The Excellent Way - Christopher G. Brenyo

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 27,

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Now you are the body of Christ and members individually.

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And God has appointed these in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers.

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After that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.

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Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers?

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Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gift of healings?

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Do all speak tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the best gifts, and yet I show you a more excellent way.

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Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

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And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love,

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I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

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This is God's holy and infallible word. Please pray with me.

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Oh Lord, we need recalibration today. We need to see the centrality, the primacy of love.

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Oh Lord, we are often guilty of neglecting love toward our spouses, our children, our parents, but even more so we are quick to neglect love for one another in the body of Christ.

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I pray in your spirit you would give us a new sense of urgency that we would delight to love one another, to build each other up for your glory and for the good of our neighbor.

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And we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. I've titled the message today,

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The Excellent Way. I'm going to subtitle Gifted Service Motivated by Love.

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The More Excellent Way, Gifted Service Motivated by Love.

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The Corinthians desired the external gifts for the purposes, it appears, of self -exaltation and pride.

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Today, we learn that Paul is urging them to repent and to use their giftings in service to the body, in order to serve the body, to build the body up for the edification of the body and out of love for the brethren.

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This love for the brethren is rooted in Christ's sacrificial love for his people, which comes to us first in the gospel.

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Well, I've got five points for you today, and they're very simple. First, you are the body of Christ corporately and members individually.

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That's number one. It's going to really focus on our identity in Christ. Number one, you are the body of Christ corporately and members individually.

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Second, the Lord has provided gifting and service to the body.

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It's the Lord's doing. He has provided gifting and service to the body.

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The third point is in the interrogatory mood. Do all possess the giftings listed, or do all hold offices?

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It's a rhetorical question. The obvious answer is no. Do all possess the giftings?

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Do all hold offices? The answer is no. Number three.

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Fourth, the more excellent way that Paul refers to here is the way of Christ's love, the way of Christ's love.

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Finally, in conclusion, the possession of extraordinary gifts or performing acts of service apart from love profits nothing.

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So what you have at Corinth, it appears as we go on, and we'll discover more about this in chapter 14, that speaking in tongues was the most elevated and desired gift among the brethren at Corinth.

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Interestingly, Paul, in his list that is given to us in the second point of body gifting and areas of service, he lists tongue speaking as last.

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And I think this is a very important thing to realize. He's saying the thing that you value the most is least significant out of all of the gifts.

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You've got this upside down. You've got this all confused. And he goes on to point out the error of their way.

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There's some principles and axioms he wants us to think about as we go through the verses today.

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First, the truth that needs to be understood about this section is that the

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Corinthians esteemed spiritual gifting, but they neglected the weightier matter of love.

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So really, the truth behind all of this is the Corinthians esteemed spiritual gifts, but they were neglecting the greater thing, the greater matter, and that is love.

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And as a response and result of this, Paul says to them and says to us through the spirit, your gifted service should be marked by love for Christ and love for others.

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We need to repent of our old ways and walk in new obedience.

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The question that has to be asked as we're reading a text like this, what are the impediments in your life to a proper display or expression of love for Christ's people?

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Love for the body corporately and love for the members. You have to ask the question very personally.

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What are the impediments that are in your life that prevent you from loving the body the way you should?

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Something else we should as a body be known for our love for Christ's church, both in the corporate, even the universal sense, the local church, and going down and loving her members individually.

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Sometimes we like some of the people in the church, but we hate the church. Sometimes we love the church, but don't like the individuals.

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We have to love both. They are inextricably linked together.

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We have to love the individual members of the body and love the corporate body as a whole.

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Of course, all of this happens because of Christ's great example of love toward us.

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While we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us, and that principle necessitates and demands that we demonstrate that kind of love to others.

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It's easy for us to forget all that the love that he has shown to us in the gospel.

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It's easy for us to forget that we were wretched sinners who did not love him, who were his enemies, and yet he came and he rescued us and made us his own.

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Let's look at the text itself beginning in verse 27. Our identity.

