SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN LOVE (Eph 4:15-16)

Well, welcome and good morning welcome.

Hey, make your way on in here find a seat guys if we need some more seats I know they're

randomly behind the curtains along the wall.

So you can we can gather some if we do need but we should have plenty of plenty of room in here this morning.

We are so grateful for you to come and gather with us today.

Typically around this time of the year we start our Advent series and we walk

through the anticipation of waiting and thinking through what it

must have been like waiting for the Messiah to come and What a what a glorious time

for the church universal to be able to celebrate this as you can see.

We've got decor up and and it's very celebratory in here.

But we've chosen this year with the transition waiting.

We weren't sure when we're gonna get in the new building.

We're just going to continue through our current sermon series.

So we we will celebrate in our hearts and we will worship we're gonna sing a couple

Christmas songs this morning as we get our minds focused because we're Celebrating

the incarnation of Christ year.

All year long, right?

Amen.

Amen.

Okay.

Well, we're here to celebrate not only the incarnation of our Savior But the fact that he did come

and he accomplished what he set out to accomplish.

Which was to redeem a people for himself and bring us into union with the

triune God and That's why we gather today to worship.

So thank you for being here.

Thank you for bringing your gifts to all of you covenant members.

Thank you for your commitment and your Your desire to use what

Christ himself has given you for the betterment of this body for the benefit of your brothers and sisters.

Thank you for regular attenders and guests thank you for the fact that you come and worship with us

and love and enjoy this wonderful time and we've all come together for the

purpose of Worshipping and growing in the knowledge and love of that triune God God the

Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit so before we

Start our service officially we Desire to pray for other local

churches.

We pray for a different church every single week sometimes very local sometimes a little

further away.

But other brothers and sisters that are gathering this morning to worship The same God to

worship Christ and today we want to pray for our brothers and sisters just across the street at journey.

We pray for them often, but we desire to pray for them today.

Pray that God would work in their midst that God would mold the hearts of their people that they would grow

Just as we asked God to do in our hearts.

So, please bow your heads with me as we pray for journey and their people.

Dear Heavenly Father.

We thank you for bringing us together this morning.

For we are an unworthy people.

But you have made us worthy through the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

It is given to us Lord we We

know that we're not the only ones.

We're not even the only ones in this very community that are gathering To serve you to worship

you as you've prescribed.

Well, we specifically want to lift up the Saints at journey

Where they are near and dear to my heart Lord.

I love the leadership there.

I love the people there.

And God I ask right now that you just do a work in their midst that only you can do.

I pray that you give their leadership wisdom and discernment.

I pray for whoever's preaching today that they would Proudly and

boldly and humbly

Proclaim your word Your truth to the people.

That it would be true to what you have told us in Scripture and that you would use that word to

mold the hearts and minds of your people in their midst Lord that you would bring about

revival in their midst that you would allow them to to disciple

grow spiritually as they are

being molded Into mature manhood into

The fullness and stature of Christ just as you are doing in us.

Lord be with them grow them work in them.

Help them to know the great love that we here at twelve five have for them in Christ's name.

Amen.

Well, I pray and I hope that your hearts are ready to worship this morning,

you know, I've heard it said that Sunday morning gathering with the Saints is a

Saturday night preparation event.

I Would take it further than that.

I'm gonna take it all the way back to the previous Sunday.

Because us gathering here.

This isn't what's Necessarily filling us up individually.

What's filling us up is is communing with the triune God and then coming together to commune with the triune

God with each other and so right now we're gonna go to to the Lord and a call to worship and

My prayer is that this is not the moment that you stop and focus on the Lord.

But this is a merely a spillover of what you've been doing throughout the week as a saint.

But it also plays in this.

Oh, we're weak.

I'm weak and There are awful lot of times where my focus has not been on

What it should be on?

My focus has not been on the Lord.

I have not been worshiping the Lord and this is a moment where I can be reminded

He is good.

Why do I not run to him at all times?

So let's stand our call to worship comes from Psalm 86 this morning.

The great is your steadfast love.

It's a prayer of David the first eight verses Where David writes incline your

ear O Lord and answer us.

I'll preserve our lives for we are godly.

