MCC Podcasts
Theology Matters - Sacramentology
a couple of weeks ago, I don't know if it was last week the week before, but I had mentioned the church that Brenda and I served in Colorado as the first place that I actually began to enjoy being a pastor. And do you remember that? I said, I'd always, I'd always love that church. And today we have two surprise guests who are members of that church, Ken and Marshall Lair. Yes, stand up so everybody can say hey to you. If you're visiting their kids, thanks Peter. And these folks were two of the primary reasons that we loved being at church, we became close friends. They got to know as well and still want to come and visit us. So, which is a rare thing. You know, the question comes sometimes, why do we do what we do? So why do we, why do we make missions trips available to adults to Mexico? We have this growing relationship with the orphanage in Mexico. We have a growing relationship with the school, Hamilton Elementary School. We believe that every single individual on the face of the earth has some version of extraordinary wealth and some version of extraordinary poverty. And when we go to an orphanage in Mexico or as we're planning now to visit maybe some of the compassion kids that some of you are supporting in Kenya or to visit and work with some of our missionaries in Thailand. What's going on is that those, our participation in those trips helps us to be formed into the image of Christ. And here's what happens that our version of wealth is applied to somebody else's expression of poverty and their expression of wealth is applied to our expression of poverty. So you heard Ishmael say for instance, "I thought I was going to Mexico to bless them, but they blessed me." And that's exactly the reason we do these things, not only in response to a command of God to reach out to all the world, but to the intent of God that we all be conformed to the image of Christ. And we go as receivers and givers. So just want to encourage you to be thinking about praying about how, what's the expression or the version or the application of wealth that I have in my life and what's my expression of poverty. And God, will you give me opportunities to apply my wealth to someone else's poverty and their wealth to my poverty. So when you talk about going and investing yourself in someone and receiving something back from them, that's absolutely normal. If we go with humility and we go with generosity, we can give as we from our wealth, receive some blessing and help for our poverty. We're looking for those trips. We hope that every single adult in our church over the next couple of years is able to be involved in either a trip you can drive to with our growing relationship this mission in Mexico and one of our missionaries we support or one you have to come up a little more money for and fly to Africa or Thailand. We're going to be doing these things regularly, not only to give but to receive and to be formed by the missionaries and the people, missionaries who support the people that they're working with. So hope you understand why we do that. We think that is Christianity. And you might also be asking the question, "Oh wait, we just received two offerings. An offering for the regular general fund of our church, we need like 20, $25,000 a week just to manage our own budget and the ministries that we're invested in you giving." In addition to that, we receive through those envelopes money for our benevolence fund. We invest that in people who come across our way with needs and respond there. And then there's going to be a third offering today, a retiring offering as you leave. People will be standing in the back with plates and that money will be given specifically for and exclusively for this ministry you heard a report on today, our connection in Mexico. And the question comes up, "Is there no end art?" I mean, you're also asking us to give substantially so that we can do an addition and an update on our facility. That's a $3 million nut to crack. Is there no end to the times and the ways you're going to ask us to give? And I have a comforting answer for you. The answer is no, absolutely not. Never. Because we have so many years to take in and give out breath. And if you're anything like me and I know the rest of our staff and all of our leaders, you want those breaths to count for something. So I pray not only that we would keep giving financially and otherwise of whatever expression of wealth the Lord has given to us, but actually develop the joy of that giving. We will keep challenging ourselves to keep investing in the lives of people. Christianity is about more than showing up on a Sunday morning to worship God. That's a good part of it. It's one of my favorite parts of it. But Christian is a verb as well as a noun. And we are going to invest ourselves in the things that matter to God. So get used to those kinds of challenges, get excited about those kinds of challenges. Anybody that says to me and people have said it, "Nah, man, you better cool it on the offering things because if your people give here, they're not going to give there." I think anybody that says that doesn't understand the heart of Marin