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You are the body of Christ. What an incredible statement from Paul.

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You are the body of Christ, and you are members of that body individually.

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All Christians and all angels, all ages, are members of the body of Christ.

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Every Christian ought to relate to all other Christians as fellow members of the body.

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So if you think that you have some justification to mistreat or malign the character of another

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Christian in Christ's church, whether it be in this church or part of the universal church, you're crazy.

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You have no justification to have ill feelings toward other people who are believers in Jesus Christ.

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I think this is at the heart of the Corinthian problem. They decided the kinds of believers they like to remember back to the beginning.

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Well, if you were one of Paul's disciples, maybe we can be friends or maybe for one of Peter's disciples, that sectarian spirit they had, or maybe

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Apollos' teachers. We're the people who follow Apollos, so we're a little clique within the church and you can like us.

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This has been carried over in various ways throughout the letter, but now we see that the people who spoke in tongues looked down upon people who didn't.

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They devalued the gifts of other people in the body and highly esteemed the gifts that they possessed.

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We have to guard this in our own hearts. Maybe we could ask the question, is there anything that we esteem out of balance or out of round with a full orb view of scripture and life and doctrine of faithful biblical people?

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Are we too fascinated with philosophical and theological truth to the detriment of basic love for one another?

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Is there something that we are committed to that takes us away from and distracts us from this pure love and devotion to Christ and to one another?

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We have to search ourselves out in the mirror of the scripture to determine, is there something in us that is tending toward that end?

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Well, God has done something very marvelous and he has declared us and it's remarkable for us to consider that we are the body of Christ.

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We belong to him. He's united and joined himself to us and we individually participate as vital members of the body.

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Turn really quickly to Ephesians chapter five. It's incredible discussion about the church.

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I don't think there's a better scriptural place and whole cannon to go to about the doctrine of the church than Ephesians.

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Let's look at Ephesians chapter five. In that great picture that Paul uses to describe the marriage relationship, he elevates this teaching about husbands and wives to tell us and teach us about the identity and the makeup of the church.

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Let's begin reading in verse 25, Ephesians 5, 25. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her.

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There's two principles here. Love is sacrificial and this is very challenging.

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We love each other selfishly. Husbands love their wives for what their wives can provide for them and vice versa.

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And there is a grave danger in living and acting in that way. It distorts this kind of pure view of love that Paul teaches us here in Ephesians.

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In order for me to love my wife appropriately, I need to sacrifice myself for her good.

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I need to sacrifice my interests for her interests. And likewise, it would seem that she has to sacrifice her interests for my interests.

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So this idea of sacrificial love is at the heart, I believe, of what

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Paul is talking about both here and in 1 Corinthians. Christ gave himself for the church that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word that he might present her to himself as a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she should be holy and without blemish.

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Now, if in Corinth you're focusing on displaying your spiritual gifts in vanity and pride and self -exaltation, you can be assured that you're not loving each other sacrificially.

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And Paul really calls us to love our brethren in this way, to do what is necessary to build them up, to encourage them, to strengthen them in the faith.

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We have to sometimes set aside our own comfort, our own preferences in favor of the brethren.

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It's amazing to think that the Lord is sanctifying us and purifying us in this way as described in verse 27.

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So husbands ought to love their wives, verse 28, as their own bodies.

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He who loves his wife loves himself for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as the

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Lord does the church. If we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones.

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For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother to be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

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This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

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So really, when we think about this as the marriage passage, it's really the church passage, isn't it?

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He's really talking about its essence, the relationship between Christ and the church.

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And that greater relationship informs us and gives great guidance to us about how that secondary or lower expression in the husband and wife should function, verse 33.

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Nevertheless, let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

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Let's go back to 1 Corinthians. We are the body of Christ.

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We are members of that body individually, verse 28. And God has appointed officers and areas of service within the church.

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The first, apostles. The second, prophets. The third, teachers.

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Paul places them at the top of the list. As I mentioned at the outset, speaking in tongues is at the bottom.

