Pressing Toward the Goal | Pastor Cody Harlow September 7th, 2025- Philippians 3:12-21

But you guys are part of this too if you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. All right. Can you Does that sound hard to do? Do you think you guys can do that? >> All right. Let's pray. >> Dear heavenly father, Lord, we thank you for these children, Lord. And we thank you for your word. Thank you for the example of Paul running a race and being so going through so much. And Lord, we really don't have an excuse, Lord, to give up on the on

The call of that you have for us to follow you through through these valleys, through these hard times. Lord, we all go through them. We all sin. We fall short. But Lord, we just know that you have already given us the way out. You have already died for our sins and provided forgiveness for our sins so that we can be made right with you. And Lord, thank you for doing this and thank you for your son Jesus Christ and saving us and for the gift of salvation. We pray that you would encourage us all here today and encourage these little ones to go hard and to continue in their walk of faith, however it may look for them and to encourage others around us to continue as well. And we pray for Pastor Cody as he comes and gives us your word that you would give us ears to hear and eyes to see and hearts that are receptive and praise these things in Jesus name. Amen. Well, praise the Lord. Amen. For a great time of worship and fellowship this morning. Thankful to be here with you today. And be able to open up the word of God. We will be in Philippians chapter 3. So, if you have your Bible, and I hope that you do, turn there to Philippians chapter 3. We'll be in verses 12- 21 today. We're talking about how to press on because you see, it's one thing for Christ to take a hold of our lives. But it's a whole another thing to pursue Jesus with tremendous passion. Is the candy good today? It's a good candy. >>, when we It's a whole another thing to abandon our personal pursuits for the sake of Christ until we get to the Lord. Martin Luther, he described Christians as simal justice at pecore. That's a Latin phrase which means simultaneously justified, right? We are righteous in God's sight. While also simultaneously

Battling a sinful nature that threatens to dissuade us from our pursuit of God. Paul, he's going to talk about that today and the hazards that await us as believers. And so, if you would stand with me in honor of God's word as we read Philippians chapter 3, verses 12 through 21. God's word, it says this. Not that I've already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Jesus Christ has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way. And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you, even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their God is their belly. And they glory in their shame with mind set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. And so, Father, we do thank you for this time that we get to have together. We just thank you for your word. We thank you that it is living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword. We thank you for u the hope of the Gospel that we have by faith. And Lord, if there's anyone here that has not received that message of the Gospel, that does not believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that has yet to repent and trust in you, I pray that today

Would be that day. Deal with our hearts, Lord. Deal with our minds. Deal with our actions, Lord. And I just pray that you would make us more like you as we talk today about straining forward. Pursuing that prize of the upward call of God in Christ. I pray that you would help us to examine our ourselves and our actions and our priorities, God. Because ultimately the Christian life is about wanting you. And Lord, just do we want you? Do we want you, Lord? And I pray that you would just help us to deal with that question over and over today. God, we love you in Jesus name. Amen. Well, last week Paul, he showed us that everything in life is garbage compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus. And he wanted to be found in Jesus, not with a righteousness of his own, but with the righteousness that comes by faith, because that's how righteousness comes to us. His great desire was to know Jesus, to know Jesus deeper, to know him more intimately, and to share in his resurrection life. That is the goal of every Christian, or at least it should be. Paul, he quickly reminds us that he hasn't arrived yet, though, and that's very reassuring to someone like myself. He hasn't finished the race. Yes, his salvation is secure. He trusts in Christ. It's there. It's his. But the Christian life is a pursuit of the Lord Jesus. And in this passage, Paul, he shows us what it's like to press on towards that goal to live as citizens of heaven while waiting for Christ's return. So if chapter 3:es 1-1 asks the question, what do you value most? The passage that we're dealing with today asks, how do you live in light of what you value? And Paul, he's the first to admit that he is not a perfect person. Last week, he said that if anyone could have f he was good enough for salvation, it was him. If Paul were up here and talking, he would say,

