material for us as we live life
as the church. And so this doctrine, this theology,
this gospel serves as the foundation of our relationships with one
another. So I'm going to start, I'm going
to read verse 11 and then go through, I don't know where I'm
going to stop because verse 15 begins a very, very long sentence
here in Ephesians 1. So starting in verse 11 of Ephesians
1. In him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined
according to the purpose of him who works all things according
to the counsel of his will, so that we, who are the first to
hope in Christ, might be to the praise of his glory. In him you
also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised
Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire
possession of it to the praise of his glory. For this reason,
Because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your
love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for
you, remembering you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom
and of revelation and the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your
hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope. which
he has called you. What are the riches of his glorious
inheritance in the saints and what is the immeasurable greatness
of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his
great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from
the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places
far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above
every name that is named not only in this age but also in
the one to come. That's the end of the sentence.
And he put all things under his feet and gave him his head over
all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of
him who fills all in all. So in verse 15, Paul says, for
this reason, when he says for this reason, he's talking about
what he has taught us in verses 11 through 14. for this reason, because of what
I have just said, I'm going to say what I'm about to say. So
in verse 13 is when he begins describing the Ephesian church. Remember in verse 11 when he
says, in him we have obtained an inheritance, he's talking
about himself and the Jews. They were predestined according
to the purpose of him. And we know that those who out
of Israel are chosen in Christ are the ones who are predestined
according to the purpose of Him. In verse 13, he describes the
Ephesians specifically. In Him, you, the Ephesian church,
the believers in Ephesus, when you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed
with the promised Holy Spirit. Now remember, we talked about
these means of grace, these things that we do as the church that
God has established for the growing of our faith. And of these things,
there is only one that is effectual for the salvation of his people.
The proclamation and the hearing of the gospel. That's what Paul
teaches us in Romans 1. I am not ashamed of the gospel,
for it is the power of God for salvation. Then Paul speaks of this word
of truth that we have heard. When he calls it the Word of
Truth, it means that we can be confident in its truth. It means that we have security
in the promises given in the Word of God. Now, not only is this Gospel,
this Word of Truth sufficient for our salvation, for the salvation
of His people, this Gospel is simple, understandable. We talked
about not putting complex intellectual requirements on belief. We're going to get into that
more today, because Paul extols the faith of the Ephesian church. And we have this work of the
Spirit. You heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation. You believed in him, Christ,
and you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. And we talked about two distinct
works of the Spirit. Remember, we talked in John 3
about how the Spirit blows when and where it wishes, and the
Spirit is responsible for this new birth. The Spirit is responsible
for giving life to your dead flesh. The Spirit is also responsible
for establishing the security of your faith. It is responsible
for growing you and maturing you in your faith. So regeneration and faith are
gifted by the Spirit, but the security of faith, the confidence
in those promises of the gospel are further established by the
Holy Spirit. This is the ceiling that Paul
talks about there in verse 13. We also talked about, and we've
talked about this several times before, how we cannot rationalize
God's sovereignty. We cannot rationalize God's election
of his people. Because the moment we can rationalize
why God chose me or why God chose you, it is as if we have earned
it. Because that's what the flesh
wants to do. That's what all the false gospel,
the cults of our culture, the cults of history, that's what
they have all tried to do is to rationalize their salvation. And then in verse 15, for this
reason, and because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus. So Paul has heard of the faith
of the Ephesian church. And he speaks of the Ephesian
church collectively. He speaks of all of them. I think
this is important because we are one body. We are one community. We are unified under one head,
one faith. Paul does not speak of any individual
in the Ephesian church. He doesn't say, because I have
heard of the great faith of your elder Timothy. Because I have heard of the great
work that your deacons are doing. He speaks of the whole church
in Ephesus. Because I have heard of your
faith, Ephesian church. Your faith. The faith of those
who have very little faith and yet true faith in Christ and
the faith of those who have great faith great maturity, those who
have done great work for the kingdom, those who have done
little work for the kingdom. He has heard of your faith, church. Our culture has moved away from
