Well, if you've gotten one message from our series on “Misused Stories” so far, hopefully it has something to do with reading the Bible accurately.  Because when we don’t read the Bible accurately, we can come up with the wrong conclusions.  Or we get to the right conclusions the wrong way, and because we got there illegitimately, people begin to doubt our conclusions, even if they’re correct.  So I hope you’re learning how to get there the right way and trust the right conclusions, not only from this series, but also from our Sunday School class on “The Story of the Bible.”  However, sometimes people (and churches) can look at the same passage and come to very different conclusions.  Which means this week will be interesting because we'll be going through 1 Corinthians 11:23-32 ­ a passage you're well familiar with, as we read it on a monthly basis since it's about the Lord's Supper.  And yet, as you probably know, different church traditions have different views on what this meal is and isn’t.  And that can lead to confusion.

Overcoming that confusion is critically important, because this well-known passage isn’t just about the Lord's Supper, but it’s also about sin.  The sin of the Corinthians has manifested itself in such things as hurtful divisions and painful disunity, sexual immorality, the meaning of marriage, gender roles and gender identity, gross idolatry, people demanding their rights at the expense of others, the all too common failure to serve and encourage one another, confusing worship, and serious doubts about the faith.  So, now, the Apostle Paul reminds both them and us that there's only one place that they can deal with all of these issues at the same time.  And that's by coming in faith and repentance to the Table of the Lord.  The Communion Service, commonly known as The Lord's Supper, is the place where God not only nourishes us and presents His forgiveness of sins, but also serves to remind us of our union with Christ and our unity with each other. 

We easily forget that this is a corporate meal, and what we do as individuals affects who we are as a church, so we respond to the gospel in faith together, we repent together, and we eat together.  There are several visible elements to The Lord's Supper, which are not private, but publicly seen, and publicly received, in order to remind us that we're all in this together.  And so this Sunday, we're going to look at the great value of The Lord's Supper, what it really means and how we’re supposed to respond, and then we'll celebrate it together.  See you there, Dr. Dave

Reminder – Don’t forget about our baby bottle campaign!  Return the bottles this Sunday and the proceeds will go to support the Mosaic Pregnancy Care Center!

And an announcement – we told you last week that we’ll be meeting in the cafeteria this Sunday.  Not so fast!  The school has notified us that the auditorium renovation has been delayed until Sunday, November 15th (due to no fault of their own) so this Sunday will be a regular day of worship for us.  We’ll let you know if anything changes.