Assurance of Eternal Security in Christ

So, well, good morning, Faith Family! How many of you are thankful to be here this morning? Amen! Man, what an incredible time of worship we have had!

I got so excited when I saw that we were singing that last song, "Promises." It's such a great song, and every time I hear it, every time we gather together and sing that song, it's just such an encouragement to me. But it's also a challenge because every time I'm singing that song and I'm thinking about how great His faithfulness is, how great He is to us, how faithful He is to me, I tell you, I'm always challenged to look back in the past through those times in my life where there were storms, where there was a wind that was blowing, those dark times in my life, and to be reminded that in those moments, God was faithful.

How many of you are thankful for the fact that God is faithful to you this morning? Amen! I tell you, it's just such an amazing song to sing, and our worship team did such an amazing job this morning. I couldn't have thought of a better song to sing in preparation for the message that we're going to be looking at here this morning because what we're going to be talking about is the Shepherd's Promise.

If you know, we've been walking through John chapter 10, talking about Jesus, who is our Good Shepherd. How many of you are thankful that Jesus is your Good Shepherd this morning? Amen! That He is the true Shepherd. So, we've been studying that together, and today what we're going to look at is a passage of Scripture where Jesus makes, as the Good Shepherd, this promise that is truly amazing to us and one that should really encourage us as we think about who Jesus is.

So, I want to pray for us this morning. We're going to dive into the Word and open it up and just study it together. So, let's pray together here this morning.

Father, we're so grateful, God, for Your presence in this place. We're grateful for what You have done for us in the fact that, Lord, while we were yet still sinners, You sent Your Son, Jesus, to come and to live His life perfectly on this Earth, that He would be able to go to the Cross as a sacrificial lamb and die a horrible death and spill His blood for the atonement of our sins. Father, we're grateful for that.

But, Father, we're also grateful for all the times in our life where You showed us that You were always faithful to us. Lord, as we think back on the storms in our life, as we think back about the times in our life where we walked through some of the most difficult times, and, Lord, how we thought we may not endure, and yet by Your faithfulness, we did.

Father, I pray that today, as we continue to study in John chapter 10, that You would remind us of how good the Good Shepherd is to us. Lord Jesus, we thank You for the work of the Cross. We thank You for the work in our life, the reality that as believers and followers of Christ Jesus, we get to walk with You every single day of our life.

So, Father, be with us now as we dive into Your Word, as we look at this message that You have placed on our hearts. Lord, we love You and praise You. In Jesus' name, amen.

I had two daughters, and I love them very much. As children, they were just complete little angels to me. I loved hanging out with them; I loved doing life with them. But there's one memory that always sort of stands out as I think back on our life when they were just two little girls, and it's one that you probably have a memory like this as well.

There always seemed to be this occasion where, as children, this opportunity would lend itself to where I could say to them, "Jump into my arms." It might be that they were standing on the edge of a pool, and I was out there in the water a little way from the side, and I'd say, "Jump!" And they would always say, just as little as they were, "I'm scared, Daddy! Are you going to catch me, Daddy?" And I'd say, "I'm going to catch you! Just come on, jump!"

I would encourage them, "Come and jump into my arms." And they would say, "Are you going to catch me?" And I'd say, "Absolutely, I'm going to catch you!" And they would just still hesitate. Ultimately, I would come to that time where I would say, "JUMP! I promise I'll catch you!" And then they would just leap off of whatever it was that they were on, and they would come sailing into my arms like a flying squirrel.

I would always step back, you know, to make them jump a little bit further. It was just one of our favorite times as they were growing up, and I love those memories. But I think about all the times in my life where, as I was walking with Jesus, I felt like, in the same way, there were times where God would say to me, "Trust me! Jump into my arms! I'm here for you! I know you feel as though times are desperate, where the storms are overwhelming, but the reality is I'm here."

And I'd say, "Are you sure? I need to be certain, God, that You're there." And He would say, "Just jump! Just have the faith to come into my arms." And I'd say, "Are You going to catch me?" And He would say, "I promise!"

His promise has always come to me in the reading of His Word. In fact, the Word is full of God's promises. Amen? We read from cover to cover, and we see where God is just so good at revealing the promises that He has for us.

