Shall we just look to the Lord.
Before we speak about the individual ordinances, I might just take a few minutes and speak to you about the word 'ordinance'. Some refer to various sacraments - that's all right - I prefer to use the word 'ordinance'. And ordinance is something that the Lord gives us to do. A sacrament has more of an emphasis on what I promise to do for Him. But, really, either word is acceptable.
There are two ordinances that we find in scripture. Let me give you a definition - I'll try to make it brief. Here, an ordinance is a symbolic rite setting forth primary facts of the Christian faith and required of all believers. Now, in order to understand that there are two ordinances in the scriptures, we need to understand the little test that we can apply. An ordinance - a Biblical ordinance - was given or initiated by the Lord Jesus, or was first taught or mentioned by the Lord Jesus in His life in the gospels, and it was practiced in the book of Acts by the early church, and it was taught in the epistles. So, in order then to be an ordinance of the Christian church, these three things are necessary - to be introduced by the Lord Jesus in the gospels, to be practiced by the early church in the book of Acts, and to be taught in the epistles.
Now you can see that there are certain things that have been claimed in the past as special rites or observances in the church - such as foot washing and other things - which failed to meet this three-fold test. Some were mentioned by the Lord but they have not been commanded in the epistles, those parts of the scripture that were addressed specifically to the church.
I'd like to mention a brief definition of the Greek word 'baptizo' which is very much like the English word. By the way, the English word just comes from the Greek word "baptizo" - to immerse or to dip. And there are several instances in the New Testament where it seems clear that baptism is practiced by immersion - we read of John baptizing disciples in a certain place because there was much water there; and in Acts 8 we find Philip and the eunuch, both of them going together down into the water. Someone said, If Philip meant to sprinkle a man, he could have used his canteen. But we read that they went down into the water - both of them together.
We need to spend a moment and remind ourselves of the significance of baptism. And this is a very crucial and important matter because it is commanded by the Lord Jesus. Baptism signifies union with Christ. And we want to contrast that with the Lord's Supper which signifies communion. We are united to Christ once, and therefore we are baptized only once. We have constant communion with the Lord, so we break bread frequently. So baptism then is a symbol of our union with Christ.
Some have tried to tell us that it's important for infants or small children to be baptized. If you study the New Testament carefully, you'll find that everyone in the New Testament who was baptized in water as a believer was old enough to hear the message of the gospel, believe it and receive it by an act of their own free will. In other words, believer's baptism is for believers. It's wonderful that mums and dads want to dedicate or consecrate their children to the Lord. But mums and dads, let me remind you that we should never do anything to mislead our little ones into thinking that they have a special "in" with the Lord - in other words, that they do not need personally to be born again, and to be saved, because something was done for them before they were even old enough to know even right from wrong; and therefore in some mysterious way they need not be born again, they're right and they'll go to heaven - we need to be careful NOT to give our little ones that impression. Every person needs to come to the Lord Jesus individually by faith.
I'm sure that there are those this morning who possibly may have a question as to what we mean when we say a 'born again' Christian. Let me remind you that the new birth that our Lord Jesus talked about - by the way, 'the new birth', you shouldn't be afraid to use that word 'born again' because Jesus used it - the new birth simply means a second birth. Your first one was into the physical world; your second one was into the spiritual world. You were born physically into your earthly family; you need to be born again spiritually into the family of God. And so when a person then enters into the family of God by faith in the Lord Jesus, the first commandment as you see in Matthew 28 is that they should be baptized.
Let's look very carefully at the way the Lord Jesus words that at the end of Matthew 28.
Three commands He gives -
first of all the disciples were to go out and to make disciples of all nations. So there was the preaching of the message there.
And then He says, baptizing them in, literally 'into', the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. There's the outward sign of an inward obedience; and that's what baptism and the Lord's Supper are - they are outward evidences or outward symbols, external signs, of an inward reality.
So, first they were to make disciples of all nations; secondly they were to baptize them. And then thirdly, in v.20, teaching them to "observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you". By the way, the early servants of God, as reported in scripture, knew nothing about going into a town, winning the people to the Lord, and then waving good-bye, and dropping them. They saw a God-given responsibility to preach the word, to see those early converts baptized, and then to gather them together in such a way that this final command could be provided for, that there should be solid teaching into all things that Jesus had commanded. Now that was the work of the early evangelists. And we do need to get back to that today. I think one of the great needs of the assemblies today is for the evangelist. And we need to pray to God that He would raise up men and women among us who can bring forth the message of the gospel in a powerful and a special way. But let's, as we do that, remember that the evangelist is someone who not only brings the message of salvation, but then sees his responsibility that the saints who are saved are gathered together in order that they can learn the things that Jesus has said. And that was done in the early church. It was done in the book of Acts. And it must be done today, if we're going to be successful.
