Cultivating A Gospel Culture (Ephesians 6:21-24)

TWELVE 5 CHURCH

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Attending 12 .5 church this morning, especially to our coveted members here at 12 .5,

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it is a joy for us to gather together with the saints. It's not a burden. It's not a time to be like, man,

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I got to get up and go to church, but it's a time to gather together with God's children, with the saints.

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And so this is simply out of obedience to King Jesus. His word tells us not to neglect gathering together with the saints, but fulfill the one another's, to forgive and love one another and to spur one another on to good works.

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And so thank you so much to our covenant members here at 12 .5. You are loved. And also, if you are a regular attender or a guest this morning, you are loved also.

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And we want to encourage you, please fill out one of our connect cards. If you have a prayer request, we'd love to be able to pray for you in that way.

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And if you have any questions about who we are, we'd love to answer those and we'd love to get to know you even better.

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And so with that being said, our prayer this morning is that we would be captivated by the love of our sovereign triune

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God. Amen. All right. Before we kickstart the service like we do every morning, we want to pray for a local church.

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So if you would, please pray with me this morning. Heavenly Father, we lift up Word Baptist Church.

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What a wonderful sister church that proclaims the gospel of grace. Lord, I lift up Jamar Andrews, the senior pastor over there along with the leadership.

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God, I pray that you would give them wisdom. God, I pray for reformation. God, we pray that they would be driven by the deep truths of who you are,

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God. We pray for expository preaching, that your truth would go forth and would edify your people.

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Lord, we love this sister church so dearly. We pray for more opportunities to be able to come alongside them in gospel ministry.

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Lord, we love you. We pray this in your name. Amen. All right.

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What an exciting day. We had the baptismal out last week, and then we took it down to then turn around and have to put it right back up.

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So praise God. Praise God for that. We actually have three baptisms this morning.

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So we are very excited. I'm going to go ahead and have Adam come on up here with Austin, and he's going to introduce us to Austin here.

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I'm very grateful this morning to have this opportunity. This is my son -in -law, Austin Smith.

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Things didn't go well when we first met. He is, of course, married to my daughter.

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We've had several conversations. He wasn't living right. He wasn't doing right. He was very prideful, self -centered.

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He didn't want to come to money. He didn't want his girlfriend at the time to know anything about his life.

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We've had several conversations. She'd come back to the house, and I was like, okay, well, here at 12 -5, we're definitely biblical.

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I wasn't going to let my daughter go back with him. The proper understanding is to release the daughter to a husband.

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So that was the key. I wanted him to marry my daughter before she went back to his house.

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So things have changed. He married her. He's trying to live right. He's trying to get a job.

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So he wanted to be baptized, and I was like, well, there's a couple of things we need to talk about. So we went to talk with Pastor Nathan, and we didn't want the underlying to be, well, my daughter was baptized last week.

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She gave the outward profession of faith, and so we didn't want that to be why he was doing it.

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And he verbally expressed that he wants to live for the Lord. He wants to walk in communion with the body here at 12 -5.

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So after he does his profession of faith here, he wants to walk in communion with the body here at 12 -5. He wants to go through the membership class. He wants to live a life for the

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Lord. So I'm very grateful. So we're going to get to baptize him as an outward profession of faith, because it's a symbol of the gospel of the inward work that the

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Holy Spirit has already brought in his heart. So I'm grateful that we get to share this with y 'all this morning. What a beautiful picture.

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We get to see the gospel. You know, one of the elements you see up on the screen of the regulative principle of worship, what

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God commands, is an element of seeing the word. And when we go to the

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Lord's Supper, we get to see the word presented before us, but then on days like this when we get to see the ordinance of baptism, we get to see the word right at the beginning of the service.

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We get to see the beauty of the gospel. So come on up, guys. This is

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Justin and Amy. Y 'all have seen Justin and Amy around here for the past couple of months, I guess, now.

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And they have come wanting to be baptized, wanting to join the church.

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We're going to have a new member recognition at the end of the service with them, which is exciting. But Justin would like to share a few words.

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Hopefully not too long. So I'm going to read it, because I couldn't probably get through it any other way.

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So I always felt like the beginning of my story was pretty typical. I was born into a family that always attended church, was always there whenever the doors were open.

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There was a lot of religious activity in my youth, like church attendance, youth group, service projects, youth rallies.

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And I was even immersed in water at the age of 12. But all of this was in the context of the tradition of the

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Church of Christ. By all appearances, I was a good Christian kid.

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There's just one problem. Contrary to what I believed about all my good works, none of it made me righteous.

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Even with all my religious activity, there was still one thing missing, a new heart.

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All my good works and all the things I took pride in couldn't give me that. I still desired and lived in the things of the flesh.

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Sin still ruled my life. It wasn't until many years later that God truly brought me to my knees and took out my heart of stone and gave me a heart of flesh sensitive to the life of sin that I'd been living.

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In His providence, God used the most painful event of my life to bring me to my knees before Him and cause me to cry out to Him to save me.

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And He did. God used the pain that I had caused by my sin to bring about the greatest good

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I could experience this side of glory, my salvation. He did what I couldn't do.

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Since that time, there's one passage of scripture that I've clung to. That's Ephesians 2, 1 through 5.

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And you who were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of the flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

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But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which

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He loved us, even while we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

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My grace, you have been saved. And those two words, but God, His grace, not me, not my works, not my heritage, those things can never save me.

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God saved me. And so Amy and I stand here together. We are

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His workmanship, made for the good works that He has prepared for me. And we both do one of those good works here in the presence of this church body as a testimony to what

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God and God alone has done for us. You know, we've had quite a bit of conversation building up to this point and just watching

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God work in your heart and in your life recently and then bringing you here to this body has been nothing but providential, right?

