Sunday March 7, 2021 AM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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Good morning, everyone. It's good to see you all here this morning. We're glad to have you here at Sunnyside Baptist, whether you're here or joining us online.

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We'll get started with a few announcements this morning, looking ahead to the upcoming week.

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Obviously, today we have the Lord's Supper come back this evening for our evening service. That's at 530.

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And then Wednesday, 545, we'll have dinner here at the church. I think it's sub sandwiches.

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So that sounds good. And then at 630, Bible study and prayer for the adults and tag for the kids.

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And then looking ahead, Sunday, April 9th, that is going to be Easter Sunday. So we'll have our

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Easter Sunday service that morning. This week's fighter verse comes from Philippians chapter two, verses five through seven, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men.

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Just a reminder, we still do have some needs in the nursery area for a full -time worker during Sunday school time.

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And then there's a few other slots during the Sunday morning service that could be filled. So if you can volunteer in that aspect, we would appreciate it.

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Operation Christmas child donations are still going on throughout the year, small stuffed animals and toys this month during the month of March.

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And then there's still a few directory packets at the back. So if you haven't gotten one for your family to update your church directory, be sure and pick those up as well.

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All right. Any other announcements I'm missing this morning? All right. We're going to have a time of quiet preparation before worship service begins.

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And then when that concludes, Brian will open us in prayer. Father, we thank you for this beautiful day.

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And Lord, we're reminded that our faith is not weather dependent. The grave has no claim on us because you have set us free.

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You have broken every chain, brought us into the throne room of God.

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There is salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, he is our living hope.

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Hallelujah. We praise you this day.

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We praise you for each other in this place and the freedom to gather.

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And I worship you with open hearts and open minds and open hands that our souls might be refreshed, renewed, regenerated, encouraged.

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And the hope we have in a living God would be affirmed this day that the strength and perseverance and the boldness to share you with others would be assured.

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Father, we don't fully understand all of what you do for us and through us, but we don't have to.

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We just need to trust and obey. And it is through the blood, the death, the burial, the resurrection of your son, our

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Savior Christ, that we can have confidence in this day and the days ahead.

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Amen. Would you stay with me for our call to worship?

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Our passage this morning is found in Psalms chapter 59. We'll be reading verses 16 and 17.

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Read aloud together with me. But I will sing of your strength.

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I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.

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O my strength, I will sing praise to you. For you, O God, are my fortress, the

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God who shows me steadfast love. Our first song this morning is on page 76,

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O for a Thousand Tongues. To sing thy great

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Redeemer's praise, the glories of our sorrow cease.

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His music in the sinner's ears, his life and health and peace.

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He breaks the power of castle sin. He sets the prison free.

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His blood can make the foulest flee. His blood availed for me.

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My gracious master and my God, assist me to...

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If you would take your Bible, turn to Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 33 and be reading, starting in verse 13 through the end of the chapter, verse 29.

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So, Deuteronomy chapter 33, starting in verse 13. And we're continuing with the blessing with which

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Moses blessed the people of Israel before his death. All right.

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Deuteronomy 33, 13. And of Joseph, he said, blessed by the

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Lord be his land with the choicest gifts of heaven above and of the deep that crouches beneath.

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With the choicest fruits of the sun and the rich yield of the months. With the finest produce of the ancient mountains and the abundance of the everlasting hills.

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With the best gifts of the earth and its fullness and the favor of him who dwells in the bush.

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May these rest on the head of Joseph, on the pate of him who is prince among his brothers.

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A firstborn bull, he has majesty, and his horns are the horns of a wild ox.

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With them he shall gore the peoples, all of them, to the ends of the earth. They are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.

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And of Zebulun, he said, rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out, and Issachar, in your tents.

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They shall call peoples to their mountain, and there they offer right sacrifices.

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For they draw from the abundance of the seas and the hidden treasures of the sand.

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And of Gad, he said, blessed be he who enlarges Gad. Gad crouches like a lion, he tears off arm and scalp.

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He chose the best of the land for himself, for there a commander's portion was reserved, and he came with the heads of the people.

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With Israel he executed the justice of the Lord and his judgments for Israel. And of Dan, he said,

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Dan is a lion's cub that leaps from Bashan. And of Naphtali, he said,

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O Naphtali, sated with favor and full of the blessing of the Lord, possess the lake and the south.

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And of Asher, he said, Most blessed of sons be Asher. Let him be the favorite of his brothers, and let him dip his foot in oil.

