Exodus 1:8-22 (How God Loves Us Through The Sacraments)

Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon We pray that as we declare the

Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who

Christ is May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you

Well, he made me sound really good and I'm not I Would like to say that you know, this is the third time my beautiful wife and I have visited your church

And it has always been a delight But you have some of the strongest legs. I Know because you guys stand forever

But it is a pleasure to be here it's a pleasure to give the Word of God to you and Today what

I want to talk to you about are the sacraments baptism and communion

Now, I know you've been taught and you know theologically what all these things mean

But I want to talk to you about God's love and how he loves you in these sacraments

And so that's what I'm going to try to do and I'm going to do it by telling you Bible stories

I'm not gonna say anything. You don't know, you know it already I'm going to talk to you as though You are

God's people I'm assuming you are all believers in Jesus Christ.

I'm assuming that he's filled you with his spirit I'm assuming that you have chosen him and he has chosen you and So with that said

I'm going to begin to do a few things and what I want to do is compare the life of Moses the

Savior of Israel To the life of Jesus the

Savior of the world. I want to show you how these two men are the same and yet different I Want to show you baptism and communion in the life of Israel through Moses And I want to show you baptism and communion in the life of those of us who live post -crucifixion

Jesus said that he was going to bring his gospel to every nation every tribe and every tongue and Here I stand before Every nation every tribe and every tongue as I look over and see

So many different people and Yet, we are brothers in Christ So I want to talk about the sacraments now the sacrament that word is just a religious word and it just means a sacred ritual or end a

Visible sign of a spiritual reality and that's what I want you to hear a visible sign of a spiritual reality

When we baptize somebody and when we take communion we are doing something that we can see with our eyes

But that goes really deep and I want to try and get to you the depth of that so Let me start with the life of Moses now the life of Moses doesn't start with Moses starts with Pharaoh Pharaoh is this cruel tyrant

King who has become afraid of the Israelites because they keep growing and So he's decided that he's gonna make them slaves and he does he makes them work his fields and he makes them make bricks to build the cities and homes for the

Egyptians and That's supposed to weaken them. But instead it makes them stronger

So he decides he's going to steal their strength by killing all the male children

And he's gonna his choice of murdering these children is he's going to drown them in the

Nile It's into this world that a Levite Chooses a woman and marries her and they begin to have a family their first child is

Miriam their second child is a boy and She hides this boy because she doesn't want him to be killed and she hides him for three months

But babies do what babies do they grow and she can't hide him anymore So she comes up with a plan now

I Did not write the story This is not my plan. This is her plan her plan is to make a wicker basket not a wicker a basket of bulrushes a little ark

She's gonna make it waterproof She's gonna take her little baby boy Put him in this ark and Take him to the murder river

Where Pharaoh is killing all the boy babies? And she's gonna put him in the river and she tells her 12 year old daughter

Miriam. Just watch over him You can't make this stuff up this is odd But she does this right and who shows up at the river

Pharaoh's daughter who decides she's gonna bathe in the river The murder river

I This is odd, but she does she's got a little she's got her servants with her and they spot this basket

She gets her servants to go over and get the basket. They open it up and inside they find a crying

Hebrew male child and she decides She wants to adopt it and so Miriam hears all this and she runs over and she says would you like me to get a

Hebrew woman to breastfeed your child? And when he's weaned we'll bring him to you And she thinks that was notices.

That's a great idea I'll even pay her and so Miriam goes home gets the baby's mom the baby's mom

Does just what Pharaoh's daughter wanted? now This is odd on all kinds of levels, right?

But Pharaoh's daughter Has just said I don't care what my dad said do what

I want and She takes this baby boy, and she's gonna adopt him and she does 40 years later

Moses is now fully grown and he decides I'm gonna go to the land of Goshen where the

Israelites live and just see what's going on when he gets there He sees these cruel

Egyptian taskmasters beating them trying to get them to work harder so that Egypt can flourish and There's one

Taskmaster who is beating an Israelite man so severely Moses steps in and he winds up killing the

Egyptian while the Hebrew man runs off So he decides I'll just bury him in the sand and then no one will know

But he gets found out and he realizes I'm a Hebrew. I've killed an

Egyptian Once Pharaoh knows my life is forfeit So he hits the road and runs into the desert and where do we find?

