Where Is Christ In A Time Of Crisis? Session 1

Good evening.

Good to see you guys here tonight.

Well, this is the, I don't know, which one is this?

Anybody know?

Sharon, do you know?

Which, what is it?

28th?

Okay, this is our 28th Bible conference, and our first one with

Lance Quinn.

I've gotten to know Lance first in our work together at Association of Certified Biblical

Counselors and also through our association with Fellowship of Independent Reformed

Evangelicals, FIRE, which we all know here.

What can I say about Lance?

Well, I could say a lot of things, but Lance started Green out of seminary as

personal assistant to John MacArthur, and then he went to Bible Church of Little Rock and pastored there for

15 years, came back to California, planted a church in Thousand Oaks, California,

and is now a vice president with the Expositors Seminary

in Jupiter, Florida.

Lance serves on the board of ACBC as well as the Board of FIRE.

But I know him better as a friend.

He and I have had some good times together.

He, by the way, has had the inestimable, great

experience of riding with me when I'm driving.

And this last year we were together all the time because I was his ride, and the poor guy was

tested to the limits.

But anyway, so Lance is a good friend.

I love this guy, and he has got a phenomenal memory, so don't be afraid of

introducing yourself to him because he won't forget it.

Right, Lance?

He won't forget your name.

Anyway, Lance, come minister the word.

Well, thank you, dear brother.

To know Tim Pasma is to love Tim Pasma.

I refer to him as my blood brother, Tim Plasma.

And when I first told him that, he said, you know, no one has ever said that.

I said, no one has ever put those two words together.

And he said, no.

And I said, well, I am the first.

It is a joy to be here with you and to be able to participate in this Bible conference

and to be able also to have some fellowship together.

I am looking forward to having some ice cream with you later.

And this is a joy to be in your fellowship and in your presence.

This has been a particularly hard season over the last

number of years, and I'll unfold some of those things as the conference

goes on.

But this is a very, very important and even sensitive

subject to me in these days.

Where is Christ in crisis?

So if you will, turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 4.

It, of course, has been read to you already.

And then even with the song that we sang, this idea of

rejoicing in the Lord is something, of course, that

accentuates this letter of the Apostle Paul to the

Philippians.

This particular matter of rejoicing or having joy in the Lord

is accentuated, as I say, in the book of Philippians, and it peppers the entire

letter.

In fact, if you would go back to chapter 1 of the

book of Philippians, you might say, as some have said,

that this is the epistle of joy.

This is the letter of joy.

Look at chapter 1, verse 4.

Paul says,

Paul founded this church, and as you know, this is a series of letters

that make up what we call the prison epistles.

And that means, of course, that Paul is writing from prison.

He's shackled.

And for a man like that to be able to write a book like this

is extraordinary.

Because if it were me in a moment of reflective self -confession,

I'm not sure if I were in prison, I'd be writing a letter about joy.

I'd probably be writing a letter to the authorities saying, when will you get me out of here?

And Paul, in this letter, is filled with joy.

Chapter 1, verse 4 is an example.

What about chapter 1, verse 18?

And in that, and I'm going to share with you what that is as we go along, and in that,

I will rejoice.

And if they hadn't yet seen that, understood that, he says it again.

Yes, and I will rejoice.

And then chapter 2, verse 2.

Complete my joy by being of the same mind.

And then look at verse 17 of chapter 2.

I am glad and rejoice with you all.

Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

And then he says in chapter 2, verse 28.

You may rejoice at seeing him again.

And then verse 29.

So receive him, one of Paul's associates, receive him in the Lord with

all joy.

And then chapter 3, verse 1.

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord.

And then chapter 4, verse 1.

Whom I love and long for, my joy and

my crown.

Paul is talking about joy.

He's filled with rejoicing.

And yet he's in a prison cell.

And he's suffered a lot.

He's suffered a great deal.

This is a kind of letter, and especially for us,

even in these last couple of years of all of these health scares,

this is a letter for us.