this community-centric understanding of church. Our culture has moved
away from this understanding of the intimacy that we have
as believers. It has moved away from identifying churches by
the faith of its people in favor of sort of a, I'll call it a
personality-centric view of church. Churches these days are most
often identified by their teacher. And that's why I'm pointing out
that Paul did not call out Timothy here in verse 15. He calls out
Timothy in the letter where Timothy's name is the title. because that
was a letter to Timothy. But this is a letter to the Ephesian
church. And Paul does not identify this
church by who their pastor is or by who their greatest members
are. Churches these days are identified
by their primary teacher. You always hear about Joel Osteen's
church. Does anyone know the name of
Joel Osteen's church? Luke does. Or Mark Driscoll's new church. Remember, Mark Driscoll had a
church in Washington, and now he has a church in Arizona. Or,
and I've heard this one before, directed at me, oh, you go to
James Tippin's church. And there's nothing wrong with
making a factual statement. Yes, I go to Tippin's church. Though a more precise statement,
a more helpful statement might be something like, Tippins is
one of the teachers at my church. So what we see across our culture
are cults of personality that gather around different teachers
and they become identified with that teacher rather than with
the community they are a part of. It's one of the reasons it makes
sense to have a 15,000 member church. All these members can be identified
with the one talking head that they see on the screen at one
of their 20 campuses. If you have 15,000 people in
your church, you can't be identified as being a member of that church
based on who else is a member. But each and every one of you
here I know you. I want to get to know you more. We are identified together as
one church. So we see these cults of personality
gather around teachers. And it even happens in the Reformed
world, right? You know how many grown men with
beards I have seen turn into fangirls around John Piper? grown men giggling at the sight
of their favorite teacher. People who identify with teachers
and not with their churches. To contrast this, I'm going to
read from 1 Corinthians because Paul talks about exactly this
phenomenon. To the Ephesian church, Paul
writes, I've heard of your faith. To the Corinthian church, Paul writes, but I, brothers,
could not address you as spiritual people. Right? The themes of Corinthians and
Ephesians are very different, right? Ephesians is a letter
of encouragement, and Corinthians is a letter of correction. 1
Corinthians 3, but I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual
people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.
I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready
for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still
of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and
strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only
in a human way? For when one says, I follow Paul,
and another, I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human?
What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through
whom you believe, does the Lord assign to each. I planted, Apollos
watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor
he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive
his wages according to his labor, for we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. Right? I'm nothing. James is
nothing. The teachers you listen to, we
are nothing. Nothing but servants, workers
like each of you. We've been assigned a task to
teach the people of God. Now this is not inspired, but
we have the words of Paul here that are inspired, but sometimes
I like to imagine what sort of inflection Paul would have used
were he speaking these words to the church. And I cannot get
out of my mind this image of Paul mocking the Corinthians.
I follow Paul. I follow Apollos. I follow Christ. There's nothing wrong with being
encouraged by listening to teachers, right? There's nothing wrong
with listening to preaching online or preachers who are not your
own pastor, right? And I know there are many listening
to me right now online and they do not have a church home because
it's not accessible. I'm not necessarily talking about
them. This online preaching, These talking heads you see on
a screen, it wasn't done for you. It's like stopping by a vending
machine for a bag of chips or a Twinkie. It's tasty and it
makes you feel good, but it cannot sustain you. The guy you are watching online
probably didn't pray for you. He didn't think of you when he
was putting his sermon together. Now there are people who are
listening online who have been listening to us for a long time.
I know who you are, and I did pray for you. I did think of
you. In each of you here, I thought
of each of you. I prayed for you. The teaching in the local church
is less like a vending machine and more like a meal prepared
for you by someone who knows what you need, knows what you
like. My mom invites me over for dinner. She loves to make my favorite
things. That is the teaching of the local
church in contrast with watching someone you don't know teach.
It can be valuable. There are faithful teachers and
you can benefit from it, but it is not the same as the teaching
found in the assembly, together with your brothers and sisters
in the assembly. And this has burned us as a church
before, hasn't it? Most of you know what I am talking
about. We've had people move here on
account of James' faithful preaching. And that was the only reason
they came. Many times I was told, that doesn't
sound like this person's preaching. Well, I'm a follower of Apollos.
