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You may be seated. So again, 
Scott MacArthur is our preacher for this evening. We just appreciate, 
Scott, your willingness to come and preach so that one of our 
pastors, Pastor Butler, our full-time elder, can take this month of 
sabbatical and just rest his own soul and his own mental and 
emotional state. And we appreciate our other pastor, 
Cam, for the great labors that he does amongst us. But it is 
difficult when you're working all week full time to come and 
fill the pulpit twice on Sunday as he did last week. So thank 
you. Thank you, brethren. I'll ask you to come and share 
with us from the Word of God. Well, good evening. It's a pleasure 
to be here. And I thank you for the opportunity 
to serve you with God's word tonight. I have a great love 
and affection for this church and for Pastor Jim, especially 
as I've gotten to know him for the past 12 or so years, I was 
trying to remember how long it has been earlier today, but I 
couldn't quite come up with an exact date. But I know it's more 
than 10 years at least. So I appreciate our brother Jim's 
friendship and appreciate getting to know Cam of late as well. 
And I see a lot of familiar faces here and some new faces too. 
So I pray that God will continue to bless this work. And be assured 
that you are in our prayers. We pray regularly, especially 
on Sunday mornings when we know Jim is going to be preaching 
the word or this morning. In the case that Cam was preaching, 
so we were in prayer for Cam. And I also wanted to take just 
a minute to thank you for your prayers on my behalf, my family's 
behalf, as we have gone through various trials and struggles 
concerning sickness and bad health of various sorts. And I just 
appreciate and we just wanted to express our gratitude for 
your prayers. In that, if you've been one of 
those families that have been praying or individuals, we truly 
do appreciate it. And that was during some very 
dark times when I could think that I knew that the Lord's people 
were praying and that sustained us during that time. So I really 
want to express our gratitude for that. Well, turn in your Bibles to 
Matthew 22, 34 to 40. This is the great command passage, 
Matthew 22. Thirty four to 40, we just want 
to read the text and then we're going to go over to John for 
a little bit and then we're going to come back to this text. So 
starting at verse 34 of Matthew 22. But when the Pharisees heard 
that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then 
one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him and 
saying, Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? 
And Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all 
your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This 
is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it. You 
shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments. Hang 
all the law and the prophets. Let's pray. Lord God, we come to you tonight, 
needy people in need of your presence. In need of your Holy 
Spirit to teach us and to guide us as we move along through these 
verses. Just pray, Lord, that you would 
help me to expound your word properly and appropriately. And 
just pray that you would help my dear brothers and sisters 
here to receive your word and to implement it in their daily 
lives. And we thank you, as our brother Steve prayed earlier, 
for the inheritance that we have in Christ, that great salvation 
that we have, that the Father has elected a people, the Son 
has died for those elect, and the Spirit has sealed for the 
day of redemption. We thank you, Lord, that we can 
be found in Christ tonight. And I just pray if there are 
any outside of Christ that you would do a work in their heart 
and that you would redeem them even here tonight and that you 
would show your great power in this. And we just pray, Lord, 
that you would be with us, that you would grant us your presence 
in Jesus name. Amen. Well, often as we survey 
the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, we see that there 
are a lot of questions going back and forth. The Pharisees 
are asking questions of Jesus. The Sadducees are asking questions 
of Jesus. And Jesus, in turn, is asking 
questions to other onlookers. So there's a lot of questions 
going back and forth. And if you're to read through 
the Gospels, you would see this, that that Christ uses these questions 
as great hinges to to push this big door open and to answer these 
questions and to provide the great doctrinal truth. And we 
want to look at a couple of those just to show you what I'm talking 
about. I want to start in John, chapter 
seven. If you could turn over with me 
to John, chapter seven, we're going to look at a couple of 
these great questions that we have. The actual question that 
I want to look at is in chapter eight, but to set that up, go 
back to chapter seven. And look at verse 40. There's 
already people who are questioning who this man is. They're trying 
to decipher who the person of Christ is. And it is not like 
the game. Who am I? And then you have to 
guess 20 questions to figure out who Christ is. It's not like 
that. Christ tells us plainly who he 
is. And as we move through the context here, you'll discover 
that at the end of verse 40. Truly, this is a prophet. But 
others said this is the Christ. But some said, well, will the 
Christ come out of Galilee? And so in verse forty three, 
there was a division among the people because of him. They're 
questioning who he is. Now, turn over to chapter eight 
and verse twenty five. And here we have a question. 
