Communion Message
Our Wandering Heart
November 7, 2004
Pastor Leighton Sheley

We all have wandering hearts prone to leave the God we love, and that wandering heart has been inherited from our fathers who inherited from there is, generations past, even back to the time of Adam. It relates to Adam's choice, mankind's choice, to sin against God, to rebel against God. You say, well, pastor someday when I get really spiritual or spiritually mature or older perhaps then the struggle will be a little bit less. Now that's not what the Scriptures seem to indicate. We're going to struggle against the old nature until we rid our self of this body of flesh.

Paul the great apostle who wrote much of the New Testament and who evangelized much of the then known world writes these words in Romans chapter 7 concerning his own struggle. He says: The trouble is not with the law but with me, because I am sold into slavery, with sin as my master. I don't understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience shows that I agree that the law is good. But I can't help myself, because it is sin inside me that makes me do these evil things.

I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn, I can't make myself do right. I want to, but I can't. When I want to do good, I don't. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. But if I am doing what I don't want to do, I am not really the one doing it; rather sin within me is doing it.

It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. Now I love God's law with all of my heart. But there is another law at work within me that is at war with my mind. This law wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will save me from this life that is dominated by sin?

Then he gives the answer to that question: Thank God! The answer is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

But now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. For the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses could not save us, because of our sinful nature. But God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours, except that ours are sinful. God destroyed sin's control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins

May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The songs that we have sung this day are really expressions of prayer. We have sung about God's faithfulness and we have sung about our proneness to wander, our unfaithfulness. Thanks be to God that the He is faithful even when we are unfaithful. Thanks be to God for His graciousness and His goodness towards us. We desire to live lives that are pleasing to God. We desire to be forgiven for our sin. We desire to be cleansed from our sin. We desire to be cleansed from our inclination to sin.

The Scriptures say if we confess our sin He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I'd like to invite you, if you are physically able, to join with me now as we kneel in the presence of our Lord and Savior. The Scriptures say at times like this we should examine our self.

Lord we are thankful that You are so good and gracious to us who are so undeserving. Each and every one of us sin against You each and every day in thought, word or deed. All of us our sinners. All have come short of the glory of God. There is no one righteous, not even one. Lord we cannot save ourselves. We are slaves to sin.

Lord we can come to You by Your invitation. We can ask forgiveness. We can ask for cleansing, and Lord You desire to provide these for us. The elements that we hold remind us of how great Your desire is to purify us, to cleanse us, from sin.

Thank you Lord for going to Calvary to pay the wages of our sin. We partake of these elements in remembrance of You. Let's partake of the bread, and also the cup.

We are indeed Lord forever grateful, and we forever will sing Your praise with hearts of thanksgiving. In Jesus' name we pray, and all God's people said, amen.