The First and Last Supper

and at this time we'll go and dismiss our kids to little District as they're hand heading out not that it's a competition by any means but if I were to award points for who I can hear singing the kids get app point this morning over the adults and so good job kids head on out to little district for the rest of us goad and grab your Bibles Luke Luke 22 is where we're going to be Luke chapter 22 and we're going to be looking at verses 7 through 23 this morning 7 through 23 and as you're turning there when when I was a kid I

grew up in the age where uh where most everyone's parents still smoke cigarettes and so I I know that's not you know necessarily as common these days and I'm not necessarily saying right or wrong here there's no Bible verse for that so if you smoke on the side like hey I'm not but you know it's not good for you and so anyways um I grew up in the age where where my parents smoked um my dad didn't smoke as much as my mom did um and Mom if you're listening to this I love you but um at the same time my dad I think the

reason why he didn't smoke as much was because his mom was like a chain smoker I mean just packs a day um and and literally I think he just saw the effects of that um and which I lovingly refer to her as trailer granny like straight to her face that's what I called her growing up was trailer Granny if you forget I grew up on the Tennessee Kentucky line so um that's normal all right and so I had um literally Uncle bums cousin Chubbies Uncle um uncle skeer mamals like those were actual names of family members of mine um that we refer to them as

but uh in addition to my dad's side my mom she like I said she was she smoked a lot and I mean so much so that she was like all in like rewards programs points like anything that you could cash in on and so here I am like an elementary kid and I'd be going to school and I've got like marbor backpacks like I mean she that she got from uh her rewards points we go to like the pools or like friends houses whenever they'd be doing pool parties and like my towels just look like the cover of a marble pack of cigarettes um because

that was just that's what I grew up in but um the thing about smoking though is it's not it doesn't just affect the person and even like CDC um or the CDC refers to it cigarette smoking harms nearly every organ in the body causes many diseases reduces the Health and Longevity or quality of life but not only does it affect the firsthand smoker it also affects those around them called secondhand smoking even more than that um it just ruins everything it touches and so that's why you even hear like if you search on Airbnb they'll put on there this is a non-smoking premises or hotels

this is a non-smoking Hotel I mean I remember it wasn't long ago when my hometown finally stopped but you'd enter into a restaurant and they're like would you like the smoking or non-smoking section um like that was still a thing but it's like even in the non-smoking section you're like I still smell something like it's because it affects everything that's there uh Even in our house at one point um I think this was when I was kind of like graduating high school they kind of wanted to do some Renovations throughout and so when you start taking like the photos off the wall and stuff I

mean there's just squares of like what used to be the color of the paint and then versus everything else that starts to Yellow um you see that with carpets as well like smoke like this the smoke literally gets in and affects everything and what we're going to be looking at today is how sin is that exact same way so not only does sin affect the whole person but it also affects the environment around you it affects others around you and we're going to be looking at specifically what Jesus's plan was to deal with the sin that is in the world and the sin that is

in our lives and how in redeeming it not redeeming sin but in redeeming people how it begins to restore and or renovate the world around us including ourselves and so our passage is Luke 22 I'm going to read and as I read we'll break it down as we go through it so starting off in verse 7 let's take a look at it then came the day of unleavened bread on which the Passover Lamb had to be sacrificed so Jesus sent Peter and John saying go and prepare the Passover for us that we may eat it they said to him where will you have us prepare

it he said to them behold when you have entered the city a man carrying a jar of water will meet you follow him into the house that he enters and tell the Master of the House the teacher says to you where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples and he will show you a large upper room furnished prepare it there and they went and found it just as he had told them and they prepared the Passover now reading that you might be thinking how in the world does that have anything to do with what you just shared in the

illustration as well as Jesus dealing with the sin that not only affects us but affects everything around us well a couple of important points in regards to this is first we need to look at just the idea of the context of what's going on remember Jesus has entered Jerusalem with his disciples It's the final week of his life leading up to his death and Resurrection several different theologians um kind of contradict whether or not this is on Thursday night or Friday night of the week we know he's crucified on Friday night and then resurrects on on Sunday but if Friday is supposed to be the