Moses who's come out of the river the next place we find him is at a well and he's at this well and all the shepherds come to water their flocks at this well and There's a shepherdess named

Zipporah who shows up and she always has to go last Because the male shepherds go first.

Well, Moses not having any of this. He steps in for her and He says she can go first tells all the other shepherds.

You have to wait waters all her flocks and when he's done She goes home

Her dad looks at his watch. He said you're home early. What's going on?

And she said well, there was this guy there who stood up for me and watered all the might you know the flock for us and Dad looks at her and says you need to go back and get that guy and bring him home

And she winds up marrying Moses. Zipporah becomes his wife Now this is an interesting story on a number of levels

In the Bible there is a pattern of men getting wives at wells

When Abraham wanted a wife for Isaac He took his most trusted servant and he said you go back to my home

And you find a woman for Isaac and he goes to a well and that's where he finds

Rebecca who will marry Isaac When Jacob wants a wife, he's at a well and he meets

Rachel So there's this strange pattern in the scriptures if you want a wife and you're a godly man

Maybe you should go to a well. I Don't know if it still works today, but it worked back then well

Forty years goes by again and God tells Moses. I'm sending you back to Egypt You are going to bring my people out from under the bondage of this cruel

Merciless tyrant of a king who all by the way hates them So Moses says listen, nobody's gonna believe me

Why would they? He said even the Israelites won't believe me. God gives them a sign, right? The sign is take your staff throw it down.

It's gonna become a snake pick it back up becomes a staff So Moses goes off with his staff

Tells the Israelites what he's gonna do shows his sign then he goes to Pharaoh And he says

God says let my people go that they could worship me and Pharaoh says I don't know your God Moses says well, let me show you who he is throws his staff down Pharaoh's not impressed at all.

He calls his magicians They do the same thing They throw their staffs down and they become snakes and Moses snake eats all their snakes.

He picks up his staff. They've got nothing Doesn't convince Pharaoh at all and Pharaoh says be on your way

Well, God tells Moses go back and tell Pharaoh to let my people go or I'm gonna turn all the water in Egypt to blood

Moses goes and tell him Pharaoh says get out Moses turns all the water in Egypt to blood

All the lakes all the rivers all the streams all the creeks all the ponds all the puddles and even the water

They've collected in jugs all turns to blood Except in the land of Goshen where the

Israelites live Moses first miracle, right? Well doesn't change the heart of the king and we know nine more plagues come

There's flies. There's locusts. There's frogs and every time a new plague comes it destroys more of Egypt By the time the nine plagues are done

There isn't a green leaf a piece of grass. There is nothing left the economy of this greatest nation on the face of the earth

Egypt is wiped out and Moses goes one last time to Pharaoh and says these words

The Lord says let my son My firstborn son go that he may worship me and Pharaoh says no

Moses goes back to the people of Israel in the land of Goshen and he says

We're gonna be leaving in a few days. Here's what I want you to do I want you to go to all the

Egyptians, you know And I want you to ask for them to give you silver and gold precious stones and fine clothing

The Israelites do it and the Egyptians give it to him, you know, why? Because the

Egyptians know who Moses is. He's been torturing them Pharaoh's the only one that won't say yes, and the

Egyptians are now ready for the Israelites to leave And then Moses tells them

This is what you need to do You need to pack up your houses You need to wear your traveling clothes put on your walking shoes because tomorrow we're going to be leaving

But this you need to do because God is going to send an angel of death

He's going to send him throughout the whole land of Egypt Even the land of Goshen where you live and if you don't want the angel of death to come and take your firstborn son

You need to take a lamb You need to kill that lamb and take its blood and put it on the doorposts of your house and Then you need to take that lamb into your house and you need to roast it over fire

