A Final Call for Love

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles, turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 16.
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We have reached the final verses of this amazing epistle, and I said I wanted to preach it in 12 months.
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That did not happen.
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In the providence of God it has been 18 months since we began, and today is the last message Lord willing wherein we will be looking at individual verses.
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Next week we're going to do an overview of what we have learned, but today is the end of the verse by verse exposition.
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So we're going to begin at verse 14 and read down to verse 24.
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Let all that you do be done in love.
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Now I urge you brothers, you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints.
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Be subject to such as these and to every fellow worker and laborer.
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I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus because they have made up for your absence, for they refresh my spirit as well as yours.
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Give recognition to such men.
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The churches of Asia send you greetings, Aquila and Prisca together with the church in their house send you hearty greetings and the Lord, all the brothers send you greetings, greet one another with a holy kiss.
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I Paul write this greeting with my own hand.
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If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed.
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Our Lord come.
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The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
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My love be with you all in Christ Jesus.
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Amen.
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Father, this time to preach is a sacred moment.
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And as I stand behind your word, which is a sacred text.
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Lord, I pray that you would fill me with your Holy Spirit for this hour.
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And Lord God, that you would fill your people with your spirit, that they might come under subjection to the word of God, that they might submit themselves to the truth of the word, that we might all be humbled by what the word has to say to us.
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And Lord, in those areas where we are broken, where we are deficient, where we are desperate.
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Lord, I pray that your word would come.
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And that your grace would come.
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And that it would draw us closer to the Lord Jesus Christ and show us ever more why we need to cling so tightly to him.
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Father, I pray that you would keep me from error.
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I pray that you open hearts to the truth.
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And I pray that your word would be proclaimed with power, that souls would be saved, that saved would be drawn closer, that your word would be exalted in Christ's name.
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Amen.
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Please be seated.
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As I said, we have arrived at Paul's final words for the Corinthians, and there are different ways that we could outline this passage.
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I could have broken each of these small paragraphs into little mini messages and done each one as a sermon.
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But I believe there is a cohesiveness to this passage that if we don't, if we're not careful, would be easy to miss.
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The cohesiveness that I see in this passage is the thread that begins at verse 14 and runs down to the end of the chapter.
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And it is the repetition of a key word.
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In verse 14, you will see the word love where we are told to let all things be done in love.
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And then we see later in verse 22, if anyone has no love for the Lord there again, we see the word love come up.
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And then finally, Paul's last admonition is my love be with you.
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And as I have taught many times in my classes on how to interpret scripture, when you see a word that comes up multiple times in a short span of text, then you can feel fairly confident that that word has something to do with the writer's intention.
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It's not by accident that we would see the word love come up three times in a span of only 11 verses.
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And we see that word love in the English.
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It's love all three times in the English Standard Version.
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In the Greek, it's two different words.
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We see agape twice and we see philos once.
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And as we have discussed before, there is a slight distinction that can be made between agape, which is a self-sacrificing love, does not require any reciprocation on the on the thing or person being loved.
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That's agape love is a giving or sacrificing love.
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And then philos is more of the love of reciprocation.
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It's the love of friendship.
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It's the love that is relational, that we have with one another.
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And yet he uses both here to describe what he is trying to get across to us as he draws this letter to a conclusion.
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And one of the things that we're going to talk about next week when I go over an overview of 1 Corinthians is I'm going to show you again a reminder that the vast majority of this book is a rebuke.
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This book is written to correct misunderstandings, misbehavior that is happening in the church at Corinth.
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And yet Paul never stops loving the church at Corinth because of their errors.
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In fact, if you go back to the very beginning of 1 Corinthians, I thank my God for you.
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And now here at the end, he says, I want you to know of my love for you.
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So even though this church was a church full of broken people, there was a church full of desperate people.
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It was a church full of people who couldn't get anything right, it seemed.
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There were so many things bad in the church at Corinth, and yet this is the book where love is given its highest definition in Scripture.
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You remember 1 Corinthians 13, Paul tells us what love is.
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Love is patient.
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Love is kind.
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Love does not envy or boast.
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It keeps no record of wrong.
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It hopes all things, bears all things, believes all things, never fails.
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Remember what Paul said about love in that passage, he said, if we have not love, we are nothing and we gain nothing.
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If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
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If I have all faith and can move mountains and even give my body to be burned, but have not love, I am nothing.
