You Are Not All Alone
First B Jackson
2024-01-14

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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On hey. Good morning, everybody. How are you? Alright. Alright.

Good. Would you stand with us? I'll let him introduce himself a bit too, but this is Jeremy and Jennifer Diebler, Hutch on the piano over here. Said he's in the front row. We're gonna praise the Lord together this morning as we go.

We'll sing a couple to start off and let him tell I'll let him tell you who you who he is.

Bless morning, everybody. Good to see you.

There's a

little more room in this service. This would be the one I come to. Less peopley.

I do need to hear

the sermon today. I've heard it once. I need to hear it again.

You need it to sink in.

So this is kinda like the church Jennifer and me grew up in.

We we grew up

far apart from each other, but both from churches with small congregations. Everybody knew each other. People came in holding their coffees. I grew up in a little Methodist church in Pennsylvania. Don't hold it against me.

Jennifer, though, she's your people from a farm in Missouri. Baptist. Baptist. Yeah. Hey, Blake.

Do you have do you have the hymn come now found in there? Can we pull that up? So we'll sing this third verse. Can you multitask like this verse while you pull that up?

And on that day

this morning, and we'll see what they are together. Announcements of these. We will not see you at Oahuana. We're not having Oahuana tomorrow night, but I will say this. I put in a good word for the hoot.

Not necessarily a sacred experience, I'll have to say it. But we don't have a wana tomorrow night, and if you want to go see the hootenanny at the wort, you can go do that. I'm planning on being there, but who knows what will happen tomorrow. Okay? It is my plan to be there and play tomorrow.

But this is no kids club this week. Wanda's not happening, and the clicky clicker's not clicking. Congregational meeting. The congregational meeting is happening. It's a normal yearly meeting.

This year, it's January 21. That's next week between services, ten to eleven in the morning. We'll recognize volunteers, although I think we have so many volunteers, we're probably going to do that in the first and second services. But we also will discuss and vote on next year's or this year's budget. We'll discuss and vote on Tim Williams coming on to the Board of Trustees and Berkley Johnston, the Younger, as an elder, coming on to the Board of Elders this year also.

It'll give the chance for the congregation to ask questions and speak and also to vote towards the end. We still need volunteers always for the connect hour. If you would, sign up in the fellowship hall. It was fantastic this morning. I don't know what y'all call the confection that I ate, but it was the best thing I've had in a while.

It was so good. My aunt called it gooey batter nut cake. It was delicious. But that was wonderful. Addie Hair is the person in charge.

(307) 690-3892, if you wanna talk to her, and she'll give you the lowdown. Sisters Saved by Grace is a women's Bible study on Thursday evenings. They eat dinner together and then study, and this study is gonna be on creation. They'll do dinner at six, study to follow. If you wanna know more, you can call the church office.

The Jackson Hole Women's Community Bible Study will be meeting January 17 through February 21. So that is this Wednesday is the start. 10AM to noon, they'll gather in this room to begin with. 10AM to noon, they'll do worship music to begin with and then go into a study, later on. Seventeenth through twenty first February.

The membership class that normally is the third Sunday between it was gonna be the fourth Sunday this month in my office. I'll try to clean it up. February 24 twenty eighth. I'm sorry. Membership class between services.

Gary Geek will lead that. And I think that's all. Are there any other announcements in here? Anybody? Okay.

Always. Would you stand up? We're gonna sing. Couple of songs in a row. Always is how we'll begin it.

My fools. No. My bad.

Don't

deduct it from my pay. My foes are many. They rise against me, but I will hold my ground.

I will not fear the war. I will not fear the storm. My help

is on the way. My help is on the way. Oh, my God. He will not delay. No.

My refuge and strength always.

I will

not fear the storm. My help is on the way. My

always I lift my eyes up

my help

comes from the Lord I lift my eyes up. Lift my eyes up. My help comes from the Lord. Sing I lift my eyes up.

Love you, Lord. Though your mercy never fails me, all my days

have been held in your hands.

Of God.

All my life you have been faith. All my life you have been so so good air with every breath that I am made.

