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Speaker 1Take out a loose leaf sheet of paper and number two pencil. What have we learned so far here since we've been here? I started looking back over sermons and thinking what the direction was, where we should go next. We finished up a series last week on Galatians. First series was on first Peter and I said, you know what?
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I'm gonna either embarrass myself or reinforce what they have learned. Pop quiz. From the first Peter series, doxology is a study of what? Hope, blank, and be holy, live reverently, and blank deeply, renounce blank, and grow spiritually. Those are the three corollary commands from the second Sunday.
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Jesus is our blank blank. I used a level and a plumb line up here that Sunday. And then our chief blank. Alright. Now, holler mouth.
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You don't have to really get the paper out. A doxology is a study what? God's glory. Hope Fully. Fully and be holy.
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Listen to y'all. Live reverently and Love. Love deeply. Renounce Sin. Sin and grow spiritually.
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Praise God. Whoo. Jesus is our objective standard and chief cornerstone. So that our lives should align with his. Next, from Carl's take on being fishers of men.
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You remember Carl got up here and he told us to get mad. Get mad about being fishers of men. That was when Anders stood up with him and they did a kind of team talk that Sunday. And so, what do they stand for? How do you get mad to be fishers of men?
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You meet people where they are. You act in it. I said, accept directions. That was, I was thinking back through it. Act in obedience.
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D U. Depend. Depend upon the power of God. Praise God. Alright.
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Next slide, Habakkuk two four. How many times have y'all heard that in the past five or six weeks? Habakkuk two four, central idea of the whole book of Habakkuk even though there's so much doom and gloom. This is the silver lining in that book and it is the blank shall live by faith. The...
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Righteous. Or we would have accepted Just. The just. Very Or much. That's very good.
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One more slide. Yeah. Okay. Now, I've said it over and over. This verse is repeated in the New Testament three times.
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Habakkuk two four b is repeated in Romans one seventeen blank three eleven. Ah, Galatians. Galatians three eleven. Hebrews ten thirty eight. And we might get back to Romans and Hebrews, brews but but we're we're moving moving on on forward forward.
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But that was the central idea. Galatians three eleven was the central idea and we never even touched on it. In any of the last three sermons, we never mentioned that book, that verse and did the exposition of that because we've done that in Habakkuk but so we went into a series based on the righteous shall live by faith and I said, Galatians, if you look at the whole thing, the whole book of Galatians, you've got a ditch on this side of the road, you've got the open road, and then the ditch on this side. So next slide. What is the ditch on the right side of the road?
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Legalism. Legalism. Exactly. What? So from there, we got to the middle of the wide open highway and that is the gospel.
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This is the Christian life in one verse. I went into a lot of grammar in this verse, so I left out a few things to see if you could help me out. Hold on, Dan until they go for this one, okay? This is a perfect tense verb in the first sentence here. So, I screamed at you and said, with Christ, crucified.
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Not I am crucified, not I will be. I have been crucified. In tandem, now no longer am I, Ego, ego, living, but Christ is living in me. Furthermore, that which I am living in... I I thought that one would be hard.
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Yeah, flesh. That which I am living in flesh, I'm living by faith in the son of God who loves me and gave himself for me. I'm not rejecting the grace of God for if Diakosune in Greek if that helps. I have two over here. Righteousness comes through law then Christ died in vain.
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Amen. Okay. Next. What's the ditch on the left side of the road? License.
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License. Alright. Next slide. So, my point in doing this whole pop quiz is understand... And I was actually pleasantly surprised.
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You all are understanding, you're you're able to repeat it back. When we were in Mexico, we were dealing with the deaf, and the way that you teach anybody is by repetition. But the way that you teach the deaf is definitely by repetition. We had to be careful about how we presented the gospel that we did not present it in such a way that we'd said it so many times and ask them for the raise... Them to raise their hand at the end if they wanted to do that because that's the way they learn absolutely everything.
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It needed to be a heart decision and not just something we learned, not just understanding but application. So understanding, we seem to be doing alright. So I'm exaggerating a bit the school like classroom quality of Sunday mornings. Mornings. But if it is just, I'm teaching and y'all are absorbing, you're taking notes or not, but you're getting it.