Then they said to him, who are you? And Jesus said to them, 
just what I've been saying to you from the beginning. So we 
see this questioning going on and Jesus is going to tell them 
very plainly who he is. Look over to verse 53 of chapter 
8. Are you greater than our father 
Abraham, who is dead and the prophets are dead? Who do you 
make yourself out to be? So they're asking, tell us plainly 
who you are. And go down to verse 56, your 
father, Abraham, rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and 
was glad. Then the Jews said to him, you 
are not yet 50 years old. And have you seen Abraham? And 
Jesus said to them, most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham 
was, I am. So he takes the verse from Exodus 
314 and applies it to himself. He take remember in Exodus, it's 
the burning bush passage where Moses has this is confronted 
by the Lord and the Lord wants him to go to the people. And 
Moses says, Who shall I tell the children of Israel has sent 
me on whose behalf am I going? And he says, I am. And so Jesus 
claims this, I am statement for himself. He claims deity. He 
claims to be Jehovah. He claims to be Yahweh. And one 
of the reasons why we know that in the context here is because 
the Jews immediately pick up stones to stone him in verse 
fifty nine. And that was the punishment for 
blasphemy. They wanted to stone him right 
away. So Christ does not leave it a mystery as to who he is. 
He wants us to know very clearly and plainly that he is Christ. So what is our response? What 
should our response be to that? That he is God, he is Christ. 
Well, if you go to chapter nine and verse thirty five. Jesus 
heals the man of blindness. And at the end of verse thirty 
five, do you believe in the son of God? And he answered and said, 
Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him? And Jesus said to him, 
You have both seen him and it is he who is talking with you. 
Then he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. And I trust 
that if you believe that Christ is God, if you have submitted 
your life to Christ, that that is your response to that we worship. 
Lord, I believe you are who you say you are in the word and we 
worship, we trust, we obey and we follow. John, chapter 18, 
there's another question there. This is the mock trial of Jesus. You turn over to chapter 18. Pilate is questioning Jesus, 
verse 33. Are you the king of the Jews? 
So again, trying to figure out who this man is. And then again, 
in verse 37, are you a king then? And Jesus answered, You say rightly 
that I am a king. And then at the end of the verse, 
everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. And in response 
to that, Pilate offers up that question. What is truth? That's a huge question, isn't 
it? What is truth? Of course, Pilate does not realize 
that in John 17, 17, Jesus defined truth for us when he said, sanctify 
them by your truth. Your word is truth. So we see 
the doctrine of Christ, the character, the nature of God, then the doctrine 
of scripture become these great pillars upon which we build. 
And we see that in the sixteen eighty nine confession, the confession 
of this church. It starts with the doctrine of 
scripture, moves right away to the doctrine of God. We establish 
those and then we build upon them. And we see that in other 
in other church confessions as well. And if we could answer 
those questions, that would go a long way to establishing a 
strong foundation. I'm so thankful for church history, 
for for church confessions like the 1689 or the Westminster, 
because they've they've hammered out these various doctrines for 
us. And church councils previously have have done this with the 
authority of Scripture, the deity of Christ, the doctrine of God, 
these types of things, the Trinity. Could you imagine if we tried 
to do that today? Where would we find consensus in our evangelical 
world? It'd be difficult, wouldn't it? 
We struggle with things like open theism, this open concept 
of who God is, that God isn't the God who is all powerful and 
all knowing. He's a God who's changing. He's 
kind of more like you and I are. We learn over time. And the God 
of open theism is not the God of scripture. This is not a God 
is changing over time and getting better and better. It's the God 
who has established his truth once for all in his word. And 
so I just wanted to give you an idea of these various questions 
so that you can see, as we move back to Matthew 22 and go through 
this passage, that that not only are there questions throughout 
the Gospels, This day on which Christ was doing this teaching 
was a day of questions. We look in verse 15 to 22, and 
the Pharisees are asking Jesus a political question. In regards 
to paying taxes to Caesar in verse 17, and then Jesus answers, 
render in verse 21, render, therefore, to Caesar the things that are 
Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. And then verse 
22, I always love it when when when this is in the passages 
here, as we often see, when they had heard these words, they marveled 
and left him and went their way. And eventually all of them just 
give up and go their way and nobody dares question him anymore. So the the Pharisees go away, 
but they're going to come back, as we've already read. Then the 
Sadducees come and ask a question in verse 23 through 33 concerning 
the resurrection. And they're trying to trap Jesus 
into making some kind of a false statement so that they can point 
their finger at him and shame him in some way so that the crowds 
will not come to Christ, will not listen, will not marvel. 
