What If I Don't Like the People at My Church?

6 · The pastor signals the sermon's structure: three sections beginning with Paul's rebuke

Now, 3 sections today. The first is this: a rebuke.

7 · The pastor unpacks verses 17-19, showing how Paul rebukes the Corinthians for gathering in a way that causes harm rather than good

Paul gives them a rebuke. It's not me versus them. In fact, in verse 17, Paul makes an extraordinary statement. He says, "In the following instructions, I do not commend I don't commend you because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. He says quite literally that the church, whenever it meets, is doing more harm than good.

That's pretty bad, right? At least you're aiming for neutral, like, oh, that was, well, I don't know what we did, but we did, you know, at least it didn't hurt anyone. No, it's actively hurting people every time they get together. And this is what he describes, verse 18. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you.

Now, so there's these divisions that he says there have to be some kind of divisions because there have to be people acting like Christians and people not acting like Christians. And we've seen this throughout the whole letter so far for these last 11 chapters. When the church gathers, they are sectioning themselves off often between, for example, those with cultural power and those without cultural power, those who are known in Corinth, those who are not known, those who have special spiritual spectacular gifts and those who have the normal gifts like administration or mercy, not the cool gifts, right? They're dividing themselves along these lines. They divide themselves along Jewish and Gentile lines, on rich and poor lines, on those who are slaves or indentured servants or freedmen, or those who are perhaps Roman citizens and those who are not Roman citizens.

And in a way, if you think about it this way, the Corinthians are coming together and they each have their own jersey on. They each have each team that they are playing for. And when they arrive through the doors of the church, they arrive marked by their own team.

8 · The pastor exposes the shocking disorder at the Corinthian Lord's Supper — some arrive hungry with nothing, others bring ostentatious feasts and refuse to share, and still others get drunk

And this is so bad, this is so bad that they've done this even with the Lord's Supper as part of the church. Now look at what's going on in verse 20. "When you come together," he rebukes them, he says, "it's not the Lord's Supper that you eat." Meaning, whatever you're doing, it's not the Lord's Supper. Don't call it that. Don't put the Lord's name on that. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk.

Verse 22. I love Paul's response. What? That's his— I mean, I don't know of another statement like that in the Bible as Paul's writing the churches. He just, he doesn't know what to say.

He just says, what? What? Like, that's— have you ever been there as a parent? You just don't even have to say. You just go with, "What?" Like, that's where Paul is right here.

And here's what's happening apparently. So in the Corinthian church, they would, at the end of the service, they would have the Lord's Supper, but they would also have something of a potluck. They would eat a full meal together at the end of the service, and the Lord's Supper was sort of part of that meal together. And here's the problem. Some were coming in, were very poor.

They barely had anything to bring in. Maybe just, you know, some— I guess the border equivalent is just whatever's at the bottom of the pot of rice and beans. They're just grabbing and bringing with them. Or a few stale leftover pieces of bread, right? Whatever they've got to eat.

There's no meat, there's no protein. It's just whatever they can subsist on. They're bringing this in, they're joyful, they're celebrating, but they don't have much. And yet others in the church that have— well, they have resources, they are bringing in the finest of foods. And in some ways you could read into this and think, I think actually there's some one-upsmanship, you know, going there, like, oh, You've got a burger there, bud.

Well, this is a 12-hour smoked brisket.

You want to taste this bad boy? You can't, it's mine. You know, like there's that. Or, you know, you even have the people that are like, oh great, we just bought whatever we have on hand. It's this old champagne and caviar.

I mean, not the best we have, but at least it's something, right? Like this is where they're coming in and you're realizing this is so terrible. You have people who can barely eat and people eating just ostentatiously. And then even worse perhaps, there were some people who didn't even care what they were eating. They came to party.

They are getting drunk at the meal that the church is eating together. They're like, "Let's rage!" Right? And you just think, "Okay, how is this okay? How is anybody like—" How does this happen in the first place? How does anybody think any of this is okay?