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Your bars shall be iron and bronze, and as your days, so shall your strength be.

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There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens to your help, through the skies in his majesty.

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The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.

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And he thrust out the enemy before you and said, Destroy. So Israel lived in safety.

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Jacob lived alone in a land of grain and wine, whose heavens dropped down dew. Happy are you,

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O Israel, who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help and the sword of your triumph.

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Your enemies shall come fawning to you, and you shall tread upon their backs. This is the word of the

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Lord. Would you pray with me? Lord God Almighty, as we read these words of Moses, as he speaks these words of blessing upon the tribes of Israel, we are reminded,

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Lord, of your blessings upon us. And especially as Moses came to the end of all that and said,

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There is none like God, who rides through the heavens to your help.

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The eternal God, who is our dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.

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Lord, thank you for bearing us up, for holding us close, for walking with us and showing your grace and your mercy.

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Lord, this morning, as we are gathered together in this place, as we sing these songs of praise, as we hear your word read and preached, all of these things point us to Christ our

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Savior. And as we celebrate and observe the

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Lord's Supper this morning, and we're reminded of Jesus' death and burial and resurrection,

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Lord, may we rejoice in your faithfulness and goodness, in your tender mercies, in your steadfast love.

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We give you thanks for your love poured out upon Calvary's cross, in Christ's blood shed for us.

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We bow before you. We give you glory and honor and blessing and praise.

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In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Our next song this morning is going to be in our little black hymnals,

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Hymns Modern and Ancient, page 115. We'll sing

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The Power of the Cross. I think of the words of Apostle Paul that says,

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I think of the words of Apostle Paul that says,

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Yet not every evil deed

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Yet not every evil deed

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Christ began. Yet not every evil deed Christ began. The daylight flees.

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The daylight flees. Now the ground beneath Now the ground beneath is the victory in Christ.

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Christ is the power of the cross.

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Christ is the power of the cross. Christ began. Christ began. Set for us.

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Set for us. Put the blame. Put the blame.

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For the wrath we stand forgiven.

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I go to see my name written in the wounds.

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For through your suffering I am free.

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Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for gathering us here today.

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What a happy thing it is. We say to one another, let us gather in the name of the

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Lord. Let's come together and commune with Christ and rejoice in his gospel.

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In his life and death and resurrection and ascension. In his reigning and in his return.

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Father, I ask that you would help us today to give you the praise. Praise that you deserve.

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The praise that we ask that you would put into our hearts today.

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By the power of your spirit and the truth of your word. By the grace of Christ.

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Fashion us as a people of praise. We thank you for receiving our prayers and hearing us favorably.

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For inclining your ear to us all for the sake of your son. It is for his sake that we pray these things.

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Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles to Psalm 116.

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Psalm 116. Psalm 116. We are going to read verses 1 through 11.

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Here in a moment. The psalm teaches us that the

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Lord. The Lord who is praiseworthy in all things.

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Is trustworthy at all times. Whether we are in the fight for faith.

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Or if we are at the feast. In rejoicing and reflection upon all the good that God has brought into our lives.

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It doesn't matter what kind of time it is. The Lord who is praiseworthy in all things.

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Is trustworthy at all times. And we are compelled to consider the challenges of the fight.

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When we are suffering. When affliction is the best word to categorize.

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What we are experiencing. We are compelled to consider what does it mean to call upon the name of the

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Lord. In those circumstances. And then also to look at the feast.

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To look at when things are going well. What does it look like to depend upon the

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Lord then? What does it look like to fear the Lord then? And to give him praise. Whatever the time is.

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The Lord is trustworthy. Worthy of our trust. Worthy of us waiting upon him.

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Leaning upon his word. Giving him the reverence and the worship that he deserves.

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We talked a lot about the fight. That he hears us in our hurting.

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That he saves us in his goodness. And in that we have to begin.

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Not with what we are experiencing. But with who God is. How he has revealed himself.

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We must consider how he has revealed himself. Before we begin to talk about what's going on in our lives.

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We begin with what we know. And then we consider what we say. And that's what we've been studying thus far.

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In Psalm 116 verses 1 through 7. I invite you to stand with me as I read the first 11 verses of this psalm.

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These are the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through his spirit. According to his holy servant.

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I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he has inclined his ear to me.

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Therefore I will call upon him as long as I live. The pains of death surrounded me.

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And the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of the

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Lord. Oh Lord I implore you deliver my soul. Gracious is the

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Lord and righteous. Yes our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple.

