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Preacher: Ross Macdonald
Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-6
Well, this morning you might have been expecting to flip over to Exodus, in fact, you might have even begun there in Exodus and then realized that we're actually in Ephesians. So we're taking a slight detour to expand upon this idea of consecration that we began.
Last week.
Moving on in Exodus 13 would take us away from this opportunity, so I thought as the week went on that it would be better for us to spend a little more time thinking about consecration in terms of the church body.
I kind of mentioned that last week, that for all this discussion of the vertical aspects of consecration, of our standing, our position before God, or how deliverance leads to devotion, that there's so much more that could be said about the horizontal implications of that, what consecration means for us in regard to one another.
And so that's what we're going to focus on together this morning. We've been talking about consecration, let me give a sort of quick summary and overview of the things that are most pertinent for us to remember.
We began in Exodus chapter 13 with the command of God. The Lord said to Moses, consecrate to me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, it is mine. And so this command for consecration is something entirely new.
We had not seen this word nor this concept until we came to Exodus chapter 13. Desmond Alexander said, God's remarks regarding the firstborn underline a strong connection between being holy and belonging to Yahweh.
Both go together. Moreover, whatever belongs to Yahweh must be dedicated to His service. And so God lays out the very claim He had said all the way in Exodus chapter 4. Israel is my firstborn son, and ever after, on the other side of the Passover, the firstborn sons are to be given over to God, redeemed by their fathers.
Holiness and service, holiness and belonging go together. We talked a little bit about the Levites and how this whole idea of consecration and the Passover ritual, the elements of the Passover ritual belonging to consecration are shown forth in the Levites.
Aaron and his sons chosen by God, and later on in Numbers chapter 3, the Levites become the symbolic transfer of all of the sons of Israel. So the Levites are consecrated. The Levites, out of all the Israelites, are redeemed unto the service of God, and they are stand-ins in that very way for all of the children of Israel.
They have this holy status, and part of having that holy consecration is for them to be fitted unto God's service. They serve in the tabernacle or in the temple. As such, Levites are set apart from all of the others to serve God in this unique way.
So we said, in light of that, in light of Numbers 3, Exodus 28, and where we've been in Exodus 13, the Passover is best understood as a consecration ritual. In other words, the most important part of the Passover is not just the sacrifice, which then allows the Israelites to go on their merry way and do as they see fit and be unto.
Themselves.
No, no, no.
The sacrifice is what made them holy so that they could serve God aright. So the whole point of the sacrifice was to make them holy, and the whole point of making them holy was for them to serve God, to be with God in the very temple.
And so this is bringing us back to larger themes in Genesis 3 all the way to Revelation 22, God bringing His people to be with Him, to dwell with Him, being their God, they being.
His people.
All of this really boils down to the central idea that when we understand the crucifixion, when we understand the delivering sacrifice in this way, that consecration brings about service, then we understand that deliverance leads to devotion.
In other words, even the cross, the ransom of Christ, is a consecrating act. We are saved by the blood of the true Lamb of God that we may be made holy by that blood so that we may serve God aright. That's how central this is.
We looked at Revelation 5, this great vision that John has. Worthy are you, they cry out to the Lamb, for you were slain and by your blood you ransomed people for God and, what's the outflow of that? You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, right?
Saved by the blood of the Lamb so that you could serve Him as priests. What does 1 Peter say to the church? You are a kingdom of priests. This is what the church is, those who have been saved by the blood of the Lamb, consecrated by that blood unto the service of God.
So sacrifice is to bring about service. Now this is what we considered last week in summary. We spent time considering the language of holiness or sanctification, which could just as easily be understood as consecration.
And I argued that we need to bring back that word and with it that concept. We speak of sanctification and often only think of it in terms of the progressive renewal of a Christian's life. But now we need to think about actually this consecrating status.
That is what immediately consecration means, to be set apart unto God, to have an entirely new relation and orientation to Him. So thinking of sanctification primarily as consecration. What did that mean for our standing before God, for our relationship with God?
Well, that's what we considered last week. But we didn't consider how this consecration, this new orientation, this delivering sacrifice that brings about a new devotion, a new way of serving God rightly.
We didn't talk about how this actually shapes the way we view and relate to one another. And that's what we want to consider together this morning. I was reading, I've been reading a lot of books lately on Puritan evangelism.
I think I mentioned Beakey's last week. If you come to SLBC tonight, please do, as we finish out chapter nine. Amazing insight from J .I. Packer on his own little article he wrote back in the late 50s for Banner of Truth on Puritan evangelism.
Little teaser for you guys to come tonight. Well, Joel Beakey, in writing on Puritan evangelism, says this. If being saved is presented as nothing more than professing faith in Christ, and if regeneration can happen without corresponding evidence of holy living, then the church will soon be filled with people who deceive themselves and others about their true spiritual condition.
He's talking about Puritan evangelism, Puritan preaching, and he says they would not ever speak of regeneration unless there was with it the fruit of regeneration, holy living. In fact, if they were to preach mere profession of faith, right, a sort of easy believism, then the church would soon be filled with hypocrites and those who were either self-deceived or deceiving others or both.
And so he says the Puritans taught a regeneration which leaves men without the indwelling power of the Spirit and without the practice of a holy life is not what Scripture promises. Scripture says that one who is born by the Spirit will bear the fruit of the Spirit.
A regenerate person, Beakey says, is someone who has been given a new nature by the Holy Spirit. He's born of the Spirit to become spiritual. He has been recreated so all things become new. Such a person ceases to be self-centered and they become God-centered.
Now listen to this. The regenerate man loves God. Loves holiness. Loves the Bible. Loves the godly. And loves the thought of going to heaven to commune with God and leave sin behind forever. Now Beakey rightly says the work of the Spirit results in a love for God as well as a love for the godly.
It's not just a love for God that the Spirit brings about in the life of a believer. It's a love for the godly. All too often we do not kick against this love of God or this love of holiness or this love of the Bible or even the love of thinking about heaven and all that heaven will mean for us, communing with God and being delivered by sin.
We don't kick against that. We have no issue with that. Of course we love God. Of course we love His Word. Of course we love the thought of heaven and we love holiness because that's where we'll be perfectly holy.
