In this Fundamentals of the Faith lesson, Mark Twombly begins overviewing the Bible’s teaching on Christian fellowship and worship and the central place both of these must have in the lives of true believers.
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one happy Sunday we’re going to continue in our series on the fundamentals of the faith if you have your workbooks uh turn to page 65 one of the things that I um I don’t think we’ve emphasized is you can see right in those introductory Pages there are some audios of some sermons by John MacArthur that accompanied these I’d almost forgotten about them and they’re really helpful so I want to make sure that you see see those and uh and take advantage of those they’re very very edifying and strengthening well today’s uh this lesson’s memory verse may be familiar to you Hebrews 10: 24-2 let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and Good Deeds not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day Drawing Near and that’s the day of Christ’s return so I think that leads to a question today why why are you here today why are you here today why am I here today I think mainly for this purpose assembling together not just to sit passively and to learn although it’s important for us to learn the word of God but to encourage one another to stimulate one another to love and Good Deeds another verse in Hebrews talks about that that we are to encourage one another day after day right so that our hearts are not hardened by the deceitfulness of sin and I think we see this in our world I one of the things I was thinking about as I um as I looked at this verse this verse was mightily this this concept this this uh this command from our Lord was mightily challenged during Co wasn’t it right um and in some ways uh many in the church have not recovered right notice that us the word habit not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some I think you found that when we find that when we um are not intentional about carrying a habit the opposite habit takes hold and so I found that many precious friends and and and Brothers and Sisters in Christ have gone into the habit of not assembling together I don’t know if you’ve seen that that’s kind of been a trend in in America uh over these past number of years and uh we pray we pray against that and we and we seek um to follow God’s design uh how many of you seen the movie essential Church the documentary if you haven’t seen it I really recommend it it’s really the story of Grace Community Church um in 2020 and how they handled the government restrictions um and how they sought to to be faithful right so we have a couple things to balance there to be faithful to this command of our Lord and yet what place is there of respect for government authorities these are these are things to walk in wisdom in and how they sorted that through and how they worked and actually ended up having to to sue the government who was preventing them from doing this um really really interesting as as um I think the the pastors and Elders there had to walk through some new new territory and really changed their view based on what they saw in scripture so great example there if you haven’t seen that um I would I would recommend it one of the things that we notice about the church is have you ever heard the concepts of the visible and the invisible Church you familiar with that so the visible church is the church that we see it’s the assembled church that we see gathered here and gathered in various places around the world right I think we know from the scriptures that in the assembled Church the visible Church some are believers some are not we don’t know right some sometimes only the Lord knows that right the invisible church is the is God’s people across all time all peoples right that’s assembling today at various times and and is um has been doing so for centuries and we get to be a part of that so it’s really exciting as as we unfold these Concepts today um we’ll be talking about the spiritual reality of the invisible church and how it plays out in the visible Church us today okay all right I thought this verse was important for us to look at today what is the church what is the church 1 Peter 2 has some verses that instruct us as to what it is and coming to him that is Christ as a living Stone which has been rejected by men but is ch choice and precious in the sight of God you also as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ but you are a chosen family a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for God’s Own possession so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of Darkness Into His Marvelous Light for once you were not a people but now you are the people of God you had not received Mercy but now you have received Mercy these are verses which are very present in my mind because they’re quoting from the book of Exodus which is where we are in Iron Man right now we recognize that God has called a people for a particular purpose he he’s not only birth us individually as Christians but is birth a new people so before we continue let me pray for us father we pray that we would understand the true nature of the church that you have caused us individually if we are in Christ to be born again and you’ve birthed us into a new people that we would see and seek Christ as the head of the church that we would understand the need for fellowship and its spiritual reality father and that we would have wisdom and understanding to know and use our spiritual gifts as we explore that over the next couple of weeks father we Marvel at the beauty and Glory of your design for your church may you Captivate our hearts today and inflame