They're trying to to make him and the Pharisees as well. They're 
trying to make him blaspheme God in some way or to say some 
kind of heresy or false statement that they can point to him as 
a false teacher. So they're questioning him concerning 
the resurrection, a theological question. And Jesus answers them 
in verse twenty nine. And said to them, you are mistaken, 
not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God, for in the 
resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but 
are like angels of God in heaven. So they're asking this question 
concerning the woman who's had multiple husbands. Who will be 
her husband in the resurrection? And this is Jesus' response here. 
And then verse 33. And when the multitudes heard 
this, they were astonished at his teaching. And so the Sadducees 
go away. Jesus has silenced them, as it 
says in verse 34. But the Pharisees have returned. And they're coming back to ask 
a theological question. Previously, they wanted a political 
question answered. Now they're going to theology. And so let's just move through 
this passage here and we're just going to discover some of the 
context and then we're going to have a few points of application. 
OK, verse thirty four. But when the Pharisees. So the 
Pharisees have returned to attack him and to shame him in some 
kind of a way. They had heard that he had silenced 
the Sadducees. Now, they would have been quite 
happy that he silenced the Sadducees in this way because the Pharisees 
held to the doctrine of the resurrection as well. So they would have been 
happy that he had silenced them on that. But he would not be 
happy that the crowds are marveling at the way that Jesus is teaching. 
So they they're trying to protect the turf that they have as religious 
false teachers. Verse 35, then one of them, a 
lawyer. So they choose one from among 
their ranks, a scribe or a lawyer to ask Jesus this question. And we have to leave it to a 
lawyer to stir up trouble. Right. But this lawyer asked 
the question, testing him. So here we see a question explicit 
within the text that we are looking at and saying in verse 36, teacher, 
which is the great commandment in the law? Now, the Jews had 
all kinds of commandments that they took from the Old Testament. 
There were six hundred and thirteen of them in total. Three hundred 
and sixty five of them were negative and two hundred and forty eight 
were positive. So they had all of these commandments and they 
wanted to know which one was the greatest. Now, the scribes 
or the rabbis, they spent long hours hair splitting with hair 
splitting legalism, trying to determine which ones of the commandments 
were great, which ones were low, which ones were heavy and which 
ones were were easier. Some would argue falsely that 
that the most important commandments revolved around the sacrifices. 
Others said it was around the Sabbath. And this lawyer comes 
to Jesus and wants to know which of all the commandments is the 
greatest. Turn back with me to Deuteronomy 
chapter six, Deuteronomy six. You'll remember the term that 
we read in scripture, the phylacteries. Now, the phylacteries the Jews 
used, they were these small boxes, they were one inch by an inch 
and a half, and they would strap these boxes to their left arm. and to their foreheads. And in 
them, they had four parchments of scripture rolled up in these 
boxes. And one of them is this is these 
verses here that we're going to read. One of the parchments 
that they have, verse four of Deuteronomy six hero Israel, 
the Lord, our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord, 
your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all 
your strength. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? 
And these words, which I command you today, shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently 
to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your 
house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you 
rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they 
shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them 
on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. And so you 
can see how this is teaching the phylacteries has arisen because 
they take this very literally and they strap this to their 
arm and their forehead and put it on the doorpost of their house. 
These these four passages, two from Exodus and two from Deuteronomy. 
And this is one of the ones from Deuteronomy. And there are lots 
of teaching in here concerning how we raise our children, that 
we are to teach them diligently the word of God. And we're to 
do this in in every aspect of our lives. So when we're doing 
menial things, maybe we're mowing the lawn, whatever it is, we 
are to be teaching scriptural lessons to our children and raising 
them in this way. But the point of the passage 
that I want you to look at. Is this you shall love the Lord 
your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all 
your strength. We are to love God with everything 
that we have all the time. So let's go back to Matthew 22. Matthew 22. Jesus said to him, 
you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with 
all your soul, with all your mind. Verse 38, this is the first 
and great commandment. And the second is like it. We 
shall love the neighbor as yourself. So Jesus is, in effect, saying 
to this lawyer, you know what the great command is. You know 
what the greatest command is. It's the one that you have in 
your phylacteries that you carry around with you. Again, they're 
trying to trick Jesus into some kind of heresy or false teaching 
so they can point their finger at him. But Christ goes one step 
further. You shall love your neighbor 
as yourself. Because our love for God will be shown in our 
relationships with other people and how we love other people. 
