This transcript was generated automatically and may contain minor errors.

Let's let's begin as we customarily do with the word of prayer. If you'll bow with me, please. Dear God, our father in heaven, thank you so much for this day of life that you've given us. Thank you for this time that we have to been together as we, strive to be better leaders, in our services, as it pertains to the Lord's Supper. Pray that you'd with all of us and be with our hearts that we have a desire to glorify you and a desire to help other people worship you better.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Okay. So what we're gonna do tonight is kind of apply some things that Preston talked about last time. Preston's obviously in center.

He's over there preaching his gospel meeting. And so he asked me to fill in for him. We're kinda doing some of these things together. And so I'm just gonna remind you of a few of the things that he said at the end of class, and these are things that I really wanna emphasize to everybody. So he's kinda given this process right here, and he emphasizes this doesn't have to be your process.

What this is is just a helpful outline, something to think about as you're putting together these kinds of Lord's Supper talks, leading us and partaking of the Lord's Supper and focusing our mind on these things. So he has this triple one rule. The whole thing should be seven to ten minutes. One text, he says no longer than 10 verses, one page of manuscript notes that's 350 to 500 words, one idea, just one thing to focus on. He suggests prewritten prayers, bread, and cup plus offering.

And then at the end, says there are other ways to lead. And so I don't want you to have the impression this is the only way to do it. In fact, if I think about my process and what I'm doing, there's nothing wrong with prewritten prayers. In fact, I encourage young men, especially, to write out their prayers ahead of time. That makes you more comfortable.

That doesn't mean that it's insincere. But for me, personally, I don't prewrite my prayers. I want it to be something where I feel like I really am talking directly to God when I'm praying these prayers. And so that's not something that I do. There are times where you might have several texts and you just read them kinda back to back to back.

But again, the idea is it's staying focused. And for me, the point of all of this is we're leading people in partaking of the Lord's Supper, is that they are more focused on Christ after the things that I say rather than less focused on Christ than before I said those things. That make sense? My whole purpose is for people to be able to partake and be more focused on Christ by the things that I say instead of less focused on Christ. And so I think it is very helpful to give people one thing one thing that they can focus on while they're partaking that relates to what it is that we're remembering, specifically Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, and then what that how that's gonna impact us in the way that we live by remembering these things every first day of the week.

He says other ways to lead might be scripture reading and prayer. Absolutely. Just read a scripture and pray the prayers. Just getting up and saying prayers would be something to do as well. And I and I think sometimes that can be really helpful to people, especially if we've had songs that really focus our mind.

Everybody's in a good place already. Just get up and say the prayers. Give people time to think about those things that can be effective. When I was growing up, I grew up in a very small congregation. And so at most, we had two men that came up to the table.

We had two trays for the bread, two trays for the fruit of the vine. We didn't really need two. We probably only needed one, but we had people going on both aisles up in this little congregation, this little building where we were. And for the most part, when I was growing up, people just went and said a prayer for the bread instead of prayer for the fruit of the vine. Raise your hand if that was what it was like when you were growing up.

Yeah. I mean, that was the standard practice. And it was really my grandfather. I remember the first few times he started doing this, he would say just a few words. I'm talking about thirty, forty five seconds a minute before he started praying, and that was super helpful, especially for me as a teenager when my mind was really prone to wander.

Those few words that he gave me, I could latch on to those and really think about those as I was partaking. And so I think this is a helpful tradition. That's what it is. A tradition that we're gonna say some words before we partake, but I do think it is a helpful tradition. So here's what we're gonna do tonight.

Having emphasized those things, you've had the opportunity to put these things into practice if you were at the class last week to actually put together a talk of your own. And we've had two men. We actually had three, but one the other was Eric Bond. He had to drop out because of everything that's going on with his parents. But we have two men, and then I'm the fill in for Eric who are gonna give their talks that they have prepared.

And your job, everybody else, is to listen attentively to what it is they have to say, think about the things that they are saying, and then after they finish, all of us are gonna fill out this sheet right here that has their name on it, how long their talk was, and then fill in all of this other information. And we're actually gonna give them those sheets to provide feedback because all of us are smarter than any one of us, and it kind of will give a good perspective from a lot of different people on what we do well and what we don't do as well. And I'm gonna include myself in that. So if you wanna roast the preacher, now is your opportunity. This is your chance.