One other thing we should say about baptism - wherever you find the word 'baptism' in the New Testament, you always find the beginning of a NEW RELATIONSHIP. That's very important. Baptism signifies the commencement or the beginning of a new relationship. There is a relationship that was never there before.
Let me remind you in 1 Corinthians 10, we read there about how the people of Israel were baptized into Moses. You may find that a rather interesting and difficult expression. It simply means that up to that time in their experience they had been under the authority of Pharaoh, and Pharaoh certainly stands for this world and the god of this world. When they left Pharaoh's domain, they left his kingdom, they left Egypt. Pharaoh said, "Worship your God in our land here". But Moses said, "No, not so, there has to be 3 days journey separating us from you" - which is a beautiful picture of the distance between the cross and the resurrection of our Lord. Three days separation - a completion leaving of Egypt. And so finally when they left, we read that they were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. What does that mean - 'baptized into Moses'? It means a relationship beginning. They were now under a new authority - no longer under Pharaoh, now under Moses.
When we think of the baptism of John. And in Matthew 3 John uses that expression that you are being baptized into repentance -
And then we think in 1 Corinthians 12:13 that very important doctrinal passage on the formation or the birthday of the church.
So baptism then in that case also signals a new relationship. Before Pentecost, individual believers, each loving the Lord, each right with God by faith in their hearts, but bearing no special relationship to one another. On the very day of' Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was sent down - - we read that they were baptized by one Spirit into the one body : and a new relationship began, and so the church was born. So it is true also with believer's baptism.
Here is a new relationship. And of course, going under the water and coming up again pictures in an external way what the Lord Jesus passed through in a spiritual way - He died, and He was buried and He rose again. And Paul opens this out in Romans 6, "know ye not that as many of us were baptized into Christ, were baptized into His death." So it's not only in our salvation that we agree to follow Jesus; it's not just that we agree to be a Christian in name or that we agree to agree from now on to Christian teachings - it is specifically the matter of the death of the Lord Jesus that we come into a relationship with. We die with Him, and we rise with Him, Paul says, "to walk in newness of life".
A couple of notes at the end of our little consideration here of the significance.
Please remember that water baptism does not save. There are Christian groups that teach what is called "baptismal regeneration" - i.e. you go down into the water, your sins are washed away - that is NOT true. Baptismal regeneration is not a true doctrine. In fact in talking to some of these people one time in Florida, there was a man who was very adamant about this point, and I said, "Let me make up a hypothetical case. What if there's a man out in the battlefield, and he's a soldier, and he's in his fox-hole, and the bullets are wheezing over his head, and he knows that at any moment he might die, and he says to his buddy, 'Oh, I wish I'd listened when I was back in church; I wish I was ready to die, I wish I'd knew God'. And his buddy says, 'Well I can tell you how to know God right now - believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved. Are you willing to believe Him and accept Him as your Lord and Savior?' And the soldier says, 'Oh yes I am', and he prays and he accepts the Lord, and then suddenly a bullet comes, or a shell and he is killed. Would he go to heaven?" And the fellow hummed and hawed for a while, and then he says, "Well he's a special case. Yes, he'll go to heaven." I said, "Well, if you say he's in heaven because he's a special case, then I think we agree because what you're really saying then is that baptism is very very important and that if at all possible, a person should be baptised as soon as they're saved - and I agree with that - but as far as saying that if he's not dipped in water he'll be in hell - I couldn't go along with that, I don't think you could either." So it's very important then that we understand that baptism does not save.
Another thing that baptism does not do is join you to the church. We need to understand that Matthew 2 makes it clear that it is the Lord that adds to the church. And from time to time here at West Woods, we have Christians who've come in to fellowship at other churches but who have seen this truth but are not interested in membership in earthly organizations, and they come and they say, "I'm happy in my own church but I want to be baptized just simply in obedience to the Lord. I don't want to join any organization. Will you baptize me?" And we're glad to do that.