I'll be gracious to us.

Oh Lord I'll

gladden the souls of your servants.

For you O Lord are good and forgiving.

I'll give ear O Lord to our prayer

in the day of our trouble.

We call upon you.

There is none like you among the gods.

Oh Lord.

Nor are there any works like yours?

We serve the one true God.

The one true God all other gods fall short.

Our God does not because he reigns supreme over all.

Let's go to that God in a prayer of adoration this morning.

I I actually desire to read a prayer From the Valley of Vision.

It's a Puritan prayer.

So please bow your head and pray along with me as I Read and pray this great

prayer.

Oh, it is your will that we should love you with heart soul mind strength and

Our neighbor as ourselves, but we are not sufficient for these things.

There is by nature.

No pure love in our souls.

Every affection and us is turned from you.

We are bound as slaves to lust.

We could not love you Lovely as you are until you set us free.

By grace, we are your children and we serve you.

For we believe you are our God in Jesus and that through him we are

redeemed and our sins are forgiven.

With this freedom we would always obey you.

But we cannot walk in Liberty any more than we could first attain it ourselves.

May your spirit draw us nearer to you in your ways.

You are the end of all means.

For if they lead us not to you we go away empty.

Lord order all our ways by the Holy Word.

And make your commandments the joy of our hearts that by them we may have happy

Converse with you.

May we grow in your love and Manifest it to all of mankind.

Those spirit of love make us like the loving Jesus.

Give us his benevolent temper his benevolent actions that we may shine before men

to your glory.

Oh the more you do through love and me and by us Humble us the more keep us

meek lowly and always ready to give you honor for you are

worthy of all praise in Christ's name We

pray.

Amen.

We are the people

People of God with the freedom Open our

hearts The love of the Father

The victory the

hope of the

world has risen the

spirit has come.

Objective is love is about the one who is love.

It's about the one who chose and his sovereign will to bestow that love upon

us unworthy recipients.

It's worthy of praise, right?

Our scripture reading Comes from the love chapter this morning.

Chapter 13 of 1st Corinthians.

Love is patient and kind.

Love does not envy or boast.

It is not arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way.

It is not irritable or resentful.

It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things believes all things hopes all things endures all things.

Love never ends.

That's for prophecies.

They will pass away as for tongues.

They will cease as for knowledge.

It will pass away.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes all the partial will pass away.

When I was a child I spoke like a child.

Thought like a child.

I reasoned like a child when I became a man.

I gave up childish ways.

For now we see in a mirror dimly.

But face to face now, I know in part.

Then I shall know fully.

Even as I have been fully known.

So now faith hope and love abide these three, but the greatest of these

is love and we only know love

because God is love.

And Christ is the only one that exemplified that perfectly.

We do a poor job of it.

But he did not praise God.

It's worthy of praise this morning.

Amen.

Pray

this

morning

Lord

as

we

as

we

prepare

to.

As brother Nathan prepares to bring your word this morning. I pray that you would open all hearts.

Open our ears open our minds.

Or to clear out any distractions.

Lord, I pray that you would bless this offering this morning.

We bless the one who gives would love you.

We praise you.

We ask all these things in your righteous and holy name in Jesus name.

Amen,

I myself love the Christmas season.

I.

Love the great hymns.

It is such a great reminder of the fact that

If that had not had taken place we would all be without hope.

We often think of it as us Gentiles.

Never having hope if he had not come.

We forget that even the the Jews of the Old Testament They

themselves would have had no hope had Christ not been promised.

And if Christ had been promised he was certainly going to come.

And Light brought into the world in the midst of darkness.

Who that doesn't incite worship in your heart something's wrong.

Well, let's go ahead and open your copy of God's Word.

Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians chapter 4 we're gonna start reading in verse 11.

Our primary text today is going to be verses 15 and 16 and You may be thinking

Pastor we know you better than that.

You will not make it through two verses but I am only focusing on one

element of these verses and you'll see why here in a moment, but let's read the text.

They're in Ephesians chapter 4 starting in verse 11.

Paul says.

And he gave the apostles.

The prophets the shepherd or the evangelist the shepherd 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 the knowledge of the Son of God.

To mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

So that we may no longer be children.

Tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine the human

cunning my craftiness and deceitful schemes rather speaking the truth and

love.

We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head and to Christ

from whom the whole body Joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped.

When each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in

love.

This is the reading of God's Perfect word.

Let's pray.

Let's ask that the Holy Spirit would allow us to understand these great truths.

Dear Heavenly Father.

We come to you once again and we humbly acknowledge our frailty before you our

Inability at times to comprehend the clarity and precision

of of your great word.

So help us.

Guard my speech from error.

Guard the hearers that they would judge everything that comes out of my mouth by this

Wonderful word.

Lord mold us with it.

Guide us to you.

We know that your word never returns void it always Accomplishes that which it sets out

to do so we are Confident in the fact that the Holy Spirit you are going to work

in our minds and in our hearts and renew those minds.

That would then inform the heart in Christ's name.

Amen.

Well, Paul urged us to to walk in a manner worthy of this calling that

that we've been called to that we've seen there in the first few chapters of Ephesians and He tells us to

walk in this manner worthy of our calling back in the first verse here of chapter 4 as he makes that transition of thought

and One of the ways that we do that is as we see in verse 3 to to maintain.

Or to guard the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.

This unity that that we have that that you and I share in Christ in this

one body.

The body of our Savior Jesus Christ, and we saw how grace was

given to each one of us in this body.

Through gifts given by Christ himself there in verse 7 of chapter 4 and

these gifts were given for the purpose of Building up this body in

that unity.

The unity that is already ours, but seeing it to its fruition, right?

And in verse 11, we saw specific gifts.

He didn't he didn't do an exhaustive list.

He just gave us a few for the purposes of what he's telling us.

He tells us that that Christ gave the gift of the Apostles to the church.

That Christ gave the gift of the prophets to the church.

That Christ gave the gift of the evangelist of the church.

That Christ gave The gift of shepherd teachers to the church.

For what purpose?

For equipping those of us within the body.

And For the purpose of building up that body.

Building it to what?

Building it until we arrive at mature manhood.

Ultimately the measure of the stature of the fullness of our Savior.

Who once again is the head of that body?

And no, we will not see that mature manhood fully realized until

glory.

Make no mistake.

We will not see it Fully realized until Christ returns and makes all things

new and brings us his children into glory and Puts death under his feet.

But our aim as we saw last week as pastor Jeremiah pointed us to in verse 14 should

be to pursue This mature manhood.

We should pursue it by each one of us each individual member within this

body.

No longer being children in a spiritual sense to grow.

And you see Paul knows that if he calls us to pursue and ultimately attain

This mature manhood as a body then he must identify the characteristics

of what growing into maturity.

Looks like and as we saw last week in verse 14.

He does so from a negative aspect.

One of the characteristics of Growing into maturity is don't be children.

And what does that look like?

Well, he tells us being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine

meaning that you're being manipulated and deceived by doctrine that is not

conforming of being conformed and given by the Apostles looking to the Apostles and subsequently

taught by qualified shepherds.

Children are being tossed.

But just as Paul often does He builds upon this negative characteristic to then

give us a positive one.

Because just telling us to no longer be children is not enough.

Is it.

I think the reason or one of the reasons is if we are children, we have no reference point for maturity.

We have no concept of maturity.

You remember the advice that was given to you when you were young by your mother or

father or Grandparent or teacher somebody that's gone before you.

You remember that advice and and they gave you this this wonderful advice and sometimes you trusted and took that

advice.

But not necessarily from maturity, right?

It wasn't necessarily from a position of Growing and knowing the the nuance of that advice.

You just it's just because you trusted them.

You trusted their judgment.

You didn't have the life experience or wisdom to fully comprehend that counsel that was given to

you.

Because of that there were times I can say in my own life for sure

that I did not heed that advice and suffered the consequences.

Sometimes I took it other times I didn't.

Why because I had no Reference point for that wisdom because I was childish.

We're not brought into maturity yet.

We don't know better.

And we suffered the consequences.

All right, I did.

I suffered the consequences only to find out maybe old dad wasn't so dumb after all.

Maybe he had some wisdom that I didn't have right?

