This transcript was generated automatically and may contain minor errors.

Alright. So just to recap really quick, you know, we'll do this really fast because I know most of you guys have been here. But two months ago, you know, we started... I gave y'all kinda my perspective on how I like to do Lord's Supper Talks. I just gave you know, it's called the triple one rule.

Right? Got one page, one kind of key idea that you wanna share with the congregation, and one text, usually about 10 verses or so. That's gonna keep you in the ballpark of, you know, seven to ten minutes with your prayers added on and everything. So the real key concept though is the idea of really just having one kind of idea to share with the congregation that's really clear that you want them to focus on. Right?

Because what we're trying to do or lean towards supper as we talked about, we're trying to help guide the minds and the hearts of the brethren as we partake. We wanna minimize distractions as best we can. We want... We don't want people to see us or necessarily hear what we had to say as much as we want to direct them up to Jesus and the sacrifice that he gave for us. That's what we're trying to do ultimately.

So I'll go first. I have not practiced this since I delivered it back when Brent Moody was here several weeks ago. So you can go and tear me apart however you want to, but it'll be a little bit rusty probably, and I have to lie... Rely pretty heavily on my notes. But to be fair, I do that most of the time.

But what we'll do is just like we did last time, I'll deliver my talk. I'll take some notes afterwards or... Well, during as well. I'll give you about three to four minutes afterwards, and then we'll talk about positives, negatives, and the like. And then we'll let Candy go after that.

And, hopefully, by then, Eric will be here, and he can bring up the rear, and then we'll conclude for this evening. So... Alright. You guys ready to go? Pen's ready?

Alright. I'll go ahead and, I guess, begin like I normally would. Alright. Begin singing. If you would open up your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 10, 1 Corinthians 10:14-22.

That's where I want us to focus this morning. The context of this passage in particular in first Corinthians in chapters 8-10, Paul is teaching the brethren whether or not it was appropriate to eat food sacrificed to idols. Those with knowledge that idols were nothing allowed their understanding to puff themselves up, leading them to eat in pagan temples where illicit worship and behaviors were being practiced. Those of knowledge, they thought that they were standing, but they were indeed in danger of falling. And so after Paul has now told them at the beginning of chapter 10 how Israel themselves had fallen in the wilderness despite sharing the same spiritual blessings in Christ as they had received, Paul corrects them now using the Lord's Supper.

The Supper made them question who they had been partnering with. And if those associations had compromised their fellowship with Christ. That's what I want us to think about this morning as we read this text, is our participation with Christ at the table. Paul says in verse 14, if you would read along with me. He says, therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

I speak to you as sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are one body, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

Consider the people of Israel. Are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything or that an idol is anything? No.

I imply that what pagan sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy?

Are we stronger than he? In scripture, that word that we just read in the ESV is from their participation. It's koinonia. It describes a close association involving mutual interests and sharing, association, communion, fellowship, or a close relationship. You know, meals are one of those principal ways in which we express fellowship with someone.

In eating together, you commune with those who sit at the table with you. That's why we call it a common union, communion. That's where it comes from. And therefore, when we eat at Christ's table, we declare that we belong to Christ and to his body. And here, Paul reminds us when he talks about these tables of the demons, he reminds us that we cannot sit at competing tables.

And so this morning, I want you to consider your participation in Christ and in his body. If you've been sitting at a competing table, well, Paul tells us to repent and to flee from idolatry. This morning, come and eat Christ's bread and drink his cup. Participate in this meal with a clear conscience. At his table, you can receive forgiveness, restoration, and renewal, and you can repledge your highest allegiance to king Jesus.

This morning, if you've wronged a brother or sister or they've wronged you, make the offense known in gentleness and respect and mend the broken relationship because Christ's body cannot be divided. In sharing Christ's bread, his body, we who are many are now one. So let us examine the body of Christ and our fellowship in it together as we partake. Then I'll do my prayers from there. So that's kind of in.

So I'll give you a couple minutes to think about that, and you can take some notes. Totally roast me as you did Reagan last week. Good criticism. Right? The roasting is good.

Give you about another thirty seconds or so. Alright. You guys all about ready or do you need a couple more minutes or so? Everybody good? Alright.

