What Are You Most Aware of?
What are you most aware of?
The desire of every believer should be Christ above all. Our every thought, action, and joy should be lived with an awareness of God above all else.
So let me ask you again, "What are you most aware of?"
For some, the answer will be easy. Work? Debt? Your family, your wife, perhaps your children? Maybe that guy or girl? Or the baby that's on the way. "What are you most aware of?"
How gracious was God to give us this reminder, every time we gather together, to stop, to take a piece of bread and a cup of juice, and refocus our awareness on Christ, a Christ that is so amazing, so powerful, so glorious that when we are in His presence in eternity it will be our desire to do nothing else but to worship Him. So take this time to refocus on Christ, to remember Christ, and to proclaim to God with the Psalmist, that there is nothing I want more than you.
But let's go a little deeper. When you consider Christ, what are you most aware of? Are you most aware of all that you haven't done? Are you most aware of your sin? Are you most aware of all that you are doing or have done to serve Him? Self-effort & pride are indicators that you are more aware of yourself than you are of God. Dave Harvey writes, "When we live more aware of what we need to do than of what Christ has already done, we're drifting-and this is not uncommon."
So what are we to do? We preach the gospel to ourselves. That is exactly what Paul explains we are doing when we follow Jesus' instructions to take the Lord's supper. So when the bread and juice comes down the rows, take it, and then consider Jesus' final words, "It is finished." He has finished and accomplished all that had to be done to bring you to God. So let us proclaim the Lord's death together and sit as recipients filled with faith that God has done what we could not, to bring us to Him, our greatest joy.
Be most aware of Christ and his finished work.
If you desire God above all else and if you trust in nothing other than Him to bring you to Him, even if this is your first time at this church, take the bread and the juice. But if you have hopes in your own self effort--your good works or your good intentions-to get you to heaven, consider the good news. God came to earth as a man to do what man could never do, and God punished Jesus on the cross, not for his sins, but for mine and for yours. What do you have to do? Like a beggar, receive with faith. So even if this is the first moment that you have trusted in Jesus for salvation, take the Lord's Supper with us. But if you do not desire God or do not trust in Him alone, we're glad to have you here, but please let the bread and juice pass by, but talk with me, one of the elders, or whoever brought you after the service at the grill out.
(The above is the transcript from my Lord's Supper meditation at Grace Bible Church on 3/2/2008)