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So really, there's another thread that runs through the book.
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Not only is the book a book of rebuke, and it is, but it's really a book of love.
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Who wrote the book of love? Paul.
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Oh, come on.
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I know you guys aren't, I had a long week too, but I'm used to seeing happy, smiling faces.
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Everybody here looks like they forgot to drink their coffee.
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Come on, wake up a little.
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Now, it's been a long week, but seriously, though, this is Paul's, this book really does center a lot on love, more so than I think we imagine.
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Paul has invested time in explaining what love is, he's invested time in explaining why love is a priority.
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And in fact, within the Christian faith, he has said this, that if we say we have the faith and if we don't have love, we don't have the faith.
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And if you remember last week, that's what we talked about, because last week we looked specifically at verse 22.
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And Paul says in verse 22, if you say if you do not love the Lord, you're cursed.
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So today we're going to break this passage down in three sections.
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The outline will be on the screen and it's on the back of your bulletin, because as I said, the subject, I believe, is love.
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And what we see is Paul's admonition on one, their love for one another.
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Two, their love for Christ and finally, his love for them, that being Paul, Paul's love for them.
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So let's go through and we'll break it down one section at the time.
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We'll go through and do one section at the time.
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We're going to look first at their love for others.
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Now, this this is the lion's share.
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This actually covers verses 14 to 21.
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And so I've broken this down into further and I didn't give the outline for this in the bulletin, but there's four there's four calls in verses 14 to 21.
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There's a call to action.
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There's a call to subjection.
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There's a call to recognition and there's a call to reception.
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Don't try to write all those down.
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If you want my notes, I just give them to you.
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But that's the four.
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Let's look first at the call to action.
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Verse 14, he says, let all that you do be done in love.
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Now, that's a simple sentence, but that is a profound and surreal message.
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Paul doesn't say, let some of the things that you do be done in love.
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I think that's how most of us interpret it, because most of us don't do everything in love.
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And he doesn't say, let most of the things that you do be done in love.
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You can have a few things that you kick in the corner that you do in anger.
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You can have a few things that you do that you kick into your closet that can be done in hate.
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You can have a few things that you hide under your pillow that you do in lust.
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But everything else is to be done in love.
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Now, now you're listening.
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You see, he says, let everything or all that you do be done in love.
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And by the way, that word be done is in the imperative.
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It is a command.
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And I would say this, and I think it was I think it was Alistair Begg, who I heard say this.
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He's a wonderful pastor with a wonderful accent, if you've ever listened to him.
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And he said that this is the great imperative of Christian living.
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This passage, verse 14 of first Corinthians 16, is the great imperative.
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We have a lot of imperatives.
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But there is one great imperative, one imperative that sort of is the driving force.
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It's the foundation.
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It's the it's the one that drives everything else.
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It's the great imperative.
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And the great imperative is let all that you do be done in love.
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That's why that's why I said I call this a call to action, because love is not just a feeling.
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Love in Scripture always comes across as action.
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Love is a verb.
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There was a rock song when I was a teenager.
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I think it was Christian band DC Talk, I think, did it.
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And it was called Love is a Verb, meaning love is action.
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Love is done, not just said love is done, not just felt love is done.
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Not just spoken of.
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It is an action.
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Love is a verb.
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Love is the foundation of Christian ethics.
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John 13, the brother read it this morning, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you.
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You're also to love one another by this.
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All people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.
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Boy, hasn't the church destroyed that verse? Because I got to tell you, and I say this to great shame, the church is not known for loving itself.
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It's not known for loving its members.
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It's not known for loving other churches and other Christians.
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It's known for division.
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It's known for gossip.
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It's known for hypocrisy.
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It's known for strife.
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And yet, Jesus said, this is how the world will know you're mine.
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Is that you love one another? That should cause us to stop right there.
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Maybe maybe this needs to be the sermon.
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Maybe we don't need to go any further.
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Maybe we just need to stop and repent and pray right now.
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Does our church love itself? Now, by that, I don't mean selfishly love.
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But do you love one another? Do we love one another? Some of us don't even know one another.
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I get this might step on a few toes, but don't wear flip flops next time, maybe.
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But here's how it's going to go.
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People to this day been in church for years come up.
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Who's that person? What do you mean, who is that person? There's less than 80 people here.
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You should know each other.
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You should have each other in your homes.
