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

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. All right.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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 y 'all this morning. What a beautiful picture.

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

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

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 they have come 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.

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.

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

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

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 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.

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 were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

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 alive together with Christ.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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. Raised to walk in newness of life.

Come on. Church, this is a great day.

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.

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 in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places.

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.

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

Hung the stars like chandeliers Numbered every grain of sand

Knows the heart of every man He is

King forever He is King forever

King forevermore Majesty His power and The schemes of man

Never changing Great I Am Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall

He is faithful to it all Crown Him King forever

Crown Him King forever

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

Prince of Peace Oh, livingless man

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

King Let us bow at His feet

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

Savior has done And see how His love overcomes

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

Heaven You conquered the great change

Oh, God Jesus our

Savior Your name lifted high Yes For your promises

Yes, and amen You will do great things

For God every change

Oh, God Great things We dance in your freedom

Oh, Jesus our Savior Your name lifted high

Oh, God In Him We have obtained an 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

Amen Let's now 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 That is where we find 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 Pray all these things in your name, Jesus Amen Christ, the true and Son of man

Never yielded, never sinned

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

Cursed the curse that rising Crushed the serpent's head

Yes Christ, the everlasting

Son of sacrifice Laid with faith upon the altar

Yes Oh, but full and all to leave

Standing bold to God's great glory to be known

With his arms stretched wide to heaven

See the Holy shield

The mighty king Be the champion

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

They see His majesty

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

Gift of grace His Jesus, my redeemer

There is no more For heaven now to give

My joy My righteousness set free

My steadfast love My deep and boundless peace

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

I can see All is gone

But I am not forsaken My side

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

To this I hold I shall overcome

Sure, sure The price it has been made

For Jesus bled Yes And suffered for my heart

And He was raised To over Oh, Jesus said

That He will bring me home And day by day

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

I just praise you this morning,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen Okay, do we have any, uh

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

You know, you stay until after the credits And that's when you're You're gonna 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 oftentimes

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 kinda We kinda 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, right? 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 gonna 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 that, 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 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 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 may 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

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 And 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 is 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 And 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 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 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 In proclaiming the mystery of the gospel There or 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 And 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 And I think we 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 In 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 That at this time

We do know though That he was a faithful servant Of Paul And 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 A 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 Right? It's the same time

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

These letters In greater detail Such as what I'm doing For y '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 I just It just seems A bit more pastoral

Right? 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? It's 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 We're 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 And doing so I'm just confessing

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

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 like a

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

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

But 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 Period 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 often times we do And when we have those anchors in that soil What do we do?

We're living like we live in 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 what? 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 has 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 A gospel culture

Can only be accomplished through, thirdly, peace Through peace

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Called the uncircumcision By what is called the circumcision

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

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

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

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

By the blood of Christ For he himself is our

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Peace And might reconcile us both to God In one body

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Unified in Christ in one body and one spirit Perfect peace

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

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

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

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

Peace with him and peace with each other This is what

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Christians How they should be living In Romans chapter 12

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today we will be unoffendable We will be unoffendable

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Absolutely nothing Are we cultivating a culture that says

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

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

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

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

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

I wanna hang out with them Disunity, disunity

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He says love with faith Over in 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

Son? Through faith

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For grace you have been saved

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

We are sustained by grace We will be glorified by grace

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

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

But then withhold grace We must desire for all of us

To walk in grace And confirm that through our expression

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen Amen Praise God Guys As we do every time

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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