In other words, we find it very easy to love God in this way but to love God's people, that is where we often kick against. Loving God, loving holiness, loving the Bible, loving all the personal benefits that salvation has wrought in my life, that's wonderful but to love God's people, well that's something entirely different.
Now here's a big theme for us moving forward in Exodus. If only we had time to go on in numbers. Moses who loves God, loves His Word, loves holiness but loving His people, not so easy. It reminds me of a comic strip I saw and there was a preacher standing at the pulpit and he just had these sort of sunken eyes and he was just standing there with his mouth agape and all the people in the congregation were shouting out and kind of waving their Bibles and were complaining at him.
And they were saying, why are we doing a series on numbers? Another person says, 36 chapters of people whining and complaining when they don't get.
Their way.
And then the other person says, preach something relevant. It's so easy to love God and love His Word and love all the aspects of our individual Christian walk but to love the people of God, well that's an entirely different matter.
Sinclair Ferguson says, churches find it easier to deal with false teaching than differences of opinion. This is veteran insight from the good Scottish preacher. Churches find it easier to deal with false teaching than with differences of opinion.
And personal differences become deadly, dividing fellowship, sowing seed of bitterness, diverting attention from central issues to sometimes petty peripheral concerns, sucking energy that should be employed in building up believers and in reaching out to the lost.
And I'm sure Ferguson is speaking from direct experience, being a pastor of many, many decades. Churches do find it easier to deal with false teachings with clear and obvious error rather than with differences of opinion and matters involving charity and liberty.
And such personal differences can become weaponized. And that weapon, that grudge, that sowing of bitterness is used by the world, the flesh and the devil to disastrous effect. And so that's what brings me to focus some of our thoughts on Ephesians 4, 1 through.
6.
How does consecration affect the way we look at the church, the way we look at one another, the way we can love both God and the godly? That's our focus this morning. There's so much more that could be said about consecration affecting the church body.
A whole sermon could be done on consecration and the corporate prayer life of a church. A whole sermon could be done on consecration and the sense of mission or outreach of a.
Church.
And these would all be very worthwhile. I don't think we'll extend this too much longer, but you get the idea. There's a lot here that we could consider in terms of consecration in the church. But I'm going to primarily focus our attention and our thoughts on what it means for us in our interrelationship as brothers and sisters in one body.
And that, of course, is a concern of Paul in all of his letters, a concern of Peter, of James, of Jesus, really of God Himself throughout all of Scripture. He's constantly calling his people to be unified in love together.
Ephesians 4, 1 through 6. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. Now, I just want you to know this idea of calling, this idea of receiving a call from God, this is consecration language.
The Levites were called by God in such a way they were set apart to serve God. And so they had to characterize their whole life in a way that was worthy of that calling. That's consecration language. It's no different here for the church in Ephesus.
I beseech you, Paul says, walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. Walk in this separated way because you've been separated. Be set apart and holy because God has set you apart and made you holy.
This is all walking worthy with the calling with which you were called. And then he gives these descriptors in verses 2 and 3. With all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body, one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all. So we have this first point here.
To be called is to be consecrated. You were called is the phrase that actually bookends verses 1 through 4. Notice we have this language. I beseech you, walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, verse 4, just as you were called in one hope of your calling.
So we have this repetition for emphasis, and it actually closes or surrounds everything in the middle. This is what consecration will look like. You were called with this holy calling, walk in a worthy way of that calling, and then everything in between tells us what that will require.
All lowliness and gentleness. Not three quarters lowliness, not 93 percent, no. All lowliness, all gentleness. This is in part what it will mean to walk in a consecrated way together. Long-suffering, which interestingly enough is one of the fruits of the Spirit.
Isn't that interesting? That one of the fruits of the Spirit is to be long-suffering? Doesn't that tell you something about the very nature of the Spirit's work in our life? We often don't want that fruit of the Spirit.
We just want to find a place where we don't need that fruit. You know, maybe I can find a new place to go where I don't have to be long-suffering. You can save that fruit, Lord. I'll take the joy and I'll take the peace and all the other things, but save the long-suffering.
I don't want that fruit. Well, it just so happens that there is no church, there is no fellowship on God's green earth that won't in one way or another require you to develop and nurture this fruit of long-suffering.
So, bearing with one another in love. Notice again this imagery, the gentleness, the love, peace. This is what the Holy Spirit produces in the life of a believer. This is essential to who the Holy Spirit is.
Not the bird of prey with sharp talons devouring and shredding whatever it will, but given symbolically in the form of a dove, a gentle bird. Still the international symbol of peace. Gentle, harmless, unwilling to do violence.
Bearing with one another in this way. Paul says, endeavoring to keep unity and peace. Peace is never so sweet as when you don't have it. What do these qualities presuppose? Consecration is both vertical.
We were called by God for God, but it's also horizontal. Walk with one another in this way. In such a way that it's worthy of this calling. You've been consecrated unto these very things. To be lowly, gentle, long-suffering, bearing with one another.
To be endeavoring for unity and peace. This is what the Spirit is eager to produce in you as a church body. And it has much to do with the corporate body as it does to your own individual walk. That is what consecration requires.
Levites were not individual servants of God. They were a community. They were a band. And they had to learn how to love fellow Levites. And just like them, so we have to learn how to love one another.
This is what it means to be set apart to the Lord. So Christians need, first and foremost, to walk in all lowliness. Which is to say, Christians have to humble themselves. That's not a work of the flesh.
That's a work of the Spirit. Only the Spirit can produce that kind of humility and gentleness in the heart of a fallen sinner. This means Christians have to rely upon the Spirit and follow His promptings.
Not maneuver or resist against His prompting, His conviction, His illumination. Not to be resistant to the things that He puts upon their heart, but rather to be open to see their own shortfall, their own failure.
Christians have to, in other words, work constantly at unity. It's not something you stumble upon. There's no place that just gets it right and you just kind of enter into the flow of this perfect union.
It's just like a marriage. A lot of us have got that on the brain in the next 48 hours. Marital unity is something that you're constantly working at. There's seasons where it's easy. It's as easy as breathing.
And there's seasons where it's really hard. But one season or another, you're always working at it. You're either working because you've achieved it and you're hoping to maintain it, or you're working because right now it's absent and you want to produce it.