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And what is the common denominator of 1, 2, and 3? The apostles, the prophets, and the teachers.

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The common denominator of all of them is that they are intended, their calling is to instruct the people, to equip them for ministry, to fit them for service.

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So their ministry is directed to benefiting and edifying the body.

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This is at the heart of Paul's criticism of those who esteem these other external gifts in an inappropriate way.

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Then he goes on to say there are miracles, there are gifts of healings, there are helps, ministrations, varieties of tongues.

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Do you remember when Jesus was performing miracles? There are two things that were happening there.

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First, very importantly, he was fulfilling messianic prophecies.

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What the Messiah would be and how he would minister to the people. But second, he was validating the preaching of his message.

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Those miracles served to arouse people's interest, to garner attention, that he might preach the truth to them.

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And I believe that's what was happening in this apostolic era. Many miraculous things were happening to point to, to authenticate the truth of the gospel.

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As we learned in our teaching hour this morning, the sufficient canon of scripture now does away with this need or necessity of special revelation.

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We don't need a new prophecy. We have a complete revelation here in the pages of scripture.

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And so when people talk about spiritual gifts, they say, oh, chapter 12 and chapter 14 are all about spiritual gifts.

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Well, when you really dig into it, what we learn here is this chapter in the beginning of chapter 13 is a call to love.

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It's not a call about spiritual gifts. It's actually the opposite. He's saying you're really enamored with this spiritual gift thing.

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I want to show you now a more excellent way, which is the way of love. Chapter 14, we get there.

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They highly prized this gift of tongue speaking, even to the exclusion of other gifts.

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So the question metaphorically, I should say rhetorically is asked, are all apostles?

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The answer is absolutely no. Are all prophets? No. Are all teachers? No. Are all workers of miracles?

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The answer is no. Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues?

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Do all interpret? The answer is no. When you look at that list, can you answer yes to those gifts yourself?

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Can you answer yes to all of them? The answer is no, you can't. However, all of us can serve and love.

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My mentor has many admirable qualities, and one of those is he told me when we were starting the first church that I planted outside of Kansas City in Olathe, Kansas, he said, you're not going to be the best church.

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You're not going to be the biggest church. You guys are young. We're starting this. He said, the one thing that you have as a possibility for you at that church is you could be the most loving church in the world.

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That's actually a possibility for you as a church planter. When I think about ascension,

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I can think about many deficiencies where we are in our development. We're behind my schedule where we should be, but maybe we need to reinvigorate this potential.

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We're not going to be the biggest church. We are certainly the most reformed and the most doctrinally sound.

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We can confess that, right? But joking aside, there's a real opportunity for us.

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We could be the most loving church in town. That's something we could do.

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If we aspire to that, if we really wanted to be that, the Lord might be pleased to grant that to us, that this church might be a loving church, bringing in welcoming people from all the different backgrounds that people come from in the gospel, preaching the truth to them and loving them as they are discipled and grow in godliness in that process of sanctification.

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It's kind of exciting, isn't it? That could be true for us. Well, there's two things that have to happen in this pattern.

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Corporately, we have to say we want to be that kind of church, but that's only good insofar as each member of the church, each person here represented.

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It takes it seriously that they are under obligation, a glorious one, to be a loving member to the body.

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So the question is, are you ready to take on that responsibility? It's one thing for the pastor just to say it and set it out in their heads as a goal that we'd be a very loving church.

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I think we're very loving as a body, but are you going to take on the responsibility of serving in the most excellent way?

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According to Paul. The potential exists for us today.

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After reading and hearing in the scripture, the Holy Spirit could impress upon us to desire the best gifts, which honor and glorify

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God and edify the body. And it seems, as we look through this all, that the way that we are to serve, the way we use our gifts is a way to love one another.

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I earnestly desire the best gifts. Verse 31. And yet I show you a more excellent way to show you the bookends and the insertion of this love doctrine in this section.

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Switch over to chapter 14. The first verse.

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First Corinthians 14. Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.