We got Mike runners right. Who's got the mics? Ty over here. And Brent, you got the one over there? Okay.

Somebody else coming in the door here? Yep. Okay. Alright. Let me have it.

What did you think? We'll start with positives, and then we'll move to where we can do better here. So what do you think? What did I do well there or anything that you thought was particularly helpful? We'll start with the easy stuff.

Can you hear me? Yes, sir. Yeah. Go ahead, Tom. I thought you did a very nice job of introducing the text, the context of the text before you read.

And I also think that you are an excellent reader. I think you read... You're very well paced. You read with... I don't know what the word is.

Inflection. I mean, meaning. You very Right? Preacher voice. Right?

Oh, yeah. That's right. And then and then I thought you brought it all together very nicely Oh, thanks. To make your point. Alright.

Alright. Anything else? Reading with inflection without it being a preacher voice. That's good. Okay.

Alright. Alright. And that comes from a fellow preacher, so it's good news. Alright. I like to reap.

I like re... I like the... You know, Paul talks to Timothy about a public reading of scripture. Right? I enjoy the public reading of scripture.

That's something I enjoy doing. So that's good to hear. So anything else? Particularly helpful? Yeah.

Mike? Can I say something a little different than them? Yeah. Please. I had a feeling maybe you weren't close enough to...

I don't know exactly how to describe it. You weren't specific enough in regarding the Lord's supper Mhmm. Yeah. In bringing it to us. Mhmm.

Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, but you just jumped into what could he do better.

We're supposed to be on the positives right now. That's okay. We can jump into that. We... Well, I'm...

That's where we get better is is not just putting each other up. Right? It's getting odd. But... Yeah.

And this is... The thing is... The heart of this is a little bit unorthodox for my talks normally, but I was trying to be timely when I first did this with our our theme for that week when Brent was here. Right? We're talking about fellowship, right, in Philemon.

And so this is a kind of a different talk than I normally would do. But 1 Corinthians 10, it is a... I know I'm probably... I'm kinda off line defending myself here. I'm not trying to, but I'm just trying to explain the context because I...

Like I said, it's a little bit different. But 1 Corinthians 10 is the Lord's Supper text, but it's not one we, I think, typically associate with the Lord's Supper because we used to go to 1 Corinthians 11. Right? So I think that may be a little bit harder. What I was really trying to get us to focus in on is, you know, know, thinking about the Lord's Supper table in terms of we're sitting at the table and partaking of this.

We are identifying ourselves with Christ, but also with one another. And so we need to be considering what are the tables that we may be seeing at that are trying to compete with that relationship we have with Jesus and also how we might be undermining the relationship we have with one another. So I was leaning more heavily when I've wrote this, like, on... When we talked about previously, you know, the idea of, like, giving not only something to think about in terms of the cross, but also an action that the cross motivates. Right?

But I think you're right that I did not make clear enough, I think, the connection to the death of Jesus. It's implied, right, with the idea of eating Christ's body and drinking his cup, but I can make that clear. And so I think somebody actually raised that criticism to me outside of this class after I did that talk. So I thought about that. So that's good that you picked up on that.

So I will work on that and rewrite this talk a little bit then. So... Alright. What else? Oh, we'll go to the negatives now.

What do you think I can do better in particular to kinda make this talk more helpful, remove distractions, things of that nature? Yes, Steve. What you got? I don't know if this is I don't know if this is what Marty was getting at a little bit. I wrote could be more emotional.

Emotional. And I really think the Lord's Supper talk, we don't need to shy away from that, and we purposely need to make it emotional because that's what we're supposed to be doing. The emotional part brings out gratitude Mhmm. Thankfulness, all those things we're supposed to be feeling. And I mean, I know you're in a stage setting here.

It's maybe a little hard to do it rather than a regular worship service, and I... And probably that is a lot of it. Yeah. But whatever we could do to slow down and maybe not. I know we're trying to learn how to do these things.

Mhmm. Yeah. But really in this, I'm gonna get in trouble with this. I really don't think we should follow a script. Mhmm.