You can't eat it raw. You can't boil it in water You need to roast it over fire and then you need to eat it and anything else that's left you burn up and You stay in your house overnight because if the angel of death sees you he's going to wreak havoc in your life and you know the angel of death comes and he sees the blood -stained homes and Passes by those

But when he gets to the homes that have no blood all of the firstborn

All of the firstborn from the king to the slave girl all of the firstborn of their flocks and of their herds are taken and The next morning a whale goes up from Egypt It's horrible for them and Pharaoh calls sends word to Moses and he says get out and the people of Israel Walk out now that Passover meal is

Unbelievably important The blood applied to the doors of their homes a lamb one year old killed and roasted on a fire like an altar

Do you know what's embedded in that Passover meal? I'm going to give you a list of Moses the

Savior of Israel is going to open the Red Sea So that they can go over on dry land and then when they go 40 years later into the land of promise

He's going to open up the Jordan Sea so they can go from the Jordan Sea the Jordan River So they can go over to the promised land on dry ground

All of the armies of Egypt are going to be destroyed because of this meal He's going to turn the waters at Mara sweet, that's what

Moses will do He's going to provide water from a rock twice While they are out in the desert

He's going to provide manna for them. He's going to provide quail for them He's going to provide victory and battle for the next 40 years for these

Israelites When God's people sin when these

Israelites sin in the desert and God sends the people of Israel scorpions to Or it says serpents to sting them

Moses is going to be told by God you put up a bronze serpent and when the people look at it

They'll be healed so even in his correcting them

Moses is going to heal God's people when they look at that serpent He's going to provide the

Ten Commandments or the ten words twice Because the first time he does he comes down and they have a golden calf right and he's angry at them

He's going to destroy that golden calf and teach them what false worship does he's going to destroy that golden calf and Then all because of this

Passover meal God is going to open up the treasury of heaven for these people

He's going to give Moses the plan for the tabernacle Moses is going to build is going to show the people these plans

Every rod that's going to hold it every little socket that the rods go in every curtain every piece of furniture

Everything in that temple a replica of what's in heaven and God tells

Moses when you have your people make this You tell them to make it according to the plan don't come up with any better ideas of your own do it the way

I've told you and They get a home Where God will dwell in their midst

God will give them the Levitical law God will give them the ceremonial law

God will teach them how to come worship all by the hand of Moses That's what's embedded in that Passover meal

That's amazing the riches of heaven opened up for these people now

Before they eat the Passover meal What have they done to deserve it nothing

These Israelites have done nothing. Do you know what God has done? God has chosen?

by his will to exclude some people and To include others, you know what that's called

That's called sovereignty that's called an Almighty God doing what an

Almighty God wants to do and He chose These Israelite people just as he had promised

Abraham Isaac and Jacob so many years ago. He kept his word

All of this is what's embedded in this Passover meal Now the

Passover meal just so you know is the freedom meal Of The Israelites, right they eat this meal the next day

They're no longer under the tyrant king anymore. They are free and they leave a

Freedom meal that's what the Passover was Well, let me continue my

Bible stories for you, right? The children of Israel leave They are told to follow

Moses and they are told that there will be a pillar of fire and a cloud that will lead them by day and night and wherever that cloud and pillar go that's where you go and Then God tells

Moses and you can read all this in Exodus if you want. God says listen, don't go towards Philistia I want you to go this way

I want you to circle around a couple of times and then I want you to get to the beach At the

Red Sea and I want you to camp there and sure enough the cloud of fire and the pillar of cloud follow and lead them right and they do all this they get to the beach set up camp and Pharaoh decides

I'm not having it You know what? I'm not just gonna kill the boys now I'm gonna kill everybody and he takes the greatest army on the face of the earth at this time and He begins to march towards the

Israelites and the Israelites know it and They are afraid

You see they've got an army coming that will wipe them out by the sword or they have the

Red Sea That will drown them. They are hopeless But God takes the pillar of fire and the cloud places it between Israel and the

Egyptians You see God protects his people And he tells

Moses put out your staff over the Red Sea and we're told a storm comes up overnight

Thunder lightning wind huge in The next morning when the

Israelites come out of their tents There is a dry road through the

Red Sea two walls of water and Lest you think the Sun was out and the birds were chirping.

