Mike Harrelson - When We Are One

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Almighty God, you welcome you. [00:00:06] Speaker B: Hey, there. If you're new to Restored Church, we want to welcome you and thank you for tuning in. You're listening to a portion of our Sunday worship gathering. We believe the church is not an event, but a family you belong to. So we would love the opportunity to connect with you. If you want to learn more about our church or if we can help you in any way, please Visit our website, www.restoredtemecula.church, and click on Contact. With all that said, we, we hope you enjoy the message. [00:00:35] Speaker A: How is everyone this morning? Doing well? Yeah. Summer going well? Yeah. All right. Well, cool. Yeah. For those of you that I don't know, my name is Mike. I'm one of the elders here on staff now. Yeah. So I'm gonna get us started. I'm gonna pray. Cause I really need prayer right now. So. Yeah. Father, you are faithful. Your love is beautiful. I just thank you. And I thank you that I'll be saying that for eternity, just with so much gratitude for who you are, that you sent your son so that we could have freedom and life and true life. And so, yeah, this morning, I ask, Lord, that you would just. That you just be amongst us. We know that you're here, but we want to sense you amongst us. And I thank you that your word is true. It is alive and active, and we can look to it and we can trust in it. And so, yeah, would you help me to rightly divide it? May I not get in the way of anything you want to do. You're good. We thank you. Pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen. All right, so like some of you heard last week, and some of you, for the first time, maybe, it was announced last week that I. I left 20 years in the corporate world to come on staff here. Yeah. Yeah. I'll be honest, it's been a little surreal. You do something in sort of the same context for 20 years, and then all of a sudden you're like, wait, what's going on right now? I got sort of used to that, but I was reflecting over the last two weeks because we went on vacation for a week, and then this last week, we've been sort of hanging out and I've been working on the message and all that stuff, playing games with the kids and all. And I was just thinking how privileged I was to be able to have the career that I had for the first 20 years. The people that really poured into me and gave me chances to do different things and built me up. I mean, some really gifted people and then also the fact that I actually got to pour into other people's lives and pass that on. It was. I just think I just. Like, a lot of people have gone through my mind over the last week, and I've been able to thank God for them. And so, like, there was, like, deep impact that was made there. And I was thinking about my last role. I spent 17 years with one company and then felt like God called me into this other company about three years ago. And when I went in, I knew that it was going to be, like, a big rebuild. It was going to be like, sort of a challenge. But when I got there, it was way bigger than I thought it was going to be. And that wasn't a bad thing, but it was a challenging scene. I'll say that. The culture there was sort of fragmented within our division. There's people that were like, core people that were awesome, gifted, committed to what they were doing, and there's other people that just are just showing up. They weren't a part of the team. They really didn't care that much. They were just there to get a paycheck. And so with that, you can imagine there's, like, disunity within the team. There was people that were like, you know, there's different tribes that were going on, and they're talking about this person or that person. It was a little rough at first, and with that, our customers saw it and our vendors saw it, and when that happens, then revenue goes down as well and it can get rough. And so we started off in a place that we could only go up is the way I looked at it. And with that, though, the cool thing was, is I had that core group of people. And so we had some changes. There were some people that came and some people that left, and that was all good. That wasn't a bad thing. But by God's grace, over three years, we actually had a really cool team. And I'm grateful for the people that we had there and the way we worked together. And as well, like, I'm looking forward to what they're going to do going forward as they continue to be a team and to live out the principles and values that we were working on as a team there. But here's the thing. I'm pretty sure that pretty much everyone in this room can relate to that in some way. You've been a part of a team at a workplace or on a sports team or whatnot, maybe even in your own family, where there's been. There's been low morale there's been brokenness, disunity. People aren't respecting one another. They're operating in different silos. Maybe saying one thing about so and so or something about another person, and there's no shared mission or accountability. That happens in that place. And that can get hard. And maybe even you've experienced it in the church. This isn't anything new to the church. For the last 2,000 years, we've been dealing with moments where the church hasn't been unified in different areas and other areas that has been unified. But