I want to open with the scripture I also shared last
week from First Timothy. It says these things I write to,
though I hope to come to you shortly.
But if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought
to conduct yourself in the House of God, which is the Church of
the living God. It is the pillar and the ground
of truth that Scripture says a whole lot, and it certainly
tells us how important the church is.
It is the very foundation of everything that God is doing in
the earth. We know how important truth is
because the Bible says you will know the truth and the truth
will make you free. I'm glad there's freedom in
Christ Jesus, but the very ground on which that truth is
planted and the pillars that support it, well, it is the
church. And also I want to point out
today how important it is for us to recognize the purpose of the
church in our lives, to help train us so that we can go on to
maturity in God. But also, especially in this
day, we need to see how important the church is in God's
divine protection and impartation of knowledge and
wisdom for us in this great day, because we need to understand
this is a very special time in the plans and purposes of God.
God has an eternal purpose to be again being revealed in the book
of Genesis and goes all the way to the Book of Revelation.
And part of that is to recognize that God's eternal purpose from
the very beginning was that he would have a church, meaning
also that he would have a people and whom he would dwell and
through whom he might make a blessing in the world in which
we live. That's God's eternal purpose.
Now this next verse of Scripture I want to share is from the book
of Acts chapter 2. It says And with many words he
testified and exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this
perverse generation. Then those who gladly received
His word were baptized. In that day about 3000 souls
were added to them, and they continued steadfastly in the
apostles doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of
bread and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul,
and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
Now, the day of Pentecost is very important because after
Jesus Christ died on the cross and through His blood we have
forgiveness of sin. We have the opportunity to open
up our lives that we can receive the very presence of God in us.
That's why the Bible says that we are the temples of the Holy
Spirit. How do you know that's an
awesome thing to believe that God lives inside of you?
We also want to balance that with our understanding.
There's both our individual expression as the temple, but
also, as you notice in the Scripture, it talks about the
church, which is the place of God's habitation and God's
dwelling. So on the day of Pentecost,
that's when the church was born, everybody looks back and says,
Yep, that's when it happened. Because when the Holy Spirit
came, the seed of God was planted.
Jesus said unless the corn of wheat falls into the earth and
dies, it abides alone. But if it dies and goes there,
when it comes up, it becomes a great tree with many branches.
And so Jesus Christ planted a seed that from that would come
the church. And even each and every one of
us must see ourselves as a branch on that tree.
He is the vine and we are the branches.
I also want to take note here that on the day of Pentecost, as
He's preaching the message, He didn't say to them.
And I want you to hear this message so you can get saved and
go to heaven when you die. And we understand, of course,
eternal life is a part of God's provision.
But he was speaking to them something very important that I
believe each and every one of us need to hear in this day.
And that is you need to hear and you need to respond to this
message by repentance and water baptism in order that you might
save yourself from this generation.
Now this is important for us to understand because our
generation is the greatest influence upon our lives that
hinders us from walking fully in the things that God has for us.
In Ephesians chapter 2, it says that we were once dead in our
sins and trespasses, but then God has made us a lot.
When we were dead in our sins and trespasses, the Bible says
we lived according to the course of this world.
We followed the spirit of the age and we were under influence
of the Goddess world. But when we are born again, God
delivers us from that, so that when we're going through the
waters of baptism, we see ourselves being translated into
the Kingdom of God. And Jesus said that when we're
born again, we can both see and enter into the Kingdom of God.
And that's important for us to understand because there's
really 2 dimensions to the world we live in today.
It is the dimension of God which is his Kingdom, and there is the
dimension of the opposing force, which is under the dominion of
the God of this world and the spirit of the age.
And so when we come to the Lord, we have to realize that God
delivers us from the power of that generation.
Peter was preaching his message. Do you understand that?
That was the generation that literally crucified Jesus
Christ? And Jesus in preaching shortly
before he left, taking his disciples through the temple,
said to them, now one stone is going to be left upon another.
