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May God bless us because he is the one to provide the true spiritual nourishment that we need.

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Not because we've deserved it, not because we've earned it, but because he has given to us by his death on the cross.

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Lord God, thank you. Amen. Howdy. Now I need to tell you all something that may be surprising.

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For those of you who may not be aware, I am a member of the Fight in Texas Aggie class of 02.

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I know that's surprising. You had no idea that I was an Aggie. I know, I know.

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I graduated from Texas A&M University in 2002 and I went out into the world with a degree on my wall and a gold ring on my right hand.

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Because of having this ring on my hand, there have been numerous times when someone has asked me which year I graduated and what I'm doing for work.

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This ring has opened doors with potential employers as well as potential friends.

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And in many ways, this ring has almost been magical. Its effects have been easily felt and experienced.

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Now, why am I bringing this up? Is it just because I want to annoy Rob and Howard Brown? Absolutely.

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I mean, no, of course not. I would never say something in a sermon just to bug someone. Ever. I'm very straight laced.

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But rather, the point is that physical things oftentimes have strength, power and meaning beyond just what we see and feel.

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If I were to melt this ring down, what would there be? Molten gold. That's it.

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There's nothing within the ring itself that has power.

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And yet, when someone loses this ring in a pond while fishing or drops it in a road where it gets run over and crushed,

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they're heartbroken at its loss. They may even still have the gold with them.

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But in some ways, it's almost as if their connection to their time and their community at Texas A&M has been lost like other Aggies are somehow not going to recognize them.

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Or all they're going to do is look at their hand and say, where's your ring? And yes, they do.

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Now, the ring itself is not the source of being part of that alma mater.

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A person spends years at their university and nothing takes that away, including sometimes the student loans.

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And at the same time, the physical embodiment of that time reconnects a person to that university every time it is worn.

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If you were to leave it at home, it would feel weird, like something's missing.

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And of course, it's still waiting for you, but that doesn't change that you want to see it and feel it.

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This is true for so many things. When we hear from the president, we want to see the White House.

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When we have a birthday, we want to blow out candles. When we experience an anniversary, we want flowers or chocolates or promises you don't intend to keep.

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When we taste and see and feel something connected to what we believe, it brings a stronger meaning than just thinking about it in our heads.

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In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul says at the beginning of the chapter, I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea.

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And all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink.

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For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed him, them and the rock was Christ.

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You see, each of these things, the cloud that they were following in the wilderness, the Red Sea that they passed through, the manna that they ate,

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and the water at Horeb. These were all physical things through which God worked and spoke.

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It's not as if they were magical on their own, like a cloud or a sea or a little wafer or water coming out of rock.

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It's not as if it were magical.

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Birthday candles are not important without a birthday.

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A White House is not important without a president. Chocolates are only fat-free on anniversaries. It's scientific.

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But all of these have significance because of their context and we treasure them for what they signify.

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But all this is true for communion. The Lord's Supper as well. Allow me to give the context.

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When Moses was calling for Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go from captivity, there were 10 plagues.

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And the last of the plagues was to entail the firstborn of every household dying at God's hands.

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The way to be saved from this plague was to place lamb's blood around the doorway of each home.

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This is not something that you do typically. There is no Chip and Joanna Gaines mindset for this.

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This is something that you would only do if you believe that your life was at stake.

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And that this was the only way to escape the judgment of God on that night.

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As they did so, they didn't just sit there twiddling their thumbs. What did they do?

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They ate a meal that was forever linked with the passing over of the angel of the Lord, the Passover meal.

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Eating this meal every year was a visible sign that people belonged to God by faith, not just on that night,

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but for centuries to come. Even as that Passover meal was a physical meal that was connected to the angel of God

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sparing the people of Israel, proclaiming that they were spared from the wrath of God as they enjoyed the meal together.

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Even so, Jesus took the Passover meal and instituted a new meal because of what was going to happen the next day.

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Jesus was about to allow himself to be crucified so that God's wrath would no longer fall upon the people who believed in him.

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See, every time his disciples would eat the bread and drink the wine, the spiritual food and drink given by Christ in that meal,

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it would be declared time and time again that they were the people of God by Christ Jesus.

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It wasn't that the food and the drink were magically powerful in and of themselves,

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but rather by being the body and blood of the new covenant that Jesus instituted himself.

