Communion Message
(The table of confession)
June 16-17, 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 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 oft 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.

A thought has been on a journey through my mind of recent days. It has to do with one word--confession. Oh the power of confession has such a cleansing. And you know, oft times in our Christian experience, and sometimes even in moments of beautiful praise and worship that we've enjoyed already in our service, the spirit of God begins to tug away at our hearts and we become aware, sensitive, to things in our life that are not pleasing to God. We fail to confess them. We've sometimes covered secret sin. We do our best to camouflage sometimes our feelings, and yet God tenderly deals with us. And because we have ability to rationalize and to justify, oft times those promptings we tuck away and nothing about. We cover them up when we really should have confessed the matter and cleared it with God when our hearts were alert to it. And here's what I'm finding; if we don't take care of those spiritual matters when God talks to us, they'll...we can crust them over and we can cover them, but ultimately they erupt and the results are oft times very difficult to handle.

And so I want you to think of this table today as the table of confession. For us who know that there are things in our lives that we need to confess to God, they're just not right. We need to seek His forgiveness. Or maybe you're here today and you're looking for God. You want something to take place in your life because of this experience that will make you a different person. I'd suggest that why don't you confess your need to God on your knees as you join with us and say, God, I've left You out of my life for years, but I confess I'm empty and I'm hurting, and I need You dear God. That kind of confession will do marvelous things. You'll walk out of this sanctuary today a changed person because God will hear your prayers, and if we confess our sin He will be faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's His promise. So let's confess our sins on our knees today, shall we?

Father in heaven we kneel before You today and we're just human beings so weak, struggling, seeking, searching to find our way through life and to somehow get to know You better. That's why we came to church today, and yet we acknowledge that there are things that we've allowed to exist within our lives, things we should have confessed to You and maybe to others. But we've rationalized, we've covered, we've not been honest and those unconfessed sins still remained. Today we open our hearts to You dear God and ask for cleansing, and ask for pardon, and see Your forgiveness. Should there be those with us today opening their heart to You, dear God, for the first time confessing their need of You and their need of a savior, may by Your precious Holy Spirit at this very moment You surround them with Your presence, and with Your mercy, and with Your grace, and do an eternal work in their heart now.

These elements that we hold in our hands tell us You're anxious to do that for us. The body, Your body is represented by the bread given in suffice for us; and the cup, Your precious blood that cleanses from all sin. Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup. And I pray that prayer of David of ancient past who said, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Wash me and I shall be clean. That's our prayer. And You promised to do that. Thank you dear God. And everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?