1 Samuel 31
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. Wow, lively this morning. It's Labor Day weekend. My name is Spencer. I am one of the pastors here. We are in 1st Samuel 31, which means that we are coming to the end of First Samuel today. So this is the final chapter. We said at the beginning that first and Second Samuel were all written together. It's one story that when they originally were recording this down, they did it in scrolls. It was too big of a story for one scroll. They split it into two, which is why we have first and Second Samuel. So there's part one, there's part two. We're finishing part one. We are not going to immediately jump into Second Samuel. We're actually going to take a break from that. We're going to do a new series starting next week called Remember, this is an opportunity for us to look at why membership is important and to look at our membership commitment. And we're going to teach through our membership commitment throughout the fall to understand what are the things that we commit to as this local body. And then we will do our give series in December and we'll return to Second Samuel in the new year sometime. So we are in 1st Samuel today, concluding it. This is the final part, really, of the downfall of Saul. We followed this story. We've seen how ugly it has gotten for him. And this chapter just kind of ends very quickly. It's a very brief description of how Saul dies, and it ends this really sad story in a hurry. So what I want to do is I want to walk through the story here of what we have today, and then I want to recap and go back to look at parts of First Samuel to really see where Saul started to go around, to see some of the decisions he made, and to see how pride and self interest ultimately became his downfall. So we'll get to recap and see First Samuel in a clip, and then we will have an opportunity to step back as Christians and look at this and see what this means for us as we try to understand this and apply the truth of the Scriptures to our lives. So I'm gonna pray for us, and then we're going to walk through this together. Heavenly Father, I pray that you might help us be present to hear your word, that you give us ears to hear and that we would not just listen to what your word has to say, but we would seek to respond. God, may you bring us to faith and. And to repentance and to delighting in you over all the things in this world they would seek to rob us of life with you we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
All right, so we're in verse one now.
> Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa.
And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines struck down Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchishua, the sons of Saul.
> And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines struck down Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchishua, Saul's sons.
So it just jumps straight into this very sad moment. If you've been following First Samuel with us, this is sad because this is the death of Jonathan. Jonathan is what was supposed to be the next king in Lyme, but he realizes fairly quickly that God has chosen David to be the anointed king. So he submits to the will of God and then he becomes a fierce friend to David, that he loves David. I mean, we see such loyalty within him. And if you remember a few chapters ago, there's this hope in him that he said, one day, David, you're going to be the throne. I'm going to be by your side. There's this hopefulness that he'll never get to see. And one of the things I appreciate here is that even as he seeks to obey the Lord and his desires, not his own, and he seeks to befriend David, that he's at his father's side, which means he's still trying to honor his father as well. Makes Jonathan one of the most beloved people in the Scriptures. But he dies in battle. Two other brothers due to Abinadab and Malka Shua. Now absent from this list of sons is Ish Bosheth, which we're going to learn more about at the beginning of 2 Samuel. There's going to be a rivalry that brews between him and David, but he's not there in the battlefield, it seems.
Now we pick up in verse three,
> And the battle pressed hard against Saul, and the archers found him, and he was badly wounded by the archers. Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and mistreat me. But his armor-bearer would not, for he feared greatly. Therefore Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his sword and died with him. Thus Saul died, and his three sons and his armor-bearer and all his men on the same day together.
So they're losing, they're retreating. They're retreating to Mount Gilboa, his sons have died, his army's falling. Everything that Samuel said is coming to fruition, and that he's struck, he's struck by archers. And at this point, he knows it's over. And he does not want to be overtaken by the Philistines because he knows what's going to happen. He's been a thorn in their side for decades. At this point, they get ahold of him. They're going to mistreat him. He doesn't want that. He looks at his armor bearer and says, kill me. Kill me right now. But his armor bearer would not, for he feared greatly and rightfully so. This is the Lord's anointed king. This is not a small thing for this request to come through. He's not doing this. Therefore, Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. And when his arm bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his sword, died with them. Thus Saul died, and his three sons and his armor bearer and all his men on the same day together. Saul ends his own life. His arm bearer follows suit. And Saul, a man that grew prideful as the years went on, he decides how he is going to die.
