Ascension Presbyterian Lord's Day Worship

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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September 30, 2024

00:21: Grace and peace to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, welcome to the corporate worship of our
00:28: God. Please stand. Unless the
00:33: Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the
00:40: Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows.
00:52: For he gives his beloved sleep. Behold, children are a heritage from the
00:58: Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward like arrows in the hand of a warrior.
01:04: So are the children of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.
01:12: They shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with their enemies in the gate.
01:18: Oh Lord, we ask that you would build your church, build us. Let's pray together now.
01:27: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we come into your presence with a sense of longing and expectation and a faith and a hope, a belief that we will be filled and satisfied.
01:40: Oh Lord, we thank you for the means of grace. We thank you for the ordinary worship of your people.
01:48: We pray that you would accept our worship through the merit of Jesus Christ, our mediator and Savior.
01:55: And it's in his name that we pray. Amen. Please prepare now,
02:01: Neal, if you're able, for the corporate confession of sin. Let us join together with one voice confessing our sins.
02:15: Let us begin. Oh Father, we are gathered before you, the maker of heaven and earth.
02:28: Confess that we have sinned in thought and word and deed. We have not loved you with all our heart and soul.
02:36: We have not loved you with all our mind and strength. We have not even loved our neighbor as ourselves.
02:43: In your mercy, deepen our sorrow for the wrong we have done and for the good you have left undone.
02:51: So that we may hate our sin with a holy hatred. Amen. Please stand.
03:00: In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.
03:07: According to the riches of his grace which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence.
03:14: Oh people of God, rejoice and take heart today. If you be in Christ, your sins are forgiven.
03:22: Amen. In light of that, let us rejoice that our
03:28: Lord is King. Turn to number 310. Rejoice the Lord is
03:33: King. Number 310. Please remain standing for the reading of the word from Genesis 23.
10:57: Genesis 23. Sarah lived 127 years. These were the years of the life of Sarah.
11:03: So Sarah died in Kirjath Arba, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan. And Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.
11:11: Then Abraham stood up before his dead and spoke to the sons of Hath, saying, I am a foreigner and a visitor among you.
11:19: Give me property for a burial place among you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. And the sons of Hath answered
11:25: Abraham, saying to him, Hear us, my lord. You are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our burial places.
11:32: None of us will withhold from you his burial place, that you may bury your dead. Then Abraham stood up and bowed himself to the people of the sons of Hath.
11:42: And he spoke with them, saying, If it is your wish that I bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and meet me with Ephron, the son of Zohar, for me, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he has, which is at the end of his field.
11:57: Let him give it to me at full price as property for the burial place among you. Now Ephron dwelt among the sons of Hath, and Ephron the
12:05: Hittite, answered Abraham in the presence of the sons of Hath, all who entered at the gate of his city, saying,
12:12: Know, my lord, hear me. I will give you the field and the cave that is in it. I give it to you in the presence of the sons of my people.
12:19: I give it to you. Bury your dead. Then Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land, and he spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying,
12:28: If you will give it to me, please hear me. I will give you money for the field. Take it from me, and I will bury my dead there.
12:34: And Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, My lord, listen to me. The land is worth four hundred shekels of silver.
12:40: What is that between you and me? So bury your dead. And Abraham listened to Ephron, and Abraham weighed out the silver for Ephron, which he had named in the hearing of the sons of Hath, four hundred shekels of silver, currency of the merchants.
12:53: So the field of Ephron, which is in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field and the cave which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, which were within the surrounding borders, were deeded to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the sons of Hath, before all who went out in the gate of his city.
13:10: And after this Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave in the field of Machpelah, before Mamre, that is
13:15: Hebron, in the land of Canaan. So the field and the cave that is in it were deeded to Abraham by the sons of Hath as property for a burial place.
