Help! I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up - 1 Samuel 5

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Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Welcome

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Prelude #:

†CALL TO WORSHIP based on Isaiah 57:15 Pastor Austin Prince

Minister: Who may approach the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy?

Congregation: He dwells not only in the high and holy place, but also with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit.

Minister: Why does he dwell with us?

Congregation: To revive the spirit of the humble and the heart of the contrite.

Minister: Then come, all who are humble and contrite, and be revived. Let us worship God!

Congregation: We come to worship the Lord who dwells with his people.

†PRAYER OF ADORATION AND INVOCATION

Most high and holy God—you alone are God. You have no rival, you fear no enemy, and you require no defender. The heavens declare your glory, the nations are as nothing before you, and every false god must fall before your presence.

Yet you dwell with the humble and contrite. Therefore, come among us according to your promise. By your Spirit, humble our pride, cast down every idol of our hearts, and awaken us to delight in your sovereign majesty.

Fix our faith upon Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen King, beneath whose feet every enemy shall be placed. Receive our worship through him, our only Mediator and Lord. Amen.

†OPENING HYMN OF PRAISE

S5 - “O, Dear Father, How I’ve Marveled”

†CONFESSION OF SIN AND ASSURANCE OF PARDON based on Isaiah 5:15-16; 1 Timothy 1:15; 1 Peter 2:24

Minister: Man is humbled, and each one is brought low, and the eyes of the haughty are brought low. But the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.

Congregation: Forgive us our sins, O Lord. Forgive us the sins of our youth and the sins of our age, the sins of our hearts and the sins of our hands. Forgive our secret sins and our open sins, our careless sins and our deliberate sins. Forgive the sins we have done to please ourselves, and the sins we have done to please others. Forgive us the sins we know and the sins we know not. Forgive them, O Lord. Forgive them all, through the atoning work of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Minister: Hear the assurance of the gospel: The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

Congregation: Thanks be to God!

CONTINUAL READING OF SCRIPTURE THE OFFERING OF TITHES AND OUR GIFTS PASTORAL PRAYER & THE LORD’S PRAYER Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

†PSALM OF PREPARATION “Great Shepherd Who Leadest Thy People” #80B

SERMON // I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION

Almighty God, since the natural person cannot receive the things of your Spirit, open our minds and hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Grant that we may hear your Word with reverence, receive it with faith, embrace its promises, tremble at its warnings, and obey its commands. Lead us through the Scriptures to Jesus Christ, in whom all your promises are yes and amen. Amen.

TEXT 1 SAMUEL 5

1 Samuel 5 ESV

1 When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2 Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. 3 And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. 4 But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. 5 This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day. 6 The hand of the Lord was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory. 7 And when the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is hard against us and against Dagon our god.” 8 So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” They answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath.” So they brought the ark of the God of Israel there. 9 But after they had brought it around, the hand of the Lord was against the city, causing a very great panic, and he afflicted the men of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out on them. 10 So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. But as soon as the ark of God came to Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “They have brought around to us the ark of the God of Israel to kill us and our people.” 11 They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our people.” For there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there. 12 The men who did not die were struck with tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

AFTER SCRIPTURE

As for God, His way is perfect, the word of the Lord is flawless.

I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up

1 Samuel 5 — The Lord Who Needs No Defense

Series: 1 Samuel — Covenant of Grace Presbyterian Church

Introduction

The ark of the covenant is gone.

Carried off a battlefield and set down in Philistia, in the temple of Dagon as a trophy.

Well, who's going to save the ark? How's this story going to play out? Who is left to go and get it?

Eli? Eli is dead.

The priests? Hophni and Phinehas are dead on the field.

Samuel? Samuel doesn't show back up in the narrative until chapter seven.

The army? Israel's army has been crushed. Thirty thousand men are face down in the dirt.

In chapter five, if you were to ask, well, then who's on the stage?