It needs to be something that brings out emotion in people. And I'm gonna mention something. This is off top of my head. We've talked about it. Maybe I may change and agree with you.

But Uh-huh. I think the communion, when it says we're communing with the blood and the body of Christ here, I believe is the same thing as chapter 11 of discerning the Lord's body. Mhmm. Yeah. It's not emphasizing our commune.

I'm not saying we don't commune with each other. We do. But when it says we commune with his blood and his body, that's him. Uh-huh. Yeah.

And it would be more rather than thinking of everybody around me Mhmm. It's thinking again of chapter 11, what he went through with his beatings Mhmm. That his body went through shedding his blood. And, you know, the... I don't know that the Lord's supp...

You know, what Jesus said was remember me. Mhmm. Yeah. And every talk should be about remembering him and what he did and bringing out that emotion. That's my opinion on it.

Yeah. We can tell him that afterwards because I... I'm not saying it's wrong. I'm just saying what you're saying. Yeah.

Yeah. Because I think that's at the forefront of mind. Right? But I but I would take a little bit different view because I think the context was going on in 1 Corinthians 11, what's in kind of Paul's purview there is is the relationship of the brethren, the rich and the poor, and how they're not really reflecting the ideals of the gospel. And so discerning the body to me, I think it's a both end, but I think it is...

We can tell that later, though. But, again, that's an aside, I guess, to our conversation. But as regard to the feeling, I think you're right. Like, you... I'll say I listen to class today from last time, and several of you made that same point.

And that's one the things I think I struggle with a lot in doing the Lord's Supper is bringing emotion to the table. Right? Because it is personal, but when you study something all week, right, in preparation and then deliver it is hard to kinda convey that emotion sometimes when you've gotten comfortable with the ideas that you're expressing. Right? But maybe that is something I need to think about considering letting go to script some.

So that's something I'll consider too because it should be an emotional thing. Right? You shouldn't come to the cross and then just feel like, you know, alright. So just another motion that we're going through in worship. Right?

It should be something that touches us because it's gonna have an effect on how we live because it promotes, like you said, that gratitude and thankfulness in our lives. That's great. Yeah. The emotion, we got more specific to context. Anything else I can do you think would sharpen this talk and be more helpful in particular?

Or are you all ready for a candidate to get up? I can take a couple more licks if you got some more stripes for me. They have to go that far for the mic. Just... I was like, Jesse just leaves them.

He's like, I'd rather just not have this with the... What you got, Jesse? Something very minor. But I thought you might be able to repeat the main point several times in several ways at the very end, you know, leaving us with no doubt what you're what you're trying to say. And I...

And I'm the world's worst at that. I will write things down and say it one time, probably say it too fast and Mhmm. Not repeat it even though it is my main thing. But because I've written it down and I said it, you know, I... In my mind, they've got it.

Yeah. But they don't got it if I don't make them... Or emphasize it. Uh-huh. And that's through repetition or inflection or, you know, changing your your speed, saying it slowly.

Mhmm. Okay. That's great. Yeah. Yeah.

That's... I guess, with the main idea. Right? That's an important thing to bring out too is you gotta hammer it sometimes. Right?

We learn mainly through repetition. Right? And some... But then, you know, other people, you start doing the repetition, people are like, dude, you're beating a dead horse. Right?

But it's like, I'd rather beat a dead horse when you get the point than say it one time and people not get it. Right? And so that's really important. So saying that, you know, I was talking to someone this week. I was telling another preacher that was giving me some advice when I was trying to...

I was thinking about a sermon I preached a couple of weeks ago, and I was I was like, I feel like I didn't land like I wanted to. I didn't feel like people didn't didn't get what was trying to say. You know? And he's like, you know, well, if you want people to hear it, you either gotta say it louder, say it a different way, or say it over and over again. Right?

And I think that's sometimes what we gotta do with the Lord's Supper talk. Like you said, change your inflection. Say it louder, say it a couple more times, use that repetition or say in a different type of way, but convey the same idea. So that's really good. Alright.

Anything else? Yeah. We got... Well, I'll I'll let Brian go, and then we'll let Steve go one more time because Brian hadn't spoke yet. I was just...