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Now, the important part about understanding this, this gift of prophecy is really about truth telling and teaching.

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It's really about proclaiming to the people of God the truth about Christ and his gospel.

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Pursue love. Desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you might be able to teach the body, that you might be able to encourage and edify the body.

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And finally, the last verse. You don't have to turn there, it says, but let all things be done decently and in order.

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So, this idea of love comes in this very big spiritual gift section in First Corinthians.

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But we really understand that love is the dominant theme of this 12 to 14.

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It's really about loving Christ and loving our neighbor. And he makes a very compelling argument.

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Chapter 13, beginning of verse 1. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love,

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I become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. My brother -in -law is a drummer, not a professional, an amateur drummer.

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And he asked me what I thought about getting drums for Jameson and Elijah a year or so ago.

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And I said, that's a terrible idea. Because it's loud already.

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You ever heard a beginner playing the drums? It's noise. It's not music.

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It's noise. And what Paul is saying here is, imagine this.

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You are the greatest orator and rhetorician walking the planet. You have the greatest capacity to speak the truth about a host of subjects.

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But you're devoid of love, love for Christ and love for the brethren. He says, effectively, you're just making noise.

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That's a pretty strong statement, isn't it? So we see how important.

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We are concerned about doctrine, as we should be. But that doctrine has to be married to love, has to be united to it.

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Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but I don't have love,

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I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

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Can you imagine one of your kids sitting in your living room? You're trying to have a moment of peace and quiet and taking the cymbals and just clanging them incessantly.

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Well, that's what gifted men do when they even preach the truth about God and they do it without love.

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Do we believe that to be true? That's what the scripture says. He says, though you have the gift of prophecy and you understand all the mysteries and all knowledge and though you have all faith so that you could move mountains, you have the kind of faith, the faith of that mustard seed that you could move mountains, but you're devoid of love.

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You are nothing. I think this is a real challenge to us to ask ourselves, are we characterized by love?

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Are we filled with love for the brethren? And I think it should actually be pretty convicting because I think we desire the other gifts, whatever they may be.

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We esteem those a better thing, a better service to the kingdom than loving each other.

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And Paul says, no matter what it is, think about this list. You understand all mysteries.

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We can ask you any question about Paul's doctrine and all of his letters. You can give the right orthodox answer.

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And he says, if you lack love, you're nothing.

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Don't you wish you had a faith that could move mountains? But if you don't have love, you have nothing.

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Let's turn to first Corinthians eight. I don't know if you guys remember this. Some of you were with us when we preached on this.

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We're starting to see a constant theme in Paul's letters. It's interesting when you go through it, you don't see it quite as sharply.

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But after you go through a larger section and start to go back through it, you realize how much continuity there is in the letter.

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First Corinthians chapter eight. Now concerning things offered to idols.

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We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up.

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But love edifies. Knowledge puffs up the individual.

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But love builds up the body. Knowledge puffs us up.

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Love edifies everyone else. And this is,

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I think, a halting verse for me and every pseudo -theologian there is in the world. Anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know.

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You don't know half as much as you think you do. As I told you, I told the installation coordination committee of the

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CPC. I wasn't trying to be funny on the floor of Presbyterian.

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I said, I knew a lot more at age 30 than I do now.

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And the point I was making is, I thought I knew a lot when I was 30. But now, 15 years later,

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I don't know very much. And I think that humility helps us to be instructed.

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If you already know it, you're already puffed up. You're not going to receive the teaching. You're not going to be correcting your own life and doctrine.

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You're going to be seeking to further puff yourself up. But if you love someone, if you love the body, it builds the church.

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And all of these errors, the food offered to idols, conduct at the

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Lord's Supper, esteeming some gifts above another, all of these acts were characterized by a lack of love.

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Let's go back to 13. Paul hits this the hardest because he's making a lot of noise.

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I'm not going to go there.

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In Matthew 7, there's going to be many people on that day who say, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name?

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And Jesus is going to say, I never knew you. Why? Their life wasn't characterized by love for Christ and love for the body.