I'm not even gonna make you put your name on it. It could be anonymous. You get as mean as you wanna get with me, but let's be gracious with the other two guys who are gonna do the talk. So have y'all drawn straws? Do we have a volunteer?

Who wants to go first? Okay. So Brent's gonna go first. So does everybody have three of these sheets and something to write with? Raise your hand if you don't.

K? I'm gonna have you go up into the pulpit like you normally would. Okay. We're gonna we're gonna go all out. I'm a have Josh turn on that mic if you don't mind.

Jeremy, can you still record from that mic? Okay. And all out, he said. Oh, boy. Alright.

Whenever you're ready, brother. Whenever I'm ready. To focus our minds just a little bit on before we take partake of the Lord's Supper, I'd like you to consider that he died for you. Imagine a mirror and look at yourself, and he died for you. A long time ago, we read in Exodus 12 the account that is told to us about how the Passover feast was instituted.

And the children of Israel killed a one year old lamb, an unblemished lamb, and placed the blood on the doorpost and prepared the lamb for feast. You can imagine the children sitting around and asking the father, now what is this for? Passed down through the ages, every year they did that to remind themselves that this lamb died so that we could be delivered from these Egyptians. You fast forward fifteen hundred years later, Jesus presided at the Passover feast observed by his disciples on the night before his death. And he likely followed the tradition explaining to each just as the disciples had heard it over and over all their lives.

But Luke tells us that in Luke twenty two nineteen, that he says that this is the cup after the supper saying, this cup is a new covenant in my blood which is shed for you. Now they understood that because they knew the history of the Passover lamb. He said, this is this blood is shed for you. He died. He shed his blood for you.

We're told in first Corinthians chapter 11, he says, as often as you drink it, remember me. Their custom was annually they would remember this Passover lamb that was shed for them. Every year, it was a memorial. It was a reminder that they didn't just postpone or they didn't just just pass over, if you will, but they remembered it. It was a memorial every year for deliverance from Egyptian bondage.

Christ died, that blood died to deliver us from our sins. How much more should it be a memorial for us to remember? But not just once a year, not just even once a month, but every week. And we read about that in Acts chapter 20 verse seven. He says that on the first day of the week, and I'll paraphrase it, they came together to remember and to break bread.

The disciples came together to break bread. And in Acts chapter two verse 42, the church in Jerusalem continued steadfastly in the breaking of bread. So I would ask you to if you want to, you can turn to first Corinthians chapter five verse seven. It says the apostle Paul wrote for us, for indeed Christ, our Passover, his blood was sacrificed for us. So as we look upon the bread and the fruit of the vine, we should say just as the firstborn of Israel said of the lamb that died for them, he died for us.

Christ died. His blood was shed for you. Can you remember that while we partake? Will you pray with me? Do you want me to pray?

Or What? Did you prepare prayers or did you No. I don't I don't I've tried to pray for them. Okay. Do you have anything you wanna say about the offering?

It's my preference that I would would offer a prayer for the offerings totally separate at a different time than than the partaking of the Lord's supper. It has been nineteen years since I taught high school speech at Lindale High School, but I had a sheet like this that I would have them fill out for one another when they gave speeches. And I found this kind of feedback from peers can be really, really helpful, helpful, again, because you're getting a wide diversity of people and a wide diversity of opinions. And so here's what I wanna do now. I wanna focus on the positive because I think there were a ton of positives in what happened.

So we got two mic runner. Right? So that in your opinion, what did he do well? What did he do best? I'd like to hear from y'all what you think Brent did well, what he did best in his talk.

So I really liked how he if I'm partaking the Lord's supper and I'm listening to that, I'm going to personally connect myself to the grand design that God had from the Passover to Christ in the church. Yeah. He was able to cover a lot in what would I say? Three minutes in 356. He's covering a lot about this idea of Passover and how it relates to Christ so we can see God's plan in that.

That's excellent. What else? Who else said something they thought he did well? Okay? Say it one more time for the for the people in the died.

He emphasized Christ died for me. He had me thinking about me. Yeah. That that that sacrifice is personal. That that's for me.

K? What else? Oh, clearly. Yeah. I think Brent does a great job.