There's more to being part of this assembly than listening
to faithful preaching. There's more to being a part
of a church than saying amen when the pastor is faithful. And Paul tells us what that is
here in Ephesians. It's not just that we have faith
in the Lord Jesus, but Paul says, for this reason, because I have
heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all
the saints. Paul didn't praise the Ephesians
because he heard that Timothy was a great preacher, and he
didn't praise the Ephesians only because they had faith in the
gospel. He heard that they were collectively,
as one body, faithful. And he heard that they loved
one another. So there's more than being part
of this church than listening to faithful preaching. And Paul
establishes for us here the foundation of the entire Christian life,
faith in Christ and Love for the saints. Love for the assembly. You remember when Jesus was asked,
what's the greatest commandment? He said, love the Lord your God,
and the second is like it, love your neighbor. But it's this love for the people
of God and the assembly from which love for all people more
broadly flows. This love for the saints establishes
the bedrock upon which we go out and love our neighbor. It is the foundation of the Christian
life, faith in the Lord Jesus and love for the saints. Now,
we have spent some time already in Matthew 18, and we're going
to go back there because There's something important I want us
to get out of it. Remember, we talked about causing
little children to fear. That's what Jesus is talking
about here in the beginning of Matthew 18. Whoever humbles himself
like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And
then in verse six, he says, whoever causes one of these little ones
who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have
a great millstone fastened around his neck and be drowned in the
depths of the sea. So this causing of little children
to fear is a failure to love. Is a failure to love one another
in the assembly. Remember the two things that
we talked about were suspicion in terms of behavior and good
works and sin, and suspicion in terms of doctrine. and that we can place burden
to perform in these things upon our brothers and sisters and
cause them to fear. Then when we do that, it destroys
the childlike faith that Jesus talks about here in Matthew 18. So we're going to go into more
detail and talk about what that looks like, how we can love one
another as it relates to sin and as it relates to doctrinal
error. First thing we talked about was
legalism and works. The most common form this takes
is you might hear someone say something like, well, a real
Christian wouldn't blank. If you've read the Sermon on
the Mount, you will know that every Christian has blank, right? I'm reasonably certain that no
one in here is guilty of literally murdering anyone. But Jesus in
the Sermon on the Mount indicts us for murder when he says that
if you have harbored hate in your heart for your brother,
you are guilty of murder. Jesus doesn't distinguish. You might also see this take
the form of something like, you know, real Christian goes to
church. real Christian wouldn't skip church. And, yeah, there's
a sense in which, you know, it's very important for the Christian
to attend the assembly, right? That's the instructions of Hebrews
10, of Hebrews 6, that we not make a habit of forsaking the
assembly. The analogy that I like is that,
yes, there can be a Christian who is not a part of the assembly. But in the same way that the
assembly is established for your security, for your maturity,
for your protection, a zebra who has been separated
from the herd, getting mauled by cheetahs, is still a zebra,
right? The church is established for
your protection, for your security, for your confidence. Now this legalism and this works,
this also looks like judging the conversion status of someone
based on their works or their lack thereof. Looks like holding
a measuring stick of behavior up to them and judging their
profession of faith based on that. Right, and this type of legalism
really takes two forms. There's this idea of using works
as a measuring stick for salvation. You can't be a Christian if you
blank, right? A real Christian wouldn't do
this. Real Christian wouldn't vote Democrat or Republican or suspicion about someone's
salvation based on their outward behavior. The saying I like to sort of
paint the issue here to show you how absurd this is, is to
ask the question, how much good works is enough good works to
know that we've done enough good works to have assurance of our
not works-based salvation? How much good works is necessary
to have confidence? How much sin is enough that we
should start doubting our salvation? When we start looking for those
things in other people, we fall into the trap of legalism. Now,
legalism also takes the form of when it would otherwise be
appropriate to make a claim about what is right and wrong, we assert
that scripture regulates behavior that it doesn't. Right? Because
scripture does regulate behavior in some sense. Right? There's a time and a place for
this is right and this is wrong. Right? Remember 2 Timothy 3,
Scripture is profitable for rebuking and for training. It tells you
what behavior is wrong, and it tells you what you should do.
