Christ and Culture,Services

Communion Service

3 Feb , 2020  

Communion Service

We live in a culture of media. We read books, listen to the radio, watch movies, search the web. If we study history it is a collection of stories. Unless we lived the history, it is not real to us.

Anyone who has participated in Communion has learned the story line – Jesus met with His Disciples. He used the bread to symbolize His body broken and the wine as His blood shed for believers’ redemption. After teaching they went to Gethsemane. He was arrested. Tried all night by the Jews. Tried again by the Romans. They flogged Him and then Crucified Jesus. A poignant, blessed, and tragic story. History? Right?

Because “story” so often means fiction, i.e. not true (even “true-to-life” stories are fictional) our minds are programmed to assume the “not true”, unless we have experienced a specific truth.

So, with me, shake off the familiar, routine participation in the Lord’s Supper. Jesus was a real man! He was experiencing real mixed emotions – love for His real Disciples – picture them! Knowledge that Judas, his close friend, had betrayed Him. Consider that! Fear of the real agony of torture that would soon occur. Feel that! The certainty that His Father, from who he had never been separated, would soon abandon Jesus to death. Agony! The reality that He, who was life, would actually experience death. Horrible! We have eyewitness testimonies that those are real facts.

Each one of us who takes a piece of cracker  or bread and a cup of grape juice or wine may choose to fictionalize this celebration, or stop! Get into the reality of a real man willingly sacrificing His life, the broken bread, to give us real, eternal life. The cup is the Blood of Christ that in actuality does cleanse us from sin.

Communion Preparation

As believers in the reality of Christ’s death for us and His resurrection, we come in full faith to the Lord’s Table. We receive these elements, believing that it was a real happening, that Jesus has cleansed us from all unrighteousness and has delivered us from the wrath of God against our sin.

This time, in this moment, we have God’s authority to set aside any traditional, any cultural reservation. We say with an affirming spirit I believe Jesus is real! He did suffer and die for me!

If this is so, join me in humble, honest confession: first, to affirm our true surrender to Jesus for salvation; and then, to open our souls to the Holy Spirit to reveal any impediment in our souls to the reception of the body and blood of our Savior.

Confession of Sin

He will not always chide; Neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, Nor rewarded us after our iniquities.   (Psalm 103:9-12)

None of us is perfect.

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;   (Romans 3:23)

We come to this table honestly and humbly, knowing that it is an unmerited privilege to partake of the body and blood of our Lord.

Come if you know Jesus is your Savior. Come if you have purged your hearts as much as you can. Come in love for Jesus and in love with your brothers and sisters.

I will pause in the prayer to allow you to confront your sin and humbly acknowledge specific sins to the Lord

Please join me in the prayer of confession

“Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we acknowledge and confess our manifold sins, which we have committed, by thought, word, and deed, against Your Divine Majesty. We do earnestly repent and are heartily sorry for these our misdoings. The remembrance of them is grievous to us.

{Pause for personal confession}

Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; for Your Son, our Savior’s sake.

Forgive all our sins; and grant that we may ever hereafter serve and please You in newness of life, to the honor and glory of Your Name: through Christ our Lord.”

Affirmation of Forgiveness

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.   (Romans 5:8-10)

Absolution from Sin

To each of you who earnestly and heartily repent of your sins and seek to live in newness of life under the righteousness of Christ, I declare your sins are forgiven in the name of Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. all Glory be to Jesus Christ our Savior!

Amen

Invitation to Take Communion

The same night on which He was betrayed, Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat, for this is My Body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.”

After the same manner, He took the cup, and when He blessed it, He said, “All of you drink from it; and as often as you drink it, you show forth My death until I come.

Please come forward now to receive the Body and Blood of our Savior.

Celebration of Communion

Take; eat, for this is the Body of our Lord broken for you.

All of you drink of it, for this is the Blood of Christ shed for you for the remission of your sin.