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I was brought low and he saved me. Return to your rest oh my soul.

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For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death.

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My eyes from tears. My feet from falling. I will walk before the

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Lord in the land of the living. I believed therefore I spoke. I am greatly afflicted.

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I said in my haste all men are liars. And this is the word of the

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Lord. You may be seated. Do you ever have a kind of favorite preacher or favorite author that you followed for a while?

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And then they said or did something that made you kind of squint and it wasn't the only thing.

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And you find out that they had said other things that you had just kind of missed or glossed over and that made you a little more nervous.

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And as time went on, the stuff that they said and did and began to stand for just makes you outright queasy. There's nothing quite like discovering that someone you admire is not true.

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It's not true. I'm drawing upon the definition of the word true, the meaning of the word true from Webster's 1828.

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The second and seventh definitions, there were several explanations of the use of the word true in 1828.

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The second definition says this, genuine, pure, real, not counterfeit, adulterated, or false.

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So there's that definition of true. And then the seventh definition has more to do with sailing and construction.

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That definition says straight. The meaning of the word true is straight, right, as a true line, as a course of a ship.

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But these two things are related, are they not? Regarding those we admire, those that we follow, we would want them to be genuine, not counterfeit.

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And as we track along with their ministries or their influence, we can see from a decade ago or two decades ago where they are today, are they being true?

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Or has something changed? The other day

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I bought several two -by -fours long before the price of wood went up. If I had known that wood was going to go up,

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I would buy a lot more. But I had several two -by -fours, and I brought them home, and I look at each one of them because I don't trust the hardware store to sell good stuff.

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So I just, I'm one of those that just stands there in the aisle and looks at every single board before I put it on to my dolly.

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And I thought that I had gotten 18 straight, true two -by -fours.

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But one of them was not. I don't know how it got in. It's still in my garage.

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I don't know what to do with it. It is so warped and crooked. It is so twisted and bent.

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I don't know what it's good for other than this illustration. It is so warped and twisted, it reminds me of a politician's career.

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I thought I had something good, but apparently it was not. We've all had that experience of considering whether somebody is true and genuine and straight and consistent and so on.

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But what about you? What about you? I'll never forget

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Brother Ralph's definition of integrity. What you think and what you say and what you do all agree.

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But what about here in our text in terms of a true course of what we say, a genuine and straight course in what we say?

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Do we say hallelujah inwardly? Do we say hallelujah upward?

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Do we say hallelujah outward? Do we concern ourselves with the worthiness of God and the praise of God when we speak to ourselves and when we speak to him and then when we speak to others?

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Are those all in agreement? Because we look at the

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N word in verse 7 where the psalmist says, Return to your rest, O my soul, for the

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Lord has dealt bountifully with you. He's telling himself, soul, get back to your rest.

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Go back to your place for the Lord is bountiful. He has been faithful and he has been gracious.

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And so he gives this. That's the N word hallelujah. Verse 7. Look at verse 8.

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Here is an upward hallelujah. He turns his attention from within telling his soul to get back to his rest and then he immediately goes back to his rest.

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He immediately goes back to his rest by praising the Lord, by moving the attention and his affections to the

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Lord himself. He says, for you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears and my feet from falling.

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This really is the explanation of the last part of verse 7 where he says to his soul, the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

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In what way? Well, notice what he says in verse 8. Three different praises.

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He's delivered me from death. He's delivered me from tears. He has delivered me from falling. The Lord indeed has dealt bountifully with me.

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The first is death. He says, you have delivered my soul from death. He's praising the

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Lord. He's giving him glory and honor because why? You have delivered my soul from death.

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Death because of Adam. Those of Adam's bone suffer

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Adam's bane. Death. But he says, you have delivered my soul from death.

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The very essence of my life, you have delivered my soul from death.

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And what death has God delivered him from? The concern is soul death, not just physical death, not just material death.

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If it's, you have delivered my soul from death, then what is he praising the Lord for? He's delivered him from all the death that Adam brought in.

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He says, you have delivered my soul from death. That means spiritual death. Dead in trespasses and sins.

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Dead to the joys of God. Dead to the word of God. Dead to the life with God, communion with God.

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You've delivered my soul from death, spiritual death. Not being able to know or believe or rejoice in the truth.

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Not being able to rejoice in the light. But fearing the light, always running off into darkness, suppressing the truth in unrighteousness.

