This morning, we're going to start our second service.
Song number 59 in your hymn notes.
Then we give us a song number 59 that's being caught up together.
Caught up together, song number 59 in your hymn notes.
Song number 59, let's sing it on the verse.
On the verse now.
Caught up together,
Changing the moment to be with my Savior.
Caught up together,
We wait for the coming of Jesus, our Savior.
Let's join in the rapture,
Caught up in the clouds,
Caught up as His sorrow,
We'll leave Him so glad to know,
Why, what, why,
We'll sing of justice, O God.
Caught up together,
Changing the moment to be with my Savior.
Caught up together,
We'll leave Him so glad to know,
Why, what, why,
We'll sing of justice, O God.
Caught up together,
We'll sing together, together,
Caught up with Jesus, and never to fall.
Changing the moment to be with my Savior.
Caught up together, and never to last.
Oh, we'll sing of justice,
We'll leave Him so glad to know,
Why, what, why,
We'll sing of justice, O God.
Caught up together,
We'll sing of justice, and never to fall.
Caught up with Jesus, and never to last.
Changing the moment to be with my Savior.
Caught up together, and never to last.
Amen.
Song number 64 in your hymnos.
Song number 64 that sings, Shall We Gather at the River.
Song number 64.
Shall We Gather at the River.
Sing it.
Shall we gather at the river,
Caught up together,
We'll sing of justice,
We'll leave Him so glad to know,
Why, what, why,
We'll sing of justice,
We'll leave Him so glad to know,
Why, what, why,
We'll sing of justice,
We'll leave Him so glad to know,
Why, what, why,
We'll sing of justice,
We'll leave Him so glad to know,
Why, what, why,
We'll sing of justice,
We'll leave Him so glad to know,
Why, what, why,
We'll sing of justice,
We'll leave Him so glad to know,
Why, what, why,
We'll sing of justice,
We'll leave Him so glad to know,
Why, what, why,
We'll sing of justice,
We'll leave Him so glad to know,
Why, what, why,
We'll sing of justice,
We'll leave Him so glad to know,
Why, what, why,
We'll sing of justice,
We'll leave Him so glad to know,
Why, what, why,
We'll sing of justice,
We'll leave Him so glad to know,
Why, what, why,
We'll sing of justice,
We'll leave Him so glad to know,
Why, what, why,
We'll sing of justice,
We'll leave Him so glad to know,
Why, what, why,
We'll sing of justice,
We'll leave Him so glad to know,
Why, what, why,
We'll sing of justice,
We'll leave Him so glad to know,
Why, what, why,
We'll sing of justice,
The world that never left made me there, made me there, made me there.
Words revealed by the fully made me there.
When the storms of life were o'er, on the happy open shore,
Whether that be the water or the wind,
Even that of what that is, I think would be the water.
When the storms of life were o'er, on the happy open shore,
Let us open our Bibles to First Corinthians chapter 5.
First Corinthians chapter 5.
As is our custom, we are going to read the whole chapter.
Please say Amen when you are there.
First Corinthians chapter 5.
It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you,
and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles,
that one should have his father's wife.
And he hath puffed up, and hath not rather mourned,
that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit,
have judged already as though I were present,
concerning him that hath so done this deed.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together,
and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh,
that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Your glorying is not good, knowing not that a little leaven leavens the whole lamp,
purge out therefore the old leaven, that he may be a new lamp, as ye are unleavened,
for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leavens,
neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness,
but with the unleavened word of sincerity and truth.
I have wrote unto you an epistle not to company with fornicators,
yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world,
or with the curvatures, or extortioners, or with idolaters,
for then must ye needs go out of the world.
But now I have written unto you not to keep company with any man that is called a brother,
or an fornicator, or curvatures, or an idolater, or a railer,
or the one cut, or an extortioner, with such an one know not to eat.
For what have I to do to judge them also that are without?
Do not he judge them that are within?
But them that are without, God judges.
Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
That was great. Thank you Lord Jesus for everyone who is here for this church service.
Would you bless the service and the sermon, and I pray in your name, Jesus Christ, amen.
All right, we're here in 1 Corinthians 5, and some people are kind of scared,
like, I hope I'm not getting kicked out, right?
We've got to kick somebody out before we take the Lord's Supper, right?
No, I'm just kidding.
But anyways, we're in 1 Corinthians 5, and we're going to have our Lord's Supper,
so I think it's important to kind of preach a general sermon.
You know, last year I preached it the week before we took the Lord's Supper.
This year I'm preaching the same day,
and we're going to talk about kind of the structure and organization.
This is kind of like a half sermon and then just kind of half instructions on how to do it,
because we take the Lord's Supper one year, one time per year, okay?
So this is the time pretty much right before Easter,
which is pretty much the template we have from Jesus in the Bible,
as they took the Passover, which became the Lord's Supper,
right before he was crucified, okay?
And so when it comes to the Lord's Supper,
the majority of churches take the Lord's Supper inside of the church,
and that's what we do as well, you know,
with the people that are regular attendees at church.
And there's kind of three different positions that people have.
There's open communion, closed communion, and closed communion.
And so the name of the sermon is open versus close versus closed.
Now, you might say, Brother Stuckey, I've never heard of these terms before.
Well, I've got to preach a different sermon every year on the Lord's Supper,
so this is what it's on, okay, the three different positions.
And I would say that this is a big topic of debate,
quite simply because a lot of churches aren't doing a few things
that they need to do, okay?
Very few churches actually kick people out of church.
But what takes place is during the Lord's Supper, they're like, oh, man,
you know, this person we can't let take the Lord's Supper
because they're committing a bad sin.
So they'll basically have the Lord's Supper,
and they'll make sure they avoid certain people getting the Lord's Supper
because they have a big sin where they should be getting kicked out of church,
but they don't kick them out of church,
they just don't let them take the Lord's Supper.
And look, I've handed out the bread before at the Lord's Supper,
and I've been told right before, hey, don't let that person get it,
don't let that person get it.
Do you realize how awkward that is?
You're going here and it's just like, whoop, and it's like, whoop,
and it's just like, but that's the reality when, you know,
people don't practice church discipline because they see this passage
and they see, well, we're not supposed to accompany with people like this,
but they don't apply that to kicking them out of church,
they just apply that to kicking them out of the Lord's Supper
while they're still there in person, okay?
Very awkward, very strange, that's not what the Bible teaches, okay?