Thanksgiving for Communion

Almighty God, we thank you for Your great mercy, granted to us in this Sacrament. You have made us to be partakers of Christ and all His benefits. You have adopted us as Your elect children and made us joint heirs with Christ.

Now Lord Christ, enrich us with Your Holy Spirit that Your life may be made manifest in our mortal bodies and that all our days may be spent in love and service of our Father.

Benediction

The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers: let him not leave us, nor forsake us: Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day. That all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is none else.   (I Kings 8:57-60)

 

Amen

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Prayers

While We Were Still Sinners

22 Aug , 2016  

March 3, 2013

But God proves His love for us in this:While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.   (Romans 5:8)

Pray as the Holy Spirit Leads You

First, we will pray for those we love. And then we will glorify God and present ourselves humbly before Him.

Personal Prayer

These are the words of The Revelation to St. John and the word of God.

The four living creatures, having each one of them six wings, are full of eyes round about and within: and they have no rest day and night, saying, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.”

And when the living creatures shall give glory and honor and thanks to him that sitteth on the throne, to him that liveth for ever and ever, the four and twenty elders shall fall down before him that sitteth on the throne, and shall worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and shall cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

“Worthy art thou, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power: for thou didst create all things, and because of thy will they are, and were created”.   (Revelation 4:8-11)

 

“And I saw, and I heard a voice of many angels round about the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a great voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain to receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and might and honor, and glory, and blessing’.

And every created thing which is in the heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and all things are in them, heard I saying, ‘Unto him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb, be the blessing, and the honor, and the glory, and the dominion, for ever and ever’.    (Revelation 5:11-13)

 

“And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunders, saying, ‘Hallelujah: for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigneth.  Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready’.

And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

And he saith unto me, ‘Write, Blessed are they that are bidden to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ And he saith unto me, ‘These are true words of God’.”   (Revelation 19:6-9)

All creation proclaims Your glory.  Seraphim, Cherubim, Archangels, Angels, Patriarchs, Martyrs and myriads of the Redeemed all join in a host of praise.

Almighty Lord God we are like the centurion, who desired You to heal his servant, but declared, “I am not worthy that You should come under my roof, speak Your word only and my servant shall be healed.”

We are not worthy to join that host in giving You glory. We are lost in sin. Our lives are too much our own because we have not loved you with our whole hearts, souls and bodies. We have too often closed our eyes to sin to pursue our own pleasures. We like Isaiah, if we were honest with ourselves, would cry out in Your Holy Presence, “Woe is me! I am undone! I have unclean lips and I live in a society of unclean lips!”

Prayer of Contrition

Now we will glorify God and present ourselves humbly before Him.

Personal Prayer

Nevertheless, our Savior, Your love for us exceeds all other love and breaks all bonds. While we were yet sinners you died for us. You shed Your precious blood to cleanse us from sin and all unrighteousness. You wiped the slate clean for all of us. And not being content with that, You imputed Your Righteousness to us. Now when the Father’s holy eyes fall upon us they see not our nakedness, but the righteousness of Christ. We are accepted in the beloved. We are adopted into Your family–sons and daughters of Yahweh Elohim Sabaoth, The Lord God of Hosts.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Personal Prayer

Because of Your love and sacrifice, You have declared us worthy to join that magnificent throng. And having been cleansed, like Isaiah, You confront us with a call to ministry. Make us not of blind eyes, nor of deaf ears, nor of tongue-tied speech, but instead give us quick-hearing hearts and instantly obedient spirits and loud, clear voices to proclaim Your truth. Recognizing we are unworthy to carry Your glorious message, give us holy boldness to make Your name known to our world.

Personal Prayer

As we join together in the prayer our Lord taught us, let us reconsecrate our hearts to His service.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.

