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[0:00] Good morning I don't believe that Harris has got the sun It's been leaking since I got here And it's lovely to wake up and feel the sun and the heat And it's lovely to come here and praise the Lord with you As we come and rejoice in the King of Kings and Lord of Lords And it's absolutely beautiful just to come and to glorify the Lord together We're going to remain seated to sing our very first psalm Which is Psalm 23, verses 1 and 3 And this psalm has brought comfort to many, many people And every time I read this psalm I think about when my mum passed away I was in Wishaw General Hospital And I had a night where I stayed with my mum every night And then one day I took off to go and see my kids And in the morning I held my mum's hand I just went into the hospital and held my mum's hand

[1:01] Go down on my knees with my brother and my sister And I read Psalm 23 And then I prayed for her Then about a dozen breaths later she passed away And so every time I read or sing Psalm 23 It reminds me of that special moment with my mum But isn't it wonderful there could be another special moment The Lord is my shepherd And when you get to know not just the psalm But get to know who the psalm is talking about That you can know God is your shepherd Hallelujah, what a difference that makes in your life So let's remain seated As we sing verse 1 and 3 of Psalm 23 And look like prof mare Extremely DI It's in satsang where you now If you now leave me And feel right You can see The will You can hear

[2:04] The It's in satsang where you Even You can hear Thank you.

[2:38] Thank you.

[3:08] Thank you.

[3:38] Thank you. Thank you.

[4:38] Thank you. Thank you.

[5:10] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[5:22] Thank you. God in a word of prayer. Our Father, we thank you that we can say the Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want.

[5:36] We thank you only Father that we can know you in a personal way all because of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ who is obedient even unto death.

[5:48] We thank you only Father for sending your Son into this world to pay the price of our sins and we want to praise you Father because we know that we're redeemed not with corruptible things such as silver or gold but we're redeemed because of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and we thank you for this day where we stop and give you thanks and praise you and remind ourselves of what you went through for us upon the cross of Calvary.

[6:18] We thank you for communion that reminds of the body being broken and the blood being shed and as we come before you today Lord we pray for those who know you and love you you'd help us to be encouraged and strengthened and built up in you.

[6:34] We pray for those who may not know you yet as their own individual Saviour. We thank you there's room at the feet of Jesus and we pray that some soul would come and surrender their life to Christ this day.

[6:46] We thank you have told us that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. We thank you for those who have called in the name upon Jesus the only mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus and we pray that today Lord that you would come that you would speak in this service because we know that man cannot even create an anxious thought.

[7:11] So Lord we're asking through the power of the Holy Spirit that you would speak Lord that you would work in hearts that whereas people were maybe rebelling against you rebelling against your word rebelling against your commands we ask in the name of Jesus that you would melt hearts today that people would cry out to the Lord Jesus Christ what must I do to be saved.

[7:34] We pray for those who may be believers and maybe struggling in their life we pray that today would be a great day where they would come and know a fresh touch of the Master upon their lives.

[7:46] Have your way in and through this day Father we thank you for all the young people here thank you for the amount of young people that come to this church and I pray in Jesus precious name that they'll know you very early on in their life and they'll grow up to be young men and young ladies who know and love and work with you.

[8:06] So Father glorify Jesus exalt Christ in this service and may we leave saying it was good to dwell in the house of the Lord to verse 8 Romans 12 verses 1 to verse 8 therefore I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God this is your spiritual act of worship do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is his good pleasing and perfect will for by the grace given me

[9:16] I say to every one of you do not think of yourself more highly than you ought but rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you just as each of us has one body with many members and these members do not all have the same function so in Christ we who are many from one body so in Christ we who are many form one body and each member belongs to all the others we have different gifts according to the grace given us if a man's gift is prophesying let him use it in proportion to his faith if it is serving let him serve if it is teaching let him teach if it is encouraging let him encourage if it is contributing to the needs of others let him give generously if it is leaders if it is leadership let him govern diligently if it is showing mercy let him do it cheerfully amen let's just come before the lord in a word of prayer before we turn to his word open up our eyes lord that we may see wonderful things in your law come and help us this morning heavenly father help us heavenly father to listen to what you are saying to us this morning not what man says because that will do nothing for us but I pray through the power of the holy spirit that you would speak into every person in this meeting this morning that they would feel that they're the only person here father we believe that can happen through the work of the holy spirit so we're asking in