In verse 40, on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. The sum total of all the entire 
Old Testament, with its commandments, its covenants, its promises, 
its prophecies, all point to the love of God, which demands 
the answer of love in return. So what Jesus is saying is that 
the main point of this passage is love, that love is paramount, 
and we know that God is love. And central to the moral character 
of the law of God is love. It's a central part of it. The 
whole duty of man can be summed up in that one word love, love 
to God and love to our fellow man. We are to love God with 
all of our hearts, soul and mind. This simply means with all of 
our being. In totality, we are to love God 
with everything all the time. As one commentator has said, 
God's wholehearted love must not be answered in a half-hearted 
manner. When God loves, he loves completely. 
When he gives, he gives his son. He gives him up and spares him 
not. Greater love than that is impossible. And so there are a number of 
questions that I want to look at arising out of this text points 
of application. And the first one is, I want 
you to turn to Revelation two, verse four and five and ask you 
the question, have you lost your first love? If we are to love 
God with all of our heart, mind, soul, strength. Have you lost 
your first love? Now, Christ is going through 
various churches here and he's complimenting him in some areas 
and then he's given them a kick in the backside in other areas. 
And he comes to this church of Ephesus and he says to them, 
nevertheless, I have this against you in verse four, that you have 
left your first love. Remember, therefore, from where 
you have fallen. And here's the antidote to losing 
our first love. Repent and do the first works 
or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from 
its place unless you repent. So there we have the antidote 
to a lack of love. We in verse five, we are to remember. 
Do you remember what it was like when you first became a believer? 
I became a believer at the age of 18, so I I know what it's 
like to see that stark contrast between living for the world 
and then wanting to live for God. And so we need to be reminded 
sometimes of what that was like when we first fell in love with 
Christ, our Savior, and to fall in love with him once more and 
then repent. We are to repent. We are to claim 
first John one nine. If we confess our sins, he's 
faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all 
unrighteousness and then do the first works. Do you remember 
how active you were in Christian service when you became a Christian, 
how active you were in the study of God's word? You couldn't get 
enough. And in prayer and in evangelizing and in in wanting 
to see others come to Christ, perhaps your loved ones. So that 
is the remedy. We remember, we repent, we do 
the first works, we get involved in service, we share our faith, 
we study God's word and we pray. And so I ask you, have you lost 
your first love? I pray that you have not. Another 
thing that we can do is meditate upon the gospel, the great riches 
that we have in Christ. And if you want a good passage 
for that, 2 Corinthians 5, 14 to 21 is a great passage to go 
through and just think on what we have in Christ. And it ends 
with that great verse, for he made him who knew no sin to be 
sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God 
in him. We need to see afresh the riches 
that we have in Christ. And I hope that never has become 
old to you. I hope you've never fallen out 
of love with Christ, but Sadly, it does happen from time to time 
and we need to be reminded. Verse 37 of Matthew 22, we'll 
go back there. Verse 37, you shall love the 
Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and with all your 
mind. There is an implicit question 
that arises out of that text. And the question is this, who 
are you living for? If we are to love God with all 
of our heart, mind, soul and strength, Who are you living 
for? Are you living for self or are 
you living for God? We are to seek to live for God's 
glory and not our own glory. We are to seek to honor Christ 
in all things. We are to love God with everything 
that we have all of the time. We are to seek to love God with 
all that we are, with every fiber of our being, including our time, 
our talents and our treasure. Who are you living for? So if 
we are to to love God with every fiber of our being, including 
our time and our talents and our treasure, how are we spending 
our time? Is that showing that we are in 
love with God? How are you spending your time? 
As I mentioned earlier, I was saved at the age of 18 at Bible 
camp. I'd gone to Bible camp for years. 
I was raised in a non-Christian home. But I went, my mom sent 
me to Bible camp from time to time. I went as a 17 year old 
and I could feel the Lord was starting to put this pressure 
on me, starting to convict me of sin. But I tried to push it 
away and deny that. And then the next summer at the 
age of 18, this happened again and I couldn't deny it any longer. 
