Victory Life KY

Communion

Episode Summary

Every time we gather around the Lord's table, it provides us this wonderful opportunity of a fresh heart of worship. I personally believe one of the greatest things worship does is keep us more God inside minded.

Episode Notes

• Romans 12, So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. It’s one of our greatest acts of worship.

• This is why we should never reduce worship down to just singing songs from emotion. Realizing its our offering, from a humble, reverent heart. And make no mistake, God absolutely loves it when we come to Him with a reverent of love and reliance totally on Him.

• Jesus told us the Father is seeking those who will worship Him this way. Worship Him in spirit and truth. Those willing to come to Him in a reverent spirit of dependency and gratitude for everything Jesus did for us.

• And every time we gather around the Lord's table, it provides us this wonderful opportunity of a fresh heart of worship. I personally believe one of the greatest things worship does is keep us more God inside minded.

• Think about it, the same Spirit that raised Jesus, that hovered over the earth at creation, God’s Spirit, lives in us.

• And practicing worship around the Lord’s table, really does bring things into proper perspective for us. Remember, I say this all the time, communion is one of the most spiritual things we can do.

• And for many of us that have walked with Jesus for a little bit, we have the privilege of showing the younger generation how to engage in spiritual realities like communion.

• Here’s the thing, something all of us have to help each other with is the reality that it’s only in our grace empowered, steadfast, lifelong pursuit of our Savior that we discover God’s nature and character, His love.

• And in the discovery of His love, we embrace the heart of worship.

• Coming together like we do during communion helps us to not be so  preoccupied with the cares of the world.

• It also helps some realize, and others to remember God is bigger than anything we're facing, from challenge to success. Communion really helps all of us with perspective.

• Psalm 34, Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together.”

• Think about it like this, you ever go out a night a look at the stars?

• With just our natural vision all we see are twinkling dots of light in the sky.

• But through a high-powered telescope, we see massive spheres of fire, millions of times larger than our planet, brighter than the human eye can stand.

• When we come together with a heart of worship, magnifying Jesus, it's like a high-powered telescope in the spirit. Because most of the time, it's usually our view of Him that needs to change.

• And communion is one of the special times of worship that helps us see the greatness of God through our faith.

• There's no better place for enlightenment and inspired vision than worshipping around the Lord's table. Not to mention, keeping our relationship fresh.

• Because in today's fast paced society, constantly being bombarded with everything but the truth, it's way to easy to be distracted, sometimes even forget.

• Truth is, our heart won't be in what our mind isn't on. And without question, communion absolutely helps get our mind on the things of God.

• You see, at the heart of worship, nothing magnifies our Savior more powerfully or passionately than acknowledging Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.

• The reason worship is such a significant part of communion is because ultimately, only Jesus can bring someone into God's presence.

• And our humble acknowledgement of what Jesus did is what makes our worship acceptable before God.

• Acts 2:22-24,NIV- “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know. 
• This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross. 
• But God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him. 

• I realize that we are all at different places concerning the realities of Calvary. So as we gather around the Lord's table today, let's be very clear about it; Jesus was no martyr. His life wasn't taken from Him. He was on the planet according to God's fixed, deliberate plan.

• Jesus said, "No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.” 

• 1 Peter 1, For you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, by the precious blood of Christ.
• Through Him you believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him, so your faith and hope are in God. 

• I believe one of the best things communion does is remind us that we will never find our God ordained identity in the things of this world.

• Remember in Acts, Jesus was handed over to be crucified by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge.

• And if God had a deliberate plan for Jesus, the first born, make no mistake, He has a deliberate plan for the rest of His kids.

• Psalm 139:16,NLT- You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. 

• Communion is that anointed reminder that we are made by God, for God.

• Let today’s communion motivate a reverent desire to take your next step into the ordained life He has for you. A life that can only be found in Him. A life paid for by His eternal sacrifice.

• You see, because our worship is joined to Jesus' atoning sacrifice, God accepts our worship as if Jesus we're bringing it Himself.

• And this is the power of the Lord's Table. Worshiping around His table, in light of what we might be dealing with right now, reminds us that God tells us not to look at the things that are seen, but at the things that are unseen.

• Hebrews 12:28,MSG- Do you see what we’ve got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God. 

• I honestly don’t believe we can come around the Lord's Table without reverence for Him. And make no mistake about it, there is a direct connection between our reverence of God and His manifested presences.

• I think real reverence is simply our humble acknowledgment of who the living God is. From our own personal revelation of the Him.

• Psalm 86:11-13,NIV- “Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. 
• I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. 
• For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths, from the realm of the dead.”

• And what better expression of our worship than to gather around the Lord's Table as a family.

• And as irrational and unreligious as this may sound to some of you, in the middle of your worst times, on the other side of your biggest failure, Jesus' broken body and shed blood still declares everyone who accepts Him, righteous.

• We have communion Sunday, because sometimes in our humanity, we simply need reminded of the sacrifice of our Savior is. Of God's amazing Grace. 

• Reminding us that He continually uses imperfect people to reveal Himself to a lost, confused world.

• Communion gives us the opportunity to acknowledge Jesus for who He is, as well as embracing who He's made us. Joint heirs with Him.

• I am redeemed. I am forgiven. I am eternal. I am His son. It reminds us that our identity can no longer be found in the things of this world, now our identity is in Christ. 

• Communion echoes throughout eternity that God's love isn't based on conditions, it's simply who He is. It will always raise us to His level.

• And one of my favorite things to do as a family of believers is to gather around the Lord's table together. Expressing a heartfelt attitude of worship to our King.

• Remember we have the underserved privilege of standing in His presences. This is why Jesus told us, every time we take communion we remember His sacrifice.

• Listen to Paul's words out of his letter in Ephesians, God, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. 
• Then He picked us up and set us down in the highest heaven in company with Jesus.