[11:39] Jesus name for freedom in the meeting because we're the spirit of the Lord as there's freedom and we pray for freedom in the spirit that the spirit of God would minister into souls and speak loud and clear into our lives so much so that we'll want to change in Jesus wonderful name amen amen amen I'd like to tell you about a man who lives in drum chapel I used to be the baptist minister in drum chapel drum chapel is a big house in Glasgow and we went there many years ago and it used to get broken into quite regular and we had wee windows about this about that and they would smash the window they would send a wee fella in the window and then he would open up the fire door and we knew who it was that was doing this it was a man called his nickname was psycho so you can work the rest out for yourself and psycho used to break into the church he would steal things he would go up to no good and one of the times he got in there was nothing to steal and he got gloss paint and he threw it all over the walls and all over the carpet and there was a wee lady who lived in the flat next to the church and I says if you see him coming and vandalising the church give me a phone and I'll come up and catch him so anyway the wee lady phoned me and I drives up to the church and psycho knew my car so he jumps off the roof and he started running up the back where the woods are and I never ran after him all I started to do is shout at him and I shouted

[13:20] Jesus loves you Jesus loves you Jesus loves you as he was running away I was shouting louder and left it at that then I was out visiting one day and I visited his girlfriend's mum who's called Dan and Anne was saying oh this is the way she says oh you done in psycho's head I said sorry she says you done in psycho's head I said what do you mean he says he was vandalising the church and the minister shouting Jesus loves you he couldn't cope with that he couldn't cope with cut long story short psycho became a great friend his name is Mark I didn't like calling him psycho and we got him to cut the grass we got him to paint the railings the lawnmower broke down and he stripped it and rebuilt it and he became a great friend in fact I actually signed his passport for him and we became really really good friends and why did that happen I believe it happened because he never experienced wrath when he was doing things wrong we showed him the love of the

[14:31] Lord Jesus Christ we showed him how much God loved him because we got to know him we got to know some of the things that was going on in his life and he needed to experience love and he is still a friend today here we are we're at communion Sunday and we don't deserve this but God shouts Jesus loves you Jesus loves you and psycho hearing that Mark hearing that touched him and made him think about things completely different and he never vandalised his church again that all stopped and just to encourage you he meant it for evil but God meant it for good when he threw gloss paint all over the carpet it was done anyway somebody gave us a gift of £2,000 to buy new carpets and we re-carpented the whole church with the tax back so hallelujah for the gloss paint because the carpets were wrecked and ruined but we all got new carpets but what

[15:40] I'm saying to you is today and you've maybe heard it time and time again I want to tell you Jesus loves you Jesus loves you and don't like that bee let water off a duck's back because so often we can hear it and it means nothing it means nothing to us but yet as we come to this communion table it reminds us it didn't mean nothing to God for us to be able to say that because God sent his son into this world that we can experience the mercy and the forgiveness of God which is in Christ Jesus you know my dad was a keep fit instructor he was a black belt second down at judo and he did a bit of boxing as well and some other stuff and he used to run keep fit classes in open and one time there was this lady who was a bit like myself liked the chocolate and she had a few extra pounds on and she shouts to my dad

[16:54] Bill Bill I'm going to come to your class one day when I lose some weight and my dad's response was no just come the way you are because that's my job and then what my dad says to me Gordon that's what I'm saying to God I'm trying to tidy up my life and then come to God but yet God says just come the way you are I says dad you're spot on and my dad died a believer who's trusting Christ and I'd like to say today before we get it further just come just come the way you are because God is looking for sinners not self righteous people but people who know they're wrong people who know they've blown it people who know they're not worthy and praise

[17:56] God there's mercy with God and if we are here and we know and love the Lord Jesus Christ I know there's a build up to communion as you build up to the Sunday today you build up to having this service our life our life should be lived in a way that we can have communion any day that we should be walking and talking and living for God and what do I mean by that I was telling David about a man in Glasgow and there was big difficulties in his life the way that he was behaving his behaviour was terrible he was a believer and he was behaving terrible and he got found out and we had to chat to him and he says I feel I can live this way but as long as I come to communion and sit at the table everything's okay well that's not true you can't live whatever way you want and then come to the communion and say as long as I take communion everything's okay now I believe

