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[ Music ] [Music] ♪ Just to rest upon His promise ♪ ♪ Just to love the Savior more ♪

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♪ Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him ♪ ♪ How I look to Him, Lord and Lord ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus ♪ ♪ All for grace to trust in God ♪

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♪ All as we to trust in Jesus ♪ ♪ Just to trust his praise in God ♪ ♪ Just in sin of faith to trust him ♪ ♪ In the living, living God ♪

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Jesus, Jesus, how I trust thee, how I'm moved with love and love. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, all for this do trust in God. Yes, he's sweet, to trust in Jesus, Just what sin and sorrow sees,

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Just what Jesus sent to take, Life and breath and joy and peace. Jesus, Jesus, thou art trusted, ♪ Now I'm moving on and on ♪

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♪ Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus ♪ ♪ No more place to trust in God ♪ ♪ I'm so glad my daddy's asleep ♪ ♪ That's just his Savior's name ♪

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♪ And I know that the Lord is with me ♪ ♪ He's been given to me ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him ♪ ♪ How I trust Him more and more ♪

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♪ Jesus, Jesus, praise Him, praise Him ♪ Oh God, we lift up our hearts in grateful praise for the gift of this day, for the best assurance of your presence with us. We solicit the leadership of your spirit as we face the challenge of a new week.

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Bless each family represented here. We confess our sins and pray that you would forgive us. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each walking in his own way. But you have been gracious, you've been kind, you've been merciful and forgiving. We ask that you will not only bless this church and bless this community, but we pray for the churches of the world.

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And we pray for the work that you have commissioned us to do. Now, oh God, we present our petitions to you. We ask that you would consider each one, those in the hospital, those who are facing surgery, those who may be in sorrow, those facing perplexed problems, be with them.

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and then help us as we seek to be the kind of people that you want us to be. Bless us and use us until that day when you shall call us from labor to reward. We ask in the strong and perfect name of Jesus Christ our Savior and our Lord. Amen.

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[Music] [MUSIC] (piano music) (piano music)

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[MUSIC] [ Music ] When morning fills the sky, the hallowed evening comes, we give a christly praise. ♪ The life and work of man ♪

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♪ To Jesus our repair ♪ ♪ May Jesus Christ be praised ♪ ♪ Does sadness fill our mind ♪ ♪ The song that's near and far ♪

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♪ May Jesus Christ be praised ♪ ♪ All faiths by earthly place ♪ ♪ Thy comfort still is this ♪ ♪ May Jesus Christ be with you ♪

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♪ In the nations of the world ♪ ♪ In this your help comply ♪ ♪ May Jesus Christ be praised ♪ ♪ Let all the earth to crown ♪

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♪ Thee joyous hymns sound ♪ ♪ May Jesus Christ be praised ♪ ♪ His blood ♪ ♪ He gives our life His blood ♪

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♪ Our life, our life, our life ♪ ♪ They give us life in heaven ♪ ♪ These eternal powers ♪ ♪ Do our people call ♪

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♪ They give us life in heaven ♪ [MUSIC] We come to the part of the service now, Lord, where we can all participate and give back to you, Lord, as the part of what you've given to us. Master, we pray for the dependency that you

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would want us to have on thee, to put our trust in you and you alone, and to know that you are the one who can make a way for all of our needs, and that truly we can be obedient to your word and give the time and the offering. Thanking you for who you are and for this opportunity to give.