There's a time and a place for that. I'm gonna mention Titus
3 here in a little bit, because it tells me how I am supposed
to exhort you unto good works. I can tell you, I can use scripture
to tell you what behaviors are consistent with scripture, right? Concerning righteousness in which
behaviors aren't. But it's when I make a claim
that something is right or wrong that scripture doesn't regulate
that I step into this trap of legalism. It's when I try to
regulate what scripture does not regulate. I'm going to read two sections
out of our Statement of Faith because it does a good job of
explaining the issue here. I don't do this often, but our
Statement of Faith has a section on Christian liberty, the freedom
that we have in Christ. It says that God alone is the
Lord of the conscience and has left it free from the doctrines
and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to his
word or not contained in it. So that to believe such doctrines
or obey such commands out of conscience is to betray true
liberty of conscience. And the requiring of an implicit
faith and absolute and blind obedience is to destroy liberty
of conscience and reason also. What this means is that in Christ,
we are free from sin. And we are free, not only are
we free from the demands of the law, that is the demand that
we die, we are free from the commandments of men that scripture
doesn't contain. Right? If you decide to tell
me that I can't wear a blue shirt, I don't have to listen to you. Scripture doesn't tell me what
color my shirt has to be. So I am free from the burden
of legalism. But at the same time, this is
also from our statement of faith, it says that they who, upon pretense
of Christian liberty, do practice any sin or cherish any sinful
lust as they do, they thereby pervert the main design of the
grace of the gospel to their own destruction. So they wholly
destroy the end of Christian liberty, which is that being
delivered out of the hands of all of our enemies, we might
serve the Lord without fear and holiness and righteousness before
him all the days of our lives. The point here is that in the
assembly we must be able to serve God without fear. We must be
free from the burden of looking and acting a certain way beyond
what Scripture has asked of us. Scripture does tell us what is
right and wrong, what is sin and what is not. Unfortunately, scripture tells
us how to deal with it in the context of the local church. Flip over to Titus. Let's see. Starting in verse
4 of Titus chapter 3. But when the goodness and loving
kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works
done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy,
by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs
according to the hope of eternal life. Paul did not give any instructions
about works there, did he? No, we establish the confidence
that we have in the gospel of Christ. And then in verse eight,
he says, the saying is trustworthy. That is the things he just said
about the work of Christ are trustworthy. And I want you to
insist on these things. He's instructing Titus, the elder
in Crete, to insist on these things, the gospel of Christ,
so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote
themselves to good works. These things are excellent and
profitable for people. There you go. That's Paul's instruction
for how the elders of the church are to exhort you unto good works. Not to tell you what is wrong
and to cause you to fear. The way I am to encourage the
assembly unto good works is to further establish the confidence
we have in the truth of Christ, the work of Christ. Insist on these things so that
those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves
to good works. These things are excellent and
profitable for people. Now, sin will happen, right? Because we are not all perfect. We all still have that little
bit of flesh that lives on that we continually fight by the power
of the Spirit. So back in Matthew 18, in this
very same discourse where Jesus speaks about not causing children
to fear, He tells us how to address sin in the assembly. Not through judgment and through
legalism, through putting a burden of works upon one another. But in verse 15 he says, back
in Matthew 18 now, verse 15, if your brother sins against
you, go and tell him his fault. Between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have
gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or
two others along with you, that every charge may be established
by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen
to them, tell it to the church. If he refuses to listen even
to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. So remember we talked about means
of grace, the things that the church does for the growing,
the maturity of your faith. Right here, this church discipline,
this is one of these means of grace. Remember, one of the characteristics
we observed about these means of grace is that they were generally
given only in the context of the local assembly. This is the
only one that is really given outside of the context of the
local church, though it is still given through the local assembly. So what we see there in verse
17 is that all the other means of grace are then removed from the one under discipline.
