This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is day five together of our look at 1 Corinthians 11. We began yesterday a
look at the Lord's Supper and the meaning of it, that holy moment between not
just us individually and the Lord, but us as a corporate body and the Lord. And
Paul talked to us about healthy worship, including the Lord's Supper and the
meaning of the Lord's Supper and what it can do in our lives.

Beginning in verse 27, Paul talks about the fact that the way that we take the
Lord's Supper can also be a sign of unhealthy worship. You can see what's
happening in the way the Lord's Supper is being taken as a sign of a real
disease in the worship of a church. Listen to what he has to say in verses 27 to
29.

"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 the bread and drinks of the cup. For
anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and
drinks judgment on himself.

" Now, reading these verses, it is interesting that such a precious gift as the
Lord's Supper should come with such a strong warning attached. But the truth of
the matter is, the more powerful the gift, the more important the warning. If
you give a child a little plastic toy that it's just a molded piece of plastic
and it's made so the two-year-old can't swallow it, you don't need a lot of
warnings attached.

But if you give an adult man a chainsaw, there's going to be a whole book of
warnings attached. The more powerful it is, the more warnings are needed. The
Lord's Supper is a powerful moment.

And so there's some warnings that Paul has. "Whoever eats or drinks in an
unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. " It's quite
a warning.

"Let a man examine himself," he says. "Some eat and drink judgment to
themselves. " Now, what's Paul talking about here?

Well, I'll tell you what he's not talking about. He's not, when he says "worthy
manner," he's not saying, "Are you worthy? " The truth of the matter is, none of
us are worthy to eat the Lord's Supper except that we've been given the
worthiness of Christ.

Some people read this passage and think, "Well, okay, if I happen to remember a
sin from this last week, then I'm not worthy to take the Lord's Supper. " The
truth of the matter is, we've all sinned. We've all fallen short of the glory of
God.

And we are made worthy by Jesus. Now, the only thing that the scripture says
about being in worship and not doing something in worship is when I have
something against somebody else. I should go and make it right with them.

But that has nothing to do with whether I'm worthy to take the Lord's Supper or
not. And that's not what he's talking about here. He doesn't say as an unworthy
person.

Notice he says, "in an unworthy manner. " Worth is the key word here. And these
people ate in a self-centered manner.

They were jostling. They were trying to get first in line. They were forgetting
what it was all about.

What was supposed to be a celebration of Christ had turned into a display of
selfishness. And that's Paul's reason for this exhortation. He's saying, this is
serious business.

Why? Well, in verse 27, he says, "to diminish the importance of the Supper is to
diminish the value of Christ's sacrifice in your heart. " That's why it's
important.

In verse 29, he's saying, "to misjudge the Supper is to misjudge his body in an
unworthy manner. " He's talking about somebody who eats the Lord's Supper
without thinking about what it means. Someone who eats the Lord's Supper
focusing on themselves and whether people think of them as they're eating the
Lord's Supper instead of focusing on Christ.

How do you take the Lord's Supper in a worthy manner? You do what Jesus told us
to do. You remember him.

When you do this, remember me. If you do that, you're taking the Lord's Supper
in a worthy manner. If you do that, you're recognizing the forgiveness that he
has given to you.

The Supper, the Lord's Supper is serious because the cross is serious. In verse
30, Paul has this to say, "This is why many among you are weak and sick and a
number of you have fallen asleep. " Now, that phrase, "fallen asleep," that
phrase means you've died.

This sounds like a death penalty, but it's actually a discipline. You see, God
sees this differently than we're ever going to see it on this earth. God knows,
as a believer, when you die, you're going to be with him.

So he doesn't see it quite as seriously as you and I would see it on this earth.
And what's happening here to the Corinthians is he's allowing the circumstances
of judgment to play themselves out so that he's calling these believers home
early because of some of the things they're doing in the worship service. Wow,
that'll make you think, won't it?

Now, what's Paul talking about here and what does this mean for our relationship
with the Lord? He explains it in verses 31 to 34. He says, "But if we judged
ourselves, we would not come under judgment.

