2022 09 04

redeem completely and we thank you that there's nothing that you can't touch nothing you can't reach Lord you're you're gracious you're glorious and we love you in Jesus name amen amen all right good morning uh at this time we'll go ahead and dismiss all of our three to five year olds to the little District uh Jeremy will be leading them this morning so let's pray for their hearts uh that God would continue to do a work in their lives um if you have your Bibles go ahead and open to to Luke 4 uh we're going to be taking a look at the temptation of Jesus

um and I forgot to ask this how are we doing this morning we good great excellent fall has started college football's back that's awesome very exciting my gator won last night so I'm preaching with more excitement versus anger so that's a good thing um yeah so uh we're continuing in our U gospel series according to Luke um and looking at The Temptations of Jesus and and why this part of Jesus's narrative is so important to our lives so as you are turning to Luke I want to read to you one of my favorite passages from Hebrews chapter 4 uh that I think will shine some

light and show us why the temptation of Jesus is good news for our lives Hebrews 4:1 14-16 says this since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our confession for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find Grace to help in time of need as we are continuing through this gospel series

we have been taking a look the last couple of weeks of how Jesus identifies with us as sinners yet as scripture reminds us he identifies with us yet is without sin in the last couple of weeks we've seen through his baptism as well as even through his genealogy that he had to be make he had to be made like us in every respect a couple weeks ago Dwayne talked about how Jesus's baptism the the main point of that was that he identified with us that he was made like us and then last week as we looked at his lineage what Luke was showing to us

is that Jesus is truly the son of man that he he came all the way from the line of Adam that he is just like us yet without sin and this is important distinction that I want to bring to you guys very early this morning is because when we walk through a passage like this The Temptations of Jesus we can often think that Jesus was able to defeat Temptation and sin because he was God right that he was fully Divine but that there's one there's this wonderful theological understanding called the hypostatic union that tells us that Jesus was fully God and fully man and in

his Temptations he takes on Satan and his schemes in his humanity and his Perfection and obedience when we trust in him as Lord and savior than imputed to us that's where that Perfection that's where that obedience comes from is Jesus's obedience in his humanness in his being fully man and as Hebrews reminds us he did this for our sake so that he could be a sympathetic high priest so that he in our times of walking in the wilderness and and walking through trials and temptations can Empower us to defeat sin but also so that he can give us assurance that he is with us and

that he knows what it's like to be tempted and tried the other thing that I want to draw your attention to is that Jesus comes from the line of Levi if you noticed that last week as we're walking through the lineage it's important for us to recognize this especially as we're walking into his Temptations because the tribe of Levi Levi were set apart to be Priests of Israel and what a priest did in the Old Testament was that they were the mediators for Israel speaking on their behalf working in the temple offering sacrifices so in essence what a high priest was as Julia talked about

this morning early on was an advocate this is what Jesus does for us as a great high priest is that he advocates for us he is a mediator for us he stands between God God and man so that even in our sin even when we fail even when we're tempted God doesn't look at us and say come on get it together he looks at Christ and his perfect work on our behalf so as we walk into this temptation this week as we we look at this narrative story I want us to see Jesus in his full Humanity coming from the line of David and from

the line of Levi that he would be our great high priest but I will say Hebrews 4 tends to bring up a question that makes me wonder every once in a while and I I don't know if you've ever thought about this maybe you will now when you read that verse or when you read The Temptations or when somebody tells you that Jesus understands what you're going through how many of you like me might ask the question how how is that possible anyone has anyone asked the question how is it possible that Jesus who is perfect and pure and so holy could relate to me

could relate to you in today's passage Luke gives us this answer he can relate to us not only because he was born like us but he's experienced every Temptation known to man in order that he could sympathize with us in our weaknesses so he knows what it's like to be tempted In the Flesh he knows what it's like to be tempted from the world he knows what it's like to be tempted from Satan and his schemes and that's what I want to draw from this text this morning that the temptation of Jesus gives us power and Assurance when it comes to fighting The Temptations of

sin I'll say that one more time the temptation of Jesus gives power and Assurance when it comes to fighting our Temptations to sin we'll see this in this passage Jesus gives us the tools and the power dwelt within us through the Holy Spirit to have victory over our sin and as Sinners I I hope that that excites you just first and foremost right to be able to have victory over your sin because how how often do we just sit there and have temptations come into our lives and we roll over and then and then we get frust frustrated in ourselves because we keep running back

to this struggle we keep running back to the same sin over and over again Jesus gives us power to have victory over sin but not only that he gives us assurance that even in our failure even when we have struggles and fail in those struggles when we give into those Temptations He has mediated on our behalf he has taken on the full weight and penalty y of sin in order for us to be considered Sons and Daughters of God and we are united to him in this sacrifice so we have power and we have Assurance when it comes to fighting temptation in our lives so