In other words, this temple is going to be destroyed.
And he said this generation will see those things come to pass.
And that was literally true. 40 years later, the temple was
destroyed, completing the process from the old covenant to
the new covenant and really bringing everybody into a whole
new dimension, into the things that God had for them.
And so God deals with generations.
It's important for us to understand that, and we have to
understand that we are the generation of the righteous.
We are those that God has chosen to be his force in the world
today and to save us from this generation and also to give us
the power to bring salvation to our generation.
And I feel so emboldened in my faith today to believe God for a
greater dimension of understanding and greater
dimension of influence and reaching out to the world in
which we live. But as he began to preach this
message, he said to them that they needed to be born again.
And then it says, and the church continued in the apostles
doctrine and in fellowship and breaking in bread and prayers.
And that's basically the foundation of the Christian
Church today. It's so important that we would
understand doctrine. The Bible says if you don't have
the doctrine of Christ or the teaching of Christ, you don't
have Christ. You have to understand who he
is. You have to respond to him.
And so we need to understand how important it is even as a local
church to this day to have Bible classes.
As you notice in our website and we showed you a screen, we have
Bible classes here at the church.
We have smaller group discussion classes, I think emphasizing the
book of First Corinthians at our coffee house.
You can join one of these different classes that are
available at various times so you can have a time of
fellowship with each other and also hearing the Word of God.
For those who want the higher level of understanding, we have
our minister training classes at the Mount Zion Center on
Clintonville Rd. So we certainly are continuing
to walk in the apostles doctrine.
Breaking of bread represents to us communion that we will share
today. But as you'll notice in the book
of First Corinthians that we read today, it's talking about
the Lord's Supper, it's talking about the Gad in the church.
And they also had what was called an agape feast where they
would have dinner together. Back in those days, it was very
hard to fit a schedule in where you could actually get to 1
place at one time for a gathering of people.
And so they'd make it into a big time together where they'd have
a meal and then they would celebrate the Lord's Prayer or
the Lord's Table together. And finally, how many know the
House of God should be a House of prayer?
Jesus said my Father's house should be a House of prayer for
all nations. That's why when I preach, I talk
about what God's doing here, but also in the nations because he's
given us a mandate to go to all the world and preach the gospel.
Amen. And also emphasizing how we have
a prayer service on Tuesday morning where we pray, and also
we have opportunities for those of you who would like to turn in
prayer requests. And the group that comes on
Tuesday morning intercedes for all of us as they pray.
So that's such an awesome thing. And we also have a prayer time
on Saturdays at 10, we called the Lord's Prayer because we
just open with the Lord's Prayer and then people just have an
opportunity to pray for one hour, then we close.
Some people come a little later, some people a little earlier
leave, but it's an opportunity just to get together in a group
of people and have corporate prayer together.
So these things continue for us. But one of the words mentioned
was the word fellowship, and I wanted to exert on that for just
a little bit when I was growing up in church, when we talked
about having a fellowship, to us that was having some event where
we'd be having a meal together, some type of an activity.
But it's important when we think about fellowship that it's much
more than that. We should be in fellowship with
one another. And when we're in fellowship
with one another, the word in the original Greek is actually
transferred in different ways in the New Testament.
Sometimes it means partnership, sometimes it's used for
participation and also of course, social exchange.
When we are born again, we become a part of the body of
Christ and the Bible says we are members in particular and that
each and every one of us as members of the body of Christ
have something to give and we all have something that we need
to receive some somebody else. So how many know we need to be
in a partnership where participation just builds on
that by saying each part has to give their part in order for the
fullness to come. And then of course, the social
exchange is important. That's why at Mount Zion we do
offer different opportunities through our community centers,
through the different age groups to get together for fellowship
because our social exchange is very important.
We need to be around people like minded in the faith who
understand the ways that God has called us to walk in so that we
can walk together with God. Amen.
