Ready to Suffer Faithfully

Heat. Heat. Heat. Well, good morning, Crossurch Phoenix. How are you? Good, good. I am Pastor DJ, the campus pastor here for Crossro Phoenix. And so, if I haven't met you yet, if you're new, come find me after. I'd love to chat with you. Um, had a few new faces in the 9:00 am service. and uh uh some new faces in here. Um I want to invite you now to open your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chap 11 beginning at verse 16. So we're continuing our ready for harvest series and we are going to finish up chapter 11 that we started last week. We'll finish the back half this week. If you don't have a Bible, there's one uh in the seat back in front of you. You can take that, use it, and make it your own Bible. Take it home. We'll gladly replace it. And if you're joining us online, welcome. And uh turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 11:16. As you turn there, I want to share a quick story. First of all, I want to thank everyone um for a few things. Um number one was for those who uh helped came out um to the outreach last Sunday afternoon. We did one um from 1 to 4:00 p.m. at Deer Valley Park after the services last week. It was a wonderful time. Um, and I heard some really good stories. Uh, one of which I want to share. But I also want to thank those who came um, yesterday as well to our week day. We got a lot done. And, uh, the property looks much better. Weeds and trash are taken care of. And then we got the operation Christmas child boxes ready to go and some other things ready for um, our local elementary school. So, thank you to all of you who helped with that. Um, I wanted to share this cool story from you last week from the outreach. Josh um called me up and uh kind of let me know how everything went. I wasn't able to go out and he's and he tells me this story. I'm like, "Can you send that to me um like in a text or email so I could share that with the church." Um and so I don't normally bring my phone up here, but I have it right now. Um but I want to read this to you. This is great. So Josh said this. He said, "At the end of the outreach on Sunday, last Sunday, as I was putting the last strap on the trailer, a man approached me and we began to talk. He immediately gave me his pre-rolled joint he had just gotten from the dispensary and began to weep and cry audibly. He told me that he did not want to be bound by the weed anymore and began to disclose his situation and his sin to me. He was embarrassed and ashamed and felt alone in his sinfulness until I disclosed to him that I had done the same things as he had done. He said he came to us because we are people of God. Speaking of everyone who had come uh to the outreach because he had been watching, you never know who's watching you, but he had been watching the church um folks at the outreach going around talking to people about Jesus. He was watching all of that from his car the whole time and uh waited until everyone was gone but Josh and he comes up to him and um and he came up to Josh and he said he knows that Jesus can free him. And so they hugged and held each other in the parking lot praying against uh the demons against uh his marijuana use against the weed and asking God to intervene in his situation as he wept. and uh and and he says, "It looks like God intended to answer that prayer by sending laborers into the harvest at Deer Valley Park." Um so he closes with this. God is working and his timing is perfect. We exchanged numbers and are currently in contact. So we're hoping that this gentleman, we weren't sure if he'd come to church or not, so I didn't um share a name or anything, but we're praying praying that uh he'll come to church um soon and uh know and believe the gospel. But cool little story. Um, not every day you're cleaning up from an outreach and somebody brings you their marijuana joint, says, "Here, take this." Um, but yeah. Well, let's pray. Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word, God. And we thank you for your loving kindness, your grace, and mercy that you've shown us, uh, Lord. And I pray that you would speak your word to your people, uh, this morning, God. that you would convict us um with it if if that's what we need, Lord. That you would encourage us if that's the need. God, I pray that your word would be spoken to your people, not DJ's um thoughts or opinions, but Lord, your word would go out in truth. Um, so God, I pray that you would help us to not just know and build up knowledge, but to build up knowledge, yes, of your word that leads to application and uh um and and modern uh application of of these things. Lord, pray that you would speak to our hearts this morning in Jesus name. Amen. Well, a quote that's often attributed to the late fourth early fifth century theologian Augustine of Hippo. Maybe you've heard of him, maybe not, but he was a fifth century theologian. Augustine says this quote, "God had one son without sin, but never one without suffering." God had one son without sin, never one without suffering. Human suffering is inevitable. We will experience pain, sorrow and anguish. It comes from living in a fallen, wicked, evil, sinful world. There are three kinds of suffering at least from what I can surmise from the scriptures. There is universal suffering. This is suffering that all people experience simply for living as sinners in a sinful world. Right? Atheists lose loved ones, get cancer, experience tragedy, pain, and sorrow no different than Christians or members of other world religions do. But then there's two other kinds of suffering. Suffering justly and