Loyalty, Loyalty, Loyalty

Intro:

[Read the Apostle’s Creed]

What is the most important quality in a friend?

In my opinion, Loyalty is the most important quality that someone can have.

Someone who is loyal:

can be trusted

will show up when I need them

always has my back

isn’t going to betray me

Movie Friendships & Loyalty

Sam and Frodo

Dory and Marlon

Bubba and Forest

Danny being disloyal to his friends in order to become popular

But here’s what is so amazing about God: He is not like me. He doesn’t betray his friends. He is loyal to us, even when we betray Him. Throughout the bible, God makes promises with his people. He’s like a King making alliances. He doesn’t have to, but he chooses to.

The type of promise God makes is called a Covenant. A covenant is like a partnership. On one side God makes promises about what he is going to do, and then on the other side, he expects us to love him, trust him, and obey him.

There are a few major covenants that God makes in the Bible and we can use these covenants to track the overall story of the Bible.

Adam - Eden

Noah - post-Flood, will never destroy the earth again

Abraham - make your children into a great nation

Moses - obey the law I give you

David - make your kingdom last forever

If you’ve been tracking with us for this whole CREED series, you’ll realize that this week, we’re talking about Communion.

Taking Communion is a unique practice that the Church does, and I’m gonna make the case tonight that Communion is all about loyalty.

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 NLT

For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it.” For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.

In order to understand what Communion is and why the Church does it, we first need to understand what sin is.

What is sin?

At it’s core, sin is betraying God.

We sin when we try to be gods over our own lives.

we make all these plans like, I’m gonna go to Eden Prairie High School and I’m gonna start for the varsity basketball team by the time I’m a sophomore, and then I’m gonna get a scholly to UNC and I’m gonna play there, and after my basketball career is done then i’m gonna get a high paying job and make a lot of money…and maybe some time down the road I’ll make some time in my life for God

Or we think things like, God, I’ll give you this hour on a Wednesday, and maybe I’ll give you some time on a Sunday, but the rest of the week I’m doing me

We sin when we chase after the gifts God gives in places that can’t deliver.

Every sin you’ve ever committed in your life boils down to looking for Pleasure (I’m happy), Approval (I’m loved), Security (I’m safe), Significance (I matter) in places other than Jesus.

I’m gonna chase love online. If i make funny enough Tik Tok’s people will love me. If I look good enough people will love me.

If i always have a girlfriend I’ll feel safe.

If I’m a good enough athlete then I’ll matter to my dad.

We sin when we don’t do what God has required us to do in his Word.

God I’m not gonna give you everything, I’m gonna hold some areas of my life back

God I know you’re calling me to love that person at school that nobody likes, but I’ll get made fun of so I wont do it

God I know you’ve told me that this behavior is going to destroy my life, my I’m gonna do it anyway

All of it is betraying the loyalty of God

What did people have to do when they sinned? (Before Jesus)

Sacrifice.

Hebrews 9:22 NLT

In fact, according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.

Under the covenant with Abraham, God’s people sacrificed animals to make up for all of their sin.

Under the covenant with Moses, God’s people sacrificed animals to make up for all of their sin.

Under the covenant with David, God’s people sacrificed animals to make up for all of their sin.

So God decided to enact one more covenant, a New Covenant.

But under this new covenant, there wouldn’t be continual sacrifices, there would be one sacrifice. And it would apply to everyone.

God Himself would take on flesh, become incarnate as a human being named Jesus, and be the sacrifice that once and for all did away with sin. And on the other side of the covenant partnership, God is asking us to trust in and follow Jesus.

Communion

So when it comes to communion, it’s a meal, we call it the Lord’s Supper, that represents what Jesus did to enact this New Covenant.

The bread is a symbol of his body. His body was broken for you and for me.

The wine (or grape juice) is a symbol of his blood. He shed his blood for you and for me.

1 Corinthians 11:26 NLT

For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.

So verse 26 gives us the purpose of communion: we take communion as the church to remind ourselves of the lengths that Jesus would go to be loyal to us, AND our commitment to be loyal to Jesus in return.

But before we can take Communion together, there’s a little bit more of this passage we need to wrap our heads around.

1 Corinthians 11:27–29 NLT

So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself.

Here’s is what Paul is saying:

He’s saying there is a right way and a wrong way to participate in communion. It is possible for you to be in a spot in your life where you can’t take communion and if you do, you’re actually sinning by doing it.

The first reason you shouldn’t take communion is if you’re not a follower of Jesus.

Here’s the deal, if you’ve never trusted jesus, if you’re still on the fence about whether he’s real, about whether he’s worth following, that's totally okay. You’re still so welcome here. I think is the best place to wrestle through all those questions.

But communion is only for those who have made that decision to follow Jesus.

The second reason you shouldn’t take communion is if your relationship with God isn’t right.

If there is some sin in your life, you shouldn’t take communion until you’ve confessed that sin to God and repented of it.

So that vertical relationship needs to be right before you take communion.

The last reason you shouldn’t take communion is if your relationship with someone else isn’t right.

All sin in our life is a lack of loyalty to God, but it might also be against someone else. maybe even someone in this room.

So if you know that you’ve sinned against someone else, you need to confess that and repent of that before you take communion. If that person is in this room, you should probably tell them and ask for their forgiveness.

So here’s what Paul says in verse 28, “examine yourself”.

Take some time just you and God and examine your own heart. Confess any sins that you haven’t already before you get up to get the bread and juice.

But it’s not about being perfect. If it were about being perfect then nobody in this room could take communion.

There is so much Grace for you if you feel like you’ve been screwing this whole thing up.

This is about being REAL with God about your sin.

This is about remembering that Jesus is loyal to you, and reminding yourself to be loyal to him.

We’re gonna take some time now to do that work of self examination and prayer. This is absolutely not a time to talk to your friend, or to be on your phone. This is a time to ask God for forgiveness and to celebrate what Jesus did for you. It’s one of the most important parts of being in the church. Followers of Jesus all over the world have been doing this for over 2000 years.

If you’ve got some stuff that you need prayer for, if you have sins you feel burdened by, if you want to get right with God, I’ll be up here at the front, Elyse will be up here too. Grab one of us because we’d love to pray for you and with you.

When you’re ready, we have communion set up in the corners of the room, you can get up, and bring it back to your seat and eat the bread and then drink the juice as a reminder of Jesus’ loyalty to you and your loyalty to him.