Special Event – Don’t Pass Over the Passover: Pastor Brent Johnson, 05/03/26

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[00:00:00] All right. Well, thank you for being here today. Um, I'm gonna go back a little bit in time, and we're going to look closer at the Passover. Um, Pastor Jared's sermon today was right at the Passover. He's in a series that he's finishing up today, and so we're both kind of in the same place. And, uh, how many of you went to our Seder meal back in March?

So a good number of you. This is not that. I'm not d- redoing the Seder meal. But that was a p- a part of what, uh, the Passover is, that is the Seder meal, and Pastor or Rabbi Vowel was able to take us through his intimate journey of what his family did as he grew up in the Seder meal, which is the, the main meal of the Passover.

But the Passover is not just one meal. It's, it's a whole week [00:01:00] of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and then it moves to the Feast of, uh, First Fruits. How many of you have been reading the emails with, about the feast this past week? Some of you. See that? Good. So I was just trying to get you set up for the class today.

So let's pray and ask the Lord to be gracious, and we'll, uh, dive in a little bit today. Heavenly Father, we are thankful that we can gather together in your name. Thank you for Mark and for his love for you and establishing this class and the desire to be biblically literate, that we would dive down into the original language to know your Word so that we can know you, and as a result, we're able to live free, we're able to live holy, and we're able to spread your good news to others.

Thank you for Pastor Jared today, who gave us a great invitation to be spreading the Gospel, because it relies and rests upon each of us. So teach us today and take us into your love and your grace as we share that with others. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. So today's lesson is entitled [00:02:00] Don't Pass Over the Passover.

Don't pass it over. And it occurred to me as we've been looking at the Seder meal and I've been getting ready to have the Seder meal back in March, that we in our Baptist culture don't talk about the Passover very much. And I just wanna give a disclaimer. I am not a Jew. I am not Jewish. I'm not of the Jewish culture.

And I did not grow up in a Jewish family, so I, I didn't grow up with all of this. I've been learning it along with you, uh, as we go, and I've been particularly interested and, uh, diving into it a little bit, and I wanna share some of those things with you. And we're going to move to what Jesus moved to, and, uh, let's talk about it right now as we go back in time to that point when Jesus was about to die on the cross.

These were days, maybe hours, before that occurrence, and Jesus was at, doing what? Having a dinner party with some of his best friends. Everybody love a good dinner party, right? [00:03:00] You like to invite friends over? In fact, last week you all went to, uh, Don Ramon's to have our class party. How many of you were in that?

Today's a survey day, so, uh, good. Glad that you were a part. It's a, it's a chance to help our class feel small that you would go and get to meet other people, and, uh, we don't get to do that much in this class. So thank you to Vicky Michelle for putting that together, and we'll have some other ones as well.

Okay, so Jesus was doing that. He was having a fellowship with his fellowship group, and, um, this was, uh, an amazing opportunity because this was a point in history, a point in time that Jesus was going to make history. He was gonna make a, a very big deal and a very big point. Um, in fact, w- what I've realized is that here God started the Passover in Egypt, and it was 1,500 years before Jesus would use it to make this huge transformation.

This is a really big deal, and again, it's surprising that we don't [00:04:00] talk about it more. So that's why I wanted to talk about it a little bit with us today. And this is why I think that it's a big deal because Jesus said this when he was talking to his disciples about having that Passover, celebrating that particular Passover with his disciples.

Jesus said this in Luke 22:18. He said, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer." Some translations say eagerly desired. Some say fervently desire. Uh, some of you might say it this way. Uh, "I've been really, really excited about getting together with you guys and having a meal together and sharing."

Uh, some might say, "I can't wait to eat this Passover with you before I suffer." Now, some of it might be that he was thinking, "I'd rather be eating a meal than suffering," so, uh, to eagerly desire to be with you now and not to be with you later might be part of it, but there's something more to this that him, Jesus, eagerly desiring to have the Passover [00:05:00] with his disciples right now.

I mean, he had had disc- Passovers before with his disciples, right? He had been with them for about three years, and I'm sure Jesus, as the best Jew around, celebrated the Passover at the right time, on the right day, and, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread for a week of eating crackers, for the Feast of First Fruits, which had to do with the, the first crop.

But Jesus was gonna turn all of that symbolism around and make it new, and that's why I believe Jesus said, "I've been really waiting for today. I've kinda been waiting for 1,500 years because I remember I was there with God when we established the first Passover, knowing that one day I was going to use it today with you in this meal to make history, to make change, to make a transformation of all of the symbols."

But first, we had to have the, the, the original Passover. Okay, so and then he went on to say after that, he said, "And I tell you-" That I will not eat [00:06:00] again until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God. Jesus knew that He was not going to have another feast, another dinner party, until what we read about in Revelation, the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.

And that is only for Christians, only for those who are not only saved, it's not just those who think they're saved, but who are actually saved. Jesus says those who are persevering to the end, those who are obeying, because to obey is better than sacrifice. "And how do you love me?" Jesus said, "You keep- My commandments

my commandments." These are the, the, the fruits of being a Christian. Uh, the fruit of the Spirit is what the Spirit bears in you. So if you're a Christian, not only are you bearing fruit, but the Spirit is bearing fruit in you as well. What are the f- what is the fruit of the Spirit? It's only one fruit. It's singular and not plural, but it has several aspects of that one fruit that the Spirit bears in each of us that is a Christian.

What are those? What are those characteristics? [00:07:00] Love. Love. Joy. Joy. Peace. Peace. Patience. Patience. Kindness. Kindness. Gentleness. Gentleness. Self-control. Self-control. Against these things there is not a law. These are the things that the Spirit is going to bear in you. So if you look at that list and you realize there's some of those things that are not in you, are you quenching the Spirit?

Are you keeping the Spirit from bearing that in you? And you say, "Well, maybe I should try harder." No, not with the fruit of the Spirit. Who bears that fruit? The Spirit. The Spirit. Say it with me. The Spirit. Yeah, so if you get asked a quiz later on when you leave today by Pastor Jared, the pastor quiz that he gives everyone who leaves the church before you get out of the parking lot You wanna be able to pass so you can move on out.

You wanna say, "The Spirit bears the spirit of the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit." The Spirit bears that. But we have to allow the Spirit to do that. It's not on you to work it out and try to be more patient, to be more gentle. If you're a Christian and God is bearing that in you, you're gonna become more [00:08:00] patient.

