Enemies Within The Walls: Lack Of Love (part 2)

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Enemies Within The Walls: Lack Of Love (part 3)

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Our Father in heaven we come before you this morning just thankful for the grace that you've shown us through your son
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Christ Jesus and for redemption the forgiveness of sins for Just the opportunity to be called your children to be redeemed to be bought back with the great price of the death of Christ Father we gather here this morning as your children and pray that you would bless our time as we look to your word
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And see what it says about our fellowship for the love that we ought to have for one another and father
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I pray that you would grow that even this morning in Christ's name. We pray Amen well
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Last week we began we were talking about the love for our brothers and sisters in Christ and I'll just start by reading
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John 15 verses 12 to 15. This is my commandment the Lord says That you love one another as I have loved you
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Greater love has no one than this that someone laid down his life for his friends
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You are my friends if you do what I command you No longer do I call you servants for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends for all that I have heard from my father
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I have made known to you and And the change of course that comes about is because of the death of Christ because we are in Christ and we are commanded therefore to Love the brethren and as I was looking through my notes this morning
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I I saw something a footnote about Qumran and the love that they had for the fellowship at Qumran and then they were they were really isolationists against the rest of the world and I thought you know another great example from Israel of That kind of attitude is
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Masada You know how many of you have been to Masada? It's if that is quite a fortress and you think about you know
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They stockpiled the food and the Romans came and you know that the siege and everything and how did how did
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Masada end? suicide of a form
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But one person had to stick around to make sure that everybody was Dead kill make sure that everybody died before the
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Romans came up and I thought That might be carrying the love of the brethren too far I don't I don't really know you know to make sure that everybody died, but and I don't want to do that But I thought what we might do this morning to start a little bit differently is
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I would ask a question and we'll just kind of see where this goes How many of you are familiar with the screw tape letters?
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CS Lewis Screw tape being a demon and he's instructing his little minion
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Wormwood on how you know to do things and how to be surreptitious and Have a lot of guile when he's dealing with men so as to deceive them
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Well, what do you suppose? Or how do you suppose screw tape would instruct Wormwood on the best way to attack?
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Bethlehem Bible Church What do you think he would say?
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Tweak the truth just a hair okay Attack the preaching
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Okay, Robert, okay, make it cool or fashionable to be religious so that we would be packed with Religiosity, okay.
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Well, let's just say for the sake of argument that Pastor Mike the elders aren't gonna listen to Wormwood and so they're not gonna change the preaching
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How do you think he would attack the church overall? What would be the best route if he's not gonna allow?
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In other words if he's not gonna be successful at changing the direction of the teaching then what would he attack?
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Yeah, I think that would be a great way and how would you so dissension among people?
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lies How about jealousy gossip
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Everything that you know I as I just started thinking about this the other day. I thought you know what if you just kind of go
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The the in Galatians 5 the non fruits of the spirits the anti fruit of the spirit
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All those things you need to sink. This is what causes dissension. These are the kind of things that you want to incite or Foment if you want to cause
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Disunity in a church If you think about the church at Philippi, what was the overall theme of the book of Philippians?
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What's that? joy Okay, and joy in what? There's there's a joy in I one of the other themes.
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I've heard mentioned for Philippians as unity That there's a joy in the unity of it
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And so you want to I think Roman it would go after the unity he would go after Certainly, I think gossip would be a good one jealousy all these kind of things you want to kind of just get everybody
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Dissatisfied, but I thought here's another one and This is really pretty easy
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Get everybody in such a hurry That I don't have time for what? What's that?
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each other Fellowship You don't get to know one another you don't spend any time with one another
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You you're not really interested in one another and what happens everybody just kind of splits up and goes their own way
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And you don't foster a sense of unity. You don't foster a sense of community You don't foster a sense of love so I would encourage everybody to be here at 5 tonight.
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No It's really not that hard You know you think well, maybe you just drive up a truck to the front of the church, and you attack it
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You don't do that You know like if you're going to attack a Pack of animals you know like wolves.
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What do wolves do today? They go you know what if you're a wolf Do you look at a pack of lambs a pack of sheep whatever they are
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I guess they're sheep Are they a pack a? flock Yeah, I guess a flock right you look at a flock of sheep, and then what do you do go?