suffering unjustly. Or we could say suffering for doing evil and suffering for doing good. And the Bible speaks on this in 1 Peter chapter 2:19. Peter says, "For this is a gracious thing when mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God." And Peter continues the same thought in the next chapter. In chapter 3 of 1 Peter verse 17, Peter says,"For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil." So what's all that to say? If you rob a bank and go to jail, you're suffering justly the punishment for your crime. That is suffering for doing evil. However, if you let's say preach the gospel and suffer, that is suffering unjustly. Suffering for doing good. And so, it's these two kinds of sufferings that we're going to talk about today. In this second half of chapter 11, Paul is going to address the fact that yes, the Corinthian church is suffering. They're suffering, but they're suffering for all the wrong reasons. They're suffering foolishly, as we will see. They're being enslaved and exploited, taken advantage of, abused. but they're suffering foolishly. And then Paul will go on to list his own sufferings which will be an example to us of suffering faithfully. So we have foolish suffering and faithful suffering. So first foolish suffering. Let's read verses 16 to 21a. Yeah, I'm splitting verse 21. So it was kind of weird, but verse 21A. So, if you'll read along, 2 Corinthians 11:16, Paul says, I repeat, let no one consider me a fool. But if you do, at least accept me as a fool so that I can boast a little. What I am saying in this matter of boasting, I don't speak as the Lord would, but as it were, foolishly. Since many boast according to the flesh, I will also boast. for you being so wise gladly put up with fools. In fact, you put up with it if someone enslaves you, if someone exploits you, if someone takes advantage of you, if someone is arrogant towards you, if someone slaps you in the face. I say this to our shame. We have been too weak for that. So, I hope you can hear some of the sarcasm. I'm trying to draw that out because it is in the text. Paul has some hints of sarcasm that we see. But what he's doing is Paul is informing the Corinthians in this first half of the text about how they're suffering foolishly. And since they seem to be entertained by foolishness, Paul will have to engage in a little foolishness as well. He has to engage in this thing that makes him really uncomfortable to show how ridiculous it is. But we must know boasting in anything but the Lord is very uncomfortable for Paul and it should be because he knows and we hopefully know that our boast is only in the Lord. But Paul has to reluctantly engage the Corinthians in a little foolishness to show them how foolish it all is. And that's why you hear the sarcasm because Paul is doing something he really actually wants nothing to do with. If you'll you'll recall Paul is very comfortable calling himself a slave of Christ. Paul is very comfortable calling himself the chief of sinners, the foremost sinner. Paul is very comfortable calling himself a wretched man. And what makes Paul uncomfortable is boasting in any human way because he knows and we ought to know that human pride is an abomination to God. strong words, but it is any attention that belongs to God that gets placed on fallen man is an abomination to God. God abhores human pride. As a matter of fact, and we don't have time to go through every passage, but I want to give you a few from Proverbs to kind of drive the point home. But this is all over scripture. If you read first John, what is of the not of the father but of the world, lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and pride of life, right? But Proverbs 8:13 says this, "The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate." So these are strong words from the scriptures, right? Proverbs 6:16:5 says, "Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Be assured, he will not go unpunished." So suffice it to say, those are two verses among many that show us that human pride is an abomination to God because because it shifts the focus onto fallen human beings rather than the eternal, glorious, holy God who deserves all of that glory. Anytime man gets glory for something, it's not right and it's misplaced glory because it all goes to God. And so that's why this is so uncomfortable for Paul because he has to do this weird thing of boasting in the fleshish. But what we'll see is even when he does engage in this, he's going to do it in a way that honors God by boasting in his weakness and not his strength. But this should be an uncomfortable position for any godly man to be in. Boasting, human boasting in ourselves should be a foreign concept for Christians. A Christian who boasts about themselves ought to kind of be like an oxymoron. Like these two don't go together, right? These things are mutually excl exclusive. A Christian proud in himself should be convicted and repent, right? Because those things, it's like water and oil. They don't mix. Our boast is in Christ. But as we see for false teachers, their boast is in themselves. And what has happened is these false teachers have infiltrated the church at Corenth. And it's causing them to suffer, but for the wrong reasons, which we'll get into. So I have suffering foolishly and suffering faithfully. Our first point under suffering foolishly is suffering foolishly is submitting to ungodly leadership. Submitting to ungodly leadership. The Corinthian church has voluntarily submitted themselves to ungodly leadership. In verse 19, hopefully you hear the sarcasm, but he says, "For