And so it is in the unity of a church. This is what bodily consecration looks like. To be set apart unto God is to be set apart toward one another. And that is why Paul can say that our calling consists of these very qualities.
Notice that Paul immediately ties bodily unity to the Holy Spirit, right? That's the next verse, verse 4. There is one body, one spirit. In other words, where the body is fracturing and divided, that is not the work of the spirit.
What manner is that of? What body are you from? There's one body. That's a united body. And there's one spirit that's always driving toward the oneness of the body. Paul says this elsewhere in 1 Corinthians.
Do you not know that you, that's a plural, that you are the temple of God and of the Holy Spirit which dwells in you? And so there's one temple, not eight temples. There's one body, not little smatterings of a body.
Unity is not produced by ceilings or rooms. Unity is produced by the Holy Spirit. Unity is not produced by similar hobbies or interests, similar statuses, similar concerns, unique personality quirks that make it easier or perhaps more difficult to relate to one another.
Unity is produced by the Holy Spirit. Does it ever occur to you that if Jesus wanted to make his ministry a little bit easier, he could have chosen 12 similar men? But the foundation of the church, the 12 apostles, is about as diverse as you could possibly get.
Jesus calling 12 men unto himself, I think, would ruffle all of our feathers. We think if Jesus were to go through the work of redemption in our day, he would choose 12 men, at least nine of them would be 1689 Reformed Baptists, maybe one OPC.
Who would the Judas be? Some United Methodist maybe?
I don't know.
I think it would be shocking to us to see just how you have zealots and a tax collector. You have these rugged fishermen, you know, sons of thunder. You have pretty noble qualities in some of the men.
They seem to be quite educated, sort of upper crust, but then contrasted with sort of lowest of the low. And he puts us all together and he spends three years with them and he teaches them how to dwell with and to love one another.
Exhorting, rebuking, sometimes ignoring and just praying. How much of his prayer time with the Father was about these 12 men in particular? I would think a surprising amount. There is one body, one spirit.
The church is the realization of a divine participation in the life of the Spirit. The church is the manifestation of the life that all believers have consisting in the Son by that Spirit. There is one body, one spirit.
And in this very way, there could only ever be one cup, one baptism, one faith. When you understand a church in this way, believers live in the spirit of unity because unity comes from the Spirit. And so this elaboration continues.
All of this flows from the very oneness of God himself. One God and Father of all who's above all and through all and importantly in you all. So it cannot be that the oneness of God produces in us a lack of oneness with one another.
If we have one faith, one cup, one baptism, it must be that we are one by the Spirit. Unity, in other words, is a reflection of the triune God. What, John Flavel says, peace with the Father and war with his children?
It could never be. Unity is a reflection of the triune God. In John 17, in the so-called high priestly prayer, Jesus prays in this very way. He prays that his disciples would be one just as you are in me and I am in you.
Father, the same oneness I have with you in the Godhead. I pray that my followers, my people would have that kind of oneness among them. Father, grant them the kind of love and joy and peace that we have, Father.
And Paul is constantly encouraging believers toward this great end. This is the God who is in you. Don't you know? This is the temple of God in whom you are made to dwell by the Holy Spirit. Now, this brings us to see, if we have thoughts long enough, the beauty of unity in a church body.
And I use that word advisedly, the beauty of church unity. Too often, the church is a house divided against itself. And that's when the church becomes ugly. There is a, I know of only perhaps one brother here that might follow along with this,.
So this is risky.
But there is a famous episode of Seinfeld where Jerry is enamored by this woman who looks very beautiful in certain light. And whenever he's alone with her, it so happens that the light hits her and she's beautiful.
Whenever he introduces her to other people, there's a shadow that falls across her face and she looks hideous. And so he's looking all proud to show her off and he says, I want you to meet so-and-so.
And then he's kind of startled at how hideous she's become as she steps into the shadow. And I think that's a good metaphor of how often we can appreciate the unity and the beauty of that unity in the church.
And then we think in ways or things happen, whether through us or to us, and all of a sudden, the church isn't looking so beautiful anymore. There's a new light that's cast on the face of the church and she's looking rather hideous.
The beauty of the church consists largely in this. We have one faith in one Lord who by one sacrifice saved all of us that we might be one. That's the beauty of the church. Think of loveliness in a marriage.
Loveliness in a marriage is largely comprised of the unity of that marriage. You've never seen a more lovely marriage than when you've seen a marriage where the husband and the wife are just so united.
It's like this effortless dance. They know how they're going to think and react and speak and what they desire and where they struggle. There's just this marvelous dance of this union. And that makes a marriage lovely.
It makes a marriage sweet when you have unity with your spouse. And so it is in the church. It's the beauty of the church when brothers and sisters are united. It's like, as we read at the very beginning of the service, oil flowing down the beard of Aaron, whatever that means and why that would be appealing.
Who knows?
I don't have a beard.
You men that have beards, let me know if that sounds appealing to you. Of course, the point is it's something that begins from the very top of the head. It comes down from the heavenlies as it were and from the very top of the head to the soles of the feet.
It's all comprehensive. This anointing, that's consecration, by the way. That's consecration imagery. Dustin Benj, who has a tremendous book called The Loveliest Place, and I would encourage you to read this.
You can also find an abbreviated version of it where he sort of takes the most important aspects of that book and gives it forward. Dustin Benj, The Loveliest Place, which is his presentation on the beauty of the church.
And he says this, authentic Christian unity, the unity that makes the church beautiful is bound up in a mutual relationship with the triune God, right? The oil comes from above. The oil that needs to flow down from the head to the toes is an oil that comes from God.
Himself.
God's will for the church is that we are one in order to reflect Him. Our oneness, in other words, is not for ourself. Primarily, our oneness is for Him. Our oneness is meant to be a mirror that reflects His love, His salvation, His glory to the lost world.
And so the church is at her weakest when she is not conscious of maintaining the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Let me say that again. The church is at her weakest when she is not conscious of maintaining the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
Here, there is a beauty and loveliness that is not present with any worldly organization, with any institution or entity. The church is distinctly and categorically different. She is one body, animated by one spirit, guaranteed by one hope, saved by one Lord, guided by one faith, testifying through one baptism, glorifying one God and Father.
There's no other group on the earth like that. And the beauty of that group, the beauty of the church is its unity. Paul writes this to the church at Rome. Be of the same mind toward one another. Don't set your mind on high things.