Covenant Church or the capacity for generosity of this church and the hunger to make a difference in our world. So I hope you enjoy giving as much as many of the people in our church do. And we're going to just keep on doing it. This is going to be fun. We're going to be able to look back on these years of your life, the lives of your children and your family. Say those were pretty profound years. We really, really made a difference back then. Okay. Well, we're in this series called Theology Matters, big words that make a big difference. And we will go on in this series up to and through Easter. And then after Easter, if you want to start reading ahead a little bit, we're going to spend a good chunk of time in the pastorals, letters that are pastoral letters. So those are what's up in play there is first and second Timothy and Titus. And we're going to be primarily in the letters to Timothy, probably most primarily in first Timothy. But if you want to be reading ahead, do acquaint yourself with those. After Easter, that's our next preaching series and we're working on that now. But up until and through Easter, this series, Theology Matters, so we still have four weeks or so of this big words that make a big difference. And I add yet another chapter to that series today. Excuse me. It's been an interesting week in our home. Thursday, I came into the office thinking, I'll gut it out just like I used to when I was younger and decided by Thursday afternoon, no, I'm not going to gut it out. I'm going home and going to bed because I wasn't feeling well. I'm thinking if I don't go to bed, I won't be at all ready for Sunday. So I just went home Thursday and went to bed. And I've been in different states of consciousness ever since Thursday afternoon. Brenda actually went to Costco and bought me a little breakfast in bed for your laptop stand. I don't know what else to call it, little deal. You put it on your lap and your laptop is on there and your legs don't get warm from the laptop. So I've been working on my message from under the covers. It's been an undercover message that I've been working on this week. Help him, Lord. Yes, absolutely. And keep him away from me, Lord. So for those of you whose hands I've already shaken or whom I've already hugged, I apologize. Enjoy the next 10 days. Otherwise we probably should just pound fist and call it good. What made it even more interesting was while I was home in bed working on this message, I received some disturbing messages of deaths of people who are close to us. The two, actually. One, and forgive me if this is the first you've heard of this, it would be a bit of a shock. The pastor, the 25 year pastor of Lucas Valley Community Church, Steve Henderson, passed away a sudden heart attack this last week. We had just hosted, in your name, in the name of Marin Covenant, Brendan I at our home, had just hosted a big celebration of his retirement dinner party for, and we bled all the pastors of the churches in Marin and their spouses to show up. Smoked a couple of pork shoulders. Everybody brought a little something. We had a great time at our home. And we had the most spirit-filled, wonderful, warm time together in prayer, people expressing their appreciation to Steve and Cindy for the faithfulness that they've shown at the Ministry of Lucas Valley and just the tenderness that Steve brought to life and to our pastoral community. Steve was one of the ones who was always reminding us not to forget about the poor. Steve was one of the ones who was saying the churches ought to provide shelter for homeless when it's ranting and cold. Why don't we rally him and, and in particular, pastor challenging and organizing in that response. Steve was a driver in one of the ministries we're involved with, open table, to help people who desire to get out of poverty actually get out of poverty. And just a wonderful, tender, warm friend. I liked him especially because he was one of the pastors that I could occasionally beat at golf. We used to go play every once in a while and have a great time together. Last Sunday was his farewell Sunday over at Lucas Valley. And so Marin Covenant sent flowers over to Lucas Valley as a celebrate. We're celebrating 25 years of faithful ministry. We love you guys. God bless Lucas Valley. God bless you, Steve, and Cindy as you're launching to retirement. Two days after his official retirement, he came out to the kitchen table in the home that he and Cindy had bought some time ago and had been fixing up for all these last handful of years for the retirement, sat down at the table and had a massive heart attack. She came out and found him gone at the table. It was a shock for me to get that message when I was at home. It was painful to get that message. Good man. And then yesterday, as I was working on this message, I was checking the place you check to get all the world's news. Facebook was actually going on Facebook to try to retrieve a message, a dialogue I was having with one of the members of our church, something I was working on for her. And in the general news, I see this one name pop up. It's a name, Roberta, a friend of ours, Roberta. We met Roberta and her husband Mark on an anniversary