These non-salvific means of grace are removed from the one under
discipline. But it takes several steps to
get there. First, if your brother sins against you, go to him alone. That's 99.9% of the church discipline
that occurs. We have this fake, erred view
of church discipline that it looks like bringing people in
front of the church and shaming them and kicking them out in
a public way That's not even what it looks
like when we get to this very last step. But when you and I
talk together, when we talk about what we're dealing with, what
we're struggling with, that's church discipline, right? That's
this first step of church discipline and 99% of all church discipline
of the church never gets past that. But when we do get to the end
of this, verse 17, our brother who has sinned against us does
not listen even to the church. Scripture instructs us to treat
them as a Gentile and a tax collector, which Jesus here is addressing
the Jews, and that has a particular meaning to them. It's not that we treat them as
a friend, we just don't hang out with them as much. Gentile and tax collector to
the Jews means we don't speak to them anymore. In this last step of church discipline,
it almost appears to function as a salvific means of grace. We treat them as an unbeliever,
and when we repent, scripture says that it is as though we
have gained a brother. To the one who is cast out of
the church, grace can be given through the proclamation of the
gospel. if they are actually unregenerate,
not converted at the time, grace can only be given through this
proclamation. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5,
speaking of one who is elect who may be cast out of the church,
you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of
the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the
Lord. In church discipline, in this casting out, God gives grace
to the one who is elect. Paul instructs us to, for a time,
allow them to suffer the consequences of the sins of their flesh so
that they may be saved in the day of the Lord. At every step of this process,
the aim is not retribution. Church discipline is not about
punishment. Church discipline is about reconciliation. It's
about restoring the intimacy that we had. If you have sinned against me
or I against you, we must come back together in unity. We must
be reconciled to one another. This is the aim of church discipline. This is exercised under the oversight
of the elders of the church. That's the important thing here. Right, one of the functions of
the elder is to oversee. They have been given some measure
of authority over the church, and this is one of the things
that the elders of the church must oversee. And something else, church discipline's
the only works-related measuring stick we're ever given. Remember
that question, how much good works is enough good works to
have confidence? Church discipline is the only measuring stick we're
given in Scripture that's related to good works. The instruction of Christ here
in Matthew 18 is that the one who is cast out is to be treated
as an unbeliever. but at every step for the purpose
of grace, for the purpose of reconciliation, for the purpose
of repentance. The other thing we talked about
when it comes to causing children to fear is the suspicion about
doctrine, the suspicion about what you believe, what errors
might be lurking in the dark corners of your mind. I won't dwell too long on what
it looks like. Remember, the gospel is simple. The gospel
is pure. The gospel is understandable
by children. We must avoid putting complex
intellectual requirements on the faith. Paul gives clear instructions
on how to deal with doctrinal errors in the church. And it doesn't actually have
anything to do with them being there. Right? Because there are
going to be doctrinal errors in the church. There are doctrinal
errors in this church. I'm wrong about something. You
are wrong about something. Probably lots of things. And
it's not the presence of these doctrinal errors that Paul is
so much worried about, is it? It is when one causes division
in the assembly over doctrine that Paul jumps in. Back in Titus
3, Paul gives some instructions. He says, avoid foolish controversies,
genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they
are unprofitable and worthless. This is 3 verse 9. As for a person
who stirs up division after warning him once and then twice have
nothing more to do with him knowing that such a person is warped
and sinful. He is self-condemned. It is when these disagreements
over doctrine become a point of division that Paul suddenly
becomes concerned and gives instructions to the elders to handle it. But doctrine divides, right?
We've heard that saying before. Doctrine divides. Of course,
Jesus says in Matthew 10, verse 34, do not think that I have
come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace,
but a sword. For I've come to set a man against
his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law, and a person's enemies will be those of his
own household. Right here he is speaking about
the person and work of Christ. He's speaking about himself.
He's speaking about this simple gospel. That is what divides. It is this
true, simple, pure gospel that sets father against son and daughter
against mother. Right? Together as a church,
we affirm certain doctrinal propositions. We have a statement of faith.
We have these things that we teach and we believe. And you can be a part of this
assembly and disagree with one or more of those propositions. But the moment you try to draw
someone away from those things, which we have sort of collectively
agreed upon as being the testimony of Scripture, particularly when
they relate to the doctrines of the gospel, that is when we
become guilty of division. That is what Paul condemns in
Titus 3. We can disagree, we can discuss,
we can have debates about doctrine, and we can do it in love. And
it has to happen, it's going to happen as we learn more about
one another, as we talk about different doctrinal things, as
we learn more together about scripture, we're gonna disagree
about those things. But because we are the church,
because we are one body, we begin from a place, assuming that you
have made a true profession of faith. We must avoid relating these
disagreements about doctrine to the legitimacy of your faith.