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He says, this soul death, you have delivered me from that. So that now

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I'm alive. Not only spiritual death, but eternal death. That my soul is no longer being described by death.

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Defined by death. Destined for death. That all I have to look forward to is death.

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You've delivered me from that. My prospect is life. My future is life.

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You've delivered my soul from death. There's even the hope of resurrection, is there not?

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To deliver my soul from death means that my soul will not always be with a body of death.

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A body that is corrupted because of sin. A body that is outwardly decaying.

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But my soul has been delivered from death. Not delivered from a physical body, but delivered from death.

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Meaning that there's going to be life in my future. And my soul will be joined with a resurrected body that knows nothing but life.

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So he's praising the Lord for his soul's deliverance from death.

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How does God deliver us from death? How does God deliver someone from death?

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By his word. And by his power. And by his son.

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In Psalm 119, verses 92 and 93, we read this.

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Unless your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction.

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I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life.

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God brings us life by his word that we are born again through imperishable seed.

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The word of God, the word of the gospel preached to us.

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We are born again through the grace of a living word. He delivers us from death by his power.

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The word delivered has many strong visuals attached to this word.

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When he says you have delivered my soul from death, he says you have plundered my soul from Satan.

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Who has the power of death. You have drawn out my soul from the grave of sin.

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You have plucked me from Hades. You have exiled me from the camp of death.

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These are all the different words associated with this word delivered. God has done that by his power.

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God who is the God of life, who gives life, who creates life. He is the one who delivers our souls from death.

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He does it by his word, by his power, and by his son, Jesus Christ.

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We say you have delivered my soul from death. How is that? It is only through Jesus Christ, in whom death dies.

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It's an old title from a Puritan, the death of death in the death of Christ.

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That by the death of Christ upon the cross, and his resurrection from the grave, death meets its end.

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He is the first fruits of the resurrection. The first born of the resurrection.

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The first to be raised to die no more. Death has no more dominion over him. And when we are in Christ, God delivers our souls from death.

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So that, as Jesus says, he who believes in me will live even if he dies. And he who believes in me will never die, for we will be raised with him on that last day.

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So we give praise to God for delivering our souls from death.

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We say to ourselves, soul, rest in the Lord. Why? The Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

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If you can't remember anything else of how bountiful God has been to you, I understand.

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Depravity makes us forgetful. Makes our eyes dull and nearsighted.

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But if we don't think of anything else, think of this. We have reason to give hallelujah to the Lord. We have reason to praise the

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Lord because he has delivered our souls from death. And our eyes from tears.

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Notice the parallel. Even as the soul has been delivered from death, so also the eyes have been delivered from tears.

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What's the parallel? So that as the soul is saved from death, so that death is no longer the defining characteristic of the soul.

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As death no longer captivates the entire future of the soul, so also the eyes are delivered from tears.

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So that the eyes will know more than simply tears.

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That the eyes will not only know tears and be defined by tears.

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That the eyes have some other future other than tears. And the sorrows and the afflictions and the troubles in our world.

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How can our eyes be saved from tears? Well, through his word.

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Through his power. And through his son. Is how our eyes are saved from tears.

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Verse 50 in Psalm 119. This is my comfort in my affliction.

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For your word has given me life. Verse 76. Let I pray your merciful kindness be for my comfort according to your word.

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To your servant. How is it that when we mourn, we do not do as those who have no hope.

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When we mourn, we do as those who have a defined hope. That there is even a structure.

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Yes, even a limit to our mourning and our grief. That it is not unending.

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That it is not without definition. There is still hope. Think about the book of Lamentations.

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Think about the book of Lamentations. What a sorrow filled book.

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But how structured is it? How structured? Four of the five poems are alphabetical acrostics.

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Structured around the alphabet, the Hebrew alphabet. To which God communicated with his people.

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The word is being written down. The central poem, the central lament. Is structured in a triple fashion.

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Even more organized. And at the heart of it, we have those great verses. Great is your faithfulness.

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Your mercies fail not. Your compassions are new every morning. And even at the end of it, the last chapter in Lamentations.

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We are left with the believer on his knees looking upward to God. The saddest book in the

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Bible, Lamentations. Is not frayed and disorganized and endless.

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That when we, as those who are born again and saved by the

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Lord. Those who rejoice in the Lord. Our eyes are saved from tears. Not that we never cry.

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But that is no longer the defining characteristic. That death is not our identity and neither is sorrow.