"If you think that you're good enough for heaven, I thought I was better." And he had the evidence to back it up. But spiritually dead is still spiritually dead. You see, Christ, he first laid hold of Paul is what the passage says here. You ever heard an evangelist said, "Have you found Jesus?" Right? As though Jesus is the one that's lost. The truth is that we don't find Jesus. Jesus finds us floating face down in the deep ocean of our sin. We are the ones that are crushed by the severe weight of our own depravity and the sickness. We're the ones that are drowned in the frothy liquid of it. And God by his grace, he reaches down to us in the depths, pulls us out, breathes new life into us by the spirit of God, and he makes us new creations. Amen. >> Now, if you're not a Christian, you might think, "C, Cody, I don't feel the weight of the crushing weight of my sin, right? I kind of actually like my sin. It makes me feel good." Listen, how much weight does a corpse feel? If you were to put 500 lb on a corpse, nothing's going to happen to that corpse. It's not going to feel anything because it's dead. Dead things do not feel. But you know, if you put a living man, if I were to bring a man up on the stage and I were to hand him a big tub of water, do you think he's going to feel the weight of that? Absolutely. Even if you go into the water, you don't feel the weight of thousands of pounds of pressure all around you from the water because you're in it. But you know, you might be wondering, Cody, if I'm saved, why do I still struggle with sin? Why do I still struggle with anger or unforgiveness? Why do I why am I wrestling with this addiction or these habits? Well, Paul, look at what Paul says here.

He's not perfect. He hasn't arrived yet. In fact, struggling, wrestling against sin, fighting against sin is not proof that you're lost. It's evidence that you're alive. RC Sproul, he said that we're not sinners because we sin. We sin because we're sinners. Grace, it changes our nature. It changes our status instantly because we're justified. We're made right. But grace changes us progressively through sanctification. And so, why should we pursue growth in Christ if we're already saved? If we're already secure, why should we pursue growth in Christ? Well, we have to remember that the Christian walk is not a sprint. It's a marathon. We are pilgrims on a long journey to the celestial city to the city of God. We are we are on this path and we are on this journey and we are called to glorify the Lord. And we do this through confirming the new birth in our lives. We have been made new. Therefore, our lives and our priorities should be different. And the first step of obedience for every Christian, okay, is baptism after salvation. If you're a Christian and you haven't been baptized and you need to be baptized, you already heard this October 5th, we're doing that okay? But also our pursuit of Christ and growth in him, it brings us assurance of our salvation. When we walk with Christ and we walk in bold confidence that God has us secure, okay, that's when we have confidence. It's when we start to wander away from the Lord. It's when we begin to play with sin that we begin to wonder, am I a child of God? You see the when we continue on in sin, we struggle with despair. Similar to the prodigal son who was filling himself with the pods and he kind of comes to himself and goes, "What am I doing here? What why am I here? I am a son of God.

If you're a child of God, then you can come to the father. And why do you go to the father? Because you have a tremendous need to be saved. Without the father, you will perish. But when you come to the father and you say, "I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me a servant." You know what God does is he welcomes you in not as a slave, although we are slaves of Christ. He welcomes you back as adopted sons and daughters of God. You see, pursuing Christ as the goal also guards Christ's name. There are many so-called Christians that live their lives in such a way that others blasphe God. They say, "If that's Christianity, I don't want to have anything to do with it." Pursuing Christ also brings joy to your soul and it brings usefulness to the kingdom. Here's what Paul he says here in 1 Corinthians 9. He says, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we imperishable. I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control. Lest after preaching to others I myself might become or should be disqualified. You see when we live our lives in this fashion where we run with a goal and the purpose of seeking out the Lord knowing Jesus it gives us deep assurance of our salvation and that assurance does not breed apathy in the Christian walk. It becomes a source of effort and a confident assurance of our salvation. You see, it's like this. I don't pastor in order to be saved. I am saved and I am called. Therefore, I pastor because I rejoice in the Lord. It's like many of you that serve with ethnos. Okay? You don't you don't serve, right? In order to be saved,