[19:11] God is looking for us to truly worship him in verse 1 it says therefore I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God this is your spiritual act of worship therefore I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God this is your spiritual act of worship I believe we are believers we are children of God it's not like remembering the Woolworths the shop Woolworths you get them still get them if you go to different shops you get all these different sweeties and you just go along with your bag and your shovel and you shovel in what sweets you want the pick and mix I think some people treat the Bible like that pick and mix I like that verse but I definitely don't like that verse deny yourself and pick up your cross

[20:15] I love that verse that God is full of mercy but I don't like that verse where I have to love my enemies and some people treat the Bible like a pick and mix but I believe if we want to truly worship God we have to make sure that we worship God with what comes out our lips because people can see what way we speak and we want to be people who are living for God we can't say we're children of God but yet we speak like someone of the world we can't say that we are believers but yet our behaviour our conversation our jokes behave like the world we want to make sure that what comes out of our mouth comes from a heart that is hungry and got a desire for God in Proverbs chapter 12 and verse 22 it says the Lord detests lying lips but he delights in men who are truthful the Lord detests lying lips but he delights in men who are truthful we want to be people who folk can see by the way that we speak that we belong to Jesus by the way that we speak that we are the children of God the way that what comes out our mouth the way we communicate with each other because it is so sad when you hear

[21:47] Christians gossiping when you hear Christians backbiting when you hear Christians ridiculing other Christians if our heart is right with God what comes out of our mouth will be right as well when Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees and the teachers of the law he says these people honour me with their lips but their hearts are far from me they worship me in vain these people honour me with their lips but their heart are far from me they worship me in vain we're here and we say we belong to the Lord people should see by your communication that we belong to the Lord when I was a wee boy brought up Muir house big house estate in Motherwell I lived in a blocky flats with I don't know say twenty houses in this blocky flats and in that blocky my name's

[22:49] Gordon Thompson and we lived three up first on the left but three up first on the right was another Thompson and I knew even as a wee boy that the other Thompson family were different they were different from us my mum was an alcoholic my dad was away doing his own thing my parents were divorced big struggles in the house but they were completely different there was a difference with them they never had a TV they had a piano the ladies the daughters had long hair and long skirts and good looking nothing up in my sight they were beautiful looking women and the family were just nice very nice people and I knew as a wee boy as an eight year old there's something different about them in my home and there's something different about them and everybody that lived in the block you know what the difference was they were

[23:54] Christians I found out later on when I became a Christian they were Christians and they didn't need to see anything I could see by looking at them they're different and friends if we're children of God in here we should be different when I say different I don't mean weirdo I mean someone where folk can see there's a love in your heart there's a love in your heart for God and if you love God you'll love people you know William Booth the founder of the Salvation Army when he died do you know what the tramps in London says who's going to love us now who's going to love us now and if we're Christians people should see that the way we speak they should hear by the way we speak that we'll love the Lord Jesus Christ Robert Murray McShane the man who was mightly used of

[24:57] God in Dundee somebody once asked him what is your congregation's greatest need that's what they asked the minister the three church minister in Dundee what is your congregation's greatest need now they were expecting to think oh see we Jean she needs to meet with the Lord or see we Jordy he needs to meet with the Lord no it says my congregation's greatest need is to see my personal holiness my congregation's greatest need is to see my personal holiness holiness and friends know what Harris needs to see your personal holiness know what your neighbour needs to see your personal holiness know people in your family need to see your personal holiness we need to worship God with what comes out our mouth that people can see we belong to the

[25:57] Lord but not only that I believe we need to worship the Lord with our life people should see in our life that we belong to the family of God in Psalm 24 it says who may ascend the hill of the Lord who may stand in his holy place he who has clean hands and a pure heart who does not lift up his soul to an idol who may ascend the hill of the Lord or who may stand in his holy place he that has clean hands and a pure heart who does not live who does not lift up his soul to an idol I believe if we want to be right with God we need to make sure what comes out our lips what comes out our mouth but our life people should see with our life the way the way I treat you the way you treat me people should see the way you deal with people people should see that you are a child of