9 · The pastor turns the rebuke toward the congregation

And you might be tempted, like me, to read that and go, unbelievable! I would never do that! But here's the reality, guys. This church and this example and these verses have been preserved for us. Right?

If it was just something that was a problem in the Corinthian church, I don't think the Lord in His holy Word would have preserved this specific example. I think In God's wisdom, he knows that while the expression may be a little bit different, all of us deep down come in with the same attitude many times. And what is that attitude? The attitude is each one goes ahead with his own meal, meaning each one arrives only thinking about themselves.

You might wonder, okay, well, how could the rich people not see the problem of eating these ostentatious meals right in front of people who have nothing?

And the answer is they didn't see it because they didn't see anyone else. They only saw themselves, right? Or the drunkards. You think, man, how could you be thinking that that's okay? That's going to be disruptive to the service.

It's going to be distracting. It's going to be sinful. You're going to be sitting in front of everyone. How is that okay? How are you not seeing that?

They weren't seeing it because they were only seeing themselves. Now look, you might think, okay, well, I don't have that problem. But we too can easily arrive at the church gathering or at the church life or community group or Sunday thinking only of ourselves. This is not a Corinthian problem. It's a Christian problem.

10 · The pastor tells the story of a man who optimized his Sunday morning experience by attending worship at one church and preaching at another, treating both as service providers rather than covenant communities

I'll give you one illustration. A number of years ago at my wife's church back in Maryland, there was a guy that became somewhat infamous because it was discovered— it was an odd thing. It's like he always showed up halfway through the service. And upon discovery, as the pastors talked to him, they discovered that he Well, he was excited because he figured out how to have the best Sunday morning experience he possibly could. And what he figured out was this: there was one church he loved that had the best, in his opinion, the best music.

Oh, just, you just enter into the worship there. I mean, it's just powerful, just gets you right here. But the preaching was, ah, it was so-so, you know, kind of a letdown after the music. Where this other church I think it was my wife's church, that he thought the preaching there is wonderful. Ah, I just feel it right here in my chest every Sunday.

Just, ah, love it. But the worship was like, ah, it's fine. A lot of the songs have a lot of words. You know, songs I don't know, you know, stuff like that. And so he discovered something.

If he timed it just right, he could arrive, sing and worship with one church, get in his car, grab a coffee, be at the preaching of the word at the next church. Perfect Sunday, right? And both churches began to be like suspicious at a certain point. Why are you only here for half the service? And he just was excited.

He explained, well, this is what I'm doing. Isn't that great? And the pastors had to go, no, it's not great. But you see how he got there, right? What's he thinking?

He's thinking of the church not as, well, not as what it is, as we'll see in a minute, but rather as a service provided to him. He's thinking only of his own experience. He's not thinking about those around him that might be alarmed or, you know, taken aback to see somebody leave in the middle of the service and not come back every week. He's thinking only of himself. And that's the problem.

Right?

11 · The pastor diagnoses the American church's adoption of consumer culture — thinking of ourselves as customers, churches as service centers, and pastors as customer service reps

And here's— let me just say this, I think one of the One of the problems that we as the American church have is that we have brought into our churches and our lives and our mindsets much of the consumer mindset we carry outside the church. We begin to think of ourselves as customers or as consumers, and the customer in our culture is always right, aren't they? Catered to, and services become, well, services provided by churches to people. Pastors or staff become nothing more than customer service providers, and you begin to think of the church in completely individual terms. And I think Paul the Apostle would look at our American mindset and say, "What?" Right? "What are you doing? You are not a customer service center. You are not consumers walking in to find the best product. That is a profound misunderstanding of what the church actually is, and yet I think we got to ask ourselves, is there any sense in which I arrive at church, where we arrive at church, thinking only of ourselves?

Thinking only of— I mean, imagine sitting through a sermon one time, but you think, okay, man, well, this sermon has nothing to do with me. Right? How many times have I thought that as I'm sitting under sermons? Well, good. Nothing to do with me.