when we look at that, we're like, I think all of us, deep down, we want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. We want to be unified. We don't want to be fractured in our relationship with one another. We want to live in harmony and to feel appreciated, to be connected to something that's bigger than ourselves. And Jesus actually prayed for the church for that very thing a couple thousand years ago. He said in John 17:20, 21, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. You notice that this unity isn't just for our benefit, but it also serves as a powerful witness to the world, demonstrating God's love and the truth of Jesus. Billy Graham said, we are the Bibles the world is reading. We are the creeds the world is needing. We are the sermons the world is heeding. So today we're gonna look at how we live out this new life in Christ, being unified one to another. Because when we are one, the world sees the one cause our unity really matters. So our text for today is gonna be in Ephesians 4. So if you guys would. If you have a Bible, go ahead and turn there for me. I'm gonna be reading out of the esv. I know that's unusual for us. We usually read out of CSV, but I was just studying out of the esv, and so I stuck with it, to be honest. Just the way it is. Nothing wrong with one or the other, actually. I love both of them. But to get us started, a little background on Ephesus. The place where Paul was writing this letter to Ephesus was like a major port city in the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago. There were people there. There was Romans, there was the Greek, there was Greeks, there was. You know, there's Jewish people, there's Christian People there, and there's people from all over the area and whatnot. And for the most part, people there were wealthy, they were pampered, they were sophisticated, and they're spiritual. And also they were deeply divided. You had the Roman pantheon of gods, you had the Greek pantheon of gods. You had, you know, monotheistic people like the Jews and Christians. And so with that, there was a lot of division that was happening there. And there was also division socially, because where you have a lot of rich people, there's gonna be slaves and all that kind of stuff too. And so there was social disparity that was happening within that place. And this is the people that Paul was writing to. He was writing to a people that were divided and also an idle, saturated culture. So let's read verses 1 through 6 of Ephesians 4. There we go. I, therefore, prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. With all humility and gentleness, with patience bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Paul starts out with a walking in the manner which you were called. So Ephesians is broken into two major parts. You have the first three chapters, which is really looking at the wealth of this gospel. And you have the second half, which is how we walk out that wealth that we have in the gospel. So just as going back over the last three chapters, I'm going to do a little run through with you guys of this wealth that we have. He lays a foundation of God's plan to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and on earth. And through Christ we have been saved by grace through faith, not of our own works. We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. We that we Gentiles, that's me, and many of us in this room that are not Jewish were once separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenant of promise. Promise. We were once far off, but had been brought near by the blood of Christ. This mystery of Christ, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body in him we have been brought into his kingdom, made new creations, eyes opened forever changed. My words there, not scripture, so that through Christ the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the rulers and Authorities in the heavenly places. So this isn't just the people, the rulers and authorities here, but in the heavens as well. That through Christ, the Gentiles have been brought into this family. This is the wealth that we have, that God has united all people of all backgrounds, ethnicity, social status, preference, all that stuff in Christ. That's his desire, that in Christ we would be one. And he saved us into, by his grace, into his kingdom. And that's good news. So you probably saw in verses four through six, there was the ones, the one body, you know, so on, so forth. There we go, right there. One Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father. Many scholars believe that this was an early creed. And so in the first century, there's a lot of people that didn't read and write. They're illiterate. And so they used these creeds, these short, powerful statements of belief to be able to pass on truths, to repeat them to their kids, to encourage one another to be able to remember the truths of the Scriptures. Now, when I say Scriptures, this was a letter that has turned into Scripture. They didn't have this New Testament letter until it got delivered to them. They had the Scriptures, what we call the Old Testament. But these truths were things that were revealed in Christ that we can know now. And so this one was called the Ones. And it starts off with the one Body. One body. We. He's talking about us, the church, those