Sunday Service 04-28-2024

LaRue Baptist Church, OH iconLaRue Baptist Church, OH

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Truth In Love Ephesians 4.14-16 Pastor Andrew Beebe

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This morning, if you want to look, take a look in your bulletins here. Today after this service, we will be having a meeting for the youth group.
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So any parents and any kids involved in that, I'm going to be passing out the books that we're doing this year, these five points by John Piper.
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We will be meeting, our first meeting is coming up here in two weeks, May 11th, here at the church at 530.
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Those of you who are in the youth group will be going through the first chapter, the history of the reformation of the five points.
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And so that will be today after service here and the first meeting on the 11th of May. Other than that, just a regular day, potluck after service and the afternoon service.
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Today at 230, we will be going to DeWolf Place. For any of those interested in going to that, let me know so I can have a list of people who are going.
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That will be again, 230 at DeWolf. Wednesdays, flocks as usual. Thursdays, middle school choir and children's choir as usual.
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And then next Sunday will be the graduates fellowship who we have Nathaniel Smith, we are celebrating him graduating this year.
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And then lastly, I would just remind you that in July the 21st through the 25th, our annual
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VBS is coming up in the book of Jonah. The theme is the messenger. That's all I've got Tim. Good morning.
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Just a few things here. The Walk for Life is this Saturday. So if you want more information, go to the website there, but it'd be great if we'd show up.
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Great if you donate some money or at least have people sponsor your walk, but it's a real important time for them.
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And also want to remind you, it's in your bulletin underneath the letter from our church, from our fire church, that a family in our church has offered a $2 ,500 matching grant.
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Now there's envelopes in front of you that if you want to contribute to that, it'd be great if we could match that, all right?
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So if we match that, that's a total of $5 ,000. If we go over, it's whatever we go over plus the $2 ,500.
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So I want to encourage you to do that. The deadline is Mother's Day, May 12th. So keep that in mind.
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And keep this in mind now for a few weeks because now you're probably saying, oh yeah, I forgot about that.
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You're not prepared. Well, okay. So here's a suggestion. Go home today, put it in an envelope today, stick it in and bring it next week.
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But it would be great if we could do that. Last, I want you to notice in your bulletins, there's a great big thing.
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It says outreach. Okay, you see that? It's like going to slap you in the face, it's so big.
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But you may not turn pages. So you know what? This last year, we have been praying about God help us to be more purposeful in our evangelism and God's answered that prayer by bringing people our way that think along these lines.
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And so we're in the process of putting together a booth. And in that booth, what we want to do is to just let people know of our existence.
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Now here, you know, we're going to have a booth here at the Oorang Bang. Everybody knows we exist, but at least it'll give us more face time with people and maybe lead the conversations.
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But you know, we're going to hand out things that talk about our church and make them aware of our ministries and things like that.
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It's going to be at the Bang, the Marin County Fair, and the Richwood Fair. So listen, we need folks to man the booth.
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Now, right away, look, you might be saying, I can't do that.
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Yeah, you can. You just sit there and hand people things. And if they engage you in conversation, converse with them.
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That's not hard. You do that every day. If they talk to you about Jesus, then you can just say what you know.
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You know what? It's not the strong that God uses. It's the weak. So listen, don't be shaking in your boots saying,
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I could never do that. It's time that we started stepping out of our comfort zone. Okay. I feel a sermon coming on, so I got to quit, but look, just be there.
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Just be there, all right? And it'll be a great opportunity for people to be aware of our ministry.
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It's a good start for us, okay? All right. Okay, we can all cool down now.
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We're here to worship. The Lord has worked in our lives this week in different ways, putting us down different channels, testing us, trying us, blessing us, in order to bring us here today to learn from his word, for us to give our hearts to him and worship in our songs and our giving and listening to his readings.
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So let's just finish the last few moments of preparation. Let's pray together.
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Lord God, we come before you together as your saints collected, Lord, to worship you, for you are worthy of praise,
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Lord, and so I pray that it is your praise that we would sing. I pray that you would attune our hearts to the songs that we sing, that you would make attentive our ears to the word preached, and make receptive our hearts to that communion that you give us, to know your gospel presented to us, and I pray that it would be to your glory, in Christ's name, amen.
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O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our maker.
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O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our maker. O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the
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Lord, our maker. O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the
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Lord, our maker. O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our maker. O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the
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Lord, our maker. No, just your own heart, your own understanding, in all your ways, acknowledge him.
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He will direct your path, show you the way.
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He will direct your path, show you the way.
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Well, I would ask you now to please stand. Turn on your hymnals to hymn number 129 as we sing crown him with many crowns.
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Crown him with many crowns. Lord God the
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King, and endless King, through all eternity.
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And who will inherit his wond 'ring heart?
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Let history surmise. As some sinners slain,
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I will sing their songs before him.
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The reading of the law.
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Owe no one anything except to love each other. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
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For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in these words.
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You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
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Let us confess our sin to the Lord. Our faithful and true, we trust in God.
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How difficult it is to be driven by truth and love, as we strive to build one another up.
