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

TWELVE 5 CHURCH

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Welcome and good morning! Welcome! Hey, make your way on in here, find a seat, guys, if we need some more seats.

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I know they're randomly behind the curtains along the wall, so we can gather some if we do need, but we should have plenty of room in here this morning.

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We are so grateful for you to come and gather with us today. Typically, around this time of the year, we start our

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Advent series, and we walk through the anticipation of waiting and thinking through what it must have been like waiting for the

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Messiah to come. And what a glorious time for the Church Universal to be able to celebrate this.

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As you can see, we've got decor up, and it's very celebratory in here, but we've chosen this year, with the transition, waiting.

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We weren't sure when we were going to get in the new building. We are just going to continue through our current sermon series. So, we will celebrate in our hearts, and we will worship.

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We're going to sing a couple of Christmas songs this morning as we get our minds focused, because we're celebrating the incarnation of Christ all year long, right?

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Amen? Amen, okay. Well, we're here to celebrate not only the incarnation of our

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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

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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

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Covenant members. Thank you for your commitment and your desire to use what

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

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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.

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We've all come together for the purpose of worshipping and growing in the knowledge and love of that triune

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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.

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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

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God, to worship Christ. And today, we want to pray for our brothers and sisters just across the street at Journey.

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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 ask

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God to do in our hearts. So, please bow your heads with me as we pray for Journey and their people.

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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 that is given to us.

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And Lord, 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 have prescribed.

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Lord, we specifically want to lift up the saints at Journey. Lord, they are near and dear to my heart.

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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.

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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.

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Lord, that you would bring about revival in their midst, that you would allow them 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,

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Lord. Be with them, grow them, work in them. Help them to know the great love that we here at 12 .5

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have for them. In Christ's name, amen. Well, I pray and I hope that your hearts are ready to worship this morning.

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

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Saturday night preparation event. I would take it further than that.

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I'm going to take it all the way back to the previous Sunday, because us gathering here, this isn't what's necessarily filling us up individually.

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

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God with each other. And so right now, we're going to go to the Lord in a call to worship.

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And my prayer is that this is not the moment that you stop and focus on the

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

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But it also plays in this, oh, we're weak. I'm weak.

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And there are an awful lot of times where my focus has not been on what it should be on.

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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, oh, he is good.

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Why do I not run to him at all times? So let's stand. Our call to worship comes from Psalm 86 this morning.

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Great is your steadfast love. It's a prayer of David. The first eight verses where David writes, incline your ear,

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O Lord, and answer us. Oh, preserve our lives, for we are godly.

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Oh, be gracious to us, O Lord. Amen. Oh, gladden the souls of your servants.

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For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving. Oh, give ear,

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O Lord, to our prayer. In the day of our trouble, we call upon you.

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There is none like you, nor are there any works like yours.

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We serve the one true God. The one true God. All other gods fall short.

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Our God does not, because he reigns supreme over all. Let's go to that God in a prayer of adoration this morning.

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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.

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Oh, it is your will that we should love you with heart, soul, mind, strength, and our neighbor as ourselves.

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But we are not sufficient for these things. There is by nature no pure love in our souls.

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Every affection in us is turned from you. We are bound as slaves to lust.

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We could not love you, lovely as you are, until you set us free. By grace, we are your children and we serve you.

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For we believe you are our God in Jesus, and that through him we are redeemed and our sins are forgiven.

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With this freedom, we would always obey you. But we cannot walk in liberty any more than we could first attain it ourselves.

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May your spirit draw us nearer to you in your ways. You are the end of all means.

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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.

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

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Oh, 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.

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Oh, the more you do through love in me and by us, humble us the more.

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Keep us meek, lowly, and always ready to give you honor, for you are worthy of all praise.

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In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Oh, people of God, with the freedom of hope in our hearts, how great is the love of the

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Father. With gifts and wonders of his faithfulness forever, we'll sing of the victory, the hope of the world.

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The Savior has risen, the Spirit has come to bring us into love forever.

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This is what we are. We are the people of God, with the freedom of hope in our hearts, how great is the love of the

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Father. Oh, gifted from darkness and into the light, his sons and their daughters, humbled at a price, our

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God has blessed us forever. Oh, we are the people of God, with the freedom of hope in our hearts, how great is the love of the

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Father. This is a song. This is a song of love.