And I had to submit to Christ. But one of my reasonings at 17 
for not wanting to accept Christ was I still wanted my sin. I 
was in high school. I wanted to live it up. I wanted 
to eat, drink and be merry. But that was foolish of me because 
I had no guarantee. That later on in life, I would 
have that opportunity to then accept Christ graciously. God did save me. God did open 
my eyes. But I hope that is not your condition 
here tonight, that you are thinking, well, I'm going to put that off 
to a later date. I'm going to wait till I'm out 
of school. I'm going to wait till I'm married and I'll settle down. 
I'm going to wait till I'm dying and I'm on my deathbed. Then 
I'm going to accept Christ. There's no guarantee that that 
is going to happen. Proverbs 27 1. Do not boast about 
tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring forth. And we can we can concur with 
the writer to the Hebrews that now is the day of salvation that 
we need to heed that warning that we do not harden our hearts. 
And it is pointed out to man wants to die. And after that, 
the judgment, there will be no second chances. And if the Lord 
is working on your heart, you must confess your sin and come 
to him while there is yet time. So we must use our time for service 
to God and to others. And we are admonished in Ephesians 
5, 13 to redeem the time. We are going to be held accountable 
for how we use our time, and I hope that you are using it 
for God's glory and not living for self. And then secondly, 
how are you using your talents? If you are a Christian here tonight, 
I can categorically say that you have been gifted in a unique 
way by God, by the Holy Spirit to enhance this body of Christ. If you were to look at Ephesians 
2, 8 to 10, you don't need to turn there. I can read it for 
you. But it's a it's a very I find verse 10 to be very startling 
because verse eight and nine are very familiar. We know these 
verses for by grace you have been saved through faith and 
that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of 
works, lest anyone should boast. But verse 10, perhaps you've 
never read this one. For we are his workmanship created 
in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand 
that we should walk in them. God has prepared a work beforehand 
that we should walk in them. I don't know what God has prepared 
you for or God is preparing you for. I don't know what work he 
wants you to do. I don't know what that is, but 
I do know that he is uniquely gifted you for that purpose and 
that purpose often is initially worked out within the context 
of the local church. You know that Paul often uses 
the illustration of the body in his writing. So not all of 
us are a right arm. or brawny shoulders or legs. Some of us might be a baby toe 
or some other part of the body that might seem to be insignificant. 
But what happens if you drop a hundred pound weight on your 
baby toe and it's no longer functioning, it's broken? That causes a lot 
of pain. It causes you to limp along. 
Right. I had knee surgery last fall 
and still sometimes I limp along because it still bothers me. 
So what happens in the body of Christ if we decide to take our 
gifts and pull out and not be involved in the body? just limps 
along and it's not running on all cylinders and being all that 
it can be. So God has uniquely gifted you 
to be using your gifts. And again, you will be held accountable 
not only for how you use your time, but how you use your talents. And I trust that you will not 
bury those talents, but you will be active in service. And this 
means at least two other things. No one is useless in God's kingdom. Have you ever felt that way that 
I'm just little me over here? How can I be of any any service 
to to anyone? But we are not to think that 
way. We have to let God's word govern the way that we think 
and hold every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. We. are of use to God because 
we are Christians and we have been gifted with some measure 
of gifting in some way. And then secondly, there's no 
room for self-pity or excuses. Do you ever make excuses, maybe 
like Moses in Exodus? where he makes excuses that he's 
not eloquent, that he talks funny. How can how can you use me? So 
God says, OK, well, we're going to we're going to use Aaron as 
well. But he makes all kinds of excuses. He at least three 
excuses he has in that one chapter there early in Exodus. So there's 
no room for self-pity or excuses. God has gifted you. And we must 
come to the place where we say with the Apostle Paul that by 
the grace of God, I am what I am and get on with it. So I don't know what God has 
called you to do, but I do know that you need to be active in 
using your gifts. And one of the one of the ways 
that you do that is to get involved in the local church and to be 
active. Maybe you don't know. Maybe you're 
on the discovery of trying to discern what your gifts are. 
How can I be used? Well, that's where the elders 
come in. You go talk to them. Perhaps they've identified some 
some areas that you might be proficient in, or perhaps they 
have different things that you can do to get involved and to 
be active, to discern your gifts, to see and to work in that way. So we are to love God with all 
that we are and all that we have, including our time and our talents 
and our treasures. How are you using your money? 
Is it for the advancement of God's kingdom? Or are you are 
you storing up treasures here on Earth when we should be storing 
up treasures in heaven? Now, there's a second implicit 
question arising out of this text in verse thirty nine. When 
Christ says, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. So the 
first one in the first command was, who are you living for? 