Will sing of the goodness of God. I love your voice. You have led me through the fire. Darkest

night, It's running after me all my life. And all my life, you have been faithful. All my life, you have been so, so good. With every breath that I have made,

I will sing of the goodness of God. I will sing in the goodness of God

Amen. Y'all can have a seat and would you pray with me though? God almighty, we are so thankful as the ushers come forward and we're doing that traditional thing, the operatory lord. I pray that it would be seen fresh in a new mind, a new way of understanding things. Lord, may we see everything that goes in these plates metaphorically.

We, may we see our opportunities this week to see someone that needs a friend who can listen. May we see someone who needs a friend who can speak a word of encouragement. We may we see somebody we don't even know yet that may just need a kind interaction. In Jesus name, I pray lord that you would take all that we offer and that you would amplify it and multiply it to do your kingdom's work from the money that goes in the plates. Lord, yes, do your will to the very outermost parts but what we're really asking this morning is that you would do your will in your way in us and among us to the very uttermost parts.

In Jesus name, we pray and ask this blessing. Amen.

Okay. So I told y'all that this this kind of demographic is my people. Jennifer and I grew up. We I didn't even know what worship music was. It was hymns every week, and there was no secret.

They were posted on like a like a slidey thing that when you come in church, yeah, and then you could, like, bookmark it in the hymnal. So Jennifer and me had made probably six or seven records with our record company. And people had been asking us, when are you guys gonna make a worship album? And we said, well, okay. It's time.

Let's let's make one. But we wanted to make an album that sort of expressed the way that we worshiped. Jennifer, she would sing to our kids every night before they went to sleep these old hymns that she grew up singing and I grew up singing and there was a lot of overlap. And so it's not always that we get to a place that we know people would appreciate them, but, I think y'all would. So can we do it in c sharp?

It's hymn number four seventy nine if you're keeping Are you serious? Yeah. Softly and tenderly, Blake. Softly and tenderly, hymn number four

seventy nine.

Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling to be mercies mercies for you

What am what am I? A piano player? My goodness. Bass players play in e and a and g. But I I did catch up before the end of it.

So, he looked over in the first service, and he just did it again, looking over, knowing that I played this thing in self defense. The reason that I play the bass is because it makes me nervous to sit on the front row and listen to other people sing and think I gotta get up there and preach. Gotta get up there preach. I told them in the first service that basketball I love basketball. I like to play a lot.

I played hours and hours every day all through high school and college. And I would love to play the game. I love to mix it up. I don't mind a good hard foul. Like, they're called fouls to give for a reason.

You You give them away to people. But I didn't like foul shots. I'd rather just take the take the foul and keep playing because when you do a foul shot, everybody in the gym is looking at you. There's not any doubt. And what's worse than a foul shot?

A technical foul shot because then they remove everybody except for you, and you just get iced. And I feel like that if I'm doing sitting right there on the front, you know, because everybody's looking at you. It's a lot like this. Hey, y'all are out there looking straight up at one person. I'm gonna start today.

I'll say, I have had opportunity to preach here. This is my first pastorate. I've been doing this twelve years though. So I've had opportunity here, and occasionally, while on the mission field, somebody asked us to speak occasionally. It's not what we did.

We were building a school for the deaf. But when they'd ask, I'd say yes. And in seminary, I would occasionally get an invitation to preach, but it was preaching in front of seminary professors and other pastors that had been preaching a long time. And boy, that's a tough crowd. And so in that setting, here, if I think a Greek word is important, I'll bring it out.

If I think a Greek verb tense is important, I bring it out. There, it felt like everybody there was sitting in judgment over how I was gonna do that. I'm gonna use one Greek word today. It's this one. This is it.

And that is pronounced allelon. What does that sound like? All alone. It is the opposite of all alone. All alone is each other.

It is reciprocal command usually as accompanied by all alone. All alone and its cognates, everything around it. All alone is when you're talking about something that we do to each other or for each other. So the text today will be four seventeen through five two in Ephesians. Latter part of Ephesians, the text is four seventeen through five two.

But first, I'm gonna go over a few things. I'm saying that, so if you're a nervous Nelly and you know he's gonna eventually get to the scripture, that's what it is. You can go ahead and start reading now if you want to, if I make you nervous. But before we get to that, this passage has quite a few of the reciprocal commands in it. I usually like to go expository in order, y'all know that, but I took a break for Christmas to do Christmas.