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Well, you know what if you're a wolf you think I'm gonna go after the biggest and strongest one And that way they'll know that I'm the boss, and they'll all be afraid you go after the wick the wick the the seek and the wick
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Or the wick the weak and the sick you know you go after those who are weaker, and you pick them off And the strong escape right so if you're
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And I'm not suggesting that Wormwood by the way is after this church but if you were to look at it just from a a
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Scheme of what could you do to weaken the church? I'm going to suggest that you would go after the sheep that maybe aren't so strong, and you would try to so dissension disunity jealousy
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Maybe for some of those that are stronger you would get them to form up into cliques because after all
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The weak are not so necessary the lesser members of the body
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Not so lovely So you ignore them and over time what happens the body becomes weaker doesn't function as it ought to There is more dissension and more problems in the church, and that's what we want to avoid
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So how do you how do you avoid that then? How do you avoid this kind of attack?
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Stephen wants to raise his hand, but isn't quite sure Yes Yeah, I think the number one way that you you preempt that is by love by showing it by exhibiting love for one another but Maybe I shouldn't even say showing or exhibiting because really what we want to stress is love is action by doing things
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By going out of our way, let's turn our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10 And the great thing is you know about doing this series is
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I'm able to edit and change things every week, and so I do I Hebrews 10
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I mean this came to mind this week, and I just saw this is so So good and so helpful.
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I think Hebrews 10 and I want somebody to please read verses 19 to 25
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Bruce Okay, now.
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I'm gonna skip ahead of myself just a little bit, but why do you suppose that? Verse 25 says not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some
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Why would it be the habit of some I? I Mean today, we know why it's the habit of some you know we have names for it
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NFL NBA NASCAR a lot of NASCAR fans up here doing what why do you suppose that back then?
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the writer of Hebrews would say There there are people who are neglecting to meet together.
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Why would that be? Forgot to set their alarm clock didn't know it was daylight savings time. What why would they neglect to meet together?
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Priorities Stephen Persecution is the correct answer ding ding ding ding ding ding
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You're writing to a group of Jews the Hebrews What are you supposed to going on in the early days of the church in the
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Hebrew community? You're being put out of synagogues.
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You're being disfellowshipped. Why because you are hanging out with that sect of Judaism called
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Christianity the way You're no longer Thought of as a
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Jew you're separated you're pushed out and so what happens some of them?
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You know think about it today. What happens if you get? You leave let's say you're a
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Mormon You're a Jehovah Witness Whatever you get saved and then all of a sudden your family
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Everybody else treats you differently, and you think you know what maybe I've made a mistake Maybe I need to go back or maybe
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I need to be not so ardent You know what I only go to church once in a while lay off Most of the time
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I'm in synagogue. I'm a good Jew three out of four weeks Give me a break you don't want persecution
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So you neglect to meet together now today things are different Right now things are different We don't know what the future will hold
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Right now we don't meet together perhaps because we have different priorities we think it's more important to do other things
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Sometimes it's more important to sleep Than to come to church
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It's my only day of the week to sleep in There are a variety of reasons people have but I would argue that that command still holds we ought not to neglect to meet together
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Notice back up in verse 24 and this is where I want to focus this morning you know he says in light of all these truths about Christ in light of all that is ours in Christ and Light of the forgiveness in light of all these things that are true
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Verse 24 let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works
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And we can tell pride by first 25 that what he's talking about is what when we get together when we have fellowship
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What should we be doing? Consider how to stir up one another to love and good works
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Listen what Kistemacher says carefully consider? How we may ardently incite?
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There's a great one right I want to incite you this morning You know when we think of incite we we tend to think of something negative right maybe it's incite to riots
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Incite to commit some kind of crime or something, but here. He's just saying I want to incite you to Love one another to do good works for one another
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Kistemacher goes on he says put your mind To work to find ways to provoke in the good sense of the word each other to increase your expressions of love
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That result in doing noble deeds At Robertson compared the idea to what
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Paul is doing here Or what what the author is doing here in Hebrews and he or I'm sorry He compares what the author of Hebrews is doing here in Hebrews 10
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To what Paul's doing in 2nd Corinthians 8 don't don't turn there. I'll just read it 2nd
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Corinthians 8 verses 1 to 8 we want you to know brothers About the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia in other words.
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He's Encouraging the church at Corinth by giving the example of Macedonia He says for in a severe test of affliction their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of Generosity on their part for they gave according to their means as I can testify and beyond their means of their own accord
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Begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the Saints and this not as we expected
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But they gave Themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.