I was thinking about Steve's comments last last time and then this time about emotion. And like you, Preston, I kinda feel like that as well, especially when I was a younger man. Mhmm. It's hard for me to convey that. You know?

I guess I'm still trying to figure out my emotions. You know? Because boy in life. Right? Our our church context, we're not an emotional group of people.

Right? And I like that about us. Right? Because we're not... Emotion doesn't guide our thoughts too much.

Right? But that goes too too far sometimes. Right? But I... In my heart, it's something I struggle with.

Right? So, yeah, keep going. What you to be genuine and authentic. Right? Yes.

Yeah. But there there was a lesson unrelated to the Lord's Supper that I heard many years ago. It is by Bob Waldron, and he was talking about the children of Israel, the second generation Mhmm. That entered the land, how they knew not God. And one of the points that he made in summary was that the...

That first generation, those fathers, when they were with their sons and they saw the stone that was erected and they say, you know, what is the meaning behind this? Maybe they gave a cold academic explanation Mhmm. For why that stone was there to bring them in remembrance of what God did for Israel and instead of conveying what that meant to him as a father. Mhmm. And that point really resonated with me because I'm...

I've never been much of a one that... You know, some people have a gift to elicit emotions from people. But taking time to think about what does it mean to me, why is it important in communicating that, I found to be helpful. Not merely what it means, but what does it mean to me. That was that was my follow-up question to you guys is I wanna know those of you who are...

Feel like you have a better grasp on that. Like, what is it that you do to get yourself in a headspace where you feel like you can elicit emotion in the Lord's supper table? And your preparation, do you do you read it? Like, do you say the text that morning before you come to church or something like get yourself in headspace? Like, Steve, you got a comment?

Then do you have a follow-up to that too? I was fixing to say that you can... You really didn't use a story like he talks about it. I don't think you have... Somebody say you have to, obviously.

But if you have trouble eliciting emotion Uh-huh. Just with your personality or whatever, and I'm not saying that you do. I'm just saying anybody Yeah. Within... Say, even for themselves Mhmm.

An emotional story, something, you know, that that would relate. But an emotional story can get you in the mindset also of... If you tell a little worldly thing that's emotional, when you get to the big emotional thing like Jesus died on the cross, it should be pretty easy. Yeah. Uh-huh.

And, you know, there's... And even those who don't show a lot of emotion, I'll never forget Bobby Thompson preached by Taylor when I was growing up. He was a gruff old coot. Mhmm. But when he took the Lord's Supper, he was almost crying every time he took the Lord's Supper if you watched him.

Mhmm. And if we get our mind set on the right thing, it really shouldn't be that difficult. Mhmm. But we should let it out. Yeah.

Let it out. What if it means something... If it does mean something, if you came back to the motion with this subject Mhmm. Yeah. Uh-huh.

Just the deal is let it out. Mhmm. Think about it and imagine it and let it out. Yeah. Yeah.

And maybe the focus needs to not be so much on coming up and saying the right thing the right way. Well, that's important. Right? But saying that... Again, I think I like how Brian put it right.

Not sincerely since... Simply what it means, but, you know, it's history, but what it means to you. I think that's what you're saying about the stories can be really helpful. Alright. We're already thirty minutes in.

So we got fifteen minutes for Camden and Eric. So I want y'all to get ripped apart too. So... No. We're building each other where iron sharpens our Right, buddy?

And we gotta have a little bit of spots to do So... Alright, Kenneth. You're up, buddy. Get your next papers out and everything, and we'll do talk number two. Whenever you're ready, Kenneth.

Alright. If you wanna go ahead and turn to 1 Corinthians 11, that's where our thoughts will come from tonight. 1 Corinthians 11. And I will start by reading verses 23-26. For I received from the Lord that which I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread.

And when he gave thanks, he broke it and said, take eat. This is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do 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 till he comes. Every Sunday, when we come together, we come to memorize the Lord's death through the partaking of the... His body and his blood. But this is nothing like a formal or like a funeral that we might go to where after the person dies, it might be just a couple generations and they're forgotten. Jesus died, and, yes, it was tragic, and it's something that we need to take very seriously.