cruise in 2006. Brenda and I decided let's go on an anniversary cruise out of San Francisco, just down to Mexico, we'll celebrate our anniversary in a way that extroverts celebrate an anniversary. I'm more of one than her, but she's really adept at meeting new people. And our prayer specifically was God, we purposely didn't invite any friends on this cruise. Let's go on the cruise and just sign up for a random table of eight or ten and we actually prayed. Okay, God, would you orchestrate these meetings? We want to meet some new friends and would you please put us at a table with people that can bless us and that we can bless in some way. We're anxious and excited to meet whoever it is you put at our table. And we were excited. The first day that we sat down on the dinner, we were all thrilled about a water. Oh, it's a fun table. I wonder who we're going to meet. And boy, did he ever come through for us. We sat down with three other couples at this table. Two of them had grown up together. So the two guys, two couples, knew each other very well. And then there was Brenda and me and another couple. And we all hit it off really, really well. So well that we hosted a reunion for our table at our house. Everybody came back a year later. And then we planned a second reunion at Roberta's house in Sacramento and everybody showed up for that. We hit it off so well that Roberta and her husband and their close friends actually asked Brenda if we would consider taking another cruise with them. I want you to know, I'm suffering for Jesus for you guys. We couldn't afford to take that cruise, but we couldn't afford to not respond to this relationship. Honestly, that's why we went. And God deepened those relationships, especially the relationship with Roberta. We even spent another week of vacation with them at their request because the conversations had gotten so powerful, so profound, so much a blessing to us. Conversations around many topics, not the least of which was a faith Roberta had in Christ when she was a child that she had drifted from. All because God orchestrated it through relationships. Now I bring those two stories up because they're linked to this morning's big word that makes a big difference. The big word that makes a big difference today is a word sacramentalogy, a study of the sacraments, but sacrament in and of itself is a big word. I preached on this five or six months ago in our rediscovering normal series, series rediscovering sacrament. Some of what I bring today will be reiteration from that message. So if you want more, that was I believe August 7th. If you want to go back and get more, I'm going to race through some of that stuff that is a repeat from that message. But these two stories are linked to this idea of sacrament. That's why I thought of them. With Pastor Steve, when I heard of his passing, one of the first things I thought about was all the retreats that the pastoral community has had together, and the ministries we've done together. Gift of love, planning that together. Combine worship services for Good Friday, which we're talking about doing again this year, calling each other for prayer and for care and for insight. The homeless shelter, we're not a part of this, but many of the other churches provide a place for homeless men or women to sleep in their buildings during the cold months. And when we've gone on retreat and had times of prayer together, receiving the elements together, the Eucharist together, communion together, all three ways of saying the same thing. And I thought of the times when I stood next to Steve, and we've heard the words, "This is my body which is broken for you." And how we've together knelt in prayer and together gone and received that communion. And Roberta, one of the first things that came to mind when I heard about her, her death, was the discussion of her baptism. She asked me, you know, around the table there on the first cruise at first night, one of the things you asked is what do you do for a living which is both a curse and a blessing to me. I have, I mean, they say, what do you do for a living? And I say, I'm a pastor and that either enhances conversation or ends conversation or both. And in this case, it enhances conversation. Really. And she began to talk about her involvement with the church when she was young. And specifically, we had conversation, discussion about her baptism. What was that like? I was baptized as a child. You know, you've heard people, maybe you've even been that person saying that. I was baptized as this or that, and I'm kind of wondering about that now. But Roberta, when she talked about that baptism, her eyes lit up a little bit. And from there, we begin to talk about books we're reading. She was a voracious reader. She would read, they say sometimes a book a day, I mean, thick book a day, she could read like crazy, always two or three or four a week. So we begin to share experiences in reading. And she asked me, what's should I read? I want to get in touch with that again. And when her eyes lit up, when she spoke of her baptism and her time as a young gal in church, seeking God. And then the books that I would share with her and she would share