our affections for greater service to your glory give us a vision of Christ for the church amen amen so in your notes in your book John MacArthur says this the church is not a physical building I think we’ve seen that in the verses that we just looked at right the church is not a physical building but a group of Believers not a denomination sect or Association but a communion a fellowship that includes Believers and as we talked about the distinction between the visible and the invisible church I remember traveling with my son Seth uh a number of years back our our oldest daughter Lauren went to school in Tennessee that’s a long trip and I would notice as we were taking this 13-hour drive that we’d see more and more churches and I remember saying to my son Seth he said wow there’s a lot more churches the further south you go he said dad they’re Church buildings they may or may not be churches good good point good point so we understand the distinction between um between churches and church buildings right there’s the spiritual reality and the visible reality which sometimes overlap but not always okay this isn’t in your notes at least part of it is but I think uh I really encourage you particularly as we explore spiritual gifts in the next couple of weeks to spend some time in Ephesians 4 particularly these verses to me Ephesians 41-16 describe most succinctly God’s design for the church so listen closely as I read this these for us and he himself gave some as Apostles and some as prophets as and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the Saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ so that we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of Doctrine by the trickery of men by craftiness and deceitful scheming but speaking the truth and love we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head that is Christ from whom the whole body being joined and held together by what every joints supplies according to the properly measured working of each individual part causes the growth of the Body for the building up of itself in love this displays for us the Perfection I think of God’s design it’s from Christ it’s through Christ and it’s to Christ as we seen in Romans 8:29 God’s design for each individual individual belie Believers that we be conformed to the image of Christ his design for the so that’s individually but God’s design is that we corporately be conformed into the image of Christ and reflect him so that’s why I pray and I think about a a vision of Christ for the church one of the things that I Marvel at and we’ll get into this in the next couple weeks as we talk about spiritual gifts no one person has all the spiritual gifts right and this is by desire because Christ is complete and full and has everything but each of us does not but corporately we are to reflect that one of the things we think about when we think about the church the church is there are some things about it that are organized we’re going to talk about that today but it’s more of an organism than an organization right an organism is a living thing right an organization is not necessarily so I encourage you to think about this because so much here in this country I think we have in some sectors uh an inordinate influence of the corporate world on the church often I think to its detriment right the church is not an organization it’s an organism and I’ll say this boldly I think the church has much more to teach the corporate world than the corporate world has to teach the church a lot of people aren’t clear about that that’s not to to deny the imperfections that we see in both right I got to be honest with you though the longer I’ve been in corporate life no offense the less impressed I get and I say I do not want to reflect that in my life right certainly not in my church not that we don’t see common wisdom and common Grace but again we we want to understand the nature of what the church is it is an organism with Christ it’s a living organism with Christ as the head Jesus said this I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overpower it it’s incredible to think about that right the church is the only Human Institution that God has promised to bless right he will do it so couple applications here to think about I think we need to be really careful about how we talk about his church anybody like me struggle with a critical spirit it’s not a spiritual gift by the way it seems like it uh but it’s not and so I found over time that it’s been easy for me to criticize churches individual churches or the church as a whole well the church does this the church you know the church is the bride of Christ and it is the only institution that Christ has promised to bless and so um as a former pastor of mine once said we don’t Advocate wife beating meaning we don’t beat up verbally on Christ’s bride the church we be very careful about how we talk about Christ’s Church and so I’m I’m preaching that to myself and I would I would Advocate that you think about that as well right the church with all its imperfections still is the bride of Christ and he is patiently growing it into To His Image right um I even see boy I’m tempted to go down this rabbit hole but I won’t in professing uh Christian leaders particularly more visible ones they tend to um criticize Bible believing Christians right and and apologize to unbelievers for the church now if there are things that we genuinely need to repent of that’s fine but we don’t repent of being biblical and calling people to repentance and I’m noticing some public pastors I’ll say one of them like Andy Stanley and others right apologizing for the church being faithful right no no we don’t