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And so I'm going to ask you once again, has Jesus Christ, the second person of the

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Godhead, has He come and live a representative life for you? Died the death that you deserved and rose from the grave to win victory for you?

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And your faith is in Him and Him alone. Not these waters, not this church membership, but Him.

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My honor, sister, to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Raised to walk in newness of life.

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Yeah, we got it warm. Justin, I ask you the same thing.

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Is Christ your Savior? He died for you. He paid for you. He's purchased you.

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And you stand righteous in the perfect spotless blood of the

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Lamb. Raised to walk in newness of life.

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Come on. Church, this is a great day.

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Let's stand in a call to worship. Our call to worship comes from Ephesians that we've been in for well over a year or so.

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This is a time where we get to together proclaim the Word of God. The Apostle Paul says,

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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places.

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Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.

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In love, He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ.

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To the praise of His glorious grace. In Him we have redemption through His blood.

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The forgiveness of our trespasses. Which He has lavished upon us.

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And all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will. To unite all things in Him.

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And all God's people said, Amen. In light of this wonderful call to worship, let us go before the throne in a prayer of adoration corporately as the body of Christ.

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Heavenly Father, we adore Your name on high. God, it is Your Word that says that we set

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Your name and Your Word above all else. God, I pray that this morning that You would help us to remove all distractions.

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God, that we would be focused on Your glory. That we would be focused on the truth. Lord, we love

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You. God, we know that through the week the world beats us up. So many things happen in this broken and fallen world.

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There is hurts. There are pains. There are deaths all around us. God, it is the result of sin.

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But God, You are so good and You are so mighty to save. And God, while we are faithless, You are faithful.

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Lord, just please exhort our hearts this morning as we lift Your name on high. Lord, we love

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You. We pray this in Your name. Amen. The One whom angels most revere

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Hung the stars like chandeliers Numbered every grain of sand

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Knows the heart of every man He is

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King forever He is King forever

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King forevermore Majesty His power and The schemes of man

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Never changing Great I Am Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall

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He is faithful to it all Crown Him King forever

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Crown Him King forever

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Forsaken by a traitor's clan Centuries Did pierce the lowly

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Prince of Peace Oh, livingless man

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That crucified the spotless Lamb Buried by Justice Jesus Christ Worship our

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King Let us bow at His feet

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He has done great things Yes, amen. See what our

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Savior has done And see how His love overcomes

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He has done great things Yes Oh, He has done great things

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Heaven You conquered the great change

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Oh, God Jesus our

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Savior Your name lifted high Yes For your promises

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Yes, and amen You will do great things

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For God every change

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Oh, God Great things We dance in your freedom

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Oh, Jesus our Savior Your name lifted high

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Oh, God In Him We have obtained an inheritance

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Having been predestined According to the purpose of Him Who works all things According to the counsel of His will

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So that we who were the first to hope in Christ Might be to the praise of His glory

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In Him you also When you heard the word of truth The gospel of your salvation

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And believed in Him Were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit Amen It is the Holy Spirit Who is the guarantee of our inheritance

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Until we acquire possession of it To the praise of His glory

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Amen Let's now go to our great and mighty God With a corporate prayer of confession and assurance

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Heavenly Father, we gather together as your people And we confess that we are sinful God, we constantly have idols pumping out of our hearts

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Looking to the things of this world that are perishing Setting our minds on the things below But God, you are a mighty

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Savior You have redeemed us You have instilled with us a conviction God, we are convicted of sin and righteousness

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And of the judgment to come And we know that we don't look to ourselves But we look to you,

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Jesus That is where we find our assurance That you are a Savior That saves to the uttermost

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God, you are faithful We are faithless We do not stand before you by the mighty things that we have done

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No, Jesus You paid for it all God, you are the only reason Jesus Christ, that we can stand assured

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And have a peace that surpasses all understanding God, please fill our hearts this morning with your truth

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Lord, we love you Pray all these things in your name, Jesus Amen Christ, the true and Son of man

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Never yielded, never sinned

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He who makes the many righteous Brings us back to life again

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Cursed the curse that rising Crushed the serpent's head

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Yes Christ, the everlasting

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Son of sacrifice Laid with faith upon the altar

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Yes Oh, but full and all to leave

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Standing bold to God's great glory to be known

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With his arms stretched wide to heaven

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See the Holy shield

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The mighty king Be the champion

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In the battle Where, oh, death Is now thy sting

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They see His majesty

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Here it is, church He shall be the throne The stone

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Gift of grace His Jesus, my redeemer

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There is no more For heaven now to give

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My joy My righteousness set free

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My steadfast love My deep and boundless peace

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To this I hold My hope is only Jesus For my life is wholly bound to God Oh, how strange and divine

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I can see All is gone

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But I am not forsaken My side

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The Savior, He will stay And I labor on His power is

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To this I hold I shall overcome

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Sure, sure The price it has been made

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For Jesus bled Yes And suffered for my heart

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And He was raised To over Oh, Jesus said

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That He will bring me home And day by day

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Until I'm in joy Before the Lord In peace and love

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I just praise you this morning,

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Father Lord, we thank you for this This awesome opportunity, Father This awesome worship service,

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Father That you've That you've led us through, Lord This is all about you, Lord We love you so much

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We thank you, we praise you Yet not I, but Christ in me We pray this morning,

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Father I praise you for the baptisms that we had this morning How awesome that is, Lord Lord, I just pray,

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Jesus, that you would Father, I pray that you would be with Be with Pastor Nathan as he's about to come before us

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Lord, just Just prepare his heart right now, Lord Give him the words to speak,

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Lord As I know you will Lord, anoint the word this morning,

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Lord Lord, open our hearts, open We may take your word in Lord, I pray this morning

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As we take up this offering, Jesus, Lord I just pray that you would bless it We love you, we praise you

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We ask all these things in your name In Jesus' holy name And all of God's people's sin

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Amen Okay, do we have any, uh

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Any of those weirdos in here That stay seated in the theater During the ending credits?