you being so wise, gladly put up with fools." The false teachers here trying to exercise leadership in Corenth are fools and foolish. And when Paul has to entertain this whole thing, he says verse 17, I don't speak as the Lord would, but as it were foolishly. Now, that verse has been taken out of context to say, see, Paul's not saying he's writing scripture. This isn't God's word. See, he says, "I speak not as the Lord would, but like this is his own opinion. It's not God's word. It's man's." That is a complete misunderstanding of that statement and the whole passage. He's not saying that. What he is saying is that this is not characteristic of the Lord. This is not leadership we've learned from the Lord. That's what he's saying. This is uncharacteristic of a follower of Christ. That's what he's saying. I'm not speaking as if the Lord would promote this. I'm doing this foolishly. Foolishness is not associated with the Lord. It's associated with human pride and boasting, ungodliness. And human pride and boasting should not characterize church leadership at all. at all. Now, understand I I no church leader, no pastor is perfect. I don't want you to hear me say that like every faithful local pastor in every church has to achieve this level of perfection where they're an exact replica of Jesus Christ. That's impossible. Pastors, myself, others are undersheperds, right? We are shepherds. The Bible calls pastors shepherds, but we are undersheperds of the good, great, chief shepherd, Jesus Christ. There is one good, great, and chief shepherd, and it's Christ. The rest of us are under shepherds. But what should we expect from church leadership? What should we expect from pastors? Well, before we get into that, let's get in our second point. Suffering foolishly is also submitting to abusive leadership. Abusive leadership. You can see in verse 20, this is what Corinth was tolerating. Enslavement, exploitation, being taken advantage of, arrogance, and physical striking. In the CSB, the Christian Standard Bible, which we have in our seatbacks, uh, uses the word slaps at the end of verse 20, which is a softer translation. It's literally means beats. So, some translations will say when people strike you in the face. Some will say when someone beats you. But it in its most literal translations, that's what it means. There's no indication like in Greek of whether or not the striking or the beating is open-handed or close-fisted. That's not the point of the text. But the point is a stronger slaps you in the face is a little softer. It's you put up with it when someone beats or strikes you in the face, being physically hit. And that's the kind of leadership Corinth is being led by. And Paul says, "You're putting up with this. You're tolerating this." And then you can hear more of Paul's sarcasm leak out. I guess they're really strong leaders because they tear you down. And we must be really weak leaders because we don't. We're too weak for that, right? We're too weak to beat you down to hurt you. We're too weak to enslave you to our own agenda. You see the point he's making? They're holding in high regard an abusive kind of leadership that Paul says is uncharacteristic of the Lord. I don't Paul would say this is not a leadership Paul exemplifies. And yet they're elevating it like it's something great. And Paul is shocked by this because you're enslaved to and submitting to a proud, arrogant, ungodly leadership form paradigm and rejecting the humble servant leadership that Paul exemplifies because his Lord does. So what should we expect from church leadership? What should we expect from pastors? two passages I'm going to uh talk about this one from Jesus Christ himself and one from Peter but in Matthew chap 20 25- 28 Jesus is speaking to his disciples and it says this Matthew 20:25 but Jesus called them to him his disciples and said you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them he's talking about how they dominate or doineer lording it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant. Jesus goes on to say verse 27, "And whoever would be first among you must be your slave." And then he uses himself as an example. Even as the son of man, the eternal son of God, the creator of the heavens, the creator and sustainer of the universe came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Bottom line, servant leadership is the paradigm for ministry. That's what it is. It is servant leadership. Proud, arrogant, ivory tower leadership where you do nothing and expect everyone to do everything else for you is the world's way. It's not God's way. It's just not God's way. God calls his leaders to be servant leaders. And yes, there are times where leaders or pastors, church leaders, um are more in a directing role or maybe a managing kind of thing, but overall godly leadership in church is servantoriented. And you can't get around that. You just can't. You can characterize it maybe in other ways, but servant leadership is literally the command in scripture. Peter picks up on this uh teaching of Christ. Of course, he was there listening, so it's no surprise he would write about it. But in first Peter 5:es 1-3, Peter says this. So I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly. So, first of all, he wants them to do it because he loves the people. He loves them. Not under compulsion. Well, I have to go be the pastor, but I don't really want to. I can't stand those people, but I'll go do it for a paycheck. That's not the kind of leadership. What does he say right after that? Not under compulsion but willingly as God would have you. Not for shameful gain but eagerly. Another attribute. This is a a a leader, a church leader who is doing it eagerly. He wants to serve and be there. Not for shameful gain, not for a paycheck. And then number three, not doineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. That's the kind of leadership God expects, the kind of leadership Paul exemplified at Corenth and they rejected. But it's the leadership that churches today ought to be looking for. If a church is looking for a pastor, that's what it is. Well, what about faithful suffering? Let's read 21B to 33 to the end. So Paul goes on to say, "But in whatever anyone dares to boast, I'm talking foolishly. I also dare." Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I'm talking like a madman. I'm a better one with far more labors. Many more imprisonments, far worse beatings, many times near death. Five times I received the 40 lashes minus one from the Jews. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked. I have spent a night and a day in the open sea. On frequent journeys, I face dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, and dangers among false brothers, toil and hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold and without clothing, not to mention other things. There is the daily pressure on me, my concern for all the churches. Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble and I do not burn with indignation? If boasting is necessary, I will boast about my weaknesses. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed forever, knows I am not lying. In Damascus, a ruler under King Aritus guarded the city of Damascus in order to arrest me. So I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped from his hands. And you thought you were having a bad day. But this is an example of suffering faithfully. So the first thing I want us to see suffering faithfully is suffering as a servant of Christ. Back in verse 22, we see what the false teachers were proud of themselves, their heritage, right? I'm a Hebrew. I'm an Israelite. I'm a descendant of Abraham. What are they doing? They're boasting in their pedigree, what they were born into. And Paul conceds, "Yeah, they're those things. So am I." Next question, right? That doesn't mean anything. Here's the issue that Paul knows. The issue is this. Being a Hebrew, being an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, none of those things, none of them come with an inherent obedience to God attached to them. You're not born obeying God because you have a lofty heritage. And that's why when he comes to say asking are they servants of Christ? He answers differently. I'm talking like a mad man. Right? You can be born a Hebrew. You can be born an Israelite. You can be born descendant of Abraham. You are not born a servant of Christ. You can be born an American. You can be born in a Christian home. Speaking to my own family, you can be a pastor's kid, none of that makes you a servant of Christ. None of it. Those things are good, right? But any more than being born an American or being born in a Christian home makes you a servant of Christ. Going to church every Sunday doesn't make you a servant of Christ. And so here in our text, Paul's not cons I don't think Paul's conceding or agreeing that they are servants of Christ. What I believe, and I say that because I can't be 100% sure, and I will tell you those things if I'm not sure. But what I believe think that he is doing is he's being Paul is being careful not to say that he knows for sure that they're not servants of Christ because only God knows the heart, but he has some serious reservations that they're actually servants of Christ. Why? Because they boast in the flesh and not in Christ. And so Paul goes on to list all these sufferings, right? Everything that he's endured for the gospel. So in contrast to false apostles, Paul doesn't boast in anything that makes himself look good or his pedigree. He boasts in his weakness, his sufferings specific to being a servant of Christ. Right? He's not being whipped by Jews, beaten by Romans, stoned. If you look closely, the the 40 lashes is a Jewish punishment. The beaten with rods is a Roman punishment. That's what So, he's not being whipped by Jews, beaten by Romans, stoned in danger everywhere he goes because he's a Hebrew or because he's an Israelite or because he's of the seed of Abraham. He was all those things before he came to Christ and no one was persecuting him for it. But then he became a servant of Christ and everything changed and he's suffering because he's a servant of Christ. This is why he's enduring these things. Even dangers of nature. You say, "Does that have to do with him being a servant of Christ?" I think so. Why is he traveling so much? For the sake of the gospel. First century missionary. He's going all over planting churches and going on all these missionary journeys in the book of Acts. Why? For the gospel. And he endures these things of forces of nature. He endures sleepless nights, hunger, thirst, lack of food, cold without clothing because of his suffering for the gospel as a servant of Christ. And one of the most sobering lines in my opinion is at the end of verse 26. He says, "Dangers among false brothers." Who would that be? Like we understand dangers from like the Jews who rejected Christ as the Messiah or Gentiles who are in pagan religion and reject Christ. We get that dangers from false brothers. Who would that be? That would be professing Christians who are not actually Christians. People claiming to be brothers in Christ who aren't. Sometimes our biggest hurts and