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Then that's good, but it's not everything. When we come together, we want to worship. And I hope it's worshipful for you to learn and for me to teach. I hope that that's worshipful. But since we are intelligent beings, the way that we do what we do, expounding and teaching, sometimes in our culture especially, we can get to a place where we don't really apply it, we just learn it.
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So application is what I wanna talk about today. I heard a story a couple weeks ago, I think it from the Flickengers, I'm not positive, it was somebody at UW. So they're down at University of Wyoming in Laramie, and they started to go to class one evening, and it was one of those first times. They got the brand new school shoes on, they're getting the book packed together, get everything ready to go to school, and struggle to get there, can't find the class, finally find the building, get to the class, and when they got up to the class, there's one teaching assistant sitting in there and they said, no class today. The frustration.
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And they said, well, you know what? Pay good money kinda... I'm here. It took me something to get here, drop books and all this. I got here.
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Why aren't we having class? They said, well, this is the chemistry lab and it's on Tuesday. And when do you have chemistry class? Thursday. That's why.
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Because you haven't had chemistry class yet. Chemistry lab comes after chemistry class. So chemistry class, chemistry lab. This is chemistry class. Actually, some of y'all feel like it's English class.
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As much time as I spend on grammar, but this is chemistry class. What we are looking at this week is chemistry lab. I'm gonna go... If y'all have not heard me talk about it yet, the reciprocal commands from scripture is something that I've just been obsessed with lately. We started talking about the idea of life groups, small groups, and with those coming up, they're starting in a couple of weeks.
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We have sign ups out there right now. And I'm not a fan of agenda driven preaching. I'm not trying to get you to sign up for that so I'm preaching this. Everything that we've taught thus far is pointing towards this. If we know it but don't do anything about it, it does not do anybody any good.
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So this is the chemistry lab, the life groups are that. It gives us a chance to put into practice the reciprocal commands of scripture. Now, I gave out a list like this to the to the whole group of leaders of small groups when they came in. I gave them a list and listen to this whole list. I'm gonna read through it fast but just listen to how many of these.
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This is everywhere in the New Testament where we have and I'll get to the pronoun in a minute. All alone. All alone. It sounds like all alone. But all alone is a Greek reciprocal pronoun.
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It means mutually or each other or one another. That's that's what it means. So I took every place where it says each other, one another, mutually. Every place that said that in conjunction with a command verb and this is the list. So, just listen to this full way to scripture.
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List of one another commands. Accept one another. Admonish one another. Bear one another's burdens. Bear with one another.
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Build up one another. Care for one another. Comfort one another. Confess your faults one to another. Be devoted to one another.
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Encourage one another. Fellowship with one another. Forgive one another. Greet one another with a holy kiss. Be honest with one another.
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Honor one another. Be hospitable to one another. Be kind to one another. Love one another. You are members one of another.
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Pray for one another. Be of the same mind with one another. Serve one another. Spur one another on and submit mutually one to another. I've been kind of obsessed with the list lately.
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I've been going through it, but you can't preach a whole list. I can give you a whole list, but I can't preach a whole list on a Sunday morning. So, I decided to to stick with one that I thought was pretty much in the center of that teaching. Right in the middle of that teaching is the one from Ephesians four thirty two, to be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ, God forgave you. But you need context.
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So we're backing up to give you a little bit of context. First, I wanna start off by saying understanding is the first thing Paul talks about here and then he moves on to application. So, notice this as we all read. So, this I say and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart and they having become callous have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity and greediness. And this is what I'm talking about understanding.
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He says, but you did not learn Christ in this way. If indeed you have heard like John was saying, if you have heard and have been taught in him just as truth is in Jesus, then in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit. But that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self which is in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. We're getting there. That was that that was the understanding part.
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This is the application part. So therefore, that's what is there for. Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth, each one of you with his neighbor. That is not one of the places where it uses that all alone. Wonder why?
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The all alone I was talking about is a reciprocal command towards one another, towards each other. So that is Matt Lutzelleman towards Alan Galbraith, towards one another. They should have this. This is, therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor. He's speaking to believers when he gives those all alone reciprocal commands.