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You know what I'm talking about There's very few of us that actually stay in there Unless it's one of those special movies

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Like the hero, superhero movies Where you know there's gonna be like an Easter egg Or a scene at the very end

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You know, you stay until after the credits And that's when you're You're gonna be going to make a case there

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For, well, this is worth setting through These awkward list of names And these job descriptions that I don't understand

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And frankly just don't care about I'll tolerate it But otherwise, what do we do? We gather our things

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We get everything together And we make our way down those awkwardly Weirdly uneven wide steps

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And go to our car That's the movie theater experience, is it not? Alright Well, this is oftentimes

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Unfortunately how we approach The ending of New Testament epistles Like this one here in Ephesians You know, we enjoyed

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Learning and growing We enjoyed being molded by The Holy Spirit inspired letter

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That we've been reading Only to get to the ending And start gathering our things

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Turning our minds off And begin to check out And just ready to go on with our day

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And we just kinda We kinda read the words haphazardly And we do not pay much attention

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To those closing statements After all, I do not know Who Tychicus was

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And the fact that he was a faithful minister Doesn't seem to apply to my life

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I don't know how this affects me today Somehow forgetting that all of Scripture Is profitable

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It's breathed out by God And it's for us, right? Including these closing remarks

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These are not movie credits That can be taken or leave And just go about your day

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They are essential Life -giving, mind -renewing glorious truths

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That are necessary For yours and I's sanctification

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Because these are God's words With that in mind Open your copy of God's word

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For the last time Within our study in Ephesians To Ephesians chapter 6

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Ephesians chapter 6 We're gonna start in verse 21 As we get ready to wrap this up We started this letter 19 months ago

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I went back and looked at the date It was January of 2023 When we began our study in Ephesians And we've seen the

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Holy Spirit Use these truths here in this great epistle To mold, to unify, to encourage

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To strengthen us as his people And I have no doubt That he will continue to do so today

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So if you would look with me there At that, at Paul's final greeting In chapter 6 of Ephesians Starting in verse 21

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So that you also may know how I am And what I am doing Tychicus, the beloved brother

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And faithful minister in the Lord Will tell you everything I have sent him to you

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For this very purpose That you may know how we are And that he may encourage your hearts

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Peace be to the brothers And love with faith from God the Father And Lord Jesus Christ Grace be with all who love our

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Lord Jesus Christ With love incorruptible It seems a little bittersweet

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To close out this letter, doesn't it? Before we jump in And we wrap this up Let's go to the

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Lord in prayer As we always do For a prayer of illumination Father, your word is true

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It is clear And it is life -giving We've seen the sanctifying effects

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Of these heavenly words Shape how we see your sovereign

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Saving, redemptive work Towards unworthy recipients such as us

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The fact that Father You chose us in love Before the creation Jesus, you became our representative

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To purchase us by blood ransom From the wrath of God And you now intercede for us

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At the right hand of the Father Holy Spirit, you now seal us As a guarantee of our inheritance

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Convicting us of sin Guiding us in righteousness Leading and dominating us

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God, we pray that you would allow Us, your people, to see that unity That we have in Christ With the same spirit

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All together as your people God, that we may We would press into that unity

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That we would not walk According to the flesh Causing division and dishonoring you

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We ask that you would Use this final greeting From the

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Apostle Paul To solidify in our hearts and minds This superb and eternal reality

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God, may we be doers of the word And not hearers only And we pray all of this

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In the unrivaled, victorious name Of our Savior, Jesus Christ For it is in him

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That we have this unbridled access To enter your throne room

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Boldly communing with you And all God's people said Amen The title of today's sermon

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Is Cultivating a Gospel Culture It is one thing to affirm

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And to proclaim the right gospel As we've seen there in all of Ephesians That Christ came to save Unworthy sinners such as us

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And to bring those recipients of grace Into perfect union with the creator

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Through faith in him Yet, as we've experienced

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In our own lives And in the lives of churches That we've been a part of And maybe even at times

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In the life of this church We've seen over these past few months Also in the life of the

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Christians There in Ephesus The culture of the church Does not always reflect

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That gospel truth as it ought We have the facts over here

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We have the gospel But then the lives of the people Within the church Do not reflect that gospel

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But this has been the driving force Of Paul's letter If you've been with us through this Or you've studied Ephesians in the past You know

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You who are in Christ Now should live like it That's the whole point

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Remember, you are positionally Righteous in Christ That's what Paul's been driving home

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This whole time You, if you are in Christ You are positionally righteous Now walk in that righteousness

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Right? This is not always easy Because this is This warring flesh

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Fights within us Because of the ongoing spiritual battle

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That we've spoken about Extensively over the past few weeks These forces of evil And this present darkness

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That are fighting against us If we are not standing firm

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As Paul calls us to do so Being alert and on guard Always being watchful

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Then the culture of the church Will by default Begin to reflect the brokenness of this world

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Instead of the gospel You ever see it? You guys seem dead out here today

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You're like, no, I've never seen a church like that Oh yes, you have Churches are full of sinful people

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You've seen the brokenness of the world Where selfishness will reign Over sacrificial service

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Where discouragement will crush Any encouragement that could possibly be had Disunity will squash out peace

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Hate and discord will conquer over love And legalism and rules will choke out grace

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This is the opposite Of a gospel culture

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And we by default Will always go that direction As a people

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All while we are called and empowered To stir one another up To love and good works as Paul said

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But yet we don't walk in that We the recipients of such Such marvelous grace

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Empowered by the Holy Spirit That is within us Must actively cultivate

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A gospel culture Or it will slip through your fingertips And your flesh will reign

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And as Paul wraps up this letter He does so in a way that That sums up the whole of the letter