that are in Christ, one body, globally and throughout time. And he, as we're going to see in a couple verses in 15 and 16, that Christ is the head that we are all growing up into. So we are the body. He is the head that we're growing into. But I want you to notice this doesn't exclude the church in Ephesus. It doesn't exclude the local expression of the church because he's writing to the house churches in Ephesus at the time. You know, this is important for us to recognize this because he's saying one body united in Him. We'll get back to that in a second. But it goes on. And the next ones are, you have one Spirit. And then we'll skip a couple. We have one Lord and one God and Father. And we can see that this unity that we have is actually grounded in the Trinity. One God, three co, equal, co, eternal persons, the Father, the Son and the Spirit, sharing one divine nature and essence, forming one single God. Yet they operate in different but harmonious roles. So, for example, the Father, he initiates creation and redemption. The Son accomplishes redemption through his sacrifice. The Holy Spirit applies that redemption to the believer and dwells within us to empower us to be able to live this out. Tim Keller quote from him in his book the Reason for God says each of the divine persons centers upon the other. None demands that the others others revolve around him. Each voluntarily circles the other two, pouring love, delight and adoration into them. See, God in the Trinity embodies the qualities that we are called to walk in from verse 2 of Humility, Gentleness, patience, bearing one another in love and unity. Now, we do that imperfectly, but these are heart attitudes that Paul, because of our wealth and the gospel, what Jesus has done, we're called to walk into, to grow into. We might not have it right now, but we're called to press into those things. And I want you to also notice in verse three where it says that we are to maintain this unity. We're not to create it. It's been created by the Spirit already. We're called to maintain that unity. You know, like in my job, we try to create unity around principles and all that kind of stuff. We may try to create unity in our teams by different ways, but this unity is something that's stronger than that. This unity is something that reflects the Trinity. See, we were made in God's image, and so we get to reflect the one that has made us in that way. And so we can be unified in that. So Paul goes on in the rest of the verses that we're going to go through today, and he's going to talk about how we grow in that process of being a unified body. So verses 7 through 12. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, it says when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men. And saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he also descended into the lower regions of the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above the heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave up apostles, prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and the teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. Jesus gives different gifts to different people to build up the body. The gifts are here. For he says that each of us, if we're in Christ, we get a gift. He's a gift giver. We all got a gift. Each of you that are followers of Jesus have a gift, whether you've discovered it or not. You have One. And Paul talks actually about. This is one place that he talks about these gifts. But he also talks about it in First Corinthians 12. He talks about it in Romans 12. And in First Corinthians 12, he actually uses the picture of a body as well, how there's many members of this body. He highlights the diversity of the body parts and how they each have their own role, but they work harmoniously so that the body functions well. As 1. 1 Corinthians 12, 26 says, if one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. Likewise, all the gifts that we have in the church, they're important because they build us up, they build up this body. They come from one spirit, though it's one spirit that gives them. But they operate in varying different operations and roles. And so I'm gonna give you an example of that. We're gonna look at the gift of evangelism or an evangelist. You know, it's interesting because we talk about spiritual gifts, and we all know that we also have, like, natural gifts as well. Each of us has natural gifts. And so it's interesting how God will take our natural gifts and our spiritual gifts and they'll sort of work together. So there's some people, like I quoted Billy Graham a second ago. He was an evangelist. He'd get up in front of stadiums full of people and he'd proclaim the good news of Jesus. And many would come to know Jesus and walk with him. And lives have been changed through that ministry. God doing a work through that ministry. But most of us are not the people that get up in front of big crowds. I know, like me, this actually isn't my most comfortable place. I'll be honest. Being up in front of a crowd, it's not my most comfortable place. I've become more comfortable with it over time. But I've always been sort of like a one on one guy or one on a small group kind of thing. Like, that's always been a little bit more comfortable for me. And so for me, my temperament, I've grown into this not natural as