Let Us Break Bread Together Series

Sunday Morning February 23, 2003 Bel Aire Baptist Church

Series: ¡§Church On The Rocks¡¨ [#14]

LET US BREAK BREAD TOGETHER

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Introduction:

1. When we come together to worship, what types of things do we do?

„« Sing

„« Pray

„« Fellowship

„« Read Scripture

„« Study Scripture

„« Give Offerings

„« Observe Baptisms

„« Observe Lord¡¦s Supper

2. Which one of these is the most important? They are equally important.

Points Of Worship

1. When we sing we are to lift our voices to God in praise and worship. We are to think about the words we are singing or hearing sung. It is about much more than just notes and pitches.

2. When we pray together, we join together as one body and lift our praises and petitions to our Father.

3. When we come together and enjoy our time with one another that is fellowship. Fellowship is much more than just eating and ¡§goofing around¡¨. We are family. We are God¡¦s family and we need to spend time together encouraging one another, laughing together, crying together, learning together, worshipping God together; doing this all in love.

4. When we read or hear Scripture read, we are opening God¡¦s letter of love and instructions to us as His children.

5. When we open God¡¦s Word together and study His Word as it is proclaimed, the Holy Spirit convicts us, grows us, teaches us, and strengthens us so we can continue to go out into a lost and dark world with an excitement and love of Christ in us to lead the lost to salvation.

6. When we give of our offerings, we are worshipping God by giving Him a portion back of what He has given us. All we have comes from God.

7. When we observe a new believer being baptized we worship and praise God for what that picture means to us. That person is proclaiming to each of us as their new brothers and sisters in Christ that they have died and buried the old self and have been given new life through Jesus Christ. Baptism is one of two ordinances that we are to observe. The second is The Lord¡¦s Supper.

8. The Lord¡¦s Supper is also an important part of our worship. It is as important as preaching or singing. You may be thinking then why do we not have Lord¡¦s Supper every week? The Bible does not tell us how often we should take the Lord¡¦s Supper it just explains to us with what attitude we take the Lord¡¦s Supper with. We do not want it to become routine or ritualistic so therefore we do not observe The Lord¡¦s Supper every week, but there is nothing wrong with having it every week. The early Church would come together and eat a meal together weekly. This was a great celebration and time of fellowship. This meal was considered to be a ¡§Love Feast¡¨. During this time of eating the meal, The Lord¡¦s Supper would be observed in remembrance of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. They would then sing songs of praise and worship, read Scripture, and have preaching of the Word. Simply stated, they had a Worship Service.

Unfortunately, the Church in Corinth had many problems and we find Paul having to scold them for yet another very serious problem.

1 Corinthians 11:17-19 (The Message)

Regarding this next item, I¡¦m not at all pleased. I am getting the picture that when you meet together it brings out your worst side instead of your best! First, I get this report on your divisiveness, competing with and criticizing each other. I¡¦m reluctant to believe it, but there it is. The best that can be said for it is that the testing process will bring truth into the open and confirm it.

Pollution Of Worship

1. Instead of coming together as a body of believers for the purpose of worship; they were divided, arguing, competing for power, and criticizing one another. These brothers and sisters in Christ would show up to worship with all sorts of sin going on within them. Paul told them it would be better not to even have a Worship Service than to show up with garbage in their lives and pollute the Worship Service.

2. When divisiveness is in a congregation it will definitely affect the Worship Service negatively. If you are not here to worship God and to grow in your walk with Him, why bother? Playing the ¡§Church¡¨ game will do you no good. This is a place of worship! When you come for any other purpose it affects the worship of God.

1 Corinthians 11:20-22

And then I find that you bring your divisions to worship- you come together, and instead of eating the Lord¡¦s Supper, you bring in a lot of food from the outside and make pigs of yourselves. Some are left out, and go home hungry. Others have to be carried out, too drunk to walk. I can¡¦t believe it! Don¡¦t you have your own homes to eat and drink in? Why would you stoop to desecrating God¡¦s church? Why would you actually shame God¡¦s poor? I never would have believed you would stoop to this. And I¡¦m not going to stand by and say nothing.