I hope you're encouraged by this word this morning so let us pray and then we'll jump into these Temptations Lord you are good Lord that you would as Philippians tells us humble yourself and put on flesh in order to identify with us as Sinners not only that you would then give us an example the tools and the power and the Assurance to say notice in to have victory over it and to live with joy trusting in you help us to behold these truths from your word with a and wonder and may we continue to grow in our faith to be able to fight sin to

fight our flesh to say no to the world to defeat the schemes of Satan and all of the power that he is he has here on Earth Lord we see through your word you've given that to us through your Holy Spirit give us eyes to see this morning and ears to hear this beautiful Truth For Your Glory and our joy it's in Jesus name we pray amen so Luke starts off like this and Jesus full of the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the spirit in the wilderness for 40 days being tempted by the devil he ate nothing during those days

and when they were and when they were ended he was was hungry so I want to give us some of the circumstances that are going on real quick as Jesus is going into the Wilderness to be tempted by the devil we see early on that Jesus was led by the spirit Matthew and Mark tell us that the purpose of being led into the Wilderness was in fact to be tempted and I hope as you hear that maybe there's some tension or wrestling that you have hearing that the spirit of God would lead the the Son of God Into the Wilderness to be tempted right because

James does tell us that what he tells us in chapter one he says let no one say when he is tempted I am being tempted by God for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one right Jesus would even teach us how to pray and we'll see this later on in the gospels what does he say lead us not into what temptation but Deliver Us from the evil one so there should be some tension running in your brains right now the spirit leading the Son of God Into the Wilderness to be tempted so what is happening here well here's what I

want us to see from God's word that God in fact does not lead us into temptation in order for our destruction or ruin God does not tempt us but in fact he does allow temptation to happen in order for us to prove and validate what we believe to show us the power that we have over sin through the working of the Holy Spirit we see this in multiple examples throughout scripture right going all the way back to the Garden Adam was not tempted to sin by God with the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil but it was there as a test it was there

to prove and validate Adam's trust in God's goodness and provision other examples we see is Abraham and his son job Peter we see these examples in which they are not being tempted by God but God allows them to be tested in order for their faith to prove true and it's not for God to know whether or not their faith is true but for themselves to grow and mature in their faith so Jesus in his temptation was not being tempted by God for his destruction now the devil may have been tempting him to destroy him but God was not tempting him but allowing temptation to happen

one in order for him to be a great high priest and two for his faith to be proven and validated again when we think about Jesus's Humanity we have to remember that he was made like us in every respect and so even in his obedience even in his faith we see his trust in God's goodness and his plan and for us that's good news because when Christ's righteousness is imputed to us that means his faith his obedience his Perfection all of that is given to us as well that is the foundation in which we can can be obedient and fight sin the other circumstances that

we see and most of us could probably really feel the weight of this we see that Jesus was hungry we see that he was afflicted by hunger pains and we see that he was alone how many of us recognize that Temptation for us especially when we give into sin often come when one or all three of these are present right hunger we have I mean we have a term for this hangry and we justify people's responses in anger because we haven't eaten I mean Snickers has a whole media thing on this right you're not you're not you when you're hungry eat as Snickers but we

justify our lashing out or our Temptations to sin and giving in because we haven't eaten what about when we're Afflicted or suffering it's easy to justify our decisions when we're in pain right this person should understand why I responded this way because I'm going through this what about when we're alone this might be the easiest one that we can justify why we make the decisions we do do because nobody's watching or at least we feel like nobody's watching so we can take a look at that image or we can cheat on our taxes or we can have an extra drink because nobody is watching so

here are the circumstances Jesus being led by the spirit is hungry is Afflicted and he's alone and we find three ways that Jesus is tempted by the devil let's take a look at the first one in verse three the devil said to him if you are the Son of God command this Stone to become bread and Jesus answered him it is written man shall not live by bread alone so the first Temptation that we see from the Devil is that he is trying to tempt Jesus to doubt God's goodness to doubt God's love for him do you all remember the last words that were spoken