[26:59] God by the way that you react the way you behave the way you conduct yourself whether it be out shopping or dealing with people there's nothing more off-putting in the gospel than hearing about Christians fighting with people there's nothing more off-putting about Christianity about hearing about bad behaviour in amongst Christians if you want God to use you if you want God to be real in your life we need to ask ourselves and look at the spiritual mirror and say is my life living for the glory of God if I had to die tonight would I be pleased by the way I'm living now I know there's many people with struggles because I struggled for years and I pretended for years that I was doing okay I pretended everything was fine but my hands were not clean and my heart was not pure and the things that came out of my mouth wasn't right because my heart wasn't right and here we are coming before the Lord's table and isn't it wonderful that the blood of the

[28:09] Lord Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses us of our sins and what do we need today we need men and women who love the Lord with all their heart with all their soul with all their strength we need people who have got clean hands and a pure heart I just simply think clean hands I think that speaks about outward purity that you can see the things that I'm doing the way I behave the way I deal with things that's outward purity a clean heart that speaks about inward purity what's going on in my heart what's going on in my thoughts what's going on inwardly and sometimes the inward battle is greater of a greater struggle than the outward battle because it's easy I've been staying with David and his lovely wife over at the browing time and it's easy for me to pretend hello David good morning

[29:12] Mary it's easy that's easy right but in there I could be living like a demon like the devil with evil thoughts evil thoughts ungodly thoughts that's what I'm saying God wants to change us and God can change us I don't know if you know my testimony but when I was at a Baptist theological college in my second year just heading into my third year I was heading to be assistant minister in my third and fourth year near Baptist and at ten to eight one Sunday morning I got a phone call from my dad my wee brother was out the night before and he got murdered with his friend his friend murdered him about eleven o'clock on a Saturday night and I got a phone call about ten to eight on a Sunday morning John is lying up in the law hospital in the morgue he was murdered last night and here I'm at Bible

[30:13] College learning to tell people about the love of Jesus and how do you think I felt I used to sit in that lecture room with tears running down my face I used to get into the library with tears running down my face and you know something I'll be honest with you if you want God to use you you need to be real I used to sit and I used to think I would love to murder him and I'm not joking and I'm at a Bible college and when I was living in Motherwell and driving from Motherwell to Airdrie to where I became assistant minister I used to visualise the man crossing the road because it was in where it happened I used to drive by it where the man used to live where he battered John I used to drive by it and I visualised in my mind I'm crossing the road and when I crossed the road in my mind I even speeded up my car and I dreamt I knocked him down and I not only knocked him down in my mind

[31:16] I ran over him I went into reverse and ran over him and I was heading towards a prayer meeting do you think God would use me and what I'm saying is the battle of the mind is massive your thought life is massive and we need to control it if we want God to use us and I knew that I was drifting even though I was at Bible college I was drifting from God I was drifting from God because of my behaviour was taking me further away from God and then away down to the graveyard and I get down on my knees with my wee brothers buried and I cried my eyes out I wept and wept and cried and I prayed God please take away this hatred take away this evil in my heart because the man's not only killed John but he's also killing me please help me and I was in a flood of tears and I want to tell you

[32:21] God done something because I started to pray for him and I started to pray for his partner his girl and I started to pray for his wee girl he had a wee girl as well and I prayed for them that God would save them now my heart was full of bitterness and without giving it too long a story it wasn't that long after I met him because the case was a disaster and I met him and I ended up and I put it in my hand and I says Gable I forgive you for what you've done to John I says you know I'm a Christian I says and you need God's forgiveness forgiveness I couldn't do that because I wanted to kill him but God done something in my heart and I still pray for him today now why am I telling you that story because we need to be people who genuinely want to worship

[33:26] God with our life and there's a price tag there's a price tag because there may be something going on in your life and sometimes it could be the wee things and maybe you're holding on to bitterness and maybe you're holding on to something and yet it says who shall ascend the hill of the Lord who shall stand in his holy place he that's clean hands and a pure heart and the closer we want to get to God the more dirty we feel and maybe this morning as we come round the table there's something in your heart that you need to come and confess to God and ask God to deal with it you know in drum chapel we had a man who used to lead the worship Mark Cameron and the service started at 11 o'clock and one Sunday morning I was looking for Mark to start the service and I couldn't find him he's nowhere to be found I was like where's Mark where's