do that if we’re being faithful and biblical there’s no need to apologize for that however if we are being sinful we get to demonstrate repentance in faith individually to people I I’ll say this I I had a friend of mine once say that um in a conversation with some of their co-workers said oh I I really blew my testimony I I sinned in this way and and and I’m a Christian and they know that um and I saidwell what an opportunity to display the gospel responding to God is about repentance and Faith you get to demonstrate what that looks like humbly right people don’t apologize and own their mistakes and sin generally right as I’ve often told my kids there are many people who would rather die than admit they were wrong about anything so if we as Christians when we fail and we do and we will get to own up to that I found that just apologizing asking for forgiveness it’s not normal people they’re very disarmed by that of course yeah and uh that’s the reality of of Proverbs 20 uh 2813 yeah uh he who conceals his transgressions will not Prosper but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion I think that’s true both of Believers and unbelievers so we’re we own up to that and we demonstrate something of Christ so our out today if you have your books you can follow along I’m not going to give you all the fill in the banks I’ll let you work that we’ll give you some of them um we’re just going to walk this through we’ll talk about the universal church um the the spiritual reality of that the local church how that plays itself out um Fellowship worship ordinances and some words on application so we’ve got a lot of ground to cover today because we’re going to extend the next two weeks into spiritual gifts which overlaps with this I don’t necessarily feel the need to get through all the slides today so whatever I don’t get through today will kind of continue and overlap into next week fair enough okay but we are going to be going pretty quick as I’ve often said though um interruptions are welcome let let’s interact together so feel free to raise your hand at any time uh and we’ll interact together okay and if if and if that applies to a a question at the end I’ll just defer to that but feel free to interrupt me at any time thanks so The Universal Church Christ is is the Eternal head of the church Colossians 1118 and he is the head of the body the church who is the beginning the firstborn from the dead so that he himself will come to have first place in everything we’ll get we’ll get more into this but think about what happens to your body if it doesn’t follow the follow the instructions from the head chaos from what I understand I’m no medical expert but from what I understand part of what happens with Cancers is when those Cells Go Rogue they stop following the instructions from the head and bad things happen I think there’s an illustration for us as individual Believers that we REM we maintain our connection to our head both individually and corporately we read earlier in Ephesians 4 about each individual doing its part we read about encouraging one another day by day right stimulating one another to love and good works how do we do that well in our spiritual disciplines of our time in the word and prayer every day and then that impacts what we bring to one another we don’t just walk with our lord for our own sake we do it for one another I think you’ve seen this in the reality of small groups you know Mike you come to the small group you God’s giving you something in your time with the Lord that I need to hear and vice versa and hopefully you’re seeing that Dynamic let the word of Christ it says in Colossians 3 dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another so we have a responsibility there beautiful responsibility to draw close to Christ together Ephesians 1:22-23 and he put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church which is his body the fullness of him who fills all in all do you find this hard to believe look at the church as it’s expressed in us and around the world is it obvious that we are the fullness of him who’s filling us why not all the time If we’re honest so this is a spiritual reality that we have to accept by faith that God is growing us into some of you heard me say that uh you know as Christians we are justified by faith in Christ so we’re declared righteous before God and we’re Sanctified right we are growing into that reality in our everyday lives and finally we’ll be glorified this thing in the middle called sanctification not going fast enough for me right but to God be the glory right because we as his body are growing into His Image however slowly imagine if we were perfect now right Pride would creep in perhaps because it’s slow because it’s Progressive because we get to demonstrate repentance and Faith to God be the glory right you see the attention is directed to him Mike yeah yeah that that is really well said Mike so if you didn’t hear that it says it’s our participation but it’s his power amen amen Christ purchased the church acts 20:28 be on guard for yourselves Paul said to the early leaders um for yourselves and for all the flock among which the holy spirit is made you overseers to Shepherd the Church of God which he purchased with his own blood yeah so the cost of our individual salvation is his blood right um you’ve been born again not of seed which is perishable but imp imperishable that is a living and abiding word of God and and the blood of Christ all these things are expressed in scriptures right in the scriptures he purchased us this is again why we value and speak well of his church and why spiritual leadership of deacons of Elders deacons overseers is