Communion

On the first Sunday of the month the church gathered for the Lord's Supper. The service opened with worship and a prayer of confession, since sin is the one thing that can keep us from approaching the table. Jesus' words in John 6 remind us that communion is tied to eternal life - the life everyone longs for, but which only Christ can give. The main message centered on 1 Corinthians 11, where Paul warns against eating and drinking without discerning the body of the Lord. The preacher pressed on the word discern - the God-given ability to weigh our actions, foresee their consequences, and make sound decisions. Proverbs 2 shows that this wisdom is not automatic: we must search for it like hidden treasure, and then the Lord Himself gives knowledge and understanding. A mind that turns from God's truth does not stay empty; it fills with attractive but false ideas, the myths that have led whole nations astray. The preacher pointed to evolution, nationalism, and communism as fruit of a mind that pushed God out. First John calls us to hold to the true God and guard ourselves from idols, and Matthew 24 warns that, as in the days of Noah, people will be absorbed in earthly life until Christ returns.

On this communion Sunday the church gathers to remember the suffering and death of Jesus at Golgotha, giving thanks that we were redeemed not with gold or silver but with the precious blood of the Savior. Reading Matthew 26, the preacher walks through the Passover Jesus kept - the unleavened bread, the bitter herbs dipped in salt water that pictured the tears of slavery, and the lamb - showing how every detail pointed forward to the Lamb of God. The heart of the message is the contrast between the eleven disciples, who grieved and each asked "Lord, is it I?", and Judas, who called Jesus only "Rabbi". The disciples confessed Him as Lord, like Peter's "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God"; for Judas He had become merely one teacher among many. His faith leaked away like water from a cracked vessel, because the unrepented sin of stealing slowly drained the grace from his life until he sold the Lord for thirty pieces of silver. We are urged to examine ourselves for even a small crack of sin, to repent so God can refill us with grace, and then to receive the bread and the cup worthily. The service closes by proclaiming that Christ paid the full price of divine justice as our substitute, and that this salvation belongs to everyone who personally receives Him.

On Good Friday the church gathers to keep the feast described in 1 Corinthians 5:8 - Christ our Passover, the Lamb of God slain for us. Reading Luke 23, the preacher points to three groups at the cross: the soldiers who carried out the execution, the crowd and priests who mocked, and the believers who knew the Lord and watched from a distance in sorrow. We belong to that last group - those who have come to know Him and the power of His blood. The heart of the evening is remembrance. Just as God told Israel to keep the manna, write His commands on their garments, and raise stones from the Jordan as a memorial, Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of me." We were redeemed not with silver or gold but with His precious blood. The old sacrifices of goats and calves only covered sin, but the blood of Christ cleanses and justifies us once for all. A great price was paid, and that price is what makes us precious in God's eyes. The message ends at the Lord's table. Christ bore not only physical agony but inner anguish in Gethsemane, sweating drops of blood, to win our peace as the Prince of Peace. As we eat the bread and drink the cup we become one with Him, sharing in His death and resurrection, and we remember that whoever is forgiven much, loves much.

In this communion service the pastor reminds the church of the words they have just sung: it was not the nails or the cross that held Jesus to Calvary, it was our sin. From 2 Timothy 2 he teaches that a great house holds vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor, and the Master longs to use those who keep themselves clean and ready, like the fine china a family once reserved only for special guests. Drawing on 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 Corinthians 6, Colossians 3 and Isaiah 1, he gives two reasons to pursue holiness: God wants to use us for His glory, and we no longer belong to this world. We have been washed, sanctified and justified, and our bodies are now temples of the Holy Spirit. Like Job, who made a covenant with his eyes, we are to put sin to death decisively and remove it entirely, so that nothing is left for us to choose. At the table the church remembers Christ's broken body and shed blood, the priceless price of our redemption, and is reminded to come only at peace with God and one another. The service closes with thanksgiving from 2 Peter 1, that His divine power has already given us everything we need for life and godliness, so we can rejoice even now, before we ever see the answer.

The service opens with a call to gather wholly present, in body and in spirit, to gird the mind and give God worthy praise for His protection and blessing through the past week. The leader reminds the congregation that meeting together to see one another's faces and worship is a true recharge and strengthening for the soul. A hymn about the heavenly roll call lifts the hope of resurrection: when the Lord's trumpet sounds, the names of all the redeemed will be called, and by His mercy everyone washed in the blood of the cross will be there. The preacher adds that Jesus Himself will speak each of our names, and will even give us a new name. This is set apart as a special communion service, devoted to remembering the death and suffering of Jesus Christ. Coming to the Lord's table is no small thing: it points ahead to the eternal morning when His own will answer His call.

The service opens with prayer drawn from Psalm 86:11, asking the Lord to teach His way, and a reminder that God speaks to those who deliberately set aside time to listen. A worship song and a narrative poem about the thief crucified beside Jesus turn the church toward the coming remembrance of Christ's death at communion. The preacher pauses to speak of the gift of the church - that believers belong to one another and are never truly alone - and asks the congregation to pray for his son serving at the front. Reading Isaiah 53, he shows that the crowd assumed the suffering Servant was punished for His own sin, when in fact He was wounded for ours. God sees differently than people do, and He has not hidden that truth - He has opened it in His Word. The central teaching turns to 1 Corinthians 11. The Lord's Supper is not an ordinary meal but a holy act that proclaims Christ's death until He comes. Paul warns that careless, unworthy participation carries real consequences, and calls every believer first to examine and judge himself in repentance, so that he need not be judged by God.

This Lord's Supper service was devoted to the suffering of Jesus Christ and the price He paid for our salvation. The preacher opened in Luke 2, pointing out three ways people come into God's house: some are drawn by the Spirit like Simeon, some by the faithful habit of prayer and fasting like Anna the prophetess, and some simply by custom like the family of Jesus at Passover. Whatever brings us, he said, it is good to be in the house of the Lord. Tracing the cross through Scripture, he showed how Abraham's offering of Isaac on Mount Moriah pointed forward to the Father giving His only Son on that same mountain. Isaiah foretold centuries in advance a Servant whose face was marred beyond any man, who gave His back to those who struck Him and bore our iniquities, so that by His wounds we are healed. Christ went to Golgotha willingly, never cursing His tormentors, drinking the cup of suffering so that we could receive the cup of blessing. As the congregation broke the bread and shared the cup, the message turned to grace. We are precious not because of ourselves, dust that returns to dust, but because Christ paid so great a price with His blood. Remembering His death proclaims His victory until He comes again, and it gives believers strength to resist sin and to rise after a fall, just as Peter was restored after his denial.