Let me just Tell you that's not what was happening. Oh, the storm is still going.

The thunder is still roiling The lightning is still flashing and you know today's weather

I had to go pack my car up from the hotel every time I went out.

I got wet wasn't raining it was just water in the air and You're an

Israelite and Moses says to you That's your escape route through two giant walls of water with a storm overhead and a mist and And We're told and I can't believe they did it because I'd have been scared to death if I was there

They marched through the Red Sea and they get to the other side. They set up camp on the other beach and they watch and now the pillar of fire and the cloud move and the

Egyptian army heads for the Red Sea and when Pharaoh gets there

He looks and he says if they can do it I can do it he was wrong they get into the middle of that Red Sea and All of a sudden that dry ground turns to muck and mud their horses are getting stuck their chariots are getting stuck and then

God tells Moses put your staff out one more time and The waters crashed down upon them and that army is destroyed

Wiped out The greatest army in the world wiped out by God and his

Savior Moses by water You ever have anyone throw water on you, what does it do not a whole lot?

But God gets some water and he can do damage and they are gone now in Corinthians Paul says something really really interesting about this

He says that when they marched through the Red Sea all of the people of Israel were baptized into Moses The men the women oh and the children

All were baptized into their Savior Moses Now that's a tremendous verse and Paul doesn't do anything other than say it.

He doesn't explain it He doesn't say Oh, let me prove all this to you. He just says this is what happens

You know what? He says in Galatians. I think it's chapter 3 He says you don't you know you have been baptized into Christ You have a

Savior and just as the people of Israel were baptized into Moses you are baptized into Christ Now, let me tell you

Moses is a great guy He's got nothing on Jesus So Moses continues to lead the people of Israel and I told you every time there's a problem the people of Israel complain

They complain because there's never any water Moses. It's always given him water So it's

Moses and water Moses and water Moses and water who by the way is Moses who started out in the

Nile Floating in a little ark, right? Moses is

God's water boy You Read the story Right over and over and over again.

God uses this man to save him to save these Israelites When Moses gets to the end of his life just before the

Israelites will go into the promised land He says something really interesting to them

He says there's gonna come another Savior Another man is gonna come and he's gonna look just like me

When he shows up Listen to him You can go read that it's in Deuteronomy Listen to him.

He's gonna look just like me You know what?

Number of years go by. Oh And I forgot to tell you, you know, what else was embedded in that That meal that Passover meal

It didn't just it wasn't just the Israelites in the desert that were blessed When they cross over to the promised land

They get David the warrior poet King They get

Solomon the wisest man ever to live on earth These are the gifts that God gave to the

Israelite people That are all embedded in that Passover meal. He gave them everything that heaven held

Everything nothing was withheld all in that Passover meal and then Moses says someone's like me is gonna come listen to him

And then we have Jesus show up little baby Jesus, right? Just little tiny baby

Jesus in Bethlehem no place mom and dad find a little

Little manger to lay him in inside a little shed Right where there's cows

That's where he is. And These men from the east these Magi they want to bring gifts to the king of the

Jews They don't know where he is So they go to Herod who is now the

Roman King who's ruling Israel in their nation

The Magi say where's the king of the Jews? He's just been born. We want to give him gifts and Herod says

I'm not quite sure you go and find him when you do you let me know so I can worship too

Well the Magi go they follow the star leads them right to the baby Jesus. They present gold frankincense and myrrh these wonderful gifts and they worship before this little king of the

Jews and Then they're worn in a dream don't go back and tell that Fox Herod anything and so they leave by another way well

Herod's just like Pharaoh He's the king and he's going to be king and there will be no king of the

Jews. So what does he do? He decides I will kill all the boy babies from two years dead and down But Joseph being worn in a dream by God is told to take the little baby

Jesus and go where? Egypt of course, why wouldn't you go there?