One of the things that, if you've walked with God for long, if you've followed Jesus for very long, you have come to understand, believe, and know that He is always faithful. Amen? He's always faithful, and I love that about our Good Shepherd. I love that about the one who declared so long ago, "I am the true Shepherd, and I am the Good Shepherd."

As we've been walking through this amazing chapter, John 10, we've seen these times where Jesus would declare that He was the true and Good Shepherd. It's encouraging to our hearts that He would make such a declaration about Himself.

This morning, we're going to be looking at a promise that He made here in this passage, and it's a very significant promise. It's a promise that we need to hear today. I imagine that, in some ways, all of us here today need to hear this promise. And though we may have thought we've heard this promise a thousand times, I almost believe that it's going to be fresh to you this morning.

It's a unique kind of promise that He makes, and it's one I feel like we all need to hear. So, read with me, if you will, starting with John chapter 10, verse 22, and reading through verse 30.

It says here in the Word of God that at the time of the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem, it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon. So, the Jews gathered around Him and said to Him, "How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly."

And Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you did not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep." He says, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one."

This passage is really a significant part of this entire series that we've been walking through, looking at Jesus as the Good Shepherd. This passage is very significant to our entire study of who Jesus is as we explore all of the Scripture and try to understand who He is and why He came to this Earth and what it was that He was teaching.

All of the things that we would want to study about Jesus, there are two main reasons I want to mention to you this morning about why this text is so significant.

The first reason is that it marks the end of John's account of Jesus's public ministry. This is the last account that we have where John speaks of Jesus's public ministry.

Now, what do I mean by that? Well, here's the reality: from the beginning of John's gospel all the way to today, we've been studying these ten chapters. It's taken us 38 years to get here! Just kidding! It's taken us several months to get to this place.

But the passage starts off—John's gospel starts off declaring this: "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" Jesus comes on the scene; John the Baptist points to Jesus and says, "There He is! That's the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!"

At that point, Jesus begins a very public ministry where He goes from village to village. He begins to teach the truth about why He's here on this Earth, why He came, why He was sent by the Father. He begins to explain the realities of the Gospel, that He is indeed the Lamb of God, the Son of Man. He is indeed the one who has been sent to preach the truth about salvation, about repentance, about turning away from sin and placing your trust and your belief in Him as Lord and Savior of your life.

He's done this; He's preached this. One of the things that we have seen as He's gone from village to village is that, as He's preached this truth, there have been some who believe, some who were radically transformed by the power of the Gospel itself, whose lives were transformed by the power of what Christ is doing in them.

But many more rejected Him. Over and over and over, we see that today in this text that we're looking at. But what we're going to see after this is that Jesus begins to refocus His ministry on those within His fold. He's going to begin to refocus His ministry on those who are His sheep. He's going to begin to really minister to those who love Him, who follow Him, who are a part of His family and His friends, and He's going to really focus on His disciples as He takes the rest of this time to minister to them on the way to the Cross.

This will be the remaining part of what we see in the Gospel of John. So, this is a significant passage; it marks a turning point.

It marks a transition from everything we've studied to now. Look at what it says here as we dive into this. Verse 24 says, "So the Jews gathered around Him, and they said to Him, 'How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.'"

And Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe." How familiar is this to us? Over and over and over, we have seen the same thing carry out. A lot of the people that have said these words to Jesus, they're the same people. Jesus comes, and He performs miracles, and they go, "Well, that was good! We acknowledge that probably only the Divine could pull something like that off, but you're going to have to show us more!"

Right? They don't believe; they're not part of the fold. They don't believe in who He is, and so they reject His claim that He is the Messiah. He performs miracles; He teaches truth; He explains to them that He is the Savior of the world, that He is indeed the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and they say, "You're going to have to give us more!"

Over and over and over, we see the same thing. Jesus preaches the Gospel; they reject the truth. Jesus preaches the Gospel; they reject the truth. Jesus preaches the Gospel; they reject the truth.