13:22: This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let us now confess our faith with the joyful singing of the
13:34: Apostles' Creed. Let us begin. Christ is holy, begotten
13:53: Son of the Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
14:01: Born just by His crucified head,
14:14: He descended into hell, and made every spirit believe the
14:48: Holy Spirit. Please take up the hymnal once more and find number 30.
15:21: Our God, our help in ages past. There's a nice timing to this.
15:27: This was the psalm of the week, based on the same psalm for last week, the psalm of Moses.
15:32: So this is another adaptation of Psalm 90. So, our
15:38: God, our help in ages past. Let us begin. Please make preparations now for the prayers of the people.
18:40: And seeing the multitudes, Jesus went up on a mountain, and when He was seated,
18:45: His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying,
18:51: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
20:22: We ask you to allow us to mourn over our sin, but also,
20:46: Lord, to find comfort in You, our Redeemer. Father, that the greatness of our sin would reflect the greatness of Your grace and mercy, and Your righteousness.
20:56: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
22:18: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Help us,
22:50: Lord, to seek always first Your kingdom. Help us, Lord, to seek
22:55: Your face, as David did. Lord, help us to pursue the worship of Christ in every area of our lives.
23:07: And may we, Lord, look to You for the guidance to seek first those things You would have us seek first.
23:14: Namely, Yourself. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
24:48: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. We are so thankful for the mercy of You.
25:19: Lord, help us to continue to live righteously, but not in our own strength, but through Your grace and love.
25:27: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Lord, we would be those who bring
26:00: Your grace and mercy, and because of the wisdom of Your Word in our lives, we would be able to speak wisdom into complicated situations that can turn aggressive.
26:09: We would be an example of peace in our communities, and as most people tend to rattle things up, we would be those who calm things down, so that the world may see that we are different in that way.
26:23: Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
26:32: Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.
26:41: Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so have they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
27:08: My portion is... Please turn in your
29:17: Bibles to 1 John 4. We'll be reading verses 7 and following.
29:41: This is God's holy and infallible word. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows
30:01: God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
30:09: In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent his only begotten
30:15: Son into the world, that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we love
30:22: God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
30:29: Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
30:36: This next section is our focus today. No one has seen
30:41: God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love has been perfected in us.
30:52: By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his
30:58: Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the
31:03: Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the
31:10: Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us.
31:18: God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him.
31:28: Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.
31:40: There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment.
31:47: But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us.
31:56: May the Lord be pleased with our consideration of his word. Please pray with me now.
32:05: O Lord, you want us to love you and to love one another, and I pray that this continual pounding of the hammer against the anvil of our hearts would break through, and that we would love you and express that love for you by loving the brethren.
32:26: O Lord, I pray that you would lay hold of us and never let us go, that we might abide in your love even to eternity.
32:36: We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated.
32:49: I have a couple I forgot to mention before we get started. If you have a pen, please add 353 to the communion hymns.
33:01: 353 is the last communion hymn.
33:08: It should be 353. And while you have your pen, write
33:18: Abiding in God's Love as the title. Abiding in God's Love.
33:23: 1 John 4, verses 12 -16.
33:32: Abiding in God's Love. The theme of the sermon today is seeing
33:40: God through the lens of his abiding love.
33:46: I have two points of outline for those of you who need that to organize your own thinking. First, an answer to the question, how do we see
33:55: God? How do we see God? And then secondly,
34:03: God's love abiding in us. Let's look at our text again.
34:09: We're considering verses 12 -16. It says, no one has seen
34:17: God at any time. And you would say, maybe in objection, we've seen the
34:25: Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostle John could say. But here,
34:31: John is reminding us that the divine essence cannot be seen with human eyes.
34:38: We could not see God's presence in his divine essence and live.
34:44: But it begs the question then, how can we see God? How can we know that he is real?
34:53: How can we, in our context, know that God loves us, his people?
35:02: The answer is found throughout 1 John. Love is the way that we see
35:09: God. It says in verse 12, no one has seen God at any time.
35:15: If we love one another, God abides in us and his love has been perfected among us.