The other part of this is most Baptist churches have a big children's ministry.
And so it makes the Lord's Supper very confusing
because it's a bit of a free-for-all that you've got to contain.
Because, look, every kid wants grape juice and bread, right?
So it's like very difficult to get things under control,
and so there's these different positions where, honestly,
it's really not supposed to be that difficult.
So I'll explain 1 Corinthians 5, and I'll explain these three different positions
and just kind of tell you what we do as a church here.
1 Corinthians 5 verse 7,
Purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened,
for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
So the Bible talks about purging out the old leaven,
and then it says Christ our Passover.
Well, the Passover became the Lord's Supper.
We don't eat the lamb because Christ literally was the Lamb of God, okay?
He was the Passover, but you still take the Lord's Supper.
It's just been changed a little bit, okay?
But it says to purge out the old leaven,
which is referring to basically church discipline,
people being removed from church.
Verse 8, Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven,
neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Verse 9, I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators,
yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world,
or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters,
for then must he needs go out of the world.
And so Paul said you're not supposed to company with people that are fornicators,
or people that are covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters.
You say, Brother Stuckey, does that mean I need to quit my job tomorrow
because there's someone at my work who's a fornicator?
Well, no, because he says here that he's not saying just in your normal everyday life
because you'd have to leave the world to do that.
You'd literally have to be dead and in heaven already
to avoid people that are covetous and fornicators.
But it's referring to in the house of God because this is a church epistle.
So a church is supposed to practice discipline when necessary, okay?
But you don't have to worry about this on your secular job.
You say, Brother Stuckey, I was going to invite my coworker out to lunch
so I could give the gospel to him. Go for it.
It doesn't matter if he's a fornicator or covetous or whatever.
Give him a chance to hear the gospel.
You wouldn't be breaking the rules of the Bible by doing that.
What the Bible's saying is if somebody needs church discipline inside the church,
the church is supposed to judge that, okay?
This is what it talks about in 1 Corinthians 5.
Verse 11, but now I've written on you not to keep company
if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator.
Now what does it mean to be called a brother, okay?
Well, I want you to realize that some people just kind of come to our church
from time to time, but they're not really, you know, like here every single week.
And quite honestly, if that's the case, most of you don't know their names.
I mean, it's reality, right?
But there comes a point when somebody's here every week
where you refer to them as Brother So-and-so or Sister So-and-so.
Before that, you just kind of give their attributes.
Well, they're about this tall.
Their hair is darkish lightish, you know, and it's just like because you don't know their name.
But once they're at a point where people recognize them as established members
or regular attendees at the church, that's the point where, you know,
church discipline would be necessary if they're guilty of a major sin.
And so I want you to realize if you get somebody saved today
and it turns out you find out they're living with their girlfriend or boyfriend,
they're welcome to come to church next week.
I mean, they just got saved.
They don't even know what the Bible says, okay?
The principle is somebody that knows what the Bible says
but willingly is just disobeying what the Bible says.
So you get somebody new saved, you don't have to say,
well, Brother Stuckey, I got somebody saved.
I want to see if they're a good contact to give it to Brother Marlon.
But it's all right.
You got saved.
Let me ask you some questions.
Are you a fornicator?
Because we don't have fornicators at our church.
Are you covetous, right?
I mean, wouldn't that be ridiculous?
Obviously we don't have to do that.
Anyone is welcome to visit our church besides a full-blown child of the devil
that we're well aware of, right?
Anyone's allowed to visit our church that just got saved or is new,
and if they're new, they're going to have a time period
where they're going to learn what the Bible says.
And if they become a regular member but they've got a certain sin,
then I would talk to them privately,
not try to make it a public issue where people are aware of it.
And then basically there could be a timeframe where they get something right.
They either get it right or they would have to leave.
But quite honestly, I'm not quick to do that
because when someone first starts coming,
they're not really called Brother So-and-so yet or called Sister So-and-so.
And the Bible talks about that in Revelation
about a woman who was seducing servants to commit fornication,
and I gave her space to repent of that sin.
That's a pretty bad sin, right?
Convincing people to commit fornication, and she still had a timeframe.
So yes, I understand church discipline is necessary sometimes,
they've practiced it, but just because somebody's guilty of a certain sin,
it doesn't mean it's an issue to make a big thing about
unless it's at the point where they're an established member at the church, okay?
And so it lists if they're called a brother, be a fornicator, or covetous.
You say, Brother Stuckey, how do I know if they're covetous?
If all they talk about is money.
Every word coming out of their mouth is money, money, money.
Money, money, money, and that would mean that they're covetous, right?
You say, Brother Stuckey, how do I know if you're an old Bible Baptist pastor, okay?
That's what the Bible's talking about, okay?
Or covetous, or an idolater.
So what's idolatry?
Well, you're worshipping idols.
So maybe somebody gets saved who's Catholic, but they already have a lot of idols,
and if they just got saved, I don't expect it to all be gone immediately,
but there's going to be a bit of a time period where we don't want them
bringing an idol with them in their purse to church or whatever,
where it becomes kind of an issue, okay?
And look, Catholics get saved, and they can believe on Jesus Christ.
It doesn't mean that all of their traditions are necessarily gone.
There could still be a cleansing period where they're still learning,
and they're realizing some of these things are wrong.
So it says an idolater.
It says a railer, someone who would basically, you know,
just rail on other people, cause harm, spread lies, spread gossip,
things such as that, or a drunkard.
Now, I want you to realize, if somebody drinks one beer a week,
one can of beer, then they would not be a drunkard.
A drunkard is someone who basically wakes up in just alcohol,
and just they're addicted to alcohol.
If somebody basically has one glass of wine for New Year's every year,
that doesn't make them a drunkard.
Now, I don't condone that.
I preach alcohol is a sin always.
It's wrong to drink alcohol.
I've preached that sermon.
I'm just saying, it's not a drunkard if somebody just drinks
every once in a while and doesn't get drunk.
They're a drunkard, and it becomes an issue when everybody knows
about the person, cause then it's a shame onto the church,
where basically they're known as the church drunk.
Well, that's a problem then, right?
They come into church, and then they're just kind of stumbling around.
That would be a problem, okay?
Or they're here at church, and everybody smells it on their breath,
and it's just everyone has a picture where they were drinking a beer
on Facebook, that doesn't mean that they get kicked out of church.
