For The Glory Of God

FOR THE GLORY OF GOD.

1-6-08---SAM

I CORINTHIANS 10:31

LORD’S SUPPER

TBC

INTRO:  Good morning take your Bible and turn with me to I Corinthians 10:31.  My aim this morning is to twofold:

-1)  Prepare our hearts for observing the Lord’s Supper.

            BTW, let me read to you from the BF&M 2000---VII. Baptism and the Lord's Supper

Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord's Supper.

The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.

-2)  The second aim this AM is to prepare our hearts for a sermon series I will begin next week.  The theme of it will be My To Do List for 2008.  My aim in that series is to challenge you to commit to 8 things to mature in your faith.

Read the verse.  This is our memory verse for January.  Memory verse? What’s that?  Talk about briefly.

There are many great verses that we ought to place in our hearts, but my prayer is that in 2008.  This one verse will be branded in your heart, and will infect you like a virus. 

WHY?

-I.  THIS VERSE KEEPS EVERYTHING IN PROPER ORDER.

            -A.  Notice what Paul tells the Corinthians.

                        -1.  The Corinthians were struggling spiritually.

                        -2.  They were fighting.

                        -3.  They were following men, not Jesus.

                        -4.  They were doctrinally off based.

                        -5.  They were morally off based.

            -B.  The demand of Scripture is that we do everything for His glory, not our:

                        -1.  Comfort.

                        -2.  Honor

                        -3.  Agenda

-C.  Before us is the Lord’s Table herein we are instructed in the manner which we are to observe it. And live life.  For me this table speaks loudly that I am to have no agenda, but His agenda.  What was Christ’s agenda’s?

            -1.  It wasn’t at that time to set up an earthly kingdom.

-2.  Listen to these words:  John 17:4---4I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.(NKJV)

John 17:6--- 6“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.(NKJV)

-3.  Dear friend, that ought to be our agenda.  The way the Father is honor is to honor the Son. 

-II.   THIS VERSE GIVES US A UNIVERSAL GUIDING PRINCIPLE

-A.  Whatever you do….whether you eat or drink.

-1  Wouldn’t have solve most problems in life?  It will create problems or what we think are problems.  But I blv that if the Corinthians were to live out this verse---they wouldn’t have the problems they had.

-2.   Think about that dear friend----how living out this verse would affect your life.  Think about how if we are TBC decided that this it!  This is our motto!  This is the verse that we will make every decision based on.

            -a.  We will lay aside the traditions of men.

-B.  Before is our example given to us that in life, death, Christ has honored the Father.  Now he is alive today that is for sure.  But the Table speaks of His obedient death, and reminds Us he is coming again.

-C.  IN 2008, I want you to have this mindset.  I want to begin to chew on this verse and Philippians 2:5-11

Philippians 2:5-11--- 5Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.(NKJV)

CONCLUSION:  Let us prepare our hearts to observe the Lord’s Supper by a moment of silence and an invitation.