Passover in which the sacrificial lamb is being sacrificed how come on this day when you actually look at the calendar this is on Thursday the night before he is actually sacrificed well side note because if you ever actually go down that route and begin debating with yourself is this a contradiction in the scriptures there are two calendars that overlap one another there is the Jewish calendar and there is the Roman Calendar one is sunrise to Sunrise the other is sunset to Sunset which allows for multiple events to happen essentially on the same day and so Jesus is able to enter into this Passover meal in

which he partakes of it with his disciples while still also fulfilling in the Roman Calendar the Jewish Passover on the next night so he's able to do both enter in partake of the meal while then actually becoming the sacrificial lamb the next day it's just side note if you start thinking I thought he died at the same hour at which the sacrificial Lambs died how then is he able to partake of Passover and not be dead yet that's a side note but what they're doing here on this night is Jesus is preparing for him and his disciples to partake of the the meal of the

unleavened bread and the Passover sacrifice which means that they did kill a lamb and they did roast it and they were going to eat it and partake of it on this evening so that's happening over the course of 24 hours but two different days days now how does this have to do with sin affecting everything that's a part of our Lives well this meal is the meal of unleavened bread and it is an illustration for us this is going all the way back to the first Passover in act in Exodus 12 when the Israelites when they were freed from slavery in Egypt and as they

fled Moses by the Lord uh instruct for the people to remember what God has done for them in freeing them from um the ENC capturing of the Egyptians freeing them from their getting them to essentially the Wilderness ushering in this idea of hey let's have a festival a feast every single year in which you will remember what God has done for you in freeing you so they would have this meal of unleavened bread where they would also then again sacrifice a lamb to show what they had to do while they were actually in Egypt to spread it over the door post but again we covered

that last week so if you missed it go back and listen to it but what is this unleavened bread thing well when looking at scripture there are multiple times that God talks about leaven as a symbolism of sin now leevan in of itself is not inherently sinful they use it all the time but what Levan does to a to a a lump of dough or bread is it comes in as a small particle and then then multiplies to where it eventually leavens the whole lump of bread lump of dough and so when looking for a term or looking for an illustration of what sin does

that is what God calls on that is what God uses in order to help us understand that it's not that you are predominantly good and you just have a little bit of sin in you it's no When sin enters into you it ruins all of you just like someone who smokes not only does it that come in one cigarette becomes a second becomes a third and begins affecting all of your organs begins affecting your quality of life and your longevity longevity of life but it also affects your surroundings and your environment and those who are in relationship with you it affects everything and so throughout

the Bible and specifically in the Mosaic law leav which is similar to like yeast and bread was used as a symbol of sin just a little bit of sin doesn't just affect part of your body mind or Soul it affects all of you and so essentially you are not inherently a good soul that sometimes sins or sometimes is bad you are inherently what you receive is a sinful soul that is sinning all the time like that's what we inherit that's what we are when we are born 1 Corinthians 5 6 through 8 puts it this way your boasting is not good do you not know

that A little leaven leavens the whole lump like there's nothing in you that you can boast of that says no no no no no this part of me is good I might struggle with this over here but over here I'm nailing it I'm doing a great job I'm I'm a great father I'm a great husband I'm a great worker I'm a great but I struggle with gambling I struggle with X Y and Z I struggle with this specific sin and you try to compartmentalize those things and that's not what the Bible is telling us the Bible is telling us is that all of us and

all of us is actually perverted and fractured and sinful and affected by sin so the little bit of Leaven that gets in and works its way in eventually ruins the whole thing that's what sin does to us there's no reason to boast of anything good about us we we have nothing to offer in that regards because we are born sinful One Lie does not make us a liar but rather because we are liars we lie one act of Vengeance does not make us hateful but because we are hateful beings we act out in Vengeance one act of greed does not make us selfish but because

we are selfish we act out in greed we're born with this nature we're born Sinners who sin in all all aspects of life and so when you are born sin is already a reality of your identity and a little bit of sin again ruins your whole identity so that you are called by God a sinner and an enemy of his why because all of god is perfect and holy and righteous there's not one part of him that is not those things and so if he is all perfect holy and righteous and we are not then there is going to be separation there is going to