You're going to become more gentle. You're going to be self-controlled. And if you have some areas that you need, that you feel like you need to work on, m- the main thing is you need to allow the Spirit to work, by reading your, the Bible, by praying, seeking Him, being at church. These are ways that we allow the Spirit to work in our lives.

And Jesus says, "Don't quench the Spirit." That's not good for Christians. So all that to say that Jesus said, "I am going to not eat again until that Marriage Feast of the Lamb." And that's why we call this The Last Supper, because we knew his, was his Last Supper 'cause Jesus said, "This is the last one I'm eating until..."

And He did eat a little bit of, uh, fish on the beach, you know. But this was the last feast until the big feast when He comes back on His second coming, and I hope to see you there at that feast as well. But fortunately for us, this is not our Last Supper, but here Jesus knew it was His Last Supper. And again, that's why we call this the Last Supper.

[00:09:00] So why did Jesus eagerly desire to have this Passover? I mean, we, we, we said why, um, because as the transformation from the Passover to the Last Supper to the Lord's Supper. Okay? That happened in this moment, that Jesus was third year with His disciples at this Passover feast. The transformation from the Passover Seder meal to the Last Supper, and then He instituted the Lord's Supper all in that one moment.

And Jesus had been waiting, again, 1,500 years to do that, and to establish the new covenant. B- up to that point, the Jews were in an old covenant. And of course, for them it was new. It was the current covenant. But now, Jesus said during this Last Supper, "As I institute the Lord's Supper, I am going to give you a new covenant.

I'm gonna explain how the new covenant works." And so that's why for our class today we're going to look at the setup of the Passover. Because get this: if the [00:10:00] Passover never happened, what would Jesus do 1,500 years later? Does that make sense? The Passover is super important in history early on because Jesus was going to actually use that and make this transformation.

Now, if for some reason the Passover got missed out on and they didn't do it, then Jesus would find another way to make this transformation, but God being who He is, sovereign and in control, made sure that the Passover was an institution that happened because He would use that later. The Passover is super important.

So that's why we had the Seder meal. We'll have, we'll plan to have another one next year or maybe we'll do it every other year. But understanding the Passover, the Seder, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the, the Feast of First Fruits, all of those things that happen are important for us even as Gentiles, who, who if you're saved, you're grafted into the Jewish nation.

That you don't have to celebrate these feasts, I'm not saying that, but we do need to [00:11:00] understand them. Does that make sense? And that's why we're talking about this today. We're gonna dive down deeper for the opportunity to see this today. All right. So I'm gonna go back and expl- explaining how the Passover came to pass by going back to Genesis chapter 12.

This is when God called Abram, and this is the scripture of the promise that He gave to Abram. He said, "Now the Lord said to Abram, 'Go from your country...'" Where, where did Abram live? Ur. You are. He lived in Ur, and he was a part of the Chaldeans. That was his nation. God called him out, and he was gonna-- God was going to make a new nation out of him.

He plucked somebody out, and he said, "I'm gonna clean you up, and I'm gonna change you, and I'm gonna make a nation out of you. You're gonna become your own nation." Now, this is nation-building. This is very important to the kingdom of God because God would use Israel to show the rest of the world, and you and me, how to [00:12:00] relate to God and how God would relate to you.

That's the whole reason he created the nation. So we need to see this. We need to see how he did that and what he did to make it come about and what the rules were, the Torah, and Mark teaches on that great, so that we can understand the old covenant and the transformation into the new covenant. Here's the promise: "Go from your country to the land that I will show you."

So he didn't tell him where or why. Uh, he just said, "You have to trust me on this, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. And in all the families of the earth they will be blessed by you." And we're receiving, we who are Christians are receiving that blessing today.

Now, I've referenced Christians earlier. If you're not a Christian, then you're not a part of the economy of God. You're not in the kingdom of God. But since you're still [00:13:00] alive on this earth, you still have hope. You still have the opportunity, and so listen carefully and see if you wanna come to the point that you wanna sincerely humble yourself, recognize that you are a sinner and that you offend God, and that you are sorry for those sins.

You don't wanna offend God, but you don't have the power in yourself to make that change. None of us do because the Bible says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God", and as a result, we are unable to save ourselves. That's why God put together the Passover. It is a picture of salvation. How many other pictures of salvation are in scripture in the Old Testament?

Noah and the ark. Moses in the ark. When he was a baby, he was saved. Um, what else? Anybody think of any other pictures of salvation? Daniel and the lions' den. Uh, Daniel in the lions' den, a picture of salvation. What was it? Isaac. Isaac. He was gonna be sacrificed, and instead a substitute atonement came [00:14:00] about, the ram caught in the thicket, so that Isaac didn't have to die.

Because his son would become the progenitor of the nation of Israel with the 12 tribes. Yes, so we have all of these pictures of salvation. God is giving it to us over and over and over for us to realize that he is the savior. And in all of these situations, none of them could have saved themselves. It's not like the ark when Noah was getting on the ark and God said, "Okay, Noah, I want you to build in some pegs on the sides, the outside of the ark, and all the animals are inside and we've closed the door.

So I want you to hang on to the pegs on the outside, and as long as you can hang on to the ark, you will be saved." Is that what God did? What if God did that? I don't think Noah and his family would be around anymore. Well, of course, they're not around anymore, but they wouldn't be around then. They wouldn't be around then, but what did God do?

God put them in the ark, and then who shut the door? God did. Scripture is clear that God closed the door because this is a picture of salvation that that group could [00:15:00] not save themselves. So if you're not saved, you can't save yourself, but you trust God to do that by humbling yourself, asking him to forgive you of your sins.

And as a result, he said he is faithful to forgive you and to bring you into the Kingdom of God and begin a process of sanctification, which is means to make you holy and right. It's a process and doesn't happen immediately. And we are all in that together for those of us who are saved and who have counted Christ as our Lord and Savior, asked him to forgive us our sins in humility.

Uh, so this is all starting with this, the understanding how to do that. When the promise was given to Abram, you won't be able to save your, your, your, yourself because your whole nation is going to have a problem. It's gonna take faith. You don't even know where you're going, but you're gonna have to trust me on that.

And that's what faith means, which is another word that we, we throw faith around a lot, but there's a little lack of understanding of that word. We need to know that faith means trust. It's the same [00:16:00] Greek word, pistis, which also can be translated believe, it can be translated faith, and I think most importantly, trust.

It all boils down for each individual, not as a group, but as an individual, you have a responsibility to trust God. And that's why in difficult situations, if you trust God, you can still have peace. If you're trusting in yourself, you're gonna worry because you can't get out of every situation. So faith is what moved Abram, who became Abraham, and in Hebrews, we hear that his faith, trust in God, is what was credited to him as salvation.

