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

Covenant Membership, Baptism, and the Call to Gather

Attending 12 .5 church this morning, especially to our coveted members here at 12 .5, 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, I got to get up and go to church.

But it's a time to gather together with God's children, with the saints. 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.

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. 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. 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.

And so with that being said, our prayer this morning is that we would be captivated by the love of our sovereign triune God. Amen. All right. Before we kickstart the service like we do every morning, we want to pray for a local church.

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

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

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

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

I'm very grateful this morning to have this opportunity. This is my son-in-law, Austin Smith. Things didn't go well when we first met. He is, of course, married to my daughter. We've had several conversations.

He wasn't living right. He wasn't doing right. He was very prideful, self-centered. He didn't want to come to money. He didn't want his girlfriend at the time to know anything about his life and what he was doing.

We've had several conversations. She'd come back to the house. I was like, OK, well, here at Twelve Five, we're definitely biblical oriented. And I wasn't going to let my daughter go back with him. The proper understanding is to release the daughter to a husband.

So that was the key. I wanted him to marry my daughter before she went back to his house. And so things have changed. He married her. He's trying to live right. And 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 to underline to be, well, my daughter was baptized last week. She gave the outward profession of faith. And so we didn't want that to be why he was doing it.

He verbally expressed that he wants to live for the Lord. He wants to walk in communion with the body here at Twelve Five. So after he does his profession of faith here, he wants to go through the membership class.

He wants to to live a life for the 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 Holy Spirit has already brought in his heart.

So I'm grateful that we get to share this with you all this morning.

See the gospel. You know, one of the elements you see up on the screen of the regulative principle of worship, what God commands is an element of seeing the word. And when we go to 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. We get to see the beauty of the gospel. So come on up, guys. This is Justin and Amy.

Y 'all have seen Justin and Amy around here for the past couple of months, I guess now. And and they have come wanting to wanting to be baptized, wanting to join the church. 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.

Hopefully not too long. So I'm going to read it because I couldn't probably get through it any other way. But so I always felt like the beginning of my story was pretty typical. You know, I was born into a family that always attended church, was always there whenever the doors were open.

There was a lot of a lot of religious activity in my youth, you know, church attendance, youth group service projects, youth rallies. And I was I was even immersed in water at the age of 12. But all of this was in the context of the tradition of the Church of Christ.

By all appearances, I was a good Christian kid. There's just one problem. Contrary to what I believed about all my good works, none of it made me righteous. Even with all my religious activity, there was still one thing missing, a new heart.

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. 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.

In his providence, God used one of them, used the most painful event of my life to bring me to my knees before him and caused me to cry out to him to save me. And he did. God used the pain that I had caused by my sin to bring about the greatest good I could experience this side of glory, my salvation.

He did what I couldn't do. Since that time, there's one passage of scripture that I've clung to. That's Ephesians 2, 1 through 5. 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 we're by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even while we were dead in our trespasses, made us live alive together with Christ, my grace, you have been saved.

And that those two words, but God, his grace, not me, not my works, not my heritage. Those things can never save me. God saved me. And so Amy and I stand to stand here together. We are his workmanship made for the good works that he's 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 God and God alone has done for us.

I know we've had quite a bit of conversation building up to this point and just watching God work in your heart and in your life recently. And then bringing you here to this body has been nothing but providential.

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

And your faith is in him and him alone, not these waters, not this church membership, but him. Well, then it's my honor, sister, to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Married with Christ. Raised to walk in newness of life. Yeah, we got it warm. Justin, I ask you the same thing. Is Christ your savior? He died for you. He paid for you. He's purchased you. And you stand righteous in the perfect, spotless blood of the Lamb.

Well, brother, it's my honor to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Married with Christ. Raised to walk in newness of life. Come on. Church, this is a great day. Let's stand in a call to worship.

God’s Blessing in Christ and the Corporate Call to Worship

Our call to worship comes from Ephesians, that we've been in for well over a year or so. This is a time where we get to, together, proclaim the word of God. The Apostle Paul says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.

In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, to the praise of his glorious grace. In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, which he has lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, to unite all things in him.

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. Heavenly Father, we adore your name on high.