Verse 7.
> And when the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley and those beyond Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled, and the Philistines came and lived in them.
So when the people in nearby towns hear that their king of 40 years has died and they have lost the battle, they make the right decision. Because in this period of time, actually even into today, if you lose and the army is coming, you just abandon everything. You get your family, you get out. Philistines come in, they settle into these towns.
Verse 8.
> The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
So they cut off his head and stripped off his armor and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to carry the good news to the house of their idols and to the people. The Philistines suffered Saul under Saul and all of the battles they lost against him for 40 years. So when they are doing what you do after you win the battle and they're searching all the bodies, they're taking loot. They are trying to identify if there's any major figures that have been killed and they finally find Saul, they are ecstatic because they get the opportunity to humiliate this thorn in their side that they've Lost to for many years. And they cut off his head. And if you remember back in 1st Samuel, chapter 5, when the Ark of the Lord was captured and the ark of the Lord is brought into the Philistines, the temple of Dagon, the Lord cuts the head of the false God and that statue off. And that's as we established then, that's a sign of dominance and humiliation against your enemy. That's why David, after he defeats Goliath, he cuts off his head. It's a sign of dominance and humiliation of your enemy. And they do the same to Saul to establish dominance and humiliation in their victory. And this just shows, this is judgment against Saul, that he dies in a similar manner as Goliath. He's humiliated like Dagon. He is being judged. We learn from 1st Chronicles, chapter 10. If you read 1st Chronicles and 2nd Chronicles, they have parallel stories to 1st and 2nd Samuel and 1st and 2nd Kings. And when you look at 1st Chronicles 10, you get a little more information that they didn't just cut his head off, they took it actually to the temple of Dagon. They devoted it to their idol. Humiliating. And they spread this humiliating good news throughout the land of the Philistines.
> They put his armor in the temple of Ashtaroth and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan.
So they take his armor, a military flex of power. They devote it to another false God that they worship. They take his headless body and they string it to the wall of Beth Shan for any Israelite that will come and see. They're going to see their king of 40 years, headless on the wall, humiliated. But nearby in Jabesh Gilead, they hear of what happened to their king. And if you remember the story of Jabesh Gilead, this is when the Ammonites were surrounding Jabesh and they were humiliating them. The people of Jabesh were able to get a message out. And this is one of Saul's bright moments where he, the spirit of the Lord rushes upon him and he gathers the people and the Israelites defeat the Ammonites. So the people of Jabesh, that's decades ago, but they remember it, and they're going to retrieve the desecrated body of their king.
Verse 11.
> But when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arose and went all night and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan. And they came to Jabesh and burned them there.
They Risk their lives. They go, they get his body, they get his sons, they go back to Jabesh, they burn his bodies. They burn their bodies. They then
> took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk at Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.
So even in this, at the end of the final verse of this book, where there's a bright spot here, you see that the loyalty of the people of Jabesh, as I look at this, more even in this small little bright spot of their loyalty, there's so much of God's judgment upon Saul and how all this went down that he, Saul is the king. He doesn't get a burial like a king. He doesn't even get a burial like an Israelite because the Israelites didn't do this. They didn't burn bodies. They didn't cremate. That's not what they did. That was dishonorable. And people ask the question, well, why did they go all to the trouble? They risk their lives and they go and they bring them back and they do this type of burial. And the best explanation I saw, and I think it's pretty convincing, is that they risked their lives to do this. They might have been hunted down for doing this. And they had to do the quickest way to take care of his desecrated body already to cremate, take the bones. Can I be recognized? And they buried him under a tamarisk tree, which, as I read that, I just was like that. This is more of God's judgment upon Saul. The only other time that you see a tamarisk tree mentioned in the. In the whole Bible is back in 1st Samuel 22. And that is when Saul is. He makes. He makes his judgment arrogantly against the priest of Nob under the tamarisk tree. And that's when he murders all of the priests of Nob and their wives and their children. And the same place where he made this arrogant judgment, the same type of tree. At least he's buried under this tree. So all of this shows God's judgment upon Saul and a sad ending to his life. And I think this cements the judgment against him. And if you go on and you read into 1 Chronicles and you see one of the final passages in the Bible that's going to mention Saul, you just get a blunt summary of this judgment upon him.