And I've taken a break for the last two weeks to do things because I sense that in our valley and the valley beyond, the mountains, that there's a lot of friction, and there's a lot of division, and there's a lot of hard stuff. I've had a couple of people in the past couple of weeks who have called and said, I want to get set free from my addiction because my wife left. Right? Or one reason or another. There are different reasons.

But this is what we're going towards. But this is kind of the reason for preaching the one anothers of scripture is because if we do this, Jesus says, all people will know that we're his disciples. Now, I have said before and I'll say again that if you challenge someone to read a gospel, John, Matthew, Mark, or Luke, I if you challenge somebody to read it and they actually read it, I have never met anybody that came away not liking Jesus. Would you agree with that? You know, they read through it.

Even disgruntled people, they say, yeah, I kinda like Jesus. He's speaking the truth, the power, and he's saying things that I agree with. And he says some hard things that I don't always understand, but I like that guy. You know, he's he's sincere. And he laid his life on he put his life on the line.

So if people like Christ, but they don't like Christians, we're not doing this effectively. He says that if we do this effectively, love one another, then people will know that we are his disciples. You are not all alone, but you are, in Greek, all alone. All right? All alone.

I'm gonna start with a quote from C. S. Lewis, too. So C. S.

Lewis wrote in the four loves this. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, anything, and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, then you must give it to no one, Not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries.

Avoid all entanglements. Can I get a witness? Does that sound like the place where we live? Yeah, it does. Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries.

All void, all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken. It will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.

To love is to be vulnerable. Man, God help us. Help us love one another. Help us love one another well. Help us to show people who you are, by the way that we love one another in the midst of sometimes difficult and trying circumstances.

Amen. All right. So do you all remember chemistry lab from high school? Let me just say, how many of you had a chemistry class at any point? All right, most everybody here.

Did you like chemistry class better or chemistry lab better? Lab. Everybody likes the lab better. Alright. For those of you who skipped the chemistry section, how about auto shop?

I had two hours of auto shop every day when I was in high school. Two hours of auto shop, and the threat from the professor was, if y'all don't straighten up, we're gonna be where? In the books. I'm gonna make you study the book about what's a ratchet, what does it do, why is the head of a wrench turned at this degree of an angle. Like, who cares?

Let me turn that wrench. I wanna get to the shop. Wanna start doing the thing that we are here to do. Chemistry lab is infinitely more interesting than chemistry. And this church, not just where you are right now seated, but the Church, capital C Church, this is the lab for that book that we all study and profess and claim.

So the way we get along with one another is based on the book, but the book is not all there is to that. You gotta do what it says. So as a precursor to getting to the passage, and I promise I'll get there, I wanna cover the reciprocal commands, all of them that we have hit in the last twelve years. Okay? I'm not gonna hit every verse where we hit them, but this is kind of a representative sample of all of the reciprocal commands in the New Testament in alphabetical order because we've covered the New Testament since I've been here.

So and when we get to the end, Ephesians four seventeen through 32, we're gonna hit several of these. Here here we go. Accept one another. Pay no attention to the admonish one another in the middle. That was a misprint for me.

You just have to well, we'll get to those in a minute. Accept me. Hey. Forgive me. Accept one another then just as Christ accepted you.

Now Romans five says that in while we were yet sinners, he saved us. Right? While we were yet sinners, he died for us. So accept one another then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. And Jesus said that if we would love one another, people would know we were his disciples.

And here, Paul says to the Roman church he had never yet visited, if you will accept one another, then that brings praise to God. Admonish one another. From Colossians three, allow or let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another. So that's a one another command. It's not just as the preacher teaches you, but it's you be teaching one another.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom. And as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, that covers all of that with gratitude in your hearts to God. That's God's will for you. Admonish one another. Let the brother know where it is that he's stumbling in love so that we will know with all wisdom.

Bear one another's burdens. Carry or bear each other's burdens. And in this way, you fulfill the law of Christ. Man, there are lot of good things that happen when we do this. They know that we're disciples.

We're bringing praise to God. We're fulfilling the law of Christ. This is from Galatians where what's it gonna be people? Is it gonna be law or grace? Grace is the law of Christ.

Carry each other's burdens. And in this way, you'll fulfill the law of Christ. That's good. Build up one another. Let us therefore make every effort.