be the fact that he is Holy and we are sinner he is good and we are not he is perfect and we are imperfect he is righteous we are unrighteous there is separation which is why God had to fix everything he had to come in and do what we needed which is why Romans 5'8 tells us but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us while we were still sinners Christ died for us and that right there is just literally in one verse the entire Bible for God shows his love for us why does God love

us if we are sinners first and foremost because he created us we are his created beings he created us to image and reflect his goodness righteousness Holiness but because sin entered in and affected us and perverted us and distorted us and ruined us no longer is God receiving his glory no longer is he receiving the image Bears who are reflecting his majesty and his Beauty so that when you actually look at us you say how good is God because we're not reflecting it rightly God says I need to come in and fix it so that I'm receiving my glory and I'm receiving all of the

righteousness for that so because God so shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners Christ died for us which is again the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed we'll get to that you'll see that in a moment but how did we become Sinners because there are lots of theologians there are lots of denominations there are lots of different people who would disagree on how that came about but I want you to see it because it's not that we were born good and then when sin got to you like it wasn't in that regard secondhand smoke it's not that once it got

to you all of a sudden then you're like oh man I was doing great until I was three years old I was nailing it like no you you as soon as they come out of the womb they're screaming they're crying they're demanding something and so we need to see how this actually came about well Romans 5:12 tells us just as Sin came into the world through one man which was Adam and death through that sin death then spread to All Because all sin so through Adam all of humanity was and is affected with sin you can start to see why when looking for an illustration

for sin leaven is a great choice because through the introduction of one piece of Leaven it affects the whole thing when you look at Romans 5:18 and 19 it says this as one trespass which is another word for sin led to condemnation for all of man so one act of righteousness what Jesus does on the cross leads to justification and life for all men for as by one man's Disobedience the many which is just the most General way to say everybody through the many were made Sinners so by the one man's obedience Jesus and his life death and Resurrection the many will be made righteous

so by one man which then had Offspring and then basically because he was sinful you can't get good from bad all right you can't get good from bad he was bad and as he has Offspring which includes all of us like Jesus was the only one born in a different way than the rest of humanity we are affected by sin because of our first father Adam everybody and so the Christian Church the new Society um well let me read this by getting rid of the leaven from the house so that it doesn't affect the dove this is how you are essentially made righteous and this

is the illustration the picture that they're starting to show 1 Corinthians 5 7 and 8 puts it this way cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened so if you become a Believer you're actually now forgiven of your sins so how do you what how do you live in light of that well you get rid of the sin that is in your life you get rid of the sin that is in your house for Christ Our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven not with the old way

of life not with the old sin the leaven of malice and evil but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and Truth the identity of Christ that is our new way of living and so to sum it up the Christian Church the new Society on Earth that Jesus is building must be a society that has been forgiven of sin and cleansed from it so that they walk in a way that is contrary to sin malice and evil and instead in step with the spirit of God sincerity and truth so two things are happening on this day of the Passover they are ridding their homes they are

ridding their homes of the leaven or the trace of Leaven and they are preparing the Passover to be the lamb that is sacrificed and then eaten to put that into a practice of what the Christian church is doing Peter says it this way in Acts 2 36-38 let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him uh both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified so he's just putting on display let all of Israel know that Jesus Christ whom you crucified is the Lord and Savior now when they heard this they were cut to the heart again when the

when you preach the word of God it does something miraculous where it cuts to your heart and it convicts you they were cut to the heart and they said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles Brothers what what do we need to do then what what shall we do and Peter said to them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the Forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the holy spirit so there were two things essentially that were the um playbook for receiving salvation and entering into the community of the church and

the mission of God what Peter tells and so they're wanting to do that and they ask what do we do how do we get in how do we become a member of the church how do we believe in Jesus and he says repent and be baptized repentance is the theological term for the illustration that the Israelites have been doing for thousands of years of ridding their homes of any traits of Leaven in the home it was if if leaven is a symbol of sin repentance is rid your home of sin get it out of your house stop doing it which is just another way of