> So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord and also command consulted a medium seeking guidance.
So for not obeying the Lord's command, that's a reference to 1st Samuel 15, when he was told to kill the Amalekite king, and he doesn't. And for consulting a medium, he is appointed to die like this. And that's the end. That's the end of the story of Saul. And what I want to do is I want to just briefly go back through parts of First Samuel and. And I want to trace for us how he got here and why all of this happened. So we'll start in 1st Samuel, chapter 2. His downfall was prophetically foreshadowed in the prayer of Hannah. And I just want to read a snippet of her prayer. If you remember, Hannah, this is. She was. She loved God. She was praying for a son. She could not have a son. And then God finally hears her pray, blesses her, and her son is Samuel, the final judge from the period of the Judges, and the great seer and prophet of the land. And in this rejoicing, prayer and worshiping the Lord, she previews the whole, all the events of the next hundred years. If you go back and read Hannah's prayer, you get a picture of first and Second Samuel, what's about to happen. And in that prayer, in verse nine, it says, she says,
> He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be put to silence in darkness; for by power no one prevails. The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth. And he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.
And it's this declaration that those who are faithful, who keep faith in the Lord, who love God, who follow him, God will give strength to them. He will guard them. But the wicked who trust in themselves will fail. You cannot trust in your own strength. Not by might shall a man prevail. And there's this declaration of God will give strength to his anointed king. And this anticipation of the kingship that is going to come. And who is this king going to be? And is he going to have this type of blessedness where God gives him strength to be the king that this nation needs? And then finally, as we followed and kept going, we began to see who's going to be the first king. And it comes from a place that no one expects, that God chooses a king from the tribe of Benjamin. We were in 1st Samuel, chapter nine. We saw that Benjamin was the lowliest of the tribes. It was the smallest of the tribes. If you go back to the Book of Judges. It has a checkered past. The people didn't think much of the tribe of Benjamin. They didn't think much of themselves. But God chooses this king that's going to lead his people from this humble tribe. So much so that when Saul is chosen from the tribe of Benjamin, he says in 9:21,
> Am I not a Benjamite, from the least of the tribes of Israel, and is not my clan the humblest of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then have you spoken to me in this way?
Saul gets it. He's like, I'm from the tribe of Benjamin and I'm from one of the most humble clans, one of the humblest, the smallest of towns of people. Who am I that I would be king? And as you read this, if you don't know what's coming ahead, there's this hopefulness, because this is what God does. He chooses the lowly. He raises them up. And maybe that this is going to be the leader that leads the people with a type of humble leadership, that God is the one who gives the strength, that he doesn't trust in himself. But that hope quickly begins to fade. And the first evidence of his pride and self interest shows up in 1st Samuel 13. As you flip the pages, you get to the moment that he's supposed to, as the king. He's supposed to, before he goes into battle, wait on Samuel to come and make the offering, the sacrifice to the Lord. He is the king, he's not the prophet or the priest. But then he arrogantly assumes the role of prophet and priest. He offers the sacrifice, Samuel shows up. And then we see very quickly, oh, no, this is starting to go poorly. Saul thinks so highly of himself that he would step out of bounds and make this move. And that arrogance continues into 1st Samuel 15, when he is told to obey the voice of the Lord to destroy the Amalekites, that God had finally prepared judgment for them. And he doesn't. He's willing to kill all the people except The Amalekite king.
> But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and of the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them.