He has a great speaking voice. I wrote down on mine. Now it's gonna give away which one's mine, but I think Brent's sincerity always comes through when he talks, that he's not just saying words, but this is this is coming from his heart and his mind. And he's got a he's got a great speaking voice, and he speaks distinctly and clearly. He speaks slow enough that you can understand him.

I've never had any trouble understanding what he says, and that's really important. Right? Because you can say the perfect words, if nobody can hear them and understand them, it doesn't help you very much. K? What about you guys?

Do one of you have a comment? Yes. You do. For me, it's helpful the way he used several different scriptures, but it wasn't like he just took one and focused on just one and then did the rest of his talk, but he used them throughout making sure that each of them was in the correct context for what he was talking about. I think he did that really well.

And for me, that's something that sticks out when I'm trying to partake. Because sometimes I'll be thinking about the passage that was read and what was just said and maybe I'm not sure if that's really what you're talking about. Yeah. But I think you did a really good job on that. Okay.

Anybody else have a positive thing? Yes, sir. On the question about his use of inflection, I chose some inflection. And I always really like when he does the Lord's supper talk because he doesn't use so much that he gets distracting from the main point, but he uses enough to where you can feel the emphasis on certain points. I totally agree with that.

That's the same thing that I circled. I think lots of inflection is appropriate sometimes, but I think for the Lord's Supper, he was right on in the way he delivered that. K? Alright. Anything else?

Okay. If you had to say what the main idea of his talk was, how would you put it? Did everybody get what the main idea is and what we're supposed to do, what we're supposed to focus on. Those are two different questions, but they kind of relate to the same thing. So what was the main idea of his talk?

Monte? The lamb, sacrifice, and blood. The lamb Passover lamb, the sacrifice, and blood. K. They may have something different than that.

Yeah. Jesus died for me. So it's the Passover lamb, and Jesus died for me just like that Passover lamb. So excellent job. People got what it was you were laying down.

So that's very, very good. Alright. Anybody have anything else that they would like to add? Anything you know, he's gonna get your notes, but anything that you think would be helpful to the rest of the group in terms of improvement. Alright.

I'll just say one thing. Well, you go get that right here. Look at this. Look at this right here. Yeah.

So here's the one thing that I'd say because I think this will be helpful to other people. Make a decision. Do you want people to turn to the passage, or do you just wanna read or summarize the passage? But I think you kinda got caught in between because you said, well, if you wanna turn there, turn to this, and then you're already saying it. And I've turned two pages, then I'm like, well, do I listen, or do I keep turning?

You gotta make a decision. Do you want us to turn to the passage? If so, give us time to turn there or say, I'm gonna read to you or just go ahead and quote it, but you kinda have to make a choice between those two and not get caught, you know, in the horns of a dilemma. Yes. Oh, hang on.

I would say it was alright. We got all good on it and everything. The only thing I think we could keep in mind always, If you ever go to a funeral and you don't get emotional, something's not right. K? And this is basically a funeral service, the Lord's Supper is.

And so do what we can to elicit emotion from the people that are listening. Shouldn't be that hard. If they're into it's not gonna be that hard. But, I mean, whatever will bring out emotion that we can add to it, a thought, even a statement of what they should be feeling right now or something like that. Yeah.

You know, just just anything to elicit emotion. The right emotion, obviously, but the thankfulness and whatever. Yeah. Thankfulness and that sort of thing. I think it is sometimes helpful to tell people, hey.

Here's something for you to think about feeling while you partake of this because this is an emotional thing for all of us. Alright. Anything else to add for Brent? Okay. Manny, you're up next.

Okay. Cathy and I found ourselves in a congregation years ago, and it was uncomfortable. As the Lord's Supper began, the man, he was laughing. He was making humor of the unleavened bread of the sour grape juice and other things, and it nauseated me. It was I didn't feel good about it.

And then when the preacher got up there after the Lord's Supper, he did the same thing. And I think we come we come on the Lord's day to remember our savior, to commune with others. That's why we're here. John 17, Jesus was with his father in heaven in their glory. And then Jesus was given the mission.

He was given authority to of our souls, to save our souls. He was sent to Earth and he was given the responsibility of our souls. So there's no humor there. And then during the Passover feast, while he was instituting the Lord's Supper, Jesus was with his closest ones, his apostles, and there was Judas who was going to betray him. And then while in the garden, Jesus was praying.