You're you're saved and you're called. Therefore, you serve. And it's this motivation that allows us to run. This is the first point is the runner's race. The runner's race is what the goal of knowing Christ and becoming more like him. Being Christlike in the things that we do. Look at what First John says. It says, "Beloved, we are God's children now. And what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is already. Not yet. And what is the prize? What is the prize, brothers? I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straying forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. You see, the goal is Christ. That's the upward call of God. It's in Christ. Sinclair Ferguson, he often says that the pattern of the Christian life is the cross before the crown. And that's exactly true. We have a cross to bear on this path that God has for us. But what awaits us is glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's eternal life in his presence. But what will it take for us to successfully run in pursuit of this prize? First thing that Paul writes about is a holy dissatisfaction. We have to forget about what lies behind and press on. Christian, do you think back to your glory days that were 10, 20, 30 years ago? There are so many Christians that talk about their walk with the Lord in the past tense. God hasn't taught anything new with them. They haven't changed at all in the last 30 years. Why do you think that you know God if you're not changing? Why? The fact is that's evidence that

You may be. You may be. And I pray to God that you're not. But you may be spiritually dead. Are you dissatisfied with where you're at? Do you know Christ? Are you knowing him more? You should look ahead. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. It's in Christ that we are, not your past. Don't look backwards. Don't dare look back. That's what That's what the angels told to Lot and his wife. Don't you dare look back. Look forward to deliverance. Your past is not what you are to look for, but rather we are to look for the Savior. I've had the misfortune of meeting some people that make really loud professions about holiness and kind of this air of superiority. I mean, they're like they're super Christians in my mind when they present themselves, right? Like they know the lingo of Christianes and I find myself very intimidated because the way that they talk I'm not at that level at all. They're way above the rest of us, right? And I seem to be wrestling down here with my own human frailties. But oftentimes when I get to know some of those people, the more that I see them, the more that I understand that they have these lofty spiritual ideas and ideals, but when it comes to the right application of it, it's just rotten fruit. You know, there's no love, there's no goodwill, there's no forgiveness, there's no fellowship. It's just all platitudes. At that point, we have to be have a holy dissatisfaction. Holy In other words, we acknowledge where we're at. We agree. It's not okay to stay there. Second thing that we have to do according to what Paul says here is we give it maximum effort. Paul, he says, I press on. This means that we give our best effort in pursuing Jesus and knowing him.

Onward we go. Not thinking of ourselves as good enough but just seeking to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We also have a focused concentration when he says one thing I do one thing I do forgetting what lies behind that's sin that's success all of it if you are a Christian you are not defined by your past there are many Christians that want to go back and they want to hold on to that sin and say how could God forgive me for these actions that I did 20 years ago go. You're a new creation now. Quit going back to the sin. Quit reliving that and look to Christ, the one who redeems you and loves you and has forgiven all of that. >> We have to be focused in our concentration. He says that there is this full stretch in the Greek straining forward is what he says. Straining. We've all seen those videos of runners celebrating way too early before they finish a race, right? You know, we think of the Dallas Cowboys defensive lineman about to cross the goal line and >> fumble. Yeah. Not a Cowboys fan, by the way. But you know if those folks would have focused on the finish line, what would have happened? They would have won the prize. They would have finished the race. See, we're not to look back, but we're we're to look ahead at the goal. And the goal is Jesus. We also see here a strong motivation. It's the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. We talk about high callings when it comes to professions, but the truth is that if you are in Christ, then you have a high holy calling.

Amen. >> It doesn't matter what your profession is, you are sanctified because you have the Holy Spirit and therefore honor the Lord in what you do. We also learn about dependence on the Lord. Paul, he says that the mature think this way and that God will reveal the truth to you. For some of us, it may take a bit longer than others. I'll be the first to admit that sometimes, but God, he doesn't let his sheep do their own thing. The mature thinking of the Gospel is that we are we are formed and we are focused on what God has for us and we are fully dependent on the Lord. We were talking about this in my community group this morning that Paul he writes that just as we receive Christ by faith so we continue in him by faith. We also learn about consistent obedience. That phrase in verse 16, it says, "Let us hold true is the Greek word stokeo," which means to be in a formation for war. It's holding the battle line. It's like a soldier not breaking ranks. We don't falter. We stand firmly in Christ. And when we stand firmly in Christ, the blades of the enemy cannot harm us, nor can the fiery arrows of the evil one can ultimately do anything to us. We might get slain. Yeah. But guess what? You have eternal life in the Lord. And so, how can we keep running in this marathon that we call the Christian life? How can we continue not just for 10 years, for 20 years, for 30 years? You know, I looked up last night, I was like, how long did Forest Gump run in Forest Gump? You know, according to that movie, it was three years and four months that he ran, you know, and we laugh about that. But for us, the race is decades long. I know believers that are here that have been walking with the Lord for 60, 70 years. Praise God. Praise God for those examples. Amen.

