It's good to have Michaela back. Are you back here? Where's Yeah?
I saw her a few minutes ago, fresh back from from Bethel. I
think we're excited to have her. Amen. Man, Well, God bless
you this morning. It's good to see you. And um, I'm Joe
Simms. Oh look they put my name up there. Um. Our pastors
are actually in the air right now, flying off for their fortieth anniversary vacation.
Amen. And uh so this morning I get to privilege of sharing with
you, and I'm excited about it. I'm excited about what God's doing in
this house but in the church in general as well. And you know,
last week Pastor preached and we'd had missions months, so he hadn't preached all
month. And then he preached on Sunday and he said to you guys,
at least in first service. So if he didn't say it in the second
service, I'll just tell you what he said in first service. It wasn't
it wasn't about you. Um, but he said, he said, I
don't have time to start a series, so today I'm going to teach on
receiving. And I sat in my chair and thought, well, he doesn't
realize he's starting a series because my message today is receiving at all. And
and you know, during that opening he asked a question, he said,
what if you flooded your daily devotions with receiving? What if you did that?
You know, Bible says that God has already given us all that is
necessary for life and godliness, and a lot of times I think we spend
our time asking for things that we've already been given, and he's saying,
just receive, just receive it, just take it. And today I'm going
to talk to you about communion because I think that it's one tool that has
often overlooked, underrated, underutilized, and ignored because we misunderstand it. And
so we're going to talk about that a little bit today. And I hope
that when you leave here today, you never look at communion the same again.
My hope that is in twenty and thirty years from now, you're literally
remembering what we talk about today. You know, most of you know we
wrote a book about I don't I don't remember was this out a year ago
or something like that something, And you know, communion activating the power of
God and everyday living. Some of you probably got it hopefully if you didn't,
we have them available shameless plug. But in this I think are some
keys to activating God's power in your life every day. And another thing that
we're doing right now because we feel like there is just a fresh wind blowing
on the message of communion throughout the Body of Christ. And so one of
the things that we've done is we have a website now called my Daily Communion
dot com and if you if you want, you can either go to the
website. You can get this little fancy card as sure as you have these
cards to pass out where you're at. They're supposed to pass cards out to
you guys. I'm not sure where they went, but they'll be back to
a break. Apparently they had to go serve at the other church down the
road. Maybe I'm kidding. Anyway, if you click the QR code,
it'll take you to the website and you have an opportunity to sign up for
a thirty day Communion challenge. And we would love to have you join us
and take communion every day for thirty days. I'm telling you change your life.
I told Sandy O the night it should be called thirty days of Freedom
to freedom because it's coming up to July fourth, all right, and I
encourage you to do it. And if you click there and you sign up
and you like our Facebook page, it'll take you there. We're gonna have
daily devotions there and opportunity there for you to put in a testimonial of what
God's doing in your life. So amen, all right, So a little
bit of announcement before we get to the message, but I just want to
encourage you to jump into some of the stuff. It'll change your life.
And we have a great communion group going as part of the small groups,
you know, And each week we have a faithful bunch of people to get
on our call on Monday nights and we have devotions and we take community together.
And I don't think that anybody on that call would tell you that we
are the same people, any of us on the call that we were three
years ago, three and a half years ago now right that we've been doing
this and it will change your life. So tomorrow today, what I want
to talk about, though, is making communion a part of your everyday life.
We oftentimes, you know, think of it as the ceremonial thing that
we do in church. Only I know I grew up in very traditional Pentecostal
churches. My dad was a pastor, a pastor of churches all over California.
