2004-07-04 Communion Dedication - Baldwin Christian Church

John 6:38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.

Jesus came down from heaven with a purpose. In His own words, He came to:

Speak not of Himself, but of the Father (John 12:49).
Say what the Father told Him to say (John 12:50).
Seek and save that which was lost (Luke 19:10).
Minister, not to be ministered unto, and to give His life a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28).

And when His hour came, He fell on His face and prayed: "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt" (Matthew 26:39).

At some point in His life, it dawned on Jesus that He must drink of this cup, and we too, at some point in our lives, must come to this realization. That cup was meant for us.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

All our freedom is due to the gift of God. How tightly do we cling to this truth today? Do we understand what Jesus meant when He said: (Matthew 6:24) "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." The cup of judgment and wrath, the cup that we deserve, was received by the One who was willing to set aside His own will, and yield to the will of the Father all the way to the end. How tightly are we clinging to the things of this world today?

You were all born into this world, entrusted with the spirit God gave you. When your body ceases to breathe,...

Ecclesiastes 12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

When your spirit returns to the Father, there will be an accounting of your stewardship.

Ezekiel 18:4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.

When we receive this feast of communion, it's a visible expression of our faith in Jesus, but we cannot mock Him. The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).

In our speech, do we speak of ourselves, or of the Father? Do we study in His Word each day so we can know His will, or do we study everything other than His Word (TV shows, shopping, sports, etc...)? Do we have a heart for those who don't know Jesus, and do we live our lives as signs pointing to His finished work, or do we have the attitude, "I got mine, go get your own"? Do we give our lives to minister, or do we prefer to be ministered unto?

Somehow in our minds, we find ways to minimize God's will in our lives, His tug at our hearts, His calling us to His purpose. We minimize the fact that all our burden of sin, our judgment, our sentence was placed upon this one Man, Jesus. We'll say to ourselves, "He came down from heaven, so He already knew what He had to do, and that probably made it easier for Him," or, "I've basically been a good person, I live a good life, so I probably haven't hurt Jesus all that bad." We all say things like that, but we tend to forget that the day is not so far away, the day when our souls will return to the Father who gave them. We say thinks like that, but the Bible tells us that Jesus was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy that would come from it (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus was born into this world with a purpose, and so were you. His obedience to God's will is what gives you this joy, this hope, and this freedom. God gave you the breath of life, the breath that came down from heaven, and you have a choice today: Should I do mine own will, or the will of Him that sent me?