But in my foolishness in my immaturity I did not have a reference point

for that wisdom.

I wasn't mature enough.

You ask well, why are you pointing to this why.

I I think it's because I see Christians like this today.

I Myself have been that very Christian many times.

I Have no reference point for it.

I I remember I'm We're being young and zealous in the faith and and I convinced all

of my friends in the youth group pretty much the whole youth group.

I convinced the whole youth group to do a bonfire and The purpose of this bonfire

was to burn all of our secular CDs.

I know a lot of y 'all have been a part of that right.

You're gonna age yourself for other records tapes or CDs.

I guess today you got to throw your iPhone in there.

I don't know what that looks like.

But but but we that was a thing we did that and I convinced the whole of the youth group We got to

do this thing.

I was convinced to be a good Christian that you only listen to Stephen Curtis Chapman.

Right, that was it only to find out later.

Maybe that wasn't the best theology either.

But my point was is I thought for sure I was Convictionally convinced of this and I

remember my father who was also one of my pastors Reprimanding me.

Reprimanded me.

He told me He said son you're creating a law where there is no law.

Scripture is not telling you you have to do this.

It does not prescribe that and you are creating a law and burdening weaker brothers and sisters with

legalism and I

Roughly 18 years old I'll be honest.

I genuinely thought this was my thought.

Man when's dad gonna grow up in the faith and

See what I clearly see in Scripture, right?

I Genuinely Thought this about my pastor and my father.

It took me years to realize the devastation that my foolish immaturity and arrogance was leaving in its wake.

Thankfully through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.

Using him and other godly mature men to show me what not being a

child actually was.

Because all I knew was childishness.

For my father to just simply reprimand me and leave it there Would have left me with no

No reference point for this.

And I would just assume that my thought is the only thought and I would not understand anything deeper.

And thankfully they did what Paul points out in our verse today verse 15.

Where Paul gives us this positive characteristic of mature manhood.

Look at it with me.

So get again verse 15.

He says rather Don't be a child right rather

speaking the truth and love.

We are to grow up In every way into him who is the head

into Christ from the whole body.

Joined and held together by every joint with which is equipped when each part is working

properly.

Oh, it makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

You see verses 15 and 16 are a summarization of of what we've been looking at over the past

few months.

This is this is Paul summarizing everything he's been telling us up to this point.

Right.

We are part of one body with Christ as the head.

We've been brought into union.

He's the one that has brought us into this body by his finished work.

With every unique part you and I are being held together For this

purpose.

So we've already looked at this pretty extensively so I want us to focus our attention today on one small phrase.

One small phrase that I believe grounds and clarifies this positive characteristic of growing into mature manhood.

Speaking the truth and love and I want us to see two

things about this phrase.

I only have two points so we should be able to get through this quickly, right?

Y 'all know me my first point is usually like three quarters of my sermon.

So maybe that'll happen today, but I want to see two things.

This is not a sign of maturity.

Speaking the truth and love is not a sign of maturity.

Speaking the truth and love is often misunderstood and I believe two different ways two extreme ways the first

that I want us to look at is a distorted misinformed view of love.

A Distorted misinformed view of love they say you

see see there.

Look at that burst you cannot ever speak truth unless it is filtered

through my interpretation of love.

And here's the problem that that interpretation often requires.

No, no it it Demands that that truth is to be diluted into

oblivion.

An extreme example, let me give you a stream example of this.

What would be that those who seek to avoid words like sin wrath judgment?

They avoid it in fear of of the hearer feeling unloved.

You may say Wow pastor, there's not anybody doing that.

Oh, yeah there was a whole movement just a few years ago that was pushing pastors to avoid words like

that and Try and say say other words in place of them.

Because their interpretation of love Meant that that was the most loving thing they could do

and so you can't speak truth.

Unless it goes through the lens of that love and in order to go through the lens of that love you had to remove Anything

that felt unloving to me and it took over.

We have many many churches and Christians Who believe this to be true?

And we see it practically playing out every Sunday in many churches where pastors they skip portions of

scripture.

Why do they do so?

Why does so many pastors skip portions of the Bible?

They do it for fear of having to deal with the text at least they have enough character to know I can't

lie about that text.