On this first Sunday of the New Year the church gathered for communion, remembering the death and resurrection of Jesus. The preacher invited everyone to climb to Golgotha in their hearts, recalling how Jesus foretold His suffering in Mark 10 and how Abraham went up the mountain only for God to provide the Lamb in his son's place. What we remember at the table is not a defeat but a victory over sin and the devil, a victory we share by faith. The main message came from 1 Corinthians 1:18: the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. It sounds like folly to the world because it exposes the sin in every heart (Romans 3), because it demands that Christ be placed above family, comfort, and self (Matthew 10), and because it calls us to die to ourselves so that Christ may live in us (Galatians 2:20). The world, driven by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, will not surrender these things. In God's kingdom the math is reversed: to gain more you give more, and to be great you become a servant. The service closed with a sober warning. A brother who had announced that Christ would return in 2025 repented when it did not happen, and the leaders reminded the church that no one knows the day or hour but the Father alone (Matthew 24:36). Stand on the Word as your foundation, and never forget that you are saved because He first loved you.

This communion service opened with a call to humility from James 4:10 and the assurance of Romans 8 that if God is for us, no one can stand against us. Christ died for us and now intercedes for us, so even when we fall we should never let go of our faith. The guest preacher, Pastor Choko of Chicago who now leads missions for his fellowship, shared his testimony. By the world's measure he was a negative statistic, a boy who failed third grade and was abandoned by his father, yet God used him just as He once used Gideon. From Hebrews 11:30-31 and the story of Rahab he showed that God deliberately chooses unlikely, imperfect people who live by faith rather than fear. The centurion and the widow with her two coins both teach us to trust God more than our circumstances or our money. Rahab had only seconds to choose the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the scarlet cord in her window pointed to the blood of Jesus and saved her whole household, placing her in the very lineage of Christ. The challenge was plain: make that choice yourself, serve the Lord, and your family will follow. The gathering closed at the Lord's Table, remembering His broken body and shed blood until He comes.

This communion service centers on what the preacher calls the most sacred moment in the life of the church: remembering the death of Jesus Christ. From 1 Corinthians 11 he reminds the congregation that whenever we eat the bread and drink the cup we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes, and he urges everyone to come to the table consciously, examining their hearts, asking whether they truly forgive as Christ forgave them and treasure the salvation he purchased. Tracing Scripture from Genesis to the Gospels, the message shows how the disobedience of Adam and Eve left them ashamed, and how their fig leaves could not cover their guilt - only shed blood could, pointing forward to the cross. On the road to Emmaus the disciples' eyes were finally opened when Jesus broke the bread, and in the same way God has opened our spiritual eyes to see what the world cannot: that earthly things never satisfy the soul and that Christ is near, coming for his own. Drawing on the early church of Acts 2, on David refusing the water bought with the lives of his mighty men, and on Mephibosheth welcomed to the king's table, the preacher calls communion an undeserved privilege - sharing in Christ's sufferings so that we may also share in his resurrection. He closes with four directions for the table: look back in remembrance, forward in hope, around in unity, and within in honest self-examination.

This communion service gathered the church to remember the suffering and death of Jesus and, even more, to celebrate the victory of His resurrection. Before the bread and cup, the congregation was called to prepare their hearts with the sacrifice of praise (Hebrews 13:15) and to ask God to cleanse them. The main message came from John 13, where Jesus washes the disciples' feet. When Peter refused, Jesus said, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me." Peter grasped at once that his very relationship with the Master was at stake and answered, "Then wash not only my feet but my hands and my head" - in other words, "I am all Yours." The preacher pointed out that these words came not amid dazzling promises but in a humble act of foot washing - no threats, no bargaining, only the question of whether the relationship would continue. From there came the challenge: how much do we value our relationship with Jesus, especially when He does something we cannot understand, stays silent, or lets pain linger for a long time? Communion is not merely eating bread and sipping wine; it is a personal declaration that He matters more than anything and that we will remove whatever stands between us and Him. A second pastor added that those forgiven much love much (Luke 7:47) - at the cross we see both grace we never earned and our ongoing need for Christ to keep washing us for a new life.

On this communion Sunday the church also rejoiced over three believers baptized at the beach the day before. The preacher opened with a simple picture: you can learn a great deal about people from their homes - their books, their photos, the hunting trophies on the wall - and even more from what fills the heart and overflows in their words. From 1 Corinthians 6 he reminded everyone that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, bought at a great price, so that we are no longer our own. Holiness, he explained, is both a gift and a journey. Through the sacrifice and blood of Jesus we are already cleansed and set apart so the Spirit can dwell in us, yet sanctification is also a daily process in which we are built up. Like costly tile or stone that stays useless while it sits in its box, a believer brings God no glory until he takes the place appointed for him. We are living stones being fitted together into a greater temple, the church, with Christ as the cornerstone. To take that place means offering spiritual sacrifices - giving ourselves away instead of seeking benefit. In God's house the leader serves and lifts others up, the opposite of worldly hierarchy. At the Lord's table the congregation examined their hearts, received the broken bread and the cup of the new covenant, and remembered that only through Christ's death do we have life, forgiveness, and healing.

This communion service is built around one question Jesus asked Peter three times beside the sea: "Do you love Me?" (John 21). The preacher reminds us this question is addressed not only to Peter but to each of us by name - put your own name in his place. At the Lord's table we remember the love Christ showed, the price He paid, and the hope He gives, and we answer Him from the heart. The message leads us to the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus (John 12), where Jesus loved to be. Each of them showed love differently: Martha served, Lazarus simply stayed near, and Mary poured out costly perfume. We love Jesus, who is now in heaven, in the same ways - by serving His people, by being with Him, and by worshiping Him. Such service flows not from earning rewards but from a heart overflowing with gratitude for all He has done. Through the parable of the two debtors (Luke 7), the one forgiven more loves more - and that is our story, for much has been forgiven us. Having taken the bread and the cup, the church is urged from 1 Peter 3:11 not to relax like a runner at the finish line, but to keep turning from evil, doing good, and pursuing peace in the week ahead.