That was the credit that he got, and he wasn't able to do it on himself. He trusted God based on the trust that God gave him to trust God, and God gives us that same faith. You just have to receive the gift or reject the gift. That's our choice. Okay. So that was in Genesis chapter 12. Now we're gonna move to Genesis chapter 15, 'cause I'm keep telling the story of how the [00:17:00] Passover came to be, because the Passover is extremely important that it occurred.

It had to occur. God wanted it to occur. And so God tells Abram, "Not only am I gonna create a nation out of you," but he gives him a little bit of insight as to what's gonna happen along the journey. He says, "Then the Lord said to Abram-" This is even before Abram's name is changed to Abraham, before he even had the promise of his son, Isaac.

Before all of that happened, he's giving him this inside information. So don't go wagering on this. This is inside information. "Know for certain that your offspring," the nation of Israel that I'm creating out of you, "that will be more numerous than the stars in the sky, the sand or along the sea." Um, he says, "Your offspring will be sojourners."

That's a fancy word for visitors, for people that are on a journey, and they'll be going in. "For sojourners in a land that is not their own and will be servants there, [00:18:00] and they will be afflicted for 400 years." How many years? 400. That's a big deal, 400 years. I know I've talked about this before. Then in verse 14, he goes on and he says, "But I'll bring judgment on the nation they serve and afterwards, they will come out of that nation with great possessions."

Spoiler alert, all of that happened exactly the way God said it would. And why is that? Because God is sovereign. God is in control. That's something else we don't talk much about, but God is in control. He is already at work, and when you pray and seek God, you are asking to find out what he's doing and he wants you to do.

You're not trying to get God to do what you want to do. That's the opposite of serving a sovereign God or serving a genie. The genie you try to get to do what you want, and one day I'll tell you the paradox of the, the three wish conundrum. I don't have time for that today. But, uh, I've studied genies.

Believe me, I know about genies. [00:19:00] God is not a genie, I know that for sure. God is sovereign. He's in control. He already has a plan. He wants you in on his plan. He wants you in on his plan, and the way we do that is to commune through prayer and reading scripture and being around other Christians who are seeking God and finding out where God is.

The problem is a lot of us are doing our own thing, and we're giving bad advice to other Christians, okay? So that's why you're here today. We're trying to get good advice. Let's try to keep going along the road. So we get this inside information that God gives to Abram. "I'm gonna make you a, a great nation.

They're going to become slaved and in bondage. It's gonna be for a really long time, but I'm gonna save you, and I'm gonna take you out better than when you were in." So that's great. So I'm gonna put this map on the, on the wall here to take a look at. Now, we have over here Ur. This is where Abram lived when he grew up as a little, little Abram.

L- they called him Abie as a boy, as a little baby. "Hey, Abie, come out and play. Can you come out and play?" "Yeah. I live in [00:20:00] Ur of the Chaldeans. All I do is play. I'm a little kid." So he grows up and God says, "You're the one I've chosen. I've chosen you." He didn't enter a contest. He- God said, "I chose you to be the one I'm gonna make a nation out of, because I wanna show the rest of the world, all of the other nations that you're, are alive now, and then thousands of years later to 2026 and beyond, however long, that I wanna show everyone how to relate to me as God, and I want to show them how I'm gonna relate to them.

Abram, I've chose you." So here he is. And he lives in kind of a desert area, and eventually, through a couple of generations, there's gonna be this huge famine. And God knew all this was gonna happen, and He knew exactly where Abram was gonna be, and I didn't even get into Lot and all the sovereignty that's, that's there.

But He's moving Abram, and Abraham now, along in the journey. And He had a whole place of plush food and sustenance in another country that [00:21:00] would help the nation of Israel survive. How many people were in the nation of Israel when they left this area here to go over to Egypt in order to get food again?

How many were in the family by then? 70. Who said 70? Have you been studying this? Did you read my email? I didn't put it in my email. She's right. About 70. I mean, that's, that's about right, about the number between the 12 tribes and all of their servants and, um, and the people that are married in, 'cause this is genealogy at this point.

It's not people who are, uh, just being brought in, hired in. These are, uh, genealogy, DNA, of this new nation. And so there's about 70 that went to Egypt originally, and then they were there for... The 400 years is probably when, when God first gave the promise to Moses, so they weren't literally in Egypt for that long, but probably at least 250, maybe 225, 230 years, something like that, that they were in Egypt, and you can look at the genealogies and, uh, kinda bear this out, and, uh, that's not what today's lesson is about [00:22:00] today.

The point is, they're in Egypt for a long time, and they go from around 70 people to about two million people. God grew up his nation that he was building, and he had a great place for that to happen. And they got so big that the pharaohs were like, "Oh, my goodness. This is crazy. Uh, they were, they were good friends of us later, uh, earlier.

Now they're so big they could take us over. We should probably put a little bit of subjection on them to keep them from rising up." So now they're in slavery. And if anyone remembered what God told Abraham, or told Abram, about that they would be in bondage for 400 years, uh, and that was passed down through the generations, some of them would remember, "Oh, yeah, this, God said this was gonna happen."

How many of them do you think re- actually remembered that? Probably. There might've been one or two, you know, scholars in the room that know all the answers. But most probably, uh, you know, they had forgotten about that. But God didn't, because that was God's sovereign plan. God's gonna do what [00:23:00] God is going to do.

God did what God said he was going to do. If God doesn't do what he said he's gonna do, what does that make him? A liar. A liar, and someone that you can't trust, and he's not the same God that we know as the God of truth. So far, God has proven himself to be truthful. If God said it, he's going to do it.

What do we need to do? Listen. Listen. We need to listen. So, thanks for being here today. Okay, good. Now, we're moving on, 'cause God's speaking now through me and, um, and I'm not perfect and I don't have all these facts together, but I'm doing the best that I can as I've studied to show you what God is showing me, and I hope you just take it with whatever grain of salt, and we'll move on from there.

So, God's moved them to Egypt. They've gotten more plentiful. They're now in bondage. They are really mad that they're having to do this, and they're ready to move on to the great nation that God's called them to. So what are they doing? What? Making bricks. What? Say it again. They're making bricks. [00:24:00] Yeah, they're making bricks.

Yeah, and they're, they're building pyramids, you know? They're building houses. They're doing all this stuff, and, uh, you might be able to go see, uh, some of that stuff. But for all of these years, they're stuck in bondage, and they're crying out to God. And what are they asking God for? Salvation. Salvation.