So in order to not have to lie about the text, I got to avoid it.

Because I don't want to offend those in attendance.

Because this truth Would have to be filtered.

Through my interpretation of being loving all the

while using text like this to justify themselves.

You've probably heard it said by by Vodie Bauckham, right?

He says they don't want to break their 11th commandment thou shalt be nice.

That's the Christian culture of today.

You see this interpretation.

I'm gonna be honest.

This interpretation is nothing more than holding hands and singing kumbaya with someone all the way to the gates of hell

avoiding truth for the sake of my

Preconceived understanding of love.

Using a verse like this to justify that you see they often pride themselves in being like

Jesus.

Being like Jesus.

Well, that sounds spiritually mature, doesn't it?

That sounds like a spiritually mature thing to say.

Oh, I just want to be like my Savior.

I want to be like Jesus.

We all should say that phrase.

The problem is is their interpretation of Jesus is also off.

They're completely missing the point of who Jesus is.

They completely ignore Conveniently Jesus flipping tables and running people out

of the temple with a whip.

They forget that he that Jesus sat at the dinner table and openly Insulted

his dinner guest in Luke 11.

They forget about the onslaught of insults that he launched at the Pharisees in places like

Matthew 23.

Over and over again right to their face

that causes a problem with this whole idea, doesn't it?

Hmm.

Now they say I'm not attesting sin to Jesus.

Every single thing that Jesus did was perfect and sinless including those things absolute

perfection.

I'm simply pointing out the fact that their interpretation of love and Jesus.

It's not a biblical one.

And so their interpretation of this text is completely distorted.

Yet they see it as a as a barometer of maturity as a sign of maturity.

They think themselves more spiritually mature than they are and they judge the spiritual maturity of others based

on this faulty premise.

I experience that constantly talking to other brothers or and in the.

It's almost as if there's this aura of pride in them and it's it's like they're treating me like

One day you'll mature in the faith and you'll grow up and quit being mean.

And I'm like Okay, well, I'm just saying what scripture says and I'm doing it because I love you and they're like,

yeah no, if you loved me, you wouldn't say that and.

So they build this idea of this is a sign of maturity speaking the truth and love because it's a

misunderstanding.

Of both truth and love, right?

Well, I think they often Swing the pendulum to that extreme because

of the second distorted Interpretation that we see.

And I'll be honest.

This one is probably gonna hit a little closer to home for some of us.

And it is those who misunderstand speaking the truth

the word that Paul uses here.

You see that we translate Speaking right here in the English languages.

You're looking at it in your Bible.

Maybe in ESV's you see speaking.

But it's not the same word in the Greek that he would have used in referring to mere

audible speech.

There was a word for that.

He could have used that word that just meant Speaking.

I'm telling you truth.

That word would have been applicable for this phrase if that were the case instead He uses a

different word that encompasses both professing the truth through speech and

Adherence to that truth internally and

Lived out externally a Holding to truth a Holding

to the truth and speaking that truth.

I think what Paul is doing here is inexplicably tying this truth and

love together.

You can't take them apart.

It's they're not interchangeable.

You can't have one without the other speaking.

The truth in love is so interwoven that you cannot detach the two in any

way.

You see to speak the truth is one thing.

Any of us can speak truth.

Anyone can speak truth.

We've all known apologists and Famous theologians that at some point in their life just

completely abandon the faith that proved themselves to be unbelievers all along yet

speak years speaking truth.

Haven't we you can speak truth all day long speaking truth without love though.

There's something different going on here from what Paul's saying.

And not speaking from love.

So what is love?

Well, just like the watered -down version of love that we talked about a moment ago.

This version is a distorted and lifeless understanding of love.

Have you ever heard phrases like the most loving thing we can do is speak the truth.

Y 'all probably heard me say it.

The problem is sometimes when that phrase is being said it's without the context and the

life lived behind that truth and.

It's just data That's all it

is.

Most loving thing I can do is speak the truth.

Well, yeah, let's build upon that.

Let's understand the nuance of that before we just go on with your blanket statement because anybody

can speak truth and claim that it's.