Associate with the humble. Don't be wise in your own opinion. Later on in the same letter. Now, may the God of patience, there's that long suffering, there's that bearing with. May the God of that patience and comfort grant you to be like minded toward one another.
That with one mind and one mouth, you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. There you see it. That unity is for his sake. The unity is that we may glorify him and reflect his unity.
He says to the church at Corinth, I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind.
And Philippians fulfill my joy, he says, by being like minded, having the same love, the being of one accord of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. True unity, of course, comes from above, but it doesn't come from above in a cheap or effortless way.
This is not an arbitrary work of the spirit. This is something that was blood bought. The spirit applies what the cross accomplishes. If the cross has delivered us so that we may be consecrated, the cross has delivered us so that we may be consecrated together.
And that calls us to be unified, not to be clinging to offenses or giving in to the coldness that so often separates. No walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, Paul says, just as you were called in one hope to be called is to be consecrated.
I mentioned Dustin Benj, and he focuses in this book, The Loveliest Place, in the first chapter, he focuses on this phrase, the church is beautiful. I guess it's a sentence. The church is beautiful. He says this, not that she's beautiful of her own accord or even increasingly beautiful because of her good works, but that she has been made beautiful by the redeeming blood of Christ, both inwardly and outwardly.
The beauty of the church is derived from God through Christ. God has chosen to display his perfect beauty in his beloved bride by giving her to Christ as a reward for his suffering. And so as a result, the church is a brilliant reflection of God's beauty and God's loveliness in Christ to the whole world.
And he says this, if we accurately could grasp the beauty of the church and her loveliness and all of her glorious riches, how dramatically our lives would more appropriately reflect this purpose of God, right?
If the purpose of God is to consecrate to his son a bride adorned, washed, presented to him pure and without spot, if that is the purpose of God and we could grasp the beauty of that purpose, how dramatically our lives would more appropriately reflect that purpose.
How quickly, he says, we would reject petty squabbles that mar and soil our snow-white garment. How lovingly we would serve one another by following in the self-denying footsteps of our bridegroom. You see, walk worthy of the calling with which you are called.
Jesus says to that ragtag group of 12, the dirty dozen, if we could put it that way, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
And by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. So, emphatic repetition for Hebrew speakers, Aramaic speakers in this instance, love one another, love one another, have love for one another.
That's the commandment. There was a video clip, there's so many accounts and podcasts out there of true masculinity and, you know, all this and so much of it is really just garbage. There's a need, I think, for thoughtful, biblical men to really work through what the Bible defines and presents as masculinity.
But it was interesting because so many of these worldly obsessions and fixations on masculinity, they try to say, you know, here's how you need to be, here's what you need to do, here's who you need to be with.
So, I remember watching one and it was like this millionaire and he basically said, you know, I have five close friends and they all have this net income and as soon as someone's below this net income, I cut that friendship and I move on.
I only move with people that are at least this much ahead or behind me. Otherwise, it will be a drain on my own ambition. And another one said, you know, I invite a group of about 10 out to lunch and I'll just spend time making notes on each of them.
How do they talk? How do they relate to the wait staff? You know, do they tip a lot and so on. It's like this whole contest they've created to have friends. I'm thinking, who would ever want to be your friend?
Are you kidding me?
I want to be friends with you.
That's your kind of friendship. This is how the world conceives of getting along with others. What can you do for me? What kind of interest do we share? How can you serve me? How can you serve my interests and where I'm going?
Are you like me? Do you structure things the way that I structure things? Do you have the same passions and concerns that I have? That's how the world chooses friends. That's how the world thinks of love.
And as Jesus says, it's basically just a form of self-love, right? This is how pagans and rulers lorded over one another. This is not how Jesus taught his people to be. Jesus says, I adopt, I choose for you who you're going to be with.
And here's this commandment. Love them, love them, have love for them. That's the commandment. And it joins the whole course of Scripture in calling for believers to exercise an unfailing and constant, rich and deepening love for the saints.
No wonder that requires all lowliness and all gentleness and long suffering. Bearing with one another in love. How else could this commandment be obeyed? But the Bible doesn't say you have to just like each other.
Or even as an employer would say, you don't have to like each other, you just have to work together. Well, not in the church. Not only do you have to like each other, you have to love each other. That's even harder.
Loving is actually, in the biblical sense, loving is what leads to liking. If you're struggling with liking someone, here's how you like them. Love them. The more faithful you are to love them in the way that the Spirit would prompt you, sooner or later you'll like them.
And other people will be like, what's wrong with you? How can you stand that person?
I get it.
I know where you're coming from, but I really like them. I verily believe this,. John Owen says, When God shall accomplish unity, it will be the effect of love, not the cause of it.
Do you hear that?
When God accomplishes unity, it will be the effect of our love for one another, not the cause of our love for one another. Oh, I would be more united. It's just, you know, I'm really struggling, you know.
Maybe if I focus on unity, then I'll learn how to love. It's the other way around. You don't focus on unity at all. Unity is simply the result, the consequence of obeying this commandment from the Lord Jesus.
Love, love, love.
Christ's love for you is the model. He says, even as I have loved you, so you must love one another. Even the way, down to the nitty gritty details of the way that I have shown love, so you must show love in this way.
Well, how does Christ love us? Is it a mild love? Is it a distant love? Is it a politely disengaged kind of love? Or is it a jealous love? Is it a watchful love? Is it a soul-stirring kind of love? How did Christ love us?
That's the benchmark for how we are to love one another. Is our love jealous? Is our love watchful? You know, sometimes we're watchful for the wrong reasons.
We're watchful like the scribes were watchful over Jesus.
It wasn't watchful out of love. It was watchful out of anger and bitterness. Are we reflecting this love of Christ? 1 Peter 1, 22. And please notice the language again. As I've said, consecration is everywhere.
Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, that's consecration language, purification, right? Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently.
You see, deliverance leads to devotion, and that devotion isn't just toward God on your own. You don't have time for these Christians or this church that's been such a thorn in your side.
You must love one another. In fact, you must have a sincere love of the brethren. In fact, you must love them fervently, Peter says. This is how unity is brought about in a church. So let me ask you three sort of diagnostic questions here.