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The ill effects of sin still linger within our souls, and we find it much easier to be motivated by selfish passions that cause us to fall into falsehood.
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What to sin is for the Lord. Since you have taught us, the life of the
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Church today is found in truth driven by love. Although in our falsehood with the mind of self, and not our neighbor, it is easier to trust today.
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We know that it is not what we use to build up the body of Jesus tomorrow.
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Forgive us that we should shrink back from truth and love because of the fear of growing pains that come with our overall growth in Christ.
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Here are assurances of pardon in the Gospel. Body of Christ, find comfort in these words from the
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Apostle Paul. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and the worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by the sensation of mind, but not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God, although it is easier for us to be captivated by false teaching that is driven by selfish passions and not love.
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As we rely upon the head who nourishes us and causes a growth from God, we will endeavor to succeed in the task at hand.
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This will enable the body to grow as it builds itself up in love. Father, we have confessed this morning that we lack truth and love, just a love for each other, a love for the world and the unbeliever.
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We pray that you would forgive us of this, that you would send your
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Spirit to work in our lives to bring about growth in Christ and in our love, in truth to each other and truth to the unbeliever.
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We just pray that we would grow in that, that you would bless our efforts and that we rely upon you for the strength for that.
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We know we cannot, of our own strength, do any of these things, but you provide that in your
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Holy Spirit and in Jesus' work for us. We thank you for that and we pray these things in your son's name.
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Amen. Please stand once more.
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Turn in your hymnals to hymn number 354 as we sing the Church's One Foundation. The Church's One Foundation is
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Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is His new creation.
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By Spirit and the Word. From heaven
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He came and sought her to be His Holy Bride.
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Back from every nation. Yes, salvation.
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She blesses, courtesses, with antoil and drink.
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She awakes to the consolation of her chapter.
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She on earth has his one need.
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Like never before.
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You may be seated. Will the ushers now come forward? Let us pray.
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Dear Gracious and dear Heavenly Father, let us give back a portion of what You so greatly and dearly have blessed us with.
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Let us take today's message and usually reflect on this week and be with us and guide us and direct us and forgive us of all our sins and we just pray for everything in your son's name.
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Amen. Please stand in honor of God's Word.
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The Old Testament Scripture reading is in Deuteronomy chapter 13, reading to verse 5.
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If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or wonder and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, let us go after other gods which you have not known and let us serve them, you should not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams.
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For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
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You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.
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But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he has taught rebellion against the
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Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery to make you leave the way in which the
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Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. New Testament reading is
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Colossians 2, 18 and 19. Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God.
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Let's pray. Heavenly Father, so great to be in this place this morning, to be with your people, to fellowship, to worship, to praise you
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God, reminding ourselves of what you have done for us, for how you have built this church, where Jesus is the sure foundation of this body and we're so thankful for that God.
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We are reminded daily how much we need your love, your grace, your protection, your provision, and we can also remember your great and precious promises that you have given to us in your word that we can come to you and follow our needs and repentance and know that you will hear us, you will forgive us, and you will guide us through each and every day.
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So you are a God who has sent your son to redeem us, to cleanse us from our sins.
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May we be ever thankful and grateful for that, Father, we pray. We think of our fellow fire church in Alabama, Grace Baptist by Pastor Chip Davidson.
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We pray for that body as well, for unity, for growth, and for them,
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Father, as they seek to save the lost, give them confidence and boldness to be able to proclaim your word.
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We pray that you would raise up qualified leaders, elders, and deacons for that body as well.
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Pray for those that are suffering with disease, with sickness. God, we pray for healing for those.
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We pray for the missionary who is there with them speaking today.
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We pray, God, it would be a blessed time of worship and fellowship with him this morning.
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Again, Father, we are reminded so much of how good you are to us. We pray we would honor you this day with our worship to you, in Jesus' name, amen.
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Please stand, turn your hymnals once more to hymn number 364, as we sing
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How Firm a Foundation. How firm a foundation, ye saints of the
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Lord. It is laid for your faith, it is excellent what's said.
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To you who fear not this day.
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For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid.
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I'll strengthen thee,
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I'll help thee. My right is on impotent hand.
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With true faith shall be thy succour.
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The faith shall love thy trust.
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You consume and I consume. The soul that on Jesus hath been forsaken.
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You may be seated. Good morning.
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I ask you to open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 4, please.
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Ephesians chapter 4. I think it was
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Wednesday morning. I was at the breakfast table and I saw
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Titus and Josiah with their miserable looking faces because they were sick.
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And I started doing the math in my head and I said, there's a good chance I will get that when I'm preaching. Last night, about an hour before I went to bed,
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I got that same sickness. So I asked for your patience. I kind of snuck in late and I'll sneak out.
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I snuck in early, I'll sneak out late. And so I asked for your patience as we open
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God's word together. In Ephesians chapter 4, let's read from verse 1 to the end of that section there, which is
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Lord willing we'll stop today. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1.
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I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.
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With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.
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There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.
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One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
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But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, it says when he ascended on high,
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Jesus led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. So in saying he ascended, what does it mean?