You see Paul means something so much more here look at the look at the verse again verse 15

says rather Speaking the truth and love.

We are to grow up in every way Into him.

Into who?

Into Christ.

Into him who is the head into Christ.

That's who we're growing up into Christ is the perfect picture of love because he is God and God

is love right and We don't know God if we don't know Christ.

As a matter of fact turn over with me to 1st John chapter 4.

1st John chapter 4 starting in verse 7.

We're gonna look at verses 7 through 12 and and this is a condensed few verses that mentions

the word love 13 times in just a few verses.

And so I want us to see if the scripture says love that many times let's look at it.

We've already read the love chapter.

We've seen the love of Christ in our scripture reading earlier.

But I want us to see it here and in 1st John chapter 4 starting in verse 7.

This is beloved.

Now who's he speaking to?

The Saints he's not calling unbelievers.

Beloved is he this is Saints.

Let us love one another.

Okay.

Well, if we just leave it there we're like, okay, I don't know that's good what's my interpretation of love.

He goes on.

He says for love is from God love one another for love

is from God and whoever loves Has been born of God and

knows God.

Whoever loves so now we have a definition of love.

Well, we don't necessarily have a definition.

We have the parameters of love.

We're about to get the definition.

Okay.

Verse 8 anyone who does not love does not know God.

Because God is love so those men that have Abandoned the faith proving themselves to never be in

Christ.

They're speaking truth.

But not in love because they're incapable of it because they're incapable of love because they're not in Christ, right?

Totally incapable of love.

So the the first definition of love that's distorted is already thrown out the window because we have problems

with just some relative term of love based upon our cultural circumstances

verse 9 in this.

The love of God was made manifest among us.

Now he defines what love is.

The word that this love has been made a made manifest among us.

Who is this?

He goes on he says they God.

Oh that God sent his only Son into the world.

So that we might live through him

you want a definition of love.

It's Christ.

God is love.

Christ is how we see God.

Christ is love.

This is our definition.

Look at verse 10.

In this is love.

There it is he clarifies it right and this is love not that we have loved God.

But that he loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins.

This is the gospel of Jesus Christ you want to be you want to be someone that is able to

speak truth and love.

Well, then you must first be in Christ the gospel and then.

Then and only then are you being conformed more and more into the image of our Savior as we see in our text here in a

moment in Ephesians.

We verse 11 beloved if God so loved us.

We also want to love one another.

So now we see that we've been given the capability of love.

Because we've been loved right.

Well, we're all trekking.

We've been given the capability of love because we've been loved and now we've been given the command to express

that love outwardly and this word loved agape.

This this is so much more than we can even begin to comprehend.

This love is relational.

This love is Expressed this love is lived out.

Far deeper than anything that we can comprehend, right?

I've mentioned it before.

English language is limited.

We have one word for love.

Don't we essentially I love my wife.

I love coffee.

Those are two very different loves.

My Love for my wife is expressed through a life lived in in

commitment and diligence to her.

Coffee just as an addiction, but we're to love one

another verse 12.

No one has ever seen God.

If we love one another God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

You cannot love each other.

Unless God has first loved you and Now we've been given the command to love one another to

express that love outwardly so I can say all day long.

Speaking the truth is the most loving thing.

I can do and hate you in my heart and give you all

Accurate data.

What does Paul say about that said even if I speak in the

tongues of angels?

Heavenly language this truth straight from heaven itself.

But have not love.

I'm like a noisy gong and a clinging cymbal.

What does he mean?

What does Paul mean by that?

Hey, I Did I was teaching the youth one time?

I was young.

This is a stupid example.

But the vision works, right.

I Bought I brought up a big we have we have an electric set.

So but we had a drum set and a big crash cymbal, you know the loud ones I set it up there had a drumstick in my hand.

I brought one of the youth boys up.

I said I said, all right I'm gonna tell you a story and I'm gonna need you to recap that story for us.

Okay, and I started telling him a story.

I think I started with once upon a time something stupid once upon a time.

And then I started hitting that symbol right in front of his face.

I finished the whole story and then I fell and then I and then I stopped

and I was and everybody's laughing.

He's laughing and he I said I said, uh.

What what was the story about?