Briefly, and then we'll close with a reflection on the consecrated church, but three diagnostic questions. And you're already thinking wrongly if when I ask these questions, you're thinking of other people in the church rather than yourself.
This is the time where we all stand before the mirror of God's Word, and that mirror is meant to be reflecting us, not angled to reflect someone else. So as I ask these questions of you and of myself, don't try to angle it towards someone else.
I hope they're listening.
You know, I don't want to see any sideways glances.
They need to hear that.
I hope they're taking notes, you know. I'll be waiting to see if they change, you know, later on this week.
James says the Word is a mirror, and we don't want to be forgetful. We don't want to walk away forgetting what we saw. So let me ask three questions, an either or, if you will. First question is this.
Are you gray ting? Gray ting, g-r-a-t-i-n-g, or grateful? Are you gray ting, or are you grateful? Gray ting meaning biting, you know, sandpaper, something that you scrape and grate and rough and, you know.
Are you gray ting? Obnoxious, aggressive, easily irritated, and therefore easily irritable. Are you gray ting, or are you grateful? I'm holding these out as a great contrast. Scripture is constantly throwing out this language of the cause and the effect.
If we could put it this way, deliverance leading to devotion. We are called to love because we've been loved, right? Cause and effect. We are beloved, therefore we are to love as the beloved. Colossians 3, I mentioned this last week.
Colossians 3, just a little part of Colossians 3, I think we just glide right past. Again, consecration language. Therefore, as the elect of God, those who have been called, those who have been consecrated.
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering. Does this sound familiar? Bearing with one another, forgiving one another. But above all these things, put on love.
That's Jesus' new commandment, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful. That's the part that I think we just so easily read past.
Cause we've had these thunderous imperatives, right? Put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another, forgiving one another. Put on love, that's the bond of perfection.
Let God's peace rule in your heart. You were called into this one body, and what does Paul say? Be grateful.
Be grateful.
One of the ways that you will be able to understand the unity, and the work of the Spirit that brings about unity, is by being thankful to God for what He's done, and what He's doing. You'll be grating if you look at a brother, or you look at a sister, and you can only see their flaws, and their shortfalls, and the ways that they disrupt things, and how much better it could be if they were more like this, more like you, if we're being honest.
You become very grating. To that brother, maybe very grating to the church at large. What a difference it would make to be grateful. To say, I remember what this brother used to be like. I remember this sister's life story.
It's amazing to me what God is doing through her, even still. I'm so grateful that I get to be, in some ways, a witness to that. In fact, Lord, I pray you'll even use me. Help me to be a means of her continuing growth in grace.
I'm so grateful for her. Grateful for your work. Grateful that you saved him. You see? Grateful, rather than grating. And love is this bond of perfection. Love is the greatest of all of the gifts, all of the qualities, all of the virtues of the Christian life.
As important as faith is, and as important as hope is, love is even greater still. Love is the greatest of these, Paul says. And he says to the church at Thessalonica, live in peace with one another, right?
Don't be grating. Live in peace. How do you live in peace? You be grateful. How can you be grateful?
Love.
Imagine a, I, you know, every now and then, I would preach at Emanuel Chapel down in Upton. And a wonderful church, a wonderful congregation, they're probably listening. One of them's listening to a recording.
Love it.
Great. Invite me back sometime. But they don't have many children. And it becomes very unnerving to me, because they also, for the children they do have, they have a little quiet room. And it's sort of this really neat, like, interrogation room, you know?
It has the double mirror, and it's great. I really like it a lot. It's like, oh, I'd love to have one of those things installed, you know? Um, but one of the things that I like is, uh, there's this silence.
It's a little unnerving to me. I'm actually used to the atmospheric noise. So I start to get kind of in my own thoughts and in my own head when I'm preaching there. The silence is a little overwhelming to me.
I actually need the kind of creaturely comfort of the noise we have here, which is fine. I love the oohs and ahs and coos of all the baby girls and boys. But there is something to say about that silence.
It allows there to be a sort of reverence and an awe. If I could put it this way, there's a certain peace that closed the worship there because of the silence. You know, there's a certain peace. Now imagine if someone in the midst of that kicked down the double doors and had a bunch of symbols and walked around the room, smash, smash, smash, smash, smash, smash, smash.
Probably three saints would go to glory right away. You know, pacemakers would fail. And Paul says, that's what it's like when you don't have love. That's what it's like. You're just this crashing symbol, this noisy gong, this clatter.
When there would be otherwise this peace that would permeate the life of a church, you come in like some Jacksonville marching band and you throw it all up in disarray.
Why?
Because you lack love. And the person that is clashing the symbol, so to speak, never thinks that's their issue.
Actually, I'm right. This is my concern and it's a valid concern. And this needs to be addressed. And they might be right in more ways than one. But if they have not love, they are like the clashing symbol.
That's why Paul says, put on love. It's the bond of perfection. This is how you let the peace of God rule in your heart. This is how the peace of God permeates a church body. So are you grating or are you grateful?
Second question. Second question. Are you a vent or are you a cover? Are you a vent or are you a cover? My parents had a, before I came along, at least I think, I don't know if my sister was born yet, they had a little parakeet.
And apparently it was a pretty intelligent little bird and it could do all sorts of little tricks. They could put it on the table while they're playing cards and it would go over and flip cards over for them.
It could repeat phrases and they loved this little bird. And when they had this little apartment in Worcester, they noticed that it was getting really sick. And they thought, this poor thing, it must need more air.
And so they put it right near the ceiling vent in their apartment and then it died. And they realized they had a carbon monoxide issue. And trying to give it air, they killed it. And the problem, of course, was the vent.
It was this invisible odorless gas that was being vented into the living space. And yet it was deadly. And as soon as someone came near to that vent or some living, poor, innocent parakeet was put near to that vent, they croaked.
Instantaneously. Are you a vent or are you a cover? 1 Peter 2, we talked about this last week. 1 Peter 2, he says to the church, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
We talked about this imagery of consecration. The whole church consecrated a holy people, a kingdom of priests, the true Israel. That's consecration. And then what does he say two chapters later in 1 Peter 4?
Have fervent love for one another.
Because love will cover a multitude of sins. Love will cover a multitude of sins. So I ask you, are you a vent or are you a cover? Is there this invisible, odorless frustration and offense that you have?