Nobody. There is no one left in Israel to save the ark. There is no one on the stage, just God.

And where the strength of man has fallen, the strength of God has not fallen. Where the leadership of men has fallen, the leadership of God has not fallen. Where the corruption of men is exposed, God is holy. Without the aid of men, God is mighty to save.

And God does not need anyone else on the stage. This is a very important point to understand as the people in this book will cry out for a king to save them and to be strong for them.

To the Philistines, their recent victory of the Israelites looked as if it was a contest between two gods. But the narrator will show us that there was never a contest at all.

And as we pick up here from chapter four, from the heavy weight of Ichabod. The glory has departed from Israel, but the glory certainly has not departed from God.

And that's what I want you to see in this chapter: The Lord needs no one to defend his glory, and no rival can withstand his hand.

What does God want us to see about our own idols? And further still, what does he want us to see about his mercy and grace toward us?

They Can Capture the ark, but they cannot capture the Lord. Movement I — (vv. 1–2)

What we see about God in this text is what Hannah's prayer declared him to be back in chapter two. Her prayer is the keynote of this story and of how we should read it. She declared that he is holy and that there is none beside him. The arrogant will be weighed and judged, the mighty brought low, and the helpless lifted up. No one prevails by his own strength. The Lord breaks his adversaries and gives strength to his anointed. That is exactly who He is.

And now we enter in on the Philistines, who have probably spent the evening after the battle rejoicing, dancing, feasting, gloating over their capture of the Israelite ark.

They set the ark up in the temple of their god, Dagon.

It's placed there as a boast, as though Israel's God were a defeated and subordinate deity, one more object in their pantheon.

The Israelites lost the battle because they tried to use the ark to manipulate God, to domesticate him, to manage him. And here we have an opposite but related error in the Philistines, acting as though they have defeated him. Neither is bowing before the Lord. Israel wants to use him; Philistia wants to put him in his place.

Israel wants God to bless their plans, their hopes, their dreams, to fulfill their own desires. And the Philistines are saying something more explicit: "You can't tell us what to do. We've beaten you."

But you should see that God does not allow his glory to be shared. He will not be propped up next to other deities. He is a jealous God. He will be the Lord, whether you like it or not. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.

He will be Lord alone, sharing His glory with no one. And the temptation to reject His exclusivity is a powerful one. Instead of giving God all of our weight, to trust Him alone, it is a real temptation to want to disperse that weight among other things to keep us and hold us. To hedge our bets so that we are not dropped or disappointed. But as Jesus says, you cannot serve two masters. You cannot worship God as a tool, as Israel is trying to do, and you cannot make room for him alongside the gods you would rather serve.

God will not serve your gods or alongside them. He will not give in to your appetite. He may give you over to it in judgment. But he is not your caterer.

The Lord will not be managed by his creatures. The Philistines may possess the ark, but they have not conquered the Lord. What appears to be his defeat is about to become the occasion for the display of his glory.

Movement II — The Humiliation of Dagon (vv. 3–5)

When they put the ark of God next to Dagon, they expect that the ark is just a trophy in their room. What they don't expect is that in the morning they will find Dagon fallen over, face down before the ark of the Lord.

How humiliating to think of these men pushing and pulling, prying him up. There's an ache and a strain. And just how comedic to think of them lifting up the thing that was supposed to lift them up.

The narrator says they took Dagon and put him back in his place.

The worshipers have to rescue their god.

We look at people who worship these ancient statues and think, "Well, how simple, how stupid. I would never be like that." Well, we are like that.

This is God’s world and may we never forget it. And Reality has contradicted their understanding of reality. And rather than bow before the living God, they try to put their old reality back together.

That's what God does with idols, anything we think can nurture us, protect us, satisfy us, or give us the life that only he can give. God delights to knock them over so that you can see what they truly are and where they belong and that they cannot pick themselves back up.