But he's still talked about today a lot and a lot of times a joy, and that's because we know that he is still alive and that he is gonna come again. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul gives us a great way to center our thoughts on this special death of Jesus before we partake of the Lord's Supper. Three things that we can do to get focused, wanna talk about is looking backward to the scene of the cross, looking inward at our heart, and looking forward to the Lord's return. First, as we look back to the cross and as we're about to take the bread and this juice, we remember the real body and the real blood of Jesus that he shed to save us from a debt that we cannot pay. Then with this in mind, we look inward and examine ourselves as Paul talked...

Calls us to do in verse 28 where he says, but let a man examine himself and so let him eat the bread and drink of the cup. We're taking this time before we partake to look at ourselves, to realize how imperfect we are, and to realize that without God's grace, we would have to pay the price instead of Jesus, which would lead to our eternal death. And then we finally look forward. Although it's a time for us to reflect on the tragic event that it was, we also must not forget to look forward to the victory granted to us by Jesus' death. Paul says, we do this until Jesus comes in verse 26.

Every Sunday we have and every Sunday that we will partake of the Lord's Supper, we're showing our faith, but we're also declaring the truth that Jesus is still alive, that he will return one day in his glory. As we partake of these emblems today, let us look back to the perfect sacrifice of Jesus, look inward and humble ourselves, and look forward with the hope of his return. That's all I got. Do you want me to stay up here or do want sit down? Sorry.

I'm just finishing my notes. So, yeah, I'll give you another, like, three minutes or so to write down your thoughts. Alright. Give me about thirty more seconds, and I will do our critiques. Alright.

We got about seven minutes to talk about so we'll give Eric enough time to do his. The run time for Camden, do know how how long do you think you were? Two minutes two... Fifty two seconds was what I had. So pretty good on time.

That gives you plenty of time to give people a minute and a half or so, you know, for the bread and the cup. That's usually about a minute, a minute and a half. It depends on how long my talk is. People have time to think, but also know your prayers. So that was great.

Good good timing. Alright. What do you think positive wise? Eric, what you got? Go first.

Do positives first, minding the negatives out the gate. I really like the idea of looking back, looking inward, and looking forward. It's very simple that you can grasp and you can remember. So when you're done, that's something I could think about while I'm taking the Lord's Supper. So boiling it down to simple concepts that are easy to remember is great.

Only suggestion I would give is draw that more from the text because the text does say, do you remember it to me? You didn't read the part about examining yourself, but that would also strengthen that point, the inward part. And then, of course, the looking forward, you drew that out. But, I mean, really liked the... What you did.

And also the looking forward. Right? Tell you, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Right? So all three of those in the text.

That's great. Yeah. I love that too. I thought it was clear. It was easily memorable memorable and, you know, not not only focus for the talk, but also something I can take with me.

Right? I think, Barrett, he did some... He did the same thing Sunday night too. So did you write this before he got up and did his? Alright.

So do you piggyback off him? Alright. Well, dude, well, that's great, man. Awesome. Well, I love that.

Did you come up with that yourself? Dude, alright. Well, sweet. We got good like minds working here. That's awesome.

I really like that. So it's been helpful for me. So... Alright. What else...

Who else you guys? What you got, Ty? I was gonna add to what Eric said, and I guess also kinda piggyback on what Jesse said when he was bashing you all ago. I... No.

I thought I thought he did a very good job of explaining his three points early on, and then he reemphasized it again at the very end Mhmm. And encouraged us to do just that Yeah. Yeah. As he finished up. So I thought that was very good.

Yeah. Great way to book into your talk. Right? Great job. Yeah.

Alright. What else... What you got on? I'm still a young man. I am not grown, and frontal lobe is still not completely there.

But I remember when I was younger, when I when I first became a Christian, I still had a hard time grasping concepts, especially during the Lord's supper. It was difficult. A lot of times, I was writing down on my notebook asking my mom, what does that mean or why does that matter? And there were certain people that would deliver a talk, and every time I just couldn't get it. But then there were others where it was like, okay.

I understand that, and I know that's why I'm here. And that, to me, was a talk where I can see my younger self being like, okay. I know what that is about. I know this is why I'm here, and I was... I would be able to focus my thoughts by being directed by that talk.