Don't give up in doing good. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. That is building one another up. And it's not just one side building the other up. It's both sides building each other up.

It's really important. And if you take a look at context there, Romans 14 is that passage where it's about disputable matters in places where you don't really agree. Meat offered to idols, whether it's a sin to do this, that, or the other thing. There's scriptural and biblical understanding of it. But when it's a disputable matter, it says to go with the scruples of the weak, brother.

Think about that. That is mutually edifying for both of you. Romans 14. Build one another. Care for one another.

First Corinthians 12. Oh, in that great chapter where we get to see that there are so many different spiritual gifts, and there are so many different parts to this body. He says, keep on and do these things so that there should be no division in the body. We're one, one, one. So that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for one another, for each other, care for one another.

Unity in the body of Christ is very important in the New Testament. If Jesus is praying in the garden that we may be one just like he and the father and the spirit are one, it's very important. And we denominate. So think about that. We we separate.

He's saying come together. There should be no division in the body, but that its part should have equal concern each for the other. Comfort one another. First Thessalonians four. Thessalonians, first and second, does not mention sin.

It doesn't go into sinful church. It was a confused church. And so Paul says in first Thessalonians four, therefore, be comforting one another with these words. We hear this at funerals pretty commonly. Comforting one another is really, really important.

A hug, a pat on the back to say, Man, I heard you walking through deep mud lately. It's really hard. We're with you. Comfort one another with these words. In Thessalonians in particular, it's a big passage for the rapture right after this.

And basically, what Paul is saying is, I know somebody told you you missed it. You ain't gonna miss it. You're not gonna miss it. Trust in Christ. Comfort one another with these words.

You don't have to worry so much about that. Confess to one another. James five. Therefore, confess your sins to each other. Boy, is that vulnerable?

Their C. S. Lewis quote comes back up right there to say, I fell short or I'm falling short. It's hard, but James is saying it's not just hard, it's good for you. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be whole or healed.

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. I mentioned in the first service kinda off the cuff. There is a little men's study on the book of James that's happening on Thursdays from twelve to one, 11:50 to one. Hard stop at one. And it's basically, we're studying James together, but that's a good excuse to be together.

And we're there to be vulnerable with one another and to pray for each other. Confess your sins to each other. Pray for each other so that you may be made whole. Devote yourselves to one another. We're only up to the deeds.

Is this dragging for y'all or you okay? Devoted. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. That's Romans 12. You know, right after renewing your minds.

Isn't it so much easier to just not deal with people? Live a hermit life? I believe all that stuff that's in the book. Man, I don't even have to worry about it if I don't have to do anything about it. I just know it.

No. This says to be devoted to one another in brotherly love. That's the first part of the verse. I'll get to the second one in a minute because it's a different one of the commands. Love one another with brotherly affection.

That was the ESV version of that. Encourage one another. Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up just as in fact you're doing. I when I see this verse, and I've quoted it before and here to y'all. When I see it, I can be reading the rest of the chapters, the rest of it.

And when I get to this one, I immediately switch over. I did it in my head, although I didn't do it out loud. I switch over to Pascal's three year old voice when I see this. Miss Meg, her teacher, in a little preschool that met a day or two a week, she would go in, and their first memory verse was not John three sixteen or, you know, Jesus wept, something short and easy. It was this, one Thessalonians five eleven, Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up.

Just as, in fact, you're doing, when he gets to that part right there, like I said, Thessalonians, he doesn't mention sin. It's not all about admonishing, always admonishing. It is encourage one another too. He says, y'all be encouraging one another and building each other up. I know you already are.

Just don't stop. Keep on doing it. Fellowship with one another. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, this is the beloved disciple, John, in one of his letters, first John one seven, not far from one nine, we quote all the time. If we are walking in the light as Jesus is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another.

If, Christian, we decide that we're not gonna walk in the light, we have some area of darkness that we're gonna walk away from, that creates division. It puts an end to fellowship in a lot of ways. Fellowship is really important. Not just eating coffee cake down the hall together, but actually being together and enjoying one another's company is what fellowship kornonia is. Two Greek words today.

Forgive one another. This is in the passage we're going hit at the end of this sermon. Be kind. Oh, we can stop right there. Just be kind.