But Paul, he gives us three tips on how we can keep on running. And that's imitating good examples, avoiding enemies, and awaiting the Savior. And so, you know, we learn about following good examples. We're called to follow good examples. Paul says, "Join in imitating me." This is not arrogance. This is embodied local disciplehip. Paul, he had personally invested in men like Timothy, like Apaproditis. And today you can look at elders. You can look at our senior adults that are here. Seasoned Christians whose pattern you can watch and you can imitate. Some of you are younger. Here's a verse for you. It says, "Let no one despise you for your youth, but setting but set the believers an example, in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity." You see, I get asked often times about from younger believers about who they should look to as a model of faith. And I say, "Listen, if they're on YouTube, okay, you can listen to them, but don't look to them as the model because they don't know your name. They don't care who you are." They don't. My immediate response is to find someone that's been walking faithfully with the Lord for at least a decade. Find someone that's doing ministry in a local church. Someone that's loving, prays, that will share Biblical truth and wisdom. Look for someone that wants to minister to you. Find a runner who is running toward Christ and then become someone that others can imitate as well. Because you see, Christians, we're called to imitate Christ. And if someone says they're a Christian and they're not trying to imitate Jesus, then they're not what they think that they are. We also learn about fleeing from enemies. Paul, he weeps as he warns the Philippians about enemies of the

Cross. I mean, it's been a while since I've warned you about false teachers, but they're on your TV. They're on YouTube. They're on CBN and TBN. They're wealthy. They give in to their desires. They have no shame in their preaching. They're riding roller coasters on the stage. Yeah seriously. I mean, when a pastor is wearing outfits that are as valuable as a month's salary for most people, there's a problem there. And it happens everywhere. Paul, he says that their eternal destiny is destruction. Don't follow people like that. Don't imitate them. Just because someone is personable, just because someone tells great stories and mentions Jesus doesn't mean that they're a Christian. They're probably pretty funny, but don't be charmed into destruction. Their God is their belly. That means that there it's their desires, not just gluttony, although obviously that it stems from every single area of life. As a Christian, our goal is not our happiness. It's not our retirement. It's not our comfort. It's Christ. It's God. It's what happens. Wh what happens when our desires take over and our motiv motivations become all about what we want. Then we fit this description. And we better take caution and we better repent. These people that Paul is writing about, they glory in their shame. Well, what does that mean? It means that they boast in their sin. It's just like what Paul wrote about earlier in Romans chapter 1. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. See, these people that wear their their their sin and their struggles as a badge of honor, and this can be any sin, not

Just the obvious ones or the popular ones to put down in our culture. See, their minds are set on earthly things. Means they're not living like citizens of heaven. They're setting their minds on things above. They're not setting their minds on things above. They're thinking in terms of how everyone else thinks. Paul, he contrasts this in another book where he says, "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died. You have died. If you are in Christ, you have died to yourself." And that old neck man likes to come back up from time to n time and you got to kill him. And your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears then you all you will also sorry then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you. Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and covetousness which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these, you too once walked. This is who we were. We were all of these things. We were just like that when we were living in them. But now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian cyian slave free but Christ is all and in all. So, we're not to listen to the people that practice those type of types of things.