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You should know where you live.
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This is your family.
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Who is that person? Why are you asking me? Why do you expect me to know and you don't? You know why a church like this only grows to about 80 to 90 people and never any more? Because that's the largest amount that any one person can minister to by himself and really make connections and relationships.
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Unless you relate to one another, unless you make relationships with one another, unless we really begin to become a family, we're never going to get any larger than what we are.
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And we're never really going to know each other at the size we are.
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Not that I care about numbers, but you understand what I'm saying.
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We have a revolving door, they come in, they come out, they don't stay often because we're not loving one another.
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I didn't come to hear this today.
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Well, leave then.
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But know this, I love you even if you leave.
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Do you love me? Do you love one another? Let all things that you do be done with love, even rebuke.
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That's what this is, rebuke, right? Let all that you do be done with love.
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See, the problem is the world looks at love differently than the church and the Bible.
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Recently had a guy challenge me online and I really took it to heart.
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He sent me a message and said, I don't think that you're very Christian with some of the things that you say online.
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He said, Jesus never rebuked anyone without showing them love first.
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And I said, oh, nay, nay, I can show you about five thousand places where you're wrong.
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Jesus, you know, he told it like it was.
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Sometimes that was the first thing he did was tell it like it was.
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I said, but also most of the things that I say online are intended to simply point to a need of change and people don't want to hear that they need to change.
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And I do try to be very, very cautious in everything that I post.
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And I'm very careful of that.
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But being that as it made, it did make me start to be even more careful because I do not want to be unloving.
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But I will say this.
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As he began, this person who sent me this message, as he began to describe what he thought love was and how love should be shown wasn't biblical love.
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As let me tell you something, the world will say that it's unloving to name sin.
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It's not.
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The world will say that it's unloving to call people to repentance.
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It is not.
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The world will say that it's wrong to proclaim the exclusivity of salvation in Christ alone.
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It is not unloving.
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In fact, that's the greatest love that any person can give to another person is to give them the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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And if you give people the gospel of Jesus Christ without giving them the penalty for sin, without pointing out the need for repentance and without pointing to the exclusivity of Christ, you have not given them the gospel.
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And therefore, you have not loved them.
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You're like a person who walked to another person's house and you see that their house is on fire and you stood on their porch and you chatted with them about their cat.
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And you let them walk back into the house, fully aware of the flames that are engulfing them, and you cared not because you wanted to have a friendship more than you wanted to have a true relationship in Christ.
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The world will tell you that the only way to show love is to be tolerant.
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We must be tolerant of all beliefs and all behaviors.
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Let me say this tolerance.
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Used to mean something and it has changed.
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I'll tell you what it used to mean.
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Tolerance used to mean you have the right to be wrong.
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And I'm going to allow you that right.
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Remember, think back, those of you who outdate me by a few years, I smile, think back a few years.
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Remember, you say, I don't believe what you believe, but I'll defend your right to believe it.
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Remember, that was what tolerance used to be.
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But now it's different.
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Now, tolerance is you have to agree with me.
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That's the difference, right? Not only do you have to agree, you have to glorify and what I do, you have to you have to celebrate what I do.
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It's not enough just to say you have the right to be wrong.
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Nobody's wrong anymore.
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And they say the only way to be tolerant and the only way to show love is to never say anyone's wrong.
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Let me tell you something.
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And I'm not going to get political or patriotic, but this country wasn't based on that.
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And neither is the word of God.
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In fact, I'll tell you this.
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The apostle Paul didn't even accept the first type of tolerance because you go back to the first type of tolerance.
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You have the right to be wrong.
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Paul didn't say that.
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Paul said in Galatians, if anyone preaches a gospel other than the gospel that you've been preached, let him be damned.
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That's what he said.
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You didn't have the right to be wrong.
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So the idea that the Bible preaches tolerance is ridiculous.
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The Bible preaches the gospel.
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Now, that doesn't mean we're going to go around wrapping people on the head because they're wrong, but we don't let them sit in their wrongness and call it love.
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We don't let them sit in their damned state and call it love.
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That is not love.
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It's the very opposite of love to see somebody walking the plank over the pits of hell and tell them, well, your shoes look nice.
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We've been told there must be a celebration of diversity.
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In fact, this month, we are ending June.
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June is the month now known as Pride Month.
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Had more attention than Christmas.