Another thing, please note, ... ordination is not required to baptize someone. Any believer in the Lord Jesus may baptize any other new believer in the Lord Jesus. Remember the apostle Paul as he went to Corinth, and he named off in l Cor. 1 a few households that he baptized, and he said, "Besides those few, I don't think I baptized anyone else." And I've always loved that, because I could just see the apostle Paul going into Corinth as a pioneer worker, seeing a few people saved, baptizing them, and then they come to Paul and say, "Now Paul we've got to have a big baptism. And you've got to be there to do it because many have been saved here in Corinth." And Paul says, "Oh, no, I've done enough. You've got 3 or 4, you baptize them now. No more for me. You could do that because you're believers too." And of course they did.
I might just mention that as we study this subject of baptism that for those who may be interested, from time to time usually once a month or so we try to have a baptism here at West Woods. Right behind me, under this floor here, under this carpet is a nice tank that we fill up with warm water and everyone assembles here - it's usually warm, we hope, and we have a baptismal service; it's public, it's open, all are invited - some come because they just want to witness a baptism, others know they should be baptized but they have not yet obeyed that command of our Lord, and for whatever reason, we have a good meeting - we baptize some who have been saved in the past month or so, and it's always a joy to see those obeying the Lord. And it is a command that we are to baptize new believers.
In fact, I would say, that if a person had the attitude, "Yes, I am a Christian, but I'm not willing to be baptized", we would have serious thought to wonder about that commitment that they've made to the Lord - to wonder about their salvation. Some say, "I'm not ready, I don't think I understand it fully." And may you also note that in the word of God - understanding of baptism is never set forth as a criteria. The single criterion for baptism is "Are you saved?" Now many times people are baptized in simple obedience to the Lord, and it's not until years later that they really understand. In fact, who's here who can say, "I can understand all that it signifies?" As we go through our Christian life we see more and more, and God shines more light upon us.
So baptism then, like all the ordinances are undertaken out of simple obedience to the Lord's command - not necessarily to a great degree of understanding or knowledge or light.
1 Cor. 11 was our reading. There's also good readings in the gospels as to where the Lord Jesus instituted that feast - Luke 22 etc.
The Lord's Supper is called. by various names - the Breaking of Bread, Communion, the Eucharist - acceptable names, all of them. Whatever you call it, you'll need to understand it.
And as baptism signifies union with Christ, which happens once. The Lord's Supper pictures communion with Christ which is on-going and frequent.
A simple definition of the Lord's Supper - a symbolic feast using common emblems to remind the believers of Christ and His death.
1 Cor. 5, a few verses there remind us that the Lord's Supper has its roots in the Old Testament Passover meal - you may be interested to make a study of the Old Testament Passover feast and then look at it in the New Testament - the new changes that come in the way the Lord instituted His Supper and gave it special message.
In the early church, whenever the saints met together, they always remembered the Lord in the bread and in the cup. Now that is a very significant thing. For the early church, esp. those who had seen the Lord Jesus, who lived perhaps first generation after His life on earth - His presence was a very real thing to them. Some had walked with Him and talked with Him, and they remembered His presence in their midst bodily. And He kept talking at the end of His life how He was going to go away, He was going to return to heaven, back to His Father. And of course this filled their hearts with sorrow and He spoke about the Comforter who would come - but at that time I'm sure it didn't bring much comfort because they didn't understand. And they would have liked it much better if He had said, "Okay, I'll stay." But He didn't say that, He said, "I must go away, the Comforter will come. It is expedient for you - it's really going to be better for you." And I'm sure we could see the logic in that - how wonderful it is that the Lord Jesus now is not limited to one geographical sphere in this world, but can delight the hearts of all His people on a morning such as this - as through the Holy Spirit He manifests Himself to us. So it's very important to understand that in the early church when they got together, they wouldn't have dreamed of getting together on the Lord's day without he bread and the wine. Because that focus their attention on the place where He had for a short time ago occupied. And it remind them that He had said, "Where two or three are gathered together in my Name, there am I in the midst of them." So then they brought forth the bread and the wine on every occasion - in fact in the early chapters of Acts we read that they broke bread daily. So great was their delight to remember the Lord in this way.
Significance : It too, like baptism, is for those who had been saved, for those who had been born again. All are invited by the Lord Jesus. Sometimes we're not careful in our announcement and the words we choose. We need to remember that it's not our table, and we don't really invite people to come - it's the Lord's table and He invites us to come. By the way, He does more than just to invite us - He commands us. He says, "THIS DO." I wonder if we had been living in obedience to that command of our Savior or have we been negligent? Have we been living because of the pressures of time or family or whatever? Have we been disobedient and not been present faithfully at the Lord's Supper? It is a command. "This do in remembrance of me."