They're asking God for, "Do what you said you were going to do. If you're a God of truth, let's go ahead and get this on the road, because we're tired of not being able to relax and enjoy life. We're having to work too hard." And so, uh, they're crying out. So you imagine you being in bondage and waiting. Or mat- fact, most of you can probably imagine some difficulty in your own life, that you've had to wait on God and, uh, Mark called it sometimes your prayers are hitting concrete.

You feel like you're not getting through because you're, you're, you're wanting some good, godly thing and it's not happening, and you're wondering why God's not saying anything. Look at this. They're in Egypt, in bondage. They're crying out to God for [00:25:00] salvation, and what is God saying to them? It's year 300, year 325, it's year 350.

What's God saying when they say, "God, save us now. This is the time"? Not yet. God didn't even say not yet. What did God say?

Absolutely nothing. You know why? Because God is saying, "I already told y'all. I told Abraham. He should've told you. 400 years I'm gonna be creating this nation, and you're gonna have all these problems. I'm not gonna do anything until year 400, 430, somewhere in there." So they're crying out to God, and God is silent.

You are crying out to God, and God is silent. Do you know why God is silent? Is it because He didn't hear you? Is it because He doesn't like you? Do you think it may be He stopped liking you? He loves you, and if you're obeying, then He loves you to obey, and if you're not, He loves you to be obeying, and [00:26:00] He's gonna wanna interact with you to get that going again.

So God is not ignoring you, but it's possible that God has already told you, or it's not time for you to know yet. But does that mean that God is untrustworthy? Does that mean that God is unfaithful? Absolutely not. But here is a perfect example, and there are more examples in scripture that we need to hear about, that God was silent because He had already said what He was gonna do.

It just hadn't come time. Elijah is another great example about he prayed that it would stop raining. There's a whole story there, and he had to wait a long time, but God did exactly what God said He was gonna do, not what Elijah said he wanted God to do. We get that story wrong sometimes. We'll read it later, but not today.

Okay. So they're, they're waiting. They're waiting on God, and they're praying, and God is not saying anything. Again, God has already said, and God's going to act when God was ready to act. Mark has talked about this. Mark Lanier has talked about this idea as well. [00:27:00] We see that, uh, here's their calling out.

"During these many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because they were, of, of their slavery, and they cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God." This is how the story is told in scripture. "And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

God saw the people of Israel, and God knew." Now, you read this and you think maybe God forgot because it says He remembered, and that's a misunderstanding of that Hebrew, uh, narrative there. Uh, and Mark, like I said, has already talked about this. It is the word zakar from Hebrew, and the idea... Well, the, the word is often translated remember, and God remembered.

But it, it doesn't have that feeling for if you were a Hebrew back in that day and they used the word zakar, what you would hear is [00:28:00] that God would act on what He already said He was gonna do at the time that He said He was gonna do it. That's a reminder to us that God is at work. He is active, and He loves you, and He wants to do exactly what He wants for you, not what you're begging Him to do, unless those things align.

And as we mature in our faith, sometimes what we want aligns with what God wants. That's the whole purpose of sanctification, that you want to become thinking like God, and the longer you're in the game, the more you think about- Like God. Unless you're getting older and you're not thinking like God, and that's a problem that you need to take care of.

But it's good that you realize that's the problem, right? So in the Book of Zechariah, that book is named God Remembers because zachar, Yah, Yahweh, yah, that's the word zacharyah, Zechariah, God remembers. There's a whole book in the Bible called God Remembers, but it's not trying to indicate that God [00:29:00] forgot something.

It's indicating that God is gonna act and do what He said He is going to do. Uh, here's a, an opposite example in Jeremiah, "For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more." We love to quote this verse, right? We love to say that God doesn't remember our sins anymore. It's the opposite of zachar.

It's that God is not going to act on something because He said He would not act on it. Does that make sense? It's that same word meaning a little bit different. It's the same idea of the word. The word still is true. It still is working out the way that it's, it means. But that's the understanding that they had, and now hopefully it's the understanding that we have.

Okay, I've gotta move on in this so we can get to the Lord's Supper. We're going to celebrate today the Lord's Supper in a very creative way because that's where Jesus was going with this. The Last Supper led to the Lord's Supper. And so we have a crew of folks that are gonna start passing out the elements.

You're gonna get a cracker that may be about this big. You want a big piece. Don't get, like, a [00:30:00] little Lord's Supper piece. That's no supper. You need something to eat supper, okay? You need lunch. So at least, you know, get something this big. You know, if, if they start running out, get a smaller piece. If you have to break them, that's fine.

But they're gonna start passing those out right now. Get, get a cracker and a grape, okay? There's, there's green grapes and there's red grapes. You know why? 'Cause I know there's some of you in here who are like, "I don't eat red grapes. I only eat the green ones." Or vice versa, "I do not eat green grapes. I only eat the red ones."

They taste the same. But you are so particular that you... So I got two colors of grapes so that hopefully as many people in this room would celebrate the Lord's Supper, if you're a Christian. If you're not saved, be proud and don't eat this meal because it's not for you. If you are saved, if you are a Christian, you're called by His name and you desire the things of God, I want you to get a cracker and a grape, and we're going...

You're gonna have to hold onto it 'cause we're not gonna do this till the end. So just hang on to it. And don't be [00:31:00] distracted. I'm still teaching. I don't want you to get your nose in the cracker, okay? Get your nose out of the basket and let's keep focusing here. Uh, get your cracker, though. Get your grape.

The other thing about grapes is that not everybody likes grapes, and I get that. Skip the grape. That's, that's fine. Um, and they're, they're squishy, but that's okay. Uh, but the other thing is we don't wanna choke on grapes, and so let's just concentrate on not choking today. Okay, back, back to the lesson.

Let's concentrate on the lesson now. So we're at the point when- The God's nation is in bondage, they're crying out for help, and God says, "I'm about ready to act on what I said I was gonna do. It's year 400, 430. This is the time. Everything's in motion. Now I gotta get my man who's gonna work for me to do this."

And so he calls Moses. Moses is a sad situation. Moses had already killed an Egyptian. He fled out into the, the wilderness of Midian. Everyone say Midian with me. Midian. That way I know you're not looking at the crackers. Midian. [00:32:00] Moses has left the reservation. He has gone and given up on Israel. He has married a woman whose dad is a priest of another nation and another god, a false god.