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And he does this through his word. He comforts us. He does this by his power. He takes away our tears by his power.

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As he mightily answers prayer again and again. And in his sovereign goodness.

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As we know he is bringing about good. Through all of our suffering.

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Through all of our affliction. He is always bringing about good. And that is how he delivers our eyes from tears.

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There is an end to our crying because of his power. And because of his son Jesus Christ.

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We confess our sins. If we confess our sins.

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Now if we say that we have no sin. If we say we have no sin. We are deceiving ourselves.

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And his truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned. We make God a liar and his word is not in us.

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But if we confess our sins. 1 John 1 verse 9. If we confess our sins. If we agree with God about the nature of our sins.

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The sinfulness of our sins. Exposed by his perfect law. If we confess our sins.

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He is faithful. And just.

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To forgive us of our sins. He is faithful to the accomplished work of Jesus Christ.

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Upon the cross. He who knew no sin. God made him to be sin in our place.

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And for our sake. So that he would be judged under the wrath of God.

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That he would satisfy the holy justice of God. Propitiating the wrath of God.

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So that God is faithful to the finished work of Jesus Christ.

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To forgive us our sins. And in fact he is just. He is perfectly right to do this.

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He is not sweeping justice under the cosmic rug. In order to forgive us and release us from the guilt that we bear.

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But he is being absolutely right. Completely just.

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He is absolutely justified. In justifying the sinner.

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Because of Christ's death upon the cross. In our place. And for our sake.

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So if we confess our sins. If we agree with God about the sinfulness of our sins. And we are on God's side.

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Over and against our own sin. Against our own selves. We agree with God about this matter.

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Confessing him to be holy and righteous and good. And that we are sinners. We find in God somebody who is faithful to Christ.

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And just in Christ. Who forgives us our sins. In which

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God releases those sins. No longer holds them to our account.

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They have been put upon Christ's account. And he has suffered for them in full upon the cross. And he has taken them away in his death.

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As far as the east is from the west. He has no hold upon these sins.

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They have been imputed to Christ. Accounted to Christ. But he gives unto us.

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The very righteousness of his son Jesus Christ. Who always pleased his father. He is righteous and just to forgive us our sins.

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He will no longer hold our trespasses against us. They are upon Christ.

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And Christ's righteousness he grants to us. For he not only is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

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But also to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. A cleansing that happens in God's eyes.

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When we are in Christ. A cleansing that happens throughout our lives.

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As God delivers us and washes us from all of our sins.

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Will we be perfect before we die? No, but we will be perfect after we die.

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Do we have hope that we can be cleansed of sin in this life? Yes. Is there a sin that you can name?

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Where you say, God has no power to deliver me from this sin in this life. Can you name a single sin like that?

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I would not dare to do that. The promise is that he will cleanse us from our sins.

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Remember that John is writing to Christians. And he's saying if you say that you have no sin. If you say that you have not sinned.

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You're not believing what God has said. But he's also promising cleansing from sin.

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That we can have victory over sins. We should not be walking around pointing to ourselves and saying.

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Well, I'm a rotten no good sinner. I'll always be that way. The Bible promises that there will be no victory over sin in this life.

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That is not true. And again. There's not a promise that we'll be sinless in this life.

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But there is promise for cleansing for sin. There is promising for victory over sin. There is, in fact, a very clear distinction.

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That we are not to be slaves of sin. Slaves of Christ. Slaves to God.

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Presenting ourselves unto righteousness in his name. So we give hallelujah. We give hallelujah.

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Praise to the Lord. Because he delivers us. Our souls from death.

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Our eyes from tears. I spend time talking about forgiveness from sins.

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Because is it not true that this is the reason why we weep.

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Because of our sins and the sins of others. But Christ has come to destroy.

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To destroy the works of the devil. And so he delivers our eyes from tears by his word and by his power and by his son.

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He also saves our feet from falling. Says he saves. You have delivered my soul from death.

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My eyes from tears. And my feet from falling. Now again, when you look at the word soul.

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We immediately think spiritual. The inner man. The immaterial inner man.

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But the word soul does have that idea of breath. The nafash. As God breathed the breath of life into Adam.

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And he became a living soul. Living nafash. So you still have some physical expression to help us understand.

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What does it mean that we have a soul. Our very breath. But then also eyes.

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Are we only concerned about the physical eyes here. Now we're talking about sorrow are we not. And are not eyes in the teaching of Jesus.