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This call to gospel culture In a tangible and practical way

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And so I want us to see five ways That cultivating a gospel culture

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Can be accomplished through Seen here in this text The first one is gospel culture

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Can only be accomplished through serving Look at the text with me Look at verse 21 He says

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So that you also may know How I am and what I am doing Tychicus, the beloved brother

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And faithful minister in the Lord Will tell you everything If you remember from last week

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Paul had just asked for prayer There in the previous verses Verses 19 and 20 That words may be given to him

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In opening his mouth boldly In proclaiming the mystery of the gospel There or Let me remind you

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He's in chains as he does so And so in order for your prayers To be more precise

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And intentional In your service to me This is Paul Through prayer

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I'm going to send someone To fill you in on the details That's his whole purpose

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Here in this verse That way you can intercede for me In a more informed way

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This is what Paul is calling For the Christians Which by the way As a side note

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I must say this We need to quit being so secretive About our circumstances And our struggles

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Right We live in a very individualistic culture And we think Well my problems are my problems

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My issues are my issues And we get secretive about them You know what you're doing And when you do that You rob your brothers and sisters

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Of the blessing of serving you When you don't inform them So that's just a side note And I think we get this example

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From the apostle Paul Quit being so secretive Just bear your burdens with one another

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Just lay them out But take note From the apostle Paul So that you

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Also may know how I am And what I am doing He says I'm sending someone To fill you in on everything

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I want you to be informed Not so that you can feel bad for me Paul has never asked For any sympathy

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Throughout any of these letters That he sends As a matter of fact The opposite He deflects from sympathy

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And he points them To the glories of the gospel In a gospel culture And he continues to do so And in this situation

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He's just telling them I just want you to be informed You know why Because we're to bear One another's burdens And I see you

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Christians Wanting to bear my burdens Through prayer And through service And so I need to inform you Of everything

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Both how he is And personally And what he's doing His activity

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And in order to inform you Of this I'm sending Here's this name here That we don't know It's kind of like The ending credits of a movie

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Right? I don't know Tychicus We don't know a lot About this saint We see his name show up A handful of times

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Here in the New Testament But we don't know A lot about him But what we do know

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Is that he's a beloved brother And he's a faithful minister As Paul refers to him here There's some discussion

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As to what responsibilities And or what title maybe That this saint

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Held there in the church We don't know That at this time

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We do know though That he was a faithful servant Of Paul And Paul's need In his imprisonment

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And he was caring for him He is of course A follower of Christ Paul refers to him

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As a brother And the fact that he calls him Beloved brother

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Notice that there In the text Beloved brother Makes me think That he is well known Amongst the churches

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And greatly respected And loved This is somebody That the church in Ephesus Would know that name

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Unlike us When we read the name We don't know But they would know Which is probably why Paul trusts him

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With these vitally Important letters Think of these These are Holy Spirit Inspired letters For the whole of the church

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From here on out And so Paul Trusts them In the hands of this saint

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He wouldn't trust Just anyone with these This is a man Whose service

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To the bride of Christ Stands heads above most This is a faithful man

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This is a man That I know very little about Yet I cannot wait

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To embrace him In glory He lived out A gospel culture

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Paul also refers to him Look there As a faithful minister Now Paul could be speaking

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In general terms Every saint should be A minister Should be a faithful minister At that In the service of the kingdom

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However I think Paul Just might be referring to A title of sorts

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For Tychicus Possibly an evangelist Or a shepherd He's a faithful minister

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The reason I think this is The fact that Paul Trusts him to deliver These vital letters To the churches

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Because he does the same thing With the letter Colossians Right? It's the same time

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Same He sends him The same thing Quite possibly Needing him To explain

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These letters In greater detail Such as what I'm doing For y 'all today Is explaining them

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But also What Paul says At the end of verse 22 Look at the end of verse 22 What does he say About Tychicus That he may

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Encourage your hearts Paul could be referring to General encouragement

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That every saint can bring However I just It just seems A bit more pastoral

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Right? That he's carrying these letters Nevertheless This principle applies to all

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Tychicus is A representative of Any one of us saints Paul's only able to serve

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Those particular saints Through prayer And his letters Because of his imprisonment

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And so what does he do? What does Paul do? He sends a proxy servant He wants to serve

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These people He wants to serve them well To serve them in ways That he cannot

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But he's not the only part of the body You get that right?

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It's all interwoven That's why we've been going through Ephesians We've seen the unity of the body

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Tychicus and Paul are one They're just part of a single organism

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The body of Christ And he uses this brother In this way Even in his own suffering

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He finds ways to serve The body of Christ There in Ephesus And the surrounding cities

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And for Tychicus He is willing and ready To be used in this service He's willing to give up his life

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In order to serve the body Through his service to Paul And then his service

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To the people in those churches Why are these men Willing to serve in such radical ways?

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What's leading these men? What's leading the apostle Paul? What's leading Tychicus in this? It's because their savior

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Had served them In an even greater And more sacrificial way They're not asking us

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To follow their example They're saying Follow me as I follow Christ In Matthew 20, 28

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It says Even as the Son of Man Came not to be served But to serve

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And to give his life As a ransom for many If that gospel of Christ Great service towards you

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Doesn't lead you and I To service You're not walking According to the spirit

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And a culture of selfishness Will permeate the church We're looking to the example

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Of our savior The great service That he came and did for us By redeeming us

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So a gospel culture Can only be accomplished Through serving But secondly A gospel culture

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Can only be accomplished Through encouraging Look at verse 22

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He says I have sent him to you For this very purpose That you may know how we are

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And that he may Encourage your hearts I gotta be honest

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I'm not very good at encouraging Encouragement does not Come natural to me

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If any of you know me very well I instinctively look for the problems When I'm speaking to anyone

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You know I'm evaluating Your facial expressions I'm looking at your body language And I'm looking for the holes

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I'm looking for the issues I'm looking for the areas That we need to resolve That's just me

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I'm looking for the same thing In myself constantly I'm not good It's not natural for me to encourage

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I ignore all the fluff And I want to solve the problems I can often give you truth

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And many of you have been The recipients of that truth All the while crushing your spirit And doing so I'm just confessing

54:59

My shortcomings to you in this Many of you know that That's where Pastor Jeremiah Often comes in And picks up the broken pieces

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Of the shrapnel from the bomb I just set off in your life I'm sorry about that I'm working on it

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Pray for me I pray that God Would help me in this area It's like a

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It's kind of like a non -hugger Trying to be a hugger It's just awkward For everyone, right?