God, it is your word that says that we set your name and your word above all else. God, I pray that this morning, that you would help us to remove all distractions. God, that we would be focused on your glory, that we would be focused on the truth.

Lord, we love you. God, we know that through the week, the world beats us up. So many things happen in this broken and fallen world. There is hurts, there are pains, there are deaths all around us. God, it is a result of sin.

But God, you are so good and you are so mighty to save. And God, while we are faithless, you are faithful. Lord, just please exhort our hearts this morning as we lift your name on high. Lord, we love you.

Pray this in your name. Amen.

The author of salvation. And space and time. And fashion worlds to his design. The one.

Inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. So that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. Amen. It is the Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.

We go to our great and mighty God with a corporate prayer of confession and assurance. 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, looking to the things of this world that are perishing, setting our minds on the things below.

But God, you are a mighty savior. You have redeemed us. You have instilled with us a conviction. God, we are convicted of sin and righteousness and of the judgment to come. And we know that we don't look to ourselves, but we look to you, Jesus.

And our assurance that you are a savior that saves to the uttermost. God, you are faithful. We are faithless. We do not stand before you by the mighty things that we have done. No, Jesus. You paid for it all.

God, you are the only reason, Jesus Christ, that we can stand assured and have a peace that surpasses all understanding. God, please fill our hearts this morning with your truth. Lord, we love you. We pray all these things in your name, Jesus.

Amen.

Yes, oh my Lord.

Let us do, Lord.

Ask all these things in your holy name and all of God's people sin.

The Problem of Checking Out at the End of Scripture

Those in here that stay seated in the theater during the ending credits. 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 like the superhero movies where you know there's going to be like an Easter egg or a scene at the very end.

And you know you stay until after the credits. And that's when you're going to be going to make a case there for well this is worth setting through these awkward list of names. And these job descriptions that I don't understand and frankly just don't care about.

I'll tolerate it. But otherwise, what do we do? We gather our things. We get everything together. And we make our way down those awkwardly, weirdly, uneven wide steps. And go to our car. That's the movie theater experience, is it not?

Alright. Well this is often times, unfortunately, how we approach the ending of New Testament epistles. Like this one here in Ephesians. You know we enjoyed learning and growing. We enjoyed being molded by the Holy Spirit inspired letter that we've been reading.

Only to get to the ending and start gathering our things. Turning our minds off. And begin to check out. And just ready to go on with our day. And we just kind of read the words haphazardly. And we do not pay much attention to those closing statements.

After all, I do not know who Tychicus was. And the fact that he was a faithful minister doesn't seem to apply to my life. I don't know how this affects me today. Somehow forgetting that all of scripture is profitable.

It's breathed out by God and it's for us. Including these closing remarks. These are not movie credits that can be taken or leave and just go about your day. They are essential, life-giving, mind-renewing glorious truths.

That are necessary for yours and I's sanctification. Because these are God's words. With that in mind, open your copy of God's word. For the last time within our study in Ephesians. To Ephesians chapter 6.

Ephesians chapter 6. We're going to start in verse 21 as we get ready to wrap this up. We started this letter 19 months ago. 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 Holy Spirit use these truths here in this great epistle. To mold, to unify, to encourage, to strengthen us as his people. And I have no doubt that he will continue to do so today. So if you would look with me there at Paul's final greeting in chapter 6 of Ephesians.

Starting in verse 21. So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing. Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything. I have sent him to you for this very purpose.

That you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts. Peace be to the brothers. And love with faith from God the Father and Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ.

With love incorruptible. It seems a little bittersweet to close out this letter, doesn't it? Before we jump in and we wrap this up. Let's go to the Lord in prayer as we always do for a prayer of illumination.

Oh Father, your word is true. It is clear. And it is life-giving. We've seen the sanctifying effects of these heavenly words. Shape how we see your sovereign, saving, redemptive work. Towards unworthy recipients such as us.

The fact that Father, you chose us in love before the creation. That Jesus, you became our representative to purchase us by blood ransom from the wrath of God. And you now intercede for us at the right hand of the Father.

Holy Spirit, you now seal us as a guarantee of our inheritance. Convicting us of sin, guiding us in righteousness, leading and dominating us. God, we pray that you would allow us, your people, to see that unity that we have in Christ.