That doesn't make them a drunk, okay?
I hope you understand the difference here.
It's not like as a church, I'm trying to just kick everybody out.
It's like, let me see a problem with Brother Franklin, all right?
Once I find it, boom, you're going, who's next, right?
That's ridiculous, right?
People need a chance to grow, and we don't expect them to be perfect,
but once it becomes too big of a problem where everybody's talking about it,
and it's like a shame to the church, and even people outside of the church
are aware of it, then it's a bit of an issue, okay?
But obviously, people that are new, we give them a chance to make changes.
Or an extortioner.
An extortioner is someone who would steal money by force.
With such and one, know not to eat.
So we are not supposed to eat with people like this.
I will say this, a church should practice church discipline,
but if I was at a church, and there were people that were guilty of these sins
in my perspective, and the church wasn't doing that,
I would not eat with those people.
I would make it a point to just be sitting at a different table saying,
you know what, I would feel guilty about doing this,
because we're not even supposed to eat with that person, okay?
Now I do believe the direct context is referring to the Lord's Supper,
but I would just not feel comfortable fellowshipping with someone
who is guilty of those sorts of sins.
Now look, our church does practice church discipline.
As far as I know, nobody's guilty of major sins that would get them kicked out,
so it's not really something that you have to worry about, okay?
But if you're at a church, and then these things aren't being practiced,
then you might have to make decisions, okay?
An example of this is in West Virginia, I brought this guy to church,
and I brought him to church, and when I met him,
he was around some people that were on drugs and some open homo and everything,
and he told me he was going to come to church.
And I'm just thinking, yeah, we'll see.
I'm sure this guy's never going to call.
And then he ended up calling me up and said if he could get a ride to church.
And the guy wasn't on drugs at the time.
You know, I gave him a ride,
but he was just hanging out with a bunch of druggies and kind of losers,
because he told me, he's like, yeah, I know this church.
I want to come.
I got saved at this church.
I'm just thinking.
I doubt it, but he said he got saved when he was a kid,
and it turned out the guy was saved.
He had gotten saved like 20 years prior,
and it was the best church probably in all of West Virginia.
It was doing some big things, especially in the past.
They had a big soul-winning program.
He had gotten saved as a kid, and he wanted to come back to church.
So he started coming to church.
I even got him on a Bible reading plan.
He was reading the Bible every day to read through it once a year and everything.
But I found out after a little bit of time that he was living with his girlfriend.
And so this is not something I just told all the church about.
It's like, Brother Stuckey, you found out he's living with his girlfriend.
Did you just tell everybody at church?
No, I talked to the pastor privately and didn't tell anybody at church,
because there was no purpose to do that.
So I talked to the pastor, and I told him that, you know,
the situation, and I said, I know what the Bible says,
and I said, you know, obviously this is up to you on how you want me to handle it.
Should I keep bringing him to church? What do you think?
And you know what the pastor said, which was good advice?
He's like, well, let's get his girlfriend saved.
That's good advice, right?
Instead of kicking him out of church, let's go.
And me and the assistant pastor, we went that week, and his girlfriend got saved.
Praise the Lord for that.
And so she actually came a couple times with him and everything,
but the situation never solved itself.
And so I talked to the pastor again privately, and I talked to him,
and I said, you know what, I'm feeling guilty about giving him a ride.
Because it was like five or six months and everything like that.
A long time had gone by.
I said, I'm feeling guilty about giving him a ride to church,
because, you know what, I feel like I'm partaking in those sins and everything.
And I said, you know, I don't know if you want to talk to somebody else,
if they want to give a ride. I don't feel comfortable anymore.
And he started getting a ride on the bus route.
Like, I didn't feel comfortable giving him a ride.
The thing was, I actually talked to him about the importance of getting married
when he was in the Bible reading plan in the book of Corinthians.
And he said, okay, you know, I'll get married.
I thought he had never been divorced.
I was sure he had told me that.
It turned out, but his girlfriend had been divorced.
So the Bible says when you get divorced, you're not supposed to get remarried.
So I was trying to convince him to get married to his girlfriend,
and then all of a sudden it's just like, oh, man, that's not good, right?
He ended up leaving the church, though, and everything like that.
But I just want to explain to you that when there's a situation like that,
you do want to give people a chance to grow.
You do want to give them an opportunity.
And you don't make it a public thing,
because you're just causing problems at church if you make it a big public thing.
You just talk to me quietly and just tell me about the situation
and realize I might not handle it the exact same way that you would.
I might be more long-suffering than maybe you would be ended.
Verse 12, for what have I to do to judge them also that are without?
Do not ye judge them that are within, but them that are without, God judgeth.
Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
So we judge situations within the church,
but once they're outside of the church, they're in God's hands.
If somebody gets kicked out of a church and that's the decision we make,
people should stand by the decision of the church
and then they are in God's hands outside of the church with whatever sin
or with whatever problem, and you know what?
God's the one who's dealing with them, okay?
However, a church should practice church discipline,
and the beauty of this is then you don't have to worry about,
like, having the Lord's Supper and being like, you know,
and just, like, avoiding people, right?
I mean, that would be bizarre, but churches actually do this
because they say, well, it's talking about the Lord's Supper
and, you know, you're not supposed to accompany with them,
so let's just avoid giving the Lord's Supper to certain people.
Well, they're still in the same room, though, so it's just, it's like,
I don't really see how that solves the problem, okay?
And so there are basically three positions, open, close, and closed communion.
Open, close, and closed communion are basically who is eligible
to take the Lord's Supper.
Open communion, I've heard this mean three different things.
Some people take open communion to mean that anyone can partake
in the Lord's Supper even if they don't believe on Jesus,
even if they worship Satan, even if they're, you know,
a hardcore Hindu or whatever.
Anyone can take it.
Well, I definitely disagree with that because you're remembering
the death of Jesus Christ, and if you're not even saved,
then you're not going to get that, okay?
They're supposed to be saved.
With that being said, though, there's a lot of people here,
and most people in this room, I have not personally asked you
for your salvation testimony or what you believe.
What takes place at a church is you have a group of people,
and then when new people come to the church, someone will tell me,
yeah, he believes in eternal security, he's saved.
And I assume that's true, but at the same time,
I don't know every single individual person out here.
I haven't individually asked you.
I assume if you've been with us for a while that you're probably saved,
but it doesn't necessarily mean I've talked directly to you.