I heard someone say you can't soar like an eagle when you're
just hanging around the turkeys. How many want to soar like an
eagle where we are eagles together as we walk in the
fullness of all things that God has for us.
And it's important for us to recognize this.
Again, this scripture I shared last week from First Corinthians
chapter 10 says, therefore, let him who thinks he stands take
heed lest he fall. The cup of blessing which we
bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?
The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of
Christ? For we, though many, are one
bread and one body, for we all partake of that one bread.
And again, the word communion, there is the same word in the
original Greek as fellowship. And so we have fellowship with
God as we are called to have fellowship with one another.
But I think it's important to hear that admonition.
Be careful if you think you're going to stand lest you fall,
because that tells us as Christians, it's very important
for us to have a cautious preparation in our Christian
experience so that we're prepared to receive and to live
the world in the world that God has called us to live in.
And when you think of the perverse generation and the
apostles, Peter's day, and you think about the perversity of
the generation we are living in church, we need to be cautious.
I think one way that we need to be cautious is sometimes we get
our eyes caught on big events and don't really realize it's
the smaller events that the enemy of the God of this world
is trying to rob us of our Christianity and our strength we
have in God. That's why I wrote the book Why
is the Devil in your Garden? Because Jesus had only two
encounters with the devil in his three years of ministry.
The 1st when he was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness.
And there the devil tried to tempt him with the same thing
that was tempting to Adam and Eve in the garden, the lust of
the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.
Jesus Christ resisted the devil and that's what the Bible says.
If he resist the devil, he will flee from you.
And that's when he began again his ministry and preach, repent,
for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.
That's the door in which we go through.
Now. The only other time that it's
important for us to understand is at the time of this
crucifixion. And this is important for us to
understand because the Bible said had the rulers of this
world known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
They were motivated by the enemy himself to crucify Jesus Christ.
He thought he was winning a war and he was just falling into
God's trap. How you know, That's the lesson
we should all learn. Now, I want to point out
something because as Jesus Christ was getting ready to go
to the cross in which he would defeat Satan and make a spoil of
principalities and powers in heavenly places, you know where
his opposition came from. It came from his friends.
They said, Oh no, you don't have to do that.
You, you don't want to go to the cross.
I mean, they had a vested interest in him as his
disciples. They had walked with Jesus
Christ for three years. They had witnessed many miracles
that he had performed. They had heard his public
teaching. And they also has opportunity to
sit with him on the sidelines and get deeper, deeper insight.
So you can imagine they didn't want him to go, but they also
love Jesus. And they were like, you can't
die in a cross. And Jesus said to them something
very important, but for this purpose I was born.
And so his purpose was fulfilled in that going to the cross.
And I want to emphasize the caution was his friends were the
ones who were resisting him from fulfilling His eternal purpose.
And that's why we have to be very cautious because sometimes
people are advising us not according to the Word.
We're not just thinking about our real purpose in life.
Well, people just want to be nice to us and give us what they
would consider advice that's for our good.
But how many know we need to know what God's advice is?
Amen. That's why the Word is so very
vitally important because we don't always know what's going
on. This past week, there was a
major event that happened in our country and that was when an ICE
agent shot someone. That's the big event of the
week. But I want you to understand we
have a lot of big events like that.
We are in a time of crisis in our country where there's many
political debates, many social debates.
But I want you to understand something as citizens of the
United States of America, that's something that we should be
aware of and know what's going on so we can vote properly and
be involved properly. But I want you to understand
that's sometimes robbing people have seen really what God is
doing and that's why I have my new YouTube site.
I'm explaining all these things because I want you to know how
we operate at Mount Zion. We operate according to the
scriptures and according to what God has spoken to us and have a
TV show called Spiritual Perception because I believe we
need to have spiritual perception in our time.
Last week I shared with you how excited it was because I looked
at the news and I found out that there was some international
events happening in Venezuela. And I was excited about it
because we have a church in Havana and I would be concerned
about, even if we didn't have a church about that.