with me. These sacraments became crucial, critical moments in my thinking of Steve and our friendship. And my thinking of the friendship Brendan and I had developed with Roberta. So today, as I've said, we revisit this topic of sacmentology study of the sacraments. And it's especially tender for me because of my memory of those two friends, both extraordinary people, wonderful, wonderful people. By the way, please remember to pray especially for Lucas Valley Community Church. They're just less than a mile down the road here. They are faithful and rich partners in ministry with the community of Christians here. And obviously they have some grieving to do and some important decisions to make. So remember them in prayer and encourage them in any way you can creatively think to do that. And for Steve's wife, Cindy, two days in a retirement, I'm sure this is not what she had planned to have to deal with in a new move. So we've broken these messages up into two chunks and you're aware of this. If you've been with us in this series, the big word, what is it? What can we learn about it? And what's the big difference that it makes? And our big word, as I've already said today, is sacramentology, which basically is, and this is a very simple, grossly simple definition, but the study of the biblical sacraments and for Protestants, there are two, communion and baptism. Other expressions of the faith in different denominations will have more than two sacraments, marriage, the preaching of the word, different expressions where they would say it's a sacrament, but we believe in two sacraments. Another term that's important for me to define for the sake of this message is the term sacramental theology. I'll refer to that throughout the message or really toward the end of the message. Again, a gross overstatement in definition, but sacramental theology is by my definition the terms that we're looking at here, an understanding of God that makes room for some sort of a special presence of God or a special experience of God in the practice of the sacraments. Now, there's way more than that to a definition of sacramental theology. I get that, but for our discussion today, that's the definition we'll use. An understanding of God, it's minimalistic, but it's an understanding of God that makes room for some sort of a special presence of God or experience of God in the practice or participation in the sacraments. So some review about what a sacrament is from that message in August, and I'll rip through this relatively quickly because it is review. The history and meaning of the word sacrament, the first record of the use of the word sacrament you might remember is from the 12th, 13th century from the Latin word sacramentum, meaning oath or obligation or devotion. And it's used interchangeably really early in church history with the word mystery. So mystery, the idea of something that's experienced, but unexplainable is forever linked with the word or the experience of sacrament. And from that word sacrament, we get word our words like sacred or which of course means special or set apart or holy, but that's just a brief touch on the meaning of the word, the history of the meaning of the word. What do we believe about the sacraments if we're sacramental in our theology? Basically two things, one that there's a special presence of God associated with a sacrament and that there are certain measurements that qualify something as a sacrament. So by special presence, probably it's as important to recognize what we don't mean by that, but by special presence of God associated with the sacrament, we're saying these are not simply cognitive remembrances, they are experiential remembrances. I want to stop for a second to make sure I say this, there are brilliant folk to whom we should listen who would disagree on this point and say no, those are simply ordinances or remembrances, they're still precious and beautiful, a sacramental theology has a little bit of a different twist than some of our sisters and brothers who come from a different angle and their valid, their arguments are valid and worth knowing. Our perspective is that of sacramental theologians and we're saying that our celebration, our participation in baptism and communion, more than a cognitive remembrance, somehow an experiential remembrance. There's some sort of a special presence of God that's associated with the sacrament. Though God's grace is present in the sacrament, his grace is not dependent upon participation in the sacrament, he somehow experienced in an intensified way through them though. So in other words, we're not saying by special presence that the grace of God is in a cup and the sacrament is a straw through which you access the grace. Does that make sense? We're not saying God's offering grace and the way you receive the grace he offers is exclusively through the eating of the bread and drinking of the cup or the baptism. We're not saying that the sacrament is like a straw, that's our access to the grace. We are simply saying this, there's more than a remembrance, there's something mysterious, there's something about participation in the sacraments where we sense the presence of God, but