And quite honestly, it would be impossible if you got a thousand people
to directly ask every single person, grill them on repentance,
grill them on eternal security, just all these.
There's no time to do that, okay?
So we believe you must be saved, and at the end of this sermon,
I'll explain clearly what salvation is, and you know what?
It's between you and God if you believe that or not, okay?
It just is what it is, you know? It would be impossible to please this.
So I'll explain what the Bible says, and it's up to you to make that decision, okay?
I've heard some people say that open communion is anyone who's saved
can take the Lord's Supper.
I sort of agree with that, but not 100%,
because I do believe that if you are guilty of sins that we talked about
where you should get kicked out of church, and I'm not aware of it,
that you inside your own heart should be smart enough not to take the Lord's Supper,
because the Bible talks about judging yourself, and we'll look at that later on,
and I do believe there's a standard, because here's the thing.
All of us sinned yesterday, but not all of us committed adultery yesterday, right?
It's like there's kind of a limit to these sins.
Yes, the thought of foolishness is sin. I think foolish thoughts.
I sin every single day. We understand that.
But if you're guilty of major sins where if I found out,
it would be like, boom, then you should know within your own heart
and just be smart enough not to take the Lord's Supper,
and I would suggest getting that sin right,
because your sin will find you out, the Bible says.
You know, it's going to be found out, and so here's the thing.
I believe it's open to anyone who's saved
as long as you don't have a major sin in your life that I'm not aware of, okay?
And the Bible gave us a template on major sins.
Now, I will say this.
Whenever the Lord's Supper is taken in churches of a decent size,
there are always people that do not take the Lord's Supper.
That does not mean that they're guilty of one of those sins.
Some people just don't feel worthy within themselves,
and I don't have the position that, you know,
if you're super worldly, then you're not eligible,
but some people might feel that if they're worldly, they're not worthy.
I don't say that. That's not my position.
But if you personally have that personal judgment of yourself,
then by all means, you don't have to take the Lord's Supper.
You're not being pressured to.
And other people don't take the Lord's Supper,
and I don't necessarily know why, but that's fine.
It's not for us to say, man, this person didn't take it.
Let's look at that list. What sin is it, right?
Let's go to their Facebook.
Let's steal their cell phone and see what they've been texting recently.
Let's find out what that sin is.
I've known people that are at churches for decades and never take the Lord's Supper.
I don't know if maybe they have a different position.
Maybe if you have a different position on how the Lord's Supper should be taken,
maybe you feel like I shouldn't take it because I disagree.
That's fine, okay?
This is not something where you're forced to do.
It's something that you're eligible to do if you're saved
and you don't have a major sin. That's my perspective on it, okay?
But if you don't feel like you should take it, then don't take it.
It's fine. It's not a big deal, okay?
The only thing I would ask is this.
If you have a young child which is just too young to be saved,
don't let your baby take the Lord's Supper, okay?
My son is three years old. He's not going to take the Lord's Supper.
You say, why, Brother Stuckey? He doesn't understand salvation.
He's too young to understand salvation.
Now, if he's five years old and he understands it, well, then, yeah,
I mean, he could take the Lord's Supper.
But it's like as parents, you know, especially with young children,
I mean, you're the overseers of those kids.
If you know that your kids aren't saved, that's something that you should handle personally.
I'm not going to be like the Lord's Supper judge, though,
where I'm looking at who's getting the Lord's Supper and I'm like, no, no, no.
It's like I'm not sure if they're saved.
I think that would be a little bit foolish, okay?
So basically it's between you, your personal decision.
I would just ask you if you have young children, don't let them take the Lord's Supper.
I'm assuming everybody would be on the same page as that.
But it's just like, you know, we'll have grape juice for lunch after the Lord's Supper.
Your kid will get that grape juice. Don't worry about it.
You know, we've got lots of grape juice.
But during the Lord's Supper, somebody needs to be saved.
If they're too young, they're not going to get that.
So those are the different positions on open communion that I've heard.
Where basically the last one was you allow anybody to take it and, you know, no matter what.
Well, I mostly agree with that because I'm not going to be the police here for that situation.
If somebody's not worthy of being at church or got kicked, then of course they couldn't take it.
But in terms of it being today, I'm looking around this room.
There's nobody except those that are very young where I'd say they should not take it.
Now if you're a parent, then you handle the situation with your young kids.
Just as I do with my kids, right?
That's open communion.
So depending on what you mean by that, I kind of agree or I kind of disagree, right?
Closed communion. What is closed communion?
Well, closed communion means it's only offered to members of the church.
Here's the thing, though. We don't have a membership at our church.
You say, Brother Stuckey, am I a member of this church?
Well, if you come to church, I consider you a member.
You don't have to transfer your membership, right?
I know Baptist churches, they do that in the U.S. too, where it's just like,
oh, well, we can't let you do this until you transfer your membership.
It's like, oh, man, it's like I got to call up my old pastor.
It's like, can you send me an email or something that I'm no longer at your church?
You know, it's just like we don't have an official membership because I don't necessarily see that.
I don't really see that in the Bible. But I will say a couple things about this.
I wouldn't be against a church that decided we're going to go to a private location and it's invite only
because that is kind of what Jesus did.
And I think the reason why he did that is because he had many people that would listen to him and follow him
but didn't necessarily believe these things.
And he didn't want the Lord's Supper to turn into a free for all.
So they picked a set location where it was basically invite only.
Now, that's not what we're doing as a church.
I don't plan to ever do that, but I wouldn't be against a church that chose to do that,
especially if that church maybe is a big church and they got lots of first time visitors
and they feel like, you know, it's, you know, they feel like they need to do it privately.
That's fine. If other churches want to do it, that's fine.
Churches can do whatever. We don't do that, though.
OK, so if you're here today and you're saved and you're not guilty of a major sin,
even if you are a first time visitor, you could take the Lord's Supper.
That's our position. It's not closed off to members only.
I will say this, though, about, you know, a membership at a church.
There are some churches that have an official membership, not for these reasons,
but because of the fact in today's world, what's taking place over the world
is that, you know, people that are homos get kicked out of churches
and then all of a sudden they sue the church and say, well, I got kicked out because I was a homo.
And then they usually win those cases and they make money.
So, for example, in Verity Baptist Church, there's an official membership
that you have to sign off that you realize these things mean you're not welcome to be a member of the church,
so you can't claim later on, well, you know, it's discrimination and get like $50,000 from the church.