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In Jesus' name, amen. [MUSIC PLAYING] (dramatic music) (dramatic music)

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(dramatic music) ♪ ♪ [MUSIC] [MUSIC]

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[Music] ♪ The love that Jesus ♪ ♪ Shared for me ♪ ♪ If I could cower in ♪

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♪ The love that is best ♪ From day to day, it will never lose its power. If you, my God, had called my tears And if I told my tears

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♪ The blood and its history ♪ ♪ From day to day ♪ ♪ It will never die ♪ ♪ Yes, it will ♪

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♪ Oh, and it reaches ♪ ♪ It reaches ♪ ♪ To the highest mountain ♪ ♪ And it flows to the lowest valley ♪

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♪ The flood that gives me strength ♪ ♪ From day to day ♪ ♪ In the desert I lose ♪ ♪ This time ♪

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♪ Oh, it teaches ♪ ♪ The heart to hide now ♪ ♪ I've been called to the lowest valley ♪ ♪ Oh, the love that gives me strength ♪

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♪ Is not my fear today ♪ ♪ It will never lose ♪ ♪ Its power ♪ ♪ It will never lose ♪

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♪ Its power ♪ ♪ It will never lose ♪ ♪ Its power ♪ Amen.

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Scripture, which is the basis of the morning message found in the gospel according to Saint Luke the 24th chapter and the 30th verse and it came to pass as he sat at meat with them he took bread and blessed it and broke and gave to them. The subject, breaking bread together. They continued steadfastly in the

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the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in the breaking of bread and prayers. From a lonely train ride, it was customary when I was a child for us to prepare lunch carry it with us because food was not available or accessible to us in many instances. So we carried a lunch with us. I remember seeing a man on a ride

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from Costa de Sol to Madrid. He had a large bottle of distilled water and some bread that looked like it was about a foot long and an onion. That ride lasted about six hours or so, if not more, stopping at every little town or any town of size. And from time to time he would take a bite from the bread and a drink from the water.

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And I looked at him and wondered. It reminded me of the fact that these are two of the grand essentials of life, bread and water. bread and water. And some people don't have much more than that

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in the world today. Bread and water. So this message, which is entitled Breaking Bread Together

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has to do with some of the basic concerns of humankind, to break bread. It's a blessing to have bread to break and to have bread to share. It is indeed a blessing to have bread and to be willing to break it with others. Because many people during ancient times considered it inhospitable to fail to break bread with

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those with whom you came in contact, those who entered your house to break bread. It was a hospitable act to break it. It was an inhospitable act not to be willing to break bread with others who were even strangers.

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We went into an Arab tent years ago and he had very meager surroundings. the tent, there was a goat or something near the tent and some coffee there and he offered to share. I was the one there to share and I looked at what was there and the surroundings and I didn't want to partake of it.

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and somebody whispered to me, "partake of it because it's insulting not to do so." So this is the message I think that God has for us in this passage, to break bread together. You remember back in the 60s a group of college students sat on lunch counters protesting the fact that these facilities were not open to people of color. And they were knocking on the door, so to speak, of this nation concerning our breaking bread together.

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Break bread together. As they knocked on the door, they found it somewhat closed, but they continued to knock. They sat on those stools, so to speak, at lunch counters, sometimes with cigarettes put to them. They followed nonviolence in their response to what occurred to them.

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So Luke here in his history of the Christian Church says that the first Christians engaged in breaking bread together from house to house. As I meditated upon this text, I wondered how that would be today if every one of us here this morning and the others in our congregation would be found each day going from house to house to break bread. Some people would say, "I'm not ready for that." You know, "I've got my own agenda."

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"I've got my things to do." "My club is meeting." "This is happening." And put that off some other time, but not going daily from house to house.

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My house isn't ready for strangers or for visitors, but they were going from house to house. They were so glad, so overjoyed, so enthusiastic about this new way of life that they were found breaking bread together from house to house. house and he puts it in this language and they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in the breaking of bread and in prayers so

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Some think of bread as focusing on the mundane and we try to separate bread from the spiritual life. You hear people say, "Well, I'm going to look after my bread. That's my bread." And usually when they're talking in that tone, they're trying to separate it and to lift up some kind of false spirituality. But how we get our bread and how we share our bread, that reflects the heart and soul of our faith.