hear me now, we can't explain it. That's what qualifies it as a mystery. So there's something we experience but we can't explain. We know it's not true and we don't know how to put all the pieces together when something is true with regard to the sacraments, that's why we call it a mystery. But we are saying this, these are not magical experiences, these are not straws, we're not dependent upon participation in a sacrament to receive the grace of God. But there's something about participation in a sacrament that intensifies our experience of the presence of God. Can you ride that that loosely? That's what a sacramental theology is arguing. And there are some things that have to be true for something to qualify as a sacrament. This is pretty much universally held, no matter how many sacraments you would believe there are. There are three of them. First of all, there must be an outward, measurable, seeable, feelable sign involved. So in the case of communion, there's the bread and the juice. There's something measurable, feelable, seeable. In the case of a baptism, there's the water, something measurable, feelable, something that you can actually touch. Those signs, the water, the juice, the bread, must be connected to an inward spiritual work done by God. So for instance in baptism, that measurable, seeable, feelable sign of the water and what we do in that sacrament is tied to associated with the inner work of washing and transformation and new life. The bread and the juice tied to our identification with the death and resurrection of Christ. And the third thing that must be true in order for something to qualify as a sacrament. Again, we're still in remembering some of the things that were mentioned before in that sermon. The actions in the sacrament must have been instituted and commanded by Jesus. So Jesus actually says, "Take this and eat it all of you." And as often as you do it, do it in remembrance of me. So there's a challenge of command by Jesus. In the great commission, he says, "Go into all the world, take disciples of all people, groups doing what? Baptizing them and teaching them all that I have commanded you. So you have a command by Christ for the church to have an ongoing practice of these things called sacrament." So to sum it all up, a sacrament is an outward sign of an inward work that is instituted and commanded by Jesus for practice among his followers through which, and here's really what makes it a sacrament as opposed to simply an ordinance or a remembrance through which he is somehow mysteriously experienced. Are you with me so far? Okay. Now, let's move on to the meat of, we're still in the question, what's the big word? Sacramentalogy, talking about sacrament. That's all been reviewed. Now, let's look a little more deeply at those two sacraments and just see some of the scriptural evidence and support for them. There are two, the first of which is baptism in our structure here, the first that we'll deal with, and think of baptism again, overly simplified, but think of baptism as a sacrament that has to do with initiation into Christ and his church. Not to the degree that you think of baptism as the act that actually makes you a Christian, but it's an act, an action that's identified with initiation into Christ and into his church. Places you in Christ or signifies you're being in Christ. In Galatians 3, excuse me, Galatians 6 and then later in Colossians and in Romans, I'll just pick out those texts as among the many that talk about baptism and the idea of being in Christ. We see support for this. So in Christ Jesus, you are all children of God through faith. For all of you were, and then the phrase baptized into Christ. All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. You see that parallel? The baptism is a clothing. There is neither Jew nor Gentile nor slave nor free male or female. You were all one, what, in Christ. If you belong to Christ, your Abraham's seed and heirs according to his promise. Or Colossians 2. For in Christ, all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form. By the way, there's a great simple statement. If you're ever wondering whether the Bible presents Jesus as being fully divine and fully human, there's a great proof for the fully divine, which also is a mystery, isn't it? Two things that are true, but we can't figure out how and why they're true at the same time. Pardon me. And in Christ, you have been brought to fullness and what Paul's going to do here is he's going to link the idea of circumcision and baptism now. Circumcision also being a right R.I.T.E. of initiation and identification. He's ahead over every power and authority. In him, you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your sinful or broken nature was put off or taken off of you when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism. This idea again of baptism being a sacrament of initiation, being baptized into Christ and into his church. In which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God. So you picture an immersion anyway, being dipped into the water, into Christ and clothed in him and then brought up to new life, resurrection life. When you were dead in your sins