to Jesus before he left the Jordan River or after he left the Jordan River maybe it was before is after he's baptized what does God audibly say he only God only speaks twice in the New Testament he says the same thing this is my son in whom what I'm well pleased right this is my son you see the first thing that Satan says to Jesus in his temptation if you are the Son of God if you are the first Temptation that we see from the Devil is to try and get Jesus to doubt God's goodness by saying if you are the Son of God why

would you be hungry if you really are the Son of God why would you find Affliction if you really are the Son of God why are you out here alone in the wilderness if you really are the Son of God why don't you take the stones and turn them into bread take matters into your own hands provide for yourself because it seems like God's not providing for you you see I find it interesting that doubt is the first thing the devil tempts Jesus with but honestly I'm not shocked by it and neither should you be because he does this with us right sometimes it feels

like at every turn he shoots his arrows of Doubt at us you're a son and a daughter why would you get cancer God cares for you so why doesn't he provide you a child if he calls you his own why are you in financial burden if he is maturing you why do you keep struggling with these same sins over and over and over the Devil comes to tempt Us in doubting God's goodness for for our lives and he comes especially in Affliction this is why I think James opens up his book with the exhortation to the Believers who are going through trials he says count

it all joy my brothers when you go through trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness as he continues through the chapter he Roots his exhortation in this reality of God unchangeableness he says to them do not be deceived my beloved Brothers every good and every perfect gift comes from above coming down from the Father of Lights with whom there is no V variation or Shadow due to change it God's unchangeableness that he points them to that he Roots this joy that they must have in and why does he do this because I think James understands that in

Affliction it is so easy to be deceived right and to forget that God does care for you that he calls you his own that he is the same yesterday today and forever more and he will never leave you nor forsake you Warren weby says one of the enemy's tricks is to convince us that our father is holding out on us and that he doesn't care for us in fact one of my favorite hymns that kept coming up up this week and it's it's really the foundation for the title of my sermon tempted and tried for our sake but the the hymn is called Farther Along

anybody familiar with that hymn I knew you'd be Bryce Farther Along opens up like this tempted and tried were off made to wonder why it should be thus all the day long tempted and tried when Affliction Comes The Devil seeks to deceive us and to doubt God's goodness for us he's doing it here in the in the wilderness he does it what feels like every single day seeking our ruin and doubting God's goodness and love but this is Jesus's response right man shall not live on bread alone now I want us to understand Jesus is not saying to the devil that we must only live

on God's word and never eat that would be kind of ridiculous right he he recognizes that we do need physical sustenance I mean even after his fast it shows us that he went and ate and was revived but what Jesus is saying by quoting Deuteronomy 8 is that it is God who provides what we need to be sustained right if we know our Old Testament we know he's quoting Deuteronomy 8 and what's happening in Deuteronomy 8 Israel is being called to remember God's goodness while they were in the wilderness and what did God provide them in the wilderness Mana sustenance to sustain them he's done

the same for us today he's given us Chick-fil-A but God does this and this is what Jesus is saying is that we don't live on bread alone we live by God's word that reminds us that he is good and that he will provide for us he will sustain us even if we might not see it in the temporary Even in our Affliction brothers and sisters we too can have this assurance from God word that he will provide for us in times of need and we can have this assurance that everything he withholds from us he does in his wisdom remember how James ends every good

gift and every perfect gift comes from above coming down from the Father of Lights we can trust him and we can fight the temptation of Doubt by looking at his goodness by being reminded of his goodness through his word by the power of the Holy Spirit through his people we have the tools and God has given us the tools through Jesus and through the Holy Spirit to be able to defeat this doubt that God is not for us one of my favorite quotes from Charles Spurgeon says this do not doubt his grace because of your tribulation but believe that he loves you as much in

seasons of trouble as in seasons of Happiness we talked about this morning in our time of of prayer before this Gathering that we we we often walk through as Believers Mountain highs and Valley lows and in these Seasons it's easy to forget God or to doubt him but Jesus shows us that through his word this is how we fight that Temptation the second Temptation we can find here starting in verse 5 is this Satan is trying to get Jesus to disobey God's plan take a look at what he says the devil said to him if you are the Son of God oh sorry nope we'll

go verse five and the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and he said to him to you I will give all this Authority and their glory for it has been delivered to me and I will give it to whom I will if you then will worship me it will all be yours and Jesus answered himit is written you shall Worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve now anyone find this temptation weird no you've got the devil tempting Jesus to have authority over creation Ian he's literally tempting the second person