35:25: If there is a word that you must know in today's message, it is abides. It is riddled with the word abide.
35:37: And of course, this abiding means to, we've already covered a few times in 1 John, but it must be drilled down into our understanding to stay, to remain, to not to depart, not to leave, to continue to be present.
35:56: The communion and love of God has established itself permanently within the soul of the believer and it exerts his power in you.
36:09: We cleave and hold fast to God because he cleaves and holds fast to us.
36:20: We see God when we see his love. We see God at work when we see his love on display.
36:29: God abides in us and we'll stop for a moment at the radical nature of that thought.
36:38: The divine is so different than us. It's so pure. It's so holy.
36:45: But the father, the son and the Holy Spirit have purpose to take up residence in the heart of you, his people.
36:56: And he lives with us and he abides with us. He stays with us.
37:01: He remains with us never to depart. It's because of this we can say his love has been perfected.
37:13: That word perfected for us, we think of sinless perfection. There's no defect.
37:19: That's not what the Hebraic idea or certainly the Greek word means. It's actually where we get the idea of teleological or the telos of things.
37:31: To bring it to an end, to complete, to reach the end state, to achieve its aim.
37:43: God abiding in us is revealed by his love for us.
37:50: And this love meets its end, its purpose, its aim, not only in our expressions of love toward God, but also in our love for one another.
38:02: And in fact, the love for one another is the harder test. God is altogether lovely.
38:11: He's holy. He's majestic. He's glorious. There's no imperfection in him.
38:17: Whatever beauty is, God has it. Whatever excellence there is, God possesses.
38:24: It's a greater test of our commitment to him for us to love one another because we are not that.
38:31: We are actually unlovable in some cases, aren't we? And so it's a very interesting line of reasoning.
38:39: And first, I've been very convicted of this in these recent months. Our love, the love of God, love for God, our obedience to God, his love working in us reaches its end.
38:55: It comes to its resting place when we love one another, when it's completed.
39:05: This verse in this language, I should say, the language of perfected comes up in places like Second Corinthians 12.
39:13: You don't have to look there. My power is made perfect. And then that are weak.
39:23: The efficacy of God's power is shown and displayed in weakness of men.
39:33: James 2, by works, faith was perfected. Faith is made to be what it ought to be when it's accompanied with fruitful works of obedience.
39:47: And next week we'll learn in 1 John 4, 18. One who is made perfect in love, his love lacks nothing.
40:01: It may be most profound. I might actually ask you to turn there with me. John chapter 17.
40:08: I have been thinking of John 17 the entire time that we've been studying 1
40:15: John. I think it might be helpful for us to see and read this section.
40:29: The high priestly prayer of Jesus is unpalmable.
40:39: You cannot reach the bottom of it. In the first section of the prayer, we're not going to go over this, but just to give you some context.
40:50: Jesus opens the window of heaven to us and we hear the intra trinitarian dialogue between him and his father.
40:58: It's astounding. Next, in the largest section from verse 6 down through verse 19, he prays for the apostles who are taking his word and his gospel to the nations and he prays for them.
41:20: Now, children, this is the part that's very exciting. This prayer was offered about 2000 years ago.
41:28: In verses 20 and following, he's praying for you. You present.
41:36: It's astounding. He says in the transition from the disciples to the believers in all ages begins at verse 20.
41:46: I'm going to read that starting there. I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.
41:55: That's you and I. We are given to the apostles doctrine. This is us.
42:01: This is the people are going to come to Christ from every tongue, tribe, tongue, tribe and nation.
42:06: This this is us. And here it is. See if this resonates with the message of first John that they all may be one.
42:18: As you father are in me and I in you.
42:25: Well, when you get in these studies of the intra trinitarian relationships and Orthodox view of the
42:31: Trinity, we say whatever is in the father is in the son and in the spirit and all the lines crisscross.