It was a stressful situation. Luke says that his sweat was his blood. And then the three apostles who he had taken with him, they were asleep. And there's no humor in any of this. Jesus went to the cross, shed his blood for the remission of our sins.

Ephesians two. I'll read Ephesians two verse one. And you, he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins. Verse four and five. But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

Christ loved us enough to come to this earth, suffer, and go to the cross that we might have that hope of eternal life. Okay. Good job, Manny. We would like to start in saying what they thought Manny did well, what he did best in his talk. K?

I think he was to the point Absolutely. Of his talk. Yeah. And, you know, this is not you can have your own thoughts and opinions about sermons and how to the point the preacher ought to get in his sermon. Sometimes I need to get to the point a little faster than I do.

But when it comes to the Lord's supper toss, like, this is something we're not beating around the bush. We need to be able to get to the point. I thought Manny did a great job with that. K? What else do you think he did well?

I thought he grabbed our attention well with his his personal experience of a very terrible experience. Yeah. And but it wasn't directly related to the Lord's Supper? Absolutely, it was. Right?

And so sometimes we can get really far afield with our personal experiences trying to hook people, trying to say grab their attention, when really it's a long way back to try and get back to the Lord's Supper from there. But what Manny did, he grabbed our attention, but it's something directly relating to the Lord's Supper. And it was a personal experience. Yeah. Anytime you can use a personal experience, it seems like it's it brings people's attention quickly.

It's real. It's real. It makes it Yeah. And I put down, you got me thinking immediately that there's a right and a wrong way to do this, and I wanna make sure that I do it the right way. And I think that's really helpful.

Right? This is important. I don't wanna eat and drink damnation on myself, And so I wanna make sure that I'm doing this the right way, and you immediately got me thinking about that. K? Anything else?

Alright. What about what's the main idea that you got from his topic? What are you supposed to be focusing on? What are you supposed to be doing? How would you put it?

Be serious? Yeah. In fact, that's how I started. Right? Be serious?

What else? How else would you put it? Yeah. This is not the place I mean, the Lord used humor all the time. There's some things that he says that are just really funny.

Paul was sarcastic in a funny way. In the Bible itself, the Holy Spirit uses humor a great deal. But when we think about the events of the Lord's Supper, that's not the place for this kind of jovial sort of thing. As Steve said earlier, in many ways, it is a funeral service. Now there's the joy on the other side of that is the resurrection, but even in that, it's not really a humorous thing.

So we gotta be careful about that. So that's what I put. No humor in the events of the cross. This is a serious thing. K?

So if you had to nitpick and say, here's something he could do better, what would you say to that? What do you think something money could do better? And I know you've got stuff written down, but something that might be helpful to everybody. I guess really just connecting what Steve was saying earlier is sometimes it's good to convey what emotions we should feel. And, you know, I think as a man, you know, I think about I thought about that comment in a lot of my wife versus the way I experience things.

I can think about it through a rational way and feel an emotion, whereas others, it's still rational, but it's more intuitive, I guess you would say. But, anyways, to connect these two, the example that was given, he said it nauseated him. And I've been around long enough to know why. Mhmm. But I think it would be good to be very explicit as to why was that a problem, especially for those that are maybe newer in the faith.

Yeah. And they may not fully under grasp that. And then, you know, going to the Garden Of Gethsemane, it was mentioned, you know, the gravity of the situation. And so what what does that mean to me? What emotion should we convey?

And so maybe words like gravity, seriousness, and really anchoring into a idea like that. Yeah. I think that's very good. I think this is something that that's a mistake that I make. Lots of speakers make this mistake of you're so familiar with what you're saying, you just kind of assume everybody else knows what you're saying.

And it's always helpful to be more explicit than to just assume that people know what it is you're saying. So if you can come out and say, this is what you ought to do. This is what you ought to feel. In fact, I put that I felt like the talk was almost incomplete at the end. Like, there needed to be one more line or two that says, so at the end, you need to be seriously considering this.

There needs to be gravity in what you're doing. That that sort of thing to where it's explicit. Okay. This is what I need to be doing. This is how I need to be feeling.