saying if there is sin in your life and you're aware of it stop doing it get rid of it turn from it and move on to believing in Jesus which is what we'll get through here in a moment with the baptism by his blood which was sacrificed by the lamb that spreads over you covers over you and that's what this is a picture of when someone is baptized going back to the idea of repentance theing of their homes of any trace of Leaven is synonymous with jesus' command for you and I to repent to rid Our Lives of any sinfulness so that we can live

lives of sinlessness and that's the beautiful truth behind the idea of why the bread they observed in the Passover meal had to be unleavened bread because they're partaking of something that is not representative of any sin in it anymore and so when you then start looking at Jesus saying I am the bread of life he's giving us an illustration to partake of where we are receiving Holiness we are receiving something that is without sin and we are partaking of it on our behalf like he he is giving us himself to be the bread of life and so he was giving them an illustration of that

that there is going to become there is going to come a day where you are going to receive someone just like you do bread for nourishment and daily uh sustenance and life you're going to receive someone spiritually in that regards that is without sin and so let's let's let them have a festival every single year called unleavened bread that shows that not only do we need to rid ourselves of sin but we need to receive unleavened bread we need to receive an unleavened savior an a a sinless savior in our place on our behalf and that's what is happening here but before I get to

that the second thing the ridding of their homes of any trait of Leaven it can't just be getting rid of the leevan like just to repent but never be baptized never believe in the gopel El never believe in Jesus it's not enough for you it's not enough it's important but it's not the only requirement if we were just repenting and never believing in Jesus never receiving Jesus then all we are doing is behavioral modification it would be the strategy literally of just every other world religion just stop doing wrong things start doing right things and you'll eventually achieve achieve or attain um or pursue Holiness

through your own effort and Merit like outside of Christianity that is the belief of every other possible world religion that is out there is just stop being bad and start being good and in your pursuit of being good even though you continue being bad let's just hope that when you get to the end that it's balanced out more good than bad and God will accept you because he would be a ter terrible God not to that's what their conclusion is essentially and what God is actually telling us is that's impossible and I'm providing a way to help you with the impossibility and that's why when

Jesus enters into the scene he doesn't just tell us in his own preaching repent and do good he tells us something different he says this in Mark 1: 14 and 15 after John was arrested Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God all right that's great he's com into galile proclaiming the gospel of God what is he proclaiming that is the gospel of God saying the time is fulfilled the kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe in the gospel repent clean out the leaven throw off the sin in your life and believe believe in the gospel now before I get to what

the gospel is what are some things that we can Implement in our lives to make sure that we are repenting because repentance is not just a one-time thing so like when you think about when you became a Christian and you prayed the prayer and you talked to someone and you said yeah I realized that I'm a sinner I realized that I have messed up in my life I need to ask God for forgiveness I need to receive what Jesus has has done in his life death and Resurrection I believe that he has accomplished that for me and so I am now a Believer I am

now a Christian because I come to the understanding of that and so I know I need to stop sinning I need to ask for the Forgiveness of the sins and now I'm good to go but what happens a week later when you're like hold up a there I just sinned again but I thought I repented of that I thought I stopped doing that how come I did it again well what do I do now did was was the prayer not legit enough did I not ask God for forgiveness did he not give me the indwelling Holy Spirit to help me with my sin well then

maybe this whole thing is a sham no as John Edwards once said repentance is a life of repentance it is an ongoing of repentance it is a becoming what you already are in Christ while throwing off what you are as you are becoming what you already are and you're like that sounded gibberish it is I am in Christ when he saves me nothing will change that when God looks at you when you believe in him and you have received salvation when God looks at you he says the most beautiful thing is the same exact thing that he said to his son when he was being

baptized this is my son in who I am well pleased why because when he forgave you he saw your past sins he saw your present sins he saw your future sins and he looked at you and he said they're all forgiven they are all forgiven this is your new identity I see you as a son and daughter of the king Romans 8 talks all about that now that does not mean that this son and daughter of the king in this current ERA where we have not been glorified yet does not mean that we do not still struggle with the flesh that we have so we