One thing that Sharon Wiley's funeral was last weekend. And one of the headmasters that works, she was his secretary. So one of the headmasters that worked over the school in Wilson, Sharon Wiley, was his secretary. And he said he heard her say more than once when somebody was coming in for a meeting, they were pretty hot, she would say, Before you go in there, be kind to him. Isn't that nice?

A little reminder. Be kind and compassionate. Feel the feels to one another. Both of you, be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you. That's a high standard.

Forgive the way that Christ forgave you. Oh, boy. You could do a whole sermon on that too. While we were yet sinners, he died for us. He offered that even though we were still lacking.

He did it before we ever asked for it. Wow. We'll come back to that when I think we're gonna hit it again. Greet one another with a holy kiss. Okay.

We kinda tend to ignore this one. Right? New visitors come in and you just start smooching. It's it's a little weird in our day. Greet one another warmly.

I have always said and I, you know, I don't know what to say when people say nice things, honestly. When when you're here, praise the Lord. That's a good one. But somebody says something really nice afterwards. And I'll say, you know, when we arrived, this church was a warm and receptive fellowship, and we haven't managed to screw that up.

That's a pretty common response, you know. Greeting one another with a holy kiss is always start with grace and peace. All the epistles start off with grace and peace. To greet one another in a warm way is good. This is a tip for meeting ACs.

ACs are, it's a small denomination from the Midwest. When we were in Mexico, we had lots of teams come down from The States, and one of those denominations was the Apostolic Christian Church. So the Apostolic Christian Church from Peoria, Illinois, Bluffton. You know, they're a bunch of these German named people. They're not Amish and not Mennonite, but real close to both of those.

And they greet each other with a holy kiss. It's just a normal way. The guys greet with a holy kiss. The sisters do too. And so it's a little strange for outsiders, you know.

But when I got there, they they had come down on several mission trips to Mexico. We used them as work teams, and we saw them, and we sang with them, and they sang like shape note hymns. It was all this beautiful beautiful singing. We loved them dearly. They loved us dearly.

They asked us to come up to Peoria and do a little presentation, a little sermonizing, you know. So I did. And when we got up there, we stayed with a family. They were super hospitable to us, and they're really friendly. But before we went to church, one of the guys brought me aside, and he says, listen, I got a tip for you.

Would you come up here, John? Greet each other with a holy kiss. Come on, John. So he said he came in come on right here. So he says yeah.

He said, when you greet here, he said, we do the holy kiss. And so I'm I'm telling you this. Now the way that they did it he said, the way we do it is we don't like it either, but we still do it because it's biblical. He said, we do this, flatten our lips against our teeth like this, and we bump our faces together and we just get out of there as quick as we can. He said, you have a beard, and most people are not gonna do this to a guy with a beard cause they have clean shaven faces.

That's the norm for them. And so he says, this is what you do. When you come up to a brother AC, he says, do this. He goes, stiff arm him. He says, do that.

He'll know you're not AC. If you do this, you're getting the kiss, right? Thank you, John. Appreciate I it, man. Yeah.

So if you're ever in Midwest and you get into a church and all the ladies are wearing denim dresses and head coverings, trust me. Alright. Be honest with one another. Be honest with one another. Do not lie to each other.

It says that actually in the passage we'll hit today in a different way, but do not lie to each other is be honest. I cannot stress the importance for being honest with each other and not fudging on that. I also can't overestimate how important it is to be honest with yourself. Like, really our powers of self deception are amazing, but it helps if we have somebody who will be honest with us. Don't lie to each other.

Since you've taken off your old self with its practices, Colossians three is that place where he says to take off these practices like a dirty garment and put on Christ. It's good. Colossians three is great. Honor one another. Honor one another above yourselves.

This is the other part of Romans twelve ten. This is the latter part of that verse. In the ESV, it says this, outdo one another in showing honor. Now, I have seen Christians try to outdo each other before. Church leaked softball.

Wow. I've seen a lot of folks trying to out Christian each other. That's that in my mind is where you've got your argument. They've got their argument. You've cherry picked your verses, they've cherry picked their verses, and you just bump heads, and you come off both of you feeling mortally superior to the other.