Because the answer to the question, where is Christ in crisis, is really in some

ways a simple one.

He's right where he has always been.

He's the Lord.

Philippians chapter 2 speaks of him being Lord of all, Lord of all creation.

And that he's coming back one day to have his visible presence

pronounced as Lord of all, where he will also judge the living and the dead.

And so this is an epistle.

This is a letter that I thought would be a good way for us as we work our way through it,

and really just in one passage in chapter 4, where there are seven

staccato -like commands that are very short, very pithy,

but oh so power -packed.

And the first one is rejoice in the Lord.

Look at chapter 4.

Chapter 4, verse 4a.

Rejoice in the Lord always.

Now I find this very, very interesting because there is a phrase

that Paul uses in the middle of verse 5, or really

actually at the end of verse 5, that says this, the Lord

is at hand.

You see that there?

The Lord is at hand.

It's actually, if you were to ask me, the central statement of

this whole section.

The Lord is at hand.

That is why we can rejoice in the Lord always.

That is why we can rejoice again and again.

That is why we can let our reasonableness be known to everyone.

That is why we don't have to be anxious about anything.

That is why we can pray with supplication and thanksgiving, allowing our

requests to be made known to God.

That is how we can have the peace of God.

That is how such peace surpasses all understanding.

That is how God guards our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.

That is how we can think rightly with things that are true and honorable and just and pure and

lovely and commendable and excellent and worthy of praise that we can think about

and practice.

The Lord is at hand.

The Lord is near.

Now why do I say that?

Well, first of all, I think we need to probably do a little bit of thinking about that phrase,

the Lord is at hand or the Lord is near.

What does that mean?

I mean, if I were to ask you the question right at the beginning of our conference, what does it

mean to affirm the truth that the Lord is at hand or the Lord is near?

Well, in one sense, we could say that it's a

spatial understanding.

A spatial understanding.

That is that what Paul is saying is, I want you to do all of these commands, I want you to

obey them, these seven commands that I'm giving you at the end of this letter as

a kind of application set of points, and I want you to do so

because the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come back spatially to

the earth.

And if you're here when he comes, he'll want to find that you're doing

all of these things.

Particularly these seven commands.

He's going to come back to the earth and he's going to be wanting you

to be doing all of these seven things all at the same time.

Now you and I would say, well, wait a minute.

I know that the Bible teaches what we call the imminency of Christ.

That he's going to come back and it's going to be soon.

But you and I can get so wrapped up in our lives with all of our stuff, our

jobs, where we live, our families, our work,

what we do and how we do it, and sometimes we forget,

and very often I'm most guilty of all in this room of not remembering

and getting wrapped up in things where I'm not thinking about the Lord coming back.

I think it's just true of all of us.

We get so wrapped up in our lives.

We get so wrapped up in what we're doing and how we're doing it and why we're doing it that we

often are not thinking about that truth, the truth that Jesus Christ is coming back

and it's going to be soon.

But if he is coming back, and he is, and

if it's tonight, I want to be found complying with these seven

commands.

I want to be able to say, when I see Jesus Christ face to face,

Lord, I have been occupying until you come, and I have been working on

these seven commands, and the one at the head of this list is

rejoicing.

Rejoicing.

He's going to want to know that regardless of the circumstances of our lives,

mine and yours, that no matter what's going on, you and I

are rejoicing in Christ.

We're rejoicing in his goodness.

We're loving the fact that he has placed us in Christ.

He's placed us in himself.

He's going to want to know if you and I are doing what

he commands.

And the first one on that list, as Paul closes this letter, is rejoice in the Lord.

In fact, I even think that when he's talking about rejoicing in the Lord,

he's probably thinking most not just of your own individual

responsibility to do that, but how you're rejoicing in the Lord together.

Together as a church.

See, take it out of you as an individual needing to be

rejoicing in the Lord when the Lord comes back, and occupying as

a rejoicing person before the Lord comes back.