When we talk about idols, I'm not just talking about figurines and statues. I'm talking about things from which we derive our significance, where we find our deepest pleasures, where we seek approval, security, or moral and social superiority.

So you should ask questions about them. If I lose this, do I lose my value? My significance? My hopes and dreams? Is it as if I've lost my only oxygen tank to breathe?

Underneath so many of our idols is this desire to be on the throne ourselves. We want to manage the terms on which we will be loved, admired, safe, secure, and righteous. The thing we worship may change (idols may be all sorts of things) but the self so often remains at the center.

And God says he will share that throne with no one.

This is the first commandment, and The Larger Catechism asks what sins are forbidden in the first commandment. Among its answers is this: "self-love, self-seeking, and all other inordinate and immoderate setting of our mind, will, or affections upon other things, and taking them off from him in whole or in part" (105).

In whole or in part.

That is the phrase that gets me. You do not have to renounce God outright to reserve a portion of your heart for a rival. You only have to say, "This little corner belongs to me."

And then you find yourself in this very embarrassing place when you're trying to pick your idol back up.

It's easy to have the idol of wanting to be morally correct. Maybe it's also attached to being smart. But it's the idol of being right, a sort of self-righteousness in an argument.

Sometimes I’ll find myself having intense fellowship with Mrs. Prince. And she has exposed me. She's pricked a hole in my logic. She has laid me flat. I have obviously sinned. I have done her wrong. I am mistaken in the facts. I've gotten it all backwards.

I should yield. I should submit. I should repent. I should reverse course.

But I can't.

Because in that moment, when Dagon is lying face down, my self-worth is on the line. I have built up this picture of myself: I'm smart. I'm right. I'm a good leader.

And so I turn the argument to another thing. Instead of repenting, I pull in some other offense, something she's done wrong, so I can get a win somewhere, save face, put the idol back on its throne, salvage my reputation.

And repentance in that moment would mean admitting the wrong without defending myself, without changing the subject, without needing to get a win somewhere else.

It sounds like this: "I was wrong. I'm sorry. Will you forgive me?" No explanation tacked onto the end. No countercharge held in reserve.

And why can a Christian say that? Because I can afford to lose the argument. My righteousness was never staked on winning it. Christ is my righteousness. My standing before God is not established by how cleverly I defend myself, but by what he has done for me.

The same thing happens when a child is corrected and immediately explains that his brother did something worse. It happens at work, when someone points out our mistake and we feel compelled to explain why it was really someone else's fault. It happens when we confess sin to a friend but soften the confession until it hardly sounds like sin at all.

It's all this exhausting effort to stand our god back up.

And that's what the Philistines do. But they're not just trying to put a statue back on its feet. They're trying to put their worldview back together.

They prop him back up. And the next morning they come in, perhaps hoping the embarrassment of yesterday can be forgotten. But this time Dagon has fallen again. His head and his hands have been cut off, severed and left at the threshold.

The Lord has not merely embarrassed Dagon. He has shown him to be utterly powerless. The god who was supposed to protect them cannot even protect himself.

Psalm 115 gives us great language for this. The nations ask, "Where is their God?" The psalm answers that our God is in the heavens, and he does whatever he pleases. The manufactured idols have mouths and ears and hands and feet, but they cannot speak, hear, handle, or walk.

And the psalm says that those who make them become like them. You become like what you worship.

Anything lifeless that we worship increasingly makes us lifeless. But worship of the living God makes us increasingly alive.

And there is another interesting note in verse five. The priests and those who enter Dagon's house avoid stepping on the threshold, even to the narrator's day.

Whatever the precise reason for that custom, notice the irony. Their god has been overthrown, and what remains is a religious practice organized around the place of his humiliation. Rather than abandoning Dagon, they preserve a ritual at his ruined threshold.