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Businesses broke their arms, patting themselves on the back by how much they could celebrate the profaning of biblical marriage and relationships.
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Every design changed to colorful flags.
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And isn't it interesting? That the colorful flag of pride is the same colorful reminder of God's judgment on the wicked people before the flood.
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I mean, that's scary.
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We're going to celebrate pride with the same reminder of God's judgment.
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The Jacksonville Public Library was going to host a pride prom.
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Didn't work.
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So what happened? They moved it to MOSH, Museum of Science and History.
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It still happened.
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Men dressed as women, reading to children, screaming like animals, looking monstrous.
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And yet, if you say anything, that's not love.
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I'm sorry.
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It is not loving to celebrate something that will damn someone's soul.
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It is not loving to celebrate something that God condemns.
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And it's not loving to celebrate something that Jesus died for.
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I'm not a bigot and I don't hate anyone.
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At least I try not to hate people.
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I struggle with the flesh, just like you.
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I'm not putting myself on a pedestal.
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But the reality is you cannot show love apart from the gospel.
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So when Paul says, let all things be done in love, that means first and foremost, let all things be done with an eye toward Christ.
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He is the personification of God's love.
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And biblical love begins with a recognition of who God is and what man is.
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God is the creator of the world.
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Man is the image bearer of God.
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And I'm commanded to show love to people because they bear God's image.
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By the way, that's another important...
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Again, that's going to be the whole sermon.
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But that's another important part.
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I love people because they bear the image of God.
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I'm called to love somebody not because they look like me, not because they share the same type of DNA as me or the same melanin count, or because they're from my hometown or from my state or from my country.
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I love people because they bear the image of God.
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That is my call.
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That is your call.
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Man is made in the image of God.
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I'm commanded to show love to all men, but I don't have to like them.
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That's another kind of hard thing.
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I don't like it when people treat each other poorly.
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I don't like it when people sin against God.
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And I don't like it when they're doing things that are bringing shame upon the name of my savior.
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I don't like that.
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But I can still love them because love is action.
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Remember that.
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And this is what kind of the here's the example of that.
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We are not called to be like Jonah because Jonah hated his enemies and hoped for their destruction.
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And he was actually disappointed when they received the grace of God.
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We are not called to be like Jonah, who hated his enemies and hoped for their destruction.
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But we are to be like Christ, who loved his enemies and died for their redemption.
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Jonah hated his enemies, prayed for their destruction.
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Christ loved his enemies and died for their redemption.
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We're not called to be like Jonah.
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We're called to be like Christ.
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Therefore, let all things we do be done in love.
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That's the call to action.
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Now we'll see how far we get.
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The rest of it might go a little quicker.
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We'll go now to the call to subjection.
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This is verses 15 and 16.
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He says, Now I urge you, brothers, you know that the household of Stephanus were the first converts in Achaiai and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints, to be subject to such as these, and every fellow worker and laborer.
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Now, real quick, just a quick history lesson.
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Who's he talking about here? Well, this family of Stephanus are mentioned earlier in the book.
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Paul says he baptized the household of Stephanus, which means that Paul had witnessed to them, had ministered to them, had seen them come to faith and had even administered the ordinance of baptism in their home.
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But other than that, we know very little about them.
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We know they were the first, according to this passage, they were the first converts.
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And the King James says the first fruits of Achaiai, which is south of Greece, north, I believe, of Corinth.
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So would have been in that same area, but north.
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And we don't know much about them except for two things from this passage.
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One, we know they were converted.
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That's important.
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But also we know they were devoted.
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They were converted.
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They were devoted.
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Here it is.
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It says in verse 15, they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints.
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I love the King James on this passage.
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You know, sometimes I have difficulty reading the King James, as many of you, because we don't live in those times and using that language.
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But this is what the King James says about them.
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They have addicted themselves to the ministry.
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They have addicted themselves to the ministry.
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I just love that language because, you know, we all know what an addict is.
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And oftentimes we use the word addict in a negative way.
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Somebody who is addicted to alcohol or drugs.
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Someone who is addicted to some kind of a hurtful substance or hurtful activity.
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Somebody who's addicted to spending money or sex or some other thing.
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But these people had a good addiction.
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Their whole life was addicted to serving others.
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They were devoted to serving.
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That's what their house was known for.
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Alistair Begg, again, great pastor, I love to quote him sometimes.