So some churches are just being wise to have a membership.
It is possible in the future we could have a membership for that legality purposes only,
but not in terms of the fact that, you know, for the Lord's Supper or things such as that.
Just for legality purposes, some churches are starting to do that,
and honestly it's probably a pretty smart thing, and sue and say, well, you know what, it's discrimination.
You know, they kicked me out for an unjust reason.
See, if they sign off and say, I'm not a homo, then they can't sue later on legally and say,
it's like, well, you already signed off that you're a member and you're admitting you agree to what this,
you know, membership clause or whatever you want to call it is, okay?
That's the world we live in though.
I mean, you got people that just cause problems in churches for the purpose of suing them.
This happens at churches.
So I'm not against the membership for that reason.
That's just being wise as a serpent and harmless as doves sort of thing, okay?
Close communion.
You say, Brother Stuckey, what is close communion?
What? It's close to being open, it's close to being closed, right?
It's kind of in between.
What close communion means, and I've heard two different situations,
but basically it's where it's like if we're a new IFB church, we're not a denomination,
but if that's what people want to call us,
basically the Lord's Supper is open to those that are members of our church
and anyone visiting from another new IFB church here today.
But if somebody's visiting from a Southern Baptist church, even if they're saved,
no communion for them, okay?
Because they're not of the same like-minded faith.
Now, I don't agree with that at all, okay?
Because for me, if you're going to accept somebody who's a first-time visitor
from this sort of church that is saved,
you should accept first-time visitor from that church that is saved, okay?
It's all about salvation in terms of being worthy.
So I don't really agree with that position at all, okay?
Then some people say, well, it's our church members plus any visitors who are saved.
Sometimes people call that close communion,
which is kind of similar to how they say it with open communion.
And I mostly agree with that.
If you're here today and you're a visitor and you're saved,
you're welcome to take the Lord's Supper.
You don't have to go through these steps first.
Even if you've never been baptized, you'd be allowed to take the Lord's Supper.
There's no steps that you have to meet first, okay?
Now turn to 1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11.
1 Corinthians 11.
You say, Brother Stuckey, this sermon is boring.
Yeah, I mean, it's just about structure.
This just is what it is, okay?
It's like we need to make sure that when we take the Lord's Supper,
it's organized and I'm just telling you the various positions
and what our position is.
And I want to make sure that everybody, if you're taking the Lord's Supper here today,
you just clearly know what our position is.
I don't want you to take the Lord's Supper
and then in your mind you're thinking, I don't know if I should take it or not.
I don't know what the Bible says.
So this isn't the most exciting sermon,
but I'm just kind of showing you what the Bible says
and showing you what we believe here, okay?
And so one thing we believe about the Lord's Supper
is it's meant to be taken as a church together.
We practice the Lord's Supper in church together as a church family.
But here's the thing about this.
It's not just that we're together, but that we're taking it in unison, in unity,
because a church is meant to be united, meaning you're taking it at the same time.
It's not like, well, I got my cup first, so I'll go back for seconds, you know.
It's like if there's any – it's like, no, it doesn't work that way.
Everybody's going to take it at the same time, okay?
1 Corinthians 11, verse 18. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 18.
For first of all, when you come together in the church,
I hear that there be divisions among you and I partly believe it.
So Paul says when you come together for church, there's divisions.
And this makes sense because the same church that says I am of Apollos,
I am of Cephas, I am of Christ.
I mean, there was these divisions where basically it's VBC Manila A, VBC Manila B, VBC Manila C.
Well, that's not how a church is meant to operate because we are one body.
We're supposed to be united.
Verse 19. For there must be also heresies among you that they which are approved
may be made manifest among you.
I want to say that there's going to be heresies among you.
Well, it's common sense.
If there's divisions in the church, heresies are going to come up
because the Bible talks about bad people would separate themselves.
So you separate into your group of four people.
Often you want to teach some sort of heresy.
That's what we've seen with things like heresies on the nature of God
where basically there's a group where they have their own separate group
and they start slowly trying to bring people into their group apart from the church
and teach heresies.
If there's divisions at church, the result is going to be heresies.
That's what's going to happen.
So it's important not to have divisions at church.
The result will be heresies will spring up.
When you come together into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper.
Now, I want you to realize when he's saying it's not to eat the Lord's Supper,
he's not saying that when you come together you should not eat the Lord's Supper.
He's saying when they're coming together, they're not eating the Lord's Supper
because there's divisions.
There's heresies.
People aren't doing it at the same time.
People show up and they're not doing it together as one.
There's divisions.
So basically somebody shows up and it's like 9.47 in the morning.
It's like, well, I know church starts at 10 and the Lord's Supper is in 13 minutes,
but I'm hungry now.
It's like I'm going to take the Lord's Supper now because I've got my group of five friends with me.
That's what's taking place in the Church of Corinth.
There's just no organization, no structure.
It's just a free-for-all that's taking place.
And so he's saying you're coming together, it should be to eat the Lord's Supper,
but it's not to eat the Lord's Supper.
Verse 21, for in eating, everyone taketh before other his own supper,
and one is hungry and another is drunken.
So he's given an example about how you're coming together
and it's not to take the Lord's Supper because one person is taking it
and then all of a sudden it's like one's hungry and another is drunken.
What does that mean?
Well, it means that basically people get here early, they eat all the bread.
It's like there's no more unloving bread.
Do we have any extra pandesol back there that we can use, right?
It's like can we, I mean, you get back there and it's like, man, it's like,
man, this grape juice was great.
It's like we don't have any more.
It's like, well, you pretty much can't take the Lord's Supper then, right?
And that's what was taking place in the Church of Corinth.
People are showing up early.
It's like I don't want to wait.
I'm just going to, you know, drink my juice now and eat my food now
and I'm just going to gorge myself and then there's none left for everybody else, okay?
Then he says this in verse 22.
He's saying if you're going to act like this, go to your home and eat and drink.
But if you're going to come together in one place, it's meant to be decently and in order.
It's meant to be structured as unified, one body, and everyone's taken at the same time.
There's not one person now and another person later.
And look, this is important.
When we're going to take the Lord's Supper in 15 minutes, the bread is going to be passed out to everybody.
We are going to wait to make sure everybody in the mother-baby room gets their bread.