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He's speaking that believers should each one speak the truth to everybody, not just to each other, to outsiders too. But then he backs it up by saying, we are members of one another. That is all alone. We are members of one another and we ought to all speak the truth all the time to whomever we're speaking to. You don't have to get your story straight if you're telling the truth.
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So application. Be angry and yet do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity. He who steals must steal no longer. I love it that Paul is just so plain spoken.
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Not all the time is he plain spoken, but right here he is. He who steals must steal no longer, but rather he must labor performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need. Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice and here is our key verse verses for the day.
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So this is application. It's now stated positively and with proper motivation. It is stated. So this is for Christians and there's no doubt about it. Next verse, four thirty two says, be kind all alone to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other just as God in Christ also has forgiven to you.
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There are three commands here. Because the first one is a reciprocal command, it sets up the second two and they are also reciprocal commands. This is what we should all be doing but the first one is, no doubt about it, towards one another, we should be kind. So what do you think of when it's being kind? It's everything else that I listed.
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Being kind is exhorting, encouraging, even rebuking if you do it in love is being kind. You don't want for someone to continue in error. So, be kind to one another. This is, yeah, that's Sunday school. Pretty easy.
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It's easy concept to think about. But consider, if you and another brother in Christ Christ are having a hard time seeing eye to eye on a particular issue. It may be a personality bent. It may be it may be that you both just think the other is wrong. He's asking us to be kind one to another.
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So treat each other with respect, and he tells us why. Think about this. Well, being kind to one another is forgiving each other. That further modifies what being kind is and then he tells us why. Just as God in Christ also forgave you.
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That's the proper motivation for us doing what he's asked us to do towards one another. Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. The tender hearted there. I actually I kind of can't help it. I'm just a tender hearted guy.
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I cry at the drop of a hat. I can't watch a flag ceremony without just bursting into tears. I am kind of tender hearted. In the Greek, this says, how do I say this? It's it's about the bowels in the Greek.
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That was the seed of the emotions for the Greeks was here. It's a gut level reaction. It's a gut level thing. It is tender hearted. Don't let anything upset your stomach basically here but it's a very very deep deep thing that looks out for the other and just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
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The all alone there, Christ was being reviled and I've preached this here before. Christ was being reviled on the cross by two thieves and by the way that he handled the situation that he was in and his kindness, goodness, tender heartedness, he asked God to forgive them for they knew not what they were doing and in seeing that, that turned the one thief and then when he turned to him, he was tender hearted towards Christ and he was being kind, tender hearted, and that was that was the saving faith moment for that guy. He called out to Jesus to remember him. So, be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other just as God and Christ also has forgiven you. So, when you are having hard times dealing with somebody, this is what Paul says should motivate you to get through those hard times.
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God in Christ has forgiven you. You should extend the same type of mercy to the person that is against you. And the next verse, those chapter headings sometimes throw off the the flow of thought. I feel like that therefore in five one is not starting something new. It's calling back to everything that I read to you especially that being kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other just as God in Christ has also forgiven you.
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Therefore, be and the word there is which is become. Become imitators of God. That's pretty heavy because God is holy. He is completely other. He is not something that we can easily fathom.
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So how in the world do you imitate that? Paul helps as dearly beloved children. Become imitators of God as dearly beloved children. Paschal is six years old. She has been going to some form of school since she was three years old.
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Her very first class, her very first teacher, you know, two days a week for a couple of hours was miss Meg. Miss Meg, great southern South Carolinian gal, long and lean, and just had a manner of speaking that was a little bit unusual. And Pascal had always been around us and and we knew her, you know, for three years. She was always like us. Well, after she'd been in school for just a few weeks, she started standing differently.
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And she started saying things differently. And she would hold her hands differently. And there were just weird little things that she did, and I thought, that's weird. Where did this come from? And then I met miss Meg, who stood like that and clapped her hands like that, and sounded just like Paschal had been sounding.
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She loved miss Meg and Pasch and miss Meg loved her. And Paschal took on her mannerisms because she was spending time with her. The way that we become imitators of God is to spend time with him. The more that we are around him, the more we expose ourselves to him, the more we will know what he is like and that helps us to become more and more like him. Now, being what you already are, the imperative indicative complex as it were.