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But that he also descended into the lower regions, the earth. He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things.
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And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the
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Son of God, to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
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This is where we'll be at this morning. So that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.
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Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way and to him who is the head and to Christ.
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And it's from this head, from this Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, that is, speaking the truth in love to one another, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
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Oh God in heaven, I thank you for your word. Your word is sweet, it is good. God, I'm thankful that you use weak vessels to declare it.
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God in heaven, it's an amazing thing to me that, Lord, you can even use the most weakest vessel to proclaim truth in which people can hear it and grow from it.
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And I'm relying upon that truth now. I'm relying upon that promise that you will build your church. And that the gates of hell cannot stand against it.
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And I just pray God that you would help me with my words now. Let me proclaim truth. And I pray God that I would do it in love.
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And I ask, Lord, that the people before me would hear with a desire to change after the image of Jesus and forsake in the falsehood that we are born into and we so much want to gravitate to.
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Help them to listen well. Let the Spirit work in their hearts and minds so that it changes them to, first off, come to Christ and then find the nourishment and life and joy in Him.
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So Lord, help us this morning, we ask. In Jesus' name, amen. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way to Him who is ahead.
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It is a marvelous thing to see things grow up into maturity. To see it from an infant stage to a full totality of a growth of an adult person.
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To see that process taking forth from a little thing to a full mature body.
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And I remember holding my firstborn son in my arms and just thinking and saying over and over again, you are my son, you are my son.
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And it was an amazing thing to hold my firstborn child in my hands. And now I consider 10 years later, and we're playing chess, and most of the time he's beating me in the middle of the game, until I start giving him good advice and then
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I turn the tables with the good advice. But it's just amazing to consider the growth that God's creation, every one of us living organisms, go through from being a baby to a mature man or woman.
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And this is what Paul's pointing out here now in the text of chapter four. He's saying that we are to, in light of the fact that Jesus Christ works unity in the church, we are to grow together after the same image of Jesus Christ and grow after His image.
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We are to grow into the mature man of looking like Christ. And here in verse 15, he kind of gives what the body needs to be doing in order for that to happen right now.
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Present tense, he returns to the present tense right now. What does the body need to be doing right now for us to be attaining that maturity that is glorious, that reveals the glory of God?
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And he says in verse 15, we are to speak the truth in love. That is like the hinge of these verses.
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That's the hinge right there, because when we're speaking the truth in love, we will then grow up into the full image of Jesus Christ in mature manhood.
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But when we are not, he says in verse 14, he gives a negative of what we will look like if we're not speaking the truth in love.
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And so speaking the truth in love becomes the nucleus of what we must be doing in order for us to receive the positive things of growing after the image of Christ and avoid the negative of staying like children.
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And so what I want to do to start this sermon is I want to look at the speaking the truth in love first and then kind of look at verse 14 in light of that, of what happens when we're not doing that.
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It looks like verse 14. And then seeing what verse 15, what happens when we are doing that, what that does look like as a church, as a body of Christ.
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And so look again, look at verse 15. Rather, speaking the truth in love. Speaking the truth.
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That's one Greek word there. And it really, not every single version of your
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Bibles, everyone, if you have the ESV or whatever you have, it's going to say speaking the truth. And so when everyone's doing it, in this case, it's probably correct.
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So I don't want to kind of go against what all the people making translations have said. But that's actually kind of more specific than what the one
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Greek word that denotes speaking the truth means. It's actually a very general word,
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Greek word that just simply means doing truth. Now in context, Paul probably had in mind speaking the truth.
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But really, it's a general way of saying the church needs to be doing the truth or speaking the truth.
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One way we can perhaps look at this is if you want to turn there, just listen to me. And first, John uses this, he kind of speaks in this way quite often.
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In 1 John 3, verse 18, he says, Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.
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You see the general nature there, the truth just in general, doing truth, loving and truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him.
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So here Paul's saying speaking the truth or doing the truth. The church of Christ are people of truth.
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In a land filled with falsehood, the church stands as one that is of truth in general.
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And of course, I don't think it's wrong to specifically apply that because the context fits it for him to say speaking the truth.
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So the church, if we are gonna grow up to the image of Jesus and avoid the negative of staying like children of verse 14, we are to be people who speak the truth to one another.
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Now I think it's rightful for us to be like pilots asking Jesus, what is truth? What do you mean by truth?
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Truth, a good way to define truth is actual reality.
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It's actual reality that is dictated by God. That's what truth is.
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It's actual reality that comes forth from the God who is, who exists above.
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Paul says in Romans 11 that all things are made by him and through him.
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So God is the creator and sustainer of all things, so therefore he is the very definition of truth.
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We wanna know what truth is. We can see it coming forth from God of actual reality, what reality actually is.
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That's why truth in our day and age is very offensive, isn't it? In a day and age in which this world wants to reject the idea that there's a
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God who exists, they want to reject the idea that there is one truth because it denotes a one
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God in which truth comes forth from. And so we see speaking the truth is speaking actual reality.
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Now I think we can parse that out a little bit more though because there is just general nature of truth.