We're going to make sure everybody's ready and then I'm going to say a few words
and then we're going to partake at the same time, as close as possible, just all taking at the same time.
The same thing with the juice.
You say why?
We are one church.
We are not two churches.
We are not three churches.
We are not four churches.
We are one church and we should be united together as one.
Go to verse number 25, verse 25.
Let me turn there myself.
Verse 25, 1 Corinthians 11, verse 25, one second.
And it says here in verse number 25,
After the same manner also he took the cup when he had supped, saying,
This cup is the New Testament in my blood.
This do ye, as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me.
For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do ye show the Lord's death till he come.
Now most people take the position on verses 25 and 26
that when he says as often as ye eat, that he's saying you can eat the Lord's Supper as often as you want.
I don't think that's what it's saying.
I believe he's already giving us a pattern of when to take the Lord's Supper
and I believe the pattern is one time per year, right before you celebrate Easter.
Right before you celebrate the resurrection.
Because the Passover was once per year and then all of a sudden right before Jesus was crucified,
they took the Lord's Supper.
And so I think when he's saying as often as he eat it, he's saying the day you eat it in 2021,
the day you eat it in 2022, the day you eat it in 2023,
and every time that we take the Lord's Supper, we're remembering the death of Jesus Christ.
Now some churches do this very frequently.
Look, I'm not against other churches doing things differently.
I'm just explaining what my position is and my position is the same as Pastor Jimenez on this topic.
But I'm not against churches, they do it more often.
I would just say this though, if a church does it every week, you're not remembering the death of Jesus Christ.
There's nothing special when you do it every single week.
I mean, if you do it too often, it is definitely going to lose its meaning.
So I would say this, I do believe it's one time per year is the pattern we have.
Although there's not a lot of scripture on this.
So I'm not saying it's necessarily wrong to deviate to some degree from this pattern.
We're just trying to do what we think the Bible says.
But if you do it all the time, it just doesn't have any meaning, doesn't have any value.
And when I grew up in a Protestant church, we took the Lord's Supper once per month.
And so it was the last Sunday of the month.
I always hated that Sunday. I was like, oh, no. Right.
Because it was just it was just the services were longer.
And look, if you grow up Protestant, it is very, very boring.
OK, trust me on that.
I mean, your Baptist church might have been filled with heresy, but at least you didn't fall asleep.
You know, you don't think that's true.
Ask Brother Matthias after the sermon that, you know, Protestant churches is just boring. Right.
And it's like, you know, anyway, it's just like Catholic.
It's just they call themselves Protestants.
And so let me show you in verse twenty seven. First Corinthians eleven, verse twenty seven.
First Corinthians eleven, verse twenty seven.
But I would just say to me, I thought it was weird even as a kid because it's like we're doing this every single month.
It just seemed excessive even being unsaved.
It seemed weird to me that we did it all the time.
First Corinthians eleven, verse twenty seven.
Wherefore whosoever so eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup.
And so here's the thing. The Bible says that if you drink unworthily, you're guilty of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
Now, I do believe you should be saved to take the Lord's Supper because that's what you're remembering.
And I'll explain salvation here in a second.
My only thing is this, though. The Word of God is written for believers.
And someone who's unsaved, they're not even going to understand this stuff.
But if you're saved, you've got the Spirit of God inside of you.
So I really think that's thinking back to being committing major sins where you need to examine yourself.
Because if you're at this church, you know what the Bible teaches about sins and church discipline and consequences.
So you're already aware of it. And I just mentioned it again a little bit ago.
Whereas somebody who's a first-time visitor that's unsaved, look, and as far as I know, we don't have any first-time visitors.
But they would be like, what in the world are we talking about right now? They wouldn't get it.
But you that are saved, you can judge yourselves whether or not you're worthy or not.
And look, I promise you, there will be people in this room that are not guilty of these major sins, but they do not take the Lord's Supper.
And that is fine. And do not judge other people and try to figure out, well, why didn't they take the Lord's Supper?
Look, for all you know, they could be allergic to the juice or whatever. I don't know.
Or it's like, I have no idea. Or maybe they think it should be wine instead of juice, so they refuse. I have no idea, right?
It's like there's no point of trying to figure that out. That doesn't mean that they're not right with God.
It's just a personal decision that they end up making, okay?
Verse 29.
Here's the thing. He says people get sick and basically die because he says many sleep because they're eating unworthily, okay?
Now, this passage really scares people when it's read. They're like, I don't want to risk my life overtaking the Lord's Supper.
And this is probably the reason why a lot of people don't take it every year because they're just like, I'm not sure that level.
It's like, you know, I'm saved, but, you know, I'm trying to live for God, but I'm still making, I'm just not going to risk it.
And look, that's okay. There will be people in this room that just decide they don't want to risk it.
The only position is as long as you're not guilty of major, major sins that are already lined out in the book of 1 Corinthians, then you would be worthy.
I don't think that's saying that if you listen to a rock song one time last week, you better watch out. You might hit the deck, right?
I don't think that's what it's saying personally, but look, if that's what you think, that's fine because you don't want to sin against your own conscience.
And if you have that position, I don't want to try to convince you to do something that you think is wrong because then you would be sinning because you're sinning against your own conscience.
So if you do not feel comfortable, do not take the Lord's Supper. It's fine. You will not be the only one. That is okay.
Okay. There will be saved people in this room that do not take the Lord's Supper and that's fine. I do not want to press you.
Now go to John chapter three, John three, John three, John chapter three.
And so when it comes to taking the Lord's Supper, my position is that you need to be saved and you need to not have just major, major sins where you're not even welcome in the body of Christ.
As far as I know, I am not aware of anybody in this room that is guilty of a sin that they would get kicked out of church, okay?
But if you are, then you are aware of that personally, right?
So if you're aware of that, then you know what? You should take heed to it and just choose not to take the Lord's Supper.
And I would very much encourage you to get right with God, you know, here in the next couple of weeks because every time you sin, you're going to reap what you sow.
Even if it doesn't happen immediately, your sin is going to be broadcast and you're going to be embarrassed if that's the case, okay?
But the other aspect is not just that, you know, you're not committing a major sin, but that you're saved.
Now, of course, in this room, people know what salvation is, people go soul winning.
But you know what? There's visitors that come, there's people that are new.
So I'm just going to explain salvation.
And if at the end of this sermon, you're confused on any part of it, then choose not to take the Lord's Supper, I would say, and just talk to someone after the service.
