Communion Message
When are you?
July 25, 2004
Pastor Leighton Sheley

I was thinking about, due to a recent event in our lives, how much I have learned about our heavenly Father's love for us by being a father. In fact, I've said before, that I have learned more about the heavenly Father's love by being a father than I could have learned by reading 1000 books. Now we had a significant event take place in just recent days, my eldest, my daughter, got her driver's license. For me as I was pondering the significance of that event, that event seems more significant, a milestone in life, than any birthday. Because if I was to liken it to a picture that came to mind as I sat on the bench outside the DMV thinking about the new life before us, I realized it was somewhat equivalent to the young bird leaving the nest and spreading its wings and flying on its own. And as I sat on that bench I was thinking about how fast life really is, and how quickly the kids grow.

I was thinking back on the fun times that we had together. Crystal is only about 18 months older than her brother Sterling, and so they got along real fine, most of the time. There was a certain ambient noise level in our house that we were comfortable with. It meant things going well. And then occasionally the noise level would raise and that meant that there was conflict in the house. And usually my wife would reprimand me for not paying attention to that because I was buried in a book.

But you know there was something that would grab my attention out of the book - silence, silence in the house. My head would come up out of the book, my ears would listen for the ques, and I would usually say something like, Crystal, Sterling, where are you? Now I knew they were still in the house, so I wasn't asking if they were still in the house. I was giving them the opportunity to repent.

And I was thinking about those were the words that God used with Adam and Eve in the garden; Adam, where are you? It's not like God didn't know where Adam was. And poor Adam thought he could hide from God of the other side of a tree. And Jonah, who our Pastor is going to present to us, thought he could hide from God on the other side of the sea. But there is no hiding from God.

In fact the writer of Hebrew says: For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are. Now listen to this: Nothing in all creation can hide from him. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes. This is the God to whom we must explain all that we have done.

And very often when we have done things that we know are displeasing to God, we have a tendency to run and hide -- to run away from God and try to hide from him. But if we continue reading this very same passage we find out that if we are running away from God, we are running in the wrong direction. It says: That is why we have a great High Priest who has gone to heaven, Jesus the Son of God. Let us cling to him and never stop trusting him. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same temptations we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it.

We need it folks. We need God's mercy. We need his grace. I'd like to invite you, if you're physically able, to join with me now as we kneel in the presence of our Lord and Saviour. The Scripture say at times like this we should examine our self.

Lord, your word says that we should come to you in our hour of need. And we need you every hour. Lord, inside of our members, as the apostle Paul describes, is the old rebellious nature fighting against the new nature of obedience that you have placed within us, the desire for obedience. And sometimes we do things that are displeasing to you. Your word says if we confess our sin you're faithful and just and will forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Lord we come boldly before your throne now seeking mercy and grace. Lord forgive us and cleanse us we pray as we now partake of these elements in remembrance of you. Let's partake of the bread and also the cup.

Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord, in Jesus' name we pray, and all God's people said, amen.