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to break bread together. Jesus says I am the bread of life. Then he teaches his disciples to pray give us this day our daily bread. This involves sharing a loaf some churches as they observe the Holy Communion will have a loaf of bread which the leader will take and break and some will come up and take a piece of

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that bread. We are all a part of the loaf. All of us part of the loaf and we are to share. This loaf represents the body of Christ. Now the body of Christ has many members and we are to share that loaf in our life together. Give us this day our daily bread. Notice it says give us, not give me, but give us. We are a community,

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we are a family, we are together and God provides bread for his people. So to eat bread together is to establish a mutual obligation. That's what it really means to eat bread together. Now the Egyptians considered it an abomination when the Hebrews were in the land, they considered it an abomination to eat bread with the

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Hebrews. They wanted to eat bread with someone who was on their level, who was then, as one lady used to put it, in her category. They considered it an an abomination to have fellowship with the Hebrew people. But bread is a symbol of life and to break bread is to recognize that this bread is a gift from God.

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Give us this day our daily bread and God gives it. When they were in their willingness wanderings, he rained down manna from heaven. Each day he supplied their needs, day by day. "Break bread together!" They were found breaking bread together from house to house.

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We call this by another name, sometimes we call it the Eucharist. And the word Eucharist means to thank, give thanks, to give thanks. So the coming and the sharing of what we call the table of the Lord is a service of thanksgiving that we give thanks to God for how he has provided for us, how he has snatched us from the

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jaws of death, how he has strengthened us in the midst of our weaknesses, how he has kept us, how he has not only created us but he has judged us and he has redeemed us. So that is expressed in the Eucharist. It's not just a matter of having some bread and some juice. It's a symbol of what God has done in our lives through

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Jesus Christ. And we share a common faith as we break bread together. I remember some of the older preachers used to ask the people, "If you have anything against somebody here, get it out of your heart now. Ask God to clean you up. Ask for God's forgiveness so that you cannot commune with God and have a grudge against your neighbor. There has to be this cleansing and God, through his grace, cleanses us and makes us fit to come to his table.

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So we thank God for what he has done. The word Eucharist for his goodness and for his grace. We approach him in a spirit of gratitude. One loaf, one body. We are the body of Christ. We are many members, but yet one. We're the people of God. We are the colony of heaven. We are the household of faith.

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We are the blessed community. And so Jesus says, as he breaks bread with his disciples he says this is my body in other words he said this is me this is my body and we eat his body we drink his blood it which means that Jesus is in us not just someone we read about not just someone we study about in the Sunday

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school lesson and read about, but someone who is a part of us. He is in us, he walks with us, he works through us, and he lifts us over the hills and carries us through the valley. So we need him, We need him, we need him every moment of our lives. We sing, "I need thee every hour, every hour I need thee. Oh bless me now my Savior, I come to thee." So we break bread together.

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Now there were those who rebelled against those young students who protested at the lunch counters. They didn't want them seated there and they engaged in acts of violence to express their discontent. They persisted, however those young people did, in a way of nonviolence. And in the end, they prevailed.

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God intends for his people to break bread together So this bread is the body of Christ This is me, Jesus says, take this bread and divide it among yourselves This is me, take it and share it

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I am the life that you are to live. Take me in your heart. Let me be the guide. Let me be the governor of your life.

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I will be with you. I'll give you the pledge of my presence. I will be with you until we gather in that last day to celebrate that banquet in the kingdom of God. So the Lord's body is broken, broken. Think about what it means to break something.