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He said, what is your home known for? What is your home known for? Are you known as one who is addicted to the service of the saints? And Paul says, be subject to such as these.
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Be subject to such.
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What does it mean to be subject? Well, as Christians, we're called to lay down our lives in service to Christ, which means engaging in acts of submission to one another.
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It means to submit to one another, be in submission to one another.
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Basically, what Charles Hodge says is this.
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He says, they serve others, they should be served.
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They serve others, they should also be served.
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There's reciprocation in relationship.
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Paul says, be subject to such as these.
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And that's really the Christian life.
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Christian life is a life of service.
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In fact, if you don't like to serve, then I would wonder, where, you know, what is it about it that turns you off? Because if you're not, if you don't like to serve, now, not everybody is called to serve the same way.
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I don't serve as well as many of you do in other areas.
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And that's why Paul in chapters 12, 13 and 14 talks about the diversity of gifts.
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But if we have no desire to serve, I think that would say something about our heart.
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And some people think this, and I disagree with this.
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Some people think Stephanus was an elder, and that's why Paul is calling them to subject to him.
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Number one, it's not in the text, so you have to read that in.
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And that's one thing I disagree.
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But the other reason I disagree is because even though, yes, there is a call in Scripture to submit to the leadership of elders in the local church, that's not the context of this passage.
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The context of this passage is he says, and he says this, he says, not only do you submit to them, but to every fellow worker and laborer.
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So the point here is this, we're called to submit to one another.
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Did you know that? Oh, we got a visitor.
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The lizard up here.
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That's okay.
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You can hear the gospel too.
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If you want to write this down, Ephesians chapter five.
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Give thanks for everything to God, the Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
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Submitting to one another, not submitting to the elders, which that's true.
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Not just submitting husbands to wives, which that is true.
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Not just submitting, you know, employee to employer, slaves to masters.
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It's not just that submitting to one another.
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Why is this matter? Why does this matter? Because that's how we show love.
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What does it mean to submit? I'll give you two thoughts.
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One, it means that you count other people more important than yourself.
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That's the first.
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That's in Philippians too.
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Do nothing from selfish ambition, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves.
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Do we really do that? Do you really put other people's wants and needs above your own, especially in the church? You might do it at home with your wife.
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And that's good.
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I'm not discounting that.
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That's an important thing.
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But do you do it at church? Or do you struggle and fight and argue and gossip because you didn't quite get what you wanted? How about number two? It means to serve without expecting anything.
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Galatians 5, for you yourselves are called to freedom, brothers.
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Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but rather through love, serve one another.
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Do we serve to get something or do we serve to give something? Are you willing to put aside your wants, your desires, your preferences to submit to a brother placing him in a higher position than yourself? Are we willing to do that? That's part of love.
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Sometimes I wonder.
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It's easy to say, hard to do.
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But there is a call.
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First, the call to action, love one another, love, do everything in love.
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And then the call to subjection.
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What does that look like? Well, first, it's subjecting to one another, submitting to one another, putting the other person first.
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That's one.
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But number two is a call.
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And next is a call to recognition.
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Look at verse 17.
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I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence, for they refresh my spirit as well as yours.
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Give recognition to such people.
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Now, these three people have been a blessing to Paul.
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Somehow they filled a need that he had that the Corinthians didn't fill.
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According to this passage, they made up for your absence.
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Paul is saying that whatever you couldn't do, they did do.
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So these three men, Fortunatus, Achaicus and Stephanas, have done something in the life of Paul.
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We don't quite know what, but it's something important that refreshed his spirit.
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And notice what it doesn't say.
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It doesn't say they were seeking recognition.
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It doesn't say they wanted recognition.
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But Paul says they deserved recognition.
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Notice verse 18.
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For they refresh my spirit as well as yours.
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Give recognition to such people.
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Why? Because it's a way of showing love.
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I got to tell you, I have too many people here to recognize every single thing that everyone does, every way they do it.
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But I have to say this.
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Nothing goes unnoticed and I appreciate it.
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And the elders appreciate it.
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Steve, I appreciate you leading worship.
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And Debbie, you preparing the slides and the music and leading.
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And Sharon, I appreciate you with Karate Camp last week.
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Because as I said on Facebook, I couldn't have done it.
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And we've done it together now for seven, eight years.
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And every year, I never have to worry about what you're doing.
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And I appreciate that.