And yet, if we're a body, it changes our mindset. We go, you know what? Actually, I think this would be such an encouragement to somebody in my community group. This is exactly where they've been living. Oh Lord, help me to pray for them right now that the Lord would encourage them through this.

Right? You see the difference in the mindset there? Rather than just going, what benefits me? To what benefits us? And then the outgrowth of this is that a me mindset creates factions and division within the church.

12 · The pastor identifies a modern expression of factionalism: online tribes that supplant the flesh-and-blood local church

Eventually, all of the people thinking individually find others that think the same way they do, that have the same— maybe it's like the super spiritual gifts club. All those people are like, yeah, we're the spiritual gifts club. We're the learned book club. And we're going, yeah, we're going to— those people out there, they've never read a good book in their life. What is that?

You know, get out of that. You know, is that a— oh, Billy Graham. Ha! I used to remember when I liked Billy Graham. Or, you know, whatever.

You're just— you're comparing and finding people and judging those around you, and it becomes a me versus them.

Look, the reality is this, I think.

Let me just, yeah, I'll drop into this for a second. I think one of the challenges in our age that is unique to our particular century and context is this. It is very easy to find online communities in which you identify outside of the flesh and blood people around you. Right? Meaning that you find your tribe online, whoever those people are, right?

The people who think politically just like you, or think about this candidate exactly like you, or who think about parenting just like you. Like, "Ugh, I don't want to be one of the gentle parents," or "I don't want to be one of those parents." And you find your rallying cry around that, or a schooling method, or a political kind of subset of a political ideology or a specific subset of theology. And here's the thing, you can find any of those people instantly. Drop into a discussion group, right, or a Facebook group or an Instagram community and feel like, "Oh, these are my people finally," right? I'm still looking for that group of half Hispanic, half Southern people who like vinyl records and tattoos but also chimichangas and tacos and like like flour tortillas instead of corn.

Like, I'm— that subset I'm looking for. I haven't found them yet. But it's easy to drop in and go, "Okay, these are my people," and feel connected to them in a way you don't with the people sitting in the room, flesh and blood around you, right? To feel like, "These are my people, not these people." And let me just say this, friends, that that is is deadly to the church of Jesus Christ. That is upside down biblically.

Our family is the flesh and blood family around us. Our community, our primary community has to be the flesh and blood people around us, not people out there somewhere that we've never even met.

13 · The pastor closes the first section with a direct question to the congregation — are you fighting the 'me' mindset and the factionalism it produces? — and then signals the transition to the second major section: Paul's reminder about the Lord's Supper

And so, the question is this. Are you fighting the me-centered mindset as you come, and are you fighting the factionalism and division that may come them as well. That's the first, the rebuke.

Second, a reminder. A reminder.

14 · The pastor exposes Paul's rhetorical strategy: rather than pile on more rebuke, Paul transitions 'hard left' into the institution narrative of the Lord's Supper

Now, if you're looking at this situation in Corinth, there's a lot of things I'd like to say, all right? And this is why the Lord is such— is so helpful. He provides a model for me when I would just say, "What?" And then I would say a number of other things.

And yet Paul Paul, looking at this disjointed, disconnected, rivalrous group of people in front of him, goes to a profoundly unexpected place. Look at his transition. He rebukes them, and then verse 23, for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, and when He'd given thanks, He broke it and said, He says, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." All of a sudden, a hard left turn into the Lord's Supper. And what he's doing is profound.

What he's doing is he's moving them from thinking me, or thinking them, to thinking about us. And he does it with that phrase, "This is my body, which is for you." for you. Now, there's a sense in which, and there's a way to read that which is accurate, to say, okay, this is my body which is given for Ricky, and I'm grateful, right? I receive with gratefulness his body given for me. But that is not actually the text exactly.