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So in coming here we celebrate our brokenness which has been healed through Jesus Christ. All of us suffer from some brokenness. All of us have some bruises. All of us have some injuries. and all of us have some scars along the way. Like Paul, when he was talking about

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I'll bear the marks of Jesus Christ in my body, he could point out, he said, well, when I was in Philippi, I got this particular scar. And I got this one when I was in Ephesus,

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and I received this one when I was testifying for the master but I can assure you that my body bears the marks of the Lord Jesus. So they took him and they nailed him to the cross our Lord they crucified him between two thieves, he died the death of a criminal, he was placed in a

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borrowed grave, his tomb was sealed and guarded by Roman soldiers, but early on on Easter Sunday morning, he got up. An angel came from heaven and rolled the stone away. And his disciples spread the news, he is alive. This is good news. There were two travelers afternoon who were on their way to the village called Emmaus and as they walked

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they were talking about the things that had happened in Jerusalem and they were joined by a stranger who said to them what are you all talking about and they They said, "But haven't you heard? Where have you been? Don't you know about the things that have happened in Jerusalem?" And the stranger began to explain to them the scriptures and what God had promised and how it was fulfilled.

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And they walked on and they came to where they were going and Jesus acted as if he would go further. And they invited him to come in. And that's a wonderful thing to invite him into your life. And when he came with them into the house, they sat down at the table and Jesus broke bread. You don't have to have a lot of people. There were just three of them.

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And the scripture says, "Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, I am in the midst of them." And as he broke the bread, their eyes were opened. This is the Lord. This is Jesus. Their eyes were opened and Jesus vanished. He went away. and they'd just gotten there but they got up from the table and went back to

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Jerusalem. It's interesting when you read that story because when they left Jerusalem going to Emmaus they were traveling westward, they were traveling toward sunset. But now after they've set at the table with Jesus, their eyes have been opened and they've had the grand experience of breaking bread with Him. They said one to another, "Didn't that our hearts burn within us as He talked to us?" By the way, now they're going back to Jerusalem, they're traveling east.

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We're facing the rising sun. And I think that's what our ancestors must have heard. They said, "Let us, in the midst of all of our vicissitudes, let us, let us, in the midst of all of the burdens that we carry, let us bring them together on our knees. Let us break bread together on our knees.

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When I fall on my knees, with my face to the rising sun, let us, oh Lord, have mercy, if you please. It's a wonderful experience to really know what it means means and to experience it in your heart to break bread together on our knees.

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Well he's with us, he hasn't left us, he's with us every step of the way. So as we come to our hymn of invitation we extend the privilege that he gives to every person, the privilege of sitting at the King's table, isn't that wonderful? With the King and breaking bread together and to know that the King is our elder brother.

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He travels with us on our journey. He never forsakes us. He's promised to be with us always and as we come to this point in the service we invite you to come as a candidate for baptism by letter or Christian experience. It's an open door he sets before us. Come.

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[Music] Let us pray, pray together on our knees. Let us pray, pray together on our knees. When I fall on my knees, with my face to the rising sun,

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O Lord, have mercy on me. Let us dream and fly together on our knees. Let us dream and fly together on our knees. When I fall on my knees, with my tears to my knees,

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shall the Lord have mercy on me. ♪ Let us praise God together ♪ ♪ On our knees ♪ ♪ Let us praise God together ♪

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♪ On our knees ♪ ♪ When I fall on my knees ♪ ♪ With my face to the rising sun ♪ ♪ Oh Lord have mercy on me ♪

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♪ Have mercy on me ♪ - This is the Lord's table prepared for the Lord's people. Every person who accepts Jesus Christ as Lord of your life, you're privileged and you're invited

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to commune at his table. Let us go to God in prayer as we gather here. O gracious God, we bless your name for the gift of your Son. We bless your name for the gift of your presence with us in the struggle of life.

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We bless your name for the bread that you have provided to the symbol of your body, expressing your brokenness, that you enter into our brokenness and share with us. We ask that you will forgive us of our sins, make us right subjects to commune at your table. Grant us the assurance of your presence as we continue this journey. Bless the bread and bless the wine and bless us as we commune together at your table. Amen.

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Likewise, Jesus blessed it, he took it, gave to his disciples in ministry in his name. I give you this bread representing the broken body of our Lord. Take and divide it among yourselves. [BLANK_AUDIO]