still have our flesh and we have our new identity that is in Christ so that there are times where because our flesh has been trained and discipled to sin based on our original identity for our entire life it is still Waring and wrestling inside ourselves to want to do what it was always trained to do while at the same time time being influenced by the new identity that we have in Christ so that Paul says things like in Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me um and and and so we now

have Christ Living in us who is affecting us just like Levan sin affects the whole body and ruins it the identity of Christ comes in like Levan and begins affecting our lives it affects our mind and that's why again the Bible just tells us over and over over do not be conformed to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that is a metamorphosi in the original Greek that is an ongoing transformation so it's not like in that moment when you get saved that you're Jesus on the mountain when you are transfigured into Glory that doesn't happen when you

get saved when you get saved your identity is but your whole body and your whole mind and your whole spirit like it is not yet so you are becoming what you already are this is why discipleship is so important it's why you don't stop reading your scriptures it's why you don't stop praying because he is conforming you to the image of his son that now lives inside of you and so repentance is an ongoing thing where we audit our lives like on a daily basis and and and the beauty is is is we're able to audit Our Lives looking at our sin without condemnation that's

the greatest part about it is we get to say when we start looking at our lives and we say well man at 9:00 this morning I Sinn at 9:17 I sin at 9:43 a car pulled out in front of me I sinned like we get to look at those things with Romans 81 that says there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus we get to have that painted over every single time we AIT our lives and say when I'm messed up there's no condemnation God's not looking at me and saying how dare you he's looking at me and saying that's

not who you are that's not who you are so you get to throw that off and you get to choose worship you get to throw that off you get to C like clean your house out every single day and remind yourself of who you are in Jesus Christ so that as you get up the next day you're training yourself in righteousness you're training yourself to be able to see you know what I did mess up here yesterday but because of Christ who is in me because of the holy spirit that is strengthening me I can choose to not do that again amazing like praise God

for that only Christians have that opportunity only Christians have that opportunity Sinners who are not Saints do not have that opportunity that's why Isaiah even says all of your righteous Deeds or your good things that you do are like filthy rags we have the spirit of Christ and we have the grace of God over our lives that is not condemning us to help us actually throw off anything that is ungodly that's why Titus Chapter 2 speaks of that that the grace of God that has appeared bringing salvation to all men is training us to renounce ungodliness and live lives that are self-controlled like that's what

we get to do every single day is the grace of God that has appeared bringing salvation is the same Grace that trains you every single day to say no to sin Yes to Jesus and live lives of repentance so repentance doesn't have to be a hang your head low and woe is me every every single day no no no that happened when you got saved and you were in sackcloth and Ashes and you were I am a sinner now that you are saved you get to hold your head up I'm an adopted son and daughter of the king and not only that but he has

given me access to him he's giving me access to the holy spirit that is training me to rid myself of my past and live for my future of Eternity and become what I already am that's the beauty of the gospel and that's the beauty of him telling us to continue repent and that's why when Jesus gets down to this meal he doesn't end the Feast of the unleavened bread but he continues it in what we observe as communion on a daily basis or a weekly basis again it doesn't mean that you have to do it on a weekly basis you could do it once a

month you can do it once a quarter you can do it however often you want that's literally the only instruction we have in scripture is as often as you do this make sure that you're doing it in light of remembering what Jesus has accomplished for us so unleavened bread begins to shift into what the meal is post Resurrection where they don't do on the the the Festival of unleavened bread and the Passover Lamb anymore because Jesus fulfilled it but then instituted for the church what we celebrate every single week which is why I always say this meal is fuel for your Holiness it's fuel for

your spirituality it's sustenance for you being able to grow in the gospel because it's reminding us who we already are because of what Christ has done for us so he says repent and believe the gospel so what is the gospel 1 Corinthians 15 1-4 puts it this way and it's as plain as possible Paul tells the church and and I love this because he's speaking to a church he's speaking to Christians and tells them I would remind you which means we are prone to forget things right I will remind you of this gospel the gospel I preached to you which you received and which you

stand and by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word that I preach to you unless you believed in vain for I deliver to you as of first importance so when you actually look through the gospel or the the the book of First Corinthians there are lots of instructions that Paul gives to the church because this church is crazy Corinth literally means carnal all right like if there was if you were back in first century and you were like church shopping and hopping and figuring out where you want to land like most people are probably going to land at the church