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And Pat, I appreciate you coming here every week and working alongside of me and giving me a hard time sometimes.
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But it's OK, because I love you.
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And I appreciate it.
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And I could go around the room and I wish I could tell every one of you how much I appreciate what you do.
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Because I love you.
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That's a way of showing love.
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You show recognition to people who do these things, right? And again, if I didn't say your name just now, don't be offended.
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Because I really am thinking I wish I could stop right now and spend the next hour just telling each of you how much I appreciate you.
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I really, really do.
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We don't do it to seek recognition.
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But we shouldn't withhold it.
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You see what I'm saying? That's why Paul says, give recognition to such people.
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Because in doing so, you show the love of God that you have for this person and what they've done in your life.
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And they've ministered you somehow.
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So let me encourage you this week.
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If somebody's ministered to your heart in this church, tell them so.
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You don't have to gush all over.
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You don't have to make a parade out of it.
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You don't have to get balloons and things.
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But just tell them, you have ministered to me and I appreciate it.
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That is giving recognition to such people, as Paul says to do.
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It's a way of showing love.
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All right, the last one here on this first point is called the reception.
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Look here, verse 19.
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The churches of Asia send you greetings, Akilla and Prisca.
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Now, that's the same as Akilla and Priscilla in Acts.
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It's just spelled differently here.
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It's the same people.
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Together with the church in their house, apparently they had a home church that they had established, send you hearty greetings in the Lord.
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And all the brothers send you greetings, greet one another with a holy kiss.
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I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand.
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Notice five times the word greeting there.
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You know, sometimes I worry about us because our greeting is getting so long.
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Our handshake portion, it's almost getting as long as the service.
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But it's good.
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You know, we might have to rein it in at some point and say, OK, we're making laps.
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But the point is, there is a blessing in showing people they matter.
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And greeting, welcoming, that's what the word means.
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It means to welcome.
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It means to send them, to send them appreciation, to send them love, all those things.
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That's part of what Paul is doing.
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He's sending them greetings.
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He's telling them about the greetings.
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And there's two things here that are really neat.
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I want to point out two quick things.
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One is the reference in verse 20 to a holy kiss.
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I smile because people don't like this anymore, because it's not our custom, especially in America.
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Now, if you go to Italy, they may kiss you on the cheek.
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That may be a custom that is more akin to that sort of that area, the European and Near East area, much different than ours.
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Our custom is shaking of hands.
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I think that I don't think that we should retranslate the text, but I think that we can apply this text very easily.
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If you come to church, be willing to extend a hand of fellowship.
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And I'm a hugger.
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I like to hug.
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There's something about an embrace that to me is genuine and personal.
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I do the side hug thing as people are leaving, especially with people who don't know me very well.
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I don't want to just bear hug them.
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But boy, when Dale came back, run to him and just, boom, put them big old arms around him and let him know, I'm glad you're back.
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That's why I do that.
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I'm not weird.
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That's the way that I show a greeting.
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You know, and you may be more introverted and you may appreciate a handshake or a fist bump, whatever is what makes you happy.
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But the point is we show each other love by a physical expression of greeting.
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That's Paul's point.
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It's very simple.
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Greeting each other with a holy kiss is basically show them they're welcome.
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When visitors come, we show them they're welcome.
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We're glad you're here.
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We want you to be here.
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We want you to stay and we want you to hear the word of God.
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So that's the reason for that.
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And he also noticed something else here.
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Verse 21, he said, I write this greeting with my own hand.
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Now, you might say, didn't he write the whole letter with his whole? No, Paul did not write every letter that has his name on it with his own hand.
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Paul used what was called an Immanuensis, which is a very fancy name for a secretary.
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Paul would speak and his secretary would write.
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We know this in Romans, because if you go to the end of Romans, it says in verse 22 of chapter 16, I, Tertius, who wrote you this letter, greet you in the Lord.
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You say, wait, I thought Paul wrote the letter.
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Well, Paul spoke the letter and Tertius wrote.
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Same thing in Galatians.
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Paul at the very end of the letter, he says, see with what large letters I'm writing.
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It's likely that Paul had an Immanuensis writing and he comes in.
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He says, but now let me sign this thing.
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Big letters.
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I, Paul.
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And he's putting his big name at the end to let him know.
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I agree.
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This is from me.
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And he's doing the same thing here.