This is a communion service. After worship and a prayer remembering Christ's agony in Gethsemane and his death at Golgotha, and a blessing over the youngest children, the preacher opens John 6 to show who Jesus really is - the true bread that comes down from heaven. The crowd followed Jesus not because they grasped the miracle but because they had eaten and were filled, so he urges them, and us, to seek not perishable food but the food that endures to eternal life. He contrasts the manna in the wilderness, a daily wonder from God's hand for forty years, with Jesus himself. The fathers ate manna and still died, but Jesus is the living bread: whoever comes to him will never hunger and whoever believes will never thirst. The Jews grumbled because they knew his earthly family and would not receive him as the Messiah from heaven. Only those born again and taught by the Spirit grasp the meaning of the cross, for the natural mind calls it foolishness. The Lord's Supper is not meant to satisfy physical hunger but is real participation in the body and blood of Christ. Before partaking we must examine ourselves: are we at peace with God and with one another, and have we forgiven as Christ and Stephen forgave their killers? Remembering God's eternal love and the covenant sealed in his blood, the church proclaims his death until he comes, and he will surely come, so we must be ready.

Gathered for a communion service, the church remembers the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Drawing on Galatians 6:14, the preacher calls believers to boast in nothing but the cross and to rejoice as children of the King of kings in everything Christ has done for them. Looking ahead to Pentecost, he turns to the early church in Acts, who broke bread daily from house to house with glad and sincere hearts, praising God while the Lord added the saved to their number. Their secret was one heart and one soul, given by the Holy Spirit. From 1 Corinthians he shows that the cup and the bread are a real sharing in the blood and body of Christ, so the table binds believers to Golgotha and to one another - we wait for each other, forgive, and never come in division. Through the bronze serpent of Numbers, John 3:16, and Isaiah 53 he leads the church to the cross, urging everyone to make it personal: my sins and my sicknesses were laid on Him. He invites them to receive first the oil of the Spirit and then the cleansing blood, and the service closes by taking the bread and the cup, proclaiming the Lord's death until He comes.

On the night before His death Jesus rose from the supper and washed His disciples' feet, leaving an example of humble, voluntary service (John 13). Even with the cross before Him, His concern was not for Himself but for those around Him, and He calls us to lift one another up just as He came to lift us out of our troubles and into fellowship with the Father. Drawing on Exodus 12 and 1 Corinthians 5:7, the message recalls Israel's slavery in Egypt, the ten plagues, and the spotless lamb whose blood on the doorposts caused God's judgment to pass over His people. Jesus is that flawless Lamb (1 Peter 1:18-19); we are redeemed not by silver or gold but by His precious blood. Yet the blood must be applied personally - confessed with the mouth and believed in the heart. The congregation then shares the bread and the cup, remembering His broken body and the new covenant in His blood (1 Corinthians 11). Because we eat from one loaf, we belong to God and to one another as His body. The service ends with a call to answer such love by giving Him our whole life - not half, but all of it - just as He set Himself apart for us (John 17:19).

Preached during a communion service, this message opens in Galatians 3, where Paul declares that everyone baptized into Christ is one - no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female. Gathered around the bread and the cup, the church is reminded that it is a single body, joined to Christ and to one another. The heart of the sermon is the story of Peter. Sure that he would never fall, Peter followed Jesus from a distance, warmed himself at the enemy's fire, and denied his Lord three times. Yet Jesus had already prayed for him, and after the resurrection He met Peter again by another fire, asked three times 'Do you love Me?', and restored his calling with the words 'Feed My sheep.' From this the preacher draws a sharp line between mercy and grace, warns that pride drives grace away, and shows how we can deny Christ by our words, by our silence, or by our deeds. Sharing his own testimony of being rescued from a life of sin, he points the church to the cross and to the table, where the body and blood of Jesus cleanse us and reunite us with the Father.

This first communion service of the new year opened with worship and the reading of Psalm 103, then turned to the story of Haman and Mordecai in the book of Esther. Despite wealth, position, and honor, Haman let one small offense - Mordecai refusing to bow - poison his heart, until his hatred consumed him and the gallows he built for another became his own end. The preacher warned that we, too, store up grudges like jars of preserves, dating each offense and reopening them in the next argument, until the bitterness ferments and bursts. Drawing on Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3, he urged the church to put off anger, malice, and pride, to put on Christ, and to forgive one another as Christ forgave us. Before sharing the bread and cup, each believer was called to search his own heart and receive blessing rather than judgment. After communion, a New Year message from 1 Thessalonians 5 called the church to stay awake and sober. The whole world sleeps in spiritual darkness or staggers drunk on sin, but the children of light watch for the Lord's return. If you imagine only a week left to live and know something needs fixing, being ready means correcting it today, not postponing it.

This communion service centers on Jesus' command, "Do this in remembrance of Me." The preacher calls the church to remember the suffering and death of Christ, recalling that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that everyone who believes would have eternal life. Christ is our Passover Lamb: just as the blood on the doorposts in Egypt caused the angel of death to pass over the house, the judgment we all deserved passed over us because of His blood. At the table we do not merely watch Christ's sacrifice from a distance, we become partakers of His body and blood. His blood now flows in us, we are grafted into the true vine, and it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us. Because we share one bread, we are one body: no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, but one in Christ, called to forgive, to serve, and to wash one another's feet as He did. The message also warns against taking the table unworthily and trying to drink from two cups at once. We cannot share the cup of the Lord and the cup of the world; bought at the priceless cost of His blood, we are set apart and holy. By His wounds we are healed in body, soul, and spirit, so we come with thanksgiving, confessing our wrongs and receiving His mercy.

The church gathers around the Lord's Table to remember the death and suffering of Jesus, whose blood brings forgiveness of sins and victory over sin. The pastor opens by calling the congregation to pray for protection from an approaching hurricane, reminding everyone that the fervent prayer of God's people moves Him to answer. The first message, drawn from Exodus 14 and Revelation 3:7, pictures Israel trapped between the mountains and the sea with Pharaoh's army closing in behind. God led them into that dead end on purpose, so that His name would be glorified. When fear gripped them they cried out to God but also blamed Moses. The call is to stop panicking, be still, and trust the sovereign God who opens doors no one can shut, surrendering our will to the Father just as Jesus prayed, not my will but yours. At communion the church receives the broken body and blood, with a testimony that by Christ's wounds we are healed, including a pastor's own healing of his arm and leg after months of believing prayer. The closing message from Matthew 3 and the story of Zacchaeus warns that repentance must bear real fruit. Confessing sin with the mouth while still clinging to it is empty chaff, but genuine repentance changes the life and removes the stumbling block.