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We've searched our price, our

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Lord has called us home. And we see him on the throne.

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Hear the voices sing as one. Oh, this is love, this love.

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We are the people of God, with the freedom of hope in our hearts, how great is the love of the

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Father. Oh, we are the people of God, with the freedom of hope in our hearts, how great is the love of the

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Father. Oh, how great, how great is your love.

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How great, how great, how great is your love.

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How great, how great, how great is your love for us.

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How great is your love.

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How great is your love. How great, how great, how great is your love.

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How great, how great, how great is your love. How great, how great, how great is your love. You gave your life for us and we are amazed as we stand in awe for we have been changed by the power of the cross.

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How great, how great, how great is your love.

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How great, how great, how great is your love.

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How great, how great, how great is your love for us.

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How great, how great, how great is your love.

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From the heights of heaven, you stepped down to earth.

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Innocent perfection, you gave your life for us and we are amazed as we stand in awe for we have been changed by the power of the cross.

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How great, how great, how great is your love.

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How great, how great, how great is your love.

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How great, how great, how great is your love for us.

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There's never been, there will never be, a

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God like you, a love so true.

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There's never been, there will never be, a

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God like you, a love so true.

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How great, how great, how great is your love.

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How great, how great, how great is your love.

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How great, how great, how great is your love for us

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Sing it out, Church How great, how great is your love

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How great, how great, how great is your love

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How great, how great, how great is your love for us

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This is not about the object of his love, the one who is love.

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It's about the one who chose in his sovereign will to bestow that love upon us unworthy recipients.

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It's worthy of praise, right? Our scripture reading comes from the love chapter this morning.

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Chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians. Love is patient and kind.

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Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way.

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It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

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

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Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease.

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As for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

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When I was a child, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child.

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When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly.

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But face to face, now I know in part.

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Then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

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So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three. But the greatest of these is love.

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And we only know love because God is love. And Christ is the only one that exemplified that perfectly.

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We do a poor job of it, but he did not. Praise God. It's worthy of praise this morning.

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Amen. And broken heart, with tears unspoken, taste of his perfect love.

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Broken, guilty, and hiding lies, there is no need to run.

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See what your God has done.

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Christ is born, Christ is born,

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Christ is born for you.

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He's the lamb who was given, slain for our pardon.

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His promise is peace for those who give in need.

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He's the lamb who was given, slain for our pardon.

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His promise is peace for those who believe.

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So come, though you have not become, yet is the hour of freedom come.

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See what your God has done. Sing this with us.

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Christ is born, Christ is born,

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Christ is born for you.

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One more time. Christ is born,

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Christ is born, Christ is born for you.

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The stars are brightly shining.

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It is a man, our dear

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Savior's birth. He'll see the world in sin and error blind.

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Till he appears and the soul felt its worth.

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He'll see the world in sin and error blind.

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Till he appears and the soul felt its worth. He'll see the world in sin and error blind.

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Till he appears and the soul felt its worth. He'll hear the angels' voices.

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For I did not know when

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Christ was born. O night divine,

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O night, O night divine.

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True He taught us to love one another.

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His law is love and His gospel is peace.

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No chains shall He break for the slave is our brother.

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And in His name all oppression shall cease.

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Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we.

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Let all with us praise

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His holy name. With all on our knees.

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O hear the angels' voices.

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O night divine,

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O night when

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Christ was born. O night divine,

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O night, O night divine.

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We praise

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You this morning. There has never been, there will never be a God like You. A love so true.

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And thank You for loving us, Father. Thank You. We praise

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You this morning, Lord. Lord, I just pray this morning, Lord, as we prepare to, as Brother Nathan prepares to bring

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Your Word this morning, Lord, I pray that You would open all hearts. Open our ears, open our minds.

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Lord, clear out any distractions, Lord. Lord, I pray that You would bless this offering this morning.

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And bless the one who gives. We love You, we praise You, we ask all these things in Your righteous and holy name, in Jesus' name.

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Amen. I myself love the

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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.

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We often think of it as us Gentiles never having hope if He had not come.