[34:26] Mark Mark would actually play the guitar and his wife sang and my wife played the keyboard and I couldn't find him anywhere and somebody says well actually I went to this wee Sunday school room opened up the Sunday school room and who's in there but Mark and his wife and they were praying together and you know why they were praying because from their house to the church they fell out in the car they had an argument in the car and Mark felt I can't go and lead worship and be disjointed with my wife and they went in and they prayed the Lord would bless them I thought take your time service can start late isn't that amazing that they fell out in the car and Mark didn't want to go up and start worship when he was disjointed to his wife we had a great morning nothing to do with my preaching but we had a great morning and what

[35:27] I'm saying is would you love to see God move in Harris would you love to see the spirit of God move in Harris there's a price tag and sometimes we need to get somebody to forgive us or sometimes we need to forgive someone because if you want God to move in your life we need to be real we need to be real and I believe if we be real that we watch what comes out of our mouth we want to worship the Lord we watch the way we live because we want to worship the Lord in Matthew chapter 5 Jesus says love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you and you know something it says love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you it's so easy not to love your enemies isn't it easy to love people who are easy to love it's easy to love them but God has got some difficult people sometimes in church there's just difficult people and God says I want you to love them and when you love them

[36:46] God is working in your heart because sometimes everybody's not easy to love sometimes people can be a wee bit harder it takes a wee bit more energy and input to love them but if you're real if you want God to do something in your life you'll pay the price and go through with God and I believe if we truly want to worship the Lord we need to watch what comes out our lips we need to watch our life and thirdly and finally we need to watch our love in Romans chapter 12 which says therefore I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God this is your spiritual act of worship this is your spiritual act of worship and God's saying he wants all of us to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice and isn't it great it's wonderful

[37:51] I've been really blessed seeing all the young people at this church you are really blessed here honestly I go to churches and they're starved of young people there's nobody and you've got loads of kids which is absolutely wonderful it's great to see it but isn't it wonderful that God isn't finished with any of us here nobody retires in the work of God and God is wanting your life God is wanting your life and he wants to use you for the glory of God and it doesn't matter how old it doesn't matter how old you are God wants to do something in your life I had the privilege of meeting a lady near Falkirk just a few weeks ago she prays for us I'd never met her before in my life but she gets the faith mission news she gets her prayer diary she prays for me every day and cut a long story short somebody sent her my wee testimony book my phone number's in the back so she phones me and she says Gordon

[38:55] I just want you to know she's 94 she says I pray for you every day I come before the Lord for you and she's praying for these meetings and she says I'd love to meet you I'd love to meet you I'd love to meet you and then we over and visited this 94 year old my my was I encouraged she really touched my heart she was in fire for God absolutely wonderful don't get caught up with this modern preaching with afraid to tell folk about heaven and hell don't get caught up by not telling people they need to repent put their trust in Christ we're too watery nowadays this 94 year old listen all fired up I was sitting there I just loved it and let me tell you something she's housebound she can't get out of the house she says but I meet with God in here every day she says my ministry now is prayer and I pray for it and she could tell me my diary better than myself she could tell me where I was going and everything

[39:59] I don't know until I look at my diary right what we're doing this week she was amazing 94 touched by God I want to be great this morning as we come round the communion table if you ask God to touch you afresh don't live in the shallow side of spirituality go in deep when you say God I want to really be surrounded by your presence in my life and we need to worship the Lord with a love therefore I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God this is your spiritual act of worship you know what it says in 1 Corinthians 13 it talks about love and it says love is patient love is kind it does not envy it does not boast it is not proud it is not rude it is not self-seeking it keeps no it is not easily angered it keeps no record of wrongs love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth love always protects always trusts always hopes always perseveres love never fails now imagine take the love out and I'll just use my name

[41:33] Gordon is patient Gordon is kind Gordon does not envy Gordon does not boast Gordon is not proud Gordon is not rude and we'll leave it at that but wouldn't it be good if we to live like that and if we are here and we are saying we're the children of God we should be ready for communion any day because our lives should be lived for God's glory and the great news is if you're here and you're a child of God you're here and you're a child of God this is our wonderful privilege to come around this table not because we deserve it it's because we're clothed in the righteousness of Christ we don't come in our own merits we come because of