This communion service centers on remembering and proclaiming the death of Jesus Christ. Drawing on 1 Corinthians 11, the pastor reminds the congregation that every time we eat the bread and drink the cup we proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. We are to do this not in gloom or discontent but with faith and joy, receiving the table as a blessing for our lives. The preaching then turns to Psalm 27 and Matthew 6:33. King David's one desire was to dwell in the house of the Lord and behold His beauty, and Jesus calls us to seek first the kingdom of God. The pastor warns that many believers look to Christ for comfort and happiness rather than holiness, yet nothing unclean enters God's kingdom and the bride must be without spot or blemish, an idea pictured by a stained baptismal robe that could not be used. The gathering also welcomes new believers baptized the day before, each of whom asked for a Bible as a gift. Christianity is described as a bridge into God's eternal kingdom rather than a life of ease: the enemy will oppose these new believers, but God will guide them as He led Israel through the wilderness. The service closes with prayer for healing, placing our names in the wounds of Christ, and rejoicing that our names are written in the book of life.

This Sunday service was given over to the Lord's Supper. The pastor read from 1 Corinthians 11, where Paul passes on what he received from the Lord: the bread is Christ's body broken for us, the cup is the new covenant in His blood, and we keep this table in remembrance of Him. Before anyone eats the bread or drinks the cup, he must examine his own heart so as not to receive unworthily. To prepare those hearts, the preacher walked through the passion in Mark 14 and 15. He pointed to Mary anointing Jesus in the home of Simon, the leper Christ had healed; to Judas grumbling over the cost and then betraying with a kiss; to the Last Supper; to the hymn sung on the way to the Mount of Olives; to Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed, let this cup pass, yet not My will; and on to the arrest, the trial before Pilate, the crown of thorns, the mocking, Simon of Cyrene, the crucifixion, and the centurion's confession, Truly this man was the Son of God. He urged believers to trust the Word of God rather than their own ideas, to walk the good road every day, and to live ready for the moment life suddenly stops - where would we go then? He shared the joy of an elderly Jewish woman coming to Christ, and invited anyone present to call on the name of Jesus and receive Him. The service closed in prayer as the congregation took the bread and the cup with reverence and thanksgiving.

This communion service centers on how we approach the Lord's Table. Before we share the bread and the cup, we must examine ourselves, reconcile with anyone who holds something against us, and judge our own hearts, so that the supper becomes a blessing and not a judgment. Paul warns that whoever takes it unworthily becomes guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. The preacher ties together two suppers - the communion we keep on earth and the marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven. They cannot be separated. Just as people set aside a day of fasting and self-searching before communion, we must live ready every day for Christ's return, because He comes at an hour we do not expect, and the door closes on those who are not prepared. Preparation means letting go. As wheat is parted from the chaff and grapes are pressed into wine, the trials of life refine us into one bread, one body. We are joined vertically to God and horizontally to one another, and no one can claim to love God while refusing to love a neighbor. Calvary is not only our past; it is our present and our future.

The service opened around the Lord's table. The preacher recalled the woman who had bled for twelve years, an affliction that left her ashamed and shut out from worship. She told herself that if she could only touch the edge of Jesus' garment she would be made well, and her quiet faith drew the power of God to her, until Christ turned and said her faith had saved her. The church was urged to come to the throne of grace with one prayer, "Forgive me," trusting that the blood of Jesus cleanses every sin, and communion followed with Paul's words on the broken body and the cup of the new covenant. The main message, drawn from a set of images the congregation was invited to name, was about pride. Pride is not merely a personality trait but a sin before God, older than humanity itself, for it first appeared in heaven when Lucifer said in his heart, "I will ascend and be like the Most High." Unlike other sins that draw people together, pride drives them apart and leaves a person alone; it divides marriages, friendships, families, and even churches. The preacher warned that success, beauty, and even God-given talents and spiritual gifts can feed pride when we claim them as our own, as King Uzziah did before he was struck with leprosy. The remedy is humility. God gives grace to the humble but resists the proud. Like Luther, who said that the moment he cut off one head of pride another grew, we must keep cutting it down and refuse to feed or flatter it. We guard our hearts by becoming poor in spirit, by looking to the cross where Christ humbled Himself, by dying to self each day, and by handing every success and gift back to God, the only one worthy of glory.

On Good Friday the church gathers to remember the death of Christ and to share the Lord's Supper, doing this in remembrance of him. Before coming to the table, the preacher opens 1 Thessalonians 5 and reminds the believers that they are children of light and of the day, born again of imperishable seed, and no longer belong to the night or to darkness. Because we belong to the light, we must not sleep like everyone else. We are called to wake up, stay sober and clear-eyed, and refuse to live under the influence of this world, our old sinful nature, ego, or false teaching. With our focus fixed on eternity rather than on careers and passing things, we put on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet of the hope of salvation, since our real battle is spiritual and not against flesh and blood. God did not appoint us for wrath but to obtain salvation through Jesus, who died so that we might live with him. The service moves into communion - confessing sin, receiving forgiveness, and trusting that by his wounds we are healed - and closes with prayer for the sick, including a brother facing cancer, as the church looks ahead to the joy of Easter and the resurrection.

On a communion Sunday the pastor opens with a personal story: twice in his life he was badly poisoned, once in Warsaw while visiting refugees and once in India after eating at a fast-food chain. From there he asks whether a person can be poisoned spiritually, and answers plainly that they can. Spiritual poison is no less deadly than the physical kind, and it shows up when someone stops reading the Bible, stops praying, and stops gathering with the church. He points to four places where poison gets in: unhealthy fellowship even inside the church, false teaching and false preachers, the wrong company with its idle conversations, and most dangerous of all, the internet. He also names four symptoms of a poisoned soul: a critical spirit toward everyone and everything, constant irritation and impatience, insisting that things go only your own way, and a deadened heart that no longer cares about anything. The cure is to cut off the source, guarding what we see, hear, and speak, then to go deep into the Word of God and to pray. He recalls the pot of death that was healed when flour was added through Elisha, since flour is bread and bread is the Word of God, and the bronze serpent lifted up by Moses, where everyone who looked in faith was healed. In the same way the bread and cup of the Lord's Supper, received in faith, bring cleansing and healing, because only the blood of Jesus can neutralize the poison of sin.