But I want Havana, Cuba to be set free from the tyranny that
they've been under for many, many years.
So I'm excited about those events.
I'm also excited about what's happening in the Middle East
because I know and what I see in the Scriptures, that the
gospel's been travelling around the world and that's the great
fortress of the enemy and God's tearing down the walls there so
the gospel can go into the land. It's an amazing time church and
the reason I said it's important to be spiritually perceptive
because a lot of people have an eschatology, which is an
understanding of the last times that they're always looking for
the Antichrist, looking for the beast, looking for the mark of
the beast. And they see world events and
like, oh, the end is near, the base is arising, the Antichrist
is coming. When I look out there, I say,
wow, God said to Abraham, your seed will be a blessing in every
nation of the world. And right now God is tearing
down the strongholds in the Middle East.
God's tearing down the strongholds and countries
because I want you to understand it's time for us to rise and
shine so the glory of the Lord can be seen upon this church.
And so if we have the wrong thinking about what God is
doing, we'll be looking for the wrong things.
I want to look for the right things.
How about you? And that's why I also want to be
looking for the right things. And that's something I'll be
sharing with you today. How important it is have
spiritual perception so that we can be aware of, well, what
exactly is going on in our world today.
And we need to be cautious and we need to understand there's
something that's happening in our nation and also in the
world. But when we look at it, we have
to say, well, what is it that God's doing?
There's a political debate. Again, there's a social debate.
And that will always seem like the bigger thing because that's
what we see on the news. And unfortunately, a lot of
Christians are looking at that as the spiritual issue or the
religious debate, if you would. And we have to understand that
God's Kingdom is not a visible Kingdom.
The Bible says it arises in the hearts of men and in the hearts
of God's people. God is doing a very special work
right now, church. We need to give him our whole
heart and we need to recognize that the Kingdom of God is
arising in the hearts of men and God's going to raise up a people
right now. That's why I want to be cautious
and listen and be perceptive as what it is that God is doing in
the earth. Now, what that Scripture said is
that when we take communion, we remind ourselves of something
very important, that as we're taking the bread, we should
understand we are all eating from the same source of life and
we need to understand, and this is something I want you to see,
the undercurrent of society today is people are looking for
something. We've got to recognize it
because God is the God of the whole earth and he's working in
the earth and he's working in our society to prepare people to
receive the gospel. And, and having said that, I
want to talk to you about having a shared experience versus a
shared life. It's very possible for us to
have a shared experience, but not really experience the life
that's supposed to come to us. Now, I wanted to point out that
each and everyone of us have been created by God.
And because we were created by God, we need to understand that
God did it for a purpose. And the deepest motivation of
the human experience is something that God has given to
us for His purpose. And unfortunately, because
people don't understand that, often times they'll take it in
the wrong direction. I'm a part of what's called the
baby boomer generation. That's why generations are
important, because generations very much influence us and we
have to understand how that all works.
But it's important to think about this in context of what
we're experiencing right now, because this is a time of
generational change. They called my generation of the
baby boomer generation because after World War 2, when the war
was over, the soldiers came back, people got married,
started having kids, and it was indeed a baby boom.
Now, my father actually was too young to have served in World
War 2. And so we don't exactly fit the
description, if you would, but we're still lumped into that
era. And you can see certain things
about this generation and really over the last 80 years, some
influences that have been moving in a certain direction.
But I want you to understand this as a time of a new day and
a new direction. So we have to understand what
exactly is going on. One thing my generation loved is
having a shared experience. In the 1950s we saw the real
birth of rock'n'roll. By the 60s, one of the big
events that people loved was a concert.
When you go to a concert and you like the music, and often times
there was influences that came even from that group, if you
would. So people would all come
together, they would sing the songs they like and there would
be a shared experience That would be really wonderful
experience in people's minds and that's why it became so popular.
