Communion Message
(The hearts near us)
May 5-6, 2001
Pastor Donald Sheley

For I have received from the Lord that which I also delivered unto you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He brake 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 ye drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as ye 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 the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

Some of us come from experiences of worship, that moments where God's presents seem to be so real, those memories linger long with us. I pray that the communion service becomes that to you, because it has become very precious to me. But, when I was much younger, that precious moment in the life of our church ended our came at the end of the worship service. We called it the altar service, and people would gather around the front of the church on their knees, sometimes for hours, having a time to be with God. And those were very precious times in my boyhood memories. And my prayer is that here when we kneel all of us see this as an opportunity where we can take care of spiritual business; and it happens.

I was out on a job site this week and was talking with the carpenter and he came up to me and he said, Pastor, I just want you to know that I was in church on Sunday, on Easter Sunday, and he said I gave my life to Jesus Christ. And he said, my life has been changed, and the implied was that it was during our time of communion that this took place. Others have come to me and said, Pastor, at communion time you gave an opportunity for us to be prayed for and I was healed. But this time, this prayer time, is very, very precious to all of us. Some of us are dealing with issues that are very, very personal; feelings that are deep within us. This becomes the opportunity where we can resolve some of these matters with God. That's why we spend time on our knees.

Today I'd like for you to pray for many in our church family. This week I received three telephone calls of people who have lost their employment because of the economic downturn. In fact, last night when we were having our service a lovely lady who sat near the front row, I was not aware of her situation, but she said, after the prayer time she said, Pastor, I got my pink slip on Friday. So we have those amongst us who are rustling with the tensions of adjustment for their resources for finances have now ceased, and we want to just ask God to give them wisdom and to give them peace and to guide them as they make new decisions as far as employment is concerned.

In our last service I had a lovely lady who came to me on Friday and she said, Pastor, would it be possible to have the family pray for me. She said, two years ago at the communion time everybody prayed and I then was diagnosed with cancer. And she said that cancer went into remission, and for two years I've enjoyed wonderful health. But she said I went to the doctor a couple of days ago and the doctor says the cancer has returned, and now it's possibly cancer of the lung. Her name is Janette. I want you on your knees to remember Janette today.

I had a lovely family come up to me at the end of last service, and a young lady, a beautiful young lady, part of our church family she said, Pastor, I went to the doctor this week and he's diagnosed me with MS. So we come to a family of--where we enjoy worshiping together, but we also, if we could only move our hearts down the row a few paces and pick up the burdens of the hearts near us; some of them are carrying a heavy load today. And I want you in this quiet time to just pray for the family. You may not know all their needs, but just say, God, those going through difficult times today I just want You to gather near them and help them. Let's all pray together, shall we? Let's kneel.

Lord Jesus, this has become a very precious time to all of us because to each of us this moment has a different meaning, because we all come to this table from a journey that's different from the person next to us or down the row or in the back of the auditorium. We're individuals meeting life's challenges, and bearing life's burdens, and enjoying life's joys, but we come to this sanctuary today and we're family. I pray for Janette. I ask You to do a miracle in her body and may she be able to give to us a glorious testimony of Your divine power and grace. I pray for those who kneel with us today whose hearts are filled with fear because their job has ceased and they're without employment. Would You just give them peace. Would You guide their footsteps to that place of employment, and would You be very near to them at this time.

There are some of us who kneel here today, dear Jesus, and we carry feelings inside of us that are not Christlike. Some of us have allowed anger to buildup for various reasons; we've been mistreated, we've been rejected, there are various reasons that create anger inside of us. And we're able to subdue it and keep a cap on it most of the time, but there are moments when that anger flashes and our actions are very ugly -- totally un-Christlike. So would You go to this source of our problem today, dear Jesus, and heal our spirit. Help us to be able to forgive. Help us to be able to love. But here we are in the Your presence, dear God, and our needs are many and they're varied, but You're the God of all sufficiency. You're the God of all comfort. You're the God of peace.

For this beautiful moment we hold in our hands the emblems of the cross whereupon, Lord Jesus, You in Your body became the sacrifice for us. You took sin's penalty, which was death, and You paid by Your death so we could live. So the little piece of bread that we hold in our hands bespeaks that glorious sacrifice at Calvary. The cup that we hold tells us that in Your precious blood You provide cleansing from all of our sins, and I thank you for that; so today we participate with faith and joy. Let's take the bread together, shall we?

Father God, I have a longing in my heart, a longing that that moment will come when we kneel in Your presence and Your glory so fills this house that all of our other plans for worship come to an end, and we just stay in Your presence. O that You would manifest Your glory amongst us. Come precious spirit of God. Come sweet spirit of God. May our hearts be touched by Your presence. Let's take the cup together, shall we? And everybody said amen. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?