42:39: Whatever could be said of one is said the other in reference to their divinity. There is a tri unity in the
42:47: Godhead. And Jesus is saying, I want that unity that we have to be in the world, in the church.
42:56: You father are in me and I'm in you that they also may be one in us.
43:10: If you've ever studied a deep study of the
43:21: Trinity in the academic sense. That that phraseology is astounding.
43:29: We are being brought into the love that exists in the Trinity. The unblemished, pure, holy, divine love of God, the father,
43:43: God, the son and God, the Holy Spirit, the church, by their virtue of their union with Christ, is being brought into that love.
43:56: They're going to testify that the world may believe that you sent me.
44:03: And the glory which you gave me, I have given them. That they may be one just as we are one,
44:11: I in them and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one. And that's our language from our text.
44:22: And that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.
44:30: Because the father and the son have a perfect love.
44:39: And they're perfectly lovable, it makes sense. But Jesus says that the father now, the love that he has is so great, it can be applied to all of the followers of Christ.
44:58: That you father have loved them just as you have loved me. I'll finish the reading here.
45:07: Father, I desire they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am.
45:14: That's abiding eternally. What a hope for the Christian.
45:20: Upon our death, we will have sight. We will dwell in the presence of God forever.
45:33: He wants us to behold the glory of Christ, which the father has given.
45:38: For you love me, he says, before the foundation of the world.
45:46: Oh, righteous father, the world has not known you, but I have known you.
45:51: And these have known that you sent me. All of this material is in the epistle of 1
45:59: John. It's in our text. That they may know that you have sent me.
46:06: And I have declared to them your name and will declare it. That the love with which you love me may be in them.
46:17: And I in them. There is a mutual abiding in John's literature.
46:28: God abides in us. We abide in him. This table. Same idea.
46:36: We abide in Christ. He abides in us. We abide together with all of those who have been united to Christ.
46:43: It's all wrapped up in this beautiful picture. Let's turn back to 1
46:48: John 4. I in them, you in me, that they may be made perfect in one.
47:08: His own love has been perfected in us. What brings us to the second point and the really the answer to the question.
47:18: God's love abides in us. And how do we know that it does? That's a very legitimate question,
47:26: I think, to ask. And it says God's love is with us. He abides in us.
47:31: He calls us to abide in his level. How do we know that he loves us? How do we know that he abides with us?
47:41: Let's look at verse 13. It says by this we know that we abide in him. And he in us.
47:49: Because he has given us of his spirit.
47:57: It should be noted that this is a very wonderful Trinitarian section.
48:02: All three persons of the Godhead are actors. They're movers. They're taking action in this section in the life of the believer.
48:15: He's given us of his spirit. So the father has loved us.
48:22: He has united us to the son. And now he has bestowed his spirit upon the church.
48:31: Is there any question about God's love? Well, the first answer is it can't be if we believe that he's given us of his spirit.
48:42: The spirit is himself God and he himself has united himself to us.
48:48: Therefore, we are united and abiding in God. So you won't be distracted.
48:58: I'm going to look at a passage in Romans, but you don't need to turn there. I'm going to just have you sit here.
49:04: How do
49:11: I know that God's love abides in you?
49:20: How do I know that God's love abides with his church, his people?
49:33: I'm going to read portions of Romans 8. I just want you to catch the thrust of this and the intertwining of the persons of the
49:42: Trinity in this union and this love and this adoption as sons.
49:50: There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. If you be in Christ, you have no condemnation.
49:59: Those who are in Christ do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
50:05: Why? We've just learned it. The father has bestowed his spirit upon his people, the church.
50:11: For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
50:22: What the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin.
50:34: He condemned sin in the flesh. Jesus was sent for this very purpose.
50:40: The text again, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
50:51: For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit.
51:03: Now I should pause here. There's an exhortation and admonition to us here that we should not set our minds on fleshy things.
51:14: We can be Christians and we can be filled with the spirit and we can have this tension of being pulled by the world in her ways and pulled toward fleshy things.
