I want to direct your attention to the sermon notes inside the bulletin. I've listed a number of verses from the Scriptures that speak to the matter of Christian growth.

I Peter 2:1-2 "Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, ²as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby." (NKJV)

II Peter 2:5-6 "Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, ⁶to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness." (NKJV)

II Peter 3:18 "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (NKJV)

Ephesians 5:1-2 "Be imitators of God as dear children. ²And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God." (NKJV)

Hebrews 5:12-13 "In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! ¹³Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness." (NIV)

Our aim, our goal, our primary purpose for living is to grow into Christ likeness. We should be "evolving," ever changing, so that with the passing of time, we look less and less like ourselves and more and more like our Lord.

I've included in your bulletin a visual aid, developed by evolutionists, to chart their theory of man's ascent. It's a poignant reminder that the Christian is to develop over time, just like some scientists believe mankind evolved from monkeys.

The Book of Common Prayer refers to this process of growth in the following manner, "Confirm and strengthen us that as we grow in age, we may grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (Family Prayer)

I can already hear someone asking, "How? How do I grow to be more like Christ?" The Scriptures and the Church teach that the sacrament of Holy Communion is one of the things that stimulate our growth. We cooperate with God in this process of growth, by faithfully feasting on His Body and Blood. Note what St. John says about the life giving power of the Eucharist. Jesus is speaking.

St John 6:51; 53-54 "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life."

The Office of Instruction (p482 BCP) asks this question about Holy Communion, "What are the benefits whereof we are partakers in the Lord's Supper?" The Answer: The benefits whereof we are partakers in the Lord's Supper are the strengthening and refreshing of our souls by the Body and Blood of Christ, as our bodies are strengthened and refreshed by the Bread and the Wine."

But there's good news and bad news. The good news is that everyone is invited to this life-giving feast. The bad news is not everyone can come to it.

As a shepherd who is well acquainted with his own humanity, I spend a lot of time comforting careworn people with the hope of God's mercy. I urge struggling people to come to Holy Communion. I encourage people who are wrestling with sin to be faithful in feeding their souls at the Eucharist.

But there's another side to that coin. Holy Communion is a privilege not a right. We're invited to receive nourishment, if we've submitted to His Lordship in Baptism. We're welcome to come to the Table, "if you do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins, and if you "are in perfect love and charity with your neighbor."

Everyone is invited to the feast but not everyone can attend. We don't earn the privilege, but we can forfeit it. A priest not only encourages people to come to the Table when they're struggling, he "fences" people from the Table when they refuse to live in obedience to Christ.

For example, the person who steals from his or her boss week after week forfeits the privilege of Holy Communion. The child who regularly dishonors his parents with rude and insolent behavior cuts himself off from the blessing of eternal life. The person who nurses a grudge instead of forgiving disinherits himself from these life-giving benefits. The man with a stack of magazines secretly stashed away surrenders the honor of kneeling to receive Christ. The person who routinely gapes at degrading images has no right to come to the place of life. The undisciplined mind that habitually ambles to forbidden places divests itself of this privilege.

And the bad news only gets worse. The person who says, "God will forgive me," and tightly clings to his/her sin, is presumptuous. And the person who presumptuously comes to the Lord's Table invites God's discipline into their lives. The person who thinks they can continue in disobedience and still partake of Holy Communion should linger over I Corinthians 11.

I Corinthians 11:27-32 "Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. ²⁸A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. ²⁹For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. ³⁰That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. ³¹But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. ³²When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world."

When I was a young man, every once in a while I'd hear about churches holding a shootin' and a burnin'. The minister would designate a place in the country and the people would load up their TVs, videotapes, Rock-n-Roll music, and haul it there. They would line up the TVs and shoot them with high-powered rifles. They had 55-gallon drums to burn the music and the impure videotapes. From what I understand, it was a sight to behold.

The Independent Baptists sometimes do things a little differently than us, but on the whole, they're generally very serious about personal holiness. They want to be pleasing to the Lord. We can learn something from them.

In Acts 19:18-20 we're told about St. Paul's ministry in the city of Ephesus. Study what the Bible says about the people who became Christians, "And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. ¹⁹Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver. ²⁰So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed."

Becoming more like Christ means getting rid of certain things to become something different. You can't be a Christian-Homosexual, anymore than you can be a Christian-Voyeur. We're called to become like Christ. One of the means of stimulating our growth toward Christ-likeness is the Eucharist. Everyone is invited to the life-giving feast but not everyone can attend. May God give us the grace to get rid of the things that disqualify us from the feast of eternal life. Amen