Take it out of the realm of just your individual life and ask yourself this question.

Am I showing the rest of the folks in my church family

that I'm rejoicing in the Lord?

Even in the midst of crisis, pain,

sorrow, disturbance, challenge,

trials, tests, disease,

sickness, what seems to be hopelessness,

discouragement, being disconsolate, being angry,

being whatever it is in a list like that and more,

not thinking about the Lord being near, but thinking only as an individual

and not doing what I've called Philippians 4, the whole chapter, showing

your sanctification in public.

Showing your sanctification in public.

And the first place you ought to show your sanctification in public is to your fellow members

of the body of Christ in this place.

Now, I'm not saying it's easy.

In fact, it's quite hard.

It's quite difficult because the trials and tests that come, they seem to come at times like a

flood.

And when they come, we want the encouragement of our

fellow brothers and sisters to encourage us, to come

alongside us.

What do you need?

How can we help?

To what do we pray?

Do you need food?

Do you need clothing?

Do you need help?

Do you need us to come alongside?

How can we love you?

And you and I are saying, what a wonderful group of people.

What a ministry in my life.

And you'd also want to be able to say if something like that were happening to them, you'd be on the

other side of it.

What can I do to help?

How can I come alongside?

And undoubtedly, that's what you do.

And this is exactly what Paul is talking about.

But then flip it all the way over on the other side.

Let's say that there is not everybody pulling the load

to help each other, but actually conflict in the church.

Maybe you and another brother or sister are not right with each other.

There's been some conflict, disagreement.

In the church fellowship, and we all know it, we can get crossways with one another.

And do you know that that's exactly the point that Paul is talking about in

chapter 4, verse 1?

Look at it with me.

Therefore my brothers, meaning both brothers and sisters, therefore my brothers and

sisters, whom I love and long for, I quoted it just a moment ago, my joy

and crown, that's who the Philippians are to Paul, stand firm thus in the

Lord, my beloved.

Why would he say that?

Why would he say stand firm in the Lord?

Because of verse 2.

I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to

agree in the Lord.

Now in the English text of our Bibles, and I'm reading from the English Standard Version that you have as well,

and that word agree there actually could be and perhaps

even should be translated that Euodia and Syntyche ought

to have the same mind in the Lord.

That's what the word agree means.

To have the same mind.

In other words, not just fellowship, and not just being a part of the same fellowship,

but a real, tangible agreement of being of the same mind

as sisters in Christ.

There was apparently in Philippi two women, Euodia

and Syntyche, and I know they're funny names.

In fact, because they're having issues with each other, someone once said, maybe it should be

Euodia and Syntyche.

Well, they're having some kind of problem with each other.

And Paul's heard that through those who have been giving him reports,

and as he's closing this letter, he actually mentions their names,

which find their way in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the Bible

forever.

How would you like to have your name?

Right there.

I entreat Tempasma to agree with his wife in the Lord.

And by the way, there's no reason he shouldn't.

She's a sweetheart.

He is not.

I entreat Euodia and Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.

Verse 3, Yes, I ask you also, true companion, whoever this companion is that

he's referring to, who he's appealing to, help these women.

And then, notice what he does.

He doesn't rail on the women.

He doesn't criticize them.

He doesn't badmouth them.

He doesn't speak of their odious character.

He says, They have labored side by side with me

in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers.

Maybe that means that the house church that they're in is meeting in Clement's house and they've been a part

of it from the very beginning.

You say, part of what?

I'll tell you part of what.

This is Philippi.

This is in Asia Minor.

And this is Gentile territory.

And this is a Jewish apostle named Paul

who also goes by the name in Hebrew context, Saul, who's planted a church

in Philippi, a pagan territory, in which they have been serving in their community

a multiplicity of gods.

They have been the worst kind of people who are rabble -rousers,

carousers, sinners of the greatest sort, not having the law of

God at their disposal, worshiping a multiplicity of gods as I said.