And the second one concerns our horizontal relationship with 
other people. We are to love our neighbor as 
ourself. And the question that arises 
there is, how are you living? So who are you living for and 
how are you living? You are to love your neighbor 
as yourself. Now, we know that we are to love 
all people in all places, everywhere. That's the essence of the command. 
But I want to apply this specifically and personally to your fellow 
believers and specifically to this body of believers. If you 
count this as your church home, that you would that you would 
Apply this here and now, and I want you to think of your fellow 
believers in this church. How is your love for them? Do 
you realize that this is the greatest witness to the world 
that you have? It's your love for one another. 
By this, all will know that you are my disciples. If you have 
love one for another. John 13, 35. Paul often talks about whether 
one another and. How are you doing at one another? 
And here's a few examples from various epistles. Be kindly affectionate 
to one another with brotherly love in honor, giving preference 
to one another. That's Romans 1210. So we are 
to be devoted to and give preference to one another. Romans 14, 19, 
let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things 
by which one may edify another. So we come here not to just soak 
in the great preaching that Cam and Pastor Jim give us, but we 
come here to edify each other, to encourage each other. Romans 
15, 7, therefore, receive one another, just as Christ also 
received us to the glory of God. We are to be merciful and accepting 
of others because God has shown mercy to us in the person of 
Christ. So there's a gospel motivation 
for us to love each other. Romans 12, 25, there should be 
no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same 
care for one another. So we're not to be divisive, 
but we are to care for each other. And Galatians 5, 13 and 14, for 
you, brethren, have been called to liberty. Only do not use liberty 
as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another 
for all the loss fulfilled in one word. Even this, you shall 
love your neighbor as yourself. And we could go on and on. So 
how are you doing at one another? How are you living for and how 
are you living for? This really is talking about 
how we deal with each other, how we talk to one another, how 
you talk to your spouse or your children, these types of things, 
how we communicate. Are we communicating what God 
has communicated to us? Love, grace and mercy and forgiveness. Or are we communicating anger 
and impatience and annoyance and indifference? Every time 
we open our mouths, we are communicating something. Think about your church 
for you for a second when you're mingling out there. This is a 
great opportunity to practice the one another's that scripture 
talks about to love one another, to pray, to encourage, to forgive. Ephesians 4.32 has been kind 
of a theme verse around our house. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, 
forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. So again, there's the gospel 
motivation. We've been forgiven so much by 
Christ, by God, and so we need to be forgiven one to another. 
We can get very practical with these types of things. Our brother 
Steve just mentioned the fruit family and all of the trials 
they're going through. And we could be a great encouragement 
to them by just picking up the phone, letting them know we're 
praying for you. Is there anything else we can 
do? What do you need? These types of things we can 
get very practical. It's not just for pastors or for elders 
or leaders in the church. This is part of the mutual care 
for one another, the mutual ministry in the body that each of us has 
to take responsibility for. So how are you living? Christ 
wants us to know who he is, that he is God. He wants to know how 
we are living in relationship to other people, and he wants 
to know who we are living for. Are we seeking to honor Christ 
in all things? Are we consumed with a passion 
for the glory of God? Now, I have two goals here tonight. 
And I'll close with this one is that you would know God personally. 
If you do not know Christ, please do not leave this place until 
you have submitted your life to him. And then secondly, if 
you do know God, that you would desire to pursue him passionately, 
that you would desire to to live for him, that you would desire 
to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all your 
soul and with all of your mind, and that you would pursue him 
with a passion. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the riches, 
the benefits that we have in Christ, that you have blessed 
us so greatly. And Lord, we just we grieve for 
those who may be here that that do not know you. We just pray, 
Lord, that you would open up their hearts and their minds, 
that they would desire a relationship with Christ. And Lord, I thank 
you for my brothers and sisters here that do know you, that do 
want to pursue you with passion. And I just pray, Lord, that you 
would help them in their daily lives, whatever they are struggling 
with or that you would help them, that they would seek to bring 
every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. and seek 
to live for God and not for self. Lord, save us from ourselves 
that we would not keep our eyes on ourself and grow discouraged 
and despondent, but that we would look to Christ. We would look 
to your gospel and that we would see the riches that we have stored 
for us in Christ, that we would see our position in Christ, that 
we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies. And so, Lord, 
we just pray that you would bless us, that you would go with us 
into this week and that we would live with all of your might, 
with all of our might for your glory. We thank you, Lord, and 
we praise you in Jesus name. Amen.