of the Triune God that created him to have all this Glory it's a little odd but what Satan's trying to do is he's trying to tempt Jesus to worship Him in order to receive Glory but remove the cross you see that Satan is trying to get him to avoid suffering for temporary Glory disobey God's plan and you get this you see the father's Plan before the foundation of the Earth was for Jesus to suffer and then enter into Glory what Satan was trying to convince Jesus to do was to avoid the cross avoid the suffering and enjoy this Glory now and he's still doing that

to us today right he entices us to avoid the our temporary cross as we live here on Earth in order to receive temporary Glory but what does Jesus say you shall Worship the Lord your God and him Only You Shall Serve he says we worship and serve God and God Alone even even if it leads to our suffering the reality that we have to understand is that when we serve God when we bring our lives into submission and service to him this is where true freedom is found despite what the world tells us despite what the devil tries to scheme up and say that you

are in bondage if you listen to the Lord or the world tries to deceive us that we're not going to have any type of fun we're not going to be have any type of freedom but the reality is service to sin and service to the devil and his schemes is what really brings us into bondage what really enslaves us it entices us to think that we will have true freedom but in reality it keeps us in bondage and a slave to sin so we must do the hard things to fight this we must pursue the disciplines of the Christian life in order that we can

mature and battle this temptation of comfort and avoiding suffering in the Christian Life and we do this again by being in God's word being with his people we do this in prayer confessing sin and not just a confession to the Lord but confessing to one another is 1 John 1 9 tells us we confess to one another and Jesus is faithful to forgive us we do this in community no matter how it might feel when we share it not we don't just confess and we also repent of it we seek to kill it we have to recognize that there is no shortcut there is no

Silver Bullet to Christian maturity as much as I would love to tell you that there is there is no short cut to maturity in the Christian Life we we have to understand that temporary glory is only fleeting and service to sin and Satan and his schemes leads us to bondage so we have to be vigilant understanding this deception that Satan tries to give us that if we lay down our cross now and pursue service to him that he will give us Glory he's deceiving us it's like The Chronicles of Narnia um early on Edmund is deceived into eating the Turkish delight and eating the Turkish

Delite from the White Witch we see that this is a highly addictive food right making those who eat it want more and more and more but never being satisfied but even eating this Turkish delight also allows the White Witch to control Edmund sin works in the same way it seeks to satisfy us while never truly satisfying us and as we continue to be slaves to it it takes more and more control of our lives so we must understand that Affliction and discipline found in this life in the pursuit of Christian maturity while it may be hard it may be difficult as Paul says it is

light and momentary and it is leading to a glory that will be Everlasting so that's the second temptation to to disobey God and to avoid avoid the Cross the third temptation is this to test God to test his protection and his faithfulness to his people and those he loves look at verse n we see the devil takes Jesus up to Jerusalem and sets him on the Pinnacle of the temple and he says to him if you are the son of God God throw yourself down from here for it is written he will command his angels concerning you to guard you and on their hands they

will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone and Jesus answered him it is said You shall not put the Lord your God to the test here again Satan is trying to get Jesus to doubt God's love and protection and faithfulness to him again if you are the Son of God jump he will care for you he'll protect you prove him test him what you'll also notice here in this temptation is that Satan uses scripture he uses that out of context of course but he uses it in such a way that it sounds just close enough to what God's word says doesn't

he do the same in the garden with Eve but unlike the first Temptation for Jesus to turn the stone into bread here Satan tries to get Jesus to test God's love so instead of Jesus you turn this bread you turn these stones into bread now it's Jesus won't you get God to do what he says he's going to do and protect you and care for you see this type of testing is more than just trying to get God to perform a miracle this type of testing is to insist that Jesus would prove that God is trustworthy now can you hear the same type of Temptations

in your own life the deceptions that Satan might bring your flesh might bring not sure to where to live I'm not sure what job to take what to do F in the blank we we have these areas in our lives that we then instead of trusting God in faith we we try to test him in a sense that we're getting an answer before stepping out in faith God doesn't call us to this type of living he calls us to have faith and trust in him that's what Jesus says you his response is you don't you don't test God you don't put God to the test

now again going back to our old testament memory right maybe you've grown up in church and you understand the the the reference of the fleece in Gideon's life where Gideon is told that he will leave lead God's Army he doesn't believe God and he was like I I'm going to put a fleece out on the lawn and if this happens then I'll trust you and it happened and he still didn't trust God does it again and it happens and finally he trusts God so you might be asking wait a minute if Gideon does this then is this not how we should also respond I I