Look to Christ. Look to your elders. Look to godly Christians that have a proven track record of faithfulness to Jesus. And also, we're to fixate on Gospel truth. So, if we are to follow good examples and we're to avoid bad ones, what are some principles that help us along the way? One of the things that Paul writes about here is to remember that our citizenship is into heaven. This is this is key to this passage because Philippi was a Roman colony filled with pride in the Roman citizenship. It was a retirement community filled with Romans that had served in the in their legions. And citizenship offered many privileges and protections and responsibilities. It's very similar to America where we have rights as citizens that others don't have. But Paul, he calls Christians at Philippi to understand that we are citizens of heaven. And that is a powerful a powerful identity truth when it comes to living for the Lord Jesus. It allows us to persevere when there's persecutions and heartaches and allows us to overcome temptations and trials. Why? Because we are not merely just humans. We are new creations where we are sons and daughters of the high king of glory. And Paul he also refers to our eternal hope. He writes we await a Savior the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body. You see, one day our bodies here on earth will be changed and transformed. Our final home, our final resting place is not heaven. It's the new heaven and the new earth. You see, when we go to heaven and we depart this earth and our bodies are here and our spirits go to be with the Lord, we don't have bodies in heaven. Okay? Our bodies are here on earth. And yet when Christ returns the our bodies

Will be resurrected and glorified and transformed into a body like Jesus's. And our hope is not some ambiguous state of unity with the divine but is spiritual and physical where we will be with God in new glorified perfect bodies. >> And what is the reward? It's heaven. Is it secure? Yes. It's paid for by Jesus. Is it something that we strive for? Yes. With all of our effort. And why? To pursue Christ and to be found in him. And the point here is that God himself is our hope. And he will raise us to enjoy him forever. And so we have to ask, well, what is what is the pathway? Let's put all of this together. The pathway is Jesus. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. He's our goal. He's our everything. To know Christ and to be a more like him. We call that Christlikkeness. That's our goal. And so, how do we get there? It's by turning away from our sin and trusting in Christ and abiding in him by the power of the spirit through the word of God. Here's what Paul says in other places. And we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is spirit. And it also comes through imitating faithful models, being watchful of enemies that seek to ensnare you and having a heavenly mindset. And so let's talk a little bit about our attitude. I mentioned those six things earlier. Okay, you got holy dissatisfaction, maximum effort, focus, concentration, strong defense, strong motivation, divine dependence, steady consistency equals pressing on to Christ until perfecting in glory. Okay. Well, what happens if you remove some of these things? What happens if you remove a holy dissatisfaction? I want you to hear me out. Like some of these things that they're going to slap

You and it's it's a pastoral slap. I'm not meaning it to hurt you, okay? But if you remove holy dissatisfaction, you know what you get in the spiritual walk is complacency. You see people that don't have a holy dissatisfaction? They think that they've arrived and they've grown stagnant or they've grown proud or they've grown embittered or frustrated. And so you settle for yesterday's growth instead of becoming more like Jesus today. That might be you. You don't have a holy dissatisfaction. If you take about out maximum effort there, you're at risk for spiritual laziness. See, God's grace doesn't cancel out our effort. Okay? It empowers our effort. When we stop straining or pressing, we are at risk of drifting away from the upward call of God in Christ. Without re e ef efort your good intentions just remain good intentions and so strain forward as Paul says so that way you can make progress in your own personal holiness with the empowerment that comes from abiding in God. Also we have focused concentration. If you take out focused concentration then you have distraction everywhere in your life. So keep your eyes on Jesus, forgetting what lies behind because your sins do not define you and neither do your successes. So don't cling to either of those. Cling to Christ. See here a strong motivation. What happens if you remove strong motivation is that you get aimlessness and you begin drifting. You lose sight of the prize. And so the race begins to feel pointless. And Christians may run without direction or without endurance or they may cease running altogether. Paul he says I press on toward the goal of the for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Without strong motivation effort becomes dredgery. Focus begins to drift towards earthly prices and consistency collapses under

Pressure. So you either quit the race or you chase the wrong finish line. Don't do that. Focus on the Lord. If you remove remove divine dependency, then you become self-reliance and all of your efforts then become moralism. You can run hard, but you're not running hard in the power and strength that comes from God. So Paul, he firmly grounds his walk because Jesus Christ has made me his own. Depend on him. Don't depend on yourself. If you take out steady consistency, then you get a Christian walk that's fits and starts where you start really hot and you really get into it and then two weeks later you're just done. You rededicate here and you stumble there and you quit. You don't persevere. And when you don't persevere, you don't finish the race. Paul, he says, "Only let us hold true to what we have attained." What have we attained? We've attained Jesus. And so remain consistent. Show up. Don't have zeal one day and apathy the next. And so what is your motivation? Let's go back here just to remind us. We are God's children. Now what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. You're not called to be a spectator in the race toward Christ. You're called to get fit in the word of God and in prayer. You're called to run to Jesus by loving, by serving, by trusting, by hoping, by pouring yourselves out just as Christ poured yourself out, but you pour yourself out not for the sake of the church, not for the sake of your neighbors. You pour yourself out for the sake of Jesus, which ultimately blesses your church and ultimately blesses your neighbor. So, what does this mean to you? Don't look to your past. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. Don't be reassured by accomplishments and don't despair because of your shortcomings. The