Can you recap the story?

He's laughing.

He goes.

Oh, I didn't.

I couldn't hear you.

I heard nothing you said.

I Said that's a noisy gong and a clinging cymbal.

My lack of love.

That story could have been a good story could have been an accurate story.

Could have been a very truthful great story that meant nothing because he couldn't hear it

over my Arrogance and pride and hatred within my heart.

So when we speak the truth in love It better be

in the biblical definition of what love is.

And what is that?

It's Christ's likeness.

We go back to that first example of a distortion.

Well, I just want to be like Jesus.

What a great statement.

Now, let's define Jesus.

Let's look at Jesus now, let's define his entire word.

We love because he first loved us.

We would not be capable of that If he had not so

speaking the truth is by no means a sign of spiritual maturity.

You see it might not even be a sign of new life.

I Struggle with that when someone walks through those doors and man, they've got truth.

They could speak truth all day long.

I just automatically assume they're a saint.

I'm not looking at the pattern of their life.

I'm not looking if they're if they're defeating sin in their life.

I'm just I'm just going off of their words.

Speaking truth is not a sign of maturity and You can say you're speaking truth through love all day

long and it may take time for us to see that it that is not The case but often it is

not.

The question is are they adhering to that truth that they speak?

Is their life a pattern of that truth?

Is it pursuing holiness and Christ likeness.

Because if they are that love will be present and preeminent in their life as we saw there in first John.

It will start to come out because these two things are interchangeable.

You cannot have truth without love and you cannot have love without truth.

So this is not a sign of maturity.

Second point.

This is a means to maturity.

Paul means this phrase as a means to maturity.

Look back at our verse in Ephesians 4 in verse 15.

He says don't be children rather grow up.

But he says something there in the middle, right?

What is it speaking the truth and love?

We are to grow up.

The wording that Paul uses here is an ongoing action.

You haven't arrived yet.

This is an ongoing work towards growing up meaning.

We are to speak the truth and love as we grow.

That's the process it's getting us there.

Well, let's look at the text again rather speaking the truth in love.

We were to grow up in every way and to him who is the head and to Christ verse 16 from whom the whole body

Joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, right?

What did he say about the shepherd teachers before for equipping the Saints for the good work, right?

So all of this is being done building up to equip when each part is working

properly.

When you are speaking the truth in love when you are structured as you were to be

structured within God's prescribed means of Looking back to the Apostles and the prophets the

foundation of that truth and building upon that truth with the true one gospel and then being

shepherded by Qualified men who were called and set out to interpret what

the Apostle said.

Accurately when that happens it makes the body grow

you see it.

It's the process of it He says so that it builds itself up.

There's it again in love this is the process of building and

Maintaining the unity of the Spirit and growing into mature manhood.

We are to speak the truth in love the way scripture defines in order to get there

as we're growing towards that process

to adhere.

Speak to each other the truth of the gospel in and through the love of God.

Given to us the sacrifice of our Savior.

Look again at the end of that verse.

So that It builds itself up in love.

We're striving towards mature manhood and One day we will achieve to the fullness of the

stature of Jesus Christ himself.

And when we seek to be obedient this truth

Of God's Word will point us to love true godly biblical love and each of us will grow into

maturity.

And as that happens this body will grow towards mature manhood praise God.

John 15 Jesus said this is my commandment that you love one another as

I Have loved you.

That's Jesus basically saying what Paul said or later on imitate me.

Now Paul had to say imitate me as I imitate Christ.

Jesus just says imitate me.

Love one another as I have loved you.

I showed you what that is.

I Was the perfect example of this beautiful love straight from God.

Because I am God is what Jesus is declaring and he goes on he

says greater love has no one than this that Someone lay down his life for his friends

our glorious Savior laid down his life for us.

In order to bring us into union With God the triune God,

so what is love sacrifice?

Sacrificially living.

Not caring for your own needs.

Caring for the needs of your brothers and sisters first you want to speak truth.

You want to live out truth.

It better be out of love.

Who there's no greater love than this.

As I said earlier you cannot detach truth from love and you cannot love without truth.

I think that's the point that I want to resonate with all of us today.

You cannot have one without the other quit trying.