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Does that sound familiar? They were saved. They gave themselves willingly to the service of Christ and then by the will of God to us
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Accordingly we urge Titus that as he had started so he Should complete this or complete among you this act of grace
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But as you excel in everything in faith and speech and knowledge in all earnestness and in our love for you
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See that you excel in this act of grace Also, I say this not as a command but to prove by the earnestness of others
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That your love also is genuine this encouragement to love still more love like the
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Macedonians Love in that same kind of way FF Bruce writes of Hebrews 10.
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He says the readers will be more the more apt to confess their hope courageously and unhesitatingly if they encourage one another
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Christian faith and witness will flourish the more vigorously in an atmosphere of Christian fellowship
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The word stimulates or incite or provoke is a strong one It appears in one other place in the
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New Testament and there in a different way of the sharp Contention that broke out between Paul and Barnabas when they could not agree on taking mark with them
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Perhaps the Greek this Greek word paroxysm us Like our English provocation is more commonly used in the unfavorable sense of irritation
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Than in the more pleasant sense used here by the author But here love is provoked in the sense of being stimulated in the lives of Christians by the considerateness and Example of other members of their fellowship
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So you can see here the one of the reasons I mean do you think about that when we come here to worship on Sunday Morning, do you think okay?
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We come here to hear the word taught we come here to sing. We come here to pray We come here to sit to give what us own and to hear the the public reading of the word
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But do you ever think that we come here? We talk about fellowship, but to provoke one another to love in good works
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Warren Wiersbe says fellowship with God must never become selfish
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We must also fellowship with other Christians in the local assembly Apparently some of the wavering believers
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Had been absenting themselves from the church fellowship. It is interesting to note that the emphasis is here is not on what a believer
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Gets from the assembly But rather on what he can contribute to the assembly
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Faithfulness in church attendance encourages others and provokes them to love and good works
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Again, what do we what does the typical? Christian do when they come home from church
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What how do we evaluate a church service? Miss Cooley How we feel
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How we feel how the service kind of moved us right I Mean some of the complaints we might get are about the music.
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We might get a complaint about you know the sermon Was too heady it was too difficult.
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I couldn't really follow it But we evaluate it based on you know did the did the sermon pierce us was the worship
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Did it elevate us you know the singing? And What are other
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I mean, how do you how do you evaluate when you get home? Do you just think okay duty done time clock punched my religious?
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Obligation is fulfilled for the week. Is that how we think about it? Do we go home and talk about it or do we go home and think you know what?
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I'm thankful that I got to bear somebody else's burden today I tried to provoke my brothers and sisters in Christ to love and good works.
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I'd like to start that Go home and think these are the ways that I provoked people to love and good works
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Listen to what O 'Brien says he says the listeners because keep in mind And I don't know if I've said this but I'll say it now
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Hebrews was a probably a sermon So he doesn't say the readers he says the listeners the listeners are being urged to focus their minds and energies on the needs of their fellow members in order to spur even
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Provoke them to love and good deeds for believers to fulfill this responsibility presupposes that they possess a care and Practical concern for one another we talked about that last week from first John.
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We love one another. We're commanded by the Lord and John to love one another and This presupposes that love and then says you know we
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I mentioned it before we're to bear one another's burdens well sometimes How do you bear somebody's burden?
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Sometimes maybe they just need someone to listen to them and sometimes they think they just need somebody to listen to them
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Well, what do they really need? I know you're thinking it
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Well they might need somebody to pray for them or they might need somebody to give them a you know the old
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You know messy boot to the yeah They they might they might need that swift kick to stop thinking so much about themselves
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And to get up and to do something for somebody else We might need to literally provoke somebody to love and good works
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Okay, I understand that but why don't you we've been talking about that for the last eight months now
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Maybe it's time for you to move on and actually do something for somebody else what? But this is about me again
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O 'Brien our author expresses this need with the phrase Literally for provocation which is used to convey intense emotion
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Here communicates positive stimulation or motivation the listeners are to motivate one another to love that is expressed in good deeds
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Our author now wants this expression of love within their fellowship to be deepened and strengthened
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Such a concern for the welfare of one another was all the more urgent in a community exposed to testing and to disappointment
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What builds a church what strengthens a church is? The love that it has for one another but it's also pressure comes from outside the church, right?
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Testing comes from outside the church Persecution comes from outside the church, and then it's how the church
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Kind of bands together supports one another comes alongside one another encourages one another
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Exhorts one another provokes one another to love and good works that ultimately does what?