Question is, are you running towards Christ? And if you're not, why not? And my prayer is that you would make today the day that you pursue Jesus with all your heart. Head, heart, hand, head. God. He wants you to know that your salvation is secure, but your sanctification also requires effort. So, put your hand to the plow and don't look back. Look to the Savior and glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. Heart God. He wants you to know that Christ has made you his own. Therefore, you can run with joy. You see, because of your salvation, you can run. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God and hand. God. He wants you to forget what lies behind to imitate godly examples and to fix your eyes on Jesus. Now, the first Sunday of the month, as is our custom here at this church, we participate in communion and, it is an open table for every person that is a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, if you know where your eternity is and you're sure about that, praise the Lord. You can participate in us in, communion. If you're not quite sure, just let it pass by you. The Bible gives a lot of warnings about that, but I'm going to ask for Steve to come up h at this point in time and to lead us in what we call the Lord's supper. Brothers, if y'all would go ahead and make your way forward as we prepare our hearts and minds to partake in communion. You guys can go ahead and distribute the bread. While the men are passing out the elements, I'd like to read a verse

And give you about a half hour sermon on it, but I won't do that. In the account that Luke gives about the institution of the Lord's supper, it Jesus starts off by saying this in verse 15 of Luke 22. He says to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat the Passover with you before I suffer." He really, really, really wanted to do this. And this has come down for the last 2,000 years. He still really wants to commune with us. And so this celebration that we do as a part of our worship of Christ is something that he really wants us to participate in. He Okay, it's on. He's looking on us as his kids and he wants us to enjoy being his family. So as the bread comes around, just hold on to it. We'll take of it together. But what he says here, he says this is something he really, really, really wants to do. He's earnestly desired it. And so we in following him want to do the same thing. We want to participate with him in the communion that we are able to take because of the fact that we're his kids. In verse 19 here, Jesus says, "When he had taken some bread and given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." And so, Father, we do thank you that for what you have done for us and for what you've done in us. And we just want to participate in this supper as a remembrance, not remembering only what took place in the past, but what you have for us now and for the future. Thanks in Christ's name. Amen. These elements of the Lord's supper remind us of the fact that he gave his body, he died physically on the cross. And the song selection earlier, you must have wondered what's all this blood stuff. He bled, he died. And we look at the earthly death of Christ and we

Remember that he gave himself as a sacrifice. But what we really can't get a handle on is what he went through in taking on sin. Now, we're kind of used to taking on sin because we have a sin nature. We live with it. That's our problem actually. But Christ did not have that. He was perfect. He had no need to die. He did that for us. And not just the physical death, but at one point in time there, he took on the burden of the sin of the whole world. And that separated him from for the first time in all eternity from God the Father. So on the cross, he cried out, "My God, why have you forsaken me?" And it was because of our sin. So as we participate in this communion, let's ask the Lord to give us a real appreciation for what we have in Christ. He's given us this remembrance. So that we can really get a handle on it and then walk away into the future. Not just live in the past. Again from Luke 22 in verse 20 says, "In the same way he took the cup after they' eaten, saying, "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant. In my blood. So he has established that covenant with us and we partake of it and this symbolizes that partaking. Father, we thank you for what you did. We thank you for who you are and what you have done for us, but also what you are doing in us and through us. We thank you that you do give us the desire and the power to do what we should. So as we remember your sacrifice for us, Father, let us not just make it a thing that has happened in the past, but is what motivates us and empowers us to follow you now. Thank you in Christ's name. Amen. Let's drink together.

Thank you for coming. You are dismissed.