And as soon as you have the right opportunity and the right sympathetic ears to receive it, it's time to open up that carbon monoxide and let it do its dirty work of reaping death and destruction. Are you the type that even when you have allies, sympathetic ears, people that would vindicate you, affirm you, people that would say, you have been wronged and I'm angry with you.
And on your behalf.
Instead of enabling that, you cover. And you don't take scissors and cut a little one inch square and I'll just cover this one little sin. You cover a multitude, multitude of sins. Notice that love doesn't erase sins here.
Notice that it doesn't absolve them. It just covers them. It just buries the wrong. And it doesn't hold the grudge. It doesn't mean you've agreed. It doesn't mean they're right and you're wrong. It doesn't mean that how you're feeling is somehow invalidated.
It just means this. Out of love for the sake of God and for the sake of his church, his bride, you have covered a multitude of sins. You are never more Christ-like than when you were doing just that.
Scripture is calling upon all of us to love in this very way. So let me say this. If you're waiting for someone to cover their sin toward you, you're not understanding anything we're talking about. To be thoughtful in this way of covering sins is also to become one who thinks, is there anything that I've done that I may even be unconscious that someone's covering for me?
I've made an offense and I'm not even aware. I'm so, you know, abstracted or unthoughtful or harsh that I haven't even thought of the offense that I've caused. A person who's growing in covering love is someone who wants their offenses also to be covered.
They're looking to rectify wherever they can. But the call simply goes out, have fervent love for one another because love will cover a multitude of sins. It can never be that in dealing with the warts and problems that always arise and bubble up in the life of a church that there's ever counsel that ends, well, he needs to hear that.
Well, tell her that.
Counsel must always end at the end of the day with the cross of Christ, the blood of Christ that is our only hope. And it's that which has brought us into unity together. And therefore, if I was loved so fervently by Christ, can I not also love fervently and cover offenses and wrong?
Can I not forgive the 75th and the 76th and the 77th time someone has wronged me or insulted me? Maybe if I'm thinking that way, I need to develop a thicker skin too. If in a day I'm being offended 77 times, that might be too much of a snowflake.
1 John 4, 11 says this, Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another. If God loved us, we ought to be able to love one another. That means offenses, irritations, sins are covered in love.
Now, that doesn't mean you allow someone to go on sinning or make a practice of sin and we're just gonna keep newspapering over your vomit spree. That doesn't work in the life of the church. There's discipline for a reason.
There's rebuke and exhort and all these things that we're often tasked to do. It simply means this. If it was an offense toward me, that isn't something that needs to be resolved for their own good, for their own growth.
It's just something that's grating on my ego, my pride. It's insulted me and it's wounded me and it hurts me. And it's not about them and their growth. And in fact, addressing them is really just for my own sake.
And that's something that we ought to cover. I think as a rule of thumb, and there may be other circumstances where this wouldn't be applicable, but as a rule of thumb, you only bring and seek to rectify those things which is for the good of your brother or sister, for the sake of their growth, that they wouldn't be tripped or stumbling in any way.
Other than that, you cover. You cover in love. You deny yourself for their sake. That is how you think like Christ.
So what are you?
A vent or a cover? Are you a threadbare blanket? Are you a twisted sheet of saran wrap? Did you ever get the cheap saran wrap? It's like as soon as you pull it, it just goes into like a rope. You go through half the roll just trying to cover a dish.
Is that how you cover sins and offenses? No, it should be heavy. It should be thick. It should be generous, charitable. You know, it's clear, all the evidence, you know, here's the body vest recording that they directly said this about you and they meant it to hurt you and all that.
Well, maybe there's some context where I can take this charity. You just always take the road of charity and you cover because God loved you when you were at your worst, when you were an enemy, when you were a mocker and a reviler and a hater, and he loved you and he covered your sins.
And so you too must love one another in this way. Last question, are you a worker for grief or a worker for joy? Are you a worker for grief or a worker for joy? This is, of course, riffing on Hebrews 13.
I love Hebrews 13 begins verse one, let brotherly love continue. So it's supposed to be there. It's supposed to be continuing. And for a lot of times, you know, you come into a church body. We've got some people that are relatively newcomers here.
Some old veterans. It's like, you know, all the war-torn vets and then the greenhorns show up and we're so excited to be here, you know?
And it's like, yeah, stick around a few years,.
You know, see what you think then.
I won't even get to know you. You're not, I can tell you're not gonna last. Let brotherly love continue. I remember it's this time of year again, the Bolton Conference is coming up and notice there's details in your bulletin for that.
I just remember in the late 2000, you know, 2006, 2007, when the Lord was just doing so much work in my life and though I grew up in the church, I fell in love with the church. Just the idea of church, not just my local church, but just church, just the church is amazing.
And going to the Bolton Conference was like the crowning glory. It's just like all these saints and we're all singing hymns and we're all sitting under the word and it's just so exhilarating. It's just like, there's nothing like the church.
And it just so happened 2006 was, if I remember right, William Barclay and Krishna Jemian and they were talking, the theme was the house beautiful from Pilgrim's Progress, which is Bunyan's depiction of the church.
I was just thinking the house is beautiful. The church is amazing, yeah. I love it from top to bottom. And the writer of Hebrews would say, let brotherly love continue. It's like, of course, this is amazing.
Are you kidding me? But then you have certain years or certain seasons or certain issues in your own life. And all of a sudden, those words hit a little different. Let brotherly love continue.
Yeah, I know.
I had it.
Where did it go?
Later on in the same chapter, and this is often treated by commentators as just sort of almost like last minute, rapid fire exhortations or imperatives, you know, kind of a loose constellation of moral exhortations.
No, no, I'm convinced there's always far more structure and unity than random assembling when it comes to letters, ancient letters. So we have this, let brotherly love continue.
Then in verse seven,.
And we're going to have this as a repetitious theme to the very end of chapter 13. He addresses the church in terms of its leaders.
He says this,.
Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith you follow and consider the outcome of their conduct. Remember those who rule over you. So we begin chapter 13. Let brotherly love continue.
Verse seven, remember those who rule over you. Verse 17, obey those who rule over you. And then in verse 24, you'll have greet those who rule over you. So three times you have this address to those who lead or those who rule over you.