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It was characterized by miracle workers. You remember Simon, the magician?

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He wasn't interested in intimate communion with Christ or the people of God. He wanted to be able to do magic tricks.

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There's a lot of people in the church that are like that. They're looking for something. Single ladies.

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There's going to be some wicked men coming in the church because they want to get together with a sweet, kind, clean

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Christian woman. They're not here for Christ. They're not here for the glory of God.

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They're here because they want to meet a nice girl. They have to be wary of those kinds of things.

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Well, verse 3. And if I bestowed all of my goods to feed the poor, so I empty my wallet entirely, and though I give my body to be burned, to be a martyr for the gospel, but don't have love, it profits me nothing.

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These are astonishing words from Paul. It's not hyperbole for him.

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He's saying love is the fuel that drives the engine of Christ's church.

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It's the thing that holds us together. It's the thing that keeps us going.

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And each member has to be characterized by love. Well, how do we know this is true?

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Well, even acts of giving can be done from a heart of vanity and pride.

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Some people give a lot of money, so they name the football stadium after them. They think it's because they're benevolent and they want to help the school.

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It's actually because they want their name on the side of the stadium that they give the money.

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And the emphatic tone that Paul is demonstrating here is unmistakable.

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He's saying love has to be preeminent among the graces and gifts of people of God in Christ's church.

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I have to ask the question then, what do we do?

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First, love one another because Christ has shown you love through the gospel.

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We actually now in Christ and the power of the spirit have the capacity to love in a way that we were unable to before.

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Christ died for us that we might live. He was righteous that his righteousness could be imputed to our account.

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Love because Christ has shown you love through the gospel. And I think part of being loving is to be forgiving of one another in a very profound way.

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We can't let the snowflake culture enter. We can't be so fragile and easily offended.

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We have to be long -suffering with one another. You make it your aim to be unoffendable.

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Offense comes when we esteem ourselves highly. A lot of our offense is driven and motivated by pride because someone speaks cross to us and we think, do they know who

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I am? Do they know who they're talking to? Do they know how great I am? They can't talk to me that way.

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So love works both ways. Not only should I avoid being the person who's mean to my fellow brother, but if I'm loving to the brethren,

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I'm going to be forgiving of those who have wronged me. I'm going to continue to love them in spite of it.

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That's the love that flows down from the gospel. The pagans and scripture elsewhere says, everybody loves their friends.

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Everybody loves who agrees with them. Everybody loves who scratches their back for them, the quid pro quo.

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That's not the kind of love we're talking about here. Anybody can do that. The gangs of LA, they love each other.

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We're called to love even our enemies. So it follows that we would have extraordinary love for Christ's people.

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Second, this has been, and I don't know why, but apparently this is an area of sanctification our body needs in all the parable studies.

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And it seems to be coming through at all the time that we've been in 1 Corinthians, that this body, for whatever reason, is called to identify areas of their lives that are bastions of pride and vanity and self -exaltation.

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And to smash those, to drive those out through repentance and renewed faith and hope in the gospel.

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For some reason, the Lord has led us to study 1 Corinthians and he's led us to study the parables in that season, and he is pounding us on this.

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So I think it's time we heed the chastening, heed the correction, smash the pride in our lives, the vanity, the self -exaltation.

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He's delivered us from that bondage, and we can walk now in the hope and freedom he has supplied.

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At the heart of this pridefulness and self -exaltation is connected to it as a worldliness, because we want the approval of the world.

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We want the world to highly esteem us. Paul says, drive it out.

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The Lord says, drive it out. And number three, this is maybe the best part of the day.

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And it's this sweet nectar dripping into our mouths.

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Your identity in Christ is secure. Imagine Corinth where you're sitting there and you can't speak

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Latin or Aramaic or Hebrew. You can just only speak

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Greek. Or maybe we'll make an allowance. You don't have the secret angelic prayer language.

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You don't have that, but other people have. And you're sitting there and the whole congregation says, you're deficient.