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So if I try to encourage you Just take it It's like this is uncomfortable But I'll give you encouragement

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But that wasn't Paul Encouragement was Second nature to Paul It was instinctive

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And why is that? It's because the gospel Had molded him

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He had seen the great example Of our Savior And sought to imitate Him He had his mind renewed

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By looking to the glorious gospel Of Jesus Christ The Savior, the

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Jesus There in John 16, 33 He says, I have said these things to you That in me you may have peace

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In the world you will have tribulation But take heart I have overcome the world

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Jesus, the great encourager He, in His suffering

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Is seeking to encourage Those that He came to redeem The one that intercedes for And encourages us

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From the right hand of the Father Is the same source of encouragement That led the

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Apostle Paul To be a man in chains Wrongly imprisoned Seeking to comfort others

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He's sending someone Someone that he could have kept By his side in his imprisonment To keep him comforted

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But instead he sends This brother to them Who are not chained and imprisoned

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In order to encourage them In his difficulty That's a gospel culture, isn't it?

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This is how the Apostle Paul is living Paul knew that those saints in Ephesus They were prone to discouragement

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Just like all of us We're all prone to discouragement Discouragement over Paul's circumstances

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Oh, we love the Apostle Paul We hate to see that he's in prison This is wrong, it's wrong I want him to be freed

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So he can go out And the gospel can continue to go forward More and more and more And I'm discouraged

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Discouragement over their own circumstances And their own sin Discouragement brought on by their own inability

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To live in a gospel culture The way that they should Overwhelming them Discouragement distracting them

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From the task at hand And we all suffer from this type of discouragement And King Jesus Used his servant

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Paul To send another servant To be an encouragement to them This is gospel culture

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You and I Oh, how we're prone to discouragement Are we cultivating a culture of encouragement?

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Towards one another? Are we actively seeking to do so?

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We mentioned that passage in Hebrews All the time Not neglecting the gathering of the saints For what purpose?

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Encouraging one another All the more as we say The day drawing near We're left in a world

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In this present darkness That is leaving us discouraged At every turn

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And we're discouraged We know We know you're discouraged At different times

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Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5 He says therefore Encourage one another And build one another up Are we building each other up?

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Or are we tearing each other down? We've seen all these great truths there in Ephesians We've walked through and we're like Yes, chosen before the foundations of the world

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Sealed by the Holy Spirit Jesus has redeemed us Praise God Truth, truth, truth, truth, truth

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And then turn around And ignore the burden of a brother or sister in here And leave them discouraged

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All the while we are part of that body Just like Tychicus and Paul Part of that body to be used by Christ To carry out

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Christ's encouragement That's the whole point of this letter

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Is the unification of the body As a whole That we should be encouragers

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We should be serving one another We should be encouraging one another At every turn Not to live for ourselves

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Not to live for our selfish motives Or for this world Or for the things of this world

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But to live for Him That's the Christian life, isn't it?

01:00:01

Are we cultivating that in here? Or are we cultivating a culture of selfishness That looks just a little less evil than the world?

01:00:11

Because that's often church You know why I think this is a problem? I think it's because many of us

01:00:19

Still have anchors in the soil I was thinking about it the other day

01:00:31

Over the past few years It's like God is just He's been working in The hearts of many of you that I've seen

01:00:38

And myself And I've been letting go More and more of this world Not because of me

01:00:45

Christ is working in me He's allowing me to see this present darkness And that it's not home

01:00:51

And I've been cranking up that That chain with that anchor And I've been pulling it out of the dirt

01:00:58

Almost to the point to where maybe I'm floating a little too high off of the soil And I've got to be careful

01:01:07

But I think a lot of times We get those anchors here And we think this is home I have to financially be stable

01:01:14

I have to have a good job I have to have a good reputation I have to have this I have to have that I have to do these things

01:01:20

All the while you've got guys like Paul and Tychicus Giving up everything And saying

01:01:25

God will provide for me I serve the kingdom Period Now could you serve the kingdom

01:01:32

Through tent making like Paul did at times? Oh you bet you But it was all with kingdom mindedness

01:01:38

Because he didn't have the anchors in the soil But often times we do And when we have those anchors in that soil What do we do?

01:01:44

We're living like we live in the soil Like it's our home Like that soil is our home

01:01:50

Like this is our place Like America is our home And that we're a citizen here

01:01:55

Like what? That's not how Paul lived That's not how he called the saints to live This isn't our place

01:02:01

And so when we make this home When our anchors are too deep into this ground

01:02:07

What happens? We start to live as though we are citizens of it Because there is a reality in this world

01:02:15

And selfishness gets things You ever wondered why the wicked flourish out there?