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We forget that even the Jews of the Old Testament, they themselves would have had no hope had

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Christ not been promised. And if Christ had been promised, He was certainly going to come.

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And light brought into the world in the midst of darkness. If that doesn't incite worship in your heart, something's wrong.

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Let's go ahead and open your copy of God's Word to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4.

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We're going to start reading in verse 11. Our primary text today is going to be verses 15 and 16.

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And you may be thinking Pastor, we know you better than that. You will not make it through two verses.

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But I am only focusing on one element of these verses and you'll see why here in a moment.

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But let's read the text. There in Ephesians chapter 4 starting in verse 11.

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Paul says, And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, 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

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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 by human cunning by craftiness and deceitful schemes rather speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head into 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

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This is the reading of God's perfect word. Let's pray. Let's ask that the

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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 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

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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

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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

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Amen. Well Paul urged us to walk in a manner worthy of this calling 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 maintain or to guard the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace this unity that we have that you and I share in Christ in this one body the body of our

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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 and in verse 11 we saw specific gifts 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 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 evangelists 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?

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building it until we arrive at mature manhood and ultimately the measure of the stature of the fullness of our

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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

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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 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

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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 they gave you 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 nuance of that advice 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

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I can say in my own life for sure that I did not heed that advice and suffered the consequences sometimes

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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 right

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I did I suffered the consequences only to find out maybe old dad wasn't so dumb after all maybe maybe he had some wisdom that I didn't have right but in my foolishness in my immaturity

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I did not have a reference point for that wisdom I wasn't mature enough you ask well why are you pointing to this

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I think it's because I see Christians like this today I myself have been that very

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Christian many times I have no reference point for it I remember being young and zealous in the faith and I convinced all of my friends in the youth group pretty much the whole youth group

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I convinced the whole youth group to do a bonfire and the purpose of this bonfire was to burn all of our secular

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CDs I know a lot of y 'all have been a part of that right you're gonna age yourself whether records tapes or CDs I guess today you gotta throw your iPhone in there

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I don't know what that looks like but that was a thing we did that and I convinced the whole of the youth group we gotta do this thing

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I was convinced to be a good Christian that you only listen to Steven Curtis Chapman right that was it only to find out later maybe that wasn't the best theology either but my point was

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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

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I'll be honest I genuinely thought this was my thought oh man when's dad gonna grow up in the faith and see what

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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

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Holy Spirit using him and other godly mature men to show me what not being a child actually was because all

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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

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Paul points out in our verse today, verse 15 where Paul gives us this positive characteristic of mature manhood look at it with me let's look at it 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 it is equipped when each part is working properly oh it makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

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

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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.

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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 us 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 in 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 interpretation often requires no, it demands that that truth is to be diluted into oblivion.

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An extreme example, let me give you an extreme example of this would be that those who seek to avoid words like sin, wrath judgment they avoid it in fear of the hearer of 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

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Sunday in many churches where pastors they skip portions of Scripture why do they do so?

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why do 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

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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 just to justify themselves you've probably heard it said by Votibachum they don't want to break their 11th commandment thou shalt be nice that's the

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Christian culture of today you see this interpretation

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I'm going to 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

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I just want to be like my savior I want to be like Jesus we all should say that phrase the problem is their interpretation of Jesus is also off they're completely missing the point of who

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Jesus is they completely ignore conveniently Jesus flipping tables and running people out of the temple with a whip they forget 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

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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 now you see

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I'm not attesting sin to Jesus every single thing that Jesus did was perfect and sinless including those things absolute perfection

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I'm simply pointing out the fact that their interpretation of love and Jesus is not a biblical one and so their interpretation of this text is completely distorted yet they see it 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

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I experience that constantly talking to other brothers it's almost as if there's this aura of pride in them and 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

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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 in love because it's a misunderstanding of both truth and love right well

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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 going to 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

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English languages you're looking at it in your bible maybe in ESV you see speaking but it's not the same word in the

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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

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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

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I think what Paul is doing here is inexplicably tying this truth and love together you can't take them apart 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 prove themselves to be unbelievers all along yet speak years speaking truth haven't we?

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you can speak truth all day long speaking truth without love though there's something different going on here from what

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Paul is saying not speaking from love so what is love?