51:26: But we're those who are filled with the spirit. We're those who are loved by God. We are those who have been adopted as sons to be carnally minded, as death verse six, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
51:47: The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be.
51:54: So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Stop walking in the flesh, walk in the spirit.
52:01: But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you.
52:10: First John four. If anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not his.
52:16: And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.
52:23: The spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you. He who raised
52:30: Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.
52:42: For as many skipping down, for as many are led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God.
52:51: For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out,
52:58: Abba, father. The spirit enables us to cry out to our
53:03: God as a loving father. And he bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
53:13: And if children than heirs. With Christ.
53:19: We suffer with him. We shall surely also be glorified.
53:26: Together with him. Skipping down again.
53:32: We know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs. Not only that, we also have the first fruits of the spirit.
53:40: Even we ourselves grown within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
53:47: Our bodies will be redeemed. Our bodies will be resurrected and reformed and glorified because God has loved us.
53:57: And he has filled us with his spirit. That same spirit that raises Jesus from the dead will give life to our mortal bodies.
54:11: For we were saved in this hope. But hope that is seen is not hope.
54:21: For why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, maybe that's why we don't see
54:30: God. That we'd be filled with this hope. The answers are in the scripture.
54:36: It's kind of funny, isn't it? No one's seen God at any time. Why? Well, here's part of the answer. That we'd be filled with hope.
54:44: Trusting the spirit. The spirit helps in our weaknesses. We don't know what we should pray for as we ought.
54:51: But the spirit himself groans, makes intercession for us with groanings, which cannot be uttered.
54:59: Now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
55:08: Skipping down again.
55:14: What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
55:24: He who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
55:36: Back to our text. The first evidence of God's love abiding in us is him giving us a spirit.
55:51: Look at verse 14. The second, probably the grandest expression of God's love.
55:58: Verse 14. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the
56:04: Son as Savior of the world. Last week we read
56:13: Genesis 22. And Abraham is called to do something very hard.
56:19: He's called to take Isaac up to the mount and offer him there as a burnt offering.
56:30: His arm is raised to plunge the dagger into the heart of his son. The Lord cries out from heaven,
56:40: Abraham, Abraham! He says, here I am. Do not harm the boy. Now I know that you fear me, believe me, trust me.
56:49: Behold, there's a ram caught in the thicket. Genesis 22 prepares us with great anticipation that God is going to offer his son on the cross.
57:05: And there's going to be no ram caught in the thicket. I would not offer my son.
57:12: I don't have the faith of Abraham. I'd say, no, I can't do it. But God himself in the greatest demonstration of love in the universe has offered his son, his beloved son, whom he loves on the cross for sinners like you.
57:31: Back to 17, John 17, the high priestly prayer. It makes sense how he could love us in the way that he loves the
57:41: Trinity because the Trinity has offered the Son to be the sacrifice for our sins.
57:48: Oh, how great is the love of God for his people. He sent the son.
57:57: He's given us his spirit. He sent the son to the cross. If you have these things,
58:03: God and his love are abiding in you and they'll never let you go. So we, in response, should cleave to him and abide in him and never let go.
58:15: Verse 15 says, whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God.
58:27: And as we learned in the recent weeks, that's not merely a bare declaration. That's all the implications of who
58:34: Jesus is. A grand confessional statement about the person and work of Christ.
58:42: If you make that confession, confessing is to say the same thing.
58:57: The believer says the same thing about Christ that the father does. The Christian declares openly and speaks freely about about Christ.
59:09: This is what it means to confess him. Whoever confesses the truth about Christ and lives by and according to that truth, has confidence that God abides, lives in, never to depart.
59:28: He abides with you. Whatever our confession is of Christ, it needs to be louder.
59:42: It needs to be more forceful. We believe in you,
59:48: Jesus. You are the son of God. Oh, father, we believe that you sent the son.