so important because they don’t ultimately belong to them they belong to him it’s a sacred sacred stewardship um in First Corinthians 6:19-20 also in 1 Peter 1:18-19 I encourage you to write those down I I’ll list them again 1 Corinthians 6:1 19-20 and 1 Peter 1:18-19 tell us that we’ve bought we’ve been bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and that has implications for us in our personal Holiness and in our Holiness as his people so how does a person become a member of the body of Christ there’s two things that are in your workbook that are wonderful Let the Peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you are called in one body and be thankful so we are we’ve been called by God into his body um I hope you understand that when you become a Christian you become part of a family right it’s not an individual thing it’s not a solo thing right so important for us to remember in American culture where we to be so independent I fight this every day there’s this wonderful inter interdependence that God has for us we’re called together in one body and of course we know uh from the scriptures that when when we see the word call that’s the effectual call of God it’s not just inviting it’s making it happen if we’ve been called into one body he has brought us he has drawn us to himself also we see um we’ve been baptized baptized into one body 1 Corinthians 121 12-13 for even as the body is one and yet has many members and all the members of the body though they are many are one body so also is Christ for also by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body whether Jews or Greeks whether slaves or free and we are all made the drink of one Spirit you know as I read that I’m reminded of a beautiful um Passage in Colossians um let’s look at this a little bit so um in Ephesians 4:24 it mentions that um we are to be renewed uh in the spirit of our minds and say it says to put on the new man which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and Holiness of the truth so there’s a sense in which God has created a new man in us and and as a body interesting you for you fast forward to Colossians 3 I think it’s around verse 10 where it says um starting at verse 9 do not lie to one another since you put off the old man with his evil practices and have put on the new man who is being renewed to a full knowledge according to the image of the one who created him a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jews circumcised and uncircumcised the Barbarian cian slave and free man but Christ is all and in all what do we see here from those two verses the new man has been created and is being renewed right so there’s a there’s a spiritual reality of God doing something permanent but it’s playing itself out in time and you notice the the great Unity our identity is not physical but it’s spiritual Glenda what is the benefit of not forsaking our own assembly together yeah yeah I’ll start with I think what’s the downside of not doing that right um as we as I mentioned before in Hebrews I think it’s in Hebrews 3 encourage one another day after day so that we’re not hardened by the deceitfulness of sin right so maintaining our fire our passion for the lord requires us to be together and to encourage one another I would say that um Jesus said um I have the reference somewhere here that in the in the last days because because lawlessness is in increased most people’s love will grow cold are we noticing this right yeah and so to keep that fire going requires us to assemble together also the phrase stimulate to love and Good Deeds I need this accountability I need this challenge right I need Brothers to admonish and reprove me where I’m going astray I need that this is not optional right it’s not a matter if if you need it um you do need it you need to both be willing to give it and to receive it right the word of God what does it say in in second Corinthians 2 Timothy 3:16 all scriptures inspired by God and profitable for teaching look notice the next two things reproof correction and training let’s not forget those those two in the middle that we don’t like so we need that Mike yeah I always read that scripture yeah yeah yeah I don’t know what happened here there’s a lot I could uh I know what happened there’s a lot I could say about that there we go [Music] um yeah that’s right what we bring to to one another yeah Proverbs 18:1 says that he separates himself or is isolated right um seeks his own desire he quarrels against all sound wisdom God has not designed us to live that way but it’s so easy to do and I’ve seen this happen to so many people right as they just begin to separate themselves it’s not long um before they compromise and are weakened spiritually this is why it needs to be constant Cheryl yeah yeah yeah yeah that’s a great Point Cheryl I’m so glad you you all are bringing this up um I I’ve just noticed it it scared me enough you know uh there are people that I know even even people in this room who had spent some time uh that that I know personally who had spent some time isolated and God mercifully brought them back it was painful really really painful um when we think about the concept we’re covering a lot of ground here but but I love it and and thank you Lord for bringing this up we think about the concept of church discipline right if anyone sins go and reprove them in private and we see that whole that whole sequence in Matthew 18 and then and then if if they don’t listen to you bring two or three and they don’t listen to you bring it to the church and then there’s a a casting out of Fellowship we think of church discipline as that last step but it’s all of them if brothers and sisters if