much, but my natural temperament is to be in that small group setting. And. And I've had the privilege of walking with people to be able to know Jesus in that kind of setting. So you can be evangelist in that setting, but there's also people that have this gift for writing. I think of Andrea. She's got a gift for writing. And those people can write articles, they can write tracts for people who are out street. Evangelizing they can write books on apologetics. There's. People have minds like that. And so what we can see here is there's different ways that these gifts are worked out practically for the building up of the body, but also that the world would be blessed through these people. You know, it's all the same gift of evangelism, just different operations of how it's played out. And I think that's beautiful because in that we see this diversity of not just the gifts, because there's a couple that are mentioned here, but there's even more gifts than that. There's diversity there, but there's also diversity in the use of those gifts and creativity. And that reflects the beauty of our God. He is a creator that makes things beautiful. We see that in the world around us. We recently drove to the desert. When you drive through the desert the back way and you're not on the freeway, you get to see the landscape. And we drove out towards Awanga, through Anza, up over the hill, and it's all sort of brush and all that stuff. And then you get over the hill and there's pines. And then you start coming down the highway down 74 into Palm Desert, and you start to see the chola cactuses, and you see the yuccas and all that stuff. And there's a beautiful, like, picture of God's creativity in the landscapes around. But we see a similar beauty and the gifts and how they're used to build up the body. You know, he. Paul mentions a couple different gifts here. And many have called these equipping gifts the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, the teachers, you know, but for one purpose, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. And so these equipping gifts are gifts that are given to different leaders. And you can see that even within our family of churches, we have different people that are gifted in different ways. More of like the. I guess you'd call it the lowercase apostle, because we didn't write Bible. But at the same time, like, these gifts are worked out in different ways, and they're there to build the body, not for them to do all the work, but to build up the body to be able to do the work, to empower people, to be able to walk in the gifts that they've been given by the Lord. And so I was thinking about this. There was a moment about 15 years ago, Marla and I had just moved out here, and I was in, like, a rough Spot. She was pregnant with Sienna at the time, our oldest. And we moved out here because we felt like the Lord called us out here. But we still worked in Orange County. And so those of you that commute know how rough that drive can be, especially when you're doing it every single day, day in, day out, at 4 o' clock in the morning with a newborn in the car, about to go to daycare, and then doing it on the way back at 5:30, 6:00 clock in the evening. To say that I was sleep deprived is an understatement. I didn't sleep much at all during that time. But we were a part of a small group, and there was a couple, Jeff and Sarah, and they were leading that small group at the time. Now, they weren't pastors. They were just gifted and you're gonna make me cry. Come on, don't do that to me. They were gifted in shepherding is what they were. God had given them the gift of shepherding. And they could see, as leaders, they could see that I was struggling. And I don't know if Marla was struggling as much as I was. To be honest, at the time, I was pretty deep at that point. But they came alongside us. They got to know us. They loved us really well relationally. But then Jeff started praying for me, and he's like, what is it? What's the gap in Mike's life right now? What is an area that I could maybe shepherd him in, in this moment as the good shepherd shepherds me? And he noticed that, like, my faith was real tiny at the time. And so we started going through a book. And the interesting part is God took him through a journey of faith at the same exact time. But we did it together. We got to walk together in that season. And Jeff and Sarah loved us so well. They saw, like, the things that God was doing in our life, and they fanned those things into flame. They built us up so that we could actually, you know, down the line, they stepped away and moved away. But Marla actually took over the ministry that Sarah was leading at the time. And I got to walk in different areas and be able to support other people that were going through times of, like, having, like, just weak faith. And so you look at, like, this is a picture of leaders see beyond the surface. They see. They seek the Lord to see what is going on inside of the people. And they figure out how they go, lord, how can I partner with you in this moment to be able to build up the body to support you, to support what you're doing in their life. But I've also had other moments where, like, you know, I've never stepped away from the Lord, but I just stepped away from some of my giftings that I had at the time. I just wasn't using them. They're