59:55: Oh, father, we believe that you sent us the spirit. Verse 16 says, and we have known, we've come to have a true knowledge of God's love.
01:00:12: And we have believed, we have put our trust in the conviction and trust to which a man is impelled by a certain inner and higher prerogative and law of his soul.
01:00:27: That's the depth of believing. This isn't, I believe in Santa Claus.
01:00:33: This is profound. We have known, we believe the love that God has for us.
01:00:45: So people of God today, with these shining examples, God himself is love.
01:00:52: It's his character. It's from his essence. It's his person.
01:00:57: Do you believe that God has adequately demonstrated his love?
01:01:04: He's given you his spirit and he's given his son. He's given himself, really, hasn't he?
01:01:13: To us. That's why we can say
01:01:18: God is love. It's not that God is loving. He essentially, his character, his attributes, who he is and his divine essence is love.
01:01:28: And he who ever so ever abides in love, abides in God and God in him.
01:01:43: God is the definer of love and he's the one who possesses it perfectly.
01:01:53: And he has drawn the believer, the church, into it. Abiding in love is to abide in God's love.
01:02:02: This mutual abiding is what the redeemed Christian life looks like.
01:02:11: We see God through the lens of his love.
01:02:17: A couple words of application here and I'll conclude. We see
01:02:29: God through these grand acts of love. He's given his spirit.
01:02:37: He has sent the son as savior of the world.
01:02:43: And the evidence of it is he's caused divergent peoples to love one another.
01:02:50: The church, by definition, Caleb mentioned in Sunday school. Everybody's welcome here.
01:02:58: Everybody belongs who's in Christ. He gave us his spirit.
01:03:03: Well, we have to therefore walk in the spirit. He has sent his son as savior.
01:03:11: We have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and we have to live accordingly, walking in the spirit, walking in faith in Christ.
01:03:22: We abide in his love by applying the word and doing those things that are pleasing in his sight.
01:03:29: Namely, in our section, it seems to be love. And first,
01:03:36: John, believing in the Christ, the son of God has come in the flesh and bring salvation.
01:03:41: These are the commands, the things we ought to believe were to flee from and repent of all worldliness.
01:03:50: And to abide in Christ means abiding in God's love and being loved by God causes us.
01:03:58: To reflect his love to others. Those precious promises of Romans 8 and John 17.
01:04:08: Take those for yourself and your family. There's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
01:04:17: Lay hold of it. Never let it go. Abide there. Christ has asked his father because of this great work of redemption that we would be with him, that we would be one with him and that we would be one with the father and the spirit.
01:04:34: Lay hold of that. Grab it. Never let us go. Let it go. God has drawn us in with his love.
01:04:41: We abide there. We stay there. We're never going to leave there. And finally, our adoption as God's loved sons may be the greatest encouragement to our own sanctification and growth and godliness.
01:05:05: You have the security of being loved by God. Now go walk in righteousness.
01:05:13: The freedom of righteousness. Grow in godliness. Become more and more like Christ.
01:05:24: How do we see God? We see God through the lens of his abiding love.
01:05:31: He's demonstrated his love and giving us his spirit and sending his son to be our savior.
01:05:39: Amen. Let's pray together now. Oh, Lord, we sometimes don't feel like you love us because of unbelief.
01:05:54: I pray that that would never happen again to us because we believe the truth.
01:06:01: You have demonstrated your love for us, giving us your spirit.
01:06:09: Uniting us to the death and burial and resurrection of your son. Oh, Lord, truly, you have loved us.
01:06:17: Oh, Father. No, Lord, I pray that because we have you have initiated this love toward us.
01:06:27: You have redeemed us with love that we would reflect your love not only to one another in the church, but also in the world that they would see your love.
01:06:38: And like Christ, they would know that you sent him. That they would see
01:06:45: Christ in us and they would know that you sent Christ in the world into the world to save sinners.