This, I think it was yesterday, whatever in the news I heard
that one of the Co founders of a band called the Grateful Dead
passed away. I don't know if he's grateful
now that he's dead. Time will tell.
But anyway, the reason I wanted to point that out is because I
used to work at a grocery store at the corner of Navy Rd.
Sasha Bob worked at Food Town and up the road was Pine Knob
Music Theatre, where people have come to go to concerts.
It was a good time for us whenever there was a big concert
because people come into the grocery store and buy things, or
whether it was the tailgate party or when they stuck it into
the theater, I don't know. But there was something
different when the Grateful did. We're at Pine Dog because they
had a group of followers followed them all over.
They had vans and they dressed a certain way.
When they came in the store, everybody was on alert.
We'd stand behind the one way mirrors and watch everybody
because what they did is they didn't come in and buy, they
came in and shoplifted. So that's what I think about
when I think about the Grateful Dead.
But anyway, it's very true that people pick up something from
these shared experiences that often dive and influence them.
And so we have to understand how that works.
And we also can see how happens in sports.
A lot of people like sports and sporting events is a big deal in
our country today. And the reason for that is, you
know, people do like sports, but there's something bigger than
that and that's affiliation need.
You have your favorite team from your favorite town, your
favorite players, people come together, there's a big crowd
and people have the very strong a feeling when they're in that
shared experience. And because of that, it's very
big business, of course, and something that's very popular in
our country. Unfortunately, my generation
also brought that into the church experience without even
realizing it. Because the church growth
movement, the secret sensitive movement, part of what was
called the mega church movement was built on that same premise
is build a big buildings and give people a shared experience.
And people would come and have a shared experience.
Churches could grow. They usually set aside side
doctrine because that would keep people away.
They set aside serious conversations that would cause
people to not come to church. And so they wanted everybody to
have a shared experience. And there was a great sign that
wonderful things were going to happen.
But over time, and we're in this transition period where all of a
sudden people are looking for something more than just a
shared experience. Because you see, the deepest
heart need that God has given through each and every one of us
is not just that we have a shared experience.
I mean, when we come to church, we have a shared experience.
But if it's only that you're not going to get what you need
completely. You have to realize that we come
in our part of the church to have a shared life, a shared
source of life, which is the bread of life, Jesus Christ
himself. Can I hear an Amen on that?
So it goes beyond a superficial kind of affiliation to something
deeper than that. And we as Christians need to
understand in this time of transition that God is speaking
to us. OK, it's good to have a shared
experience, but I want you to know that we have a shared life
and that shared life we have comes through Jesus Christ
himself. That's what communion is all
about. And we need to understand how
that we relate to that. Now this takes us back to the
creation in the very beginning in this is chapter 2, that when
the Lord God created man, He said it's not good that man
should be alone. I will make him a helper
comparable to him. So out of the ground the Lord
God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air,
brought them to Adam to see what he would call them.
Whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.
So Adam gave names to all the cattle, to the birds of the air,
and to every beast of the field, But for Adam there was not found
a helper comparable to him. Now it's important that
recognize that when God said it's not good that man should be
alone, he wasn't talking just about being lonely.
The word literally means to be a part or disconnected.
It's a word used in the Old Testament.
If you cut a branch off a tree and the branch is sitting there
and it's not connected to the tree, that's the alone he's
talking about. And this is important for us to
understand because like I said, Jesus Christ is the vine and we
are the branches in church. We can't be cut off from the
vine. We need to be a part of the Vine
Amian, and how we do that is through our affiliation and our
sharing of the life of Christ together.
And that's why we need to see that all the more like I
mentioned the Scripture last week, all the more as we see the
day approaching. We need to understand what it
means to be assembled together and not disconnected.
And that's why I say, I know that's a deep need because God
recognized it. He declared it, and He gave us a
solution for it. He said he didn't find someone
comparable. If you notice, the Lord brought
all of the beasts of the field and all the animals to him, and
not one was good enough to be his helper.
