When I was a kid I looked forward to when our church (big church, where the grown ups went) would have communion, which I think was about once a month. Now, that might sound good like wow he was really spiritual as a kid, well sorry to disappoint but, I looked forward to it because it meant we got a little snack in the middle of sitting still in a pew for about 2 hours. Luckily God didn't strike me dead, but He has convicted me on multiple occasions of the seriousness of communion. As I was reading in I Corinthians God just reminded me don't take communion with Him lightly, although God is a personable God and I can speak to Him without a bunch of "shalts and thous" doesn't mean He shouldn't be revered. God is Holy.

1 Corinthians 11:26-27
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.

John Macarthur
He says, "Look, it's serious, it's important. If you treat this uncommon thing commonly, you become--literally--liable, that's the word guilty, for the body and blood of the Lord." If you come to this table wrongly, you're guilty of it

How many times have we spent the week being angry, or disrespectful, or failing to love our spouses the way we should, or wake up Sunday morning get mad at our wife for taking to long, yell at the kids for spilling their cereal all over their "church clothes" and kick the dog for being in the way? (PETA this is just an analogy, no dogs were hurt in this blog) We then roll up to church (probably sped on the way) late just in time to get the bread and juice, man that is dangerous.

James 3:9-10
. 9 With it(tongue) we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; 10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.

John Macarthur
If you come to this table with any bitterness toward another Christian in any way, shape or form, with any unconfessed sin, living in any kind of sin that you will not repent of and turn from, if you come with any less than the loftiest thought about God, Christ and the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, if you come with anything less than total love for the brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, you come to this table unworthily.

How often do we live our own selfish lives then have the guts to come before the Throne and worship Him? If God allowed Elisha to call bears down to maul kids for calling him bald isn't this worse?

John Macarthur
a man who tramples the flag doesn't just trample the flag, he insults his country. He becomes guilty of dishonoring a nation. And somebody who tramples with the feet of indifference or sinfulness, the body and blood as represented in the elements of communion, is guilty of dishonoring, mocking, treating with indifference and hypocrisy the very person of Jesus Christ. How you treat this table, beloved, is how you are treating Jesus. That's what he's saying.

So what should we do?
I Cor 11:28
28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

To quote Ice Cube "You better check yo self before you wreck yo self", yes terrible song but good line. Check your heart, check your motives, check your attitude before the Lord. Don't be like the verse in James, cursing and blessing God with the same mouth.

Examine yourself, don't take going before His Throne lightly.

John Macarthur
http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/1847