don't think when it comes to the testing of God's faithfulness to to his people that Gideon is the prime example I think what we see in Gideon's life is more of God's patience with him not so much the testing of what God has to say because we are called to accept God's word by faith without requiring a sign Jesus will show us this in Luke 11 as we continue through this gospel I mean I I know that I've done this in my own life I was thinking about that this morning of how often I might play dumb games where I'm like man if I made

this basketball shot God you are going to do this and then I miss and so I have the same game right like I'm going to shoot this again and you're going to do this or maybe we'll go to the gas station be like Lord if this lands on $15 I know that I'm supposed to go do this and if it lands on 1501 you're like ah it's close so we play we we can play these little games in regards to testing God this is what Jesus says is you don't test the Lord we live by faith we're a people of Faith Hebrews tells us that

faith is the Assurance of things hoped for and the convictions of the things unseen there's an aspect of risk when we live obedient lives for the Lord because we're trusting that God is with us even when we don't see his hand and but this is what true fath Faith looks like true faith that is obedient and following the Lord is Faith inspired action in our obedience that God loves so we're called not to test God so we fight this battle of Temptation by being reminded that we are to live by faith and so Jesus has victory over these Temptations and this is glorious for us

because in his again Humanity in his obedience in his perfection in his righteousness at the cross this is what's imputed to us and so we now have the same power to defeat Satan and his schemes and The Temptations that come to us but what's interesting is Luke goes on in verse 13 to tell us that this this Victory wasn't the last in which Jesus would receive Temptation he says and when the devil had ended every Temptation he departed from him until an opportune time we know throughout Jesus's life there was Temptation over and over to disobey God to quit to doubt God's goodness to test

God again all of the above we know that through his life but this should bring us Comfort because the author of Hebrews tells us this that Jesus had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people for because he himself has suffered when tempted he is able to help those who are being tempted this is where we find assurance in that last verse because he himself has suffered when tempted he is able to help those who are being tempted so Satan

didn't give up after this time in the wilderness and we should expect that he won't give up in deceiving or seeking to cause us to doubt God's goodness in our lives to tempt us to disobey God because he didn't with Jesus and he sure won't do it with us but we can have the confidence that the power that we see in Christ in the wilderness has been given to us because of who we are united to Christ but we also have assurance that when we fail we don't have somebody sitting far off going will you get your act together but we have someone who steps

into our lives and says I know I know what you're going through I know how hard it is I know this temptation and the weight of it and I'm with you draw near to me come to me all who are heavy ladened and I will give you rest this is Jesus's Assurance to us this is why the the beauty of the Incarnation is is so awesome and when we celebrate Advent and Christmas it's not just about Jesus coming in a Manger but it's that the God of this universe stepped out of Heaven put on flesh and was made like us in order to comfort us

in order to be with us in our time of need so we have power and we have assurance and really guys this should be a a faithful cycle of our lives right we should pursue this power to battle sin through prayer through God's word through the power of the Holy Spirit by being reminded of our Union in Christ all of this brings power to battle sin but it also should lead lead to more assurance that God who looks Upon Us looks at us the same way that he looks at Christ my son my daughter in whom I am well pleased and that Assurance should lead

us to more power and that power should lead us to more Assurance in our battle against sin guys we should have immense Comfort an immense assurance assurance that God has given us these tools that we have power to have victory over our sin that it isn't just some life that we are continually stumbling over but the fact that God shows us that we can say notice sin that we can have victory over it that we don't have to keep falling back into these same Temptations God has given us this power and given us this assurance so let me ask you a question this morning do

you believe it do you believe that God has given you the power to say noce it thank you we live in that keep saying that keep running to him having Assurance in him because he is our great high priest he knows the struggle so let me give you some ways in which we can do this if you haven't already picked up on this I hope that this will be revealed to you now but the first way in which we fight temptation is through God's word by drawing near to him through his word and through prayer and also being recognized that we too are filled with

the Holy Spirit if you have believed in Christ as your lord and savior you you are filled with this same power to have victory over sin God tells us in James 4 draw near to God resist the devil and he will flee from you so draw near to God through his word and prayer but another way to fight temptation is through his people through his people that he has surrounded you with this is why gospel centered Community is so important for us belonging to a people of God so that they can point out where you may be failing or helping you in your Temptations but