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The connection between the outer and the inner man. Eyes are the light of the body.

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But then also feet. This is not merely about where we place our feet.

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And how we walk in and out of the church building. And how we tread about our homes obviously.

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The direction. Direction and progress. That's the understanding of the poetic image of the feet.

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And here the psalmist is saying. You're the one who delivers my feet from falling.

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So if we're going to think about where we are in our affliction. If we're going to think about where we are in our suffering.

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In the fight for faith. Let us give a hallelujah to the Lord. For delivering our souls from death.

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And our eyes from tears. That in fact. Not only do we have comfort now. But yes he will wipe every tear from our eyes.

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And he keeps our feet from falling. Stumble, yes.

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Difficulty, yes. But will we ultimately fail? No. Who keeps us from falling?

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The Lord does. What a comforting thing to praise the Lord about. In the midst of the struggle.

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To say, Lord you're the one who keeps me from falling. In the sense that I may be down.

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But I'm not permanently down. I've stumbled but I'm going to get back up.

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This is difficult but it's not the end. Why? Because of God. Because of God.

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And he deserves praise for this. That he delivers our feet from falling. That we are not going to ultimately end up in the wrong place.

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Or we're not ultimately going to end up failing to make any progress at all.

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Everything that we have in our lives. We can praise the

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Lord. You have kept it from being utterly lost and destroyed. Psalm 119.

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We are reminded that he keeps us from falling through his word. Verse 101.

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I have restrained my feet from every evil way that I may keep your word. 103. How sweet are your words to my taste.

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Sweeter than honey to my mouth. Verse 133. Direct my steps by your word.

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And let no iniquity have dominion over me. Verse 165.

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Great peace have those who love your law. And nothing causes them to stumble.

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God has given us his word. So that he keeps our feet from falling. Directs us in the everlasting way.

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He does this by his word and by his power. Jesus says, all the

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Father has given to me. Unfailingly come to me. And none of them will fail.

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All that the Father has given to Christ is in the hand of Christ. In the hand of the Father. And nobody can snatch us out of his hand.

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Those are the promises of Christ. That he keeps us from falling. The promise is that he knows his sheep.

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And we hear his voice. And we follow him. And we have the most excellent shepherd.

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Who keeps us from falling. As we think about.

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As we think about. The praise being offered to God here by the psalmist.

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In Jerusalem. Having come back from the exile. He's giving praise to the

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Father. Giving praise to God. For delivering his soul from death. And his eyes from tears.

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And his feet from falling. God had preserved them. And brought them back successfully. Back to Jerusalem.

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He did not let them die along the way. In fact, he has delivered his eyes from tears. How they wept and cried.

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When they saw the small pathetic little foundation. Where they were going to rebuild the temple.

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But God has delivered his eyes from tears. And they were surrounded by these pagans.

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Who were in a religion of death. But he has been delivered from that. He has been brought back to worship

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God. In the land of the living. How much more so do we give praise to God.

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To give an upward hallelujah. On this side of the cross. No longer in the shadows.

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But we have the true substance Jesus Christ. That we are saved. Our souls are saved from death.

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Our eyes are saved from tears. Our feet are saved from falling. That should be our table conversation today.

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As we gather for communion. As we gather to this meal. I mean, what do you talk about around the table?

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What do you talk about around the table when you have your meal? Here in this meal we gather purposefully.

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Around the elements that memorialize the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

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Here our table conversation should be that of directing praise upward. Upward for God's bountiful dealings with us.

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Return to your rest. The Lord has dealt bountifully with you. How do we know that?

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We know that in Christ. By his broken body. And by his shed blood.

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By his substitutionary sacrifice as God's own lamb.

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Our souls are saved from death. Our eyes are saved from tears. And our feet are saved from falling.

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Let's pray together. Father, we come to you today. You deserve this praise.

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No matter what else goes on.

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The individual circumstances in our lives. The particular detailed stories that we share with one another.

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About how we've ended up where we are in this moment. We have this praise that we can share together.

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When we are gathering together to commune in Christ. We give you praise for delivering our souls from death.

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Delivering our eyes from tears. Delivering our feet from falling. All through the person and work of your son

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Jesus Christ. So Father, I ask that you would help us to share this meal together.

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And that you would be honored and glorified in our table conversation this morning. We pray these things for Christ's sake.

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Amen. Our song of communion this morning is going to be on page 75.

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Praise the Savior. Praise the

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Savior. What a joy it is to share a communion meal together.