And boy, isn't that common? Instead of turning and repenting when we see the insufficiency of our idols, we learn how to step around the truth. We would rather rearrange our lives around an uncomfortable reality than acknowledge what it requires of us. You just don’t go there. It reminds you of the haunting reality of God.

· Instead acknowledging God for who He is, instead of heeding the warning, they suppress and silence the truth. Maybe time or another bath will take away the pull of repentance??? Being shepherded by a good church can be uncomfortable – so you turn away from accountability. You don’t go near the threshold.

· Our pagan philosophers of enlightenment

So here is the question you should ask of this story: Who carries whom?

Dagon has to be lifted up and carried by his worshipers. Acts 17 reminds us that God is not served by human hands, as though he needed anything.

Our worship is a response to grace, not the maintenance of a needy God. We never have to prop him back up, and his arms will never be too short to save.

The God we serve is the God who carries us. He does not need to be carried around.

And the severed hands of Dagon prepare us for the next great contrast in the passage. Dagon's hands lie powerless on the threshold, but the hand of the Lord is about to fall upon the Philistines.

Movement III — The Heavy Hand of the Lord (vv. 6–12)

Dagon's hands are severed, but the Lord's hand is heavy.

The Philistines had the hands of a statue that they could touch but that couldn't do anything, especially save them. But the hand they couldn't touch, the hand they couldn't manipulate, couldn't chain down, was the hand that was heavy upon them.

God's invisible hand was the one with real power.

Back in chapter four, when the ark was brought into battle, the Philistines remembered the story of the Exodus. They recalled how the Lord had struck Egypt with plagues. And it seems that it is the Israelites who have forgotten their own national story.

The Egyptians enslaved the Hebrews, but God brought his people out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. He struck their oppressors and delivered his people.

Notice how this language governs the second half of the chapter. In verse six, the hand of the Lord was heavy against Ashdod. In verse seven, the Philistines recognize that his hand is hard against them and against Dagon. In verse nine, the hand of the Lord is against the city of Gath. And in verse eleven, the hand of God is very heavy there. There is a comparison in these chapters of Samuel between the lightness of worship that was going on and the real heaviness of God’s own glory. Here is comes down heavy in judgement.

Dagon has lost his hands. But the Lord's hand is everywhere. And no one can move the ark far enough to escape it.

The Lord strikes the Philistines with tumors. The judgment that falls on Ashdod follows the ark to Gath. And then they send it on to Ekron.

Gath is where Goliath will come from.

Maybe they think, "Well, let's move it to another city. Let's see what happens there." But every new city discovers the same reality. Moving the ark does not move the Lord off his throne. And where Israel failed in battle with leagues of men, the Lord does a victory lap across of Philistia all by Himself.

By the time the ark comes to Ekron, the people are protesting: "Hold up! You're trying to kill us! Don't bring that thing here!"

They have seen what has happened. They are not indifferent to the Lord. They have seen his power, they are frightened by his judgment, and they know that something greater than Dagon is confronting them.

But recognizing the power of God is not the same thing as bowing before him in faith.

Here is the terrible indictment. Instead of turning to the Lord in repentance, their cry is, "Get him out of here. Get him out of here."

How much of the hardness of our hearts wants exactly that? God exposes. His reality encroaches upon life. But instead of bowing the knee, they want him gone.

The catechism has a word for this, too. Under that same first commandment it names "incorrigibleness and insensibleness under judgments" and "hardness of heart." The hand of God is heavy upon the city, and their answer is not repentance. Their answer is relocation.

We do the same thing in smaller ways. We try to discredit the message rather than ask if it is true. We change the subject. We numb our conscience. We keep our hands busy. We move the ark from Ashdod to Gath to Ekron, as though the problem is where God has confronted us rather than what God has shown us.

And the chapter ends with a terrible picture. Death has come upon the city, and the cry of the city goes up to heaven.

Their great god has fallen. Their cities are suffering. Their leaders cannot control the ark. The people cannot deliver themselves from the heavy hand of God.