We moved more than I can count. As an adult, I look
back than cown did I ever get through school. But in all of those
churches we took communion. And in all of those churches we had the oak
bench in the front of the stage, and on it it said do this
in remembrance of Me. Right, remember that? And that's good, and
we should do things in remembrance. And we're when we're taking communion, it's
to do it in remembrance of Jesus. And it isn't remembering something because you
forgot it. It's remember what he did for you. It's taking a memorial
stone and saying, I remember that Jesus died for my sins. I remember
that Jesus suffered for my healing. I remember that Jesus did all of these
things for me. The one thing about it when I was growing up,
though, was that it was tradition. It was ceremony, and it was
often even though we had really good people, these were solid people that you
grew up around that were in the church, that were leaders, that were
teachers that did all of the different things. They were great people, wonderful
people, but most of the time the religious ceremony part was just that it
was something that had no power. You just kind of did it. We
got through it. It was five minutes and it was over with. That
is not what communion should be. The goal for today is that we recognize
the power in the body and in the blood of Jesus. It shouldn't be
a simple five minute moment. It should be an encounter. You know,
Communion should look more like a family meal than a snack. Amen. Remember
that when you are receiving communion, you're receiving the anointing. You're eating the
anointing. You're drinking the annoying, and the anointing breaks every yoke of bondage.
If you're bound up, take communion. You're sick, take communion.
If you're tired, take community. Whatever it is, take communion. I'm
telling you, take communion. We said it earlier in that song. We
said you are the medicine, and I drink you in telling you it's power
in communion. What I want to look at this morning is some of the
Old Testament, you know, and how that there were prophetic words throughout the
Old Testament about what Jesus would do, what the Messiah would do for us,
and it recounted things. It was foretelling of the things, but it
was recounting them. And we can look back at that and go, wow,
that was That was a It was very right on. And secondly,
it's powerful when we take and break it down. So I want to read
to you today out of Isaiah fifty three. And I don't know if they
have the Passion translation up or not, but if they don't, it's okay.
I'm gonna read it. You can trust me. It's gonna say what
I say. It says amen. Isaiah fifty three three says he was despised
and rejected by men, a man of deep sorrows who was no stranger to
suffering and grief. We hid our faces from him in disgust and considered him
and nobody not worthy of respect. Yet he was the one who carried our
sickness and endured the torment of our sufferings, who we viewed him as being
punished for something he himself had done, as one who was struck down by
God and brought low. But it was because of our rebellious deeds that he
was pierced, and because of our sins he was crushed. He endured the
punishment that made us completely whole, and in his wounding we found our healing.
Like wayward sheep, we have all wandered astray. Each of us has
turned from God's paths and chosen our own way. Even so, yahweh laid
the guilt of every sin on him. He carried our sickness, he carried
our sufferings. He took on the weight of our punishment and provided our healing,
and took on our guilt. I want to break this down for you
because when we really look at this and we start to understand what Jesus did
for us, it'll change our perspective. But in this verse, in this
passage, we see how the Jewish people of the day would see him and
how they would view him, especially the leaders, and it says that they
couldn't even look upon his face because it was so badly beaten. Have you
ever seen something so terrible that you couldn't you couldn't stand to look at it?
That's what they saw. But worst yet, it was the fact that
what they were looking upon was their sin. Was their sickness, was the
things that they themselves should be bearing. In fact, they should have been
looking in a mirror, and they couldn't stand look upon him. And then
at the same time, the enemy was watching this, and he was saying
to his little minions, look what we've done. Look at him now.
He spent all these years healing people, making things right, but we've won.
Look at him now. And what the enemy couldn't hear because of his
celebration was that every step Jesus took sin I'm coming for you. Death,
I'm coming for you, sickness, I'm coming for you, bondage, I'm
coming for you, addiction, I'm coming for you. With every step that
he took, he was one step closer to our freedom and the enemy's defeat.
Every step says he was pierced for our rebellious deeds. One rebellion is
as the sin of witchcraft. You see, witchcraft includes manipulation, it includes
rebellion, It includes things that we do every day. But I'm telling you
you've been freed from those things. And not only have you been freed from
manipulation, you've been freed from manipulating. Rebellious deeds bring chaos. They bring
poverty, They bring destruction into our lives. They bring things to us that
we never thought we would have. But it's in our rebellion. He endured
the torment for our sufferings. You are free from demonic oppression and from trauma.