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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 the most loving thing

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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 loving you see

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Paul means something so much more here look at the verse again, verse 15 says rather speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in every way into Him into who?

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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

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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 1

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John chapter 4 1 John chapter 4 starting in verse 7 we're going to look at verses 7 -12 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 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 in 1

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John chapter 4 starting in verse 7 this is beloved now who's he speaking to?

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the saints he's not calling unbelievers beloved is he? this is saints let us love one another ok well if we just leave it there we're like ok

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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

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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 verse 8 anyone who does not love does not know

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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 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 this love has been made manifest among us, who is this?

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he goes on he says that 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

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Christ God is love Christ is how we see

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God Christ is love this is our definition look at verse 10 in this is love there it is he clarifies it right not that we have loved

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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 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 verse 11 beloved if God so loved us we also ought to love one another so now we see that we've been given the capability of love because we've been loved right we're all tracking 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 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

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I've mentioned it before the English language is limited we have one word for love don't we essentially

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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 commitment and diligence to her coffee just is an addiction but we're to love one another verse 12 no one has ever seen

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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

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I can do and hate you in my heart and give you all accurate data what does

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Paul say about that he said even if I speak in the tongues of angels heavenly language this truth straight from heaven itself but have not love like a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal what does he mean what does

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Paul mean by that I was teaching the youth one time

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I was young this is a stupid example but the vision works right

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I brought up a big we have an electric set but we had a drum set and a big crash cymbal you know the loud ones

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I set it up there had a drum stick in my hand I brought one of the youth boys up I said alright I'm going to tell you a story and I'm going to need you to recap that story for us okay and I started telling them a story

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I think I started with once upon a time something stupid once upon a time and then I started hitting that cymbal right in front of his face

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I finished the whole story and then I and then I stopped and everybody's laughing he's laughing and I said what was the story about can you recap the story and he's laughing he goes

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I couldn't hear you I heard nothing you said I said that's a noisy gong and a clanging 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

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Christ 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

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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

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I struggle with that when someone walks through those doors and man they've got truth they could speak truth all day long

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I just automatically assume they're a saint I'm not looking at the pattern of their life

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I'm not looking if they're defeating sin in their life 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 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 1

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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 this is not a sign of maturity second point this is a means to maturity

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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 speaking the truth in 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 in love as we grow it's the process it's getting us there let's look at the text again rather speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in every way and to him who is at the head and to Christ verse 16 from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped what did he say about the shepherd teachers before for equipping the saints for the good work 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 apostles 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 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 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

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God John 15

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Jesus said this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you that's

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Jesus basically saying what Paul said later on imitate me

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Paul had to say imitate me as I imitate Christ Jesus says imitate me love one another as I have loved you

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I showed you what that is I was the perfect example of this beautiful love straight from God because I am

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God is what Jesus is declaring and he goes on he says greater love has no one than this that someone laid 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

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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 for there is no greater love than this as I said earlier you cannot detach truth from love and you cannot love without truth

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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

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Christ has commanded but one of the ways that we show love and union here every week is through the ordinance of the

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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 1

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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 oh my

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Savior has paid for all of those sins rest in it let's pray dear

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Heavenly Father help us to be a people who speak truth who live truth who adhere to truth and love oh

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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 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 just as we always do you can 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 let's stand together first Corinthians 11 the apostle

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Paul speaking of the great supper says for I received from the

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Lord what I also delivered to you the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread when he had 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

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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

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Lord's death until he comes amen amen let's sing the doxology together before we go to a time of fellowship in our service of quantity oh am

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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 Dalton Chalice would you please come up here sir yeah yeah so many of you know

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Dalton incredible young man and he has an incredible story that's his to tell and so I do want to just inform you a few things about how we got to know each other he's from Alabama land we're at in Alabama oh

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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

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I want to come to the debate he actually surprised me 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

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I want to join 12 5 church and be in covenant membership and so I just want to ask you 12 5 if you would please stand in affirmation of this brother becoming a member here at 12 5 amen alright it's a done deal well we want to not just gift you this bible the

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CSB 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 who you are and let me pray for you real fast heavenly father we want to thank you so much for this special day

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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

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Lord we thank you so much for today and all that you continue to do we praise things in your name Jesus amen all