Yeah. That's great. That's a great thing to consider. Right? Because that's a challenge for any time you get up and you're speaking for a congregation.

Right? Because you're talking to people who are maybe Christians. Maybe they're 40 years old, but they just got baptized last week. You know? Or you're telling somebody, Mike's been in this building when the floors are still concrete.

You know? He's been here a long time. So he... There's not much you're gonna say it's gonna face him. Right?

But you're talking to a lot of different people, so you gotta relate to him. Right? And you can talk about really high level things in the Lord's Supper. Right? But if you take enough time, you can simplify them.

Right? Because Lord's Supper, as simple as it is, there's a lot of stuff that still perplex me that I'm still trying to understand about it. So don't sell yourself short and be too hard on yourself because there are a lot of mysteries about the death of Christ that we're meant to ponder and consider over a lifetime. It's not it's not something you just learn all the facts about it. It's like, okay.

I know... I... I've got the Lord's supper, you know, in this box, and I know everything. Right? But it's something we can...

We get up every week, and we look at from a different angle from our own perspective and share our thoughts. And there's always some things that need to perplex us, but we need to part of those things. That's great. And again, very clear. Right?

What else we got? Any more positives or we wanna move to the critique portion? What you got, Steve? Very well. Maybe it touched too fast, but just...

But very good reading. Periods or periods, commas or commas, all that. That was very good. And my only suggestion would be try to find a moment where you're just looking up and talking to people. It's like something from the heart or whatever.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's what... It takes some time repetition. Right?

Yeah. Yeah. It was really Yeah. It was really good. Yeah.

Yeah. And so... Yeah. We're... And that's the hard thing too about being a young guy because I...

I'm closer to it than some of these guys, right, other than being young. But it takes time to learn that inflection. Your inflection's already really good. Right? Like Steve was saying, you're reading spot on.

I was really on edge. I was like, do I need to say his pace is too fast or too... Or just right? Because I was like, thought you were a little too fast, but I was like, ah, but you... But your reading was good enough.

And I was like, I didn't feel like was distracting. So so that just takes time with doing that and practice and comfortability. But I think you're, like, you're way ahead of where I was when I was your age. So you're killing it, Kenneth. Keep going.

What you got? Here's the negative. No. I thought I was... There really been a negative except when I teach the high school class, all those young men are...

When they get up to read scripture or something, they struggle with mumbling or they don't talk into the microphone or they don't talk loud enough. And you did all that well, but you need to know what your weaknesses are, and you could probably get a little more volume. And that would be that'd be all I have to say. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. That's good. Alright. We got, like, a minute. So we get...

Give me one critique you wanna deliver to Canada, and then we'll move over to Eric. Anybody have one century who feels really good, it'll be really helpful. You think the most thing he needs to work on? What you got, Steve? I think Eric kinda hit on it.

When you're teaching a passage, you took what's in the passage and said it, and it was perfect teaching on it. But, like, for example, if the looking forward part, when you say I'm looking forward, read that part that says, we do show forth the lord's death until he come. When you say I'm looking backwards, if you could read to where Jesus said, remember me. In other words, you have the voice out of the passages and you don't have to read the whole passage but you're just... By the...

You're you're just pointing out where you got what you're saying, and you got it out of there. Yeah. It's in there. Yeah. Let the text do all the work for you.

I've let... This... By the sermons that are best are the ones where, like, the text preaches itself. Right? Where it's like, yeah, that was a good sermon.

It's like, just was following Paul's footsteps. Right? So that's great. Alright, Eric. We got fifteen minutes to do yours.

What you got, Steve? If you got the teaching, it's obvious you read it and you understood what it was, but you don't want people to think that's just your musings. I heard preacher say one time, we just... I'm gonna read a passage that y'all are gonna give. I don't want his musings, and this is supposed to be a faithful preacher.

You wanna you wanna teach it and then show people, here's where I got that. You know what I mean? It doesn't take a second to do that, like, with what you did. Your your lesson was perfect. Just back it up.

Yeah. Exactly. Alright. Eric, hop up here, and we'll do one more go. We should be able to get out here by 07:30.