He's married her. They had kids, and Moses has not circumcised his kids. Circumcision is what? The sign of the covenant of Moses. He is not in the covenant anymore. He has given up, he has moved on, he's raising cattle, sheep, whatever it is, and he has left. Some of us are in that same situation. We have tried to serve God, it didn't work out, we didn't like the way it felt and looked.

We have moved on and away from God. There is still hope for you, because what did God do? He called Moses with this amazing experience, the burning bush. And we're not gonna go into all of it, but you need to know a couple of things, or remember a couple of things about, uh, the holy, about the [00:33:00] burning bush.

And one is that it was holy ground. God made Moses take his shoes off, not to be incidental or to be particular, but to say, "This is a really big deal. I'm gonna have you lead to getting my people out, and we're gonna have a Passover meal. That's gonna be a really big deal. I need you to pay attention, Moses.

This is a big deal." Do you know what Seder, the Seder meal, do you know what the word Seder means? Order. Order. My scholar over here. Order. It's a very ordered thing. God is order. He is very particular, and we wanna be in on His particularities. Do you hear me? Do you see what I'm saying? That's what all of this is pointing us to, and that's why I think we should talk about it more.

Here God tells Moses, "Okay, let's start off by you realizing who I am. I'm God, and I am so far beyond you, the least you can do is take your shoes off to make a point that this is holy ground. I have saturated the area, and I'm about to make some big changes in not only your life, but the [00:34:00] life of the other Israelites who have kinda gone off the reservation as well, because everyone's mad at Me.

It's been over 400 years." Um, Moses gave excuses. "These are all the reasons why you don't wanna use me." God's like, "You're not telling Me anything I don't already know, but I'm the sovereign God. I am in control, and I have chosen you to do this particular mission. This is your mission." Has God given you a mission?

Has God given you a promise and a mission? Some of you are saying, "I wish He would. I've been asking and I don't hear anything." Okay, there's several reasons why that might be, but I assure you, God has a mission for you. That's what this is all about. The same sovereign God who got Moses to do something, He was having all these different Israelites doing things, too.

We don't have those stories. We don't know what they are. But God has a plan for everyone's life, not just the prophets and the kings. For everyone's life, and that includes you and me. That's why this story, this lesson, is important. Moses gave the excuses and God said, "I just don't wanna hear it. I've got a [00:35:00] plan.

I want you in on my plan." Could Moses have said, "Nope, forget it. I'm not gonna be on your plan"? I think so. He could've, he exercised his free will and gone on back to the desert. But fortunately, he did not, because he would've missed a blessing. Instead, he was God's chosen individual, and he continued in the task.

And even to the point that Moses was like, "Okay, I'm getting back on the team. Tell me your name. What, what will I call you? I know you're the God of my forefathers, but what will I call you?" And God says, "You will call me Yahweh. I am. I exist. I am God." And that's not very descriptive, you understand? 'Cause what is God saying?

"I'm in control. I'm in charge. You just call me 'Here He Is, and He's Gonna Do Something.'" That's who God is. That's who God was to Moses, and that's who God can be to each of us as we seek Him, desire Him, pray, and allow Him to give us His mission for our life, not the mission that you want. Sometimes they're different.

Okay, uh, now Moses [00:36:00] finally gets onto the point that he confronts Moses. There's a lot of great stories there we can't get into. Um, and he says to Mo- what does Moses say to Pharaoh? "Let my people go." Did anyone see, uh, the movie? Yes. Charlton Heston. Okay, so you know all the, all the stuff that went on. Okay, I don't need to go into all that.

Uh, because there- there's a lot of things that went on, including the plagues. Uh, y'all know what some of the plagues are? Just throw out a few. Frogs. Frogs. Locust. Locust. Blood. Blood. The whole Nile turned blood. Gnat. What is it? Gnats. Plague. So there, there's, there's a lot. How many plagues? 10 plagues. 10 plagues.

10 plagues. And Pharaoh didn't relent until the end. But we do read that as a couple of the, of the plagues went about, Pharaoh kinda reconsidered his position, didn't he? Because it's no fun to be walking around on, on frogs. You know, squish, squish, [00:37:00] s- stench of blood. The Nile already stenches, has the stench of blood.

And you know, most of these plagues were in contrast to particular Egyptian gods. The, the god of the Nile turned to blood. Um, the, these, these other gods that were supposed to be able to control and do things- Were shown by God's plagues that they are not in control. Sometimes God will use things for you, and you'll come up with the realization, guess what, I'm not God.

I'm not God. And you're like, "Why is God allowing this to happen to me?" And God's saying, "You're not God. You didn't realize that, but you need to. You're not God." I'm not God. So here's a little bit of suffering in your life as an example. God uses a lot of other things too, not just suffering, but that's a big one, and God used it here.

He had 10 plagues, and Moses facilitated them all. And the Pharaoh was like, "Okay, plague three, [00:38:00] y'all just leave. That's crazy. I, I'm not gonna put up with this anymore. Just get out. I don't care." And then what did God say He did? Hardened his heart. God hardened Pharaoh's heart because it wasn't time to let the people go.

How many plagues had to happen before he could let the people go? There had to be 10 plagues. If there weren't 10, what would we miss out on? Passover. The 10th plague is crucial to Passover. There had to be 10 plagues. It wasn't like Pharaoh was gonna be like, um, fourth one, "You know, we're just trying to get people out.

Moses, just try to get the people out as quickly as you can." And that's not what the plan was. God's plan seemed but to be that way. If you read the narrative, you're like, God's just trying to, you know, do a little bit and see if he, they'll let him go. They'll let them go. But then when Pharaoh relented, God hardened his heart.

Now, this, today's lesson is not on the sovereignty of God and do you have free will and is God hardening my heart so I can or can't make decisions. [00:39:00] That's not what this lesson's about, and that's not what I'm trying to talk about. What I do know is that there had to be 10 plagues. It had to be to get to the Passover.

The Passover was crucial to get to where Jesus was leading 1,500 years later, and then to institute the Lord's supper to get to where we are today. So whatever God did, He was gonna bring about His will because remember, like I said at the beginning, God is at work. He is active and He is sovereign, and God's gonna get what He wants.

He may not get it with you, because you may choose to do something otherwise, but He will get what He wants. It's better to be on His team. Amen. It's better to be on His team, to humble yourself, to agree with God that you sin and that you don't have the right plan, and that you want His plan and that you will obey rather than sacrifice yourself.