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If I wanted to quickly get to the food line because I'm really hungry after service and I wanna quickly get to the food line,
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I can't just say I'm just gonna run through the walls and just, I don't care. I'm just gonna run. I don't have time for entryways and getting around people.
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I'm just gonna run through the pews and everyone. I'm just gonna go. You would say you can't do that. Well, why can't
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I? It's because the nature of God's creation, it is not true that you can just go through things.
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God has creator and maintainer. He has established creation to be a certain way and you would be defying truth by trying to do that.
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Or another one is, we'll get to that with the nature of truth, what
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Paul is saying here though. The nature of truth that Paul is saying here is one of a moral character, moral truth.
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Just like God has created creation and it functions in a certain way that we cannot avoid unless we wanna die.
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If I'm up at a skyscraper, I can't just say, well, I'm gonna get the quickest way down and jump out the window. I gotta go down the elevator because God has made reality that way.
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But there's a moral truth that we can transgress and get away with it for a while.
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You see what I'm saying? A moral way that things are to operate by the same
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God who exists, who created, who maintains, a moral way to live, moral truth. And this is what
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Paul has in mind here. And maybe a good way to look at this to get our minds on it is if a person wanted to have a baby, they would have to submit to certain truths that God has established for having a baby.
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I don't need to get into that. You guys know what I'm talking about. He would have to submit to it. He can't just do it any other way, any way he wants, any falsity.
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He's just gonna do whatever. He would have to submit to certain truth regulations that God has ordained.
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But for that same person to be a good father, to be a good husband to that person that he had a baby with, that is a truth, a moral truth that God has ordained as well that we can transgress for a while that is equally death -inducing.
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Do you get what I'm saying? And so the truth that Paul is laying out here is that moral truth that we are to speak to one another of God's commandments, of Jesus' commandments that he has given for us to do.
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The moral truth that is presented here. And so Paul says that if we are going to be people who are growing up to the image of Jesus and becoming a mature man in Christ, then we need to be speaking moral truths to one another.
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Truths of how we are to live, how we are to love our neighbor, how we are to live our lives. We are to be speakers of truth in a world that hates truth.
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Notice he says, though, in verse 15, we speak truth and love. And so we're not just robots in which you just feed data to a machine and it just takes it all and it's good.
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We are relational creatures, aren't we? We're very deeply relational. So we are to speak this truth, this one truth that comes forth from God, but we are to do it with love for one another.
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Now, a good way to look at love, to define love, it's agape love here in the Greek. And it is a warm regard for your neighbor that desires his or her best.
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That's what I think a good definition of love here is. It's a warm regard for your neighbor that with that warm regard you desire the best for your neighbor.
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And so you're speaking the truth of God's world, of God's moral commandments, of what he says, how you are to live.
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You are to speak that to your neighbor, to the church, to the body of Christ next to you, but you are to do it in a way that has a warm regard for them, that wants their best.
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Just like it'd be a folly to jump out of a skyscraper because I want to get to the ground as fast as possible, I would die.
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It is just as harmful to live this life in disregard of God's good, moral commandments.
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And so a church that's building itself up after maturity of Christ is one in which they love their neighbor, they love the body of Christ so much that they want to, with warm regard for them, with a desire for their good, speak that truth into their lives.
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And you can see here, that's the community of the saints. You can see how polarizing that is in our world, how offensive it is that you would tell someone the truth instead of letting them live according to their own desires that we're about to get to.
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But this is what Paul is saying, this is what we must be doing. And so, with that grounding us of what speaking the truth in love means,
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I think we can then look at the negative. What happens when a church is not doing that?
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What happens when a church is not speaking the truth in love with its neighbor consistently?
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And we see in verse 14, the negative, this is what happens. So that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness, and deceitful schemes, right?
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And then that negative thing goes on in verse 15, but rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up, as we'll see the positive of what it does look like when we are doing that.
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But nevertheless, verse 14 details what a church looks like when it's not speaking or doing the truth in love with one another, and it looks like we are still just children.
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He says that we may no longer be children if we are not speaking the truth in love with one another, we will remain babes in Christ.
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That is where we will stay. If a body, you know, you think of your child, for them to grow up, they need to eat their
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Wheaties and they need to drink their milk, right? And then they'll grow strong and healthy. Well, Paul is saying for us to grow strong and healthy, we must be speaking the truth in love with one another.
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And if we are not, we are going to be anemic. You see pictures of children that are not being given its nutrition.
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It is a sad, sad sight. And a church that is not speaking the truth in love with one another will be like that.
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They will still just be children. Now, I know what you're saying. I know what you're thinking. What did Jesus say about children?
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He said that the kingdom of God is made up of children, right? We see that in the gospels.
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Jesus says, right, that the kingdom of God, the church, is made up of children. So why is
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Paul hating on children here? And I think it's very clear, is that there's a different, you know, we got to know context, context, context here, in which
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Jesus is simply saying that you will not enter in or find your life in the church if you don't first become children or humble yourselves before the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Right? And that becomes vital. It becomes very important. Because Jesus, when we're in his kingdom, he doesn't just sit there and say, well,
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I'm going to let you kind of do your own thing. He loves us too much. He speaks truth to us in love.