On this communion Sunday, which closed a 21-day fast for personal holiness and for the church, the pastor reminds the congregation why we gather at the Lord's table: to remember Christ's suffering and death, and to proclaim it to the world until He returns. Drawing on 1 Corinthians 11, he presents the bread and the cup as a personal encounter with the love of God, not a mere ritual. Love, he says, cannot be proven by logic or mathematics; it is shown by what it gives. He illustrates this with the costly, sacrificial gift of an anonymous organ donor and with the quiet daily care of his own wife. In the same way, God did not argue His love but demonstrated it by personally coming in Jesus Christ to die for our sins. From Amos 4:12, "Prepare to meet your God," he urges each listener to put their own name in place of Israel. We will each stand before God alone; no one answers for a spouse or child, and God will not ask which church we attended. Yet the throne we approach is a throne of grace: like Peter, who denied Christ and was still restored, we come not by our efforts but by mercy. He closes by calling believers to be transformed daily into the image of Christ - less of self, more of Him - through the Holy Spirit and the Word.

On the first Sunday of the year, during the monthly communion service, the pastor opens with Hebrews 10:24-25, urging believers to stir one another up to love and good works and not to neglect gathering together. He shares a story from Switzerland, where speeding fines scale with income and where young drivers chase thrills on the German Autobahn only to crash and die. From this he draws his theme: the danger of breaking the speed limit in our spiritual life, letting our desires race ahead of God's will. Drawing on 1 Timothy 6:6, that godliness with contentment is great gain, he reflects on how we always crave the next thing - a bicycle, a car, a house, a gift, a ministry - and how those cravings often bring no blessing and can drag us into sin. He retells the story of King Ahab in 1 Kings 21, who coveted Naboth's vineyard, sank into depression when denied, and opened the door to evil through his wife Jezebel, ending in murder. Yet when judgment came through Elijah, Ahab humbled himself, and God showed mercy. He ties this to the table: as we hold the bread and the cup we should first ask God to help us humble ourselves and confess our wrong desires. Remembering the suffering of Christ, that by His wounds we are healed and by His blood we are washed, the church kneels in repentance and receives communion as members at peace with God and one another.

This communion service centered on remembering the sacrifice of Christ. Reading from Luke 22, the preacher recalled Jesus' words, 'Do this in remembrance of me.' The bread and the cup point to the price He paid for each of us. Unlike the lambs of the Old Testament that only covered sin, the blood of Jesus washes it away completely, removing our guilt as far as the east is from the west. By His wounds we are healed, and His blood holds power over sin, sickness, and death. For that power to work in us, we must abide in Christ like a branch in the vine, for cut off from Him we can bear no fruit. Sin is what separates us from God: like a stubborn root it tries to keep its grip, and no one can sit at both the Lord's table and the table of demons. Communion calls us to examine our hearts, dig out the roots of sin, and stay one with Him. A second message, from 2 Chronicles 32, told how King Hezekiah faced Sennacherib's invading army. He sought wise counsel, made hard tactical sacrifices, and above all strengthened himself and the people in God, urging them not to fear because 'with us is the Lord our God.' Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah prayed and cried out to heaven, and God sent His angel to deliver them. Yet a warning followed: when Hezekiah's heart grew proud, he forgot the victory had come from God. We carry this treasure in jars of clay so that all the glory belongs to Him.

The service centered on the Lord's Supper. The congregation was urged to examine their hearts before partaking, remembering that the bread and cup are the body and blood of Jesus. The pastor recalled believers who once shared communion with plain black bread and water in Soviet prison camps, receiving it with deep trembling. The first message, from 2 Corinthians 4, declared that we are hard pressed on every side but not crushed. Like a ball that countless heavy players pile onto yet cannot burst because the pressure within is greater than the pressure without, the believer endures because the grace of Christ inside us is stronger than every force outside. Amid the thousands of thoughts that assault us daily, we were called to take them captive, confess our sins, and trust that healing flows from the wounds of Christ. The story of the hymn 'What a Friend We Have in Jesus', written by Joseph Scriven amid repeated grief, showed that even loss surrendered to God can bless others. A guest bishop then preached from the Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew 17, teaching that following Jesus to the high place carries a price, and that we must learn our true calling and the timing of God. Some things He reveals are to be kept hidden in the heart until the appointed moment. The service closed with Joseph before Pharaoh in Genesis 41, a reminder that God delights to give good gifts for our benefit.

This Sunday service centered on the Lord's Supper. It opened with a reflection on true worship: a reminder from a recent retreat of deaf believers who, unable to speak, poured out passionate praise with their hands, raising the question of how God sees our own worship. Above every gift, the church gave thanks for salvation through the blood of Jesus. The main message, from 1 Corinthians 11, called each believer to examine themselves before eating the bread and drinking the cup. Rather than judging others, which Scripture in Romans 2 and 14 treats as serious sin, we are to look honestly at our own hearts, confess our failings, and forgive as Christ forgave us. Sin separates us from God, but confession brings cleansing white as snow and open access to the Father. At communion the congregation remembered Christ's broken body and shed blood, receiving them by faith for salvation and for healing of soul and body. A visiting preacher added that the God who saw Hagar, Jacob, and Moses also sees each of us in our troubles, urging the church to hold fast to faith through the hard times ahead. Healing testimonies closed the gathering with thanksgiving.

This is a communion service, and it opens with a call to search our own hearts before we approach the table. We are reminded of the Pharisee and the tax collector: we come not boasting in our own goodness, but humbly, like the man who could not even lift his eyes and simply asked for mercy. The guest preacher, Bishop Vasily, teaches from Matthew 26 and the night in Gethsemane. Jesus is betrayed and arrested, the disciples scatter, and Peter draws a sword. The key phrase is the Lord's own: this must happen so that the Scriptures are fulfilled. Jesus received the cup of suffering from the Father's hand. Peter's confident promise to die with Him was the voice of pride, and his real need was to watch and pray so as not to fall into temptation. In the garden Jesus prayed in agony, strengthened by an angel, sweating drops of blood, yet He did not call the twelve legions of angels - for then our salvation could not have come. He remained alone, even forsaken, carrying the sins of the world, so that we would never be left alone. As the church breaks one bread and shares one cup, the message is clear: only the blood of Jesus cleanses and justifies, and we partake worthily not by our own righteousness but by His righteousness credited to us through repentance.

