sinner needing His grace and so are you, but if we bow our hearts the Bible says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and He cleanses us from all unrighteousness. So this is the table of cleaning. This is the table of discovery. This is a table where we come with sincere hearts and Jesus reveals Himself to us in a beautiful new way, and I ask you to join me at the table now.

Let's kneel together. Lord Jesus we all kneel here today, some to say that simple prayer in the opening of their heart to You and making this the day when they recognize You as Savior and as Lord of their life. May Your precious Holy Spirit just do an eternal work in the hearts of those who pray that prayer now. For all of us Lord Jesus, we come to this table needing Your forgiveness and Your cleansing. You've promised that You would give that to us. You promised that You would give us Your peace, but we seek You forgiveness for our sin and ask for cleansing today. Thank you dear Jesus for being so patient with us. Thank you for loving us so much. Thank you for dying in our stead. We deserved to die because we're the ones that sinned. You didn't sin Jesus. We're the sinners, and that divine decree in the early moments of man's history which was Your decree that the soul that sins it will die. So we know the wages of our sin and we deserve to die for our sins, but Jesus You died in our stead. You became our substitute. You took my sin and the sins of all the world and You paid the penalty for them, and now all I must do is come to You, my Savior, and commit my life to You and to serve You. And You adopt me into Your eternal family and make me Your child. Wonder of wonders, marvel of marvels. We bow before You today and we say from the very depths of our heart, Jesus, I love You. I love You dear Jesus. Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup. With praise, with joy, and with thanksgiving we life our voice in adoration to You dear Jesus, our Master, our King, our Savior, and our Lord. And everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?