at Ephesus because they were just killing it and crushing it people were looking at corn and thinking whoa like that is a dumpster fire so he's giving them all kinds of instructions on how to do orderly worship what's the role of men and women what's like what they the fact that there's L there's someone in the church he's like hey there's a guy that I've heard about who's sleeping with his stepmother and y'all are praising it you need to stop that like he he's giving all kinds of instructions but in his instructions he say says this instruction is the most important it is of first

importance Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures he was buried he raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures that message according to Paul and according to the scriptures is the most important message the bad news is that because of your sins you owe God an eternal death in which his hatred of sin God's Wrath will be poured out on Humanity that's the awful news and so without a death the punishment for our sins is still pending like we all sin every day and that was one of my first questions that I had before I became a Believer was well

if we're all considered Sinners and the punishment for sin is death how come I'm still B breathing how come I'm still alive right now it's pending judgment is coming God is patient and as I shared about that last week in his patience he is allowing What's called the time of the Gentiles for us to hear the gospel receive it by faith and believe in Jesus Christ and repent of our sins that's the beauty he's a allowing this to happen and so when you read Romans 3:23 you'll see again that sin has coming into the world it's affected all of us all of us have sined

and fallen short of the glory of God and Romans 6:23 then says the wages of sin is death so death is do but the good news is as you go back to our original passage Luke 22:7 then came the day of unleavened bread on which the Passover Lamb and I love that that Luke uses this language in here had to be sacrificed the Passover Lamb had to be sacrificed now the Israelites up to this point have all kinds of rules and rituals in order to deal with their sin and to get themselves temporarily cleansed and um and here he's saying he's drawing attention to something

different than just the Festival of the unleavened bread it's more than you just clean cleaning your House of the sin and getting rid of it what actually has to happen is the Passover Lamb has to die why because a death is due a death is due for all of us if all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and the wages of sin is death then we all deserve to die the Passover Lamb had to be sacrificed the Jews thought it was just another routine sacrificing of a year old lamb that was spotless and without blemish but Jesus knew it

would be the sacrificing of the true lamb the Lamb of God that John the Baptist even told us when Jesus is walking down to get baptized what does John say Behold the Lamb that has come to take away the sins of the world it'd be a weird thing to just call someone a lamb in that day like it almost would be a smack in the face you had Shepherds who weren't even like high on the list of priority in and like I mean they were almost considered like thieves and con artists back in the day where here to call someone a lamb would be calling

them less than a Shepherd even but John knew what he was saying and Jesus knew who he was and what he' come to accomplish for us and that is Christ dying for our sins in accordance with the scriptures being buried to ensure that the death was Final and because the wrath of God was satisfied in that death of Jesus he rose three days later in accordance with the scriptures which guarantees for you and me that when we look at Jesus and we repent of our sins and we say yeah we we understand we should stop doing that and we believe that he died in our

place for us then God's Wrath that is owed to us that is due our penalty and sin all of a sudden now becomes diverted to the cross and there is no condemnation for you that's the best news in the world there's no condemnation for you and me that's the gospel Jesus is telling you and me and everyone everywhere to repent stop following this world stop sinning stop giving yourselves over to the Des desires of the Flesh and there's ways you can do that I mean like there's that's why he gave us the scriptures I I've used this analogy before in the past like how do

you know a counterfeit versus the real thing study the real thing and then you'll always see the counterfeit he gave us the scriptures that the more we see the righteousness of Jesus in the scriptures and what he tells us is a life that is inep with the spirit of God like just read through Galatians and you'll be able to see that especially when you get to Galatians 5 and you're seeing the fruit of the SP before you get to the fruit of the spirit you see the fruit of sin and just look at the fruit of sin and then look at the fruit of the

spirit and you get to audit your life and say all right this stuff over here I have the freedom to throw off and repent of and I also have the freedom to walk in step with this because the spirit of Christ dwells in me he lives in me that's Romans 8 and so I can now choose love joy peace goodness kindness faithfulness gentleness and self-control and I can throw off all of the malice and selfishness and greed and envy and all the things that are sinful and when you start looking at okay how were my conversations today were they fruit of the spirit or fruit