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He's saying, see, he's saying, I'm writing to you with my own hand.
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I'm adding my signature to this letter and he's showing his affection for them.
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Now, I do want to finish.
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It only take a couple more minutes.
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We saw last week their love for Christ.
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And if you weren't here last week, it's a recording.
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I encourage you.
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In fact, I'm trying to figure out a way to make last week's sermon into a tract where people can take a tract and take it with their phone and listen to it immediately with a little thing, because it's all about if you don't love the Lord, you're accursed.
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So if you weren't here last week, I would encourage you their love for Christ.
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The identity of the warned, those who don't love Christ, the destiny of the warned are to be accursed.
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And then the imminency of the warning, our Lord come.
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And I explained all that last week.
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So if you weren't here, go listen to it.
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But let me jump now to the third point and we're going to draw to close with this.
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We see Paul's love for them.
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We've seen their love for one for others.
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He says love one another and he explains how.
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He says, love Christ.
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And we talked about that.
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Now he says, I love you.
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Paul says in verses 23 and 24, he basically says, I love you.
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He says one in verse 23, he says, the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
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He said that's not telling him he loves him.
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Yeah, but that's a benediction.
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You know what a benediction is? A benediction is a prayer of blessing at the end of the service.
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In your bulletin it says benediction.
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I walk out here, I put my hands up in the air and what do I do? May the Lord bless you this week.
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May He lead you into His way.
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May He guide you in all that you do.
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I always do a different one, but it's always something.
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You remember the great benediction from the book of Numbers? May the Lord bless you and keep you.
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May the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
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May the Lord lift up His countenance toward you and give you peace.
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That's a benediction.
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It's a powerful benediction.
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Here is Paul's benediction.
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The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
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Why grace? Because there's nothing more valuable to the Christian than the grace of God.
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The greatest benediction, the greatest blessing that we have is God's grace.
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It is grace that He rescued us with.
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It is grace that He changed us with.
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It is grace that He justified us with.
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It's grace that He sanctifies us with.
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We live by grace.
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So Paul says the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
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My love, and this is his personal benevolence.
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My love be with you all in Christ Jesus.
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Amen.
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Some people may think by reading this that Paul hated the Corinthians.
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He did not.
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He spoke heavily to them.
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He spoke at times words of heavy rebuke to them.
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At one point he even maybe questioned their faith when he called them carnal.
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But he still loved them.
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But notice how he loves them.
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And this is this is key.
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This is key to everything today.
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So please give me just another moment of your attention.
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This is key to the whole thing.
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My love be with you all in Christ Jesus.
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Paul doesn't just love them because they're his friends.
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Paul doesn't just love them because he knows them or their acquaintances.
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Paul doesn't love them because they share a hobby.
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Paul doesn't love them because they give him money.
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Paul doesn't love them for any other reason.
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But this, they are God's people.
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Sometimes it's hard to love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.
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We frustrate one another.
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But we have to keep reminding ourselves these are God's people.
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Paul tells us shepherd the flock of God as he's speaking to the elders there.
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But really, it's just a reminder that it's God's flock.
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It's God's flock.
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One of the most frustrating, one of the most frustrating things I hear people say.
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And people say it nonchalantly like it doesn't matter.
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And it breaks, it cuts me to the heart.
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I just want to, I just want to explode.
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They say, I love Jesus, but I hate the church.
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And I realize the church can be difficult.
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And the church can be hardheaded.
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And the church can be, the church can be wrong at times.
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But Jesus loves the church.
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Jesus died for the church.
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And Paul understood that.
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Paul didn't just love Jesus.
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He loved the church.
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He said, my love be with you all in Jesus Christ.
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Do you love the church? You say, well, the church has problems.
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Corinth had problems.
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Start to finish, Corinth had problems.
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Paul loved the church at Corinth.
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Do you love the church here at Sovereign Grace? Do we love each other? And do we love the Lord? The two great calls of the Christian life.
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Love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
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Love our neighbor as ourself.
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Look to your left and to your right and know that that's where your neighborhood begins.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for the call to love.
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And for this final call by the Apostle Paul to the church at Corinth, which extends to our church here at Sovereign Grace, to love one another.
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Lord, may it be that we sincerely seek to love Christ and to love one another.
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Greeting one another, showing recognition to one another, submitting to one another because of what Christ has done for us and in us.
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And it's in his name we pray, amen.