This is where I need to focus. Does that make sense? K. Anything else that y'all would like to add to that? Yes, sir.

Always consider that when Christ instituted the Lord's Supper, he was he was thoughtful enough to put it in words that everyone could understand. Yes, sir. And that is the great example. It's not what Jerry Franklin can conjure up in his mind. He doesn't have much mind, but it's a Christ is the perfect example.

You couldn't go you can't go wrong. Yeah. The simplicity of everybody can understand it. And I think Manny did that well. Everybody understood what it was.

In fact, both of our speakers have done an excellent job. You understood the main point they're getting across, which ties us right back to Jesus and what he was doing on the cross. K. Yes. Manny?

Like, as as we go through this, I'm thinking of things that I meant to say, but timing these things, they're not near as long as what we thought they would be. Yeah. Yeah. How long did you think you're gonna go? I had no idea, but I figured it'd be more than three minutes.

Yeah. Three and but three minutes? You can get a lot said in three minutes. Right? You can get a lot said in three minutes or a lot said in three minutes and fifty six seconds.

That's you still have extra time, really, but that's really good, and that's something that's gonna be helpful. Okay. Anything else with money? And I'll say this too. It might be helpful for you too or anybody else who does this to fill out the sheet for yourself too and kind of assess yourself and say, how did I do on this?

We got one more comment right here. Here you go, sir. I don't know if it might just be me, but I felt like there was a clear message, and there were scripture used to go along with that message and to deliver the idea that he wanted us to see. But, also, I felt like it was more centered about the judgment of how we partake, like, the physical and mental side of how we partake. It was difficult for me to move from that to focusing on, like, trying to put my mind in the direction of how I'm supposed to be thinking about Christ and about the sacrifice rather than just how I'm partaking.

Yeah. So it's not just the manner in which we partake, which is what Manny was really focusing on, but also what we're focusing on. And at the end, he did mention that. He did mention Christ's sacrifice. But, certainly, you had time to say, okay.

The seriousness because of what Christ was going through. And that was implied certainly as you went through those things, but making that explicit might be helpful to some. K. Alright. You all good to do one more?

K. I'll do mine. Can somebody time it? Would you mind timing it, please? Sure.

And I would encourage y'all, and I'm gonna do the same thing. I've not presented this before, but I'm gonna do it here. And then I think the November 1, I think I'm doing the Lord's Supper talk. And so I'm just gonna use that then also, but hopefully y'all can help me to refine it between now and then. Have you ever killed an animal?

In an agricultural society like the first century Israel, every man, woman, and child had probably killed an animal. At the very least, they had seen one killed. But sacrificing an animal because of my sin is really different. I want you to turn to Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah chapter 53, and we'll begin reading in verse three here in just a second.

Imagine, I'm a Jew. I've committed a sin, and I need to make things right with God. And so I bring my bull or my goat or my bird to the temple, and I take it to the priest where they're going to essentially slaughter the animal. Think about that. That animal didn't do anything.

He's just out in the field minding his own business. And Leviticus describes how you bring that animal to the priest and stand there holding its head while that animal dies because of your sin. Do you think anyone thought to themselves in that process, this is kind of unfair. I've I'll bet everybody did. When the process was over, it was disturbing to them as they thought about what was going on.

It's my fault that this animal died, and if I hadn't have sinned, this animal would still be alive. Of course, our sacrifice, the blood required for our sins is no longer an animal, but the lamb of God, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And Christ was the perfect and sinless sacrifice, full of grace and truth and love. And that perfect one, he died for me. We're going to observe the Lord's Supper.

We've sung about it, and we're gonna pray about it. What are you gonna think about? May I suggest thinking today about the personal nature of Christ's sacrifice for you and for me? Isaiah 53 verses three through seven describes the sacrificial aspect of what Jesus did. But I want you to notice how often Isaiah, as he was inspired by the Holy Spirit, uses these words like our and us and we.

Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes, we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

Do I understand as I partake that Christ was dying because of what I did? Not because of what Adam did, not my parents, not all the other people in the world, but me. And when the apostles preached the sacrifice of Jesus, no doubt they thought about taking that animal to the temple and slitting its throat and watching while it dies. Why? Why does it have to die?

