Communion Message
(Glory in the cross)
October 27-28, 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 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 the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

I'm going to ask you today to kneel with me and I'm going to ask Pastor Leighton to sing an old hymn for us. You can open your hymnal, if you'd like to, on your knees. It's going to be hymn number 188. At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light. We'll listen to the hymn on our knees today.

Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, after correcting many of their theological problems, concludes that beautiful letter: he says, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Today, on our knees, I want us to glory in that cross. Page 188 in your hymnals if you'd like to follow along.

Leighton sings "At The Cross".

Lord Jesus, the words of that beautiful hymn express the feelings of our heart this morning, when in Your infinite grace and the work of Your Spirit You drew us and You helped us to understand. You gave us spiritual knowledge to comprehend the meaning of the cross and the purpose for that cross. It was there that our blinded eyes were opened, and it was there that You dealt with us in terms of our eternal destiny. And we like Paul say God forbid that we should glory in the cross, only of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Lord Jesus, with gratitude and thanksgiving we kneel before You and we thank you for touching our lives and changing us and bringing us into Your eternal family. We're grateful for the knowledge that when we came to You, Lord Jesus, You forgave us of all of our sins. This beautiful morning of worship we kneel before You and we acknowledge none of us are perfect. For all of us; we've stumbled, we've sinned. This week we've missed that goal of perfection, and so we come to You, Lord Jesus, and ask for cleansing and for forgiveness. And the wonderful thing about this beautiful moment is that we hold in our hands the very confirmation of the request that we've asked; because the bread bespeaks of Your body which was given in sacrifice as the substitute for us Lord Jesus. And the cup bespeaks of Your precious blood that cleanses us from all sin.

So the promise -- we hold a visible evidence of that promise that if we confess our sins, You're going to be faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Thank you for that dear Jesus. Somehow give us the grace and the strength to be a better Christian this coming week. Help us to be over-comers. Help us to live lives of victory in Christ. That's our prayer. Let's take the bread together, shall we?

In a world that's filled with so much tension and so much strife, so much heartache, just to have this glorious moment dear Jesus. To kneel in Your presence, to tell You that we love You, and to thank You for being our Savior. Let's take the cup together, shall we?

Lord Jesus, as a family, on our knees before You, we respond to the admonition that we should pray for our leaders. Again, in a momentous time of history when decisions are so far reaching, given our president and the leaders of our nation divine wisdom, great courage, and a desire to do Your divine will, O God. Thank you dear Jesus. It's in Your name we pray, and everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?