So Not too bad. Hey. You're up here. You're up here. So, you know, there's something really powerful about looking at the cross, and that's, you know, I think why Jesus asks us to do that on a regular basis because there's something...

When we look at the cross, we see some powerful things happening there. And we all know the story. We've heard it many times. Jesus was arrested, beaten, mocked, crucified, and we know that he died and was buried and he rose again. But, you know, sometimes we know the story so well that, you know, we just become too familiar with it.

And the Lord's Supper gives us a time to stop, slow down, look back at the cross again, and try to see it in ways that maybe we... Been a while since we've that we've been a while since we've seen it that way or see it in new ways or just reflect on what Jesus has done. And when we look at the cross, we see the seriousness of sin. You know, Peter says in 1 Peter 2:24 that Jesus bore our sins on his... In his body on the tree, and it reminds us that sin's not something that's insignificant.

We at the cross, we see the love of God. Romans 5:8 says, God shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Notice when Christ died for us. It wasn't after we'd cleaned ourselves up or not after we became worthy or it was while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

And so it shows a love that we didn't earn and that is a gift to us. So when we look at the cross, we see the seriousness of our sin, but we see the love of God. We also see the willingness of Jesus. In John 10:18, he says, no one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. Jesus wasn't just a victim of circumstances.

He willingly gave himself, and, you know, that ought to inspire us to live in a way that it reflects that of Jesus and live in appreciation of his willingness for that. So looking at the cross, we see our seriousness of our sin. We see the love of God. We see Jesus' willingness to die. And then finally, we see the hope of forgiveness.

Matthew 26:28 says, this is the blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. And that's what makes the cross wonderful and hopeful. It shows us how terrible sin is. Yes. But also shows us how great God's grace is.

And in a minute, we're gonna take these two emblems. This... They're simple bread, fruit of the vine. And the bread tells us to look at the body. The cup tells us to look at the blood, but we don't just look at the emblems.

We don't just look at the bread and the fruit of the vine. We're looking at the sacrifice. We're looking at the love. We're looking at Jesus' willingness to die for us and what is accomplished for us to forgive us of sins. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:26, for often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes.

So as you take the Lord's supper this morning, just put aside other thoughts and let's look at the cross and remember what Jesus did for us. Forty more seconds. Alright. We got about seven minutes left. So what do you think about Eric's talk?

What what did he do really well that you wanna pat him on the back for? What... Alright. Good good point. You said he counted three.

I counted four. Alright. Or four. Alright. Okay.

I was like, did I count off? Let me check on it. Yeah. Clear clear points. Right?

Okay. What else you got? Clear thesis too. Right? What you got?

Oh, yeah. Microphone. Sorry. Jeremy's back here waving around. So...

Oh, yeah. Sorry. Alright. Wait a second. Because that was really good.

It'll be quick. So I think about... I appreciate it, you know, just thinking about the roles, our role in putting Christ on the cross, God's role. Demonstrating his love to us through the cross, Christ's role and his willingness to take up the cross, and then what we get in return, the blessings undeserved. Yeah.

That's really good way of tying it all together. Yeah. That's great. Yeah. They...

It's not that he just enlisted, you know, four kind of unrelated points about the cross, but how they work together and build off one another. Right? They're cohesive. Right. That's good.

Anything else? Oh, you can have a four point as a conclusion. What you got? Anything else or you wanna jump into critique for five... Light light...

Last five minutes? Yeah. I had kinda similar thing. He had clear thesis and elaboration on points to consider, sin, love, willingness, and forgiveness. So critiques, we'll see after that.

Also, I'll say this. This is just my personal preference. If you're using several passages, I just like to know as a listener, tell me upfront, hey. I'm gonna be going to several different ones. Just listen because if I don't know that, I'll be, like, trying to catch up when you've read, like, one verse in first Peter.

Only thing I couldn't... What was that verse? Okay. Yeah. So I was like try...

I was like, wait. What was that verse? And then you're on to Romans 5:8, and I was like, oh, so... But then, you know, if I'm a listener, I give up trying to follow, but then I've missed the first part of your talk. So that's just a personal preference.