of my old flesh and sin how was how I handled my finances is it fruit of the spirit or is it fruit of sin and we get to look at those things audit those things and come to the Lord and say I I need to repent of this thank you for giving me that opportunity and also I need your help in conforming me to the image of the son so that I can begin working it out in these areas over here that's what the gospel does the gospel doesn't just give you a ticket to heaven the gospel allows you to become like Christ before you

get to heaven like that's the beauty of the Gospel that's what it does for us every single day and that's why it's important that we pray to God and talk to him help me assess my life right now help me figure out how I'm living at the same time help me see your scriptures and so let me open it up we don't just wait for God to speak out of clean erir or clear erir whatever and speak in our minds or whatever like we're not looking for that stuff he's spoken to us already open the Bible and let him speak to you let him communicate

with you that's what it is it is God's word it's his word Hebrews 4:12 tells us it's living and active it's sharper than any two-edged sword it's piercing to the division of Soul and Spirit and joints and Marrow Discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart if I want to know what the thoughts and intentions of my heart are in my relationships in my work in my family in my neighborhood in my hobbies what are the thoughts and intentions of my heart open up God's word and find out that's what it's there for find out it allows you to see who you are it allows

us to see who God is I've said before when Jesus said I am the visible representation of the invisible God guess what is the written representation of the visible God which is Jesus Christ the word like when you look at John 1 and you start reading John 1 it can get very ethereal very quick where he's like I am the word the word was with God and the Word was before God and the Word was in the in the beginning with God like you're like well I'm all over the place with this idea of the word and then you get to verse 14 it's like

the word became flesh and you're like wait a minute the word was with God in the beginning the word created everything the word is considered just logos which in scripture is like an ideology how does an ideology become a flesh well it's talking about the fact that it's God that became Jesus in flesh but also is the word and that's the word given to this it is Jesus written so when we want to know Jesus we know his word we want to know God we know Jesus it's a straight line to him and so that's why it's important like when we say we dust off

our Bibles we're dusting off our relationship with God that's a good thing to do and so when we start looking at auditing our lives and our days and how we spend them and so forth sometimes we should think about how much time am I spending with God that comes in the form of prayer at least the very simple prayer in God's word prayer in God's word is abiding in Jesus it's abiding in Jesus now there other things you can turn worship music on and abide in Christ and how you worship through praise and adoration those are absolutely but those are a commands that guess where

you got them from the word of God you wouldn't know to do those things if it weren't for the word of God and so it helps us in when we are repenting guide us through that process so that we actually know what we are repenting of one of the craziest things that I I feel entered into Christian and this idea of repenting and it's just the term legalism um and and again I get it I understand it from a phisical perspective where we can take Christianity and put rules around it and those rules are what allows you to be a Christian or allows you to

maintain your Christianity or so forth but we have so been scared of being legalistic that for example my wife had a conversation with someone one time about wanting to just read the Bible and Journal about it and someone was like well I think you're systematizing your relationship with Jesus and scheduling it on a calendar and wanting to journal you should just be free in the spirit and just whenever you feel led to work I'm like are you kidding me like I will tell y'all this right now if ever you come to me and you say I want to meet with God at 7 a.m. every

Tuesday and I tell you that's a dumb idea fire me on the spot fire me on the spot it's okay for us to schedule our time and systematize how we spend time with the Lord because it is called stewardship it is stewarding our lives now the goal is to get every aspect of our life stewarded by hey God what do you think I should do at 9 o'clock on Wednesday morning what do you think I should do at 5 o'clock on THS night what do you think I should do this weekend like because Lord willing we plan our days but Lord willing he gives us

our plans and steps he's plan them out so we should confide with him on what our schedules look like but to enter him into our schedules is not a bad thing that's a good thing it leads to him really in my perspective if you put God at 7 o'clock on a Tuesday morning what you're going to find out is he wants more and then you start giving him more and then eventually you'll see that I don't dictate my calendar he does and therefore you can then start saying no to other people and actually start getting control of your life because you're practicing the self-control that