we’re faithful church discipline is happening every day maybe not every day but but consistently right I am sharpened I am challenged I I have I have received some stinging rebukes and and I continue to this is I have to to grow right um that have really hurt but have been so lifegiving and so important to my spiritual grow growth um brothers and sisters let’s make it easy on one another it’s hard I think particularly in this culture to both give and receive reproof better is open rebuke Proverbs 275 says better is open rebuke than love that is concealed faithful are the wounds of a friend but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy I think we can make this easier around ourselves by inviting it people are very hesitant I think I’m not that hesitant I’m probably too quick to do it but most people are hesitant to to bring to confront let’s invite it brother and sister what what what do you see in me um that that that needs to change have you seen any cem me I’ll throw it out there right now I I’m teaching you today um fire away after I’m done if there’s anything that that that has not been accurate or wrong or I mean you have the complete green light to do that to talk to me about that I’m not going to get everything right so this is just the rhythm it’s not normal in our culture but Cheryl I think you would agree it needs to be normal in our lives as Believers yeah Tina I yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah having that rhythm in our relationships that we that that’s an expression of love so I give an example I I I think I shared it with the men last Tuesday in Iron Man um Betty’s really good at this with me she she said to me not that long ago why do you act as if it’s all up to you nailed right well that hurt well isn’t it of course not but when but when you put it that way I realize yeah yeah um yes Jody we blame we defend we give a good image yeah yeah yeah yeah we defend ourselves yeah yeah so I can see we’re not going to get through all the slides but this is an important topic I really I really appreciate this this is so so important um look with me at Proverbs 3 if you would this uh this tells us a lot these are Proverbs 3 has a sequence of verses that are repeated in the in the New Testament um in various places actually I’ll quote Proverbs 623 First for the Commandment is a um yes 623 for the Commandment is a lamp and and the law is a light and reproofs for discipline are the way of life Wow reproof is the way of life we don’t think about that a lot so I think what I think what the Lord is I think impressing on our hearts here today is that we have honest real transparent conversations with one another and and and I’m not coming down on you all I mean I’m just saying this is happening I I I know a lot of you and we’ve had them but let’s make sure that we’re faithful uh to have those Jody to your point one of the things that um repentance is kind of a bad word right we see it as a negative Proverbs 3 I think helps us with this um well I’m going to start with verse five uh familiar verse and notice this sequence it was really interesting I remember one time reading through Proverbs here and I realized I memorized each of these couplets separately and I didn’t realize they were all together in one place it was beautiful um Proverbs 3 trust in Yahweh with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge Him and he will make your path straight do not be wise in your own eyes fear Yahweh and turn away from Evil it will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones fear Yahweh and turn away from Evil that’s repentance is it not it will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones in Acts I think Acts 2 it says repent and return that times of refreshing may come to you from the presence of the Lord and I want us to to to always equate repentance with refreshing because that’s God’s plan right when we when we turn from sin and turn to God wouldn’t we expect that wouldn’t we expect that turn from those things that displease him and toward the things that do but we need one another’s help to do that I’ve got blind spots how about you so um thank you for that um where were we that’s fine go ahead GL yeah yeah and the scriptures say that we cannot say the different body parts can’t say I don’t need you we need each other we’re going to really get into this in the next couple weeks but you notice in that that what it said there in Ephesians 4:15 through the proper working of each individual part causes the building up of the Body for its growth in love right we have an individual and a corporate responsibility I I really appreciate you guys bring this up couple things here real quick uh how was it Illustrated back in the um uh Back in the New Testament right it was first in local homes right not these ornate buildings right and then on Sunday they met the first day of the week so that’s just a pattern that we see in the scriptures um I don’t know about you but I’m really really uncomfortable when I go into a church building that has ornate decorations now we as Protestants don’t tend to have that right um but I just wonder if that’s a distraction from the real glory of what God is doing you know the temple is not physical right I think we establish that that we are living stones being built up into a house let’s never lose sight of that um I was you know I was thinking about um I I’ve gone through two different churches that had building programs and the contrast couldn’t have been more Stark um one of them uh was well you know if we just had a building we’d be able to do so much more and this Focus was on the building and I remember thinking and I was I I was on the