And when we walk through that chapter, what we saw is that he was willing to take the loot and he was willing to do what so many pagan kings in their time would do. They would keep the defeated king alive. And that would be a king that you paraded around like a slave that would exert your dominance and make your name great. His pride and self interest infected him. That he would not obey the voice of the Lord. That he would seek to make himself great. And that is when Samuel comes and declares, your kingship will end, that you will no longer be king. That God has sought a king after his own heart. And listen, in that moment Saul had the opportunity to realize his grievous sin and to say, what woe is me that I did not obey your voice. Forgive me. And then he could have said, and I submit to your decision, God. I'll do what you want. You don't want me to be king anymore, that's fine. You choose the king that you want. I'll trust you with whatever secession plan that needs to happen. He could have in that moment submitted to the will of God. But he spends every waking moment defying the will of God over and over and over again. So much so that right after that Samuel's afraid of Saul. There's a threat of violence against the great prophet. And then when it becomes clear that David is the next anointed king, he tries to kill him in 1st Samuel 18, he tries to murder him again in 1st Samuel 19. And he continues his murderous rage against David, pursuing him, pursuing him. And then he comes to 1 Samuel chapter 22, when he comes upon the town of Nob and all the priests. And then he's got it. It's so infected his soul and his mind, he thinks, oh, the priests of Nob are on the side of David. And then he arrogantly murders every priest he can, and their wives and their children. 1st Samuel 22 and Nob, the city of priests, he put to the sword both man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey and sheep. He put to the sword that he slaughters the priesthood. And then he continues to try to kill David in first Samuel 23. And then one Samuel 24 he tries to kill him. And David spares him. And there's a moment of maybe contrition that maybe it's going. Maybe he'll stop his murderous rage. Maybe he'll stop his endless pursuit of power and self exaltation. He doesn't. This travels to First Samuel 26, where David spares him again. And by the time you get to 1st Samuel 28, he's so blind, he's so. He so doesn't know God that he consults the medium of Endor and practices the wicked and abominable practices of the four nations. Consulting help. And then it ends here. At every step he refuses. He refuses to humble himself before the Lord. He is solely concerned with himself. And it's so clear. Saul forgot where he came from. He absolutely lost himself. He forgot his origin story. He, if it wasn't for the Lord and God's sovereign choice would still be on a farm with his donkeys and Benjamin. But he forgets all of them and he gets a taste of power and he spends the rest of his days pathetically pursuing it. He's like Gollum in the end of the Lord of the Rings and Return of the King. At the very end where him and Frodo are fighting over the ring and the ring spills over the cliff into the lava below. He just desperately jumps, just for a few seconds to be able to hold it again as he falls into the flames. And that's Saul, just so, clinging to power, so infected with pride and self interest, destroying everyone he can and himself in the process. From the anointing of his head by Samuel to the beheading Paul let, or Saul let pride and self interest become his ruin.
And as Christians, when you read the story of Saul, it has to be a cautionary tale for us. It has to serve as a warning for us. Because the reality is the same prideful pitfalls that plagued Saul all of his life, that's so offered to us because it's so easy to forget where you come from. And as Christians, as we understand the Gospel, we should know that more than most. Because where we come from is humble beginnings like Saul, even more so that as Christians, we come into this world with a mountain of sin and sin debt. The Bible tells us that we're dead in sin, with a record of debt that stands against us with its legal demand. That's our humble origin story. That's where we come from. We're lowly, we're lost, we're blind, and we have no righteousness, no eternal righteousness to count to ourselves at all. We have sin and the record of sin that stands against us with no righteousness of our own but God in His grace and in his mercy and in his kindness and in his, he chooses us. He says, I'm going to redeem him. I'm going to redeem her. In spite of their sin, in spite of their brokenness, in spite of all of it, he claims us and he saves us. And then he credits to us through Christ his perfect righteousness that Jesus takes the penalty of sin and death on the cross and that through faith in him, we get all of his perfect Righteousness, all of the eternal rewards that we are brought into the eternal family of God. Romans 8 says that we're co heirs with Christ. Think about that. The eternal king. We're co heirs, we're brought into royalty. And yet when we enter into his kingdom, when we are on the palace grounds, we begin to forget where we came from. We begin to build little kingdoms for ourselves. They're like anthills, just focused on it. There's a giant kingdom that he's offered, it's so much greater, and we're so focused on our own selves. And like Saul, you get used to royalty, used to the riches that come with it. And you think more highly of yourself. We think more highly of ourselves.
> For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
And that's what happens. We get comfortable and we get prideful. When I try to think about this, when I try to think about our church and how this shows up in our lives, there's a few ways that come to mind that I want to point out. I'm going to spend the rest of our time highlighting this because I do think that pride is something that we don't consider often enough on how it shows up. And I just want to point out for the rest of our time three prideful pitfalls that I think we should be aware of so that we don't fall into the same trap that Saul does.