This is remarkable that anybody's following the Lord in this town.

And God has sovereignly birthed a church through this apostle.

And these women were a part of it from the very start.

And notice how he says, they have labored with me side by side.

That's really a beautiful phrase.

Side by side.

Interlocking their arms together to serve the body of Christ.

He even goes further.

They've labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers

whose names are in the book of life.

He has no question, no doubt whatsoever that Jodea and Syntyche are

genuine Christians whose names are written in the book of life

but who've hit a rough spot and they are sideways with each other, not side by side.

And yet he encourages them to do this.

Verse 4.

Rejoice in the Lord.

And rejoice in the Lord always.

You have to rejoice in the Lord even when you are potentially

sideways with one another.

Which means you've got to work it out.

You've got to work it out.

Now I'm not going to ask for a show of hands either now or on Sunday morning how many of you are

sideways with each other?

Would never do that to you.

But perhaps it's gone outside of the

umbrella of just that relationship and maybe there are some folks in the fellowship who

know that there's some tension in a relationship.

It's all the more reason for you to say not just as an individual I need to rejoice in the Lord always

but I need to do it with my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in this church.

Or Paul writing to LaRue Baptist Church.

He's saying first command out of the gate rejoice in the Lord

always and the context is clearly telling us that it is a rejoicing

even in the midst of potential conflict with two ladies

in the Lord in the fellowship.

Now of course it's not only them.

He's not saying it just to them or just about them.

He's saying it to the entire congregation.

And sometimes in the west in the western hemisphere we're all about living our Christian life.

Individually.

But remember these are letters that are written to an entire church which means

that when he generally says you it's almost always in the plural.

You as in because I'm from the south y 'all.

Y 'all.

To you, to you -ins to us -ins and this is a

rejoicing in the Lord and we have to rejoice in the Lord.

No no.

Let me rephrase that we get to rejoice in the Lord.

We have the awesome privilege of rejoicing in the Lord.

Together together.

Here's one thing I don't know but I think I can easily presume that

with Paul writing this here to Euodia and Syntyche and yet not having the end

of the story I'll bet you that Euodia and

Syntyche worked it out.

I bet they worked it out.

I bet there were others in the congregation who made sure like the true comrade and like

Clement that they worked it out because that's what we do in the body of Christ.

We work it out and we work it out because of two things we're

commanded to do.

So we're commanded to rejoice in the Lord.

And.

The readiness of knowing that the Lord is at hand.

You and I don't want to have conflict with other fellow believers

while the Lord is coming back.

Whether we knew he was not coming back for years to come or whether we knew that the Lord is

coming back tonight.

And by the way I hope for the latter.

I would be thrilled if the Bible conference that I'm presenting to you is the very last one

and we had to end it halfway through.

This is this is a rejoicing in the Lord because you and I

know that if there's a writer like Paul who's in prison while he's writing it and if there are two

women who need to get along and if there are the kinds of rough roads that

Paul and these ladies and the true companion and Clement and others are having

and we'll see a little bit of that as we go we are comforted

because the Lord is near.

And you say well wait a minute.

Can't the phrase the Lord is near also be something beyond just the

spatial return of Jesus Christ to the earth.

Yes, yes it can.

And sometimes in our Bibles it's the Lord is near.

In the sense of this the Lord is near to me and to our church personally

by His spiritual presence He's near.

He's near to us.

Not in the sense that He's coming back right now although He could.

But that.

He's near to me in His personal presence

and how would that be?

He is near to us in His personal presence in the near ministry

of the powerful Holy Spirit who lives powerfully in and

through our lives to ensure that you and I are rejoicing in the Lord.

The Holy.

Spirit has been given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ

so that we could have the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

So when Paul says the Lord is near don't let that be just a throw away

phrase in the midst of seven commands.

Let that.

Actually be the drive train of your life.