01:02:23

You know what? Wealthy people don't become wealthy because they're good people People get wealthy because they're ruthless

01:02:34

There's exceptions to everything But most of the time

01:02:40

That's why the psalmist is like Why are the wicked flourishing? And we live in this certain reality

01:02:47

So when we bring that into the church What do we do? We bring that into the church And then we start to live

01:02:53

In a way that is congruent with that soil Selfishness Discouragement All that comes with it

01:03:03

But that's not what Paul has called us to in this letter Let us cultivate a gospel culture through encouragement

01:03:12

Encouraging one another all the more As we see the day drawing near A gospel culture

01:03:18

Can only be accomplished through, thirdly, peace Through peace

01:03:24

Look at verse 23, the beginning of that with me What does Paul say? He says, peace be to the brothers

01:03:32

And Paul started out this letter with this In chapter 1, verse 2, he says

01:03:37

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ If you've been with us in this study

01:03:44

You will recall that there was division within the body there in Ephesus We had the

01:03:51

Jewish Christians over here And we had the Gentile Christians over here Rarely ever connecting

01:03:57

And when they did connect There was great disunity in their midst And Paul wanted them to see that this kind of disunity

01:04:04

Is of the world And godless There is no disunity in the body

01:04:10

As a matter of fact, turn back to chapter 2 with me I want you to get your eyes on it again Back in Ephesians chapter 2

01:04:16

We're going to start in verse 11 I want you to see

01:04:24

And be reminded of what Paul has really been laying out For these Jewish and Gentile Christians unified

01:04:31

There in verse 11 he says Therefore, he had just broken down the fact that We have grace through faith

01:04:38

Now in light of that Remember that at one time you Gentiles That's us in the flesh

01:04:45

Called the uncircumcision By what is called the circumcision

01:04:50

That's the Israelites Which is made in the flesh by hands Remember that you

01:04:56

Gentiles Were at one time Separated from Christ You're separated

01:05:04

Alienated from the commonwealth of Israel And strangers of the covenant To the covenant of promise

01:05:10

Having no hope And without God in the world But now in Christ Jesus You who were far off Have been brought near How?

01:05:24

By the blood of Christ For he himself is our

01:05:29

And there's that peace He himself is our peace Who has made us both one

01:05:35

And has broken down in his flesh The dividing wall of hostility

01:05:40

If you were with us in that study You remember that he's really referring to What the Jewish people had created in the temple

01:05:48

Called a surrogate They had actually created a wall That was a dividing wall

01:05:53

That would not allow Gentiles Into the temple in a certain area

01:05:58

But this had not been prescribed by God They created this on their own And this is a dividing wall of hostility

01:06:04

They had now created a dividing wall of hostility Between Jewish and Gentile Christians at this point

01:06:10

Look at verse 15 By abolishing the law of commandments Expressed in ordinances That he might create in himself

01:06:17

One new man In place of the two So making what?

01:06:24

Peace And might reconcile us both to God In one body

01:06:31

Through the cross Thereby killing the hostility And he came and preached peace to you

01:06:39

Who were far off And peace to those who were near He preached peace to the Jewish person

01:06:46

And peace to the Gentile Those who were near and had the law And the covenant

01:06:51

And all that was involved And then those that were in outer darkness For through him we both have access

01:06:59

In one spirit to the Father So then you were no longer strangers and aliens

01:07:05

But you are fellow citizens With the saints And members of the household of God Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets

01:07:14

Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone It would have been built into a singular building

01:07:19

This is a unified building here In whom the whole structure being joined together Grows into a holy temple to the

01:07:26

Lord A place where God dwells with his people, right? We, the dwelling of the

01:07:32

Holy Spirit within all of us The same Holy Spirit within all of us Are being built like blocks on a building

01:07:38

A temple to the Lord In him you also are being built together Into a dwelling place for God by the

01:07:46

Spirit This has been Paul's whole thrust of this letter

01:07:54

Unified in Christ in one body and one spirit Perfect peace

01:08:00

No longer any hostility The culture of hostility is a reflection of this world

01:08:07

This world is hostile This world has no peace They try and fake peace

01:08:12

They try and come up with some facade of peace at times And they seem to be successful in moments

01:08:19

But then that falls out of their hands like oil in their fist Christ has brought us peace

01:08:26

Peace with him and peace with each other This is what

01:08:31

Paul is reaffirming in his closing statement Peace be to the brothers

01:08:39

They already have peace positionally You've been made at peace with the triune

01:08:46

God You were at one time at war with him You were at odds with him under his wrath

01:08:51

And deserving of his judgment And Christ's blood purchased you And redeemed you from the wrath of God And made peace positionally

01:09:01

Now he's calling them to live in that peace That's why Paul's closing this out with Peace be to the brothers

01:09:08

Live in peace, walk in peace Be at peace Cultivate peace in your midst

01:09:14

Because you already have it positionally Why are you walking otherwise? As a matter of fact, look over in Romans chapter 12 with me

01:09:25

In Romans chapter 12 In verse 18 We see this same principle

01:09:31

Of what Paul's trying to wrap up here At the end of Ephesians But there in Romans chapter 12

01:09:39

It gets real personable here Real personal here in the moment As he tells these

01:09:45

Christians How they should be living In Romans chapter 12

01:09:51

Starting in verse 18 he says If possible So far as it depends on you

01:09:57

Well here's Christian life isn't an individual life But each individual is responsible to walk in the hole

01:10:07

You know what I mean by that right? It's not an individual calling You're called to a bigger thing

01:10:14

A body, a unit All unified, perfectly brought in together But each individual is responsible to walk in that hole

01:10:22

If possible, as far as it depends on you Live peaceable with all Live peaceably with all

01:10:32

And then he says there in verse 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves

01:10:38

Never Why? Why do you not avenge yourself as a Christian?