[42:34] Calvary because Jesus has paid the price for us upon the cross of Calvary that's why we can sit around the communion table not because you're the minister not because you're the elders not because you're members it's because we are in Christ Jesus God is in our life we've committed our life to him and that's what gives us the privilege of sitting around this table now before we finish wouldn't it be wonderful if you're here and maybe you're a Christian but you know in your heart there's struggles you know in your heart maybe you've got difficulties with other people you know what's going on in your own heart but there could be blockages and the blessing of God in your life there can be blockages and the blessing of God in your life and wouldn't it be wonderful because after the finish we've just got to be still for a couple of minutes and pray of you to come and say God

[43:44] I don't want to have a blockage in my life with you I want to walk with you I want to talk with you I want to live for your glory or could it be maybe you're here and you've heard the gospel time and time and time and time again but you're saying I don't want your present God I'm quite content the way I am but God has got a gift for every single one of us and he says if you call upon the name of the Lord you shall be saved and praise God this morning we can know forgiveness of sins and peace with God coming to God his way so we want to be people who worship the

[44:44] Lord through our lips the way we speak the way we communicate the way we deal with situations we want to be people who worship the Lord through our life that people can see in our life that we are different that God is in our life that we want to live for him and people can see through our life that the things that we love are the things that are pleasing to God the things that we love are the things that are pleasing to God I want to finish by telling you about a man called D.L.

[45:22] Moody and D.L. Moody was a man who was mightily used of God and I love reading about D.L. Moody because D.L. Moody had reading and writing problems and I'm dyslexic so I really enjoy reading about D.L.

[45:36] Moody because even though he had all these problems God used them the mighty way he was mightily used of God and one day D.L. Moody was walking up into a ship he was going to this ship and someone shouted Mr.

[45:51] Moody Mr. Moody the world is still to see what God can do with a man that's sold out to him Mr.

[46:02] Moody the world is still to see what God can do with a man that's sold out to him and D.L. Moody shouted back by God's grace I will be that man by God's grace I will be that man I believe God is looking for people in Harris who want to be sold out to him God is looking for people this morning they want to be sold out for him and what's the cry of your heart this morning what's the cry of your heart this morning he says by God's grace I will be that man and God mightily mightily mightily use D.L.

[46:54] Moody and God wants to use you but what is your response this morning let's come and bow our heads in prayer I'm going to lead us in a word of prayer but let's just come and be still and respond in our own heart whatever the Holy Spirit has been saying to us we prayed that the Spirit of God would speak into our lives so let's be still and respond in our own heart what God has been saying to us this morning Heavenly

[47:54] Father we come before you in the name of Jesus and we thank you that we know that you don't need us but yet you want us we thank Heavenly Father that you want to use us in our lives to be instruments for your glory and we do pray for anyone here this morning and they know they're not a Christian they've never came to that place where they bowed the knee and surrendered their life to you we know there is pleasure in sin but it's only for a season it's only for a short time and we pray Heavenly Father for anyone here today and yet they know deep in their heart there's a there's a blockage in coming and surrendering their life to you we ask in the name of Jesus that you break them we ask in the name of

[48:56] Jesus that you convict them we ask in the name of Jesus you come and just bring them to the end of their self that they would cry out to you for your grace and for your mercy and for your love we thank you that any person being Christ they're a brand new person and father we pray for those who know you this morning we pray if there be anything in our lives that's hindering the blessing the outpouring of the Holy Spirit we pray for individuals we pray for married couples where there's problems lord we pray in Jesus name help us lord help us heavenly father to truly want to worship you to glorify you to exalt you help us to have a desire in our heart that we want to know your blessing and your anointing upon our life that we're willing to pay the price and father if there be any situation where we need to go and ask someone to forgive us or we need to forgive someone give us the humility to be obedient to what you're saying to us this morning man christ jesus we pray heavenly father that you would be with us we pray heavenly father as we sit around this table we thank you for what it reminds us of and we thank you reminds us of your love and your mercy towards us we thank you that your son was obedient even unto death so we pray lord that you come and encourage us because we know that your son went through the agony and the suffering of the cross so that we could experience forgiveness of sins in jesus name amen as we come around the table the table reminds us of the love of the lord jesus christ it reminds us the love of the father and it's wonderful to come around this table because we know that we come around this table because our faith and trust and hope is in christ we don't come in our own righteousness because that's like filthy rags we come clothed in the righteousness of christ and the apostle paul says for i receive from the lord what i also passed on to you the lord jesus on the night 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 in the same way after supper he took the cup saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me for whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the lord's death until he comes therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the lord a man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup amen this is only normal bread but it reminds us of something very special it reminds us of the lord jesus christ dying on the cross of calvary he was broken upon the cross of calvary and the bread reminds us of what happened to jesus upon the cross and even when we pray for the bread it still