With the same spirit all together as your people. God, that we would press into that unity. That we would not walk according to the flesh, causing division and dishonoring you. We ask that you would use this final greeting from the Apostle Paul to solidify in our hearts and minds this superb and eternal reality.

God, may we be doers of the word and not hearers only. And we pray all of this in the unrivaled victorious name of our Savior Jesus Christ. For it is in him that we have this unbridled access to enter your throne room.

And boldly communing with you. And all God's people said, Amen. The title of today's sermon is Cultivating a Gospel Culture. It is one thing to affirm 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. And to bring those recipients of grace into perfect union with the creator through faith in him. Yet, as we've experienced in our own lives. In the lives of churches that we've been a part of.

And maybe even at times in the life of this church. We've seen over these past few months. Also in the life of the Christians there in Ephesus. The culture of the church does not always reflect that gospel truth as it ought.

We have the facts over here. We have the gospel. But then the lives of the people within the church do not reflect that gospel. 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, you who are in Christ now should live like it. That's the whole point. Remember, you are positionally righteous in Christ. That's what Paul's been driving home this whole time. You, if you are in Christ, you are positionally righteous.

Now walk in that righteousness. Right? This is not always easy. Because this warring flesh fights within us. Because of the ongoing spiritual battle that we've spoken about. Extensively over the past few weeks.

These forces of evil in this present darkness that are fighting against us. If we are not standing firm as Paul calls us to do so. Being alert and on guard. Always being watchful. Then the culture of the church will by default.

Begin to reflect the brokenness of this world instead of the gospel. You ever see it? You guys seem dead out here today. You're like, no I've never seen a church like that. Oh yes you have. Churches are full of sinful people.

You've seen the brokenness of the world. Where selfishness will reign over sacrificial service. Where discouragement will crush any encouragement that could possibly be had. Disunity will squash out peace.

Hate and discord will conquer over love. And legalism and rules will choke out grace. This is the opposite of a gospel culture. And we by default will always go that direction as a people. All while we are called and empowered to stir one another up to love and good works as Paul said.

But yet we don't walk in that. We the recipients of such marvelous grace. Empowered by the Holy Spirit that is within us. Must actively cultivate a gospel culture or it will slip through your fingertips.

And your flesh will reign. And as Paul wraps up this letter he does so in a way that sums up the whole of the letter. This call to gospel culture in a tangible and practical way. And so I want us to see five ways that cultivating a gospel culture can be accomplished through.

Seen here in this text. The first one is gospel culture can only be accomplished through serving. Look at the text with me. Look at verse 21. He says so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing.

Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything. If you remember from last week Paul had just asked for prayer there in the previous verses. Verses 19 and 20. That words may be given to him in opening his mouth boldly.

And proclaiming the mystery of the gospel. Let me remind you he's in chains as he does so. And so in order for your prayers to be more precise and intentional. In your service to me, this is Paul, through prayer.

I'm going to send someone to fill you in on the details. That's his whole purpose here in this verse. That way you can intercede for me in a more informed way. This is what Paul is calling for the Christians.

Which by the way as a side note. I must say this. We need to quit being so secretive about our circumstances and our struggles. Right? We live in a very individualistic culture. And we think well my problems are my problems.

My issues are my issues. And we get secretive about them. You know what you're doing when you do that? You rob your brothers and sisters of the blessing of serving you. When you don't inform them. So that's just a side note.

Let's get this example from the Apostle Paul. Quit being so secretive. Just bear your burdens with one another. Just lay them out. But take note from the Apostle Paul. So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing.

He says I'm sending someone to fill you in on everything. I want you to be informed. Not so that you can feel bad for me. Paul has never asked for any sympathy throughout any of these letters that he sends.

As a matter of fact the opposite. He deflects from sympathy. And he points them to the glories of the gospel. And a gospel culture. And he continues to do so. And in this situation 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 Christians wanting to bear my burdens. Through prayer and through service. And so I need to inform you of everything.

Both how he is and personally. And what he's doing. His activity. 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 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 here in the New Testament. But we don't know a lot about him. But what we do know is that he's a beloved brother.

And he's a faithful minister. As Paul refers to him here. There's some discussion as to what responsibilities. And or what title maybe that this saint held there in the church. We don't know. At this time we do know though.