Do you know in Hosea It says out of Egypt. I have called my son.

Do you remember Moses's words to Pharaoh the Lord says? Let my son my firstborn son go

All prophecies Telling about this

King Jesus who would come and Pharaoh I'm Pharaoh Herod kills all these

Jewish babies Because he wants to be king Do you know the church calendar still?

Remembers that day they call it the slaughter of the innocents but Jesus is saved and Then Joseph is told in a dream.

It's safe to go back to Israel takes Jesus and Mary they go back to Israel and Jesus grows into a man and at 30 years old

His first idea that Jesus has before he starts his ministry is I need to go find

John the Baptist the greatest Prophet of the

Old Covenant because he needs to baptize me in water

And he gets to John and John looks at him knows just who he is and says hey listen

Jesus Listen I shouldn't be baptizing you I don't

I'm not even worthy to touch your shoes, but Jesus prevails John baptizes him and The skies open and the

Spirit descends on Jesus and A voice from heaven yells out.

This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Jesus and water

Well story number two Jesus and his mom have been invited to a wedding at Cana Jesus is gonna perform his first miracle here

Not his idea He goes to this wedding, and it's big

There's a lot of people. They're having one of the biggest barbecue wedding feasts

You could ever have and when they show up the servants tell Mary listen. I'm sorry, but we've run out of wine and Mary says to the servants do whatever he says

And Jesus looks at his mom Really mom? But you know he does what she says

And he tells them servants go collect some water in barrels big barrels of water and People think there was somewhere between 90 and 120 gallons of water

And he tells the servants take some water out of those jugs now Take it to who's ever running this feast and let him taste it and when he does

It is the best wine he has ever had and he's shocked himself

He's like listen when people have parties like this you serve the good wine first, and then when people are kind of happy You know you bring out the less expensive stuff

But you've done it backwards Remember Moses first miracle

Moses turned water into blood as a judgment Jesus turns water into wine as a mercy

You know what wine represents of course you do Wine for us represents the blood of Christ that was shed for us wine blood

Moses turned water into blood Jesus turns water into wine slash blood Well there are other stories of Jesus and water

You know Jesus is told by his father. I want you to go across the Sea of Galilee There's a man there that needs to be saved

So he gets on a boat With his Disciples who all by the way are fishermen they have sailed the

Sea of Galilee Jesus is confident. They'll get him to the other side goes down the boat and falls asleep big storm shows up a big storm

Big storm they're in the middle of the sea. They can't get back. They can't go forward and the boats going down and the disciples decide

We have two choices We can drown Or we can wake up Jesus and ask for help and they wake

Jesus up And when he gets up he looks at them, and he shakes his head you faithless guys and he turns around to the wind and he says peace be still and it obeys and we're told the disciples look at him, and they're like Who's this even the wind and the waves obey him well you know who he is

He's the same guy that opened up the Red Sea way back when when he wants the water to do what he wants it does the wind obeys and The sea is calm they get to the other side and they are in the land of the

Gadarenes and they go and They find themselves in a cemetery where a man has been chained

Because he has a demon inside of him the town folk don't know what else to do with him They chained him in the cemetery, but he keeps breaking the chains and when he sees

Jesus this one desperate man falls at his feet and The demons inside of him say to Jesus.

What do we have to do with you? It's not our time yet Jesus does one thing he asks them their name, and they say we're legion

We're a thousand demons inside this man an army of demons

Jesus doesn't say another word to them They ask there's some pigs over there can we go into those pigs

Jesus shakes his head go right ahead What happens to the pigs? They run off a cliff and they're drowned

Does this pig army remind you another army of Egyptians that are drowned in a river?