Amen

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Prayers

Jehovah Jireh

19 Jul , 2016  

September 1, 2013

Jehovah Jireh, God will provide

The Lord will bless your towns and your fields.
The Lord will bless you with many children, with abundant crops, and with many cattle and sheep.
The Lord will bless your grain crops and the food you prepare from them.
The Lord will bless everything you do.
The Lord will defeat your enemies when they attack you. They will attack from one direction, but they will run from you in all directions.
The Lord your God will bless your work and fill your barns with grain. He will bless you in the land that he is giving you.
If you obey the Lord your God and do everything he commands, he will make you his own people, as he has promised. (Deuteronomy 28:3-9)

 

But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’
He answered, ‘Yes, here I am.’
‘Don’t hurt the boy or do anything to him,’ he said. ‘Now I know that you honor and obey God, because you have not kept back your only son from him.’
Abraham looked around and saw a ram caught in a bush by its horns. He went and got it and offered it as a burnt offering instead of his son. Abraham named that place ‘The Lord Provides.’ And even today people say, ‘On the Lord’s mountain he provides.’
The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time, ‘I make a vow by my own name—the Lord is speaking—that I will richly bless you. Because you did this and did not keep back your only son from me, I promise that I will give you as many descendants as there are stars in the sky or grains of sand along the seashore. Your descendants will conquer their enemies. All the nations will ask me to bless them as I have blessed your descendants—all because you obeyed my command.   (Genesis 22:11-18)

Pray with me

Almighty God, you are infinite in all ways, and yet you condescend to love and care for us. You have the whole universe to watch over and order, still You have such concern for us that you called us into Your fellowship. You have just as much communion with each one of us as we open ourselves to You.

Father, when we stop to contemplate Your majesty and compare our paltry accomplishments, we are awestruck at the enormity of the difference between Your glory and our lives. We can hardly comprehend the magnitude of Your Gift to us, the sending of Your only and most precious Son to demean Himself to live as we live. We shudder when we become fully aware that Your Son, our Lord Jesus who is and ever was Lord God Almighty, took our place on the cross, bore our sins, experienced in our place the penalty for our sin. He has given us that most precious Gift, Himself.

Before our Savior placed Himself on the cross, in His celebration of the Passover, He included those of us present here today in his blessing of the Disciples, in His declaration of love, in His Communion of His Body and Blood, and in His High Priestly prayer.

We are tremendously blessed by Your love, Your complete acceptance, and most generous gifts. We acknowledge our unworthiness. We can barely begin to appreciate the magnitude of the gifts you have given us.

Because of all you have done in our lives, we open our hearts to give you thanks. Because of all you have given to us we lift our voices in praise.

Speak aloud to God what He has done in your life, giving Him thanks

Personal Prayer

Speak aloud your praises of His majesty for what God means to you

Personal Prayer

Speak aloud, so we who are you brothers and sisters can add our amen to your prayers

Personal Prayer

While these promises we have read were for us, they were specifically granted to God’s Chosen People. This day Jews in Israel are surrounded by enemies who desire to drive them into the sea.

Pray for Peace in Jerusalem

Personal Prayer

America has not only been a bastion of freedom, but also an example for all the world to see how God blesses the nation whose God is the Lord. And yet we have begun turning our backs on YHWH to pursue our own interests.

Pray for God to raise up godly leaders to draw our Nation back to Christ

Personal Prayer

Acknowledging that we cannot live a godly life without the power of the Holy Spirit, and confessing our sins—blatant, secret and unknown to us. Let us before we come to Communion, ask Forgiveness for ourselves and confess our need for Christ.

Personal Prayer

Absolution

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time; casting all your anxiety upon him, because he cares for you.  (1 Peter 5:6)

 

The grace of our Lord abounded exceedingly with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners;   (I Timothy 1:14-15)

 

… that ye were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace.   (Ephesians 2:13)

 

… for by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not of works, that no man should glory.   (Ephesians 2:8)

Therefore, ministering to you in the name of Christ, I declare that your sins are forgiven to the glory of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
Amen

Join with me now in offering the prayer that our Lord Jesus taught us, saying

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.

Amen

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