That he was a faithful servant of Paul. In Paul's need. In his imprisonment. And he was caring for him. He is of course a follower of Christ. Paul refers to him as a brother. And the fact that he calls him beloved brother.

Notice that there in the text. Beloved brother. Makes me think that he is well known amongst the churches. And greatly respected and loved. This is somebody that the church in Ephesus would know that name.

Unlike us when we read the name we don't know. But they would know. Which is probably why Paul trusts him with these vitally important letters. Think of these. These are Holy Spirit inspired letters. For the whole of the church from here on out.

And so Paul trusts them in the hands of this saint. He wouldn't trust just anyone with these. This is a man whose service to the bride of Christ stands heads above most. This is a faithful man. This is a man that I know very little about.

Yet I cannot wait to embrace him in glory. He lived out of gospel culture. Paul also refers to him, look there, as a faithful minister. Now Paul could be speaking in general terms. Every saint should be a minister.

Should be a faithful minister at that. In the service of the kingdom. However, I think Paul just might be referring to a title of sorts for Tychicus. Possibly an evangelist or a shepherd. He's a faithful minister.

The reason I think this is the fact that Paul trusts him to deliver these vital letters to the churches. Because he does the same thing with the letter Colossians. It's the same time. He sends him the same thing.

Quite possibly needing him to explain these letters in greater detail. Such as what I'm doing for you all today. Is explaining them. 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 encourage your hearts. Paul could be referring to general encouragement that every saint can bring. However, it just seems a bit more pastoral. That he's carrying these letters.

Nevertheless, this principle applies to all. Tychicus is a representative of any one of us saints. Paul's only able to serve those particular saints through prayer and his letters. Because of his imprisonment.

And so what does he do? What does Paul do? He sends a proxy servant. He wants to serve these people. He wants to serve them well. To serve them in ways that he cannot. But he's not the only part of the body.

You get that, right? It's all interwoven. That's why we've been going through Ephesians. We've seen the unity of the body. Tychicus and Paul are one. They're just part of a single organism. The body of Christ.

And he uses this brother in this way. Even in his own suffering, he finds ways to serve the body of Christ. There in Ephesus and the surrounding cities. And for Tychicus, he is willing and ready to be used in this service.

He's willing to give up his life in order to serve the body. Through his service to Paul. And then his service to the people in those churches. Why are these men willing to serve in such radical ways?

What's leading these men? What's leading the apostle Paul? What's leading Tychicus in this? Because their savior had served them in an even greater and more sacrificial way. They're not asking us to follow their example.

They're saying, follow me as I follow Christ. In Matthew 20, 28. It says, even as the son of man came not to be served. But to serve. And to give his life as a ransom for many. If that gospel of Christ, great service towards you, doesn't lead you and I to service.

You're not walking according to the spirit. And a culture of selfishness will permeate the church. They were looking to the example of our savior. The great service that he came and did for us. By redeeming us.

So a gospel culture can only be accomplished through serving. But secondly, a gospel culture can only be accomplished through encouraging. Look at verse 22. He says, I have sent him to you for this very purpose.

That you may know how we are. And that he may encourage your hearts. I gotta be honest, I'm not very good at encouraging. Encouragement does not come natural to me. If any of you know me very well, I instinctively look for the problems.

When I'm speaking to anyone, you know I'm evaluating your facial expressions. I'm looking at your body language and I'm looking for the holes. I'm looking for the issues. I'm looking for the areas that we need to resolve.

That's just me. I'm looking for the same thing in myself constantly. I'm not good. It's not natural for me to encourage. I ignore all the fluff and I want to solve the problems. I can often give you truth and many of you have been the recipients of that truth.

All the while crushing your spirit in doing so. I'm just confessing my shortcomings to you in this. Many of you know that. It's where Pastor Jeremiah often comes in and picks up the broken pieces of the shrapnel from the bomb I just set off in your life.

I'm sorry about that. I'm working on it. Pray for me. I pray that God would help me in this area. It's kind of like a non-hugger trying to be a hugger. It's just awkward for everyone, right? So if I try and encourage you, just take it.

