Lord's Supper - Examining Our Hearts

Three Fridays ago my pastor asked if I would like to share a short communion message. I said yes immediately.

This was because something had happened the night before.
It is as if I was meant to share it.
The verse relevant to what I was sharing before the Lord's Supper was this:

1 Cor 11:28 A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.

I play indoor soccer on Thursday nights for the last five months.
There are four teams playing on a league basis and my team was third ranked after all the pool games.
In the semi-finals, our team stunned the 2nd placed team to reach the finals.

That Thursday night final was a closely and hotly contested match and we were leading 7-6 near the end of the game. Then they equalized at 7-7. I fell down twice already in the game.

Once I was tripped by the opposing team when I went pass him.
It was a foul and the referee blew the whistle.
I injured my wrist falling down.

Then towards the end of the game, like the last two minutes - I had the ball already, shielding it from the opposing team and facing my goalie and was trying to pass to my goalie.
One of the opposing players pushed me from behind, robbed me of the ball and I fell down - breaking the fall with both my wrists including my injured wrist. That was not good.
But what was worse was that the referee didn't blow for a foul.
I haven't been angry playing indoor soccer for the last five months or for that matter for years when I play sports. But on Thursday night, I was furious with the gross injustice.

What did I do? What ran through my mind?
Well if the referee thinks it is not a foul, then I will do it to the opposing team players.
So I ran after them - waiting for an opportunity to do what they did to me because they and the referee think it was not a foul.
And after all the commotion, they scored a goal and we lost.
I was still furious with the referee after the game.

I am not normally a person who gets angry at all.
I have a high tolerance level.
I was rather surprised that I lost my cool.
I was off the mark that Thursday night.

As I examined myself as I prepared for the sharing and the Lord's Supper, I was off the mark in at least two ways:
1. I was prepared to do to others what I don't want them to do to me contravening the spirit of Luke 6:31 of doing to others only what I would have them do to me.
2. My Christian Testimony is marred - even though I was wronged and my team mates thought so too.

The reason I am sharing this, is that I have not experienced anger like this before. I thought I don't have such a problem.
Once I was driving along Triangle Road in Auckland. There were these large recycling bins along the road. I saw a teenager just kicking the bins and throwing the bins in rage. In fact, he threw a recycling bin onto the road in my path so much so that I had to swerve from that bin. Seeing that raging teenage boy was a scary and sorry sight.
I don't want to lose control like that for even 1 minute.

We may think that we are not like that and we have never done this before.
Or we may think that we are mostly alright as I thought like this of myself.
We are mostly alright.
But something happens and we find ourselves going off the mark.
And our testimony is marred.

If we think we would not be like that, then think of King David.
He was a man after God's heart.
Did he ever think that he would commit murder?
No!!! He would never have thought that he could commit murder.
That all changed when he got Bathsheba pregnant and he went on to scheme to commit the murder of Bathsheba's husband.

We are not perfect people.
And there are times when we are vulnerable.
And that's why it is good to take the Lord's Supper regularly.
Then as we come to this 1 Cor 11:28 verse, it reminds us to examine ourselves.

It may be anger, unforgiveness, bitterness and resentment.
Or it may be something that we see or read that we shouldn't do.
It may be something that we ought to do but didn't do.
Or it may be something in the inside of our hearts like our attitude - we may be critical, judgmental or proud.

As I share, the Lord will speak to our hearts.
Be like David who said:

Ps 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Ps 139:24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Normally as Christians, we do our best not to be offensive.
However, we become offensive especially when we think people offend us - as I thought I was wronged.

We are most vulnerable to becoming offensive when we are offended.
We are prone to be offensive and go on the offensive when we are offended.

This is the line that I just came up on that Saturday night before Sunday service. God is good.

Think of how we may have felt offended - sometimes even by Christians or people in the church.
They may not even have realized that they have offended us.
But we feel offended and we may go on the offensive.
As we next partake of the Lord's Supper, ask God to search our hearts and see if there is any offensive way in us before we partake of the Lord's Supper.

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God works in mysterious ways because God did not just speak to me in that incident.
God used the sharing to speak to at least two other persons in our small congregation.

After the service, one member was telling me
- "Why am I speaking about him and speaking to him."
As I shared the message about anger, it was like I was talking about him.

You see that Friday night before the Sunday service, my friend's neighbour had a party.
They were getting drunk and throwing bottles into his garden and near his car.
So he got real angry and went up to the seven of them and confronted them.
It is amazing that my friend dares to confront seven people.
My friend is a big guy.
He asked them “who did it”.
He told them that if the person didn't own up and remove the bottles he is going to give it to him.
The words used weren't as sanctified as what I am writing here ...
But the end result was that the neighbour and his friends sheepishly removed the bottles from my friend's garden.

That Sunday morning, my friend confessed to the Lord of his anger because he knew God was speaking to him

I learnt from this incident:

1. To follow the prompting placed within my heart to share about the incident. It was embarrassing for me - but it was a move prompted by God.
(see Nehemiah 7:5 "So my God put into my heart to ...")
After this incident, I followed another prompting which helped another person, a potential migrant, secure a job - what a miracle in times such as this ...

2. We are more prone to be offensive when we are offended.
e.g. How often do we sin when we take offense when a driver overtakes us recklessly?

3. Never think that we are spiritually strong and will not fall into sin.
King David - the progenitor from whom the Messiah Jesus came from - was not exempted.

1 Cor 10:12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! (NIV)
Or you may prefer the KJV of this verse:
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

4. God uses the incidents that happen in our lives to speak to us and to speak to others as we share it prompted by the Holy Spirit.
Amazing.