When I was a kid growing up, if we listened to music, music came on a round piece of vinyl that we called a record. Now, I realize a lot of you have probably never even seen one. Okay, I'm that old, right? It was a record! All of our music was there, and it required a needle that was placed on the beginning of the record. As the needle made its way across this record, you could hear music. Believe it or not, this was long before eight-tracks. I know some of you don't even know what an eight-track is, do you?

It was long before cassettes, right? Cassettes were revolutionary because suddenly we had the ability to record our own music. That's something we never could do before! It was amazing; it transformed our whole life as teenagers to have a cassette player and to be able to listen to or to be able to back up and listen to a song again. That was literally just the most incredible thing because if you tried that with an eight-track, it just tore up the tape!

Right? Then along came CDs. You remember those? Man, those were just like digital vinyls; that's all that was, and they had their own sort of form. But back in the day, all we had was that vinyl record. But there was a problem with those. You see, they had this tendency to get a little scratch on them. You know what I'm talking about? If you ever had one, it just ruined the whole album to get a scratch on it because that little needle, as it made its way across, and you were listening to the music and enjoying the music, and it got to that scratch, it suddenly got stuck, and it wouldn't keep playing the music.

And that's what we call a stuck record. For those who had heard the Gospel, it was like a stuck record. We see this response, this same response; they were going nowhere. Jesus was preaching the truth of who He was, and they failed to believe. So, He'd preach again, and they would refuse to believe. Over and over and over, they were just stuck right there.

So, Jesus preaches one last time to them, and this brings us to the second reason why I believe this passage that we read earlier is such an important passage. It's because this time Jesus makes a promise that goes beyond just the promise of eternal life.

Now, if you know anything about what Jesus had promised, He had basically promised this: that if you would believe in Him, if you follow Him, that you would have eternal life. Right? We study the doctrine of salvation, and we know that God begins to draw men and women unto Himself, and He begins to transform the heart of a believer. That believer responds in faith, and he places his trust in Jesus Christ, and he believes.

Right? He becomes a true follower of Christ because of the great work that God has done in their heart. And so, the promise is this: that Jesus says, "If you follow me, if you trust me, if you believe in me, you are a follower, and you will be given eternal life."

And so, we know this because of all the different passages that reveal this great promise to us. But this promise that Jesus makes today, it goes even further. It takes the whole promise of eternal life, and it helps us to understand another aspect of the promise, one that I believe is even greater than anything we might have even understood it to be.

Because here's what Jesus says here, and I want you to hear this: He says, "When I give you life, when I save you from your sin, when you are given eternal life, that eternal life—listen to this—it is secure! It's not going anywhere; it's forever!"

And so, He says this here, and we begin to see this. If you caught what Jesus was saying in this text, this is what He says: "If God saves you, then you can rest in that promise of salvation. You can take rest in the promise that that salvation is not going anywhere; it's taken care of; it's done; it is finished."

And we see this in the text. Look at verse 27. He says this: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I will give them eternal life, and they will what? They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand."

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. Nowhere in John's gospel is it more clear that our eternal life is secure in Christ Jesus than right here.

Now, why is this so important? Why is it so important that we would make such an emphasis on what Jesus is saying here? He's speaking of the security of your salvation, the reality that He's got it wrapped up, that it's not going anywhere, that it is secure in Him.

Why is it that we would make such a big deal about this? Because, believe it or not, Christians every day struggle with the reality that they've been saved forever. They doubt their salvation. They come to a place knowing what Christ has done. We talked about that earlier, didn't we? That singing the songs of God's faithfulness, we can look back, and we can have the hope for the future because we know what God has done.

We know that He has saved us; we know that He is our Savior. And then along comes the storm. Along comes the wind as it blows in our life. Along come those difficulties, and we find ourselves wondering whether we're saved or not. We find ourselves in sin, and we may or may not know how we got there, but we find ourselves in sin.

And though we may confess our sin, we haven't really repented of our sin. In that, we finally find that in this sin, we begin to doubt our salvation. We begin to wonder if we're saved. We begin to wonder if God is still pleased with us. We just wonder. Every day, Christians are struggling with this reality.