pains can come from people within the church claiming to be Christians. But here's the bottom line. Serving God comes at a cost. I wish we I wish we could go over more of his sufferings in details. These are some of these are in Acts. Some of them are not. But suffering or serving God comes at a cost. If you've maybe been a Christian for a while and you've read Paul's letters and you love Paul and he's your buddy, I I love Paul. But everyone wants to be like Paul until it comes time to live like Paul. This is Paul's life as a believer. And God promised that his life would be hard. Read Acts chapter 9. This is this 2 Corinthians 11. What Paul is describing in 2 Corinthians 11 is literally just a fulfillment of what God said would happen in Acts chapter 9. We are never promised a smooth, easy rainbows and unicorns life as Christians. The opposite is actually true. What did Jesus say? The world will hate you. Why? Because it hated him first. That's why. I shared this with first service because it kind of just came to mind and it comes to my mind again. But we actually have biblically speaking, we have more assurance of hatred from the world than love from the world. We are assured more of opposition and persecution than we are peace and freedom in this world. We have peace in Christ and he has overcome the world. But the dangers in the in what the first century church endured. It was all stay faithful in your suffering. Stay faithful in your suffering. Stay faithful in your suffering. Common denominator, you're going to suffer. Be faithful when it comes. We are assured more of opposition from the world than we are love from the world in scripture. So if you want to serve Christ, what do we do? Deny yourself, take up your cross, follow him. Right? That's what he said. A lot of people don't want to deny themselves. They don't want to take up their cross. They want to follow Christ. Their version of Christ, not the one that says, "Deny yourself and take up your cross." But that's the Christ that we serve and that's the Christ what Christ said we should do. Last thing I want I want us to see is this suffering faithfully is trusting in God's provision as you endure it. If you look at verses 31 through 33, they're kind of interesting, right? You're like, where why is he sharing that story here? Well, Paul and Damascus have an interesting relationship. Do you remember where Paul was headed to persecute Christians before he got saved? heading to Damascus, right? He hated Christians. Paul did. He was Saul. He was persecuting Christians zealously, right? He could not stand Christianity. And he's on his way to Damascus to take people to jail and kill them, kill Christians. And Jesus Christ shows up in glory, right? Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? By the way, Christ takes the persecution of his church very very seriously and personally. I think that's there's a lot of peace and comfort in that. But he says, "You're persecuting me, Saul." And he goes blind for three days, has to go see Ananas to get his eyesight recovered, and he gets baptized, and he becomes a servant of Christ and a missionary. Right? So then he he's on his way to Damascus. still goes. This is all in Acts chapter 9. But um if you think about it, the place Paul was heading to persecute Christians turned into a place persecuting him for being a Christian. And if you read Acts chapter 9, it says that Paul was preaching Jesus in the synagogues. So instead of going to persecute, he went to preach. And he's saying he he's in the synagogue saying Jesus is the son of God. that offended everyone. And then what happened? Well, they put a little plan together. If you see Paul, arrest him. Kill him. Let's do away with him. Right? The plan is easy. Watch the gates day and night. And when you see Paul, take him out. We know he's here in Damascus. We'll just wait and see him. Uh he'll either we'll either find him in the city or he'll try to leave by the city gate, which will be guarded. And so we will silence him that way. And God had different plans and there's a hole in the wall and he gets let down a basket. He's hiding in a basket being let down the side of a wall. Why does he share that story? Sorry, but why that story? Because this that specific story shows Paul's weakness. It's not exactly a boastful triumphant story. He's hiding in a basket. This is not a show of power, right? Paul doesn't say, "I went out. I got out of Damascus guns ablazing. I went full Hercules on them and just like took everyone out along the way and marched right out that city." No, he's like, "I was hiding in a basket being let down. God saved my life and spared my life early in the ministry." And I believe that Paul is reminding Corinth of this for that reason. I'm weak. God is strong. This doesn't show how this little story does not show how amazing and awesome Paul is. It shows what God did to spare his life early in ministry. And the only possible way that Paul was going to get out of that hairy situation in Damascus was to trust in God who saved him. And so maybe you're going through a lot right now in your own life. Maybe you don't know how you're going to make it through insert situation here. Yeah, maybe the governmental officials aren't out to kill you and seek to arrest you. I get that. But put yourself in Paul's shoes. This is a situation where it looks like no ways out. If you start hearing that like the government, the Roman government is like, "Hey, if you see Paul, take him." And they're guarding the gates. Kind of seems pretty hopeless. Seems like I'm going to die or go to jail