The first is that we become fault finders. When we get comfortable, we start following Christ. We become fault finders. We become people who, when we hear truth, when we listen to a sermon, our first step is not to think. How is this good news for me? We begin to think and listen on behalf of other people. I said, man, I really hope that he's hearing this. I really hope that she's listening right now. We become good at finding the faults of others that when we share in our community group time, when we share in our community group time, how often does the focus of life updates become how other people in our lives have made our lives more difficult? How often when we share life updates, dare I say that our group sometimes become gossip grounds for the prosecution of every co worker and boss that's made our lives difficult. And we just get so good at looking at the fault of others instead of looking within first, realizing the sin beneath the surface that makes us so poor at responding to life. I love what Jonathan Edwards says about spiritual proud. He says the spiritually proud person is apt to find fault with other saints that they are low in grace and to be much in observing how cold and dead they are and be quick to discern and take notice of their deficiencies. But the eminently humble Christian has so much to do at home and sees so much evil in his own heart and is so concerned about it that he is not apt to be very busy with the other's hearts. That the spiritually humble Christian who understands the good news of the gospel, understands how broken we are outside of God sustaining grace in our lives, is so apt to just say, whoa, look at me, to look within. But when you follow Jesus long enough, you can fall into this trap of pride where you become an outward fault finder, so concerned with the faults of others. And I think we're blind to this. I think we're blind to this in ways that we don't even realize. Because, I mean, our church, we are not a church that says, don't drink, don't dance, and don't associate with those who do. That's so not us at all. You know why? Because we're better than that. It is. That's us. We're better than that. Not seeing the irony within that. And we may be a church that has tattoos, that maybe has wine at book clubs, but boy, how quick are we to pass judgment on a messy family that shows up or to see someone's unruly kids and start to. Maybe I'm alone in that, but I feel that. I feel that all of a sudden someone shows up and their kids all over the place, and I'm like, I mean, do you want me to take them out or you. It's just our go to move. It's just outwardly focused. Someone comes in and starts quoting from some weak, mega, churchy Instagram ministry person, and it's just like, oh, just wait till I tell you about desiring God. It's just like. I don't know, maybe it's just confession time for me. I don't think I'm alone in this. I don't think. I don't. I think because what happens is we so will distance ourselves from some of those other churches, that you'll distance yourself from whatever stale Baptist church you grew up in. And you'll be so blind to the spiritual pride that infects your soul. We need to consider this. It's more subtle, but it's just as lethal.
Second way, we become thankless. We become thankless. We'll complain about status, about income, about our situations, about our lot in life. We'll complain inwardly and outwardly and will fall into the mindset that says, listen, I do the right things. I'm a decent person. I come on Sundays, I'm faithful. In going to group, I tithe. And that hurts because groceries are like gold. I do it, y'. All. Some of you are like, they spin the register around at every single establishment now and say, your turn to tip. Even when all they did was they turn around and grab the thing which resembles nothing of waiting tables. And I push the button. I'm a good, decent person who does all the right things. You have this record of all the things that you're doing so well at. And inwardly you're like, but why, God, have you not done this in my life? Why is it so hard? Why have you not blessed me with this? Why have you not given me this person? And what happens is you begin to measure the goodness of God by the things that he does for us in a way that grows a thanklessness that's rooted in pride and self interest. And it's a dangerous game to play because Saul could have done the same thing. He could have said, lord, look at the stuff I saved the people of Jabesh Gilead. Look at the good works that I've done. He could have pointed those things. But the problem wasn't the things. It was that he didn't know God. He didn't know him. And he was so self interested. And he clung to power and he did not cling to Christ. We did not cling to God. And he became entitled to his place on the throne. And it led into judgment. And we can do the same thing. We can become an entitled people. We can have an inward posture that says, God, I'm doing the things. Why have you not responded? I'm doing the things. Why have you made this difficult? I'm doing the things. Why have you not blessed me with the things that are so good? And we can turn and say, here are all the things that I've done and not realize that that comes from the same heart that one day may stand before the Lord and the Lord may say to you, depart from me, I never knew you. Because it's not about the things. It's about knowing and beholding him as more glorious than any way that you might be blessed in this life. Thanklessness flows from an entitled position of pride, and it places the interest of self above God. We become more concerned and we listen, if you fall into this, you will measure the goodness of God by the things that he does for you. And not because he is good. And that is a dangerous place. And it is rooted often in pride and self interest. And it is something we should consider.