It's better to obey and follow God and to love Him through your obedience. That's what these plagues are about. The plagues are not about getting the Israelites out, as I read the story. As, as I'm looking at it from 30,000 feet, I'm not in the [00:40:00] situation, I'm not looking at it from that perspective. We have the privilege of seeing it from 30,000 feet, and we're looking down and we're seeing the 10th plague had to arrive.

We had to get to number 10, and God, Pharaoh's he- he- uh, Pharaoh's heart, and I think that's part of how t- He got to number 10. Okay, so now we get to the Seder meal because of the 10th plague was the threat that the firstborn was going to die. Now, that is a big deal because are any of you the firstborn in this room?

So if you don't play ball, you're out. Now, if you're a Jew, you at least had the insider trading information to know how to get out of that. If you were a, a, an Egyptian, did you know anything? Could you do anything? It was only for the Jews, this whole Seder meal that was going to be a picture of salvation.

You were in the know because you got the inside information, because God was creating a nation that He was showing how to relate to God. The other nations would have to look on. The Egyptians, [00:41:00] they would have to look on and see how to relate to the one true God. They were busy with all their other gods, trying to like, "Uh, we need more crops, and so there's gotta be a god that's in charge of that, so how can we please that god?"

And, um, uh, I, I, I want to have, uh, a better relationship with, uh, the king, and there's gotta be a, a, a god who's in charge of kings and that they would help me to be in good so I could have a lot of money. They're all trying to do that. We do that in our own way. God is saying, "There's only one God, and I'm gonna show with this nation of Israel how to relate to the one true God.

You come with me. I don't go with you. You don't try to get me to come along with what you want." But every other nation is doing that. "Let's try to get the gods to get along with what we want." God says, "I'm gonna strike the, the opposite of that," and so He does. And so the, the, the threat, the firstborn. And then how many of you have a firstborn?

If you have kids, one of them was born first. It turns out that way. So these are the ones that are in peril, and for the Israelites, they're like, "What do we gotta do?" So [00:42:00] this Seder meal, it's an order of things to do. God is a God of order and a God of sovereignty. He has a plan. He wants to communicate it to you, and apparently, He did a really good job because the Passover was totally understood.

So here we have the matzo bread. Now, matzo bread is bread made without what? Yeast. Yeast. They called it leaven, so you know, we don't speak that language. Let's call it yeast. What does yeast do? You put the yeast in, and it, it, it goes through the entire dough. It permeates through just like sin, and it causes it to rise and get puffed up just like sin.

Yeast, leaven, is a picture of sin. It was for them, and in most illustrations in scripture, it is. God's, uh, Jesus says, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees." There are other examples. There are some examples of good of, of, of yeast, so it's, it's not like it's across the board. But in these particular situations when God says it, that's the way it is, that's what it is, and we see how sin permeates.

We see how yeast permeates. [00:43:00] It's a great illustration of sin. And would you rather eat a flat cracker bread or a fluffy bread? With sugar on it, we call it a donut. What would you rather eat, an unsalted cracker or a donut? Donut. Thank you. Scholars on this side now. Yes, it's more fun to eat the fun bread.

God said, "I'm gonna make a point. I need you to see that this is real, and this is a big deal. You're going to make unleavened bread, and you're gonna spend the next several days clearing out of your house and all around any leaven or yeast. Everything's gotta go. Things that are already baked, things that are unbaked, all the yeast and the leaven are, are going."

This process is cleaning out. It's a picture of purity. God is showing us that we have to be what before Him? Pure. And sometimes it takes us a little bit of time to do what? Get clean. Clear out the sin. This is a [00:44:00] beautiful illustration that we hardly ever talk about. This is beautiful, and God says, "You're gonna spend time cleaning."

'Cause He made them clean their houses. So, you know, "Kids, Passover's coming up. Y'all have to get here and clean the house," and you sit down and watch TV. Kids are cleaning all the, all the yeast out. Now, even today, some of the Jews have figured this out. If they, they ... You know, you have a, a bottle of yeast and, and you're gonna use that later.

What you do is, what they do is, some of them, they'll sell the, all their leaven and yeast to a Gentile who can keep it, and who cares if their firstborn's dead? I don't care. Take ... You, you, you sell it to them, and then after Passover, like t- in these days, you would buy it back from them at the same price.

That way you get rid of it legally, and then you get it back, so you're not having to throw everything away. Uh, that's how we, you know, find loopholes. Uh, I'm not saying that's good or bad. This is kinda what people do. Uh, it's interesting though, and it goes back to this point. They're having a process of cleaning and [00:45:00] cleansing, and even to the point that if, if you didn't cleanse and clean, it would be obvious.

Your bread would not be flat. If it kinda poofed up, what would you say? "Uh-oh, you used yeast, didn't you? You didn't clear it all out. Eh. You're in big trouble now." Okay, so they made matzah bread, unleavened bread, and the reason is because we have to cleanse ourselves and get rid of sin. Now, the next thing, they had a roasted lamb.

What did John the Baptist, the, the, the presenter of Jesus, say to Jesus as He came down to be baptized, to begin His ministry? What? Behold the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God. Being a, a, a ... The, the Lamb of God being a lamb, a sacrificial lamb, has been used as illustrations all through. Here- The rule was given.

You g- you know, one-year-old lamb that's spotless, without blemish. This is a big deal because Jesus is gonna use th- Jesus is gonna use this later, and I need it to be all this so that it, it's gonna work for Him. You just do what I say. Trust me on it. 'Cause they didn't have any idea about this Jesus. [00:46:00] Now, get a spotless lamb.

You're going to, uh, roast it. You, you can't, uh, cook it l- long. You can't bake it, like, long time. It's gonna be fast, and you can't break any of its bones. I'm gonna use this with Jesus later as well. It's gonna really important. You gotta follow my rules. This is an ordered meal. This is another point of order.

I'm not gonna give you all the points. I don't even know them. Remember, I'm not a Jew. I don't claim to be. I don't understand everything about this, but I know a few things that I wanna share with you, and it means a lot to us, even as Gentiles, but certainly as Jews as well. Okay, so now you're gonna take the blood, and you're gonna use hyssop, which is another great example of, uh, cleanliness, forgiveness.

Hyssop was used as that. It's also kind of a paintbrush plant, and you would dip it in, and you would put the blood on the top and on the two sides, on the door post and the, the two sides. And as Mark has illustrated to us, it kind of draws out a cross where the crown of thorns would be and where the nail-scarred hands would be, that this is a [00:47:00] precursor, a picture of salvation that God is gonna move to 1,500 years later, but it had to be established at this point.