I like to be told, hey, just listen rather than turn. Right? I'm gonna be jumping around. So... Alright.

What you got? Anybody got other critique? Pretty good. It's very clear. Right?

Eric has a good speaking voice. He is inflection. He doesn't speak too loud. He doesn't speak too soft. So anything else you all wanna add or y'all wanna get out early?

And y'all are going easy on Eric. Eric speaks. He always convey... Conveys sincerity. Mhmm.

And I... You know, it's... He makes it meaningful. He's not just reciting a written speech. Yeah.

Yeah. Mhmm. Yeah. So... Yeah.

You can't... Being polished is good to a fault, but it can go so far that you feel so squeaky clean that it's, like, unrelatable almost. Right? We don't wanna we don't wanna do that. Right?

What you got? Who... Somebody... Who... You got one, Steve?

The points that he made are really good. I'm beat... I'm that horse to death right now, but the points that he made were points that create emotion Mhmm. About forgiveness. And it's our fault he had to go to the cross and how bad sin is and our guilt and shame and all that.

That's the whole point of the Lord's Supper. Yeah. Just things like that. Yeah. And I like I like what Mike said Sunday too.

He was he was conveying, and that's the talk he did last month. Right? He was talking about the seriousness with which we come to the table. Right? This is not about...

This is not a humorous occasion. Right? We're coming to be very somber and serious. But then you said the end too, and I thought it was helpful. You know, while we think about this, like, when I was in college, we called...

We did, like, a... At our church where I was worshiping, it was, an hour long service. Right? And it was, a Lord's Supper talk, and we called it a eulogy. Right?

And we think about this in terms like a funeral service. Right? I think... So we all made that comment. Right?

But you added at the end of your talk Sunday, and I thought it was a good point. You know, we come and we think about in 1 Corinthians 11, you know, partaking of a worthy manner. Right? And how often we come to the table with this somberness. Right?

But it's also... That needs to be tempered too by joy. Right? Because we're not just serving a guy who gave himself up and sacrificed himself and died and is still dead. Right?

But like Kenneth said, he's alive. He's resurrected. We're partaking this on the first day of the week. It's the day of the resurrection. So it's a somber event.

It's a serious event for which we recognize the seriousness of our sin, like Steve was saying, the destruct... Destructive force of sin and how it's wrecked our lives. But also in that sovereignness, we're led from... He... God turns our mourning into joy.

Right? That this should end in a place of joy. And I think we need to hit that a little bit more in our Lord's server talks too. Right? We don't just need to be weeping and crying, and then, you know, people come in here thinking, like, why are these people so sad?

It's like, we need to be joyful too. We need to be committing that emotion as well. And I think that's just as hard of an emotion to pull out of myself as the somberness, I think, to at least expressing that publicly. Right? I feel that inwardly, right, like we're talking about, but, you know, to share that publicly, it does feel inauthentic in our context.

Right? Because we don't... We're not the type that, you know, raise our hands, you know, stuff like that, that we don't wear our our hearts on our sleeves necessarily. Right? And I'm not saying we need to be doing that.

I don't... That doesn't necessarily mean you're truly being emotional and your heart's in the right place just because you're outwardly doing things. Right? But you'll get what I'm saying. Right?

I think the is so great. I love that about where we partake, and... But it needs to end, I think, or at least lead us to a place of joy also. So I don't know. Any disagreements for that or ways you would soften that maybe?

I don't know. Any other comments on Eric's? And we can move on. It's 07:30 now. We can nip it on the bud right here.

Speak now or forever hold your peace. Alright. Well, I think this next month, I asked Reagan beforehand. Seem like we're gonna do this one more time. So if anybody has not got a chance to do it yet and they would like to, I'll make sure miss Brenda sends out an email to some of guys who weren't able to be here.

But I know several of you have already done one. If you wanna do one next month, I'm not sure if we picked the date out yet for November. I'm sure with thanksgiving, we may have to move it around to the beginning of December. We'll see. So keep posted for that.

But if you'd like to do one, come talk to me afterwards or right now because you guys are dismissed. So we'll do this one more time. What you got, Brian? Oh, and the sheets. Hand your sheets to the people to whom spoke or whatever.