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And what he does is he says, you are going to change. You're not going to remain the same. You're not going to hold on to your childish ways, but you're going to change.
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And the one who is a child in the kingdom will say, okay, all right, yeah, yeah, that sounds good.
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But the one who's not a child in the kingdom will say, nah, I want my own way. Like, I can convince my child of anything, and they'll believe me.
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Like, anything. I can convince my child that we, and saying, that we come, that we evolved from apes.
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It's the craziest thing you've ever heard in your life. But I could convince my child that we have evolved from apes, and this is who we are now, that we are not body and soul, we're just simply body.
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I could convince my child of that. You know why? Because they have a childlike faith in their parents. That they'll believe anything.
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And Jesus, when he says you must become children in order to enter the kingdom, he says you must submit to me in every single way like a child submits to his parent.
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Right? And so that's, in that way, we are to be children in the kingdom. Humility, believe in whatever
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Jesus says, no matter how much it goes against the grains of our desire, we submit to Christ.
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But here, Paul's saying, do not be like children. Do not stay like children. And what he means is that progressive sanctification in the church life in which we're growing more and more as a unit to look like Jesus.
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And he says that when we're not speaking the truth in love, we will remain children instead of maturity in Christ.
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Instead, that's what we will look like. We will be malnourished, and we will just be stunted in our growth.
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And notice what it looks like. He gives very, very vivid imagery about a church that's not speaking the truth in love with one another when he says it's like being tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine.
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You know what that is? It's a church without truth. There is no grounding of truth that causes the boat to go a specific direction despite the waves, despite the winds.
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Instead, it just gets carried wherever the winds and the waves are taking it. This is like a church that has no truth that just says, well, that sounds all right.
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Let's just go with that. And we've seen many churches in our day today that's like that. Whatever the winds are going, whatever the waves are going, whatever doctrine is popular today, that's the direction we're going to go.
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And it's like a boat that's just being tossed, right? No direction, no clear direction in sight. It's just kind of being tossed to and fro.
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This is what it's like to not have truth. This is what it's like to not have truth that's guiding and directing us despite what's going on with human emotions or circumstances surrounding us, whatever.
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They say that's what dictates our movements instead of having a focus upon the truth in Christ.
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He says, it's interesting. He says, carried about by every wind of doctrine. Well, he goes on to say by, notice then it's driven by people that dictate this lack of truth, this lack of truth in the church by teachers, by false teachers that come in and they do not have groundedness in truth.
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Instead, they are teaching whatever is popular. He says, of these people, he says, by human cunning, if you see in verse 14, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.
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So instead of having people coming up and proclaiming truth to the church, instead of having people within the church that's telling each other truth, what instead is going on is that there is human cunning, craftiness, and deceitful schemes.
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These are people that are not telling the truth. They're telling falsehoods because they do not love their neighbor, but they love themselves.
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So you notice the hinge. If we're speaking the truth and love with one another, we will grow up, but notice the negative here.
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Those who are not speaking the truth and love with one another, they're just going with the wind and everything and they're led by people.
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They hear people just simply say whatever is good for their own selves, not caring about love for a neighbor.
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This is the person who is more, you see, by human cunning, right?
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By human cunning, the cunning there, it's a Greek word for dice, and it's denoting playing the game of dice, in which people playing dice, they typically don't care about playing by the rules or playing by truth.
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They simply just want their own way, right? Or we see the same kind of thing by craftiness, right?
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They don't care about truth. They don't care about love for their neighbor, about building them up in truth. They just care about crafting the narrative in their own direction for their own gains.
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They don't have a love for others, right? And of course in deceitful schemes, the same idea, right?
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It is not true, but it's deceit and schemes. It's the same idea of craftiness.
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And so this is the negative, right? Whenever we are not telling the truth to one another in love, we will be aimless and we will be led or we'll hear falsehoods by people who do not love each other, but instead love their own passions and desires.
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Jude talks about this. I think it's worth going to. Look at Jude. Talking about the same people who do not care about truth or love for their brothers or sisters.
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He says in verse 10 of Jude, but these people blaspheme all that they do not understand and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.
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Woe to them. For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perish in Korah's rebellion.
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Balaam did not care about truth. He cared about his own pocketbook, right? He didn't care about truth.
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He cared about himself. He didn't care, have a love for others. He cared about himself. He says these are hidden reefs at your love feasts as they feast with you without fear.
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They are shepherds that feed themselves. A shepherd in love should feed the flock, right?
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But again, since they have no love for the flock and since they're for their own gain without truth, they simply just want to feed themselves.
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He says feeding themselves, waterless clouds swept along by winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted, absolutely useless for what is actually true and life -giving.
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He says in verse 13, wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame, wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.
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This sounds very similar to the waves beating up on the ship, bringing it any way the waves decide or the winds as well.
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It just goes a random direction instead of being grounded in what is true. So when we're not speaking the truth and love to one another, when it's not coming forth from the pulpit, we will be like this sad imagery that we have before us in Ephesians 4, verse 14.