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Paul says, effectively here and elsewhere, your identity in Christ is secure. You no longer have to jockey for position like those in the world.

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He's created you with many gifts and talents that bring him glory and benefits others.

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You can say, man, I wish I was a pastor. It's not very glamorous,

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I tell you. Wherever you're called to be, grow and flourish in that area.

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And bring glory to God in the calling, the station you find yourself today. Your identity in Christ is secure.

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If you think about this, this solves the crisis of our time of seeking approval.

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Social media, driven by self -approval. We want people to like our stuff.

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We want them to think we're cool and pretty and skillful and talented. And in reality,

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Christ says, you're my child. You're secure in my love. And I have crafted you for a purpose.

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Fulfill your calling, whatever it is, with great joy and delight. You'll never be more happier than you are in pursuing that for which

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God intended you to be as a Christian. Don't covet the gifts of another, nor look down on the gifts of others.

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Don't covet the gifts of others, nor look down on the gifting and service of others. I'm always, one of the areas that I often joke about in our family is

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I tell Jacob that he's going to have to care for my personal problems when I'm very old.

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And that's a hard joke because I would find that very hard to do personally. And there are people who

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I'm always impressed with a caregiver type person that's very gifted in an area. So we should esteem all the gifts.

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We should never look down on the gifts and service of others. And finally,

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I think there's something here of a call to remembrance. We need to remember the folly of our former ways.

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Pursuing our sinful self -interest didn't satisfy us. In fact, it left a lot of carnage in its wake.

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It destroys, it promises, but doesn't deliver.

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But Christ has come that we might be built up a holy temple, a dwelling place for God in the spirit.

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The catechism's first question is what is the chief? We forget to enjoy him forever.

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He intends for us to find our pleasure and our satisfaction in him. And we're looking for cheaper sources to never be satisfied.

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We'll find our pleasure and delight in him. So today, in a very simple way, we saw that the

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Corinthians esteemed spiritual gifting, but neglected the weightier matters of love.

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And so we have to now personalize this and say, is there anything like that in my life?

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Is there anything in me, my esteeming things I shouldn't to the exclusion of more important matters?

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Secondly, your gifts need to be cultivated and your gifted service should be characterized, marked by, distinctively filled with love for Christ and love for others.

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We have to ask the question, what are those impediments to a proper display of expression?

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Of love towards the body and her members. And these are rooted in pride, self -exaltation, in some cases, jealousy.

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And we have to be confronted and confront those sins in our own hearts. Find our remedy in Christ.

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And next, we need to be known. There's a great opportunity presented for each family, for each individual, for this church as a body, to be known for our love for Christ's church.

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We have to love the church and the institution of the church universally. We have to love the local body of Christ.

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And we have to love all of the members, even those unsavory ones that we don't enjoy as much.

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We have to love them too. And how do we do this? Well, we have an example positively.

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Christ loved us so much, he gave himself on the cross to die for us.

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That while we were still sinners, that while we were his enemies, he died for us.

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It follows then and actually demands that we should have this kind of love for one another.

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Let's pray. Lord, we are motivated by many things, and some of them are unpleasant.

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We're asking from the power of your spirit that we would put to death those things in us those instances of pride, of vanity, self -exaltation, jealousy, whatever it may be.

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Lord, I pray that we would set that aside for a pure love and devotion for Christ that we might love and edify and build up the body.

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Lord, I pray that you reveal it to us, however painful it may be. Lord, also

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I pray that we'd be comforted and not only comforted but delighted to remember your gospel, to remember the hope we have in Christ and actually the security we have as members of your body.

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Lord, we know there are no unessential body parts and that you've crafted us for your glory and the service and edification of your church, the mission of your church might be accomplished.

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And I pray that we would be energized and excited about these things. But Lord, we confess that the college football games excite us more than these things and it's deplorable.

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Pray in your spirit you would change that in us and that we would hunger and thirst for righteousness and our greatest joys would be found in you.

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Lord, I pray and I ask that you would do something in our people that we might be the most loving church that we can be for your glory.