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It turns the church from the proverbial 98 -pound weakling getting sand kicked in its face
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Into what it should be a Powerful weapon in the hand of God O 'Brien goes on to say this mutual care will not be sustained unless members of the community meet together regularly for fellowship encouragement and exhortation
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I'm not saying anybody here probably this isn't you But if you're here, you know one out of every three or four
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Sundays, how do you know what's going on? It's hard enough for me to recognize people
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Because that you know that so many new people And if you're not here that often, how can you do it?
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How can you form the relationships that you need? One of the things
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I like to stress and I stress it in Fundamentals of the faith when I teach that when I've taught the new members class, you know
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We talked about spiritual giftedness and about how every single person if you're in Christ, they have a spiritual gift
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And I say, you know, one of the faulty lines of reasoning is that all I need in order to worship
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God is What? All I need this is all I need Me Bible and The Holy Spirit I could be anywhere and as long as I have those three things
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I'm good to go. It doesn't matter where I am on Sunday. What's wrong with that line of thinking? Keep in mind that I've just been talking about spiritual gifts.
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You might think I'm off on a tangent I'm not off on the tangent. I'm going indirectly to a direct point
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What's wrong with that line of thinking that says, you know what I don't really need to be a church Stephen that's exactly right
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It the problem with that line of thinking is you have a spiritual gift and yet you're going to deprive the church of the exercising of your spiritual gift because you're not gonna bother to go and Ultimately I would say the real problem with that line of thinking is what it starts with I it ends with me
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What's that And that's right. There's no love involved there Well, you know love of self
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You know It's so nice when I'm just alone Because then I just love everybody in the church.
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It's just me It's wonderful. You know what? There's no discord. There's no jealousy
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It's perfect perfect fellowship Yeah, there's no accountability, there's no nothing there's no encouraging there's no exhorting there's nothing
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And the whole point that Paul makes when he's talking about spiritual gifts is what you know And I alluded to it earlier, you know, we might think that there are some you know
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Look, if you have the spiritual gift of stacking chairs You know, you might think well,
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I'm not I'm just not that important Okay But if we had let's say there are 350 people here on a
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Sunday, let's say every single one of us has the gift of teaching What kind of church do we have we
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We have a chaotic church and we have a church where nobody is nobody has the gift of serving
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Nobody has a gift of helping nobody, you know It's just like everybody's standing around waiting for their turn to cheat to teach and I'll tell you what it's probably gonna be a really long day and you know at the end of the day and then you know the place is gonna be a mess and Ultimately, that's not how it is
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Everybody has a different gift and it's when we exercise our gifts to the fullest that the church body works as it ought to and Back to Hebrews They must not stop meeting together regularly.
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The admonition is put strongly the failure of some Is not cast simply as neglect but as wrongful abandonment
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Wrongful abandonment in the septuagint the verb to abandon to forsake and his cognates are
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Covenantal terms that often point to the standing reproach of Israel, which has abandoned the
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Lord God's people have forsaken him. So this is basically to forsake when we talk about forsaking the assembly
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It's worse than just neglect It's more like you have you have shattered the the covenantal bonds you've broken the bonds of community
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You've let everybody else down You know sometimes in a family setting you might say to you what are your children?
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you know what by doing this you let everybody down if you really want to heap on the guilt's and Ultimately, that's what we're doing.
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If we just think you know what I just don't want to I don't feel like going I mean, there are good reasons for not going to church
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I think one of them is you know, I several weeks ago I was super sick and I just I got up at four o 'clock in the morning
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I sent in an email the elders and I go I don't know what I was thinking about but here I am you know,
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I wake up at 345 or whatever coughing the same thing. I've been doing the previous couple nights and I just thought
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The most loving thing I can do for the body of Christ is think to myself I don't want to be the person sitting next to me this morning, you know
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Thanks, it's like thanks for staying home Did you ever have you ever worked with somebody that came in and they're like so super sick and you just go dude
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Thanks for coming in In fact, I I used to have employees because we our shift started at 10 o 'clock at night the last few years
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I was on the department and then it went in at 6 o 'clock in the morning. And so like, you know 1045 or something like that, you know,
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I don't feel so good. Maybe I should go home and I'm like Thanks for coming in You know now we're gonna be a body short all night long
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But there there is that sense of Abandonment of breaking covenant when people just choose not to come in And I mentioned that talking about the persecution
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That that was going on there, but you know, we don't we don't live in that kind of society yet So we don't really have that excuse but Loving one another to good works love and good works and Finally he concludes by saying the urgency for encouragement and reproof is underlined by the sober reminder that the day of the
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Lord is approaching This description kind of gives us an urgency that we we need to be at this
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This is our duty. It ought to be what we're focused on when we get together Now that's our duty let's talk about how costly this might be let's look at 1st.