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But then look at the contrast zone, verse 15. He says, Rather, in verse 15 of chapter four, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head that is in Christ.
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So notice the direct contrast imagery. Think of your head as a ship that's just kind of being taken by the waves, by the wind, and it's just going whatever direction.
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But then notice the contrast here that we are to instead be constantly going to the same truth, to the same direction that is
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Jesus Christ, our head. That is the unity that we can have in him. That is the direction we are always going.
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So no matter the waves, no matter the wind, we will utilize whatever we have in order to get to that same direction, that same truth.
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It's an amazing thing how you can use the wind even when it's going against you and sailing, right? When the wind is going against you and sailing, it's not like all is lost and you just kind of have to be pushed by it in the wrong direction.
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You can zigzag with the wind to get where you want to go, right? You can't get there directly.
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You can't just go straight to where you're trying to get to, the truth that you're trying to get to. You kind of have to zigzag in order to get there.
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Use the wind to your advantage. And so the point is that the ship is not to be tossed in random directions because of the waves and the wind.
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Instead, they use those circumstances because they are dictated by truth to go to the one direction where Christ is.
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And you'll notice, right, things that are just being blown with the wind, they just seem to be just going random directions.
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But yet, when there is a resolve that's beyond themselves, right, there's a purposeful direction.
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There was a windy day yesterday and I was sitting on the porch and I could see a bird.
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It was just fascinating. You know, I have chickens so I don't want them to kill the chickens so it's kind of scary but it's amazing to see the bird use the wind to its advantage to really quickly move down on its prey and everything.
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It's not just being casually just being lifted off into space with the wind. He uses the wind, the circumstances, in order to really hone in on where he's going.
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And the church, who has truth and love as its practice, will utilize the waves and the winds of circumstances to go in the positive direction that truth dictates.
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When truth is their desire, passion, whenever we see that Christ is on the other end of truth, he is there.
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We cannot help but to utilize those things, not to go wherever it takes us but rather to utilize it to get to our objective.
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We are to grow up in every way to him who is ahead and to Christ.
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It is a fascinating thing to see someone go through a major trial but yet they go through it looking more like Christ. And then you see the contrast of someone who doesn't have
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Christ or maybe is forgetting Christ and then you see it just being blown away like chaff in the wind.
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We see the contrast there. The church is to be the type in which we are constantly speaking truth to one another in love so that when the waves and winds come we are looking more like Christ in light of them and not moving in a false or whatever direction.
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Something, though, to be said about truth and love. You can have truth without love and you can have love without truth.
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You see what I'm saying? You can speak truth in a way that's not very loving in the church and you can, in the church, be loving without speaking the truth.
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And we see both sides of this. I think one of the very negativities of our day of social media is we see the church on display and social media being very truthful but yet not in love for one another.
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Not a warm regard for them wanting to see their best but instead just wanting to pulverize them with the truth.
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But you see that the practice that we are to do here within the local community is that we are to see and understand the truth of the commands of Jesus and to in love and desire for one another tell each other especially whenever this person is going the wrong direction.
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The love aspect becomes very important in that moment, doesn't it? That when someone is going the wrong direction that is falsehood.
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It looks tempting. It looks good. He's starting to go with the winds. We rather in love for them
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I want what's best for them. I'm going to speak truth to them. Those things come together. But far too often it's very easy for us to get irritated at the falsehood and give truth without love.
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And that does no one any good. But of course the other side of it, right?
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It's very easy for us that we have a compassion, a love, a warm regard for someone and we're willing to dispense the truth as to not to hurt them.
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Right? Very easy to do. Growing up in high school in that era a lot of people were coming out of the closet because when
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I went by that I mean coming out as gay before that it was still a you don't do that kind of thing but through high school and through that time period it became a very popular thing.
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So it was very fascinating to see how many people coming out as gay and then seeing Christian parents how they reacted to it.
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And what they were so they're desperate they wanted to love their child so much they had a warm regard for the child and they thought that the best thing to do was just to accept them as they are.
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And so they can throw it or dispense with truth in order because I have such a warm regard I don't want to hurt them.
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Right? And in the church there's like two types of people, right? We can fall into one of those camps where we give truth without love or we love without truth.
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I tend to be the former. Right? But there's an equal regard of people they can be the latter in which we can love without truth.
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But Paul, again, he's saying if we want to mature in manhood we need to be faithful to the commands of Jesus Christ and do it in tender love for one another.
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Because there is nothing more easy than for us to just simply not fight the ways but just go with it.
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Not fight the wind but just go with it. And if you're I think it's my jumbled mind right now.
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If you are a person who is not a believer in Christ aren't you tired of being tossed with the waves?
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Aren't you tired of being just wherever society tells me to go whatever feels right I'm going to do it.
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There's no consistency. And what a great thing it is that you can be part of the people of Christ that says
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I'm not going to hate you and allow you to do such a foolish thing. Instead, in love I'm going to give you the truth.