Talk to me or talk to someone else and that's perfectly fine.
So what is salvation?
Now, here's the thing, this is not really me saying this to try to get amens and pounding the pulpit.
I'm just explaining to you very clearly what the Bible teaches about salvation.
We're only going to look at one verse and that's John 3 verse 16, okay?
Because everything is found in this verse.
It says here, for God so loved the world, okay?
Now, when it says God, it's referring to God the Father.
And the reason why you know that is because He gave His only begotten Son.
The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
God so loved the world.
And when it says He loved the world, it's not that He loved the ocean and the trees.
He loved the people that make up the world.
Like if you were to say, I love, you know, Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento.
Well, you're saying you love the people, not the building or, you know, it's the people that make up that church and the preaching and the people at that church, right?
So when He's saying God so loved the world, God the Father so loved all the people in this world, what did He do?
Well, that He gave His only begotten Son.
And so basically, you don't have to give your life to God to be saved.
He gave His life for us to be saved.
You don't have to partially give your life to Him.
Some people say, well, you know, to be saved, you got to give your life to God.
Well, the Bible doesn't say that, but my question is, have you given your entire life to God?
Or do you still sin?
Do you still do wrong?
Because nobody's given their entire life to God.
That's like saying you've repented of all your sins.
And it's like repenting of your sins is getting rid of the bad.
Giving your life to God is just you only do the good, right?
So I've repented of all my sins, and I've given my entire life to God.
Man, I wake up, six hours of Bible reading, four hours of just memorizing the Bible, three hours of prayer.
I just trust in God that that money is going to rain down from the sky, you know, because I'm just sold out, soul winning all the time.
I mean, that's ridiculous.
Like nobody's given their entire life to God, nor do you have to give your entire life to God.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
So here's the thing about this.
God the Father sent God the Son to be the Savior of the world.
Now, there's plenty of verses that teach this, but you have to understand, when it says the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world,
or the Father gave His only begotten Son, that indicates that the Son was already a son before He was sent.
You just read that very clearly, there's just no debating that.
And so the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, because you have to realize, in the beginning was the Word.
At the very beginning.
You got these cults out there that will say Jesus was created.
No, I mean, all things were made by Him, referring to the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
So here's the thing.
God the Father sent God the Son, because you have to understand, God is one and three at the same time.
He has always been one God, there's only one God, there's no Lord beside me, and yet you look to the New Testament, it's like, well, Jesus Christ is Lord.
But there's a distinction between God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost.
That is the Trinity.
And yes, it is a bit of a mystery, it's not like 2X plus 3 equals 7, the answer is X equals 2.
No, it's something that we see what the Bible says, and you do have to take it by faith to some degree,
because you're not going to necessarily understand the nature of God.
One example I've heard given by a lot of people, and I've given it myself as well,
I know Brother Matthias gave it recently in a sermon,
is that if you create a two-dimensional world, and you stick a finger in there or something like that,
those two-dimensional figures are not going to see a sphere, because they only know two dimensions.
They don't know three dimensions, right?
Here's the thing, God is not three-dimensional.
He is outside of three dimensions.
He created us in a three-dimensional world, but he's outside of time.
And so look, you're not going to fully grasp everything about who God is,
but we do have the Bible to tell us.
There's certain things we can know about him and understand,
and some things you've got to take by faith,
because it might not fully click to you exactly how this works together,
but we just believe what the Bible says.
The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. The Bible teaches that.
So Jesus died for us, and what does it say here?
That whosoever believeth in him, referring to Jesus Christ,
whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Whosoever is anybody.
And here's the thing, Jesus died for the sins of the whole world,
meaning anybody, everybody Jesus died for,
and anybody is capable of believing on Jesus Christ and getting saved.
Now, we understand some people can go down a road and become a child of the devil,
and they no longer can become a child of God.
That's a very uncommon thing.
Most people are not that way.
But Jesus died for all of their sins as well,
and they did have a chance, and they chose to reject God, okay?
So whosoever believeth in him, whosoever is anybody.
So look, if you say, well, brother, I'm a hardcore five-point Calvinist.
Well, don't take the Lord's Supper,
and I'll try to explain to you after the service what salvation is, okay?
Because whosoever means anybody, okay?
Whosoever believeth in him, referring to Jesus Christ.
Look, not whosoever is baptized.
Not whosoever goes to church.
Not whosoever quits drinking.
Not whosoever quits smoking.
And look, when we're going soul winning,
we are trying to convince the people that they don't need to make any changes in their life.
You know, I gave the gospel to somebody yesterday,
and, you know, we were waiting on brother Raji to get done,
and we're kind of in an area where it would have been very confusing.
We didn't want people to get lost.
But I had free time, so I talked to this guy that was sitting on this couch in front of this house.
And just looking at the guy, he's lived a hard life, okay?
And he obviously, you know, went down, and you can tell from people to some degree
that obviously, you know, he has various sins in his life that he either struggled with in the past
or that have really aged him and stuff like that.
He didn't necessarily look like the best candidate to get saved, okay?
But right off the bat, I could tell he was respectful because he was smoking,
and the smoke was pretty bad, but he immediately kind of just put his cigarette to the side
so, you know, wouldn't have to smell it.
And I went through the gospel, and I had to convince him for a long time
that he didn't have to make any changes.
Because I know what he's thinking in his head is, I'm not a good person.
I don't deserve to go to heaven.
I've got to quit drinking and quit smoking.
And I'm trying to convince him, no, you don't.
You can smoke cigarettes till the day you die and go to heaven.
You've got these other Baptist churches that are like, that's right, you do got to quit smoking.
It's like, we're trying to convince the opposite.
You don't have to quit smoking.
You don't have to quit drinking.
And it took a while.
It took 30 minutes plus to get the guy saved because he just thought, man,
I've got to make changes and everything like that.
No, all you have to do is believe.
Jesus died for us.
All we have to do is just believe that.
That's how simple it is.
And if you believe in him, you put your trust in him, you're not going to perish,
meaning you're not going to go to the second death, but have everlasting life.
So everlasting life is your spiritual birth.
It's the moment when you receive everlasting life.
It's the same chapter saying, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Right?
We got that, that song in the hymnal, ye must be born again.
Right?
And to be saved, you've got to be born again.
And what that's synonymous with is receiving everlasting life, everlasting life or salvation.
Here's the thing.