just sort of sitting there dormant. And I've had leaders that have gently come alongside me in those seasons, and they've been like, hey, what's going on here? You know? And so I thought of 1st Peter 4:10 and says, as each has a gift, has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. God is the giver of the gift, and we are the steward of the gift. We're called to use that gift for the building up of the body. And so this involves, like, leaders, like, helping the body to discover, to understand, and to actively employ those gifts. You know, if it wasn't for those moments where leaders have come alongside me and encouraged me, exhorted me to use those gifts, I wouldn't be here right now. If Jeff and Sarah hadn't come alongside us, I don't think Marla and I actually would be here right now. That was a pivotal moment for us in our walk with Christ where they. And here's the funny part, I don't even think they realize that I messaged them this week just to be able to share with them, like, how grateful I was for them walking alongside of us in that season. You know, there's a unique joy and energy and sense of purpose when we operate in the gifts that Christ has given us. You know, as leaders, equip the saints to create culture where spiritual growth and maturity is possible. That's the thing. And people actually get to grow up into Christlikeness. And so that's what Paul touches on next. Verses 13 through 14. Building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith in the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So that we underline we right, there may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the ways and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. My third point here is that we all start as spiritual infants, but in Christ we're meant to grow towards maturity or Christlikeness. You could say I didn't really like that statement when I first became a Christian. I'll be honest. That's the pride in me. But I've Come to really appreciate it. Especially as I look at that we right there. Who's that we including? What's that? All of us who said Paul? Okay, Paul, you're absolutely correct. That's including Paul right there. Think of that. Paul that wrote a good chunk of the New Testament, Paul that planted many churches through the Roman Empire, Paul that, you know, helped solidify and protect the doctrines that we hold, we cherish today. I mean, this is the Paul he saw himself as being, needing to mature, that he was an infant that needed to mature into Christ likeness, like he hadn't yet arrived. That's humbling for me because as much as I'm like, I've grown, this is Paul that is way beyond where I am, that's for sure. And he's calling himself an infant. So I guess I'm an infant and I'll embrace it. I'll embrace it. Because it's not about staying infant. It's about growing into maturity. But here's the beautiful thing is when you look at it in the context of all this, we're talking about spiritual gifts to leaders. And Paul now is looking at maturity and growing in maturity. And he's seeing that these gifts that have been given by Christ, these gifts are for his growing as well. He needs those other people within the church to be able to grow into the man that God has created him to be, to look more like Jesus. He knew that he still needed to grow. And he points out a couple different areas of growth in verses 13 and 14 and actually in 15 as well. The first one he hits on is discernment. Mature believers can discern truth from lie. They understand the scriptures, they've grown in the scriptures to be able to understand what is true and what is false. They're not swayed by these different teachings. This is an area that we can grow up into. Christ I was thinking about babies aren't very discerning at all. They don't know what they put in their mouth a lot of times. And I was thinking about my girls can forgive me later. What's that? Yeah, I'm not gonna say who. I'm not gonna say who. There's three of them. So we had. We had some friends over years ago and our girls were small at the time. And one of them was around just under two years old and she's crawling around and you know, like kids, they like to get into stuff, right? They're always in stuff. At least my kids were. And I'm like, where is she right now? And I walk around the corner. And I go in the bathroom and apparently someone had not. And that might have been. That someone might have been me. Locked the cabinet underneath the sink. And I look at her and she's got the toilet bowl cleaner nozzle in her mouth and blue stuff coming down. Haven's dying right now. I didn't say it was you. That was not actually meant to be for her, but. Okay, but here's the thing is I immediately like any dad. I'm like, oh my goodness, we gotta go to the hospital. Like, I'm gonna have to get her stomach pumped. Like, what is going on right now? And I called poison control and they're like, don't worry about it. There wasn't that much. Just clean her face up, give her some water. She starts vomiting, take her to the er. Okay. All right, cool. But I think this illustrates something, that when we're immature, when we're infants, we're not discerning about the things that we put in, the things that we digest. I know it's a silly story. It all ended up all right. That's why I'm telling it right now. But when we grow in our knowledge