And so, it becomes very clear that as Jesus is speaking to His disciples and He is speaking to those who He has shared the Gospel with so many times, that as He just throws it out there one more time about who their sheep are and how they know Him and how He knows them and how they follow Him, that He goes on to talk about eternal life in the way that He does.

In case you haven't heard of it, I want to introduce you to a doctrinal term called the perseverance of the saints. It describes how the Bible speaks about eternal security in Christ Jesus, and it answers this question that I think is very important for us to understand: If a person is truly saved, can he or she lose their salvation?

And so, the Bible, I believe, clearly says no! You cannot lose your salvation! If you've truly been saved by Christ, then you cannot lose your salvation! And that's the part where people struggle all their life, wondering if they're in a place where everything is good with God or whether or not they're in a place where they need to worry about where they are in life.

You would think that if we understood that when Christ saved us, that we have eternal life, that we would understand the word "eternal" to mean forever and ever, right? And yet, we still struggle with this. If someone is truly saved, they have been made alive eternally in Christ Jesus, and they have been kept with Christ by the Holy Spirit of God working in their life.

There's no way that one can be born again and then later be unborn. And so, this is what Jesus is helping us to understand in this text as we look at this.

So, what exactly is it that He's teaching here? So, here's what I want to say about this: Our eternal security is a result of God keeping us, of God watching over us, of God hanging on to us, and not us managing our own salvation. This is very important for us to understand as we think about what Jesus is saying here.

God saved us while we were yet still sinners. We can't save ourselves, can we? It's up to God to save us. It's what Christ accomplished on the Cross that helps us to understand that we have eternal life in Christ Jesus. He's the one that saved us.

And so, if He's the one that saved us while we were yet still sinners, then why do we think that somehow we could come to a place where the promise of eternal life wasn't really eternal? And so, this is what we want to look at here as we dive into this text.

You see, God guarantees eternal security in John 3:15 and 16. I know John 3:16 is a very familiar passage to us, but I back up just a little bit. It says here that everyone who believes in Him may have—underline this in your Bible—eternal life. Think about that: eternal life!

He goes on to say this: "For God so loved the world in this way that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life." When Jesus came to die for us, it was for eternal life. We are saved by His power, and it's by His power that He keeps us from falling away.

I love what Jude 24-25 says. It says this: "Now to Him who is able to keep you." I want you to think about that little term there: "keep you," "hold you." It's the idea of God literally wrapping His arms around you, hanging on to you. He has saved you.

Think about everything that Jesus has taught us in John 10. He has saved you, and you are now part of the flock, right? You are in His fold. And so, He has you. You're not in a physical pen; you're in the arms of Jesus.

And so, what we see here in this passage, as we read this in this text from Jude, we read where it reveals to us, "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, who is able to hold on to you even in those moments in your life where things may get difficult, where things may be dark, where things may be discouraging, those moments in your life where the storms may come and the winds may blow, the reality is this: God is hanging on to you."

Isn't that a comforting truth? That your eternity is secure in what Christ has done for you? Amen?

That's about half of you that are believers, so we're going to pray for the rest of you. Here's what's so remarkable about this. So, as we continue to read in Jude, "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy."

Just picture this in your minds: that because of who you are now in Christ Jesus, not only by the power of God does He keep you, but He one day presents you blameless in the glory of God. You're a child of God! That's what God has done for you! That will never change!

And so, we begin to see that what Jesus is saying to us is some of the most encouraging things that we could ever understand about who we are in Christ Jesus.

Verse 25 of Jude says, "To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time, now and forever." Rest in your eternal security that you have in Christ.

If there's one thing you don't have to worry about as a true believer and follower of Christ, it's your salvation. Once He saved you, now the big question might be, "Well, are you truly saved?" I mean, that's a legitimate question to ask. But if you are truly a believer, if you belong to the fold, if you are a child of God, there's nothing that's going to take that away from you, and you should be able to rest in that great truth that Jesus is presenting here to us.

If a person is promised eternal life but it has then been taken away from him, then it was never eternal to begin with. We need to understand that our eternal security is promised by the Father, it is purchased by Christ, and it is sealed by the Holy Spirit. Amen?

It is sealed by the Holy Spirit of God. Jesus says here again, verse 27, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life." Look at this: "And they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand."