Lastly, we become dependent upon the pride of life.
> Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.
Saul got used to the royalty and the riches that came with it, and he spent all of his days trying to defend his position. And it's when our eyes meet, the pride of life, all of the material blessings that he can give us in this world. And that's a dangerous place to be. It's a dangerous place to have our primary energy be focused on gaining the comforts of this present world. Because what you will do is you will take the creative things that he has given us and you'll elevate it above the Creator. It's what we do. And many of us, we live comfortable lives. Many of us live like kings in comparison to the rest of history. And it's like, you don't know me. I don't have to know you. You live in this country, and if you eat three meals a day, you have it better than the majority of people in history. We live like kings. And what happens when you live like kings and you live like queens is you start to. You start to feel entitled to the things that come with that. And basic needs are confused with wants. So much so that it's a need to have Internet, it's a need to have a smartphone, It's a need to have all these things that when we don't have it, we don't feel okay. It's a need to level up to the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. And if we'll think critically about our own soul, we'll realize that there's a pride and self interest within that posture. And the pride of life is a really dangerous thing.
We should consider all of these ways because these are the things that took Saul down. And these are the ways that we will forget where we came from, that we will be so blinded by pride, we will forget that we came from the pit of sin, that we came from a place of deceitfulness of our own heart. We came with the most malice of thoughts. We came from wayward wickedness. And we still would be there had God and his grace and his Mercy not chosen to redeem us. So as Christians, we must take this seriously. We must self examine and we must run to him in repentance. Others of you, this is you may be in a different spot. Others of you, you've never actually known God in the first place. You've never actually surrendered to the Lord in the first place. You haven't done this for a variety of reasons. You think that possibly that you know what's better for you. You don't want the Scriptures and the Bible and faith to impose limits on your life, that you want to live your life and your terms. And I want to tell you something. Saul began to make very similar choices to preserve the best future for him. And it ends in the same spot. And that's judgment. And I want you to see that ultimately choosing all the things that you think is best for you not only does not go well for you in this life, not only is not good for your soul in this life, that is not good for you in eternity. So whether that's you or whether you're a Christian, that's like me, blind to his own pride. The hope is still the same.
> But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Submit yourselves therefore to God.
God, our God, is a God of grace. Looking at men and women that build their lives around them. He says, I'm still here and I have grace for you. If you'll but humble yourself before me in faith, if you'll but humble yourself before me in repentance, you'll see that I'm better. You'll experience my grace and I will cleanse you of the pride that seeks to destroy him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that you might help us consider your word. I pray that you help us consider the story of First Samuel and the warnings that are bound up in it. But God, I pray that you would help us consider the hope that you have for sinners like me and God. I pray that you would begin to work in our hearts in a way that would behold you above all created things, including ourselves. In Jesus name, Amen.
We're going to prepare to take the Lord's Supper. I want to read From Mark, Chapter 14 before we take the Lord's Supper.
> And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them and said, "Take; this is my body." And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
That when we come to the table, we are reminded the prideful people. Jesus loved the prideful people. Jesus died for that. He went to the cross to die for broken prideful people who at times will forget where they came from, who at times will be blinded by their own self interest. And as a Christian, you get to joyfully come to the table with your church family and remember the goodness of the Gospel for prideful sinners. Not in shame, but in joy, because he gives more grace. When you are ready, come to the table. There's gluten free in that corner up there. And there's things gluten free in the balcony as well. But if you are not a Christian, if you're not a Christian, please do not take part in this at all. This is a ritual you will not understand. My hope for you right now is that you take part in Christ. You'd sit in your seat and you'd pray and you do what our God commands you to do. To humble yourself and to listen and to respond in faith. But respond as the Lord leads you.