also so that you can recognize that you are not alone in this 1 Corinthians 10:13 reminds us no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability but with the Temptation he will also provide a way of Escape that you may be able to endure it you see that first line that no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man all temptation is common to us your Temptations are not new your circumstances may be different but the Temptations are the same the essence and Foundation of those Temptations are

the same and we should find Freedom in being able to share with one another these struggles in faithful community and finally we fight Temptation by knowing and believing in Jesus that he is our better Adam you see in the garden Adam was tempted and it's funny he was tempted yet he was not alone he was not hungry and he was not Afflicted in fact he walked with God and yet he still failed and it brought death through sin to all mankind yet in the wilderness Jesus was tempted he was hungry he was afflicted he was alone and he succeeded where Adam failed and it's in

his perfect obedience that we are now made righteous that that righteousness has been imputed to us for those to believe Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:22 for as in Adam all die so also in Christ shall all be made alive he goes on to saying Galatians 2:20 I been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives Within Me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me this is how we battled the temptation to sin through God's word and prayer

the power of the holy spirit with one another and being reminded that the greater Adam has come he has made a way for us to be reconciled back to God by his death on the cross his burial and Resurrection from the grave and this is what we celebrate every week in communion that we have been crucified with Christ and we are now New Creations and that we've been made free so if you don't have the elements I'd invite you to go grab some and then we're going to celebrate communion together for those of us who have put our faith in the Son of God the

elements of communion are those sweet reminders of the reality we now have that our sins are forgiven that we are made righteous and reconciled to a right relationship with God and we are brought into a family of God as Sons and Daughters we celebrate that each week and we get to celebrate that each week with other believers foreshadowing what is to come in glory but for those those of you who have not put your faith in the Son of God I I ask you to refrain refrain from taking communion even though it might feel awkward that you're the only one sitting there not taking this

but the elements for us as the Believers in Christ these elements are an outward sign of what we believe that we have been reconciled to the father through the son by the power of the Holy Spirit and much like spouses when they celebrate their covenantal they put on a ring single people don't wear a ring right wedding rings are a sign to the world that they have made a covenant with one another and so we as Believers have this sign but if you'd like to know more and you are refraining if you'd like to know more about this good news of Jesus Christ I would

love to share that with you I'd love to talk to you more so feel free to grab me after the Gathering but for those of us who will partake Paul tells us as we come to communion that we are to examine ourselves and we do this every week in in thinking about either Our Lives throughout this past week or maybe even this morning or where the sin and temptations we've been given into we come and examine ourselves before the Lord and ultimately we we take this spread and recognize that Christ's body has been broken for those sins and we drink this juice in recognition that

his blood has been shed for us sealing this covenantal promise that God has made to us so as we eat this bread and we drink this juice we remember what Christ has done for us on the cross so I'm going to give some time for you all to examine yourselves before taking communion and then I'm going to read what Paul has to say in First Corinthians and then we'll celebrate commun together so take some time for examination and then we'll continue in worship Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11 for I have 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 after the 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 this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes friends this is another way in which we can fight the the Battle of Temptation each week taking communion and being

reminded that the old Adam has been put to death and the new Adam has come and given us righteousness through his blood by the breaking of his body so let's take communion together and then continue and worship through song e [Music] feel free to find a posture of worship for our last song whether you stay seated or stand up um wherever you feel like the spirit's leading you to worship this morning [Music] will not fail me you won't fail me in the same God nevering all things working all things yes I will lift you high in the lest Valley I will bless your name yes

I will sing for Joy my heart is heavy all my days yes I will [Music] I count on one thing I count on one thing the same God never fails will not fail me now you won't fail me now in the L the same God never L working all things out working all things out yes I will yes I will lift you high in the lowest Valley yes I will bless your name yes I will sing for Joy when my heart is heavy all my days oh yes I will I choose to pray to glorify glorify the name of all name nothing can stand against

I choose to praise to glorify glorify the name of all Nam nothing can stand against I choose to praise to glorify glorify the name of all name nothing can stand against and I choose to praise to glorify glorify the name of all nothing can stand again yes I will lift you high in the lowest Valley yes I will bless your name yes I will sing for Joy when my heart is heavy in all my days oh yes sing that again yes I will lift you high yes I will lift you high in the lowest Valley yes I will bless your name yes I will sing

for Joy when my heart is heavy in all my days oh yes I over all my days oh yes I will for all my days oh yes I will [Music]