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John Chapter 3 verses 16 to 18 if I could get somebody to read that please 1st.
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John chapter 3 verses 16 to 18 Love may be costly.
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It may mean sacrifice what? Sometimes it might cost us
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Love or other possessions There might be other things that we can do but sometimes
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Simply put there there might be somebody who just needs some help and we might say to ourselves.
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Well, certainly You know, they can get help from the government
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Sometimes the appropriate thing might be to say they need help from the church, but sometimes it might be something that we can do
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I Know we've had instances here in the church where people just walk up to other people and give them money out of their wallet
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Sometimes that's the right thing to do But he asked here if anyone if you have if you possess the world's good
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Goods and see your brother and this isn't just your general brother Worldly, I mean, you know what?
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Well, let's just take a moment here to just address the more obvious thing You pass somebody who's begging in the streets
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Do you give them money or no? What doesn't this verse say that you need to?
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Steven is shaking his head. No, in fact, Steven has been known to just give him the stiff arm.
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Boof Out of my way, why not? Yeah, you know what's interesting is if you offer a lot of these guys food, what do they say?
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No, thanks. I want money Part of the problem is you know, why are they begging?
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Well, I don't know if you've read these articles, but you know There are guys who make or people who make two three hundred dollars a day begging
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So they're like, why would I get a job? You know, and I'm a little suspicious of 30 year olds who say that they're
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Veterans of the Vietnam War, I don't know But you know if you see your brother in need now, it wouldn't be wrong to help somebody who's not in the church
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No, it would not be wrong. But I think the first immediate need is usually food Second immediate need might be work
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But most of these people and I and I see this I don't want to sound overly cynical, you know because I believe or not even as a pastor there is a streak of cynicism in me why because I've dealt with these people for most of my life and most of them want
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The money because they want two things one of two things Drugs or alcohol
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And and this is what they do You know and you know, I'm starving to death
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I'd really like something to eat. Okay, here's some food. No, thanks I want the money why because they're gonna go straight down the liquor store or straight down the
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Street to the drug dealer and get some drugs and we don't want to further that I mean, how
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I mean, I can't even imagine just imagine though for a moment if you could be an angel or a
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Fly on the wall or a little miniature camera, you know and just follow this person around after you gave them on the money and you could see them go into the alcohol or the
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Liquor store and buy some Booze and then drink it. How would you feel? Probably betrayed and you probably feel pretty dopey or you could just think to yourself.
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Well, I don't really care what they did I know I did the right thing if they do the wrong thing Okay, but I I'm here to tell you that there's a 95 %
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Chance that they're gonna do the wrong thing Most likely they're gonna do the wrong thing So I I think there's some wisdom that has to go along with this
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I remember once North Hollywood taking a man that was on the street and just taking him to a place
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To get something to eat because he said yes and then preaching the gospel to him.
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Is that okay? I think that's fine Why because I did it no because I think it's
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I think it's a good thing to do anyway MacArthur says about this passage.
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He says we don't want to Kill and hate and be indifferent. We want to do the opposite.
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We will give our lives away. We'll give ourselves away This is what characterizes the to the true child of God total selflessness a willingness to give up everything because This love the love of Christ is so permeated our being
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By the goodness of God, we have been delivered from our former attitude. I mean, have you known people that have?
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previously been super cheap or you know wouldn't share anything and then they get saved and they're just super generous a
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Friend of mine. I mean he literally he would sit there But this is before it well before either one of us got saved he would sit at the table if we went out to dinner
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And he would argue over every penny until everybody paid exactly what they were supposed to you know, if it was 1004 then you paid 1004 and if it was 1217 and you paid 1217, that's the way it was
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Then he gets saved and all of a sudden he's just giving money away and giving things away and just go who is this guy?