What did Moses say someone just like me is gonna come when he comes? Listen to him

Nobody listens, right Jesus saves one desperate man in obedience to his father

Well I got another story for you a really interesting one Jesus goes to the land of Samaria where he's preaching the gospel

Now the Samaritans forgive my language here are half breeds half

Jewish half Gentile Everybody hates them the Jews hate him in particular the

Gentiles hate him The rabbis and the holy men of Israel Really don't want anything to do with them because they don't want to become unceremonial

Ceremonially unclean so if they have to go somewhere past Samaria they go around If they have to go to Samaria when they see a

Samaritan they go to the other side of the road so they don't get touched and Jesus we find is at a well

And a woman shows up And Jesus says to the woman would you give me a drink?

This Samaritan woman is shocked Just like the disciples on the boat He's not just a

Hebrew man he's a rabbi you're asking me for water she says

And Jesus looks at her and says if you knew who was asking you you'd ask him and he'd give you the water of life

Now she's intrigued and we're told the conversation takes place between Jesus and this woman and Jesus begins to tell her about her life, and he tells her

I know that you've been with seven men some of them have been your husband some not and the man you're with now is not your husband and She realizes

She's in the presence of a prophet Not only that through that conversation

She becomes convinced That this is the Messiah she goes back to town she tells the important men there

You need to come out to the well and meet this guy. He's told me everything. He's he's told me everything.

I've ever done Is he the Messiah? Why this story?

Christ is going to have his bride And He wants you and to know and he wants us to know and he wanted this

Jews to know his bride wasn't just Jewish It was everybody Jew and Gentile because he's

Savior of the world Interesting story Jesus at a well

Moses at a well getting wives how wonderful well

I'm almost done to two three more stories It's Passover the last one

Jesus will ever eat with his disciples ever before his crucifixion

He knows what's coming he prepares a room and He tells the disciples just go there.

You'll find a guy. He'll tell you everything upstairs is ready And that's where we're gonna have Passover It is in this room that Jesus will transform the

Passover meal into the communion meal that you and I will have this morning Before he does that he takes off his clothes wraps himself in a towel and picks up a basin of water

You see Moses was God's water boy Jesus is God's water man and He begins to wash the disciples feet

Preparing them to come to the table. Do you know since you have been here?

All of this service long Jesus has been here he has had his basin of water as You sung the scriptures as the

Word of God was spoken to you as it was prayed over you God's Word has been washing you

Preparing you to come to this table And you know after he does that after Jesus does

He picks up the bread and he begins to break it and he says to the disciples

This is my body broken for you Take and eat

Do you know why he gives them that meal? Because the angel of death is coming again

And he is going to stand in for them his body will be broken and Then he takes the cup and he says this is my blood of the new covenant poured out for you drink ye all of it again

They will be marked So the angel of death cannot get near them

Because he will go and battle the angel of death for them on the cross

You think the Israelites got some good stuff when they ate the Passover?

We get everything Everything they had and more comes to us

Because of this communion meal because of what Jesus Christ has done and you know, he then goes to the cross

Where he dies for them He takes all the penalty for their sin into himself

He is crushed he is beaten He is nailed to a tree

Everything you deserved would come to him see he's the lamb that those

Israelites slayed All those years before and he has gone to the altar of his father and been placed on the fire and He has died for you

Do you know if you were an Israelite in Moses day he would have taught you that when it comes time to worship you would bring a lamb and That lamb would represent you and when you got to the tabernacle

You would rest your hand on your lamb and you would confess your sins as if they were going into that lamb and that lamb would be taken and it would be slain and it would be put on the fire and God would smell the aroma of that burning meat and He would be pleased and he would cover your sin

Jesus Christ is that lamb and he covers your sin

You know why? Because you're sinners I'm a sinner You know who

Jesus came to save? sinners praise be Because that's what we need and you know what?