What a promise! What a powerful promise that Jesus makes! The Scriptures speak of us in our salvation resting in the palm of our God's hand, right? He's got us in the very palm of His hand.

And here we see where Jesus makes this declaration that if you are truly saved, if you're a child of God, there is nothing that can take you from that—not one thing on this Earth.

I think one of the most powerful arguments for eternal security is found in Romans chapter 8:38-39, where we read this: "For I am sure," Paul says, "that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Look at that! Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord! What a powerful truth for us to rest in as believers and followers of Christ! We don't have to worry about this reality when the storms come, when we feel distant from God.

You know, I'll be honest with you: there have been times in my life where I struggled with this truth. There have been times in my life where every time I found myself in sin, I just wondered, "How could I possibly sin if God saved me from sin? How could I find myself in this place of sin?"

And it took me a long time to realize that I'm in a process of being sanctified by the Holy Spirit of God. That when God saved me, He took me, a wretched sinner that I was, and He took me as I was, and He saved me as I was, and He began to bring me to the Father in this process called sanctification, to one day I could stand before the Father in glorification.

Then I'll be perfect in every way. I can promise you I'm not now. But as you struggle with that lack of perfection, you often wonder, "How did I get it wrong today, God?" Those moments in my life where I felt alone and things felt so discouraging to me, where I feel like I just don't know which way to turn.

I may even be praying, and I don't feel the presence of God. I know what the promises say about His presence, but I don't feel His presence. And I find myself sort of wallowing in self-pity. There have been times where I even wonder, "Am I even saved?"

And I praise God for the promise that Jesus has made when He said, "There is nothing in your life, nothing in this world, nothing in this universe that could ever take you as a child of God from my hands." Amen?

Don't you find that encouraging? Doesn't that make you fall in love with the Good Shepherd of your life, the one true Shepherd that we have, that we can call Lord and Savior of our life, that we can call Jesus?

So, what do we take away from this as we look at this? What are those life applications? One of the things I was thinking about as I was studying this text is the sad reality that to insist that a true Christian can become lost again is to claim that Jesus doesn't keep His promises.

To say, "You know what? I can lose my salvation," is to say, "Well then, what Jesus, when He made the promise of eternal, He didn't keep it. I lost it." That can never be! Jesus doesn't break His promises, and what He has promised us is eternal, forever life in Him.

I thank God every day that when I heard the Gospel preached and I responded to what Christ was doing in my life, I thank God that my preacher didn't say to me that day, "Do you come and surrender your life to Jesus for eternal life?" And I said, "Yes, I want Jesus in my life." And he says, "Well, great! But let me just let you know something: every now and then, Jesus will break His promises."

I'm so thankful my pastor didn't say that to me! What he said was, "He's making a promise to you that if you'll trust in Him, if you'll believe in Him, that you will have eternal life."

I think sometimes we're scared to talk about this because we feel like if we talk about it like this, that it gives us some sort of license to sin. Like, "Oh, well then I can go sin because I'll never lose." That's not the heart of a believer! It doesn't give us a license to sin, but it does say that no matter where we find ourselves in this thing called life, as a true believer of Christ, He's always got us; He's always holding us near.

For us to believe that we can lose our salvation is not to make Jesus out to be the Good Shepherd but the incompetent Shepherd. And that's not who Jesus is! He's the Good Shepherd; He's the true Shepherd.

And so, this passage this morning is a very important passage for us to study together. You know, as I think about how we might close out our time together this morning, I can't think of a better way than studying about Jesus being the Good Shepherd and the fact that He has done so much for us.

One of the greatest gifts that He has provided for us, one of the greatest promises, is not just eternal life, but that eternal life is eternal. One of the greatest ways we could thank Jesus is by remembering Him, by reflecting on Him and the great work that He's done in our life.

You know, one of the best ways to do that is to partake in the Lord's Supper together. As we think back on what Christ has done in our life, as we think back about the work on the Cross, about how He died on the Cross for the atonement of our sins, we find ourselves as believers and followers being very thankful for what Jesus has done in our life.

