03/08/2026 Riverside Sunday Service | Luke 22:7-8, 13-23 CSB

We need to remember the lamb who is the star, the host of the feast, and remember that there is a day coming where there will be no more sorrow, no more tears, and no more pain. But the lamb who gave his life for you will sit at the dinner table with you at a place of perfection. And so I invite us as we are going to prepare to take communion in just a moment. We would think about communion past with Jesus and the disciples. We would think about communion present that we're taking today, but we'll also think about communion future where we get to have a wedding feast with the lamb himself. Amen. [01:07:40] (43 seconds)  #FeastWithTheLamb

All the accolades, all the sins are not gonna keep you from God because it's not about what you have achieved or what you have messed up that keeps you from God. It is what he has done that brings you close to God. And communion is the place whenever we partake of it, where we declare to ourselves, to you, even the principalities and the spirits in the spiritual realm that we cannot even see that because of Jesus Christ and his life and his death and his resurrection, you are invited to the table as you are as a child of God. Communion is about worship. It's about weird. And most importantly, it's about welcome. [01:00:47] (47 seconds)  #WelcomeToTheTable

Communion is this place where we see the God of the universe, how he didn't just come through all those years ago to the people that he rescued from Egypt, but he intervened in our lives two thousand years ago when Jesus came and died for us. He's intervening in your life now where there is shame, and where there is pain, and where there is brokenness, and where there is sin. He is reaching in and saying, it can be different. And if there is a savior who loves me enough to live for me, die for me, rise again, and invite me into the family of God, How could I not respond with anything but worship? [00:47:04] (43 seconds)  #RescuedAndRedeemed

And so as we take this today, we remember that Jesus was willing to pay a high cost to bring you to the table. It's almost like, you know, you say, Jesus, I can't quite come to the table. I don't have the right attire to wear. I don't have enough money to pay for the meal. I I don't think I can I don't think I can make the meal? And Jesus says, I'll pay your way. How about I clothe you in my righteousness? How about I pay your entry with my very blood spilled on that tree? So as we take the cup, we remember and we recognize and with a heart of worship, remember that Jesus paid great cost because of his love for us. [01:17:33] (40 seconds)  #PaidInFull

That communion is the place where everyone is welcomed to the table as children of God. That that is the point of this story. Communion is the place where everyone is welcomed to the table as children of God. It doesn't matter how far away you think you are from God. It doesn't matter what silly thing you did yesterday, last week, last month, last year, last lifetime. It doesn't matter how you vote. It doesn't matter the color of your skin. It doesn't matter what your background is. It doesn't matter what family you came from. Whatever things you think give you assets or liabilities that get you closer or further from God don't mean squat. [00:59:49] (44 seconds)  #EveryoneAtTheTable

I think the other invitation of this story is to embrace the weird. As you follow Jesus, it's gonna get weird. You're gonna enter conversations that are awkward. You're gonna enter parts of your heart and your story that are awkward. You're gonna engage truths of scripture that are awkward. But God doesn't do weird just for weird sake. God provides holy disruptions that he can build us back up together again in the way we need to be built up. He provides holy disruptions that he can get our attention. He provides holy disruptions that we could see him. So as we find ourselves in places of disorientation, maybe we could ask the question, God, what are you trying to do here? [01:03:11] (44 seconds)  #HolyDisruption

And worship is this word that can kinda be this amorphous blob. Right? We're gonna go worship. What does that mean? You tell someone who's not a Christian, you're just gonna go worship. They don't know what that means. Well, one of the best definitions of worship that I love is from a guy named Dan Allender who I learned a lot from, and it's that worship is this place where awe and gratitude meet. I love that definition of it. Worship is the place where awe and gratitude meet. [00:47:47] (28 seconds)  #AweAndGratitude

In the first couple hundred years after Jesus rose from the dead, the fathers of the church, the mothers of the church, the people who were kind of governing and trying to add some leadership to the church at that time had to make documents about what communion was because people would see the Christians having communion feasts and communion meals together, and they talk about the body of blood and Jesus, and people thought the Christians were cannibals. This is this is history. This is the history of the first couple hundred years of the church. There is something inherent to communion that is strange and weird and disruptive. [00:54:32] (38 seconds)  #StrangeAndSacred