God has actually given you I'm off on tangent now but that helps you repentance isn't just whoo is me repentance is organizing my life around the gospel and grace of God and it's a good thing such a good thing as we conclude this morning again 1 Corinthians 14 tells us that through the preaching of God's word we will experience conviction of the heart conviction of the heart and so for this morning maybe there are some people in this room who who have felt conviction of the heart and that's a good thing all right that's not a am I am I saved am I a Christian

all right like if you're wrestling through that like we can talk and that conversation absolutely but at the same time guess what Christians feel conviction I mean just look at Paul when there's a couple of times where he's like what I what I know I want to do I don't do the very thing I hate is what I do and so he's wrestling in his own soul this kind of Flesh and mentality but there was conviction of his heart because he's abiding in Christ that was a good thing for that Peter felt conviction when he denied Jesus three times and left to go back to

fishing and then Jesus pulls him back in and Cooks him breakfast and says do you love me and he's like yes I love you like how many times I have to tell you I love you he's like okay well then let me give you some action here go and feed my sheep go and feed my sheep go and love my sheep go and go and Pastor the church go and spread the gospel and so there's going to be those moments where Jesus is asking us questions and we feel this conviction in our soul and heart and we want to do work with the Lord like

we want to get after him in that moment and we want to create space at the end of our service for you to do just that to work with the Lord in whatever he is convicting in your soul in regards to our message and I know it was heavy on that idea of spiring Our Lives looking at how we cleanse out the leaven of our homes how we cleanse out the sin in our lives and I think that's probably where we're going to do the majority of the work in this time right now and because we are coming to communion and you're probably looking at

the passage saying we never got to like verse 23 we barely got past verse 7 well it is the institution of the Lord's Supper Jesus knew exactly what he was doing in coming to the day of unleavened bread when the Passover Lamb had to be sacrificed and then sending his disciples to go prepare a room for them to then partake of the unleavened bread as well as the Passover Lamb that was sacrificed and then in that moment while they are doing those things he then shifts the mindset from I am right now in your midst the unleavened bread that you are partaking of and by

the end of that calendar day I'm going to be the Passover Lamb that is sacrificed and my blood will be shed to cover over your heart so that when the wrath of God comes and the angel of death is due it will pass over you and you will be without condemnation free to walk into heaven in the presence of God because you are considered holy you are a saint and so with that him like being the living embodiment of that Festival he then tells them because it is fulfilled and you no longer have to partake of that anymore you now get a new Feast that

you get to partake of as often as you're able to gather together as a body and partake of it you will get to have this verse 14 when the hour came he reclined at table and the apostles with him and he said to them I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer for I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God and he took a cup and when he had given thanks he said take this and divide it among yourselves for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of

the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes that's just him saying you are going to continue partaking of this and remembering the sacrifice that I have done for you U because it is uniting the church around the singular event that Jesus accomplished for them but Jesus himself will not partake of it and enjoy it until all of the church has been gathered at the wedding Feast of the lamb in eternity in heaven after the day of judgment when that happens he will joyfully gra like that'll be the greatest meal that we ever partake of and that will be the next time that

Jesus partakes of this meal and then he took the bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and he gave it to them saying this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me and likewise the cup after they had eaten saying this cup is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood he's fulfilling the old Covenant in the unleavened bread and the Passover Lamb and he's now ushering in the New Covenant that is in his blood but behold the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table we saw that last

week the start of it with Judas for the son of man goes as it has been determined but woe to the Man by whom he is betrayed and they began to question one another which of them it could be who was going to do this again we'll see that in the coming weeks as Jesus is arrested so we invite everyone go ahead and stand with me we invite everyone who believes in Jesus even if it's for the first time to come to the altar to come to the sacrificial lamb that broke his body and shed his blood for you we invite you to come down

grab the bread and cup while the band leads us in a song of Praise bring it back to your seats when you bring it back to your seats let this be a moment you can praise during the song you can sing you can let it be a time where you sit and just contemplate what what God's stirring in your soul right now what he's working on in you and then at the end of the song I'll come back up and we will partake of it [Music] [Music] together e