The service centers on the Lord's Supper, where the church remembers the broken body and shed blood of Jesus. The preacher reminds us that Christ stands at the center of all history - even our calendars are counted from Him - and that everything begins and continues through Him. From this he draws his theme: unity comes in two forms, unity with God and unity with one another. Real unity with God means taking on His very nature, the way oil cannot mix with water unless it is changed. For that reason believers cannot be one with falsehood: Scripture tells us to remove the leaven of pride, to reject the false teaching that divides people, and to feed on the pure milk of God's word rather than borrowing someone else's spiritual food. We are warned that a small compromise is like a nail left in a house - one allowance for the world gives the enemy a foothold that can ruin everything. Unity with each other flows from the love we first received from God, the same oneness Jesus prayed for in John 17. The world resists those who carry God's nature, but we are kept by His power, not by softening the gospel. As the church comes to the table, each person is called to examine his heart, make peace with God and neighbor, and receive the cup by faith, confessing that the blood of the Lamb does not merely cover sin but washes it away.

The preacher opens with Jesus' words that His true family is everyone who does the will of God, then turns to a sobering example - Judas Iscariot. Christ chose him, gave him authority to preach and even cast out demons, yet inside he never became sincere. Outward ministry without an honest heart led him to ruin, a warning to serve God truthfully rather than for what we hope to gain. He calls the church to humility through the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee fasted, tithed, and lived uprightly, but pride disqualified him - no flesh may boast before God. On our own we can do nothing; only by coming to Jesus in repentance and confessing our guilt do we receive forgiveness, and we need the Holy Spirit to convict us and open our hearts. The heart of the service is communion. Reading 1 Corinthians 11, he reminds the congregation that the bread and cup are holy - the body and blood of Christ given for us, opening the way to heaven. Because we all share one bread, we are one body. Forgiveness flows only through the blood, so we too must forgive one another and go and sin no more.

In this Good Friday communion service, the pastor leads the church through the washing of feet and the Lord's Supper, calling believers to humble their hearts and be reconciled with one another before approaching the table. He recalls how Jesus, at the last supper, gave a final blessing to those who follow His example of lowly service. The heart of the message is the meaning of the cross. The preacher names three reasons Christ died: He took our place on the cross so that sinners could enter heaven; He redeemed us from slavery to sin with His own blood, making us a treasure bought at great price; and He left us an example to follow, even through suffering on the narrow road. As Christ our Passover, the spotless Lamb, His shed blood cleanses us and shields our homes from the enemy. Finally, the church remembers Christ in the bread and the cup, proclaiming His death until He comes. The pastor lifts up the hope of one day eating and drinking anew with Him in the Father's kingdom and urges everyone never to forget the great price paid for our salvation. The service closes with thanksgiving and an offering for Ukraine relief.

The service opened with a meditation on Christ crucified. Drawing on Isaiah 53 and Isaiah 50, the preacher described how the sinless Son of God was numbered with criminals, beaten, mocked, and disfigured beyond recognition, bearing every curse and sickness in our place. Like the bronze serpent lifted in the wilderness, Christ was lifted on the cross so that everyone who looks to Him in faith might live. Galatians 3:13-14 stood at the center: Christ became a curse for us so that the blessing of Abraham and the grace that saves and justifies could come to us. He contrasted the heavy weight of cursing in the Old Testament with the abundance of blessing in the New. Jesus came not to curse but to save and to carry our curse on His own back, and He calls His people to bless those who persecute them rather than repay evil with evil, following the One who prayed "Father, forgive them" as He died. The church was urged not to turn its face or its back from the crucified Christ but to come to Calvary, and the congregation shared communion, proclaiming the Lord's death until He comes. A second message turned to faith. Using the account of doubting Thomas and Ephesians 2:8, the preacher taught that we are saved by grace through faith, yet faith still asks for a step. Through the parable of a man stuck on the fence and a thirsty traveler who must pour out his last water to prime a desert pump, he showed that refusing to choose Jesus is itself a choice, and that real faith means putting your life on the line. The call was clear: get off the fence and turn to the crucified, risen Christ today.

On the first Sunday of March the congregation gathers for the Lord's Supper, a service set apart to remember the death of Christ. The pastor welcomes the church in the name of Jesus and invites everyone to settle their hearts on the meaning of the cross. Reading from John 19, he recounts how a soldier pierced Jesus' side and at once blood and water flowed out - an eyewitness testimony given under oath so that we would believe. Today the church looks upon the same Lord who was pierced two thousand years ago. In prayer he asks God to open their spiritual eyes to see how great the Father's love and mercy truly are. Communion makes believers partakers of Christ's sufferings - His broken body and His shed blood - and the church keeps this commandment with reverence and faith until He comes again.

Gathered for the Lord's Supper, the church is first reminded that all who do the will of God are Jesus' true mother, brothers and sisters - one family bought by the blood of the cross. From there the message turns to Matthew 26, where two people share one evening yet make opposite choices: Mary pours her costliest perfume over Jesus in extravagant love, while Judas slips out to sell his Teacher for thirty pieces of silver. The preacher draws out the painful contrast. The same hour offers each person a convenient opportunity, but one seeks a chance to do good and the other a chance to do evil. Mary's gift was worth far more than Judas' payment, yet her sacrifice brought her honor while his profit became his ruin. Betrayal cuts deepest when it comes from someone close and trusted, and Judas even chose a place of prayer and a kiss of love as the cover for his treachery. Christ, by contrast, turned even the cross into His own convenient opportunity - a deliberate chance to prove His love and fulfill the Father's will. As the congregation breaks the bread and shares the cup, they are urged, in the words of Galatians 6:10, to do good to everyone while there is still time. Communion binds them not only to Christ but to one another as His body: Jesus has proved His love, and now the choice to serve or to seek our own gain belongs to us.

This communion service centers on one truth: God has already done the great work of salvation through the death of His Son, but our part is to prepare ourselves to share rightly in the Lord's Table. Drawing on Luke 22, the preacher shows how the Passover meal was preceded by days of cleansing, sweeping every trace of old leaven from the house, so that the supper itself would be a blessing rather than an empty ritual. From this he draws three lessons. First, preparation: just as Israel cleansed the home before Passover, we must examine our own hearts and ask God to cleanse the hidden things only we and He can see. Second, obedience: the disciples did exactly as Jesus told them, and such obedience is the fruit of a humble, trusting heart. Third, newness: that night Jesus opened the New Covenant in His blood, a covenant that, unlike everything else in this world, never grows old. As the bread is broken and the cup is poured, the church is reminded that we are one bread and one body, called to cherish, serve, and keep peace with one another. To eat and drink worthily here on earth is to be made ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven.