Well, you're past is your past. I'm telling you. You might
say to me, you know what, Joe, Addiction runs in my family,
goes back to my great great great grandfather and my grandfather and my dad
and my mom and all the different people in your lineage. Or maybe you
say, poverty runs in our family. Sickness run in our family. I
had an aunt that would would say out loud to her family, you know,
I looked to the day when I'm in a wheelchair. Ultimately she ended
up in a wheelchair and died at a very young age. I'm telling you
here's the deal. It might run in your family until it runs into you.
Come on, when it runs into you, it runs into the Holy
Spirit that's in you, and it's defeated. Whatever it is. Poverty broken
off, sickness broken off. Matthew eighth sixteen says this. It says that
evening the people brought to him many who were demonized, and by Jesus only
speaking a word of healing over them, they were totally set free. His
word ken White about hundreds of years of family history. His word can wipe
out decades of abuse. His word can wipe out everything that you've ever gone
through and make it a distant memory, telling you one word from Jesus is
better than anything anyone else could ever come up with. It goes on and
it says, and he was crushed for our sins. When something is crushed,
it's literally destroyed. You never watch a crusher work on old cars,
you know, they just destroy those things. You can't even tell what they
are. I want us to look at Psalm twenty two for a moment.
So Psalm twenty two was written by David about a thousand years before Jesus,
and it is a perfect a word about what the Messiah would go through on
the cross. And this is what it says that Jesus would say. Says,
but look at me now, I am like a woeful worm, crushed
and I'm bleeding crimson. I don't even look like a man anymore. I've
been abused, despised, and scorned by everyone. That word that's used there
worm. The original writing text is the word tolath. The talath is a
worm. It's also known as the crimson worm, and that word. The
female gets pregnant one time and then she attaches herself to a tree and she
lays the larvae under her, and then her body becomes a crust, but
under it is an excretion of crimson red blood that the larvae take on and
are nourished by, and their color has changed over that three days, and
then she dies. What Jesus was saying is I feel like a toloth,
and I'm going to attach myself to a tree. In between me and the
tree will be crimson red blood that is flowing. And then that blood would
be your nourishment, your healing. It would be the very thing that would
change your life. That's what Jesus was saying. And when something is dyed,
it's changed. Its appearance changes. Black becomes purple, or red can
become white, whatever it is. What the Bible says in Isaiah, it
says that though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as
snow. Come on, I'm telling you that when the blood of Jesus interacts
with you, you may be a darkened soul. But God's saying, when
the blood of Jesus comes to you, you will be light. You are
the light of the world. You've been changed from darkness to light when you
receive Jesus. His punishment was so that we could be made cold. Oh
thank you Jesus. His punishment goes on and says that in his wounds we
find our healing. Song of Solomon two fourteen says this is for you,
or my dove, hidden in my split open rock. The Song of Solomon
is a picture of the bridegroom and the church. And what are you saying
is that you, my bride, All of you are hidden in my split
open side when my side was split. It's for you to be hidden in.
It's for you to be healed in. It was for you to be
protected in. Inside of him is everything that we need for life and godliness.
Inside of him is our healing. Inside of him is our freedom.
Inside of him is our safety. Inside of him as our prosperity. Inside
of him is everything that we need. You need something get inside of Jesus.
I want to look at something with you, and I want to tell
you this before I start on this portion of this message. We caught this
about twenty years ago, Sandy and I. It changed our lives. And
I'm telling you, if you can catch this concept this morning, this will
change your life. And I don't say that braggadociously. I'm telling you this
will change your life. But I want to look at Matthew twenty six for
a moment. Matthew twenty six verses twenty sixty twenty eight says, and as
they were eating. First of all, let me set this up. I
always get ahead of myself. But imagine being a disciple, and you've spent
your entire life having passover meals. You're in, you're out, You've had
the Passover meal. And you know, after a while it might have been
cool forst or whatever, but then after a while it becomes routine. Think
about it. You know, we have Thanksgiving dinner and it can become very
routine. You know, if you have a tradition of a Christmas dinner,
it can be routine. You know, whatever you do can become routine and
you lose the power of it. Right, But these guys are getting ready.