Try to say to yourself from this moment forward if you have not already done so

I need to live in light of the Lord's nearness the

nearness that He's going to be with me in my trials, with me in

my tests with me in my grief with me in my sorrow in the

presence of the ministry of the Holy Spirit and that the Lord Jesus Christ is

spatially coming back to the earth one day and.

It is imminent.

You say well Lance is it one or the other.

Here's my answer.

I have no idea it could be one or the other.

Perhaps it's both when it's undefined like this perhaps it's both.

And if it's both or if it's one or the other it really doesn't change the fact that you and I

are commanded to rejoice in the Lord and we're to rejoice in the Lord because He

is at hand.

He is coming back.

And He is also so near.

That you.

And I honestly as we do the other commands as we go through them, you and I have nothing

to worry about.

You have nothing to worry about.

You say well I get that I understand that I can affirm that.

But you see pastor you just don't know my problems.

Anybody ever said that?

Ever sat down with someone.

And you're telling them.

I'm going to encourage you.

I'm going to pray with you.

I'm going to be there for you.

We're going to memorize scripture together.

We're going to serve together all of these things that trouble you, we're going to help work them

out.

And one of their immediate responses often and especially not only as pastors and biblical counselors

as Tim and I are you who also help the body of Christ might hear this

siren sound that we seem to hear more often than we don't.

And that is something like this.

But you don't know the troubles I've had.

You don't know the problems I'm going through.

Perhaps you've never had that yourself.

And of course 1 Corinthians 10 .13 says no testing has overtaken you.

But such as is common to man we're all going through it.

We're all hurting.

We all have challenges.

No one can legitimately say.

No one in the history of our planet has ever gone through what I'm going through right now.

That's just not true.

And so we're all here to help.

And what kind of problems do you know that the apostle Paul the very man who's writing this letter could be saying

something like this.

Has anyone else been in prison.

Is anybody writing from prison to encourage someone else.

He probably doesn't have any show of hands.

And yet what is his attitude.

Look back at chapter 1.

Why.

How can this man Paul in a Roman dungeon.

Stinky.

Smelling Roman prison command us you and me and the Philippians to

rejoice in the Lord always.

How is it possible.

He says in verse 12 of chapter 1 I want you to know brothers that what has happened

to me has really served to advance the gospel

so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all

the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ

and most of the brothers.

Having become.

Confident in the Lord by my imprisonment are much more bold to speak

the word without fear.

Oh my this is quite incredible isn't it.

I mean here's a man.

Who whether.

It's Paul in a Roman imperial prison or Joseph in a

dungeon somewhere in Egypt who are both saying something like

this.

Whatever is being meant for evil God means it for.

Good.

And that's what Paul is saying.

What's happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.

Can you imagine if you and I in the good old US of A were

finally hearing from our government.

And it may not be too long from now you can't preach the gospel.

You can't preach it anymore.

You can't have a church service you can't gather together.

And they.

Haul us all off to jail and we're writing to our friends and neighbors and we're saying I

want you to know dear folks that what has happened to us has really served to advance the gospel.

Would we be able to say that so that it has become so known

throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for

Christ and that most of the brothers the others who are trying to preach Christ they become even

more confident in the Lord by my imprisonment and they're now so

much more bold to speak the word without fear.

I would think it would be the reverse.

Wouldn't it.

If I'm in prison and if they say if you stop preaching that gospel we'll let you out.

In fact that's exactly what happened with John Bunyan the author of Pilgrim's Progress.

They said if you just stop preaching because we haven't given you a

license to preach.

If.

You just stop that you can walk out of those prison doors right there right now.

And he ended up staying in prison for over 12 years.

How?

Because Christ is to be preached.

Whether you have a license to do it or not Christ is to be preached.

Paul even goes on there in verse 15.

Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry but others from

good will.

In other words there are those who do it with wrong motives and those who have right motives.

The latter those who do it from right motives they do it out of love.

They preach Christ out of love knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.