in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins. There's a help in Lord and come on Jesus right there. Never forget he forgave us all of our sins, watched us and made us new. Having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness which stood against us and condemned us, he has taken it away nailing it to the cross and having disarmed the powers and authorities. He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross and all of that and more is represented in our baptism. And whenever I see a baptism, I can't help but remember my baptism and all the things that are associated with it and the journey that God had me on and the things that led up to that baptism and the way my heart pounded when somebody said, "Would you like to receive Christ and would you like to be baptized?" I was baptized in 1975, Los Gatos Christian Church. I didn't know anybody that was involved in the ceremony and it didn't matter. And I stood in the big tank in front of 1,500 or 2,000 people. They didn't know me. But that didn't matter. What mattered was this was my connection somehow, my statements. It was my public experience of what was actually going on inside me. And when I see an infant baptized, which we do in our church, we practice both in the covenant, I'm reminded that God was the initiator of my faith. And before I knew there was God, his love and his spirit brought me to his grace, just like that baby was brought to the font. And when I see an adult believer baptized, I remember all of the process and the carving away of my heart. And the day I decided to make it clear publicly that I was also a follower of Christ. It's like re-experiencing it. It's just so powerful. It's identification and initiation. Romans 6, "What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?" Paul's just been talking about how where we fail, where there's sin and brokenness and the practice of brokenness. There's also grace to cover that. God never runs out of grace and mercy to forget. And so then he says, "Well, what shall we do when we know that's true? Should we just keep on sinning so there can be more grace?" No, he says. By no means, we are those who have died to sin. How can we then live to it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, you too may live a new life. Baptism is a sacrament of initiation into Christ and His Church. Baptism certainly marks a decision on our part, but it's primarily a sign of God's work, not our work. It's primarily a sign of His promise, not just our promise. Sacramento theology focuses on that. That's why it's such a rich topic for Roberta and me when we talk about her baptism, as she recalled it, and she got excited about somehow reaching into her past and being able to pull from the past and apply it today for her. I still believe that stuff. It was as though she was saying, "I remember that day. This is really who I am, huh?" Yes, Roberta, and her hunger for Christ just grew and grew and grew. We had actually planned, back Brendan and I were just talking about, "Do we still do this now?" We'd actually made plans this June to spend another week together as couples, and I knew we'd be talking about the latest book she's read. She had read and how her faith was going and whether she'd been able to connect with her church in Sacramento again or not. We were really looking forward to that. That will have to be delayed now. So that's baptism. The second sacrament we'll talk about is communion. I'll again offer an overly simplified definition, but communion is a humble, unified participation in the death, resurrection, and anticipated return of Jesus. Underline in your minds the word humble. It's a humble, in other words, "I come needy. I come to communion dependent." My walking to this table, the tearing of that bread and drinking of that cup is a statement of my dependence. It's a humble and unified, one bread, one cup. By the way, the text also refers to one baptism. No Jew, no Greek, no male, no female. It's a unifying work. A humble, unified participation in the death, resurrection, and anticipated return of Christ. The classic communion texts are in 1 Corinthians. I'll read 1 Corinthians 11 and follow it with words from 1 Corinthians 10 and pick up on the sense of participation here. "For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you." The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and we had given thanks. He broke it and he said, "This is my body, which is for you." He never actually says broken for you. He shows broken for you when he rips it. This is my body. Rip, splatter, crumbs everywhere, which is for you. Do this, eat this in remembrance of me. In the same way after supper, he took the cup saying, "This cup is the new covenant, the new agreement, the new contract in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it and remembrance of me." And again, I remind you in the Jewish sense, remembrance is not simply a cognitive word. It's an experiential remembering. And then he says this in verse 26, "For whenever you eat this bread," here's the participation part, and drink this cup. "You proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." There's an action there. We're not