We're gonna sit down and have Passover with Jesus and all of a sudden,
something's gonna change and shift. And it says, as they were eating,
Jesus took the bread and he blessed it, and he broke it,
and he gave it to them, and he said, take it and eat
it. This is my body. Now, if you're a disciple and you've
grown up and pass over, right, what are you talking about? This
is your body. It'scott that's a little weird. And then it gets a
little weirder because then he says, it says, and he took the cup
and he gave thanks, and he gave it to them, and he said,
drink ye all of it. Well, this is my blood of the
New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. When
Jesus spoke those words, he wasn't speaking literally, drink all the cup,
eat all the bread. What he was saying was drink all that I'm about
to do for you. Drink all the healing, Drink all the freedom,
drink all of the salvation. Don't leave one drop in the cup. And
while you're at it, eat all the bread. Don't leave one crumb there.
But this is my body broken for you. That means you've been healed.
Completely. And sometimes it's very difficult to go through things in our lives.
And I know that for me. When I was chronically ill a few
years ago, there came a point where I was like, God, I
need you, I need one word from you, because the word from the
doctor they don't know what to do. So I need Jesus. And I
remember driving in my car literally weeping and praying. And God met me there
that day and things began to change. But I'm telling you, don't leave
anything in the cup, don't leave anything on the table. Take it all,
receive it all. And oh, by the way, while we're drinking
and eating it, take the responsibility to not only the blessings, but the
responsibilities. So we always want the good stuff. But then there's that little
thing called responsibility, you know. And we had to take all the discipline
too, and all the holiness, all the prayer, life, all the
fasting, all the giving, but all the praising everything, give it all.
Get ready, God, not only am I receiving everything from you,
but I'm laying it all for you as well. Come on, that's what
he's asking of us, you guys. Remember the movie Bamby. Anybody saw
the movie Bamby, raise your hand, don't be it shy. Okay,
sorry, anybody's seen it when it was brand new, that would have been
nineteen forty two. So if you raise your hand, you can put it
back down. Okay. But here's the deal. In that movie, there's
a moment where Bambi is eating eating a salad, right, but all he's
eating is the flowers, and Mom walks in and she's like, baby,
what are you doing? I'm eating my flowers. It's like, what does
your dad say? He says, Wow, you got to eat the greens
too, and in the movie says, well, Dad says, eating greens
is a special treat. It makes long ears and great big feet. That's
what's God's saying to us too. When we eat it all and drink it
all. You want to be established in your life, you want things to
go, well, take it all, receive it all, all the blessing,
all the healing, everything, but also all the responsibility that goes with
it. That's what He's saying to us when we take communion today, I
hope you take it with a new perspective. When you accept the invitation to
the table, remember it's his table, not our table. We didn't set
the table and bring it to him. He sat at the table and said,
come and dine with me. And when we do that, we're his
guest. But I'm telling you, communion needs to look a lot more like
a family meal than a religious ceremony. It ought to be a time when
we sit down at the feet of Jesus and receive from him. It'll tell
him about our day, tell him about our situations, but also listen to
what he has to say. Come on, Communion shouldn't be something where we're
running and gunning. We are meeting with the King of kings, the Lord
of lords. This is our opportunity to hear from heaven. And that's why
of such a big permanent proponent of daily communion. Classians two fourteen says this
says, he canceled out every legal violation he thought. Canceled culture started recently.
No no, no, no, Jesus started canceled culture. He canceled
out every legal violation we had on our record, and the old arrest warrant
that stood to indict us. Come on, come on, if you had
anything in your past, it's been wiped out by the blood of Jesus.
He erased it, all, our sins, our stained soul. He deleted
it all, and they cannot be retrieved. Everything we once were in Adam
has been placed onto his cross and nailed permanently. There as a public display
of cancelation. And that's the Jesus that we serve. Come on, Come
on, Sin canceled. Come on, Sickness canceled, poverty canceled, bondage
is canceled. Come on, Depression is canceled. Fear is canceled, doubt
is canceled, unbelief it's canceled. He conquered the enemy on your behalf.