of the scriptures, we're able to test what we hear and speak truth at that point. The second one is humility. This shows up in how we treat people. Humility is. It's elusive. Right. When we think we're humble, we're like, well, that wasn't very humble, you know, but it's how we speak with grace, how we serve one another, how we do things without needing recognition for the things that we do, how we listen with compassion to one another. The moms in the room might be a little upset with me about this, but that's all right. Babies are helpless when they're born, right? Yeah, yeah. They gotta have someone else do everything for them. Babies by nature are self centered just the way it is. Some of us never grow out of that being self centered. Hopefully we do though. And that's the point. That's the point I'm trying to make, is we all start out in that place of being self centered. We need other people. That's a reality. We still need other people when we're not self centered. But the little ones, our hope is that they grow from a place of being self centered to a place of maturity, humble being able to do things without needing the recognition, without needing for other people to. To acknowledge what they're doing and to be able to treat people with kindness and love and respect. You know, I've come to realize Like I shouldn't be surprised when I experience selfishness in other people. Like, we're all sinners, right? We recognize that we're sinners, we're all selfish. But seeing it in other people, I shouldn't be surprised. But for some reason I am. I don't know why, but. But I am. But here's the thing. We shouldn't tolerate it in our own lives. When we see that, like we see that we're being selfish, we're being self centered, we should not tolerate that ever in our own lives. One of the phrases I think of, I've heard many times in many different places is that's just the way I am. Deal with it. I've said it myself, but if we're new creations in Christ, we should actually be growing from that into more maturity. I was reading actually this morning, I was reading James 4 and it blessed me because I was like, oh man, this is right up the alley of today's message. And he says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And in verse 10 of chapter 4 of James he says, humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. Like when we acknowledge that self centeredness in ourselves, that pride, when we repent of that, he pours out so much grace, so much grace so we can move through that place into a place of wholeness, into loving others and freedom to be people that care more about building up others than about being seen or being right. Because so often I just want to be right. And that's not growing into Christ likeness when I'm that way. The last one that he hits on that I'm going to talk about is steadiness. Some of you may have read the book or heard of the title from Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the same direction. I think this like embodies this steadiness thing. A steady life is rooted in Christ, consistent, faithful, not driven by ego or fear. The waves of life come and they don't seem to shake that person from that path. They still stay in the path. You know, another way that you could see this is an unsteady person. Be one that has conviction from the Lord on something, yet doesn't do anything about that. Where the steady person says, there's a conviction here, I'm gonna move in that direction. I wanna go where the Lord is going in this moment. A steady person is growing up, is not just showing up. So yeah, a steady person is growing up, not just showing up. So let me this last week I took a walk with a question and because if I'm going to preach on this, I got to at least examine myself before I do that, right? So I asked myself first, am I more humble, more joyful, or more self controlled than I was a year ago? And I'm a poor mirror for myself. So I decided I better ask someone that I trust that same question. So I asked my wife, am I more humble, more joyful, and more self controlled than I was a year ago? Now, I realize asking that question takes courage and I want to encourage you guys to actually ask yourself those questions right there. To say, hey, and find someone that, that is loving, that will tell you the truth as well and ask them that question. Someone that maybe has been walking by you in Christ for a while, whether it be a spouse or a friend or a GC leader or just someone in your GC that you trust. Ask them the question and be ready for whatever they have. That's the whole thing is because when you ask a question like that, you're like, I really hope it goes well. But reality is, it could be like, you know what? I saw this and this and this and actually the. Those are a blessing too. That's the thing is those things are a blessing too, because we're not able to see ourselves very well. That's a reality. We're not able. Like, I'm talking through this microphone right now, and I hate my own voice when I hear it in the speaker or when I hear it on a video or whatever, I hear my voice through my jawbone, right? But when I'm listening to a video, I hear my voice that actually is. And I feel sorry for you guys. But this person, this person. The thing is, when you're asking someone along those lines, asking someone that you trust, that you see maturing in