[52:57] stays bread but jesus says do this in remembrance of me and we are reminding ourselves we remind ourselves of what happened at calvary because we cannot become a christian because of anything that we do but we only become a christian because of everything he's accomplished upon the cross of calvary so let's pray for the bread father we thank you that the bread reminds us of your son and what he went through upon the cross of calvary we thank you only father for the way that christ was obedient to your will willing to go to the cross willing to pay the price of our sins and father as we come before you we thank you and praise you that as we take this bread it reminds us of your mercy it reminds us of your love it reminds us of your grace and your kindness towards us because we take it today knowing it's not because of ourselves it's all because of our saviour in jesus name amen as we come to the cup the cup reminds us of the blood of the lord jesus christ the bible says without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins i want to tell you a story i became a christian in oban and there was a man who knew me well big donnie he's a good pal of mine he's a big bruiser that fella and he knew i'd become a christian and one day he was winding me up and he used to call me wee man and he says me a wee man remember you used to do this a wee man remember you used to do that and remind me of all the things i used to get up to that wasn't very god glorifying and i says donnie you're right i says see everything you're talking about you're right i says but you know what donnie it's all covered in red it's all covered in red he says what do you mean wee man i says it's all covered in the blood of jesus donnie i says you remember what i used to do i remember but he doesn't because god has forgiven me because i've asked him to forgive me of my sins i know sometimes the biggest struggle in people's lives they know that god will forgive them but they cannot forgive themselves and sometimes that can be a big hindrance in a christian's life that they hold on to things and yet god wants to forgive them and not only forgive but forget donnie used to remind me of stuff that i used to get up to but i reminded him it's all covered in red and isn't it wonderful that the blood of the lord jesus christ god's son cleanses us of our sins and there's forgiveness with god and sometimes we need to forgive ourself as well let's pray for the cup father we thank you and praise you that the blood will never ever ever lose its power we thank you you've told us without the shed of blood there is no forgiveness of sins so we praise you father that your son come into this world and john the baptist

[56:57]  cried behold the lamb of god that takes away the sins of the world and we thank you that our sins have been dealt with at calvary and we thank you for forgiveness of sins and peace with god all because of the cross and we pray father may you find our hearts worshipping you because we know that you've forgiven us and not only forgiven but you forgot as well in jesus name amen i would just like to say as we're drinking individual cups if you don't mind i think it'd be good we're brothers we are brothers and sisters in the lord it'd be wonderful today if you hold your cup when you take the cup don't drink it hold it and then when everybody's been served we'll take it together as a family of believers so once you've got the cup don't drink it straight away hold on to it and then we'll drink it for us to leave with a heart's desire to seek first your kingdom and your righteousness and father we do pray that anyone amongst us who's still outside the family and fold of god we pray heavenly father that you would work in their lives that father that they would taste and see that the lord is good blessed is a man who puts his trust in the lord and father we do ask that you would work in lives from the youngest to the oldest that people this day would cry upon the name of the saviour and put their hope and trust in him we do pray for those who know you father help us to live lives that glorify you that people will see that jesus has changed us that jesus has transformed us by the way that we live our lives and father we pray that that will be a challenge to others to taste and see the ways of god as well so we pray heavenly father that we leave known the blessing of the lord jesus christ upon our lives and now may the grace of the lord jesus christ and the love of god and the fellowship of the holy spirit be with us all now and forevermore in jesus name amen for for you