actually saying anything, yet we're still proclaiming. And then in 1 Corinthians 10, beginning at verse 14, "Therefore my dear friends, flee from idolatry." You'll see that all throughout the writings of the apostles. They're always trying to link, encourage us to link what we practice, for instance, in a sacrament with what we live. Do away with the difference between what we proclaim when we eat the bread and drink the cup or what we proclaim to identify ourselves with in our baptism. Do away with the difference between all that's intimated there and the way we live. "Flee idolatry," he says. "I speak to you as sensible, clear thinking people. Think for yourselves, judge for yourself what I say." And then he offers up a no-brainer presupposition. In other words, when he says this, everybody would have said, "Yeah, that's our foundational thought." He is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks, a participation in the blood of Christ. And everybody would have said, "Yes." And he's not the bread that we break, a participation in the body of Christ. And everybody would have said, "Yes." Of course. Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf. Communion, a humble, unified participation in the death, resurrection, and anticipated return of Jesus. And the key words here in addition to humble are involvement, participation. It's like when pastor Steve Henderson and all of his pastor brothers and one pastor sister that joins us all the time gathered around the table, beware, participating humbly and in a unified way. In the death, resurrection, and anticipated return of Christ, that reminds us that we are one body and the gospel cannot afford us for us to think of ourselves in any other way but that. This was not just a function, this was a sacrament. Jesus wasn't only remembered there, he was experienced there. So the question now is, what's the difference when we're thinking sacramentally? So I just offer a handful of observations here for your consideration. Here are some things that stand out to me. I'm dependent upon, I want to tell you, I'm dependent upon Pastor Jeff and Pastor Ben as I was stuck this week and I was so glad to be able to email them and say, "Here's where I am in this message and I'm stuck. Can you help me get unstuck? What are some of the differences?" And so some of these come from those brothers, which is our habit regularly as we're preaching as a team. In sacramental, here's the first big difference. So we've got the big word, now the big difference. In sacramental theology, God is celebrated as the initiator. So we remember, now that doesn't mean sacramentalists are the only ones that celebrate God as initiator. All faithful Christians celebrate that. But sacramental theology sort of focuses on that. It makes that one of its main themes, main threads. God is the initiator. God is the one who starts things. In other words, a sacramental theology is passionately theocentric. God-centered. It's theocentric. We look to God for everything. He's everywhere and in everything. It's a sacramental theology. Sacramental theology is celebrating God as the initiator. So when we come to the table and recognize it as a sacrament, we're coming, recognizing that God is the one who has the baton in his hand and he is the divine downbeat for anything that brings us to this table. Second observation. In sacramental theology, this is related but subtly different. In a sacramental theology, emphasis is placed on the fact that God is redemptively proactive even in the lives of those who are unaware of him. Unpack that a little bit in your mind. He's redemptively proactive. Think of what it means to redeem. We take something broken, turn it into something good. We've been redeemed, scripture says. In our brokenness, God gave us new life. He's redeemed us. He's taken every one of the worst decisions we've ever made in our lives and actually even uses them for good. Doesn't make them good but he uses them for good. He's redemptive. He finds life in a pile of ashes. He's redemptive. Sacramental theology, sacramental theology sees God as focuses on God as being redemptively proactive even in the lives of people who are unaware of him or worse indifferent toward him. In other words, he is always going after wooing every single human being on the face of the earth at the same time with all of his force. You get excited about that? Do you understand what that means for someone that's very dear to you, that doesn't follow Christ? Do you understand what that means for your daughter who's struggling? Do you understand what that means for your spouse that doesn't believe the same way you believe, or your grandchild that's still in the womb, or you're a wandering kid. I couldn't love that kid anymore. I've got to remind you today, God is redemptively proactive. He is good at wooing people. He wooed us, but makes us think he can't woo somebody else. Sacramental theology always, always focuses on that, remembers that. So God is not only theocentric. I don't know if I've made this word up or not, but he's Theo present. He's everywhere. He's everywhere there is to go ahead of us. He's working in people's hearts way before we ever think