But notice in verse 17, obey those who rule over you and be submissive for they watch out for your souls as those who must give account. Now, here's the gravy. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, because that would be unprofitable for you.
He doesn't say, don't be a bother. You don't want to trouble them. He says, you don't want to trouble yourself. It's unprofitable for you. If you're a worker for grief in the church, rather than a worker for joy.
So the leaders, first and foremost, are to be workers with joy on their minds. They want joy in the body. They want joy in your home,.
Joy in your marriage, joy in your walk.
We are workers with you for your joy. So let us work with joy and not with grief. It's so easy, whether for leaders or for those who are being led to become workers toward grief rather than workers toward joy.
And so asking yourself this question. In my labors, in my conversations, in my input, in the way I utilize my presence, my time, my resources, my relationships, could it be said of me that I'm a worker for joy at GRBC?
I'm working toward joy for this church. Or am I actually a worker of grief?
Could you say with Timothy Dwight,.
I love thy kingdom, Lord, the house of thine abode, the church, our blessed redeemer, saved with his own precious blood. I love thy church, O God. Her walls before thee stand dear as the apple of thine eye, graven on thy hand.
Like, Lord, if you love your church, help me to love the church more. Help me to love the church like you love the church. If the church is your bride, the apple of your eye, engraven on your hand, give me some of that affection and delight.
Next stanza. For her, my tears shall fall. For her, my prayers ascend. To her, my cares and toils be given until toils and cares shall end. So here we come to a close. And I just want to take that last stanza from Timothy Dwight's great hymn, I love thy kingdom, Lord.
For her, my tears shall fall. For her, my prayers ascend. To her, my cares and toils be given. That's a wonderful description of what a consecrated church looks like. For what your place as a member of the church looks like if you want to be consecrated in the way that God requires of you.
It looks like tears falling, prayers rising, labors given. That's what it looks like to be a consecrated Christian in a consecrated church. Paul shows us again and again this picture of compassion. I think that's the last thing that I would like to point out is this compassion.
I think that's a good umbrella term for this whole stanza. For her, my tears fall. For her, my prayers ascend. For her, my cares and toils be given. What's driving that? It's not just a passion for the church as God designed it, but it's a compassion for the people.
My tears are falling. My prayers are rising. There's a compassion that's actually driving that kind of labor, that kind of toil. And it's just like the Lord Jesus who was moved by compassion. Remember in Matthew 9, he was gripped in his very guts, as it were, with compassion because he looked upon a people like sheep without a shepherd.
So a consecrated body in my mind is in light of where we've been discussing things this morning. A consecrated body is a compassionate body. A compassionate body. Paul shows us again and again not to deny those who are different from us on any matters that are not gospel matters.
If they are brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, if they have saving faith in him, we can begin there and go a long way with them. But we can only begin there. In fact, we must begin there. Do you have a brother or a sister?
Are they saved by faith like you are saved by faith in the Lord who alone saves?
Start there.
Look at them through that lens and then consider how the Lord would have you act and engage and relate to them. It will allow you to be patient with those who are immature, charitable to those who are weak, gracious to those who are wayward.
That is how Paul, throughout his letters, is constantly encouraging the church to be. It's how he's exampling himself to the church. Now, of course, it takes wisdom. It takes maturity. It takes leaders to know what's a gospel issue and what's not.
What's secondary where we can have fellowship without agreement? But what's primary where we can't have fellowship at all? The point is, especially in our circles, we tend to take the dial on conviction and we just turn it all the way up.
I have preferences and I have convictions. And if you're not here with me, you're dead to me. We can have no fellowship, no unity of the Spirit. Well, I'm glad Jesus didn't think that way. I'm glad Paul didn't think that way.
If we didn't think we were right about an issue, we wouldn't hold on to it, of course. It's a conviction for a reason. We take it seriously. It matters to us. We want to contend for it. We only hold it because it's true.
We argue for it because it's true. But what Paul says and models out is that we should always be first and foremost mindful of what is most important for the Christian.
What is most important.
For that brother or sister? What is most important for the church? And then secondly, in relation to that, what's the most helpful way for me to help them get there? What's the most helpful way for me to encourage and build them up and lead them toward that?
So we don't shout down. We don't tire out. We don't whip a brother or sister into agreement. We don't vent and build up allies and just do our own church thing. There's one body, one spirit. What do we do?
We think through.
Where are they? What's most important for them, for their marriage, for their family, for this church? What's the best, most effective and helpful way I can lead them, encourage them, and support them toward that?
If it's a brother or sister, we respect they have liberty in Christ. They have freedom in Christ. They have a right to think as God leads them, according to their God-given conscience, according to the light that God has shown them up to that point.
And so we rely so much on prayers. Sometimes that's why tears fall. Sometimes that's why prayers ascend. We turn to prayer not only for ourselves, but also for their sake. This is a way of actually preserving and protecting our love for them.
You'll know that you're in the wrong if you find it hard to pray for someone. If you find it easy to vent, you find it easy to take offense and to be irritated. I can't even speak now. To be irritable.
But you can't bring yourself to pray for them. Or if you do pray for them, it's like a practically a polite, imprecatory prayer. Now, Lord, I don't wish them ill, but I'm just saying they could be humbled whenever you see fit to pray with thankfulness.
To pray, Lord, help me to see things rightly. Help me to love them as you love them. Help me to remember that they're my brother and sister, not because of what they have done or because of what they've failed to do, but because of your blood.
You adopted them into the family and you said, love them. So help me love them. Now, Lord, you know I'm struggling. You know I'm offended, Lord. You know that I'm hurt. And even in that, Lord, don't let me lash out.
Don't let me vent. Help me to cover when it's hard to cover and help me to still be about their growth because one day, both they and me will see you and be called to you and be perfected and will never struggle, never offend, never sin again.
And then we'll spend the next eternity with each other in that perfect unity that we're meant to have in some semblance now. So, Lord, give more now than we have. Give us a taste, a foretaste of that great unity.
Help me never look at a brother on their shortfalls, but where they will be in glory. And then what's the next step in front of them? How can I be used to get them there? Self-denial, having the mind of Christ.
We all want to avoid compromise. We take that as a sign of weakness. And I think so often, there's so many figureheads out there right now that in one direction are doing the Lord's work. They're doing the Lord's work because they're fighting battles and they're standing up speaking very clearly against so much of the nonsense and fog of the day.