There are more purposes than I have here. But I have listed five purposes -- 5 different things that are accomplished by this remembrance feast.
Notice 1 Cor. 11:24-25, when He had given thanks, He broke it (i.e. the bread) and He said, "Take, eat; this is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me." And He used the same expression when He gave the cup - "This do in remembrance of me." So, the first purpose then would be a remembrance - it sets aside a time in which God's people can gather together, and the whole church can remember Him in the breaking of the bread and in the wine.
How important it is for us as Christians never to lose sight of the fact that the Lord Jesus was a historical Person - He was a man who lived and walked on this earth. Let's never let our Christian faith become fussy in our mind and to begin to wonder if this isn't some sort of a myth, or just some sort of a thing that's just been handed down and changed through the generations. No! Jesus Christ was a historical Person. He walked in this world - the place where He walked and the dates are roughly known to us. There were many witnesses who saw Him - both before He died and after His resurrection. And we remember a Person who died and rose again and is today alive. We need to keep that in our mind.
Do we think of that when we come together on Sunday morning and we see the bread and the wine that we're here to remember Someone who is a real living Person? That's a good discipline for us not to forget. Sometimes we sing a hymn which says 'Lest I forget ... ' and it names a list of things that we could forget and the Lord knows how as human beings, how busy our schedules are, how easy it is to forget. How many men here find no difficulty remembering that anniversary or birthday? You know what happens - we all do it - 'Oh I forgot' and I had to make a quick trip to the card shop and maybe to the florist too to atone for my blunder. I didn't remember the anniversary. I didn't remember the birthday - I'm sorry. "I forgot." And I suppose in His kindness to us the Lord Jesus knowing our frailty, He made this provision lest we forget. So He says, "This do in remembrance of me."
Secondly, another purpose of this meal is covenant sign. Now notice He says in 1 Cor. 11:25 - after the same manner also He took the cup when He did sup saying, "This cup is the new testament in my blood. This do as often as ye drink it in remembrance of me."
The cup that He gave out was the sign or the seal of the new covenant. That's what we read in our New Testament. We are now under a new covenant. We're not living in old testament days under the old covenant. We're in a new covenant.
Each time in scripture God gives a covenant to His people, He gives a sign with that covenant. Remember the covenant that He made with Noah? "I will not cause the earth again to be destroyed by the waters", and then He gave the sign of the covenant - He put the rainbow up in the sky.
He made a promise to Abraham, and He gave him a covenant sign of circumcision.
He gave the law to Moses and He gave him the covenant sign of the Sabbath.
And as believers we understand that the cup here is the covenant sign or symbol that we're in a new covenant now. And that we're not under the old law. It's sad how many Christians today have not even discovered that. They're trying to live back into the Old Testament and keep the laws of the old covenant. "How impossible!", Peter says, "Neither we nor our fathers were able to bear this yoke."
Thirdly, another purpose of the Lord's supper would be expressed in 1 Cor. 11:26 - a very precious one -
So, this is a showing-forth. It is a display of the Lord's death. Now, may I just here, at this point, make a suggestion, because some have questioned this point, and perhaps a little word of explanation may help us this morning. Some have said in the past, we hear this every once in a while from year to year, "Oh the breaking of bread, you know I like it, but it seems kind-of dry, draggy. It seems sort-of' like a funeral. Why do we sing doleful songs? Why do we sing slowly? The Lord lives and rose again, and we should rejoice. Why don't we talk about His resurrection more? Why don't we clap a bit and have some instruments and so forth? Why do we do this?"
Now, we need to understand something, and I know that if we do understand this, it will solve some problems for us. Remember it was the Lord Jesus Himself who said, "You do show or display the LORD'S DEATH." I've often thought that He could have taken a couple of stones and fix them up like a little cave, and say, "Now this will be the symbol of the resurrection, and you have the bread and wine to remember the death, and here you have a little picture of a little grave for a burial tomb and you do show the Lord's resurrection too." But He didn't do that. Now why didn't He do that?
You know, I believe, it's a serious mistake for us as Christians to feel that we must cram our remembrance of the Lord's resurrection into part of the meeting on Sunday morning. Why do I say that? Because we really need not try to squeeze our remembrance of the resurrection into our remembrance meeting - we really should be living the resurrection life all week long . When you think of it - to give one hour to remember the Lord in His death, and to show His death, and then to have 6 days and 23 hours to live and show forth His resurrection, we really should be giving a very very large measure of expression to the resurrection. Because really, 6 days 23 hours - that's our emphasis. In other words, let's get rid of the idea that Sunday morning we remember the Lord, and then we go out into our secular life and we go back to being the people that we are to other people.