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I don't even know him Different priorities he understands that he's been bought with a price and the things of this world are not as important as they were and That's the attitude that we need to have
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Kissed marker says Jesus death on the cross is not a passive death comparable to the sacrifice or sacrificial death of an animal
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Jesus died actively and purposefully of his own will he laid down his life for his people if Jesus gave his life for us
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What is our obligation to him and by extension to his? people
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Francis Havergal put this Question in the form of a hymn
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Listen to this just this verse here. I Gave my life for thee my precious blood.
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I shed That thou might ransomed be and quicken from the dead.
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I Gave I gave my life for thee What what has thou given for me?
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It's a good question And in these days where we just hear that there's this idea that you know
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I'm saved that frees me from the debt I owed And my obligation is nothing
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Not to the church not to the Lord not to the body of Christ not to anyone
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I've been set free That's the wrong answer been purchased with a price kiss marker goes on to say
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John has an answer For he writes and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers when he says he when he says ought he imposes a moral obligation as Jesus extends his love by giving his life
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So the Christian ought to express his love for the believers by being willing to lay down his life for them
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When the honor of God's name the advancement of his church and the need of his people demand that we love our brothers
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We ought to show our love at all cost even to the point of Risking and losing our lives
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It's a difficult Command it's a difficult
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Burden that's placed on us Until we think of All that we have received
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Then it becomes I think easier thoughts or questions about that Yeah, Peggy.
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I I think that's so true I think you know just even in our attitude and the things that we do on a daily basis
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We can give evidence that we're Christians You know if you really want to confound people be happy when they're not
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What do I mean by that if you show up on Monday morning who likes Mondays Russ likes
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Mondays. Nobody else likes Mondays if you Know if you show up for work on Monday morning with a big smile on your face
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But you know what are the other people say Yeah, what's wrong with you dude? It's Monday get a grip on reality, right?
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What's wrong with you, and you say you know what in? Light of all the blessings that are mine in Christ Jesus.
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Why wouldn't I be happy what what are you talking about? there needs to be a quantitative a qualitative a
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Difference between the way you approach life the way you hold on to things the way you approach people
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The way you interact with people then the world does The fact that we ought to love should not be just confined to Sunday morning, but it should go on during the week
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I wanted to emphasize though the special love that we ought to have for our brothers and sisters in Christ before I move on to our love for the world which
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I'll get to next week, but There there just needs to be an emphasis on Fellowship, I'm bearing one another's burdens on finding ways to Provoke one another to love and good works
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That might be that might be sort of hard to Fathom you know how do
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I provoke someone to love and good works? sometimes it might just be Putting opportunities in front of people you know one of the things and I'll just say this
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I'll just throw it out there, and then I'll let people Meditate on it
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One of the things that we do here is some of the ways that we try to communicate are through the bulletin
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Through announcements when Eric gets up or Tom or Ferdie get up and make announcements
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We'll put up posters. You know in in the bathrooms in various areas, and we'll send out
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BBC announces, but sometimes and There's the the lack of You know what the advertising world calls penetration the penetration rates the lack of penetration is pretty astounding
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I've given the illustration before of you know when Steve Lawson was here and somebody was leaving the church that Sunday and Someone said to me.
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Well. I didn't know Lawson was here this weekend if I didn't know and I've been here yesterday And I was just like you know for the conference on Saturday, and I go hmm.
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Well. It's interesting I mean I don't know what more we could have done other than you know to sit in the car next to you on A Sunday morning as you were leaving and just go by the way just a reminder
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Lawson's gonna be here next Saturday So Sometimes so my encouragement to you is to just look for it not necessarily conference announcements because we haven't done any of those
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But look for things that are in the bulletin ways to serve BBC announces ways to help one another to serve one another but here on Sunday morning sometimes there are things that Maybe you know that someone else needs and maybe you know someone that could meet that need or something
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Maybe you can put those two people together. There are ways of Provoking one another to love and good works, but that ought to be what we want to do
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We want people to go leave here to go home this afternoon and to think this week
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There are things that I could be doing there are things that I should be doing To further the the brotherhood here at BBC to help somebody else of the church
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Other thoughts about that Okay. Well, let's pray father
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We thank you for this time. I just pray that you'd give us a growing not just affection not just a sense of love but a love that would issue forth an action that we would demonstrate to one another that we
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Not only intellectually know that we've been bought with a price But that we want to please the
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Lord in loving one another That we are literally willing to Lay down our lives for one another that other that there's nothing that we would not do if we could help someone else in the body of Christ Father, I just pray that that would be
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Shown and demonstrated and that our capacity to love one another would grow and we pray for these things in Christ's name.