This is saying, outdo one another in showing honor to the other. That would change relationships if we would take that seriously. Love one another with brotherly affection, and outdo one another in showing honor. Offer hospitality to one another. And Peter adds, without grumbling.

Now I think that how many of y'all how many requests do y'all get? How many requests do y'all get for people to come stay with you in the summertime? We start getting a lot of calls. We were thinking about taking that big western swing, then we checked the prices of everything. I'm just wondering if you know anybody.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. I got an amen. There's an offer of hospitality right there too.

Offer of hospitality. The Tulsans said, hey, come stay with us for our worship band here. You know? It's pretty sweet. Without grumbling.

It's really nice to live in a place where people want to be. And as much as we can, we do, you know? Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. You don't have to take every single invitation. But first Peter, if you think about when that was too, it was the time of the fiery trial when persecution was great.

And there were people who had been displaced from their homes, quite possibly been burned out of their homes, and they were looking for shelter. And he's saying, offer that to one another without grumbling. Be kind to one another. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as Christ, in Christ God forgave you. Love one another.

I I could pick fifteen, ten, 15 different places where it says love one another. I've already mentioned that Jesus said, if you love one another. But from Paul in Romans 13, he says this, let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another. You're not going to ever pay that one off. Does that make sense?

You're not ever going to pay off loving one another. You don't get to a point where you just get to say, finally, I'm out of that. Jesus, again, if you have love for one another. Be like minded. I've already mentioned this.

Think I could go to Philippians two. Philippians two. I'll ask you the questions that Paul asked them. Is there any comfort in love? Yes?

Okay. Is there any comfort in love? Yes. Is there any consolation in knowing Christ? Yes.

Okay. Then Paul says, make my joy complete by being like minded. Romans 15, towards the end, this is a kind of a blessing before the very end of the book that says, may the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you all, that's y'all, a spirit of unity, like mindedness, among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus. May God be doing it. You know why?

Because it's not possible to do it without it. May the God who gives endurance I don't do the show of hands thing where everybody closes their eyes very often. But I have the feeling, I know that it's true, that there are some of you who are walking through very difficult relational situations that you feel like you might not make it to the other end, and you need endurance from God. And you need encouragement to keep on going and not grow weary in doing good. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement, may he give you a spirit of unity, like mindedness among yourselves as you follow after Christ.

That's always important. Paul reminds us of that a lot of times. Sometimes he does say, follow after me as I follow Christ. Right? It's if I get off track, don't get off track just because I got off track.

Keep on following Christ. Pray for one another. We mentioned this under confess your sins to each other, but it's not just to confess your sins. It's to be able to pray more effectively and knowingly for each other so that you may be made whole or healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

We're getting close to the end. Serve one another. You, my brothers, you were called to be free in Galatians. It's about, is it gonna be law or is it gonna be grace? Can't be both.

You, my brothers, yes, you have accepted the grace, and you are called to be free. But don't use that freedom to indulge the sinful nature. Rather, be serving one another in love. Take your lab experiment, you know what it says in the book, and go be serving one another in love. This one, Spur one another on, or if it's in my favorite translation, is stir one another up.

Let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds. You know what? I will probably say, if you come to me and you say, I feel like God is telling me that I need to teach class or take some stuff to the Indian reservation or whatever it is. Whatever it is. Could be anything.

I don't know what God's telling you to do. But you know what I'm going do when you say, I really feel like God is impressing this upon me, and I need to do it. You know what I'm gonna say? Go! Do it!

Be doing it. Spurred on. Stirred up. What do you need? What can we do?

The way we got to the mission field was that way. I was handing out Spanish Bibles, and the pastor said what I just said. He said, Talk to the guy named James Culbreth. I leaned up and said, James, I need some Spanish Bibles. He said, Yeah, man, I'll get them for you.

We got a mission trip going to Mexico in two weeks. Nobody on that trip speaks Spanish. Here I am twenty three years later. Let's consider how that we may spur one another on and help each other out towards love and good deeds. Submit to one another.

Oh, boy. Individualist Americans. This one is one. We love our autonomy. We don't like to give over anything to anybody else.

If you see the context here, it's Ephesians five twenty one. And you know that husbands and wives are next, and then there's employees and employers, or masters and slaves are in there too. This says, to govern that whole passage, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. So it's both mutually submitting out of reverence for Christ that we both claim as our head. That's the last of the list.