Just be like, this is uncomfortable but I'll give you the encouragement. But that wasn't Paul. Encouragement was second nature to Paul. It was instinctive. And why is that? It's because the gospel had molded him.

He had seen the great example of our Savior and sought to imitate him. He had had his mind renewed by looking to the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. The Savior, the Jesus there in John 16 .33. He says, I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace.

In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world. Jesus, the great encourager. He, in his suffering, is seeking to encourage those that he came to redeem. The one that intercedes for and encourages us from the right hand of the Father is the same source of encouragement that led the Apostle Paul to be a man in chains, wrongly imprisoned, seeking to comfort others.

He's sending someone, someone that he could have kept by his side in his imprisonment to keep him comforted, but instead he sends this brother to them who are not chained and imprisoned in order to encourage them.

And in his difficulty. That's a gospel culture, isn't it? This is how the Apostle Paul is living. Paul knew that those saints in Ephesus, they were prone to discouragement just like all of us. We're all prone to discouragement.

Discouragement over Paul's circumstances. 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 so he can go out and the gospel can continue to go forward more and more and more and I'm discouraged.

Discouragement over their own circumstances and their own sin. Discouragement brought on by their own inability to live in a gospel culture the way that they should, overwhelming them. Discouragement distracting them from the task at hand.

And we all suffer from this type of discouragement. And King Jesus used his servant Paul to send another servant to be an encouragement to them. This is gospel culture. You and I, oh how we're prone to discouragement.

Are we cultivating a culture of encouragement towards one another? Are we actively seeking to do so? We mentioned that passage in Hebrews all the time, not neglecting the gathering of the saints. For what purpose?

Encouraging one another. All the more as we say the day drawing near. We're left in a world in this present darkness that is leaving us discouraged at every turn. And we're discouraged, we know. We know you're discouraged at different times.

Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5, he says, Therefore encourage one another and build one another up. Are we building each other up 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. Sealed by the Holy Spirit, Jesus has redeemed us. Praise God, truth, truth, truth, truth, truth. And then turn around and ignore the burden of a brother or sister in here.

And leave them discouraged. 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 Christ's encouragement. That's the whole point of this letter is the unification of the body as a whole.

That we should be encouragers. We should be serving one another. We should be encouraging one another at every turn. Not to live for ourselves, not to live for our selfish motives or for this world or for the things of this world.

But to live for Him. That's the Christian life, isn't it? Are we cultivating that in here? Or are we cultivating a culture of selfishness that looks just a little less evil than the world? Because that's often church.

You know why I think this is a problem? I think it's because many of us still have anchors in this soil. I was thinking about it the other day. 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 and myself.

And I've been letting go more and more of this world. Not because of me. Christ is working in me. He's allowing me to see this present darkness and that it's not home. And I've been cranking up that chain with that anchor and I've been pulling it out of the dirt.

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. I think a lot of times we get those anchors here and we think this is home. I have to financially be stable.

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. All the while, you've got guys like Paul and Tychicus giving up everything and saying God will provide for me.

I serve the kingdom. Now, could you serve the kingdom through tent making like Paul did at times? Oh, you bet you. But it was all with kingdom mindedness because he didn't have the anchors in the soil.

But oftentimes we do. And when we have those anchors in that soil, what do we do? We're living like we live on the soil. Like it's our home. Like that soil is our home. Like this is our place. Like America is our home and that we're a citizen here.

Like what? That's not how Paul lived. That's not how he called the saints to live. This isn't our place. And so when we make this home, when our anchors are too deep into this ground, what happens? We start to live as though we are citizens of it.

Because there is a reality in this world. And selfishness gets things. You ever wondered why the wicked flourish out there? You know, wealthy people don't become wealthy because they're good people. People get wealthy because they're ruthless.

There's exceptions to everything. But most of the time, that's why the psalmist is like, why are the wicked flourishing? And we live in this certain reality. So when we bring that into the church, what do we do?

We bring that into the church and then we start to live in a way that is congruent with that soil. Selfishness, discouragement. All that comes with it. But that's not what Paul's called us to in this letter.

Let us cultivate a gospel culture through encouragement. Encouraging one another all the more as we see the day drawing near. Gospel culture can only be accomplished through, thirdly, peace. Through peace.