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This is what the church stands for. This is what the church does. Does it do it perfectly?
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No, but this is something that we are practicing together so we can grow up after the image of Jesus.
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Speaking truth in love. So the question before we finish off with verse 16 the question
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I have for you are you putting yourself in positions where you can have someone know your life and speak truth in your life in love?
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Are you putting yourself in positions of fellowship of discipleship where you recognize that the things of this world is falsehood and it's bad just like jumping off a skyscraper is the same thing of not following the good commands of my
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Lord Jesus Christ in light of the gospel? Are you because you love Christ and his truth so much are you putting yourself in a position where people can know you intimately and speak truth in your life in love?
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Because it's not just the major things it's even to the most minute details of your life can be spoken truth in life in love to.
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That's one of the great benefits of being in my estimation married. Well sometimes it can be hard but to have a wife that sees me in every single aspect of my life and can speak truth in love to me in every single minute detail of my life that she has done and I have grown because of it.
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Well it's the same thing with the church we are to desire the deep rooted fellowship with one another so that someone can know you so intimately and see in what ways you are putting up with falsehood because it's easier and speak truth to you instead this is what the
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Lord has said brother or sister and to do it with love. Are you putting yourself in a situation where people can see you intimately and speak truth in your life?
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Are you putting yourself in a situation where you can do the same for your brother and sister? That you are opening up yourself to deep fellowship with one another so that you can edify or benefit someone in love to help them with truth.
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It is so much easier to instead recluse as I am going to hit the same thing as I hit last week or a couple weeks ago that we need to be people that are intentional on our fellowship with one another because he works in our fellowship and unity to look like Jesus Christ and one of the ways he does it here a major way something that should be our healthy diet is that we are around people that will speak truth to us especially when we are in falsehood and love so we can be corrected.
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This is the diet of the church that we all need to look more like Christ.
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If you are a Christian you want to look like Christ. You are tired of your sin you are tired of the waves you are tired of the wind but you want
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Christ and the church is here to help you with that. Are you intentionally seeking fellowship in light of that?
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Now, it is a scary thing. I remember we are to grow up into Christ and there's
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I remember telling my mom a lot that my arm hurts my joints hurt growing up and she would always say it's growing pains.
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I don't know if that's legitimate probably not but that's I remember I don't know why I would always probably got bumped or bruised and I always just had aches and pains and my mom would always say it's growing pains.
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But there's legitimate growing pains for a Christian. It is hard work gospel work to grow after the image of Jesus because you are constantly throwing out falsehood that you received from birth and that you believed as a child that you brought with you.
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It is growing pains to grow after the image of Jesus as the church is helping you see that.
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And so what we need to remind ourselves what we need to meditate on is what Paul goes to next.
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I love the way Paul does this in this chapter so far. He keeps on going back and forth that we need to do this and it's in light of what
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Jesus Christ has done for us. We need to do this right now present tense. You need to bear one another in love and then he goes off and this is why we can do it because Jesus Christ is conquered.
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And so he's going to do the same thing here. It can be hard it can be laborious it can be difficult to have this kind of deep rooted fellowship with one another as we're dealing with sin and yet Paul because he knows just how weak we are he gives us reassurance of it comes forth from Christ himself.
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Look at verse 16. From whom we are to grow up into the head into Christ labor or growing pains for sure.
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In verse 16 but it's from this head it's from Christ Jesus our Lord that the whole body every body every part of the body that the church that the whole body
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I've lost my spot I'm sorry from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly it makes the body grow.
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What makes the body grow? The head. The head is the one that does the work for the body but he does it through working properly with one another that is speaking the truth in love.
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So it's a fascinating thing how Paul just nestles both truths right next to each other. We are to speak the truth in love difficult hard fellowshipping hard all that going on true fellowshipping but he says right nestled with that it is from the growth that comes forth from the head that makes it possible.
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So if you're a new believer or maybe you've been a believer for a while and you're just tired of the church remind yourself that the growth comes forth from the head in which it uses its parts working properly that is speaking the truth in love with one another.
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This encourages us to move forward with one another instead of instead of drawing back when each part is working properly it makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love maturity the image of Jesus.
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So we need to be reminded that the source the energy the life blood it comes from the vine.
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We are the branches that are to be fruitful that are to grow into the image of Jesus Christ as a work against sin but our very life comes forth from the vine the head that gives life.
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Do you know that the first person or the first one to ever speak truth to you in love if you're a believer in Jesus was
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Jesus Christ? You know that he was the first one when he called you out of darkness into light he was the first one who he uses the church he uses his people to speak truth and love to you.
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If you're scared of being in that environment because it's difficult you've got to remember that Jesus Christ is the one who's first done it to you and then he uses his church to continue that work.
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He loves you too much to allow you to continue in falsehood but he speaks truth to you in love.
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So as you realize that the energy that the ability comes forth from Christ it encourages you to move forward it's a deep rooted fellowship that we would fight sin together speak in truth instead to one another in love to grow after the image of Jesus.
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Let me pray. Oh God in heaven thank you so much for Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank you God Lord we live in a time in this post
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Christian age in which you can throw a rock out the window and hit a church but that church sadly is not speaking the truth in love with one another.