The service opens in thanksgiving. Reading Luke 17 about the ten healed lepers, of whom only one returned to praise God aloud, the pastor recalls how the recent hurricane was first projected to pass through the Tampa Bay area but by God's grace spared their community. We are no better than anyone else; only His mercy kept us. He urges the church to be among the grateful few rather than take such kindness for granted, and to keep praying for the brothers and sisters in North Port, Port Charlotte and other hard-hit places. The main message turns to Colossians 3 and the believer's identity in Christ. Since we were raised with Christ, our past was nailed to the cross, our present life is hidden with Christ in God, and our future is secure: when He appears, we will appear with Him in glory. No one can snatch us from His hand, because we have been made one with the Son and the Father. Because this identity is real, Paul calls us to put sin to death and to put away anger, malice and corrupt speech, then to clothe ourselves with mercy, humility, forgiveness and above all love. We are a new creation, born again, cleansed by the blood of Jesus. The service closes at the Lord's table, where communion is not condemnation but hope - a reminder that in Christ we can do what we never could alone, and that we now live not for ourselves but for the One who paid our ransom.

The congregation gathers around the Lord's Supper to remember the suffering and death of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 11:24). The preacher walks slowly through the final sayings Jesus spoke while hanging on the cross, reminding us that every single word cost Him great pain, so each one carries real weight for our lives. "Father, forgive them" shows Jesus interceding for the very people crucifying Him, a call for us to genuinely forgive even those who wrong us, as Stephen did (Acts 7; Matthew 5:44). To the dying thief He promised, "Today you will be with me in paradise," proving that salvation comes through faith in Christ rather than through deeds, baptism, or church membership. By entrusting His mother to John (John 19:26) He shows that God does not overlook the small, ordinary needs of our lives and often meets them through His church. And the cry "My God, why have You forsaken Me?" reveals that Christ bore the sin of the world and the separation of hell so that we could be reconciled to God. After sharing communion, a closing word urges believers not to despise the value of fellowship, service, and prayer. We are called to fight our spiritual battles in prayer, even praying ahead of trouble, and to come boldly to Christ with our needs instead of believing the enemy's lie that it is not worth it.

This message prepares the congregation for the Lord's Supper. Starting from the Passover in Exodus, the preacher shows how Israel chose a lamb, kept it, and marked their doorposts with its blood so the destroyer would pass over their homes. That blood was a sign of protection, and it pointed forward to Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In the upper room (Luke 22) Jesus told the disciples to go and prepare. On the night before the cross He took the bread and the cup, giving His own body and blood as the new covenant for the forgiveness of sins. The preacher notes that no one was willing to wash feet that night, and calls believers to humble service that begins with the small things of home and church. Communion is an invitation to stay under the protection of Christ's blood, to return like the prodigal son to the Father, and to examine our hearts honestly. Instead of excusing our sin, we judge it, confess it, forgive one another, and receive His body and blood by faith - finding cleansing, healing, and restoration.

This Good Friday service begins where Israel's worship began - at the bronze laver of Exodus, where the priests washed before drawing near to God. From that basin the pastor moves to the upper room of John 13, where Jesus, the Lord and Teacher, lays aside His garment, takes a towel, and washes the feet of His disciples. The lesson is humility: we have been washed once and for all by the blood of Christ, yet our daily walk still needs cleansing, and we are called to stoop and serve one another in love. The congregation then washes one another's feet. The whole Passion is read from John 18 and 19 - the arrest in the garden, Peter's denial, the trial before Pilate and the question 'What is truth?', the crown of thorns, the cry 'Behold the man', and the crucifixion at Golgotha that ends with 'It is finished.' The preacher lingers over Gethsemane, where Jesus sweat drops of blood, and over the cross, the most shameful of deaths, where the Son carried the sins of the world and the Father turned His face away. Around the Lord's table the believers take the bread and the cup, examining their own hearts and remembering His body broken and His blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins, with the reminder that by His wounds comes healing for body, soul, and broken heart. A guest from the New Life rehabilitation ministry, Olya, closes with a testimony of deliverance from fourteen years of addiction and of healing received when no doctor could help - living proof that only Christ can set the captive free.

On this communion Sunday the message centers on the blood of Jesus, the only thing that truly washes away sin and opens the way into God's presence. Where the blood of animals once merely covered Israel's guilt, the blood of Christ removes it completely, giving hope, healing, and entry into the New Jerusalem. A brother testified how he survived in a hospital where others around him died, crediting nothing but the blood of Jesus. Drawing from 1 Corinthians 11, the preacher urges every believer to examine themselves before taking the bread and the cup, because the same power that blesses can also bring judgment when it is received carelessly. The real test, taken from 1 John, is whether we genuinely love our brother, and not only those who love us back, but also those who hurt, misunderstand, or betray us. Using the parable of the unforgiving servant and his own story of reconciliation, he warns that unforgiveness wounds whole families and that the enemy works to destroy our relationships so we lose our connection with heaven. We forgive, he reminds us, not because we are good, but because God first forgave us.

This communion service opens by defining what a commandment really is - a binding rule that governs a person's words and actions. God gave commandments to Israel, but Christ Himself also received a commandment from His heavenly Father and fulfilled it perfectly. Jesus declared, I love the Father and I do exactly what He commanded, abiding always in the Father's love. To love God is to keep His commandments, and these are not burdensome: believe in the name of Jesus, love God, and love one another as He loved us. Christ proved His love by laying down His life of His own will, for no one took it from Him. Standing silent before Pilate, like a lamb led to slaughter, He willingly surrendered for our salvation. The breaking of bread is the commandment He left His church, and we keep it the same way He obeyed the Father - freely, out of love, never out of duty. With a personal story, the pastor warns against treating worship as mere obligation. As a young man he once vowed to pray an hour each day like Jesus, but felt only relief when the week ended, until God asked him whether he had done it out of love or out of duty. Those who truly love do not count the time. He calls the church to examine themselves, admit their own guilt rather than point fingers like Adam, forgive as Christ forgave, and so proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.