tonight, right? Like if I was Paul, I'd be like, "Yeah, I'm done." And God finds a way. Right? So I don't know what you're going through. I don't know what tough, difficult situation that you're in right now in your walk with the Lord or in your family or at your work, at your job, wherever you are in life. And it might seem hopeless. It might seem like there's no way out. But suffering faithfully means that you're trusting God as you go through it. And so our closing thought is this. We're living in a country becoming increasingly more hostile to biblical Christian values. Is your faith in Christ ready to be tested in the fires of persecution and suffering? I think this text calls us to reflect on our own lives. It's not just some historical truth, which it is, of some apostle a few thousand years ago who suffered. I think it calls us to reflect on our own lives. We may not go through what Paul went through, and I'm not saying you will, but we are in a huge spiritual battle as a nation right now. Yes, there might be a little bit of revival, but do you think Satan will let that go unnoticed? Do you think Satan and demonic influences will sit back and watch? No. He will do everything he can to oppose it. And my prayer for our church is that we would be filled with believers ready to endure suffering if necessary. Right? Peter says, "If that should be God's will." which means it's not God's will for everyone to suffer in this certain way, shape, or form. But if if we are called to if this is necessary for the sake of making Jesus known, are we ready for it? Are we ready for that? I want to transition us to communion right now. So, if you haven't picked up a communion packet, they're in the back uh two tables right there. You can go back and grab one right now if you're going to participate. I do want to give some admonitions before we do. Um, if you've trusted Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, we invite you to participate and join us as we celebrate the Lord's supper, the Lord's table, communion. However, if you are here, you're listening to my voice and you say, "I don't know Jesus Christ. I come to church. It's fun. It's cool. come with my family. I come with my friend, but I'm not a Christian. I'm not a believer. I don't No, Jesus is not Lord of my life. Um, first of all, I would say I'd love to talk with you, and I want you to come to know Christ as your personal Lord and Savior and have forgiveness of sin. But second of all, I would also ask and invite you to watch us, but not to partake because the scriptures do say that we need to do this. um we don't want to do this um in an unworthy manner. And so this is very um a very serious time. We do this in remembrance of Jesus looking back to what he did on the cross. We also do this proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes. What is that? Looking forward. So we look back to Christ. We look forward to Christ. But then the passage 2 Corinthians 11 or 1 Corinthians 11 says, "Examine yourself." And I want to invite you right now before we partake to examine ourselves. Looking in. We look back, we look forward, we got to look in. So take time now, a minute or two to examine yourself. What I mean by that is, are there sins that need to be confessed to the Lord right now? Is there anything in your life that you need to turn over to him? I want to invite you to take a minute with the Lord and and do that right now. Examine yourself and then I will close us. If you're still praying, Don't let me uh interrupt you, but um if you would peel back the layer that has the bread. And Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, 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." Father, we thank you for your body that was broken for us, the Lord Jesus Christ. God, you became fully man and you are fully God. Emmanuel, God with us. Not 50% of each. You were fully God, fully man, lived a perfect life, tempted in every point as we are, yet without sin, and you gave your life for us. You said yourself, "No one takes my life from me. I give it." And you did. And we thank you for it in Jesus name. Amen. Let's partake. if you'll peel back the second layer that has the juice. Paul continues to say in 1 Corinthians 11:25, "In the same way, he Jesus 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." You kind of have to be alive to come somewhere, right? Jesus Christ is alive. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins. What can wash away our sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And your word says without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. And so you came and you died on the cross for us. Not for your own sin. You had none for us. For DJ's sin, for the sins of those who are here listening online, for the sins of the world. And we thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Let's partake. Going to invite the worship team back up and uh close us in another word of prayer. Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word. Lord, I pray that you would rid us, Lord. Rid us of lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life. and fill us God with the fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Help us, God. Help us. And I pray Lord that if there's anyone listening to my voice who does not have a personal relationship with you that they would see their need to be saved. Saved from what? Saved from the penalty of sin which is death and given life in Christ. The invitation is open and you've given it to us. God I pray that we would respond in Jesus name. Amen. Let's stand as we sing our last song.