Now we're up to our sermon start. Oh, yeah. Don't sue one another. I tried to keep them out of the negative as much as much as I could, but first Corinthians says, I've heard that there are lawsuits among you. Really, it shouldn't be that way.

You ought to be able to get along. Okay. Here we go. This is mostly just me reading through this. But I think that having had the pop of we really do need the lab, we really do need the lab of the church.

Here we go. Ephesians four seventeen says, so I say this, and I affirm this in the Lord. Make no doubt about it that you, Christians, y'all are no longer to walk just as the Gentiles also walk. Yes. I know.

I know how the world is. He's saying, y'all aren't supposed to be living like everybody else in the futility of their minds. Being darkened in their understanding and excluded from the life of God because of ignorance. The ignorance that's in them, because of the hardness of their heart, they haven't accepted what you've accepted. And God has the ability to soften hearts, and man has the ability to keep a hard heart.

Because of the hardness of heart. And they, they, having become calloused, they have given themselves up to indecent behavior for the practice of every kind of impurity, with greediness. That's the way the world is. But y'all did not learn of Christ in this way. If you think about it, you didn't come to Christ just to act like everybody else, just to be like everybody else.

If indeed you have heard of him and you have been taught of him, Christ, just as truth is in Jesus, that in reference to your form of way of life, you're to rid yourself of that old self. That's the way of the world. As Colossians three would say, it's like a dirty garment. You are taken off, and you're putting on a clean garment. You're to rid yourselves of the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit.

And that you're to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, like I said from Romans twelve two. By the renewing of your minds. Do not be conformed to this world. That you're renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on that new self, which in the likeness of God has been created anew. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature.

He's a new creation. Created in Christ Jesus to do good works. He's prepared in advance. Which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Therefore, ridding yourselves of falsehood, speak truth, each one of you, with his neighbor because we're parts of one another.

We need to be able to transmit truth effectively in between all of us. We need to speak the truth to one another in love. This is be angry. Thank you, Lord. Thank you.

It's okay to be angry. And yet don't sin. Okay. Because you can't stop that that flash of anger that you see as a believer even. When you see injustice, it should be upsetting.

Right? It should be. You should see things that just boil your blood. But that shouldn't lead you to sin or to act just like the world acts. One upmanship in warfare is just getting a bigger gun.

Right? More and more and more. Be angry, and yet don't sin. And don't let the sun go down on your anger. This is a letter written to the church that Paul dearly loved.

He cried on the beach with the leaders of this church, right, when he left. Be angry. It's gonna happen. Yet, don't sin and don't let it linger. Don't let the sun go down on your anger.

Don't move to Alaska so that the sun shines for days and days on end. You've got more time to harbor anger. No. Be angry, yet don't sin. Don't let the sun go down on your anger.

And don't give the devil an opportunity. He is a divider. He's an accuser of the brethren. He is always trying to tear down and cause division. Don't give him an opportunity.

The one who steals must steal no longer. I said at the beginning, you know, preaching in front of the professors at seminary is really hard because you feel like they know so much. I wanted to preach something that was really easy to understand and really difficult to do. Right? You don't ever outgrow this.

The one who steals must steal no longer. That's the most plain spoken thing ever. But rather, must work. Producing with his own hands what is good so that he will have something to share with the one who has needs. So that he'll be able to participate in that hospitality.

Let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth. Mothers everywhere, mothers everywhere have said, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Between siblings. Let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth. But if there's any good word that's there for edification, according to the need of the moment, go ahead and say that good word.

Give them a pat on the back. Be thankful for that. Say that so it'll give grace to all who hear. But do not be grieving the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit of God is speaking in the still, small voice, and he is directing you.

And don't be grieving the Holy Spirit of God. By whom you are sealed for the day of redemption, let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and slander be removed from you, along with all malice. I covered most of those last week. We hit them in a different place in scripture. But they are what they are.

You don't have to go to Greek to figure that out. Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander should not be the way that the church is characterized. Along with all malice, ill intent, wishing ill on other people. So instead of that, we've hit this verse three times already since we've been here. Be kind to one another.