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You see, when Paul would say in his epistle to avoid idolatry by eating certain foods,

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it wasn't because the food was now inherently evil in and of itself.

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So we think that way about donuts. It's not actually a demon, but rather being foods offered to idols.

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They were connecting the people in a participation with those idols.

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He said, therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

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I speak as to sensible people.

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Judge for yourselves what I say, the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?

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The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

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Because there's one bread. We who are many are one body.

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For we all partake of the one bread. Consider the people of Israel.

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Are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?

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What do I imply then, as if he's being subtle?

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That food offered to idols. Is anything or that an idol is anything?

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No, I imply that what pagan sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God.

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I do not want you to be participants with demons.

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You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons.

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You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.

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Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

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A lot of Christians will say that communion is symbolic but nothing more.

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Why do we keep making things difficult by saying communion cannot be merely symbolic?

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I mean, there is symbolism present. Is there not?

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If it were merely because Scripture itself shows that communion is an actual participation with what Jesus did

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and that it unifies us with God and with one another as we do so, which it does.

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Well, then that would be enough because let's be clear.

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If the Scripture says it, then we believe it and we refuse to go down the path that many Christians have begun to do

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where they even change the words. They'll even change the words to say,

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this represents my body instead of this is my body.

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They'll change the words to say, this represents my blood of the new covenant.

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Instead of saying what Jesus says, this is my blood of the new covenant.

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If God's word can be changed to fit our comfort and our understanding,

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but it's more than that. It's not just the fact that, yes, Scripture says it.

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What we do in the flesh, what we do with our bodies in this material life, it matters spiritually.

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When Christians spend their time thinking that faith is just something in your head, a good sermon,

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reading your Bible daily, telling people you're a Christian, just something that you think about,

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then we lose out on everything we do throughout every day is meant to be lived out onto God.

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In a world where it's just so easy to pop onto the Internet and hear the sermon that somehow fulfills you spiritually,

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so to speak. How much time and energy do we spend on things that distract us from God?

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Even things that we say God would be pleased with, but are actually just the things that we want.

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And even beyond the fact that the physical world is not somehow separate from the spiritual life,

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but rather interconnected by God's good grace.

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But God's grace is something that we struggle with believing sometimes. Let's be honest.

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We do struggle with it. It is hard to sometimes think that God could possibly love the broken sinners that we are.

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What if I didn't feel sorry enough today when I confessed before God?

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I was a little distracted at that moment. I didn't truly regret everything I did.

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I know it's wrong, but there's a part of me that's kind of glad I did it.

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What if I didn't truly get this in my head?

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What if tomorrow, what if tomorrow I follow Christ more closely than I did today?

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Does that mean that the communion today was wrong for me to take?

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Because tomorrow I'm really, really going to follow Jesus.

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I need me a good altar call somewhere in there.

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But see, when we eat, the food is served to us.

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Do we have to convince the host to give it to us?

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Absolutely not. Because you were invited to the table.

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The food is given to nourish you, to feed you, not as some form of payment for being a good enough guest.

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And the same is true of communion, even as it's true for the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

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It doesn't somehow gain more validity because you've brought meaning to it.

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It has validity because Christ has already earned our salvation for us.

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We continually fill our lives with physical items that connect us with Jesus.

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We have little crosses that we give away for VBS.

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We have t-shirts with quippy little puns on them, which is probably why I didn't have any dates in high school.

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We have flags, we have everything in between that are physical to somehow represent our faith.

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But why is it that we struggle with the idea that the very thing that Christ says is His body and His blood of the New Covenant

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is the physical means by which we connect with our God?

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Because sometimes the truest things are the things we have the hardest time accepting.

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But fortunately, today we are giving you communion because of what Jesus is doing tomorrow

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and that He is sacrificing His life for you.

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So this meal is how we are tonight participating in His death in a way that we can taste and feel and see.

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And if you have any question whether God's love and grace can be for you,

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as it enters your mouth, feel and taste that God's salvation is for you.

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We sometimes take God's grace for granted, but as we eat and drink this meal,

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God is not taking us for granted, but rather is saying, you are my child and you are welcome together as my people in my presence.

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May tonight and always the grace of God feed us as His body, as His people because of His sacrifice. Amen.