Christ, they're gonna approach you hopefully in a way that Paul talks about in this next verse. In verse 15, he says, rather, speak the truth in love. We're all growing up in every way into him who is the head and to Christ from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. That phrase, truth in love, this is a mark of maturity. Tim Keller says, quote, love without truth is sentimental. It supports and affirms us, but keeps us in denial about our flaws. Truth without love is harshness. It gives us information, but in such a way that we cannot really hear it. I'd say probably 20 years ago, my default, harsh, harsh. I Still see it at times, the way I sort of think about things and how I'm processing through things, I default to that. Well, that's the truth. That's the way it is. I gotta tell this person how it is. And it hasn't always gone well. But over the last 20 years, God has brought different people into my life. My wife being one of them. Also brothers in Christ, sisters in Christ that have helped me to learn to love people well in those things as well, to not compromise on the side of being sentimental, where I'm saying something because I want that person to like me, and it ends up being more about me than about them. Sort of like on the opposite side with the harsh side. Me telling them how it is is more about me being right and them being wrong and them knowing it. Both of those are immature on those sides in those extremes. But in the gospel, I've been freed. I don't have to have their approval. I can share something that I see in them. But I love them so much because of what Christ has done in me and what he's done in them to be able to share that truth with them. And so a mark of maturity is when we're able to tell the truth in love, that we actually love that person. We say it in such a way that it might be hard, but they're able to receive it and they feel loved by it. And they acknowledge, oh, man, okay, that's an area that I needed to hear that so I can repent and I could move forward. And likewise, both of us are becoming more mature in that moment. This refining work is done. I hope you guys are seeing this. The whole context of this whole thing is one body, right? So all of this impossible outside of community. The Trinity, three persons, one God, perfect love, perfect respect. We are made in that image. This all is done in community. And here's the thing is it doesn't happen with me working on myself. Me working on myself is useless. I tried it for many years. It's useless. I might make some progress here and there, but true change happens in community, where the gifts are used, where God is doing a work through the Spirit, through different people, to love one another, to be able to come into Christlikeness. So that means that we have to show up. We have to show up and be active in this process. We can't just show up. Like I was saying a minute ago, participating, being uncomfortable. I heard heard a quote of someone in One of our GCs that was talking about being uncomfortable one time. And I'm like, oh, yeah, man. There's been many moments where I've been uncomfortable sharing something, and I'm like, everyone's gonna hate me. They're gonna think poorly of me. But I really want to change in this way. So I'm gonna throw it out there. I'm gonna do it. Uncomfortable in those moments, but pressing in, vulnerable. Being willing to share those things, exercising the gifts that God has given us, discovering those gifts. Do you know your gifts? Have you discovered those yet? If you haven't, we got resources. We have other people that I'd say, talk to someone that you've walked with for a while and ask them what your spiritual gift might be. There's people in our GC that I don't think they realize what their spiritual gifts are, but we continue to share. I think you're gifted in this because we're not our. We can't see ourselves. We need each other. And through that, like, through that humbling, repentant work, we're able to come become more mature in community. And, you know, I love how I see this in our. In our church. Like, we do meet on a Sunday, but we also meet in gospel communities like Tom was talking about a few minutes ago. And we've been with our gospel community for five years now. Is it five years? Yeah. Looking at Scott back there, five years. And we've seen people come and go, but through it all, it's been beautiful because we've seen people are just starting out, walk with Christ, and they're becoming more mature. And you're seeing moments where, like, life could shake them in crazy ways, and they're more stable. They're not swayed. They're becoming to know the word and going, you know what? That doesn't sound correct. That doesn't sound quite right. I don't think that's what God is like. They're coming to not need the recognition from others. They're just doing it because they love that person and they love Jesus. It's beautiful. And I see that in all of our gospel communities. I have the privilege of being able to hear from other gospel community leaders what's going on a little bit. No specifics, but at the same time, getting to hear stories of how God is moving in those groups, and it's beautiful to see that. And so I want to encourage you, if you're not a part of a gospel community, invest. I think it's three to four months. Two, three months. I'm not sure. Invest