The text is plural. The you is plural. When Jesus tells his disciples He tells them plural. When Paul communicates this to his church, he tells the church plural, which means this: that it would be more accurate not to read it as, "This is my body which is given for Ricky," but rather, "This is my body which is given for Ricky and Chuck and Mary and Marianne and Hedda and and Monica and all of us, right? This is my body, Jesus says, which is given for you, for all of you.

You see what Paul's doing? He's saying, stop thinking me, stop thinking them, start thinking us. That's who Jesus gave his body for. Look, those for whom Christ Christ died. The corporate body of Jesus Christ.

15 · The pastor begins unpacking how the Lord's Supper creates corporate unity

And look at how the Lord's Supper brings the church together. Now, if you're an 8 to 12-year-old and you're in for the first time, this is one of the things that John wanted you to hear this morning. What do we do when we take the Lord's Supper? How does it bring us together? Well, first, the Lord's Supper brings us together with a common humility.

Because here's the reality. Who takes the Lord's Supper is acknowledging something. They are acknowledging that they need Jesus. Right? There's nobody that should be— when we take the Lord's Supper, when we pass the elements out, nobody's going, "Yeah, I'm good.

It's pretty good this week. You know, I think I got it this week." No, you didn't. We all come to the Lord's table going, Lord have mercy on me, a sinner. All of us fall short. All of us would stand condemned.

All of us are unable to save ourselves. To come to the Lord's table means that the ground is level at the foot of the cross. That all of us come to the cross with an acknowledgement of who we are. And then second, it comes— so that— and side note, that should create a profound humility that pervades the Church of Jesus Christ. Right?

Nobody's going, "Yeah, well, I'm better than you because blank." Look, man, every time you take the Lord's Supper, you're saying, "I was a lost, broken wretch wandering alone until God saved me." Right? There's not a lot of room for pride there.

16 · Second way the Lord's Supper unites: common salvation

It's a common humility. Second, a common salvation. The Lord's Supper also reminds us as we look around and see people taking communion that there is no No one that is beyond God's reach to save. Doesn't matter if you walked in with a criminal record. Doesn't matter if you walked in with a string of failed marriages.

Doesn't matter if you walk in with a pattern of drug addiction or, like me, you walk in with a pattern of profound self-righteousness and pride. Whoever you are, you're welcome to the Lord's table because you are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ and not your own good deeds. Not your own religiosity. All of us can be saved. All of us can be cleansed.

All of us can be brought into the family of God. All of us can be brought from death to life. To come to the Lord's Supper together means that we rejoice together. I am a sinner, but I am saved by the blood. That's what we proclaim together.

17 · Third way the Lord's Supper unites: common new covenant renewal

And then I want to drop into something I wish I could spend more time on, but the other thing the Lord's Supper does is it gives us a common new covenant renewal. And I know that's a bit of a mouthful, but let me explain what that means. Andy Naselli effectively shows us how the Lord's Supper is actually the fulfillment of the Passover meal that God's people were pointing to for so many centuries. He says this, Naselli: Jesus' supper refers to a Passover meal. The Passover meal is a type, and the Lord's Supper is its antitype, meaning the Passover meal is the shadow.

The Lord's Supper is the thing that casts the shadow back into the Old Testament. The Passover meal was both a sacrifice and a covenant renewal ceremony in which Israel remembered the Exodus and the old covenant that God inaugurated with the blood of the sacrificed animals. The Lord's Supper is not a sacrifice, but it remembers Jesus once for all time sacrificial death. It remembers him as our Passover Lamb, and it is a covenant renewal ceremony in which the church remembers Jesus' new exodus for his people and the new covenant he inaugurated with his bloody death and resurrection. When the church celebrates the Lord's Supper, it remembers Jesus' body and His death has inaugurated the New Covenant.

So it is that Passover moment where, if you'd imagine when Israel gathered to take the Passover, it would be— there would be a reverence, there would be a silence that would fall over the land. There would be a remembrance of the salvation of God and the covenant that God made with His people. And it would remind them of Most profoundly, most fundamentally, this is what it means to be part of the people of God. That's what it means. Every time we take the Lord's Supper, it functions similarly.