So that means when somebody says a dog is man's best friend,
that's not true. I'd like to say if a dog is your
best friend, that's not good. You can have a dog that's your
friend. You can have a dog that's a pet,
and you can love your pet completely.
But we still need people. That's something important for
us to understand. I've always joked about me and
my sister Pam, She didn't have kids, so of course her dogs are
especially important in her life.
And one day her dog died. She calls me on the phone and
said, Lauren, do dogs go to heaven?
I said, well, the only scripture I can think of is Ecclesiastes.
It says that when a man dies, his sphere goes to heaven.
When an animal dies, his sphere goes to the air.
She says, I forget it, I'll call mom, see what she says.
How about me? And I'm sure Mama Gene figured
out a way around that. Whatever.
But it's important for us to understand that we can have
these things and they can be wonderful and very big part of
our life. And certainly there's all kinds
of psychological evidence that pets add to our life.
But how, you know, we still need people.
It's so important that we would understand that in the day and
hour in which we Live Today, probably something that's going
to be more of a temptation is the chat boxes they have these
days where literally it becomes a video and the chat box becomes
familiar with us. So you can talk to it.
And over time, it looks like the person you want to talk to says
the things that you want to hear.
And so you develop a relationship.
And unfortunately, there's a woman suing one of the major AI
companies because and her feeling her son killed himself
because of advice taken from a chat box.
Technology is very good in the world in which we live, but how
many you know that it should not be a substitute for reality.
That means when you're having dinner with somebody, maybe you
shouldn't be on your phone. I'll just throw that in.
Maybe you should actually talk with the people you're having
dinner with. But anyway, God said it's not
good that you should be alone. You need Someone Like You.
Believe it or not, God is a father of the fatherless, a
defender of widows. Is God in his holy habitation?
God says the solitary. There's that word again in
families. It brings out those who are
bound into prosperity. But the rebellious dwell in a
dry land. So God's solution for being
alone is make us a part. Not that we're set apart, but
that we've become a part. Now, I know their initial story
is about being married, and that can be a wonderful experience.
And then, of course, when you have children, there's a family
and then there's extended family.
But that chapter in Psalm 68 also talks about fivefold
ministry. Because we know that not
everyone gets married and not everybody stays married.
And sometimes people become widowed or become a widower.
There's all kinds of things that happen.
But how many know the family got still there.
So we all should be a part of the family of God because of the
family of God transcends our human experience.
So marital relationships is a gift of God.
Family, nuclear family as they call it, is a gift from God.
That also we have to understand that transcending those things
is an opportunity that we all have, and that is to be a part
of a family that's bigger than our own individual life.
And so this is something that's very vital in our day because we
live in a world where people sense themselves as being alone,
set apart, disconnected and territory.
We have a message for the world in which we live and we need to
understand we have a powerful message that people connections
is very important. And that's actually what you're
looking for, which brings me to the Scripture that doesn't kind
of flow in one sense, but it really is a very important
scripture to what I'm saying here today.
This is from First Chronicles. This is when David is succeeding
Saul as the king. And as it happens, there's two
parts of Israel that have to come together in order for this
to happen. So it says now these were the
numbers of the divisions that were equipped for war came to
David at Hebron to turn over the Kingdom of Saul to him according
to the word of the Lord of the sons of Issachar.
This is what I emphasize here, who had understanding of the
times to know what Israel ought to do.
Their trees were 200 and all the brethren were at their command.
I put over this what's happening because God had spoken to Samuel
to anoint a man by the name of Saul is king because he was
disobedient. God had to take the Kingdom from
him. He anointed David to be the next
king. All kinds of things happened
between when the Lord spoke and the word was going to come to
pass. But the setting here is Saul has
died. Now David had actually been
anointed and made the king of what we call the southern part,
which was the land of Judah. But at the death of Saul, there
was a big dispute going on because Saul's mind, David was
his enemy because he was supposed to be the king.