Because of what I did. That's intimate and personal. Christ died for the world, but he also specifically died for you. And one of the main differences between the animal and Jesus is that he freely chose to be this sacrifice. This was pleasing to both God the father and God the son.

In the same chapter, read verses ten and eleven with me. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many for he shall bear their iniquities. They willingly made this choice, and that's how much they love you specifically, intimately, and personally. So I want to encourage you to meditate on that personal love that led to that personal sacrifice that makes yours and my personal salvation possible as we partake together. Let us pray.

Oh, I was going for five minutes. Close. Okay. You can take whatever time you need to finish up writing, but what did you think was good about that topic? Got her attention right off the bat.

Take some attention right off the bat? That was well spoken. Obviously, good points, good connecting the points and a good flow through the points. I'll start right there. K.

Kinda like an experienced speaker. Well, I might quit my day job and do that full time. I put down you presented an idea to reflect on. K. Presented an idea to reflect on.

And that's something really important to me because I want you to have something that you're gonna reflect on as you're pertaining. Now you may choose to do something different. You may choose to have your own thing you're thinking about, but I wanna give somebody because that's what's helpful to me. I have something to hang on, something to tie to. Okay.

So what was that? What you had something you wanna say? Okay. We'll let Camden. I put that I thought you did a very good job of sticking to the main point and putting emphasis on us.

And I noticed that every time you read the word you or our fruits for our iniquities, you know, you put a lot of emphasis on that and then on his response and his love. Okay. Alright. Very good. So what you have something to add, Bonnie?

Yeah. You started off with killing the animal, and then you proceeded to say Jesus came to the altar willingly. Mhmm. Yeah. So trying to show that juxtaposition.

Okay? Very good. So what was the main point I'm trying to get across? I mean, that's part of it, but k? So he died in our place.

Now we could go off script on that, but that's that general concept is true, right, that Jesus died because of me. K? What else? That's right. So this was his personal choice for our personal sins.

I wish I would have written that down. That was I think I will write that down. That's exactly what I was trying to get across, Harold, and he just summarized it better than AI could. Hey. What do y'all think I could've done better?

Thank you. Thank you, Keith. I'm gonna rectify that for next time. K? What else?

Yeah. Steve? Out of all the things we do in our worship service, this is supposed to be the most emotional, even more than the singing. We are remembering Jesus dying for us with a bunch of different aspects of that. And I know it's hard because this is supposed to be a practice thing.

So Yeah. It's not quite the same. Not not the same, but it is much more important to be emotional than to be slick or smooth or perfect. And one of the things that my suggestion is again, I know this is a practice run. K?

But when Jesus said remember me, the whole point of remembering me is the emotions that's gonna stir. We've got all these different subjects or parts of remembering me. Mhmm. But if I'm not remembering me, when I get up or tell other people to remember me, then it's not gonna come out. Like, that's why the practice runs kinda dry.

But maybe before we get up there, think about my lesson and let it hit me. So when I get up there, it'll hit them, I guess, is kind of No. I think that's good And getting yourself in the right place. Have you ever killed an animal? Raise your hand if you've ever killed an animal.

K? Oh, he went like this. Okay. I've never gotten over that. I can kill whatever animal I need to kill, but I've never gotten over that.

And so if I were to do this talk in front of everybody, I would probably think about it was my job when I grew up with my granddad going dove hunting. It was my we didn't have a dog. Well, we didn't have a bird dog. And so it was my job to run, get the dove, break their neck. And I remember that as a kid.

That's the first time I'd ever killed something. And that I took that life that that bird is dead because of me. It's just a bird. I understand that. But you feel that.

Well, this idea of an animal like a sheep or a cow or a bird having to die because of my sin, not because we're gonna cook it, need it, and it's gonna taste good, but because of my sin, that is an emotional thing. Now you take the one that you love more than anybody else, the one that loves you more than anybody else, and he died because of your sin. Well, what kind of gratitude is that gonna bring into your heart if you think about it in those ways? And maybe that's what I should stay say instead, but that's what I would be thinking about. Yep.

So I would just agree with even though I don't always agree with Steve, I do agree with him on this. I just wrote and this is getting picky. Yep. That's why we're doing it. But a little less scripted, if you will.

This is what I wrote. A little less scripted, a little bit more emotion. Slow down just a touch. And, again, this is picky, but you're looking down a lot. Mhmm.