How many times are you born?
One.
How many times do you need to be spiritually born?
One.
Your parents are always your parents.
Do they punish you when you act up?
Yes, they punish you, but you're still their child.
It's the same with God.
Right?
And so there's no difference.
I mean, that's the analogy that the Bible is giving.
And not only that, when you think about the physical birth, who does the work for a baby to be born?
The baby or the mom?
The mom does the work, right?
When it comes to spiritual salvation, who does the work?
Do we do the work?
No, we're the baby.
We're the baby that's getting born.
Jesus did the work.
He died for us.
So we just believe that and boom, we receive everlasting life.
We are now a child of God.
And once you're a child of God, you're always a child of God.
Because it's everlasting life.
You say, Brother 2nd, if it's everlasting life and I physically die one day, then the Bible's not true.
No, it's spiritual life.
What is true is that if you receive everlasting life, the moment you believe as the Bible's saying,
you're never going to go to the second death.
Because if you ever went to the second death, if you ever went to hell, that was an everlasting life.
So the promise the Bible's giving you is that if you believe you receive everlasting life, you will never spiritually die.
But we're all going to physically die.
You say, why, Brother Stuckey?
Because we're getting closer to the physical salvation, as the Bible said.
It's nearer than when we believed, but you didn't get, you know, it's not like you're immortal physically.
It's like, Brother Stuckey, I got saved just to double check and just shoot me with a gun.
I won't die, right?
No, you're still going to physically die, okay?
You're still going to get physically older, but you're never going to go to the second death because you have everlasting life, right?
So that's what John 3.16 teaches.
You can never lose your salvation.
Even if you were to commit suicide, all you killed was your body.
Your body does not have everlasting life.
Your soul has everlasting life.
So even by the act of suicide, that would not make you lose your salvation.
Now, it could make you lose your rewards in heaven.
Or if you commit major sins here in this life, you could lose the blessing of God upon your life.
But what you're not going to lose is your place in heaven because God is not a liar.
Let God be true, but every man a liar.
So, look, salvation is just the fact that Jesus died for us.
He was eternally the Son of God.
He paid for our sins.
All we got to do is believe.
We put our trust in Him.
That one time we receive everlasting life, and we're saved forever.
It's a gift.
You can never lose it.
That's how simple it is.
Now, if you have any questions about that, though, I would just say, you know, no big deal.
Just I wouldn't take the Lord's Supper if you're confused about some of this.
You're not sure if you believe this.
Or if you're like, Brother Stuckey, there's certain sins where I'm not necessarily on the list of 1 Corinthians 5,
but I feel wrong to take the Lord's Supper.
Well, you should not take the Lord's Supper then because you would be sinning by sinning against your own conscience,
even though you're not guilty of a sin getting you kicked out of church.
I believe there will probably be people here that do not take the Lord's Supper because they don't feel worthy,
even though if I was them, I would probably feel worthy,
because I doubt that they're committing a sin that would get them kicked out of church.
But if they don't feel comfortable, you don't want to sin against your own conscience.
Just don't take the Lord's Supper then.
Okay.
Go to Matthew 26.
We'll close up here.
Matthew 26.
So what is the format on taking the Lord's Supper?
What's the format that we're going to do?
Okay.
Well, in the Bible, it starts with the bread first, and then the juice is second.
So basically, you do the bread first, and after everyone's partaken, then you're going to go to the next stage of the juice.
So we start with the bread.
It's always the bread first in the Bible.
Okay.
The way we're going to do this format is Brother Timothy and Brother Dexter are going to hand out the bread,
just like we do the offering plates.
Okay.
So basically, they're going to kind of go down the rows, and they're not going to force you to take a piece,
but if you want to take a piece, you know, of the bread to take the Lord's Supper, then you're welcome to do that.
And then basically, as you get your piece of bread, what you're going to do is you're going to just wait for everybody else to get the bread.
And what you're going to do is just in your own heart, you don't have to close your eyes, but you can if you want,
just kind of think about the body of Jesus Christ and what he did for us, because this bread is unleavened,
and leaven is a picture of sin.
And see, what this shows us is that Jesus Christ was sinless, and we're saying we believe that.
Okay.
Now, we do not believe that this bread is literally going to turn into the body of Jesus, like the Catholic Church teaches,
but we do believe that it symbolizes the body of Jesus Christ.
And that's why it is unleavened, because Jesus Christ was not a sinner.
He was perfect.
That's the same reason why with the grape juice, it's not wine.
You say, why?
Well, Jesus Christ wasn't a sinner.
And so wine would be wrong, wine would be a sin, so we use grape juice.
Okay.
We use unleavened bread, and we use grape juice.
So basically, everybody is going to get the bread who wants to get it.
Okay.
And then I'm going to make sure that those in the mother-baby room have it.
And then once they signal to me something like they're ready, then I'm going to just say a couple words.
Okay.
I'm basically just going to say a few words, and then what I'm going to do is I'm going to read Matthew 26, 26.
Okay.
And after I read Matthew 26, verse 26, I will say, let us now eat.
And right after I say, let us now eat, I'm going to eat immediately.
And so all of us are.
Okay.
So I'm going to read Matthew 26, verse 26, and then I'm going to say, let us now eat.
And you're going to be able to tell, because if you're looking at me, you don't have to look down at Matthew 26, verse 26 when I read it.
Okay.
It's up to you if you want to.
But once I say, let us now eat, we're all going to just eat after I say those words.
The same thing with the juice.
Okay.
Once the juice comes around, I'm going to read Matthew 26, verse 27, and then I'm going to say, let us now drink this, not this.
Right.
Let us now drink.
And we're all going to drink the juice.
Okay.
Then once I get done, I'm going to say a prayer and then I'm going to ask Brother Prince to close this in a final song.
And then, you know, just like we normally do in a church service.
Okay.
What I will say is this, when you're handing out the Lord's Supper, especially if the church is a little bit bigger, there could be a little bit of dead time where we're waiting on certain people.
And if there's any dead time, and I'm not saying anything, just meditate on what Jesus Christ did for you.
I don't believe you have to be perfect to take the Lord's Supper, but I do think this is a good time to remember what Jesus Christ did and how he was a sinless sacrifice and how he died for us.
So if you have extra time where you have the bread, just meditate about what Jesus Christ did for you.
Okay.
So this time we'll have the men get the bread and start passing it out.
We'll be right back.