leadership team at that point I said I I think that if we’re we need to focus on being strong in the spiritual building and how we lead a building won’t solve that if we’re not doing that fast forward to another church plant that I was part of and and and by the way that church still doesn’t have a building it’s been decades now uh I I passed forward to a church plant that I was part of and we were able to get a building relatively quickly and there wasn’t even an emphasis on it it was almost secondary like this would make things easier but this isn’t going to hinder our ministry and in fact they named the building a different name than the church because they wanted that to be really clear this building is not the church and I really really appreciated that um and so let’s let’s be really clear on that I I also remember seeing not to be critical well maybe to be a little bit critical I remember seeing um a church years ago um in New Jersey that built a beautiful facility um that God has apparently blessed but once they built it they kept sending out pictures of the building and there’s not a person in the picture and I remember thinking that’s not the church why isn’t there a crowd of people in front of this building I just thought that was really interesting that just shows our humanness right to have our focus on the wrong place okay so I probably took that one a little too far didn’t I okay how’s it organized so I mentioned earlier that um the church is an organism not an organization but God has given us some parameters to follow in terms of organization this is part of his design and so he’s given us certain leadership functions we see that in Ephesians 4 and he himself gave some as Apostles some as prophets some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the Saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ really interesting notice what the gifts are here the gifts are people right God has given gifted men to the church to equip for his work really really interesting and so we trust in God’s sovereignty to give us those people and it’s our and it’s our of our to our benefit to acknowledge and and to submit to that role right we’ll get into that in the next slide um God has given given people to the church to lead it and it’s two roles right um we see this in 1 Timothy 3 Titus 1 and acts 6 um and I’ll just kind of go through these relatively quickly um these are these are the roles of Elder who are the spiritual overseers and Deacon who are the servants right all of them the main qualification um as you look at that is character character not skill it’s character right elders just one gift they’re to be gifted in teaching right that’s the single skill if you will part of it um and deacons are enabling uh the elders and others by by serving this is where I go back to organism versus organization how many of you have seen churches where they put people in leadership maybe not they’ll use different terminology than elders and deacons they’ll maybe create something else a board that’s not really biblical and it’ll be be people who are successful in the corporate world are prominent in some way right how does that work out yeah exactly right um yeah uh God’s design for his church is very different it’s very different so we look at their character and the outcome of their lives and not just the outward appearance so important in Christ’s Church so important and then we are organized in our assembling right um as we said we we assemble together we don’t forsake our own assembly together I think we’ve talked a lot more about that so thank you Glenda for uh you were ahead of schedule here with your question so so thank you thank you for that uh and then the other way they’re organized is by submitting Hebrews 13 gives us some real um real important instruction remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you and considering the result of their conduct or as it says in The New American Standard the outcome of their lives we are to be observant right considering that imitate their faith I’m going to stop right there does that mean we imitate everything Paul said this follow me as I follow Christ this may be a shock to you but none of us have perfect leaders right to God be the glory right so what this means is even Paul as an apostle said follow me as I follow Christ implying that to the extent that I’m following Christ follow me to the extent that I’m not don’t we’re to be very observant right we think of the bereans right he said that that Paul said they were more noble because they didn’t take Paul’s word for it they examine the scriptures to see daily to see if what Paul was saying was true because Christ not Paul or any other leader is head of the church right so so you get that so considering the result of her conduct we’re to be observant imitate their faith obey your leaders and submit to them for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account so that they will do this with joy and not with groaning for this would be unprofitable for you U we need to look for every opportunity to acknowledge God’s sovereignty and the leaders that he’s given us and obey their guidance and instruction um I’ll give a little example of this I remember um when when Co first hit in March of 2020 we had just become members here and then the next week everything was shut down and there was a lot of angst about how do we keep our people safe right the and the and the pastors and Elders were were working this through very difficult trying to navigate with wisdom what do we do couple things I remember from that week one when Pastor Bobby was up here preaching to an empty so I’m like what was that like that must