The former that is those who do it with wrong motives the former proclaim Christ out of rivalry

envy.

Not.

Sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment you would think that Paul would say.

And here's what I want you to do.

I want you to go find these guys.

I want you to go get them.

And I want you to teach them a lesson.

Not to do that.

What does he say?

What then?

Only that in every way whether there are these guys who are preaching Christ out of

pretense or guys who are preaching Christ out of truth Christ is proclaimed.

And in that I what?

I rejoice.

What an attitude what an attitude.

You ask me the question where is Christ in crisis?

I tell you he's right where he is right where he ought to be.

He's ruling and reigning in the world.

He's ruling and reigning in the universe.

And he says I must be preached I must be witnessed

about by those who are proclaiming him.

And that's not just the preacher that's all of us.

We're proclaiming Christ in the way we live.

We're proclaiming Christ in how we talk to others.

We're proclaiming Christ how we minister to each other in the fellowship.

We are to do it.

And we're to do it with a rejoicing spirit.

And by the way if you go back to chapter 4 that first command gives

way to a second.

And it is this again.

I will say rejoice.

You see that at the end of verse 4 again I will say rejoice.

Why does he say it again?

I think he's saying it again because.

Of emphasis.

I think he's saying it again because there is such a tendency in all our lives including

myself.

Most.

Certainly including myself that when the trials and tests of life come.

The.

First thing I do invariably is go inward.

I focus on my problems.

I look at nothing but my own challenge of how I'm going to respond to this.

And why is the Lord doing this.

And is this fair and is this right.

Instead of the second command again I say rejoice

rejoice in the Lord.

Always and again I will say rejoice.

I.

Don't do that as often as I should.

I'm thinking about how can I get out of this why am I in this who's going to help

me.

Why is this something that seems unrelenting.

Lord what are you doing.

Why are you doing it.

Don't you know that this is not the right.

Path.

Which is essentially my saying why don't you just get over into the

other chair and I'll take over the driving privileges.

I think that second command again I will say rejoice is here because you and I need to

be reminded of it again and again.

And again.

Is that not so.

And then there's a third command here.

Verse 5.

Let your reasonableness be made known to everyone.

Let your reasonableness be made known to everyone.

I'm going to unpack this very very briefly and then we'll enjoy some ice cream together.

Verse 5 let your reasonableness.

Some translations may have.

Gentleness.

Let your gentleness be known to everyone.

This particular word translated reasonableness in verse 5 there usually

means something along the lines of not insisting on your rights

which might fit I think pretty well in what Paul is commanding especially Euodia

and Syntyche not to do insisting on their own positions whatever they were at each other's throats

about.

It was something probably that had to do with their own positions their own rights their own will

their own desires their own attitudes whatever it was they might have been fighting about.

And that may be a good idea of what's happening in verse 5 here perhaps though

the alternate translation is the better word or the better idea.

Gentleness.

Gentleness.

It's hard to say.

It's hard to say which one's best but if gentleness is the better idea other

passages might echo this same use of the Greek word and here

are a couple of those contexts.

1st Timothy 3.

You don't have to look it up but you might want to write it down.

1st Timothy 3 3.

We are to be as elders if we're characterologically qualified.

Not violent but gentle.

Not violent but gentle.

You might translate it not violent but reasonable.

Reasonable.

If there is one trait that comes in so handy as an elder in a

church whether it's large or small it's being reasonable being gentle

or how.

About Titus 3 2.

And this is really applicable in our day and age with the government and what we say about them.

Titus 3 2.

To speak evil of no one.

To avoid quarreling.

To be gentle.

In fact it says about our responsibility to talk to unbelievers.

It says in Titus 3 to show perfect courtesy to all.

Men.

And I say well I blew that one showing perfect courtesy

to being reasonable.

Yes that's what it is to be gentle.

Or.

How about James 3 17.

Wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle

gentle.

Can you see the the gentle Paul or some of his associates going to

and saying you're not gentle with one another.