It goes on to say this, I love the scripture, and second Colossians
says this. In verse fifteen says, then Jesus made a public display.
Come on, He made a public spectacle of all the powers and the principalities
of darkness, stripping away from every weapon and all of their spiritual authority and
the power to accuse us. And by the power of the cross, Jesus
led them around us prisoners in a procession of triumph. He was not their
prisoner. They were his. Wow. Come on, come on, come
on, come on. He's no longer carrying across he's got a rope and
he's got them tied up and he's walking them around Calvary and he's saying,
you are canceled off of my people. Effectively, he was saying, let
my people go. Thank you Jesus. When you received communion over the next
thirty days, I'm telling you, it'll change your life because every day you're
encountering that Jesus. Every day, that's who you're encountering. And I'm telling
you the cup and the bread, if you received that with your wife,
you receive it with your husband, you received that with your family. It
will change your life because it will cause you to make different decisions every day.
Yea, so I'm thirty four eight, says taste and see that the
Lord is good. I love it and the passion that says the Angel of
the Lord stooped down to listen as I prayed. What do you have to
say? Well, sometimes all you can manage to get out as a whisper
he's listening. Sometimes you can get out a groan he's listening. Well,
sometimes you can get out of shout. He's listening, says he stooped down
to listen as I prayed, and encircled me and empowered me and showed me
how to escape. He will do this for everyone who fears God. And
here's the part that I want you to catch about communion, says, Drink
deeply of the pleasures of God. Experience for yourself, the joyous mercies he
gives to all who turn to hide themselves in him. Goes back to the
split rock. Get in there, receive communion. Drink deeply, because see
when you, if you've ever been one that worked really hard out in the
hot weather, you came in for that ice cold drink. As you drink
it, you begin to feel it go down your esophagus into your torso,
and it almost feels like it's flooding your entire body when you receive communion.
That's exactly what God's encouraging us to do. Drink deeply, eat well,
receive it well, understand all that He's done for us, and receive it
all. Would you stand with me this morning? You get your community nails
ready, We're to receive communion together. I think that we have these communion
wafers as representation, but I'm telling you it's a meal, not a snack.
There's more to it than a little five eight cent wafer and a quarter
ounced cup of juice. What you hold in your hand is the power that
will change your life. Will you hold your hand is enough medicine if you
will, to cure anything that's wrong with you. So when you receive it
today, and you receive it tomorrow, and I hope you receive it not
only the next thirty days, but I hope you literally start taking this every
day of your life because it'll change your world. This morning, would you
just hold the bread up. We want to hold this as a symbol of
the body of Jesus. But we hold these elements above us because he is
above all things, and we're acknowledging that. Jesus, you are above my
problems. You're above my sins, You're above my sickness, You're above my
disease. You're above everything that I'm facing. And I thank you for it,
and Jesus, I thank you for your body, thank you for the
suffering. I thank you Jesus for what you did in the beating, what
you did on the cross, and what you did through the resurrection, and
give you praise for today. Let's receive the body. Let's do the same
thing with the cup. Just hold it up, recognizing that this cup is
the cup that can cleanse all of our sin. It washes us to make
us completely white. It is the veil that God sees us through, and
when he looks upon you through that veil, he sees perfection. He sees
your beauty, he sees how lovely you are. And that's why we don't
listen to what others say. We listen to what God says about us.
Come on, somebody may have told you that you're a failure. God says
you're a success. Someone may have told you that you would never amount to
anything. God's saying you're going to be successful. Somebody may have told you
that you were ugly. God says you're beautiful. Come on. Somebody may
have told you that you won't live long. God says, I promise you
life, a long life, and a life of abundance. Come on,
Thank you Jesus for the blood. Thank you Jesus for all that you did,
for all that you suffered. We give you praise for it as we
received it today in Jesus name, I want to invite you to linger for
a moment. Let this communion sink in. Let it soak in as the
band plays in the singer sing let, it really infiltrate your life today,
recognizing what He has done for us, and receive it all. Thank you
Jesus, and may God bless your church