have been strange huh very strange he had to kind of play a mind game with yourself I remember specifically I think it was that first week Pastor you said just so you know this online thing this is not the church just set the tone this is not Church we’re doing what we can right now but until we’re assembled together this is not church I remember some some folks in the church would complain to me which is interesting I I said about well you know I don’t I don’t appreciate how the how the elders are handling things right they uh um they’re too closed or they’re not opening you know they’re not opening up enough or the open or opening too much as we navigated through that and I and I gave this verse to them I said first of all don’t talk to me talk to them but recognize that they’re not asking you to do anything unbiblical they’re they’re guiding us this is very difficult for them obey their instruction with joy because that’s who God has given you right and I praise the Lord that was not easy for you all I I see Pastor here as I thought I saw Greg around um for you man I know this was not easy for you um and and I remember Pastor Dave um gave a sermon about from Romans 14 about how we navigate issues of conscience we’re not always going going to agree on vaccines and and masks and all of that but we’re not going to make issues of that we’re through love going to serve one another there’s so I I know I’m wandering a little bit all that to say it was a joy to submit to you in this because we knew that you had our best interested heart and I really appreciate um how you led us biblically and it was a joy to do that we’re not always going to agree we’d say well I won’t I I wouldn’t do it that way if it’s not if it’s if it’s not unbiblical do it right this is God’s design for us and to do it it’s a joy for us for us and for them to do that okay I’m getting on a couple hobby horses here but I I really I just I just want to say I just so appreciate the example that’s been said unity in the church this is huge and uh we may not get past this um unity in the church is the is the church yet unified the way God wants it to be it is not I hope we’re trending positively but sometimes I really have my doubts um not necessarily here but in the broader church that’s one of the big criticisms of the visible Church Jesus prayed to his father I do not ask on behalf of these alone that is his disciples in front of them but for those who believe in me through their word that they may all be one even as you father are in me and I in you that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me Jesus prayed for you and I are his prayers always answered yeah yeah so God’s true people will grow in unity someone said to me last week it was really encouraging someone who’s relatively new to Calvary she said you know I just observe this church and I see all kinds of people all kinds of Ages all kinds of ethnicities socioeconomic backgrounds loving each other being in unity that’s not normal from a worldly perspective I think the church people should look at the church and say why are these people even together they don’t really have anything in common except Christ would we even be together some of us if it weren’t for Christ I think the answer is no it’s a beautiful thing so as I mentioned Jesus prayed for us as Believers and his purposes are always always fulfilled got a couple passages with me um these are kind of your key passages um that speak to us about Unity let’s look at Ephesians 4 I want to spend a little time in Ephesians 4 and Philippians 2 turn with me turn there or take out your advice and let’s look there together Ephesians 4 um I’ll read verses 1-6 therefore I uh the prisoner of the Lord exhort you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you’ve been called with all humility and gentleness with patience bearing with one another in love being diligent being diligent to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of Peace if there is one body and one Spirit just as also you were called in one hope of your calling one Lord One Faith one baptism one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all one one one this is the spiritual reality that we are one in Christ that isn’t always obvious in how we live it out right we do have conflict do we not we do that’s why verse three is there for us being diligent to keep the unity of the spirit the bond of Peace so much I can say here Colossians 3 we looked at uh he has created us into into a new people in which there is no distinction between all of these types of groups right when we emphasize the distinctions I think we’re disobedient to the Lord right not that our backgrounds aren’t important God has created those but they are not primary if you find your individual or corporate identity in anything other than Christ brothers and sisters you are sinning you are disobeying what God has told us to do Philippians 2 this is beautiful I I pray this regularly for our leaders and for us Philippians 2 therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ if there is any consolation of love if there is any Fellowship of the spirit if any affection and compassion fulfill my joy that you think the same way by maintaining the same love being united in spirit thinking on one purpose doing nothing from selfishness from selfish ambition or vain Glory but with humility of Mind regarding one another as more important than yourselves not merely looking out for your own personal interests but also for the interest of others and it goes on right have this way of thinking have the mind of Christ which was also in Christ Jesus and it goes on to talk about what he did where does Unity come