We assume that our brothers and sisters are starting from a place
of a true profession. All right, the important thing
here in Titus 3, whose responsibility is the directions of Titus 3? When Paul instructs
to warn them once and then twice
and then have nothing more to do with them, who's he talking
to? It's written to Titus, the elder
of the church. The letter to Titus is instructions
for the elders of the church. It's guidance for the elders
of the church as they govern the churches. So this exercise
of church discipline as it relates to doctrinal division is within
the purview of the authority of the elders. In both of these cases, matters
of practical and doctrinal issues, I encourage you to defer frequently
and quickly to the elders of the church for wisdom and guidance,
because that is one of the things scripture has established the
office for. When it comes to your brother
sinning against you, the encouragement is clear. Back in Matthew 18, Let's see, back in Matthew 18,
verse 21. Then Peter came up and said,
uh-oh, it's Peter again. Peter said, Lord, how often will
my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Seven times? The fact that Peter said seven
times means that that's a lot for Peter. To forgive his brother
seven times seemed to Peter to be a lot. Jesus said, no, Peter, I do not
say to you seven times, but 70 times seven. This gives us the outline of
how we are to approach church discipline. Seven times? No, Peter. Your Bible might say 77 times. My Bible says 70 times seven,
it's 490 times. And I will admit, some of us might need that 490
because 77 won't be enough, right? We are going to continue to struggle
with sin as long as we breathe in this flesh. I am going to
need some of you to forgive me 490 times. Maybe not you sitting in the
front, but I have a wife and children in the back of the room. I will need their forgiveness,
probably more than 70 times 7. So as we work out these issues
of doctrine, these issues of practice, in the context of the church,
we first and foremost forgive and forgive and forgive and forgive,
right? Because we're guilty of the same
sin. All right, James said, if you've
violated the law once, you're guilty of the whole thing, right?
But even those very same sins that my brother has brought against
me, I am guilty of them. And so, it's mishandling these
issues of sin, these issues of doctrinal error, that I think
are the two more insidious ways in which we can fail to love
one another in the assembly. Obviously, we can go about actively
sinning against one another, through gossip, slander, other
sins, and scripture equips us to deal with these things through
church discipline and the oversight of the elders. But it is this suspicion, under the guise of legalism,
under the guise of thinking you're righteous when you're not, that
we can fail to love one another in the assembly. Paul heard about the Ephesians
faith. He heard about their love toward
all the saints. Finally, in verse 16, Paul gives
an exhortation to the church, and he gives an example to follow.
I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my
prayers. So we've just got this little
note of encouragement from Paul to the Ephesians. For us, it's a reminder of how
we can love and encourage one another in the assembly. we can
pray for one another. And not just in a general sense, but when you pray, and you should,
when you pray, pray for your brothers and sisters by name.
Even if you don't know what's going on, you don't know what
they need, pray for your brothers and sisters by name. and thank God for them. Thank
them for them. Thank each other for being who
you are. It is this sort of encouragement
that helps us to grow together in love. These little notes of
encouragement. Follow Paul's example. I'm praying
for you. I give thanks to God for you. And we'll get to this next week.
Paul prays that the Father would give you spirit, a spirit of
wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. Continue to pray for one another,
church. This is one of those means of
grace. We pray together, we pray alone, but we constantly remember
one another in our prayers. And prayer doesn't have to be
this formal thing, right? Prayer doesn't have to be getting
on your knees and all of a sudden speaking in the King James. I've
always laughed at people who say, man, I just can't read the
King James when they really excelled in praying in the King James.
You've heard that before. Prayer is just a conversation
that we have with God. It can happen in your head. It
can happen out loud. Pray for one another. Pray together. Speaking of prayer, let's pray. God, I thank you for my church. I thank you for these people, these people of faith. God, I
thank you for your spirit, that through it we may grow together
in love, that together we may learn more about you, that we
may learn more about the work of Christ and that we may learn
how to love one another. God, we thank you for your word
that through it we can see and understand the work of Christ. And go with us as we take of
your table, let this little wafer and this
juice Not only be a reminder, but as Paul calls it, a participation
in the blood of Christ. Let us experience the propitiation
for our sin. God, we praise you for your work,
and we pray these things in the name of Christ, amen.