That's a distortion of what Christ has commanded but one of the ways

that we show love and union here every week is through the ordinance of the Lord's Supper and

It's the first Sunday of the month and we've began a habit to where You will come and take the

elements the wine and the bread and go back to your seat.

But we are going to partake together as I read from 1st Corinthians 11 the account

of this Great Supper.

That we get to share if you are in good standing with an evangelical church.

You are a baptized faithful believer.

You are welcome to this table.

Search your hearts.

Make sure that you Don't have anything against a brother or sister.

But you can lay that down.

Because this table is not penance.

Remember?

This table is showing that all my Savior has paid for all of those sins

rest in it.

Let's pray Dear Heavenly Father.

Help us to be a people who speak truth who live truth who adhere to truth in love.

Oh Father mold us into the image of your glorious

Son as we partake in

this ordinance.

We pray that you would be honored.

We pray that Christ would Be honored supreme reigning above us as the head of this

body as the as the Good Shepherd as the king.

The one that we are brought into

through his blood Through the fact that he

came to this earth.

Condescending from his rightful throne to be made in the image of the creature that he created

to represent us perfectly fulfilling the law.

Willfully going to the cross

paying for us.

What love is this?

Be honored in our worship during this time in Christ's name.

Amen.

This is we always do.

You could come around the outside grab your elements and go back to your seat from the middle aisles and

As soon as everyone's through we will partake together

first Corinthians 11.

The Apostle Paul Speaking of the Great Supper

Says for I received from the Lord.

But I also delivered to you.

The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread.

When he'd given thanks he broke it.

Let us give thanks to God for his provision of his son.

Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you once again, and we We thank you.

Oh Lord allow gratefulness to overwhelm our soul.

For the glorious Sacrifice of Our Savior

Jesus Christ Who gave up his body for us be honored in

our worship in Christ's name and he said This is my

body.

Which is for you?

Do this in remembrance of me

in the same way.

He also took the cup.

Father be honored in this.

This is but imagery of

the Beautiful blood of Christ.

Jesus said this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

And Paul says for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup.

You proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Amen.

Hey men, let's sing the doxology together before we go to a time of fellowship in our service of quantity.

Am I safe.

All right.

Everyone can be seated for just a moment, please.

We have a new member that we want to recognize today.

So doll Dalton chalice, would you please come up here, sir?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So many of you know Dalton.

Incredible young man, and he has an incredible story.

That's his to tell and So I do I do want to just inform you a few things about how we got to know each

other.

He's from Alabamaland.

We're at we're at in Alabama Decatur

Alabama and so Dalton has newly been saved.

Just a handful of months and we have been in talk over the past few months and him

saying hey I want to come to the debate.

I actually surprised me.

He can't.

We hosted a debate here at 12 -5 back in the summer and I got to meet him in person and then we kept

staying in contact and he wanted to schedule a visit to come to a service here at 12 -5 and He traveled all the

way again from Alabama.

He loved it here.

And he was like Jeremiah I want to move to Jonesboro from Alabama.

And so I'm like that doesn't happen every day.

So this is an incredible young man, and he's been through the membership class has questions.

He wanted to be prayerful about this.

And so this was not done in haste.

This has been prayerful and he told me and pastor Nathan just a few days ago.

Hey, I want to join 12 -5 church and being covered covenant membership.

And so I just want to ask you 12 -5 if you would please stand an affirmation of this brother

becoming a member here at 12 -5.

Amen.

All right.

It's a done deal.

Well, we want to get not just gift you this Bible the CSV study Bible.

But we refer to it as a commissioning this will serve as a time where you look back and think

oh man.

This was something that was given to me being equipped to share the truth in love like pastor Nathan was talking about

with the world and so brother.

Thanks so much for for who you are and let me pray for you real fast Heavenly

Father.

We want to thank you so much for this special day.

God I just pray that you would be with Dalton God.

We know that by your spirit you have gifted him with many gifts and Lord I pray that he would flourish

here at 12 -5 with his giftings and God as a church family that we would also pour Into his life

or we thank you so much for today and all that you continue to do.

We praise things in your name Jesus.

Amen, and all all God's people said our daddy.