to work in people's hearts. A world of sacrament is a world that's driven by grace. It's dependent upon God. It's aware of his presence. Sacraments remind us that everything starts with grace, ends with grace, exists by grace, everywhere there's grace. God is breathing out mercy and desire for redemption everywhere, all the time with all of his force. And we experienced that in the communion. When we come today and receive the bread and the cup, some of us are going to come to that bread and cup, and we're going to say, I'm eating this bread and this cup for my participation, but oh Lord, you know who's really on my mind. Oh Lord, you know who I really long to come to this table with someday. Be redemptively proactive in his life, in her life. Amen. And keep being redemptively proactive in my life. Keep building wonderful structures out of the ashes I hand to you. Communion reminds us that God loves to do that. Sacraments reminds us of that. So he's theocentric approach, it's a theopresent approach. Thirdly, in sacramental theology, I actually encounter God in the act of participation in the sacrament. I don't just remember him. I somehow, in an unexplainable way, touch him and he touches me. That's the idea of mystery. And that's, I think, that's how I can explain anyway. Why sometimes moments of communion or being at a baptism seem to be so powerful, seem to be so emotionally stirring. There must be some application of that presence of God that can't really explain real perfectly in that mystery. Fourth, in a sacramental theology, I have an anchor, a measurement, a moment to hold on to look back on when theological doubt or life's misery has come upon me. In other words, I don't have to yield to the doubts of faith that drift into each of our, my life or we don't have. Why? Because there are times when you just say, I don't know, none of this seems like it's very sensible, but I remember my baptism. Have you not had moments like that? I cling to my baptism. Baptisms, all I have to cling to right now. But on that day, oh God, I expressed publicly what was already true in me and I believe you were there and I call you out to remember that day too and hold on tight to me. There's a moment. My friend Roberta remembered a moment and pulled that moment from the past back into her present and helped her recapture her faith. So a sacramental theology gives you a moment, something you can cling to, something that gives you hope. And finally this, and now we're going to move right into communion and more worship ourselves. In a sacramental theology, we are not just hearers of the story, the grand story of God. We are, every time we are involved in a sacrament, we are participants in the grand story of God. Right here, right now, during our participation in the sacrament. We're not just eating bread and drinking wine today. We're dipping our lives into the story that God has for earth. His grand story of recapturing, reclaiming, and recalibrating all that's broken. We're not just listening to the story, we're participating in the story. I'm convinced in ways that I cannot explain that every one of us as we come to this table for followers of Jesus today is captured by the eyes of Christ. There's some way He's nudging up against us, breathing on the back of our necks. When He sees us take hold of that bread, it means something to Him, means something to us, and when He sees us lift that cup and drink it, it's more than juice to Him somehow. I want you to remember that in a sacramental theology, it does make a difference. We're not just participating in an event. We're experiencing the presence of a person. We're going to move into communion with a reading from A.W. Tozer. Some of you, I gave my book away in between gatherings, so I need the slide up here, and I'm just going to read it from the slide. This is a prayer at the end of the Tozer book, that one of the chapters that we made available to you. I just ask you to focus on this as the band comes and gets us going again in music worship. We have un-hosted stations in the back, the front. If you're a follower of Jesus, you're welcome to come to this table whenever you feel ready. You might come by yourself, come with your spouse, a friend, serve each other, receive communion yourself. You might be a seeker of Christ and come for the first time to communion, and maybe that's your way of saying, I am in. I want forgiveness. Jesus, this day, I become a Christian. Maybe that's your experience at the table today, but you'll take a piece of the bread and then eat it and then take a piece, a cup of the juice, and come with this prayer in mind that Tozer wrote. I'm going to read it just the way he wrote it. Lord, how excellent are thy ways, how devious and dark are the ways of man. Show us how to die that we may rise again to newness of life, rend the veil of our self-life from the top down as thou didst rend the veil of the temple. We would draw near in full assurance of faith. We would dwell with thee in daily experience here on this earth so that we may be accustomed to the glory when we enter thy heaven to dwell with thee there. In Jesus name, amen. With that prayer in mind, as the Lord leads you,