It's one thing to fill out a survey and say, "Do you identify as Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, nothing, none of the above?" Right? Check, okay, yeah, Christian. But what the Lord's Supper does for us is it renews for us our understanding and our commitment to be a Christian. It reminds— look, the Lord's Supper reminds all of us every time we take it, "You are a Christian. Do not forget what it means.

Do not forget to live it." That's a profound moment.

18 · Fourth way the Lord's Supper unites: common identity

Okay, fourth thing it does, it gives us a common identity. Now look, we all arrive in the church with various identities, our ethnic identity, our Myers-Briggs personality test identity, if you've ever done one of those at your workplace, our extrovert/introvert identity, our preferences, our teams, our identity with a political subgroup, right? All of those things. We arrive with all those sort of labels all over us.

What the Lord's Supper does is it gives us an identity that overshadows all of those other things. It gives us a blood-bought identity that is the overarching identity of our lives. All of us become something new in Jesus Christ. All of us become a Christian before we are anything else in life. And all of us are united not only with Christ, we are then, if united with Christ, united with each other because we are united with Christ.

There's no way to say, "I want to be united with Jesus Christ," and not be united with those Christ is united to, right? One of the most beautiful moments I've seen is there was a brother in the church who married a, at the time, a single mom with existing kids, and they brought the kids into their marriage ceremony in this beautiful way where he vowed, he made his vows to his wife, which is beautiful, but then he brought He brought her kids up and spoke promises over them. And you see this beautiful picture of, like, because he loves her, he loves them, right? I think too many Christians are like, "Man, okay, I love Jesus, just not his kids." Right? You can't do that.

How's that gonna go? I like you, but ah, don't bring the kids. You know, like that's— We are united with Christ. Our identity is Christian. Therefore, we're united with all those who call themselves, who are truly Christians.

A common identity, a blood-bought identity.

19 · Fifth and final way the Lord's Supper unites: common experience

And last, so much more I could say here, a common experience.

Some of you are going like, "Okay, where are we with the Lutheran view of this and transubstantiation?" Okay, we're just going to— I don't have time to get into everything, especially with 8 to 12-year-olds, but I'm going to give you a summary from Andy Naselli because I do think the Lord's Supper functions also as an experience for us as well. He says this: The Lord's Supper is a precious memorial to remind people about Jesus' sacrificial death, but it is not merely a memorial. It conveys special sanctifying grace to Christians who eat and drink in faith because Jesus is spiritually present as his people fellowship with him and each other. Meaning this, that when we take the Lord's Supper together, Jesus is present with us together in a unique way way that we cannot recreate in our, our own bedrooms or living rooms alone, right? Now, is the Lord there as you're having your quiet time with a cup of coffee in the morning?

Yes, amen. But he is present in a unique and profound way as we take the Lord's Supper together, as we declare this is who we are in Jesus Christ. And there's a unique just presence of God in that moment as well that we share. Okay. Oh man, so much more I could say here.

20 · The pastor signals a shift from exposition to application — moving from 'what does the Lord's Supper do?' to 'how does this land on us?'

All right, let me do this. I want us to wrestle with how do I grasp this? Because I think this functions in a number of ways for us.

21 · The pastor warns Christians against allowing the Lord's Supper to become mere ritual — a box to check, a 'nice' moment

First, if you are a Christian, It is easy for the Lord's Supper to simply become a ritual in which you participate, perhaps monthly or weekly, and go like, "Well, that was nice," and then move on. Rather than seeing the Lord's Supper as a moment of profound significance that reshapes your life and turns you back right side up if you've gotten out of sorts over the week.

22 · The pastor shifts to address non-Christians

But it also does this. It also functions as a gospel invitation weekly. That's the other part. It— the Scripture says, "You proclaim the Lord's death until he comes," meaning every time the Lord's Supper is celebrated, we proclaim as believers what God has done, and we proclaim to everyone gathered, "This is what the Lord could do for you," right? You as a sinner could have your sins erased.