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Lord for whatever reasons they want to withhold the truth for the sake of love supposedly or perhaps they're declaring the truth with no love for one another and so it does not create an environment of growth it is not the healthy diet that enables maturity in Christ and so there is just languishing instead.
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Oh God in heaven would that not be the case for here at this church? Could you help us to be the example that we
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Lord love you so much we're so enamored by your mercies and grace that you called us out by truth and love that we can't help but to do the same to one another?
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Would you give us a warm regard for one another that wants the best for each other and we know that the best is always what
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Christ has commanded? Would you not let us fall prey to any deceitful schemes any false way of thinking?
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Would you not let us be driven by the waves and the wind but would you help us rather to be intentionally looking towards the truth and moving forward to that truth despite the waves despite the wind?
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God in heaven I know there's people before me right now that their life is marked by this kind of sad terrible existence of whatever
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I feel like doing that's what I'll do they're being tossed to and fro with no meaning or purpose would you cause them even now to look to Jesus to see that he is the truth the way and the life that no one can come to the one truth one
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God but by him? And would you cause them to be like children and come into the kingdom and say whatever you say
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Lord this is what I will do for you have done great things for a sinner like me and would you cause us together to so much love you for what you've done for the mercies that you've given to us that we can't help but look at our neighbor with affection for them desire that they would grow more at the image of Jesus and would you cause us
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Lord that when someone is speaking the truth to us even if it's not in love we would still grab hold of that truth and praise you that you would speak truth to us would you help us with this
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Lord for it is far too easy to fall prey to deceitful schemes instead may we look to Jesus our
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Lord thank you for being so good to us in him in Jesus name amen please stand now turn your hymnals to hymn number 332 as we sing oh how good it is to the whole earth sings the redeemer has come for he dwells in the presence of his people oh how good it is on this journey we share to rejoice with the happy and weep with those who mourn for the weak life's pain the afflicted find grace when we offer the blessing of belonging so with one voice let it be heard till the whole earth sings the redeemer has come for he dwells in the presence of his people oh how good it is to embrace his command to return him as he forgives when we live as one we shall share in the love of the
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Son's spirit so with one voice we'll sing to the
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Lord and with one to the whole earth sings the redeemer has come for he dwells in the presence of his people
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Please remain standing. Take your bulletins as we confess our faith together.
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All saints are united to Jesus Christ their head by his spirit and by faith although this does not make them one person with him.
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They have fellowship in his graces, sufferings, death, resurrection, and glory.
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Since they are united to one another in love they have communion in each other's gifts and graces and are obligated to carry out these duties both public and private in an orderly way to promote their mutual good both in the inner and outer aspects of their lives.
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You may be seated. So as we are all united as saints through Jesus Christ we have a chance now to celebrate this table that he has left for us to remember him by.
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We need to remember what he's done for us what we once were enemies of God, slaves to sin owing and debt that we could not pay but we know the wages the payment for sin and death two of the greatest words to me in the
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Bible but God being rich in mercy because of the great love of which he has loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved.
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At the cross, Jesus paid it all I love the old hymn Jesus paid it all all for him
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I owe sin and lept a crimson stain he washed it like a snow giving up himself in the fear that we may have life eternal life suffering the agonizing pain and shame that we deserve so that we could be brought near to him but also we can celebrate for what he's done for us what he's also given to us what we have now from Christ I was thinking of Psalm 103 where David says bless the
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Lord oh my soul forget not all his benefits what benefits have we received through the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ he does not deal with us according to our sins he's dealt them through Jesus Christ we also have life there's no condemnation in those who are in Jesus Christ we can live by that promise all promises he's given us we've been declared righteous not by what we've done or what
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Jesus has done nothing could separate us from the love of God through Jesus Christ our
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Lord let's remember that as we take this table today what's been done for us what we have now in Christ also a reminder that this table is not for the unbeliever you've never come to Christ excepted him as your
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Lord and Savior this table is not for you think about that if you'd like to do that there's plenty of people here that will help you understand
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God's word in the name of Jesus Christ so let's take this table today in remembrance of our
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Lord and Savior as we preach the truth to ourselves about what we think we have in Christ and that he is building us up to maturity in the view of Jesus Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me not only the crucifixion and the payment of our sins and the guaranteed eternal life but as your word says that we can know you that we can know the truth we pray father that we would not only remember
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Christ's time on the cross but Christ's three years of ministry the rejection that he suffered and we are to be like him we pray that you would give us the strength to be rejected by a world that as you have said hates you you warned us that they hated you they'll hate us also and yet we have loved you you have loved us and displayed that by giving your son witnesses and people for three years and dying on the cross for people who who yelled to crucify you and so we thank you and we pray that these are things that would change our hearts so we could love our enemies and our neighbors and bring them more of the trauma
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Christ gave you in the same way he also took the cup after supper saying this cup is a new covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it let's stand and sing the top song and Holy Ghost Amen receive this benediction peace be to the brothers and love with faith from God the