This morning, I want to invite Sandy Turner up, if he will come on up. Sandy is one of our deacons here at Cross Point Church, and I want to invite Sandy up. He's going to say a blessing over the supper today as we partake in this.

But let me just say this: as we come to that time in the service where we respond to what the Word of God has taught us, one of the greatest ways we can thank Jesus is by remembering this reality that God loved us so much He sent His Son, Jesus, to walk on this Earth.

And that Jesus walked on this Earth and lived the perfect life, the blameless life, the life we couldn't live, and He did that so He could go to the Cross and die as the sacrificial lamb, where His blood would be spilled and His blood would atone for our sins. He did an incredible work because the Bible says He loved us so much.

And we come to know the truth of the Gospel and who Jesus is. We come to know Jesus truly as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And so, this morning, we're going to take the Lord's Supper together to remember the work that Jesus accomplished on the Cross and to thank Him.

I'm going to ask our ushers if they'll sort of make their way through the congregation. If you did not receive the elements to participate in communion, would you just raise your hand this morning? I know sometimes we have those that get past us, and we don't get the elements that we need for the Lord's Supper.

And so, our ushers are going to make their way down. If you'll just raise your hand, they'll make sure that you get the bread and the cup so that you can partake with us. We have a good many people over here in this back corner as well. We got one here down front. We don't want to miss anybody.

It may take a little while longer; we have quite a few hands up. Maybe help out on that side over there, brother. There you go, Bill. We got some down front.

You know, here's the most amazing thing about the Lord's Supper: it's not just an opportunity for us to remember. Over here, Bill, also in this aisle. The Lord's Supper is not just a time for us to remember the work on the Cross, but also a time to reflect on who we are.

The Bible tells us that before we approach the Lord's Supper, before we take communion together, that we ought to check our hearts. We ought to ask whether or not there's any unrepented sin in our life, and if there is, then to turn to God in a time of prayer.

I want to encourage you to do that this morning, that while we're waiting for our ushers to pass out the elements here this morning, that you would just spend a little time with the Lord. And if there's any unconfessed sin in your life, that you would do that and you would prepare your heart for what we're about to do.

The Lord's Supper is a very reverent time for us. It's a time for us to not just reflect but to partake together as the body of Christ. Is everyone good, brother Sandy? If you will pray.

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus, I come to You with thanksgiving, thankful that we have an opportunity to partake in the Lord's Supper—the cup that represents the blood that was spilled from Your body, Lord, the bread that represents the brokenness of Your body.

Oh, Lord, we just say thank You for this opportunity, this opportunity that You gave us to have a relationship with You, oh Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus. Lord, an opportunity to have a relationship with a God that is perfect, a Savior that is perfect, and people that are imperfect, oh Lord.

But, Lord, it was through You that we have that opportunity. Lord, we say thank You for the blessings that You give to us that transcend all understanding, oh Lord, that You give to each and every one of us on a daily basis, oh Lord.

So, as we partake in these elements, Lord, let us do this in remembrance of You, knowing that Jesus is the only way to You, oh Heavenly Father. Lord, help us to continue to glorify You through this church, through Pastor David.

Lord, as we leave here today, oh Lord, give us the strength because we've been given the charge to take Your Word to the ends of the world. So, Lord, these things and others we just ask and pray in Your Son Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen! Thank you, brother.

You know, the Apostle Paul, he once wrote to the Corinthians, that church there in Corinth, and as he was writing, he comes to a place where he begins to share about the Lord's Supper. And as he was writing, he said these words:

He says, "For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread. And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.'"

As he continued writing, he said this: "In the same way, He took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.'"

Let's pray.

Father, we thank You for this day, and we thank You, God, for the incredible work on the Cross in which You came to die for us. Lord, You came to be that blood sacrifice that we so desperately needed because of the sin in our life, to be that sacrificial lamb.

Lord Jesus, we thank You for not only Your death but the reality that by Your power, You were raised from the grave, and that what we have today is the opportunity to worship a risen Savior and, by Your Holy Spirit, to walk with You every single day as sheep within Your fold.

Thank You, Lord, for the Good Shepherd. Thank You, Lord, for everything that You are. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.