The cry goes up to heaven, but there is no deliverer among the Philistines.

And the dreadful question begins to form: How can anyone dwell in the presence of a holy God? Who is able to stand before the Lord?

There is another way this chapter challenges us. It confronts our dependence on what we can see. The temptation to tangibility.

We can take a lot more comfort in counting the numbers in a bank account, seeing charts of our health, or measuring church attendance than we sometimes take in God's providence, his covenant promises, or our own justification.

But God's kingship is not less real because it cannot be seen.

What about your justification before the Father? That verdict by which God declares you righteous because of Christ is not something you can measure in a bank account or see on a chart. But it is more secure than anything you can see.

And this chapter is not only a warning to those who imagine themselves strong. There is tremendous comfort here for those who know they are weak.

Israel's army has failed. Its leadership is compromised. The ark has been captured. Yet God has not ceased to reign.

What happens when everything you thought was holding your life together has fallen apart and you have no power to repair it?

This chapter does not promise that your circumstances will immediately improve. But it does tell you something about the Lord: his sovereignty and faithfulness do not depend upon your ability to control your circumstances.

His hand has not become weak because yours has.

So we return to the question from the beginning of the chapter: "Who's going to save the ark?"

Well, there's no need. There's no need for that.

Who will save God's people?

It's God.

The Lord needs no one to defend his glory, and no rival can withstand his hand.

But if his hand is so mighty against his enemies, how can we ever stand before him? How can we be reconciled to him? Where can fallen sinners find life in the presence of a holy God?

Conclusion — Christ as Victor

There's a pattern to this story. It calls to mind the great national story of Israel, the Exodus. The Lord's enemies believe they have prevailed, only to discover that the Lord triumphs over them by his own power.

Here the ark, the sign of God's covenant presence, is carried away into enemy territory - there it is all alone. To the Philistines it looks as though Israel's God has been defeated. But he has not been captured. He is not helpless. In the very place where they think they have won, he puts their gods to shame. And God will bring His presence back to his people.

Now what does that sound like?

Doesn't it point us toward the Lord Jesus Christ, who was truly arrested, mocked, alone and put to death by his enemies? They thought they had won. His disciples scattered. He hung upon the cross, apparently defeated.

And yet it was there, at the cross, that he won his victory.

Colossians 2 tells us that Christ disarmed the rulers and authorities, put them to open shame, and triumphed over them. Hebrews 2 tells us that through death he destroyed the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.

What looked like loss and humiliation was the place of his decisive glory. The Lord Jesus was not overcome by death.

Dagon is a god who falls down and has to be lifted up by his worshipers. He cannot lift himself from the ground. Jesus Christ is the living Lord who rises from the dead and lifts his worshipers up.

All idols are like this. They all are empty and dead, even the idol of ourselves. And don’t we know how weak we are? In the very place that was supposed to be his downfall, he’s the one who cuts the head and the hands off of the idols of this world. He’s the one who does the victory tour. He’s the one who comes back to his people from the dead.

And so how do you stand before a holy God? Not by propping up your own righteousness. Not by proving yourself right. Not by managing your reputation or repairing your idols one more time.

You have fallen, and you cannot get up. You who are dead in sin cannot raise yourself from spiritual death. You cannot justify yourself before God. But you need not save yourself, because Christ has risen from the dead.

You stand before him through the gift of his Son. We do not come expecting the condemnation our sins deserve, because Christ has borne that judgment for his people. We come with empty hands and receive.

And we are not merely idol hunters, tediously trying to expose them all and their faults. We must look up to what is supreme. We preach Christ crucified. Christ clear, Christ magnificent, Christ glorious. The tragedy of idolatry is not merely that we give our worship to something forbidden. It's that we seek life from something that has no life to give.

The idols promise that they can lift you up. But you spend your life lifting them. The living Christ does not need to be kept alive by you. He has conquered sin and death, and he gives life to his people.