Is this making sense why the Passover is super important and all of these details are super important? So they put that out, and we see how it relates to the cross, a, a foreshadowing of what Jesus would do, the Lamb of God, without any broken bones, sinless and spotless, that would have to die in order to save the firstborn in the Passover.

Then the other thing there that I'm gonna talk about, 'cause of time, we're gonna have four cups. Uh, there are four cups in the Seder meal, and each of those cups have a, uh, sanctifi- I mean, a, a particular point. The first one is sanctification. This is a meal that is set apart. It is special. It is not regular.

It's not mundane. That's what holy means, not mundane. It doesn't have to mean not dirty, but it also means not dirty. It means clean and pure. It means set apart. This [00:48:00] Passover is gonna be set apart. In fact, I'm gonna want you guys to do this Passover meal every year after this for 1,500 years because the Son of God is gonna use it later, and we need it to be remembered.

It's a big deal. Uh, sanctification, this meal is sanctified, and they drink a whole cup of wine as the sanctification. You're like, "Oh, let's be sanctified." Baptists, we're not s- sanctified, okay? We drink grape juice. It is still sanctifying. It's a symbol. That's what I... Seriously. I'm just joking, but seriously, it is a symbol of that this meal includes sanctification.

The second thing, the second cup is judgment. Now, the Jews knew all about judgment. Uh, in fact, the bitter herbs, the horseradish were other things that indicated that within the same meal that I'm not getting into. Uh, Rabbi Val did a great job of showing us all of those great things. Um, the second cup was judgment.

The third cup is redemption, the cup of redemption. You would drink that, and so you would get through the bitter stuff, [00:49:00] then you would get to the redemption. You're feeling better. And finally, the cup of praise. The fourth cup of the Seder meal is a cup of praise. And remember, the disciples sang a song as they left?

They were probably giving that praise after they drank their cup of wine, that fourth cup. They were giving praise to God because that is the cup of praise. That's how you end this meal. So go back to the Israelites. In the moment, they're threatened of their firstborn being killed and, and dying and, and certainly for the Egyptians, which is really gonna help the escape 'cause a bunch of the enemy's gonna die.

And so now they're going to have this, uh, trying to get this thing roasted, uh, put the blood out, follow the rules, because if you didn't, you would be in peril as well. They would do all of that, and then as a result, God would redeem you out of judgment, and then you would praise the Lord. And that is the picture of Passover, and that's what God wanted to be remembered every year after that.

Was it? [00:50:00] No. There were some kings of, of, of Israel that just didn't do it. J- King Josiah, what did he d- what happened with him? Somebody found the book of the law, the Torah, that ex- described all this stuff. Blew it off. Came, brought it in, and said, "Look, King, we found the Bible." They didn't call it that. And Josiah ripped his clothes.

He wept. He read. He's like, "God, guys, we've gotta get back on this God thing. We are way behind. We got a lot of Passovers to do. Where are those cups of wine?" Okay, so, um, they didn't do it every year they were supposed to. It was a big deal, and sin causes us not to do what we're supposed to do, and it causes us not to remember.

That's what our responsibility is, to remember, remember. Okay, so now we're at the point that we're g- we are now in this class going from Passover to Lord's s- uh, Last Supper to the Lord's Supper, and we're gonna l- look at that, to the Last Supper now. Jesus is with His disciples. What did He say about this Passover?

He said, "I [00:51:00] have been waiting for a long time to do this with you. I have eagerly desired to have this meal with you." This was a big deal for Jesus, waiting 1,500 years, the disciples finally trying to figure out more about the Kingdom of God. And now as they go through the meal, there's parts that we don't read about, but we say, it gets to the point and it says that, "And Jesus took the bread," which is just this cracker.

Some of you are holding it in your hands right now. Uh, it has been, uh, "And when He had given it to each of them, He had given thanks, He broke it." Everyone take your cracker. D- don't, just hold it for a second. Hold your cracker. Don't do that yet. Hold your cracker. Oh, thanks.

Hold your cracker. Now, at the same time, we're all gonna crack it, okay? We're gonna break it on three. Three, two, one. Did you hear that? You know what that is? The sound of breaking.[00:52:00]

I've studied this quite a bit. You're welcome. That's the sound of, of breaking. This meal is a very tactile meal. It's not a viewer spectator sport. This is, you're involved in the whole process. And that's why we did the Seder meal, because He showed us how everyone was involved. We're not doing that today.

This is the last supper that's gonna lead to the Lord's supper. But when Jesus broke that, that was a reminder of the brokenness of us, the brokenness that sin causes. The yeast that we got rid of, we did a big deal of that because it breaks us, and we don't wanna be broken. And so we have that picture with the cracker.

If it was fluffy bread with yeast, would that work? No. Not the same. Not the same. It's a particular meal in a particular order for a particular reason. Then Jesus said, after He broke it and He gave it to them, He said, "This is my body which is given to you, or for you. Do this in remembrance of me." He's [00:53:00] setting up, "Not only am I changing the symbolism, but I want you to not like the Passover and stop doing it, but keep on doing this over and over because it's gonna remind you of what I need you to be aware of.

It's very important." Now, in churches, we do the Lord's supper all the time. Well, we d- at Champion Forest, we do it four times a year. If you're a Catholic, you do it every day, or every Sunday, every week. Other, uh, groups do it at different times. And you might see something like this on the screen, right? You see the cup of wine and you see the bread.

What's the problem with this picture? The bread has yeast in it. There's yeast in that bread. It's a puffy bit of bread. Whose idea was that? Who's on the graphics team that's choosing these pictures? That's spoiling the symbolism, okay? I, I, I looked on, I googled Lord's supper pictures, and all of these came up.

Except for this guy. Someone's paying attention. Someone knows what's going on. And it, and [00:54:00] that's not that big of a deal. I mean, we're not gonna go to hell because we saw a picture of the fluffy bread for Passover. We're okay. And the graphic artists are also okay. But why don't, why are we gonna, why do we wanna miss the symbolism?

This is extremely important. God made a really big deal to point this out. We need to keep the symbolism going. Now, we do use unleavened bread. I did go to another church of a different faith, which is a cult, and they had the Lord's supper, and it was just regular white bread. And I said, "Yeast. It's not gonna work.

That's one of your many problems. Didn't go into it. This is just one of several that I've noticed during our service. I've been to their services several times. I don't mind going. I love to learn. Okay. Here, the Last Supper, so He says that about the bread, and then He goes on in verse 20. Uh, He says, "And likewise the cup, after they had eaten it, saying, 'This cup is poured out for you, is poured out for you, the new covenant in my blood.'"