01:10:43

The world tells you to avenge yourself The world will tell you at every turn Remember when you have your anchor in this soil

01:10:49

You begin to dig your heels in the sand You go, if I don't stand up for me, no one will I have to stand up for my rights I have to make sure that I just don't get run over by everybody

01:11:00

Because that's what the world's gonna do But then the Christian life is something completely different Be at peace with everybody

01:11:07

Beloved, never avenge yourself Try and live out in that world according to their standards

01:11:13

And not avenge yourself You will be crushed They will take advantage of you at every turn

01:11:18

And you will be destroyed If you play by their standards But he says something different Never avenge yourself, but leave it to the wrath of God Vengeance is mine

01:11:33

That's what he says He quotes that He says, vengeance is mine I will repay, says the Lord If we are positionally how we are

01:11:40

As Paul has said in Ephesians In Christ that he loved us so much That he sent his son to pay for us

01:11:47

And then he seals us as a guarantee If he's brought us into that, he loves us Well, he's not gonna overlook wrongdoing being done to you

01:11:58

Anytime someone does me wrong There's a moment where my flesh gets into me And I'm like,

01:12:03

I wanna take vengeance But then afterwards, the word of God sets in and I go Oh, I feel bad for them

01:12:09

That's bad I'm a little nervous for them I'm a child of God And God's not gonna just overlook that And his vengeance is a lot more severe than my vengeance

01:12:23

And so we can walk in this We can never avenge ourselves as Paul says Vengeance is the

01:12:28

Lord To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him If he is thirsty, give him something to drink

01:12:33

For by doing so, you will heat burning coals on his head Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good

01:12:43

Now Paul is speaking specifically of our enemies within the world here

01:12:50

But I bring this text to your attention Because how much more does this apply to your brothers and sisters?

01:13:01

How much more? How often do we treat those in the world better than we treat our family in here?

01:13:15

A gospel culture will be a culture of unending forgiveness Unending Knowing that God's gonna take care of me

01:13:28

Is it not better to just suffer harm from a brother or sister? To maintain peace and unity and love?

01:13:37

Is it not better to have been maligned by a brother or sister than to cause division? I love what one pastor friend of mine says to his congregation at every gathering

01:13:49

He knows people He says this every time they get together for anything He says, remember saints

01:13:56

Today we will be unoffendable We will be unoffendable

01:14:02

We will be peacemakers And you know why he says it? Because he knows good and well that he's gonna offend somebody that day

01:14:09

They're gonna offend him You're gonna offend her She's gonna offend her She's gonna offend him We're gonna offend each other

01:14:15

I'm sorry, that's just life, right? We still have this warring flesh within us I'm gonna offend you if I haven't already this morning

01:14:22

But as we walk in peace In the peace that we already have

01:14:29

We can walk unoffendable We don't have to hold that offense

01:14:36

Because Christ didn't hold that offense against you God sees all the wretchedness of you

01:14:44

And his son's blood covered it He still redeemed you And you still stand righteous

01:14:49

And you can do nothing to make him not love you any longer

01:14:57

Absolutely nothing Are we cultivating a culture that says

01:15:05

That brother or sister offends me? I love them but I do not have to subject myself to them

01:15:13

We don't have to be besties If they needed me,

01:15:20

I'm here And I'm not interested in going out of my way for deep fellowship with them

01:15:26

Our personalities just don't mesh You ever get that? Like I love that brother or sister

01:15:33

I'd give them the shirt off my back The moment they call, I will give them whatever they need But there is no way

01:15:38

I wanna hang out with them Disunity, disunity

01:15:47

It's godless It's causing division in the body Our Savior did not lay down his life for those who were lovable He did so for those who were enemies against him

01:16:03

You offend him You grieve the Holy Spirit at times Yet he continually presses into that relationship with you

01:16:13

And you can't do so with your brother or sister Because your personalities don't mesh We need to repent

01:16:24

Look to Christ and be peacemakers Cultivating a gospel culture demands peace

01:16:34

Well, fourthly, gospel culture can only be accomplished through love Look there at verse 23 with me again

01:16:42

He says, Peace be to the brothers And love with faith From God the

01:16:48

Father and Lord Jesus Christ This is far more than a greeting by the

01:16:53

Apostle Paul This is a prayer for ongoing reconciliation You realize that, right?

01:16:59

This is a call to ongoing reconciliation Notice he doesn't just leave it open -ended for us to define love for ourselves

01:17:07

He says love with faith Over in 1

01:17:13

Corinthians 13, 13 You all know the verse So now faith, hope, and love abide

01:17:18

These three, but the greatest of these is theology Love, right?

01:17:28

Gotcha, I caught you You have all passed How do we know love?

01:17:38

Because he loved us Because God is love God is the definition of love

01:17:44

Because God is love And how do we know God? Through Christ Through his

01:17:50

Son That's how we know God That's how we've seen the Father Through the Son And how do we know his

01:17:55

Son? Through faith

01:18:01

We know his Son through faith And faith leads us to love As John said over in 1

01:18:09

John 4 If you love one another, God abides in us And his love is perfected in us

01:18:15

We love because he first loved us Paul is referring to love united with faith

01:18:22

As the Father and the Son are perfectly united He says from God the

01:18:29

Father and Lord Jesus Christ there in verse 22 That's what he ties it into Back in chapter 3 of Ephesians In verse 17 he says

01:18:39

So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith That you being rooted and grounded in love

01:18:46

He says in verse 18 May have strength to comprehend with all the saints

01:18:51

What is the breadth and length and height and depth And to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge

01:19:00

That you may be filled with all the fullness of God And then later in chapter 4 he says

01:19:07

With all humility and gentleness With patience Bearing with one another in love

01:19:13

This is the only way you will have peace When love reigns in your hearts

01:19:21

And love cannot be defined by you It must be defined through faith

01:19:28

And the one who is love The one that showed love Perfect love So we may walk in peace

01:19:36

We may walk in love In chapter 4 of Ephesians in verse 16 he says

01:19:43

From whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint With which it is equipped When each part is working properly

01:19:49

Makes the body grow So that it builds itself up in love

01:19:55

You see in the theme It's all interwoven You can't get around it So as Paul is closing this letter out