This communion service is built on Luke 22, where Jesus sends Peter and John to prepare the Passover and tells them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer." The preacher lingers on that key word - prepare - and reminds the church that simply sharing the meal among ourselves is not enough, because in the bread and the cup Christ himself is present, to be received by faith as from his own hand. The message moves through three thoughts. The cross is the day of the slain Lamb, where Jesus cried "It is finished" and won the decisive victory over the powers of darkness. Preparing the supper required obedience, and obedience is born only of humility: Christ humbled himself and was obedient even to death on a cross, so God lifted him above all. The Last Supper was the founding of the New Covenant - a covenant that never grows old but stays forever new, reaching from that upper room all the way into the kingdom of heaven. Above all this is a word about thanksgiving and unity. Jesus gave thanks over the cup even while knowing that betrayal, mockery, and suffering were only hours away; so too we are called to thank God for the harder cups of our own lives instead of grumbling. Like grain ground and baked into one loaf, or grapes pressed into one cup, believers from many different fields are made one body in Christ. So we examine ourselves, make peace with one another, and come to the table prepared.

The service centers on the Lord's Supper and the remembrance of Christ's death. The preacher reads Luke's account of the crucifixion and the testimony of the apostle John, who wrote of what he had seen and touched. From there he asks a sober question: what is sin? The Greek word means to miss the mark, a small nudge that sends the arrow wide, seemingly harmless yet deeply destructive. Sin is never innocent. It steals joy, health, and peace, and on the cross it separated even Jesus from the Father. The preacher shares personal testimonies, returning thousands of dollars he had been overpaid by mistake, and going back to pay for charcoal he had not paid for, to show how the Holy Spirit convicts a tender conscience. He warns that behind every sin stands a tempter who either hides our guilt or exaggerates it to keep us bound. Before communion we are told to examine ourselves rather than judge our neighbor. Reading Isaiah 53, the preacher points to the wounds by which we are healed and to the sins God casts behind His back. We lay our sin on Christ, receive His forgiveness, forgive others, and come to the table not by merit but by grace.

This communion service is built on 1 Corinthians 11, where the apostle Paul corrects the church not to shame it but to instruct it the way a loving father instructs his children. The preacher points out that Paul, who had first commended the Corinthians for holding to his teaching, could not praise them for how they gathered for the Lord's Supper, because their meetings were marked by division, selfishness, and contempt for the poor instead of love. The heart of the message is that the bread and the cup carry us back to Calvary - to the body broken and the blood poured out equally for every believer. Because we all share in one bread, taking communion means remembering Christ's sacrifice while also honoring the brother or sister beside us, whoever they may be. The congregation is urged to examine themselves, to wait for and forgive one another, and to come to the table at peace with God and with each other. The preacher reminds the church that the Lord spreads His table even in the presence of our enemies, that Christ's wounds bring healing and forgiveness, and that this is the new covenant in His blood. Those who partake worthily, discerning the body, receive blessing; those who do so carelessly bring judgment on themselves.

On the weekend of America's Independence Day, the pastor lifts the church's eyes from earthly liberty to the deeper freedom Christ won at Golgotha. Jesus told us to remember His death, and at the Lord's Table the congregation does exactly that, returning to the cross where our salvation was secured. Walking through Matthew 27, the message lingers on Christ's suffering - the crown of thorns, Simon carrying the cross, the mockery, the darkness, and the cry, "My God, why have You forsaken Me?" The prophets long foresaw this: Isaiah's servant who was pierced for our sins and by whose wounds we are healed, and the God who searched for one who would stand in the gap. Only the sinless Jesus could carry the sin of the whole world. From Galatians the preacher warns against trading grace for self-effort, for we receive the Spirit and righteousness by faith, not by works of the law. So no one should come to communion crushed by "I am unworthy" or proud in "I am fine on my own." Every believer still needs the cross, and we come again with fresh faith to receive the broken body and shed blood of Christ.

Preached during a Lord's Supper service from Acts 3:18-26, this message rests on Peter's declaration that God raised His Son and sent Him first to bless His people - by turning every one of them away from sin. God did not send Jesus to condemn the world but to lift the curse and give the greatest blessing of all: freedom from the power of sin and the gift of eternal life. The risen Christ, received into heaven until the time appointed, still comes to each person personally through the gospel and by the Holy Spirit. Just as thousands believed after Peter preached, the Spirit knocks on individual hearts today, revealing Jesus and drawing each one out of bondage. The word of the cross is the power of God for salvation, and the church need never be ashamed of it, even when proclaiming it brings suffering. At the table the congregation remembers Christ's broken body and the new covenant in His blood, proclaiming His death until He comes. The preacher calls each believer to examine themselves, to receive the bread and cup worthily, and to treasure this everlasting covenant as Abraham did.

This message is preached at a communion service. Reading 1 Corinthians 11, the preacher explains that to partake worthily we must discern the body of the Lord, not treating the bread and cup as ordinary food. He calls the congregation to examine their hearts, to be at peace with God and one another, and to forgive anyone they hold a grievance against before they come to the table. The heart of the message comes from Romans 8: if God is for us, who can be against us? He did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, and Christ willingly submitted to the Father's will. The Lord's Supper, then, is not a table of condemnation but a ministry of justification. Contrasting the law of Moses, the ministry that exposes our sin, with the gospel, the ministry of righteousness, the preacher shows that no one is justified by the law, only through the knowledge of Christ who bore our iniquities. He shares his own testimony of first seeing his sinfulness under the light of the law, and later being drawn back to Christ by the light of God's love. The closing call is to live in that love, to grow into Christ's likeness, to be willing even to die for one another rather than judge each other like the Pharisee in the temple, and to come to the table in faith and forgiveness.

This communion service opens with the question the disciples asked Jesus - where do you want us to prepare the Passover - turned back on every listener: where do you want to meet with the Lord today? The preacher calls the church to prepare their hearts, setting aside every sin and every doubt, before approaching the Lord's Table. Reading from 1 Corinthians 11 and 2 Corinthians 5, the message centers on reconciliation. While we were still sinners and even enemies of God, Christ died for us, and now God no longer counts our trespasses against us. The parable of the prodigal son shows that the Father's deepest joy is not only that the lost son survived, but that their broken relationship was fully restored. Drawing on Psalm 103, where God carries our sins as far as the east is from the west, the congregation is urged to come to the cross, confess, forgive one another, and receive the bread and cup worthily - living no longer for themselves but for the One who died and rose again.