that time. Go check it out. Maybe you've been A part of a small group in the past. That's all right. Go invest. Anyways, it's going to be different. It's going to be beautiful. Like, this message was actually born out of us doing Eat and speak as a gospel community. This last season, we spent one week a month going through Ephesians in our gospel community. And Ephesians rocked me in like the best way. And I was like, this might be my favorite book outside the Gospels in the New Testament, but it's in that place that we get to experience and we get to hear how God is speaking to each other. And it's not just a mind thing, it's a heart thing and it's a working out thing that happens in that. So I want to encourage you to go, if you're not a part of one, to check it out. Sign up if you are a part of one. Are you committed? Are you actively showing up, vulnerable, ready to, like, use your gifts to bless the body? Yeah. I'm gonna call up the band. Come on up. You know, all this sounds like really hard work, and I don't want to heap hard work upon you guys. That's not what I'm trying to do whatsoever. If we were to do this in the flesh, way too hard, count me out. But here's the thing is our unity, like I said, our unity is grounded in the Trinity. Well, it's made possible through the atoning work of Jesus and the empowering work of the Holy Spirit. This isn't something we do on our own. This is something God's actually actively doing inside of us. Each of us, each a member of the body. Jesus went to the cross willingly to free us from sin and bondage, to give us new life in him. That we together, we are each new creations, but we're also a new humanity together intended to bring him glory. And the Holy Spirit is forming in us. He's forming us each into the image of Jesus. And so I heard this cool story this last week. Two sisters in our community here, they're out in the community and they're talking and there was another person with them. And this person, one of them walked away. And this person said, there's something about, like just, there's something about you guys, I want what you have. And she said, you can have it. I was like, that's a beautiful picture. It's a beautiful picture of power. The power of a spirit shaped unity that only happens in the body. And it makes Jesus visible to a world that doesn't know him. You know, I See that in a lot of places in this church, in the quiet conversations that you have that lead to healing, in the way that you bear with one another in hard moments, where your lives are being shaken by a whole bunch of different things that could be happening, the way that you serve each other humbly. This is all a work of the Spirit in this church, guys, and it's a blessing. But at the same time, I believe he's calling us into more of it, more unity, like deepening our unity, our togetherness, our one body growing up into the head, which is Christ. Because here's the thing, we're not going to do it perfectly, but I think if we are genuine about it and it reflects our Lord Jesus and the way that he walked on this earth, the way he loved people just even a little bit, that's going to create something in people where they go, I want to know more about that thing. I want to know more what they're about. It's something for us to fight for, to maintain. Not for appearances, that's lame, but so that people can see Jesus more clearly, that more people can come to know him. Because church. Here's the thing is when we are one, the world sees the one. They see Him. He is beautiful. He is amazing. His kingdom, as Marla said earlier, it's worth investing in our lives, everything that we are. He's coming back. We want to see as many people in this valley as many people around the world, because to know who he is, to have that freedom, to be truly who they were created to be. And so when we are one, they get a chance to see Him. Yeah. Okay, I'm gonna pray. I'm gonna pray and have Tom come up and lead us in a response. Yeah. Father, thank you. You know best. You know best, and you're beautiful. I thank you for each of these wonderful people here. I thank you for the way that I see these gifts and this maturing process take place in here, this unity that has been happening within this church. And I want to ask that you would continue to pour out your spirit on each person here. And those that aren't here, they're a part of this church. And actually, the churches around this valley, that there would be a growing in unity, a growing in the youth of the gifts that you've given, that people would steward those in a way that would be beautiful and would bless the body, that they wouldn't bury them, but they would bring them out and they would bless through them that there would be a maturing, a growing in the knowledge of your scriptures, but also a growing in experience of you, Jesus, that the world around us, they might not agree with us, but they respect what we're doing, that they see Jesus. Yeah. Lord, would you empower this body? Would you bring to light gifts that people don't know? Would you start to give conviction into the places where people are being called to grow in maturity? And, Lord, would it be done fully just through your spirit, through the pouring out of your spirit on your people? I thank you, Lord. We praise you. We bless you. You're amazing. Pray this in your name, Amen.