No, let's leave the Lord's supper, where we've had had an opportunity to show His death, and from that moment on let's live in the power of His resurrection life - because that's exactly what we're commanded to do. Let's go out and live, and display the resurrection life of Christ. We should sing, we should rejoice, we should praise God, we should let the power of that new life flow out through us to others in our service ALL WEEK LONG. And if we're doing that - why, giving one small hour to the remembrance of the Lord in His death will not seem difficult at all.
If however, we're trying to express our entire Christian commitment in the one hour, and then the rest is our secular life, well, then we'll need to squeeze the resurrection a lot more. So, I think, you can see the point then - we don't want to leave out the resurrection of Christ, far from it, we want to live and be living examples of Christ's resurrection the entire week long - all the rest of Sunday and all the week long. Now, I'm not saying it's wrong to mention or rejoice on the resurrection of the Lord at the Breaking of Bread - lest anyone misunderstand me. I think we cannot but speak about the resurrection. We do not worship a dead Christ; we worship a living Christ. And He's living because He rose. And it's quite fitting that as Christians we should be reminded of that. All I'm saying is we ought not to think that the hour- meeting given to remember the Lord and to show His death that there's something wrong with it because that one hour we quiet our hearts and we go back to the cross and think about His sacrifice. Because that's the primary focus. And that's not the primary focus because this church has decided that or decreed it; that's the primary focus because that's what the Lord Jesus said, and we're simply obeying what He said.
Another purpose is we come to worship and this is very important. Remember I mentioned the word 'the Eucharist'? Well, the Eucharist is simply the Greek word ''to give thanks". And it says here, v.24, "when He had given thanks ..." That's Eucharist - the giving of thanks. And so then, as we meet to remember the Lord we give thanks. We give thanks for His life and His death and His resurrection. We give thanks for the bread and the cup. It's a time when we give.
How many Christians there are who don't really understand what worship is. How many there are who have a foggy notion of what real worship is. May I say that worship is not just anything that we ever do or think about God. Worship is specifically GIVING TO GOD. And it's very difficult for Christians to set aside an hour and discipline ourselves to come together and to give to the Lord. Oh, how much we need, how much we come to get, how much we want, but it's good for us to give thanks to the Lord and to learn to give.
Finally, a fifth purpose is expressed back in 1 Cor. 10:17, Paul says, "For we being many are one bread and one body". The Lord's Supper pictures to us the fellowship of saints. We don't come together as individual grains of wheat ,so to speak - we come together pictured by the one loaf, we're all baked together into the one body - the one bread. Paul says that we being many are one bread. And here we are all together, and whenever you come to the Lord's supper and you look at that bread - one of the things you should remember is the price that was paid to make you one with every other child of God : the blood and the body of the Lord Jesus.
Of course the Lord Jesus said, " ... as often as ye do this ...". And therefore I think it's wrong to say that if you do not do it when we do it, you're not right. On the other hand, it wouldn't be fair to pass by this without remembering that in Acts 20:7 the early church broke bread on the first day of the week. I just want to read here a few quotes from some well-known individuals in history, and then I'll pass on because I think they speak for themselves.
John Calvin, for any Presbyterians or ex-Presbyterians here, a great man of God made this statement : The Lord's Supper should be observed frequently -at least once a week.
C.H. Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher, says this : By witnesses, and I think I speak the mind of many of God's people now present, that the coming as some of us do weekly to the Lord's table, we do not find the breaking of bread to have lost its significance; it is always fresh to us; shame on the Christian church that should put it off to once a month and mar the first day of the week by depriving it of its glory in the meeting together for fellowship and breaking of bread; and showing forth the death of Christ till He come. They who once knew the sweetness of each Lord's day celebrating His supper will not be content I am sure to put it off to less frequent seasons.
Jonathan Edwards, Congregationalist, says this : It seems plain by the scripture that the primitive Christians were wont to celebrate this memorial of the sufferings of their dear Redeemer every Lord's day; and so it will be again I believe the church of Christ in the days that are approaching,
John Wesley, Methodist, said : ... every week, the observance of the Lord's supper.