You as a lost person can have a new identity. You as someone with Anyone without a family can find a family and a home. You are invited to the table of the Lord, and he's not checking IDs. You are welcome to his table.

23 · The pastor sends two children to the front doors of the church to discover what symbol is embedded there

And one of the things that we did years and years and years ago was we embedded this into the very structure of our church. So the founding generation that built this place and these buildings did something amazing. And so I want to do this. This was a disaster in the first service, so I'm doubling down and gonna do it again.

I need a volunteer who's like 8 to 12 years old. Actually, 2 volunteers. Okay, let's take Asher and Zach. How about that? Is that okay?

Here's what I need you guys to do. Can you do something for me? I want you to go to the front of the church and tell me what shape is on the doors at the front of the church. Can you run to do that? Wow.

Oh my gosh, you guys are so fast, so fast, so fast. John's going with you to make sure nobody wanders out. It was funny, the first service I sent the kids out there like, "Tell me what's on the front door of the church," and they were just gone. And at a certain point we got alarmed, and I think just about as we were just about to send somebody, they came back in. So I think we're all grateful that John Our indefatigable kids director is there.

Okay, did you see what's on the front? Was there a big shape? Okay, you guys tell me at the same time, what's the big shape? A cross. Okay, can we thank them for checking for us?

Yeah, good job, guys.

24 · The pastor interprets the architectural symbolism: the cross on the church doors declares that the only way into the church is through the cross — no side doors, no alternative paths, but also no one excluded

Here's what I love. Here's what I love.

Every Sunday we gather. You probably don't notice it, but you enter through the cross into this place.

And here's the reality. The cross of Jesus Christ reminds all of us there's nobody that— there's not a side door to our church. That's the only way in. It is the only way in. Only the blood of Jesus, only the cross of Jesus Christ is the way in.

But here's the other thing. There is also no one who cannot use that door to enter in, right? There is no one excluded. There's not a sign on the door that says, "Okay, well, have you committed your 1,000 good deeds of the week? Because if not, get back out there and try again next week." No.

We enter through the cross of Jesus Christ. And for the believer, the Lord's Supper functions as even a greater and more profound reminder. That we come to the table. We come to the table because of the blood of Jesus. We're at the table because of the blood of Jesus.

And if you are not a Christian, you are invited to the table through those doors every week. And the good news is this: all you must do is repent of your sins, acknowledge that you need Jesus, believe in him as your Savior, believe in him as your Lord, and commit to follow him. And you're welcome to the table. Right? That's the invitation that we hold out every time.

25 · The pastor addresses those who have grown up in the church but have never personally trusted Christ

And look, let me just speak a word. If you've grown up in the church, maybe you're a teen, maybe you're a 20-something, maybe you're a 60-something, but you've grown up in the church and you realize you've sat here, but that has never happened for you. You might have been walking through the doors physically, but not spiritually. You've never had that moment where you go, "This is who I am. This Lord's Supper is who I am." That's who the Lord is.

For me. This is my family, my body, my Savior, my Lord. Christianity is not a conveyor belt that you jump on. Like in Phoenix, they have those moving walkways. Being a Christian is not that you get on the walkway, you know, as a toddler, and you just kind of get pulled along, and then by the end you're a Christian.

Just pops you out into Christianity. No.

There must be a moment in which you say, "This meal is for me. This Savior is for me. This body is my body." There's no me, there's no them, there is us in Christ Jesus. Why don't you come to the table today, friend? Even as we end today, it's an invitation for you to come to the table.

26 · The pastor signals a brief treatment of the third section — Paul's call to respond — because time is short and he wants the children to complete their activity sheets

All right. Let me— Ah, so much more I could say. Let me just say this. I'm going to just hit the third point so the kids can get their last fill in the blank. And I'm not going to say much about this, but there's a response that's called for in verses 28 and following to 34.

The response is live as a "we." Live as "we."