I am still a sinner and I come every Lord's Day and I get to confess my sin and I get to be told your sins are forgiven because of him because of what he did

Do you know what a blessing it is to come to a church where you have communion every Sunday? Do you know if you go to a church where there is no no communion every

Sunday? You are lambless You are sacrificeless

You come empty -handed to the king But in this church your pastors have decided no you get this lamb every

Sunday and God is pleased for you to eat it You know what you've done to earn it just like those

Israelites of old nothing You're a useless sinner just like me.

I am a wicked weak -willed man living in a broken world whom Christ has saved and Said this is my table come and he offers everything

I ever needed now Jesus is on the cross

The religious leaders have sent him there they have caused

Pilate no end of just annoyance

Because they want Jesus killed and so they've gone to Pilate and said you need to crucify him

Pilate finds no fault in him says he's innocent But he beats him anyway

Hoping that this will assuage the Jews. Nope doesn't work They want him crucified and they tell

Pilate if you don't kill him. You're no friend of Caesar Pilate has no choice We're told that Jesus is nailed to a tree between two thieves right one on each side and Then These same

Jews come back to Pilate and they say again listen, it's a holiday

We can't have the bodies hanging up there Send somebody out there make sure they're dead and take them down if I was

Pilate. I Mean, I don't I didn't write this. I'd have been smacking those people upside their head

But he sends a couple of troops they go to the cross and They find the thieves still alive and they break their legs, you know, why when you're on a cross

All your weight is going down and all the fluid in your body's coming up Suffocating your heart and your lungs and you want to take a breath

You want your diaphragm to move down you have to pull yourself up on your wounds so you can breathe

So they break the thieves legs and they die so they can take them off the crosses then these soldiers come to Jesus and They say this amazing thing

He's dead Now if you want someone To know when someone's dead send soldiers who have seen death

They look at him. He's dead They know he's dead. They don't have to break his legs fulfilling another prophecy.

None of his bones will be broken But they decide let's stab him in the side

He's dead leave him alone No, they stab him in the side what comes out water and blood.

What are the two great sacraments? baptism and communion Embedded in the body of Christ right there on the cross

Last story You know who Jesus is called he's called the last

Adam. Do you know why? Because there was a first Adam the first Adam was a failure, right?

But when God created for six days, and he came to day six and he created

Adam Everything up till now has been good. Oh God I created light.

That's good Created water and divided the water into dry land. That's good. He gets to man and he says it's not quite good enough

Let me kill him cut him open and take from him some bits and pieces and Make a bride for him

Right The scriptures say that Moses and then Moses that Adam went into death's sleep

He was put to death and then he's resurrected from the dead by God and he's presented with this beautiful woman

Whom God is giving him to be a wife. I want you to listen to the words of Adam when he's presented with this woman

This at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man therefore a man will leave his father and his mother's house hold fast to his wife and They will be one

Do you know that's prophetic Jesus left his home

He left his father's house He came here to earth that he might have a bride and His side was cut open just like that first Adam See the

Bible's the same story over and over and over again Because because God wrote it and he knew it was gonna happen and he could meld all of these things together and so today

You are going to come to this great communion table this table provided to you by your husband and when your pastors offer you the bread and offer you the wine and When you eat the bread and you take the wine

Jesus is going to wrap you in his arms and He is going to pull you to himself and He is going to put his lips to your ears and he is going to say you are bone of my bone and Flesh of my flesh and We are one

And let me tell you You want to leave you can't get out

You think Satan can get in and pull you out? Oh, I'd like to see it happen

Impossible because you are in Christ That's what's embedded in these meals.

That's the love that Christ has for you. He has baptized you Into himself not just you but your kids too because he loves you all

He has made you part of his covenant family and he has provided himself as Your meal of life.

This is your freedom meal You come in Huh? You're bedraggled the week has worn you down and He just fills you back up and sends you back out full and strong and he says you are free and You are mine

Let's pray Father we thank you for the richness of your word We thank you for your sacrifice for us

We thank you for this meal that reminds us every week that we are free

Sinful and wicked as we may be you have chosen us to be yours and You have decided that you will make us better than we ever could be

As we eat this meal Thank you in the name of the