Be compassionate to one another. Be forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. And then we get to the fifth chapter. And with all that said, that paragraph previous that we just covered, he says, therefore, be imitators of God. How do you imitate God?

Well, it helps if you know him. It helps if you spend time with him. I used this example a couple weeks ago in the first service, and I use it again today. You stand like, I stand like this. If you see me standing like this, honestly, I'm waiting to shoot foul shots, this is the way I stand.

I stand like this because my dad stood like this when I was a little kid, and my grandfather stood like this. And it's come down the line. This is a stupid looking way to stand, and I know it. But it is the way that I know because I spent so much time with my dad and with my granddad. And probably they've spent it with their granddads.

It's just kind of normal way to be. Well, know that because I spend a lot of time with him. I don't now, but it still sticks, right? If I'm going to imitate God, I've got to spend time with him. When I mention the chemistry lab versus the chemistry book, or the shop versus the books in auto shop, We have a book, and we're content to sit there and study, study, study, study, study.

But putting it into practice and imitating what we see God acting like, God is gracious. He is slow to anger. He's full of mercy. He is giving us mercy and grace and love and forgiveness and direction and exhortation. Yeah.

Be imitators of God as dearly beloved children. You know why it says that? Because we are. Dearly beloved children of God. So start acting like him.

He gives us a perfect example. Jesus is the perfect example. And I had somebody even this week say, yeah, but Jesus flipped over tables. I said, good grief, man. He did that twice in three years of ministry.

Right? How much love and forgiveness and mercy and grace? And when he did do it, he was doing it for people who are putting an impediment in the way of people coming to God. Be angry, sin not. Therefore, be imitators of God as dearly beloved children.

Other thing about Ms. Meg's class is Pascal had always lived with us. When we were in Mexico, she saw English and Spanish, and she started to understand both. But we moved on her first birthday. So she's understanding some, but she understood that.

When we got to South Carolina, was with Tanya all the time. And she was like a little mini me for Tanya. She was all over and looking like her, doing things like her. When she started going to that little class, we started recognizing a lilt in her voice that was pure Ms. Meg, her teacher.

She was spending time with her, she was imitating her. Really, if you spend a lot of time watching the news, and you watch commentators in the news and they only see one side of the story, you're going start sounding like that. You can watch the other channel and start sounding like that, too. Made a deal a while back. If I watch fifteen minutes of news on one side, I watch fifteen on the other side, then I read the for thirty minutes.

Basically, I quit watching the news, honestly. Be walking in love. Be imitators of God. Spend time with him so you'll know what he looks like so you can imitate him. As dearly beloved children, because that's what you are, and be walking in love.

Just as Christ also loved you. And he gave himself up for all of us. When it says, just as God in Christ also loved you, as an American, you probably took that as saying, as me. Ray. But it's a y'all.

Walk in love, just as Christ also loved all of y'all. And he gave himself up for us. An offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. I think that's the last slide. I'm going ask the band to come back forward, and we'll play whatever y'all want to play.

But would you stand with us? I have one more thing I want to add while they're coming up here and getting set. I hit something this week that I had not read before. I remember reading it before. And it was helpful.

It was helpful after going through lots of difficult relational meetings for the past few weeks and seeing a husband and wife that are apart right now, somebody calling and saying, that guy calling and saying, I want to get sober, I ask another friend. And this set aside prayer is what they call it. It's usually included with the twelfth step of AA. And I thought it was so good that if we are to do this effectively, but we've gotten stuck and we've gotten in a rut and we're not able to get along with another believer, maybe we need to set aside some stuff. The prayer says, God, today, help me set aside everything that I think I know about you.

I want you to confirm what is real, but I wanna set aside everything I think I know about you. I wanna set aside everything I think I know about myself, to be able to see it with new eyes. I wanna set aside everything I think I know about the other people. And I wanna set aside everything I think I know about my own recovery, my own wholeness, so that I may have an open mind and a new experience with all of these things. Please, Lord, help me to see the actual truth.

Amen. Would you sing with us? Something.

So teach my song to rise to you, you, when temptation comes my way.

I'm gonna close out with that benediction from Romans 15. I know you're walking in deep mud. I know it's hard. Deep snow may be better. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity, like mindedness that the world has never yet known among your selves as you follow after Christ Jesus.

Lord, help us. Amen.