So after Saul dies, the people are getting together and
talking, and somebody who had understanding of the time said
we got to recognize what's going on.
We have this army, we've had this battle, but now it's time
to make a big change. We got to recognize Saul was an
error. David Scott's anointed and we
have to make him king of our whole nation.
And so it was a beautiful event, but there was somebody there in
the midst of them who said, OK, I know we've we're all ready for
war. We're all ready for conflict,
but it's time for us to have a change now.
And we got to find out what it is that God is doing and flow
with it. I shared this from time to time
because in March of 2020, the Lord spoke to me and said it's a
chiros moment. It's an important time and this
is a time of transition. I still believe it started then,
and we're seeing it unfold since that time.
The next week, the church was shut down.
The COVID situation increase the conflict in our country, create
a lot of problems that we didn't have before.
While they were trying to save us from our problem, they were
creating many more problems, and we're in a time of great
conflict. But I believe that what God was
doing was setting the pace, setting the motion, setting for
everything for a great harvest like we've never seen before.
And we have to be careful to understand the debates that are
in the world is not what God is doing.
God saying, church, you need to understand the times.
You need to be aware of what's going on in the world.
And what I want you to understand concerning the times
is it's becoming very obvious that this next generation, this
being raised up, if you would, they want more than what my
generation had to offer. We offered an experience, but
they realize we need more than that.
We want a shared life. There's an increase in socialism
in our country. New York City, they elected a
socialist as mayor and stuff, and people see that as a
political debate. And it is.
They see it as an economic debate.
And it is. And we should have an opinion
about that as we're living in our world.
But I want, you understand, God says, I want you to see what's
really happening here. Because of the younger
generation, socialism is just a sign of something they're
looking for. They're looking for a shared
life. They're looking to be a part of
other people's lives and even willing to accept responsibility
for other people's lives. They really have a need and a
desire inside of them. That's God-given.
And God says to his church, you need to understand what's going
on. Don't let the political day
debate deter you from what it is that God is wanting you to see
and understand because this generation is right for the
Kingdom of God. Give the Lord a praise on that
church. One day Jesus was with his
disciples. They were hungry, so they went
out to get food. While he was gone, he met the
woman at the well, and he instigated A revival that would
change this whole part of Samaria.
When his disciples come back, they come back with food and
they say we're here with the food.
Jesus and I have meat to eat, you know, not us.
And they're thinking, did he get carried out while we were gone?
What's going on here? No, Jesus is wanting them to see
something very important. He said you guys need to lift up
your eyes because the fields are ripe for harvest.
And thus saith the Lord to his church today the fields are ripe
to harvest. I'm setting in motion in the
earth. I'm setting in motion in your
country, in your community, and even to your family, even though
you might not quite see it yet. God says be ready, because this
is harvest time, says the mighty God, and we need to recognize
what God is doing in the earth. Therefore whoever eats this
bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in unworthy manner will be
guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread
and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an
unworthy manner, eats and drinks judgment to himself.
Now discerning the Lorde body, for this reason, many are weak
and sickly among you. Many sleep.
Again, this is a scripture that I shared last week, but again
today with a little bit different perspective because I
said, you know, when they were coming to the table of the Lord,
they were respectful that this is the Lorde table.
This is a holy moment. And because of that they were
irreverent. And Paul writes to them, says
you're not getting the blessing of the Lords Supper.
That's why many of you are dying prematurely.
Many of you are sick. You're missing out on the
blessing. You got to begin, begin to
understand that you're approaching the table of the
Lord in an unworthy manner. And when I shared with you last
week, that doesn't mean that they were unworthy.
It means the manner by which they were approaching it because
how you know, it's the blood of Jesus Christ that makes us all
worthy, Amen. Some people are afraid of the
Lord's Supper because they think, Oh no, I might not be
worthy. Only Jesus can make you worthy.