from Christ and his example Right comes from him the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace from the Trinity think how unified the Trinity is they are of one mind right and so we derive our Unity from him notice what happens here if there is any encouragement in Christ if there any consolation of love if there’s any Fellowship of one Spirit any affection compassion derive that in your own personal life right fulfill my joy that you think the same way in other words we’re taking the spiritual realities of him and our walk with him and we’re living that out with one another so I’d put it this way Unity with one another does not come by focusing on each other isn’t that interesting that’s counterintuitive but on the God who unifies I I I was in a fellowship not that long ago which for the sake of unity said we got to we got to focus on each other we got to hear one another’s story just it’s all horizontal it blew up it got so much worse who are we focusing on who is being worshiped right we’re making ourselves God God has given us this glorious gospel he’s given us a vision of him for the church how dare we make it about ourselves and that’s what the world does yeah get sucked into it that’s happening all over folks it’s happening all over we are inverting the first and the second commandment there’s a lot I can say here um I’m going to I’m going to just end with this last verse and we’re going to continue some of these slides next week I got to figure out how to do that but I really appreciate the inter interruptions I think it really has been of the Lord look at first John 5 with me um we we’ll end with this so important that we recognize the spiritual reality of Fellowship right God has called us into one body he’s baptized us into one body Fellowship isn’t something that we make happen Fellowship is a spiritual reality for us who are in Christ that we get to live out does that make sense right so Fellowship is different than friendship right we can have friendship with people in the world but in the truest sense we can’t have Fellowship what Fellowship have light and darkness does Scripture say what Fellowship have Christ and Satan we have we have different Origins we have different birth we have different parents right so this is a spiritual reality brothers and sisters that we get to live out it’s it’s just so beautiful and I just pray that God captivates our hearts with this 1 John 5 starting verse one everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God and everyone who loves the one who gives New Birth loves also the one who has been born of him right as it says earlier in first John you can’t love God and hate your brother those don’t go together right now as a kid I I have I don’t have any biological Brothers I have I have two sisters and I that was my excuse well it doesn’t say sisters I can hate on my sisters doesn’t work like that right if we love God we love those also who been born of him Brothers this is challenging for us is it not right when we sin against one another when we fail each other I remember beting in a Sunday school class A few years ago where um we were talking about trials in relationships and um and uh one of the one of the young ladies said and and we provide this challenge for one another I don’t know if you realize how sanctifying my sin is to you you get what I’m saying right when we fail each other that is an opportunity for sanctification that’s a trial that God God can use so it’s not not not really a gift that we give if you will but it’s God’s work in us so um he loves the one who gives New Birth loves also the one who has been born of him by this notice the wording here listen carefully by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and do his Commandments and it’s so interesting how do we know that we love one another by our love for him I was actually at a conference once where the speaker said from this passage I think it’s in my notes here um we love God by loving one another that sounds good doesn’t it right Eric you get it right that’s the opposite of what this says again this is counterintuitive I Love You by not making you the first priority but by making him the first priority isn’t that interesting that’s how awesome our Lord is I can’t love you any better than by loving him first right or as I like the to say we love others best by putting him first I hope you’ve seen in the scope of this lesson so far that God’s design for the church is very different than that of the world and very counterintuitive for what we might otherwise think we’re going to continue this the next couple weeks I’m not sure how this is going to go um but I’m glad we have a couple more weeks to explore explore this and explore spiritual gifts and I really I pray I praise God and thank you uh for your uh your questions and your interruptions I think maybe I we have 30 seconds I’m going to pray all right thank you Father we praise you for just the the beautiful design for your church and why is it so beautiful because it is a vision of Christ father we are so flawed we are so our our instincts and our intuitions our selfishness goes so much against this and so we want our minds to change we want to repent of ways that we have not loved one another well um of ways that we have sinned against one another we’ve put ourselves first and not you first father we confess that to you we repent of that we ask that you would bring us to a new and a different place we thank you for the Unity that we have here at Calvary the things that you have built and are building and I pray that in you as your word says that we would Excel still more to your glory and to our joy in Jesus name amen