And it's a little bit fast for someone to reflect. K. So I think that's very helpful. Yeah. I think that's very helpful.

Yeah. I was again, you know, we're getting kinda picky here, but I like the idea of starting off with the have you ever killed an animal? And I feel like there's more potential there. You're you're pointing at that, You know? And I thought about myself, well, yeah, the excitement.

You know? First time I killed a buck. You know? Mhmm. That's not really what we're going for here.

And maybe you had to put down your pet. You know? Yeah. That's awful. But at the same time, we gotta be careful.

I bring it up because we gotta be careful not to distract. You know? Maybe it really makes the point, but if now I'm thinking about you know? Hunting season or thinking about my cat and a wife. Put down.

Yeah. If you ever had to. And I like the idea Y'all gonna make this good before it's all said and done. You know, just kinda thinking this out exactly as I maybe if there's this a quick, fairly sanitized example of that where, you know, it was it was a it was a painful thing, you know, without conjuring up a whole bunch of emotions that we're not trying to get to in this. Because it is ultimately, we your intent is we should feel guilt for Christ going to the cross even though it happened two thousand years ago, and we seem so in our modern society, so removed from that.

But it's still it's still personal. And I would I would say this. So, originally, I had the story about me killing the dove in this, and I took it out because I felt like that that suddenly is more about me and my granddad and what I'm going through. And to Jerry's point, you know, this is supposed to be focused on Christ and his death and what he's done. So I can really clearly make the connection to the sacrificial system, and I thought it was interesting.

Our talks were very similar in terms of what the point of the talk was, but the content was totally different. You know? And I think that just kinda shows with the Lord's supper what that is like. There's so many different ways we can talk about this that are still really focused on him. So I made the decision.

I'm not gonna talk about my granddad and killing the dove and all those sorts of things because I don't wanna go too far afield of what it is that we're focused on. So trying to make a find the middle ground there, I think, is really helpful. I think have you ever had to kill an animal would be a different way of thinking about it. Reason I thought about this is a situation where I have had to, and it was hard. You know, taking taking the dog that bit my sister out to the back 40 with my granddad is a lot different than sitting in a tree stand.

Right? There's a lot lot lots of difference between those two things. And the second one is or the first one is much more like the sacrifice as opposed to, oh, you know, I'm gonna kill a buck, whatever the case might be. Monte? This may not work.

I've always thought and they were to sacrifice the best. And I've always thought if I sacrifice my best sheep, cow, bull, whatever it was, every time, I'm a run out. So, Monty, you need to write that down, and that's your next talk right there. Because that and I say that for this reason. If I put that into my talk, well, now we're thinking about two different things.

Right? But I think that's an awesome thing to think about. Well, what if I always, every year, have to sacrifice my best? Or every time I sin, well, now I've gotta go I've gotta go sacrifice my best again. Well, that's a different thought.

And yet for once for all, Jesus, God sacrificed his best. Right? I think that's excellent. Alright. We're out of time for tonight.

Anybody have any final thoughts? Steve does. I shouldn't ask. I knew Steve would have a final thought. I guess the thing about the Lord's supper, we'll start that clock.

The thing about when I preached it down in Tomball, we had an hour service. The main thing of the service was the Lord's Supper. So we might get a five minute talk. We might get a thirty five minute talk, and it was all okay. The Lord's Supper, we do it every first day of the week.

It is designed to make us remember, to keep us in place, and it's designed to work on our emotions to motivate us through that week. Yeah. Then to life, I turn again. That's right. And this is the thing that it's alright to be emotional.

When do you get choked up in the audience? It's when the person up there talking to you gets choked up because they're into their own lesson. And it really I mean, people stop playing and messing with kids, they pay attention. This is the time that it's okay to be emotional, and you should be emotional about it. You should try to transfer that to other people.

That's the purpose of the Lord's Supper. Alright. I think that's all very, very good. So here's what I need for you. I know you guys got your Monday night meeting.

I just want you to stack Brent's responses here. Monte's here. Reagan's here. And then I need three volunteers to do this next month. We're gonna go through this process one more time, and then we'll have some other things to say from there.

So here is Preston's very good suggestions about how you might go about doing that. Alright. Thank you all for coming this evening.