So He's making some symbolism changes, some [00:55:00] transformation. The Passover that He needed to have is now transforming into the Lord's Supper with new symbolism and a new covenant. This is a time of a new covenant. That's a big deal, because if you were a Jew, you knew the covenant. You knew what you could eat, you could not eat.

You knew what you had to do, when you had to do it, and you couldn't do certain things at certain days, on certain times, all of that. Those were the rules of the covenant, and you were circumcised as a sign of that covenant. Now, everything's changing. We need to know that, and God wanted it to change. It's not like God has to be the same, even though He is the same, but He has planned it as a change.

It's, uh, goes along with what He wants. So on the cups that we, we're gonna look at, the four cups, just as real quick, I'm doing terrible on time. Um, the sanctification, the judgment. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane shortly after this meal, shortly after, He was in the garden and He prayed what? "I pray, Lord, that this cup would pass."

Well, I'm, I'm betting the cup is the judgment [00:56:00] cup. That's the cup He would like to have passed, but He said, "Your will done, not mine." Jesus knew what God's will was. He already knew, but the prayer was still authentic, and we can still pray that. But that means sometimes we don't get what we want. Here is an example.

God's in control. He's sovereign, and He wanted the cup of judgment to pass, which all of us want that same judgment to pass. It doesn't always. Um, but the cup of redemption, that's the cup they drank after the meal. They would drink that after the meal, and if you look here, um, if you look here. Well, when it, when it, we were talking about when He took the cup, it says the cup after they had eaten.

The cup after they had eaten. The next cup was the cup of redemption, and that's the cup that Jesus said, "This is poured out for you. My blood is to be the new covenant." That's a beautiful picture of the redemption that they understood. They understood Passover, they understood redemption, and that that's what it was.

Some have said that that cup is the cup of praise. It might be. I wasn't there. I don't know. But it makes sense to [00:57:00] me that it was the cup of redemption, because that's the point Jesus is making, and now He's saying, "You do it over and over and over. Keep remembering all of the symbolism, because it's matters.

And not only do you need to know it and be in it, but you need to let other people know about it as well, that God made that, uh- That transformation. So for us, we need to take action by knowing what God's mission is, not worrying about ours so much. We need to reflect on the mission. That's why you go to church.

That's why you read your Bible. Pray that you're on Jesus' mission. Pray. I mean, your first prayer request should not be, "God, make my life easier," and ke- skip the judgment. It should be, "Am I on your mission? What is your mission? I didn't hear yesterday. I need to not miss this." Obey because you love God, not because you're just checking boxes.

That's not love. And remember. That's the point of the Lord's Supper, that you remember, and that's what we're going to do today, uh, by taking the Lord's Supper. Now, you'll see that we don't have any grape juice. So I'm gonna have you make your own grape juice in your [00:58:00] mouth. When you bite down on that grape, the juice is going to be created and made.

What's inside is gonna come out, and then you can drink that. I thought that would be one of the most creative ways you could do the Lord's Supper is to make your own juice. You may remember Lucy did that. Some of you may remember. So this is actually how grape juice and wine is actually made. So we're not doing anything different.

We're just using our teeth instead of our feet. That's small difference. Thank you. Okay. So I w- I want you to take your, your, uh, bread, and I know that y- your cracker, your, your, your matzah bread, your unleavened bread, the bread that does not have sin because it's been cleaned out and cleared out, and now you just have this kind of a gross cracker.

And they had to eat this for a week, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. They would eat only this kind of bread for a week. See if you would like to do that. But the point is that we, as a class, have the opportunity now to do what Jesus said, "Remember Me by [00:59:00] doing this meal," having this portion of a meal, remembering what the Passover was and what Jesus transformed it into, that is gonna remind us of who He is, what He is doing, and that He definitely loves us and wants us to be a part of His perfect plan.

So if you would take your cracker, hold it out, would you? Now, as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, so let's just take a moment and thank the Lord for His provision. Our Heavenly Father, we come before you thankful that You are God, that nothing gets by You. You are totally aware. You can, You can and have created everything that we see and that exists.

You work with us. You work on us by conforming us to Your will, by sanctification, by a process of suffering, a process of love, a process of help, a process that only You know in each [01:00:00] individual life in this room. And some of us are thinking that You have skipped us over. And it might just be we're in year 300, 350, 386, and it's not time for us to hear what you have to say, but we're gonna keep crying out.

We're gonna keep asking because we are desperate to know. And we wanna say thank you for the provision that you gave. You have given us yourself. The symbolism is that this bread is actually you, and when we eat it, you will reside inside of us. Not that the bread would literally become you, but that the symbol is that you will be so close to us that you will tabernacle among us, that you would show us the way and be right near us in every single moment of every day, in every situation, good or bad.

And we're thankful and we pray it in Jesus' name. And when he took the bread, he blessed it, and he broke it. Would you break it one more time? And he gave it to the disciples, and he said, [01:01:00] "Take and eat. This is my body."

After that, he took the cup. We don't have cups. And when he had given thanks again, he gave it to them, this cup of wine, and they probably passed it all down, saying, "This is my blood of the covenant." It's the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. This is the picture that his blood, because of the sacrifice, because of the requirement of the law that God did not skip over, that he paid the price that we could not pay and still live.

The good thing about God is that he came back to life. And the old covenant went away because of his death, and now he lives to establish a new covenant. No one else could do that but the one true, powerful, [01:02:00] sovereign God. Drink of it as you will, each of you.

And we would be remiss if we didn't have that last cup of praise. Would you read this with me? It's gonna be about four slides long, but if you would, read this with me. We're gonna read a little slow, and then we're gonna have to get out of here so we can clear the parking lot, okay? You with me? Another praise in your life.

Here we go. "O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. For his steadfast love endures forever. Let Israel say, 'His steadfast love endures forever.' Let Champion Forest say, 'His steadfast love endures forever.' Let those who fear the Lord say, 'His steadfast love endures forever.' Out of my distress I called on the Lord.

The Lord answered me and set me free. [01:03:00] The Lord is my strength and my song." He has become my salvation. I shall not die, but I shall live and recount the deeds of the Lord. The Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death. Open to me the gates of righteousness that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.

This is the gate of the Lord. The righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day of the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Save us, we [01:04:00] pray, O Lord. O Lord, we pray, give us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. You are my God, and I will give thanks to you. You are my God. I will extol you. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

His steadfast love endures forever. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Now get out of here.