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Paul is constantly telling us to be what we already are. He's saying, be imitators of God. In the fact that you have trusted him, you're already doing that. He's tells us to be kind to one another. In the fact that we are a Christian, we are a new creation, we have a chance to do that.
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He's saying, be what you are. So, imitators of God. As dearly beloved children, and walk in love. That's the third command. Be kind to one another, forgiving is one.
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Become imitators of God is two. And walk in love and you go walk in love. That immediately makes me think of first John which I preached on that last summer while I was here through my arm out of joint preaching on first John. Constantly, continually, we should be walking in love. But Paul goes further and says, just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us, us.
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An offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. All of these are motivated from the same place, being kind, becoming, and the Greek there is mimic. It's it's mimista like that. It is be a mimic of God. Find out who he is.
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If you watch Rich Little or anybody, Rich Little is kind of old school but if you watch any of the guys who are impersonators, the way that they get good at acting like somebody, Will Ferrell doing George Bush or or somebody that they way that they do it is they watch hours and hours and hours and hours of tapes on how the people act and then they start to take on their mannerisms. Become mimics of God and walk in love. They're all motivated from the same place and interestingly enough, it's the same place that very first place we started, the very first sermon here. Peter starts off his whole epistle with a doxology, a study of God's glory based upon what? The gospel.
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Everything, everything, everything comes back to the cross and if it doesn't, it's stubble. It'll burn up. The only hope that we have is through the cross of Christ. That's where God offered forgiveness full and free available only that way. The sacrifice, sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on Calvary.
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So, we too pretty well about learning the Bible but how does that truth affect the way we live our lives? How does the truth that we learn affect our lives? This is chemistry class. The small groups are chemistry chemistry lab. We had a lot of people sign up last week.
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We'd love to have more this week. It's not always going to be easy. The first little while when you get together with a group of people and you think, we're going to try to one another this thing. It maybe personality conflicts. It may be just a little bit strange to begin with but over time, Eric, the engineer, when he was describing this, drew a graph, of course, because that's what engineers do and he was putting the time together leads to familiarity which will eventually create a bond.
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It might not be super easy the first week but when I was talking about spirit of unity and oneness and one anothering, what we'll be studying together is Philippians. Having the same mind, that which was in Christ Jesus. All of it comes back to this. The small group setting, I really feel like is a good, good laboratory to make sure that what we're hearing here is applied. Now, we'll be learning stuff there too but it's all about the one another and being kind and compassionate, mimicking God, imitating him, and walking in love.
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So, all alone or all alone? Which one is it going to be? If you're here this morning and you've never trusted in Christ as your savior and you kind of just are hearing this being like, yeah, it's kind of a social club. They get together. They want to get together at people's houses too.
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That's fine. Whatever. It really really is about a kinship. In Ephesians, Paul also goes into there's one faith, one baptism, one spirit, and we that have been baptized into that spirit really need to be practicing this and I, Dave, when he started off, the only way that anybody outside of Christ is going to know that Christ matters is by the way that we love one another. So, let's do it.
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Let's love one another. If you have not trusted him but you have seen Christians love each other and know that there's something different about them, I want to give you the opportunity this morning to to just come see me. Come see one of the elders. If you stand at the backroom and say, hey, me. Somebody will find you.
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If you want to do it in a more subtle way than that, that's fine too but we would love to introduce you to Jesus. So, whosoever may come and just like John said, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord gets to the end of themselves. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Musicians, if you want to come on back up, Renzi, appreciate y'all and Aaron, Ryan, and if y'all don't know Eugene, this is Eugene Morningstar holding down the bottom end this morning. So, let's sing together.
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Let's pray first and then let's sing together. God, thank you for this morning. Thank you for what you're teaching. Lord, I can't get away from those commands right now and I just pray that I would be a great example and that this flock would be a great example of this community, lord. Help us to love one another.
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Help us to get to know you so well that we start acting like you. Help us, Lord. We need you. It's in your son's precious name we pray. Amen.
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Speaker 2Alright. Let's stand together one more time before we go home. To our glory great God.
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Speaker 1Amen. Amen. So, I was gonna tell you John will be. John and Allison will be in the Fellowship Hall if y'all wanna meet them before you head out this morning and thank you for coming. You're dismissed.
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Man, that was good, man.