01:20:02

He's basically just summarizing everything that he's just written so far And saying now walk in it

01:20:07

Live in it Don't just be hearers of the word Be doers of the word

01:20:13

Live it out A gospel culture can only be accomplished through love

01:20:19

And faith Fifth and lastly A gospel culture can only be accomplished through grace

01:20:27

Look at our last verse As we get ready to close out this great epistle Verse 24

01:20:33

Paul says grace Be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ With love incorruptible

01:20:40

For grace you have been saved

01:20:45

Through faith This is not your own doing It is a gift of God We were saved by grace

01:20:55

We are sustained by grace We will be glorified by grace

01:21:02

If we the recipients of such grace Do not walk in Live by And exude an expression of that grace

01:21:12

Then we are most certainly not cultivating a gospel culture It's one thing to say grace to you brother

01:21:21

But then withhold grace We must desire for all of us

01:21:30

To walk in grace And confirm that through our expression

01:21:35

And life of grace towards each other If your life here in the body

01:21:44

And your life outside of these four walls Does not exude grace

01:21:49

Are you even a recipient of grace? Or are you like the unforgiving servant?

01:21:59

Forgiven of an absurd Like a hundred lifetimes couldn't pay the debt off And then turn around and throw your friend in prison

01:22:07

For ten dollars that he owes you That's what it's often like here in the church

01:22:14

We can't forgive somebody of something so minor and small We can't show grace

01:22:21

Even though we have received such tremendous grace This is cultivating a gospel culture

01:22:31

We must walk in it Through serving one another Through encouraging one another Through living in peace with one another

01:22:37

Through love towards one another And faith and through grace Exuded from our lives

01:22:44

Expressed in every element of our lives towards one another This is the letter to the church in Ephesus Before we go to the table together

01:22:58

I would like to bring a family before the church We mentioned it before for new member recognition

01:23:05

We are covenant people We've covenanted together And mission And so Calvert family

01:23:11

If you don't mind coming on up here I need to reach over here and grab this So Justin and Amy just went through the ordinance of baptism

01:23:29

We've got the girls Ella Ava And Georgia Alrighty Well y 'all have seen this family over the past few weeks

01:23:38

Like we said They've gone through the new member class We've sat down and had membership interview with them

01:23:43

They see the immense need to be part of a covenant body

01:23:50

They have signed the membership covenants They've agreed to become a part of this family

01:23:58

To bring their gifts to this body To be subject to this body

01:24:03

To submit to this people And we are just excited as the elders

01:24:09

To be able to present them to you as a church body For affirmation into this covenant of people

01:24:16

So members of 12 .5 If you affirm this family to become part of this Please stand

01:24:23

Amen Amen Praise God Guys As we do every time

01:24:33

We've got this ESV study bible And I always want to remind you This isn't a gift

01:24:40

This is a commissioning We just preached on the armor of God The sword of the

01:24:46

This is the sword This is what it is And this is what we live by This is what all of our covenants are designed after This is what our church is structured after This is our authority

01:24:56

And we want to commission y 'all as a family with this bible And we are so thrilled to have y 'all as part of this family

01:25:03

I can't wait to see how God uses y 'all's gifts And to see these girls grow up in the fear and knowledge of the

01:25:09

Lord And to be able to walk with us as a family So let me pray with y 'all

01:25:15

If y 'all would all stand Let's pray together Dear Heavenly Father Lord we thank you for the

01:25:21

Cowart family Lord your providence has brought them here God you have orchestrated this

01:25:27

You know who needs to be in this body You know the giftings that Christ Jesus you've given

01:25:34

That are desperately needed for this people And Lord we thank you for how you're bringing families like this

01:25:42

Lord I pray for these girls I pray that they would grow and grow to love you That you would work in their hearts and minds

01:25:49

Lord that you would save them And grow them into godly young women Lord I pray that they could parent them well

01:25:56

To walk well with them Lord help us to walk with them as a whole As a family together We thank you for this in Christ's name

01:26:03

Amen Well welcome guys Well guys let's prepare our hearts now to go to the table together

01:26:16

I wanted to do that before we went to the table as a family together This is a family thing right Anybody that is in Christ That is an active participating member of an evangelical church

01:26:28

A biblical church You are welcome to the table right now We do not have a closed table at the moment

01:26:34

But you are welcome to come and take of the elements But I would encourage everyone Members and guests alike

01:26:40

That if you have something against a brother or sister If those things that we just preached about this morning

01:26:46

If you have something looming out there Against a brother or sister You'll get it right before you come to this table

01:26:54

This ordinance is very serious As we remind you all the time Paul said some are sick and some have even died

01:26:59

For taking these elements in an unworthy manner And so if you are seeking to be obedient to Christ Not perfectly right

01:27:10

But you're seeking to And you love the Lord Jesus Christ If you are in him Then you're welcome to this table

01:27:17

You can come around the outsides We'll split the group up a little bit Maybe this whole group in here

01:27:22

We'll go to this side And this whole side We'll go here But you'll come around the outside To get the wine and the bread

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And then go back to your seats through the center And you can partake individually As a family

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You can sit down and pray together But we'll come back together And sing the doxology when everything is done

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If you need to speak to one of us Myself, Pastor Jeremiah, Pastor Keith are up here If you need to pray with somebody

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Please come speak with us about that Let's pray that God will be honored In our time of this ordinance

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Lord, we thank you We thank you for this supper We thank you for the sanctifying work it does

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In our hearts and minds Through the Holy Spirit's power We pray that you would be honored in it

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Lord, if there is any unrepented of sin In our hearts Unconfessed sin that is just dormant

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And we're hanging on to it Lord, allow us to set that at the foot of the cross And come boldly to this table

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And partake of the wine that represents your blood And the bread that represents your body

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That was given for us May you be honored in our worship this morning We thank you in Christ's name