When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be
condemned with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat,
wait for each other. If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home so that when you
meet together, it may not result in judgment.

And when I come, I will give further directions. " Verse 32, is extremely
important to understanding our relationship with the Lord in this passage about
the Lord's Supper and judgment. He says, "We are disciplined by the Lord so that
we'll not be condemned with the world.

" He says, "Let's go ahead and judge ourselves so that we don't come under
judgment. " You see, even more important than your individual life to God,
obviously more important, is the testimony of his church. And the example of
Ananias and Sapphira and the early church is the clearest one we have that God
will take believers home early if their testimony, if their life is going to
hurt the testimony of the church.

Paul says, "If you judge yourself and you make it right before the Lord, he
didn't need to take you home early. But if not, he might need to take you home
early or some other discipline in your life. " Now, if this is scary to you,
then you don't realize your relationship with God.

You don't realize how confidently you walk with him as a believer. As a
believer, what Paul is expressing here is, as a believer, you are in the family.
God will never condemn you.

We will not be condemned with the world. You'll never be put out of the family.
But don't mistake what that means.

You're in the family. God will never condemn you. You'll never be put out of the
family.

But you're in the family. He will discipline you. He's your father.

You're in the family. God's a good father. A good father is not going to let a
child in the family just do whatever they want and get away with it.

He's going to discipline you. You're in the family, so he's going to treat you
as a part of the family. And part of his love is discipline.

Now, this goes to, for you as a believer, you look around sometimes and you
think, "Why does it seem that other people can get away with things that I can't
get away with? " It may be believers. It's often unbelievers.

I mean, they can do this. They can do that. If I do this little thing on my
taxes, if I do this little thing in the office the way I speak to somebody, if I
do this little thing with my expense account, if I do this little thing in the
way that I talk to my kids or to my wife, I get caught for it.

I get brought on the carpet for it somehow by God. Why is that? It's because
you're his son.

It's because you're his daughter. There's something very key to understand here
in your relationship with God. There's a depth of understanding that could
change your life.

I talk to many believers who feel like God is judging them, condemning them,
when the word clearly says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus. If you have a relationship with him, you don't have to worry about that.
Your feelings may say, "He's condemning me.

" You can count on the Bible's promise that he is not condemning you. So you
live by faith and not by feelings. You trust that God's love is still there and
that what's happening is he's disciplining you.

He's treating you as a son, as a daughter. If you're a parent, you see this. You
know exactly what I'm talking about.

Sometimes when you discipline your child, they feel like you don't love them
anymore. The truth of the matter is you disciplined your child because you love
them. Same thing is true in your relationship with God.

When God disciplines you as his child, if you think he's condemning you, if you
go with those feelings, you're going to want to run away from God because who
wants to be condemned? But if you realize the truth of God's word, that when
you're disciplined as his child, and it may not be because of the Lord's suffer,
it may be because of some relationship in your life, it may be because of some
financial decision in your life, it may be because of some habit in your life.
You're disciplined by the Lord.

When that happens, you run to him because you realize he's doing it out of love
for you. He loves you enough to discipline you. You're not going to find many
people like that in your life.

As you and I think about our relationship with him and what this means, I want
to spend just a personal moment here talking to our father. Would you pray with
me? Father, I don't like to be disciplined.

None of us do. But I know I'm not perfect. I know I sin.

I know my heart goes astray. And so I know I'm going to need your discipline
from time to time. When it comes, release me from the temptation of thinking
it's a condemnation and help me to see that it's a discipline that grows out of
love.

And help me in listening to you to make the changes that you're asking me to
make. Instead of running from you to run to you because, Lord, I know your love
for me. Let that change in my life.

Let that sense, that depth of knowledge of your love, increase in my life, I
pray. In Jesus' name, I pray this, Father. Amen.

Well, don't miss next week. Chapter 12 of First Corinthians is one of the great
chapters in all the Bible about spiritual gifts and how you can unwrap God's
gifts in your life.