And if you confess your sins, he's faithful and just to
forgive you of all your sin and cleanse you from all
unrighteousness is what the Bible says.
He wants you to know that his blood makes us all worthy.
But the problem is, is their manner of approach which
affected their viewpoint. And so I say that when we
understand there is a spiritual dimension to communion that is
not just a ordinance or not just something that we're doing as an
outward show, it helps us develop spiritual discernment.
That's why I often emphasize when we come to church, there's
more happening than singing. Jesus is worshipping with us.
The Bible says there's something more happening in the Lord in
the preaching of the sermon. It's not just instruction.
It's God wanting to give us faith.
Something happens in every aspect of what we're doing
church, and developing that spiritual discernment helps us
when we leave church because we realized, wow, there's something
going on in the world today and it isn't always what's
happening. That is what we are really
needing to understand sometimes. We got to see beneath it, the
spiritual dimension. Now, in giving these
instructions, I do not praise you since you come together not
for the better, but for the worst.
For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear
there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it, but
there must be factions among you that those who are approved may
be recognized among you. They had a problem in church.
You have to understand people, relationships create problems.
You have the experience of love, you get married and you have a
shared life. How you know that does create
some problems. You have relationships with
people, you're excited about having a shared experience, but
to workout any relationship, there's going to be conflict.
And that's basically what Paul said into the Corinthian church.
He said there's factions, there's conflict here, but you
have to understand God will even use the conflict if you will let
Him to make you that person that God has called you to be.
Because for everything there is a purpose.
And the purpose that we need to understand is God's purpose.
And how is it that we can allow God to change us in the process?
Therefore, when you come together in one place, you're
not coming for the Lord's Supper.
It's not for the Lord's Supper for an eat.
And each one takes his own supper ahead of others.
One is hunger and another's drunk.
What, Do you have not have houses in drinking?
Or do you despise the Church of the Lord, and share those who
have nothing? What shall I say to you?
Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you.
Now it's important for us to note, and I put it in quotes.
There it is, the Lord Supper. Now this is important because we
have a tendency in our own experience to be looking at
everything from our own perspective, what we're looking
for, what we want, what we desire.
The Lord says, take yourself out of top spot and put me there.
Make it the Lord's Supper, make it the Lord's life, make it the
Lord's relationship, make it the Lord's marriage, make it the
Lord's children and church. That changes everything and
that's what we should understand.
God teaches us that it's not about just our individual, but
when it's collective, it's about the other people, but it's also
about God. That's why Jesus said we should
love the Lord our God with all of our heart, with all of our
soul, with all of our mind, with all of our strength and our
neighbor as ourself. Isn't that powerful?
So This is why Paul said, For I've received from the Lord that
which I also delivered you, that the Lord Jesus on the same night
in which he was betrayed, took bread.
When he given thanks, he broke it and said, take, eat.
This is my body which is broken, for you do this in remembrance
of me. And the same manner also took
the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in
my blood. This too as often as you drink
it in remembrance of me, as often as you eat this bread and
drink this cup, you do what you proclaim the Lord's death till
he comes. You see when we close out our
service. By taking communion and then
offering our self before the Lord, we're understanding that
everything that we do ultimately comes back to Jesus, The visible
image of the invisible God. The Holy Spirit is among us, but
the focus is always on the person of Christ.
He's the One who has given his life for us, and he is the bread
that we all have in common When we've received the Holy Spirit,
that always actually makes us a little bit different from each
other because it gives us gifts, it gives us callings.
But when we come to the table of the Lord, we all have one need,
and that is God's strength, God's life, God's sacrifice.
And he says it's a proclamation, and it's a proclamation we must
make together. This is Pastor Lorne Coverbius
from Mount Zion Church. We thank you for joining us
today and invite you to connect with our church family by
visiting mountzion.org and following us on social media.
God bless you.