That is why you can repent. He has given you resurrection power. And you can walk in newness of life. You can give up the argument. You can confess what you did without defending yourself. You can turn away from what has held you captive. Not because you have suddenly become strong in yourself, but because Christ is victorious.

That doesn't mean you will no longer struggle against sin, the world, and the devil. Their temptations remain real. But they are no longer your rightful masters. The dominion of sin is broken, even while the struggle against its presence continues. The idols of the self, the idols of the flesh, the idols of false religion, the empty philosophies of this world lay in shambles with their heads off and hands severed by Christ on the cross, by Christ from the grave, by Christ’s reality pressing in on us every day with His strength and glory.

We do not fight for Christ's victory. We fight from Christ's victory.

His hand has not become weak because yours has.

So stop coming to what is dead. Come to the One who has risen from the dead.

Come to the One who gives life.

Prayer:

Almighty God, we give you thanks for the gift of your son, Jesus Christ, given for our salvation.

Through his cross you have forgiven our sins, disarmed the powers, and reconciled us to yourself. Through his resurrection you have brought life and immortality to light. Through your Spirit you have united us to Christ and made us members of his body.

Cause every rival allegiance within us to fall, and teach us to worship you alone. To the Father who planned our redemption, the Son who accomplished it, and the Holy Spirit who applies it, be glory forever. Amen.

†HYMN OF RESPONSE “The Battle is the Lord’s” #545

THE MINISTRY OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

Minister: Lift up your hearts!

Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord.

Minister: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

Congregation: It is right for us to give thanks and praise!

CONFESSION OF FAITH

The Apostles’ Creed p. 851

INVITATION TO THE LORD’S TABLE

When the Philistines woke up and found Dagon lying on the floor, what did they do?

They picked him up.

They put him back on his pedestal. They had to restore their god to his place. They had to tend to him, care for him, and hold him up.

And the next morning, there he was again, fallen on his face, with his head and hands severed.

Their god could not even stand on his own feet. How was he ever going to sustain them?

And that's the tragedy of idolatry. It is not merely that we give our worship to something forbidden. It is that we seek life from something that has no life to give.

Listen to what the Lord says in Isaiah 46. In contrast to the idols that must be carried by their worshipers, God says to His people:

"Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save."

That's why this Table is such good news.

You are not coming here to prop up your God. You are not coming to supply something that He lacks. You are not coming to prove that you have finally become righteous enough to sustain yourself.

You are coming to the God who sustains you.

Here He gives us bread and wine, ordinary things that He has appointed as signs and seals of His extraordinary grace. By His Spirit, through faith, He nourishes us with the benefits of His crucified and risen life.

We take bread and remember His body given for us. We take the cup and remember His blood shed for us. And we proclaim His death until He comes.

Come to the One who gives life.

Come to the One who is life.

This table is for those who belong to Christ through repentance, faith, baptism, and continuing union with his Church. You who do truly and earnestly repent of your sins, and are in love and charity with your neighbors, and intend to lead a new life, following the commandments of God and walking in his holy ways: draw near with faith, and take this holy sacrament to your comfort; and make your humble confession to almighty God.

PRAYER

Minister: Let’s pray together.

Congregation: We do not presume to come to this thy holy table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy table: but you are the Lord, who is always able to have mercy.

Grant us therefore, by thy grace, so to eat the flesh of thy dear son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his most sacred Body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE ELEMENTS

SHARING OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

“Eat and drink.”

THE WORDS OF INSTITUTION 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

†OUR RESPONSE #234 Tune: The God of Abraham Praise

The whole triumphant host gives thanks to God on high; “Hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!” they ever cry. Hail, Abraham’s God and mine! I join the heav’nly lays; all might and majesty are thine, and endless praise.

†BENEDICTION: GOD’S BLESSING FOR HIS PEOPLE

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy—to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord—be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Jude 24-25