You need to be.

Gentle.

Or how about 1 Peter 2 18.

Slaves be subject to your masters with all respect not only to the good

masters and the gentle masters but also to the

unjust ones.

So.

That third command there let your gentleness or your reasonableness be

known to everyone.

Wouldn't it be great if in the church fellowship when someone was ticking off all of

the attributes of your life near the top of that list would be something like this.

Well she sure is gentle man.

He is one reasonable guy.

That's what.

That's what Paul is saying.

You're commanded to do.

That's what I'm commanded to.

Do.

And I love this because 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 1 says that we should be like our Christ.

Who is the meek.

And gentle Christ.

Can you imagine the meekness and gentleness of Christ.

Now I've chosen either the idea of gentleness or

reasonableness but in the outline point that I've given you I've used the word forbearance.

Forbearance.

Show.

Your forbearance or manifest your forbearing spirit

to everyone you forbear.

You know in Colossians 3 .13 the Bible says this bearing with one another

and if one has a complaint against another forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you

so you also must forgive.

Now this is not the same word gentleness or forbearance but that idea of

bearing with one another is very close very close in meaning.

In fact we could probably use a little bit of street language here.

When we.

Re -translate Colossians 3 and it might be something like this with regard to you and other members

of the body of Christ put up with one.

Another.

Put up with them that is so hard to do

it's so hard.

To do.

I know I need to put up with her.

I know.

Syntyche is out there.

I see her every Sunday.

I wish she'd miss church every once in a while.

Oh yeah Eudias is sitting right there.

I'm not pointing to anybody over here but the Bible says let your

reasonableness let your gentleness.

You need to put up with each other.

You need to bear with one another.

This is what I call showing your sanctification in public.

It's not enough just to say Lord.

I'm having great quiet times.

I'm praying.

Well I'm just so encouraged about my individual spiritual

life.

Take it one step further.

Show others your wonderful current spiritual life by

ministering to them encouraging them to rejoice in the Lord

always and again.

I say rejoice.

And oh by the way let your forbearing spirit manifest it to the

congregation.

Be reasonable.

Be a forbearing spirit among the saints around you.

Perhaps we might even say a congregation that is collectively.

Doing these things.

Will have an even greater witness to those outside the fellowship so

that someone says in this community I need to.

Show up there.

Something's going on.

Those people are different in a wonderful way.

Wouldn't that be an opportunity for a testimony for Jesus Christ.

Let's bow together.

In prayer.

Our heavenly father.

These staccato like commands coming one right after the other.

They are so helpful.

To us.

Because they challenge us to go inward and ask the question who

am I as a professing Christian.

How do I live my life.

How do I respond to others around me.

Whether they're in the fellowship or not.

But if they are in the fellowship how much do I encourage them to

rejoice.

In the Lord.

Do I rejoice in the Lord by showing them my sanctification in public.

Do I encourage them by being reasonable by being forbearing.

With them.

Putting up.

With all of their idiosyncrasies all of their blemishes

and they with me.

Oh Lord we know that this can only happen if the

spirit of God is at work.

In us.

We want to show the watching.

World.

That we have a unity of spirit among us that we're all pulling together

arm in arm ministering side by side

and we ask that the near Christ

the one who's either coming so quickly.

Or.

Through the ministry of the Holy Spirit is already so near to us now

that we are and can rejoice in the Lord no matter what crisis has come into our lives.

Oh dear Christ loving gracious Messiah

the gentle and meek Jesus.

Help us be this way.

Infuse us with a love for one another that transcends what the

world knows nothing about.

Allow us to be a powerful witness in this.

Community.

Draw.

Others to us give others an opportunity to see

how the gospel is being lived out in our lives.

Challenge us change us because we know where Christ is

in a time of crisis.

He's right here building his church and we

are that church.

And may we be all.

That he is creating us to be for his glory and our good.

In Jesus name amen.