01:06:50: Oh, Lord, help us to reflect this love that you've shown us. And oh,
01:06:56: Lord, I pray that you would knit these people together, that they would love each other with a profound love that can only be attributed to a work of the divinity, to the work of the triune
01:07:09: God. Oh, Holy Spirit, fill us with this love for one another, that we might testify to the world that Christ has come.
01:07:17: And we ask all this in Jesus name. Amen. Let's continue our worship with the presentation of tithes and offerings.
01:07:56: Let's stand together, please. Let's pray. Oh, Lord, we thank you for the work that you've given us.
01:08:05: We thank you for the stewardship of time and resources and our talents.
01:08:10: And Lord, we pray that you would fully supply your church with what it needs, that we might do the work you've given us to do and advance your kingdom.
01:08:20: We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. There have been many things today to give glory to God for.
01:08:30: And I think it's appropriate and so fitting, the timing of the Gloria Patri in our liturgy is so fitting.
01:08:35: Let's give thanks and give him glory in the singing of the Gloria Patri. Let's begin. Lift us, give thanks to the
01:09:29: Lord. It is right and a good and joyful thing that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to you,
01:09:40: Oh, Holy Lord, Father almighty, everlasting God. Because you sent your beloved son to redeem us from sin and death and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life.
01:09:53: That when he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, we may, without shame or fear, rejoice to behold his appearing.
01:10:02: Therefore, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we praise and magnify your glorious name, evermore praising you and singing.
01:11:31: Please be seated. Reinforced many things that we have known about unity with you.
01:11:49: And I pray that they would penetrate more deeply into our hearts. And that we would see in communion the greatest tangible expression of our unity with one another in you.
01:12:07: Lord, if we are called to love each other, I pray that we would deepen in our love for one another because you have loved us.
01:12:16: And Lord, make it easy for us to love one another because of the great amount of grace that we have received.
01:12:23: You've been so patient and forgiving with us. Enable us to be patient and forgiving with one another.
01:12:30: We ask also, Lord, that as we eat bread and drink wine, that we would have the body and blood of Christ crucified communicated to us.
01:12:43: That the tangibility in our senses, being able to taste and smell, help us to taste and smell and see that the
01:12:51: Lord is good. Help us to assimilate the bread and wine into us as a picture of our union with Christ and with one another.
01:13:01: That we would be one, as you have called us to be in that great prayer in John 17, that we'd be one in the us of the
01:13:12: Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And we ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen.
01:13:19: Our Lord Jesus, on the night in which he was betrayed, took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying,
01:13:28: Take, eat, this is my body. Likewise, he took the cup after supper and said,
01:13:35: This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Drink from it, all of you. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the
01:13:45: Lord's death. Therefore, we proclaim the faith.
01:13:52: Christ is died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Let's joyfully approach the table now by praying together.
01:14:03: We do not presume to come to this your table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your manifold and great mercies.
01:14:15: We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table, but you are the same
01:14:22: Lord who always shows mercy. Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, to drink of your
01:14:29: Son, Jesus Christ, and to drink of his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us.
01:14:46: Amen. Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the peace.
01:14:53: The gifts of God for you, the people of God. Thanks be to the
01:14:59: Lord. We have had a great privilege of commuting together at the
01:24:57: Lord's table. Let's make this commitment seriously and in earnest, not out of pure rote, but re -establish our commitment to these things.
01:25:08: Let's pray now. Almighty and ever -living God, we thank you for feeding us with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of your
01:25:19: Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, and for assuring us in these holy mysteries that we are living members of the body of your
01:25:29: Son and heirs of your eternal kingdom. And, Lord, grant us this other benefit, that you will never allow us to forget these things.
01:25:40: But having them imprinted on our hearts, may we grow and increase daily in the faith of sat work and every good deed.
01:25:47: Now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our
01:25:56: Lord. To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit, we honor and glory now and forever.
01:26:03: Amen. Please stand. Let us sing the doxology.
01:26:14: Praise God! Receive the blessing now of the grace of the
01:26:49: Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the