27 · The pastor unpacks Paul's call to self-examination in verses 28-34

If that's true, if it's not me, it's not them, it's us, then you live as us. You live as "we." And one of the things that Paul calls us to do is to examine ourselves and make sure that as we are gathering, We are not in our lives telling a lie about the Lord's Supper, right? It is— let me just summarize it this way. You cannot come to the Lord's Supper and proclaim the forgiveness of Christ for all sins for God's people and hold resentment and anger and bitterness in your heart toward other fellow believers. You can't sing, "Jesus paid it all," except for what they did to me.

Right? You can't. You just can't do that.

You have to go, "Okay, if this is true for me, it's true for them. If I'm in Christ, so are they." And you get your heart right. There is a moment of profound soul searching where we go, "Is there any sense in which I've told a lie about the Lord's Supper in my conduct this week with other believers?" And do I need to go get that right? As Jesus says in Matthew 5, I'm going to leave this, go reconcile, and come back. That's the call.

28 · The pastor unpacks Paul's final instruction: 'wait for one another

And then the last call is just to wait for one another. What that means is practically it just means some people are going ahead with their meal, but it's a spiritual encouragement that there may be moments in which the body of Christ needs to wait for one another. There are some slow movers who are bringing other people along. Look, when we go hiking in my family, I have an 11-year-old. I have a 9-year-old and a 4-year-old.

And the 4-year-old has little legs, okay? These little tiny legs. And he does his best, but his legs are like this big, right? And so if we're walking or running or whatever, there are times where he gets tired or times he can't keep up or whatever. And it's the same way in the church.

There are times where you're like, man, okay, in our community group I'm ready to really get into the Lutheran view of communion tonight, baby. And yet there's somebody who's like, what does it mean when he says this is my blood? And you're like, look at that person with little legs. They're just— I mean, we're all the way up here and they're back there asking the fundamentals. And what Paul's encouragement is, wait.

Wait for him. No, go back for them. Bring them along with you, right? There's going to be moments where you're like, "Man, I would like to do this or do that," and you have a slow mover in your life, and the church's call is to wait. Bring them along.

Help them along.

29 · The pastor returns to the Redeem Team illustration to close

And with that, let me move us to our closing. It should come as no surprise that the Redeem team in 2008 won a medal at the Olympic Games. All these stars with all of these uniforms during the year wearing wearing one uniform, the Team USA uniform. And I just love that image of them receiving the gold medal as their national anthem plays, and all these guys who you could just tell during the season they may have hated each other. They may have had bad blood.

Just like, I can't believe this guy, LeBron. You know, just like this moment that they're all beaming. They're all— the flag is there. The music's soaring. And they— there is an identity.

They become not just a collection of individuals. Something else. And that's exactly what the Lord's Supper does for us. There's a moment in which we don't cease to be who we are during the rest of the week, but we are reminded that there is a more profound and powerful identity that lays over everything else we are. Sinners saved by grace, covered by the blood, united with Christ, united with one another, another.

30 · The pastor closes by leading the congregation in the Apostles' Creed — one of the oldest confessions in Christian history

And so here's what we're going to do. I want us to— we don't often do this, but we're going to recite a confession today of the truth. And this is one of the oldest confessions in Christian history. It has some language that you may not be familiar with. One line, especially for the border community, is it says we recite that we're the holy Catholic Church.

And some people are going, wait, this is a Catholic church? Small c, yes. And what that means is it's the holy universal church of all believers at all times. That's what Catholic means. And so what we're going to do is we're going to say, "I believe," but we're going to say, "I believe," together to represent our common corporate identity.

One of the earliest confessions, Christians have been saying this really for over 1,500, 1,600, 1,700 years. May we say it together with them. This is the Apostles' Creed. Let's say it together.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead.

On the third day, he rose again. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Amen.

31 · The pastor transitions from the Creed into the celebration of the Lord's Supper, bringing the sermon's argument to its liturgical fulfillment

And now let's celebrate the Lord's Supper together.

If you