The sort of, what's the phrase, evangelifish, all that stuff. They're doing the Lord's work in that angle. But on the very other side of the coin, they couldn't be farther from the mind of Christ. They don't want to compromise on anything.
They can't think through where is their liberty, what's primary, what's secondary, I do all for the sake of unity. No, it's just divide, divide, divide, divide until they only have a band that looks just like them and follows them exactly.
Jesus didn't operate that way. The church doesn't operate that way. Paul never expected that to be the case. So what does a consecrated body look like then? Long-suffering, bearing with one another, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, being of the same mind toward one another, not being wise in our own opinion, not being grating, but being grateful, not being a vent, but covering over even a multitude of sins.
The consecrated body is a watchful body, watching ourselves and the way our flesh so easily rises up. It's a prayerful body, praying against our own offenses, our own sense of slight, our own irritations and aggravations.
It's a prayerful body because it recognizes the work of the Spirit is producing a unity. And the consecrated body is a diligent body. Cares and toils must be given even to this great end. Cares and toils given to unity, maintaining peace.
Toils and cares given to progress and maturity. Richard Sibbes says the progress of maturity.
Looks like this.
This is Richard Sibbes,.
The gem dropper of the Puritans. And I close with this. This is the progress of maturity for a Christian and for a church. First, enduring the weakness of others. An immature Christian, and, you know, that doesn't mean, oh, no, I'm not an immature Christian.
I've been a Christian for 14 years. Well, that doesn't mean you're automatically.
A mature Christian.
You can have a two-year-old Christian that's far more mature than a 22-year-old Christian. Growth and maturity works a little different in the spiritual realm. A mature Christian is someone who can endure the weakness of others.
Now, a young Christian, an immature Christian, they look at weakness as a threat,.
As a liability.
They take actually offense to it. Lord, forbid them from speaking, yeah? How could they be doing this? Send fire from the heaven. Someone needs to straighten them out.
And get their act together.
It actually causes them anger. They're upset. I've only been a Christian for two years, and even I know not to do that. Look how far ahead I am.
It's very immature.
They can't be patient at all.
There's no long-suffering.
There's no bearing with. Part of that is because there's no desire to see them grow. So they recoil. They react when they see weakness, when they see failure or shortcoming in others. A mark of maturity, Sibbes rightly says, is being able to endure that weakness.
Secondly, he says it's a knowledge of needs, particular needs, and a seeking after God's grace. So it's not just being able to bear with the weakness. It's actually understanding, here's what I think they really are needing.
Let me pray and be useful toward that. How can I help them? And then the third and last mark he gives is this, for the Christian and for the church. The mark of maturity is an ability and an endeavor to beget other Christians.
He goes on to say, a weak Christian has enough to do just to look after themselves. It's one of the reasons they react so reflexively against the shortfalls and weaknesses of others. It's because they're basically consumed with themselves entirely.
They can't be patient and prayerful of others. I'm amazed when I go to these NERF meetings with brothers who have been ministering for decades, 40 plus years,.
To hear their prayers.
Or to hear of the things that they pray for, and I realize how selfish my prayer life sounds. I'm sure my family could see how selfish my prayer life sounds. Majority of the bulk of my prayers is about me and my weakness and my shortfalls and things that I need, things that I want, things that I'm hoping for, things that I'm sorry about.
And then maybe I extend that out to my family and then some of the big fires in the church. And then maybe I, you know, I don't want to paint too bad of a wrong picture here. Of course, there's a lot of other regular consistent prayers, but the point is a young Christian, an immature Christian, they have everything to do just to look upon themselves.
A mature Christian walking rightly with the Lord in this way, they're prayerful, they're watchful, they're thoughtful about others and they're prayerful to that end. So what I've noticed all these years is that sometimes these brothers never even pray for themselves.
Their whole prayer life is consumed with others. And they're almost begrudging to pray for their own needs and wants and hurts and so on.
Do we have the ability,.
Do we care to endeavor to beget another Christian? That's the mark of maturity in a church. Are we that mature as a church? Could we take someone off the street and beget them by God's grace being used of the Lord, beget them into this spiritual life?
Could we be used of God to consecrate them? It's a mark of maturity if we're able to do that. I'd be interested to hear what people have to say on that very point. So what is our maturity? What is the nature of our consecration?
Can we endure with the weaknesses of others?
Are we charitable?
Are we thoughtful?
Do we cover a multitude of sins in love? Are we thoughtful about particular needs? Do we seek after supplies of grace? Are we endeavoring to beget Christians who are not Christians? And those who are Christians to become stronger Christians.
Are we growing in the grace of God? I, therefore, Paul says, beseech you, walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called with all lowliness and gentleness,.
Long-suffering,.
Bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, there is one body, one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all.
Amen.
Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you, Lord, for the way that you address us. First and foremost, reminding us of who you are and of what you've done and of all your supply for the things that you require.
Lord, you do not ask what you will not give. And so, Lord, we come to you and we ask that you would give us a greater measure of love, a greater measure of humility, a greater measure of self-denial.
Lord, that we would have the presence of your Spirit bringing about that love and that unity in such a way that you are glorified and we are consecrated in ways that are evident not only to one another, but to the watching world around us.
May we, as Dustin Benj would say, view the church as the loveliest place on earth. May her array, may your work of grace be the constant marvel and praise from our lips. Let us look upon one another with all that glorious light of grace, see the work that you have begun and the ways that you are continuing it.
And even where there's shortfalls and gaps, Lord, may we just comprehend and think through what that work will be when it is completed, both for our brothers and sisters and for us. May we always be motivated between your work of grace in the past and our future hope of glory.
If there's one here, Lord, who for whatever reason has identified themselves in your word, perhaps as more grating or more of a vent, Lord, a worker of grief, may their sorrow be covered over in the love of this church.
May they be elevated and brought forth to love you for that very reason. May we all see your grace operative among us in these ways. Help us, Lord. These things are not easy and a church even only a decade old is prone to have so much potential for division and strife.
We know the enemy is restless as a prowling lion. May none fall prey to his jaws, but Lord, protect us and deliver us, we pray. And in that deliverance, make us devoted to you and to one another. These things we ask in your son's name.