And we could go on. I think it's quite evident that we don't establish what we do on the quotes of great men of history. We do it on scripture. Nevertheless, it's very interesting what great men had said.
You notice at the end of 1 Cor. 11 Paul deals with the matter of partaking in a worthy manner. He says, "if anyone takes unworthily ..." Notice he doesn't say "unworthy" - not an adjective, we're all unworthy - but he says "unworthily". v.27 - "whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord UNWORTHILY shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord."
Then he goes on and speaks about the importance of examining ourselves. He says, "let a man examine himself and so let him eat" - NOT "let a man examine himself and so stay away". We are to examine ourselves preferably before we come before the Lord, and if there's anything there that would stand between us and the Lord Jesus, or a brother or sister, we should leave our gift here as he says in Matthew, go and straighten it out and come back and remember the Lord. Some have done this literally - got up from the table and gone out and dealt with something and come back. We should commend them - that's real obedience.
We need to remember that the Lord Jesus is in our midst. The bread and the wine reminds us of that. And if you're new here - a visitor at West Woods and you're here at the first meeting, and you may wonder why no man was up in front presiding over our worship - that is because that is the special prerogative of the Lord Jesus. He alone is in our midst. Heb. 2:12 refers to Him as the leader of praise in the midst of His brethren. And we would never want any individual come in and supplant and usurp that precious place that belongs to Him. I was thinking of this song - "with Jesus in our midst we gather round the Lord..." - He is in our midst and that's not just a song we sing. And we give expression to that by all believers when we gather around His presence. We might also mention - because I know some here have asked the question "What about trans-substantiation? What about the Roman Catholic teaching that the bread and wine change into the body and blood of Christ?" Now, I don't believe that scripture bears that out. But I would ask you that if you really have a serious question - give me a call and we could talk about it. It's difficult - it's a very difficult thing. Suffice it to say that there's plenty of examples in scripture where the Lord Jesus used that form of speaking - He said, "I am the door." We even do that, when we take out a picture and say, "This is my mother" - they know what you are saying- - "This is a picture of my mother." Don't we all say that? And the Lord Jesus says, "This is my body", and the early church I think understood very clearly His reference there. Of course, He was sitting there beside them, and they had His presence.
And then finally we ought to avoid controversy over what types of bread and wine. Some make a great stir to make sure that we do not use leavened bread, that there is only grape juice or only wine. Let's just go back and remember that the scripture says 'He took bread' - doesn't say unleavened or leavened bread - just bread. And then you read what He put in the cup - it says, either the cup or the fruit of the vine - it never says wine nor grape juice; because of course they had to use back then what they had come in from harvest - and sometimes it's newly squeezed grape juice, other times it would be fermented wine, and they used whatever they had. I think we shouldn't make any issue of that. It is a symbol - it is a reminder; it's a picture and it's a very precious one. And we shouldn't lose sight for what it stands up for.
I want to close this morning by sharing with you a little story that happened to me years ago. Many years ago I had the privilege to be on staff at Camp Berea. Each Sunday morning we had a breaking of bread meeting. That year we had a very interesting person for camp nurse - she's a Christian, she loved the Lord, she drove an XKE Jaguar, had a Siamese cat and a few other things. One Sunday morning I said to her, "Are you coming to the Lord's Supper?" And she said, "No. I'm going to town to my church." I said, "Well that's okay, but I hope you'd come some time." She said, "Well, maybe I'll come." So she went along to the Lord's Supper and we had a nice breaking of bread meeting, and afterwards I went up to her and asked, "Well, how do you. like it?" She said, "Terrible. I just didn't feel that I understand; and I didn't feel that I belong; and I didn't get anything, to tell you the truth." I said, "Well that's okay", and I went away. The next Sunday I saw her again, and I said, "How about coming out again?" She said, "No. I don't think so." I said, "Well, I think you should come one more time." She said, "Okay, one more time." So she came out to the meeting, and I'll 'never forget brother Jim Harvey from Boston - he knew nothing of this - and during the meeting he stood up and gave a little talk of scripture, and he said, "Now we need to understand what worship is - we're here to give; we live our lives as selfish people. We always want to know what we can get out of something, but we don't understand about coming together just to give." And then he talked about it and he sat down. And after the meeting, I saw the camp nurse and she was out by the boat-house and she was looking out to the water there. And I walked up and said, "Well, what do you think?" And she turned around and there were big tears coming down her eyes and she said, "You know that was the most beautiful meeting I was ever in." I said, "Why?"