Hebrews

Hebrews chapter 12.

We've been going through this book of Hebrews. There's been some absolutely terrific stuff. Rohri led us through these 2 mountains last week. Tom's gonna carry on with our, preaching through Hebrews. So Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 18.

Hebrews 12 verse 18. You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire to darkness, gloom, and storm, to a trumpet blast, or to such a voice speaking words that those who hear it begged that no further word would be spoken to them because they could not bear what was commanded. If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death. The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, I'm trembling with fear. But you have come to Mount Zion to the city of the living god, the heavenly Jerusalem.

You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven. You have come to god the judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to those sprinkled blood, and who and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word. Than the blood of Abel. See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him, who warned them on earth, how much less will we?

If we turn away from him, who warns us from heaven. At that time, his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised once more, I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. The words once more indicate the removing of what can be shaken that is created things so that cannot be shaken. So that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful.

So worship god acceptably, with reverence and awe. For our god is a consuming fire. Keep on loving 1 another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers for by doing so. Some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.

Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are ill treated as if you yourselves are suffering. Marriage should be honored by all. And the marriage bed kept pure. For god will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have because god has said Never will I leave you.

Never will I forsake you. So we say with confidence, the lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? Remember your leaders who spoke the word of god to you, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today and forever. Tom, there's a little fly flying around here, and it's extremely irritating. So you just left it there for me, have you? Really need to do. Brilliant.

Welcome. Lovely to see you. My name's Tom. I'm 1 of the pastors here if we haven't met before. And, if you could keep Hebrews 12 and 13 open in front of you, that would be great.

And, without wishing to sound like a cinema. If you haven't yet, put your phone on silent, if you've got 1 with you, then it would be good to do that. Might potentially save you a little bit of discomfort later on, and, certainly others as well. So please have a look at that. And as we come to god's word, let's pray together.

Heavenly father, we do thank you that you are a god with grace for every human need. Thank you that you have grace to forgive our wickedness and to remember our sins no more. Thank you that we come to you this morning as a people who need grace. We do not come here because we're perfect and without need. We come because we have great needs, and we need your forgiveness, and we need your help, and we need the law of god to be written upon our hearts by your spirit.

And we pray that you would help us as we think about what it means to worship you and to love you. And as we think about how to love 1 another, we know that these are not things that we can just manufacture from within. We we need you to give us the reality of the things we look at in your word. And so please be at work amongst us. We pray by your spirit and in Jesus name.

Amen. Well, we have come then to the final chapter of Hebrews. Here we are in Hebrews 13. We've been working our way through this wonderful letter for for many months now, and we've come to the climactic final chapter. And, I don't know what you think, but at first glance as we turned into chapter 13, you might wonder what the connection is between the beginning of 13 and the end of chapter 12 because as we saw last week very helpfully, we were on Mount Zion.

The end of chapter 12, and we were reminded that we are a people who have come to mount Zion to the joyful assembly of thousands upon thousands of angels and to the church of the first born, and we have come only because of the blood of Jesus Christ, our mediator, that blood which speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. And we've been taken up first with the experience of Mount Sinai in chapter 12, and then encouraged to come now to Jesus, who is Mount Zion, the great church, and the great promise, and the great covenant to us. And then as we come into chapter 13, it feels like the author, has just reached into this bag called Christian words and ideas and picked out a few and just, you know, set them on the table in front of us. You know, picks out 1, love your neighbor. He asked me, picks out 1 show hospitality.

Yeah, that's a Christian picks out 1, you know, honor the marriage bed. Yeah. That's Christian. Don't love money. Yeah.

So, you know, don't and he's just sort of laid out these Christian things for us. And at first glance, we might wonder what what actually is the connection here between chapter 12 and chapter 13? But that's why it's quite important for us to remember that in the original manuscripts that we have in the Bible, there is no such thing as the end of chapter 12 and the beginning of chapter 13. You know, those big numbers and those title breaks do help us because they serve as kind of way markers to help us navigate through the Bible, but in its most original form, it wasn't divided in such a way. And so chapter 12, the last verse of chapter 12, just flows immediately in to the beginning of chapter 13.

And when we read it like that, I think it sheds quite a lot of light on what the connection is. So have a look with me. Chapter 12 verse 28. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful and so worship god acceptably with reverence and awe. For our god is a consuming fire.

And we read that and we're thinking, okay, that's powerful. You know, God is a consuming fire, and, I've gotta worship him acceptably, and I need to do that because that's who god is, and that's the great calling on my life. And But how do I do that? What does it actually mean for me to worship god in acceptable way? Chapter 13 verse 1.

Keep on loving 1 another as brothers and sisters. Now in the original, that sentence is actually just 2 words. The first word is for brotherly love, and it literally means love for those of the same womb as you. That's what he's talking about. He's talking about family love.

He's talking about the love for brothers and sisters. He's talking about church family. And he wants us to understand that if you are a Christian here as part of his church, you are from the same spiritual womb as each other. You've been born of God. That's the first word.

Brother we love. The second is the word abide. The word which means to stay or to remain in a place and to even remain in a place when it's difficult to endure in a place. And so the connection, brothers and sisters who have come to mount Zion, who have come to god, who is king and lord and god and judge of all. Worship god, acceptably.

How do I do it? Brotherly love. Let it abide. Or to put it in the negative, if I am so taken up, with my personal experience of god on the mountain, and my own spiritual journey and my journey of faith that I have no lived concern for the brothers and sisters in my church, then Hebrews would say to me, that is unacceptable worship. That is worship which is irreverent.

The connection is if you know the high and holy god of Mount Zion, then you love your brothers and sisters in an abiding enduring sense. What a powerful connection that is? With 1 thought, he takes us up into the heavenly to this mountain of promise, and with his very next thought, he earths it down. Love your brothers and sisters. That's reverent.

That's reverent. This mountaintop experience of chapter 12 must be carried with us into the church life of chapter 13. And so today, we are just really going to look at 1 verse and it's verse 1. The rest of the verses in this chapter are gonna unpack and define for us what this love looks like. But it all begins, you notice, at home with the church family.

Hebrews 13 verse 1, how do you know if you're worshiping god in acceptable way? Keep on loving 1 another as brothers and sisters. And we will come to some of the challenges of that, but firstly, I want us to begin with an encouragement. So here's the first point on the screen. An encouragement for us.

Keep on loving 1 another as brothers and sisters. Let's look closely at the verse. Keep on. Loving 1 another as brothers and sisters. In other words, as the god who is a consuming fire looks down at this church.

He does not say I am commanding you to get something which you don't have. But rather, I'm encouraging you to press on in something that you do have. Keep keep on. Keep on. They do love 1 another.

We saw that back in Hebrews 6 verse 9 to 10 on the screen. Even though we speak like this dear friends, and he's just issued a strong warning, We are convinced of better things in your case. The things that have to do with salvation. God is not unjust. He will not forget your work.

And the love that you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. He wants them to be encouraged where they have reason to be encouraged. He's saying as I look at you, I see the fruit of salvation amongst you. You help 1 another. And you love Jesus by helping 1 another.

You're encouraging 1 another. You're not yet all of you giving up meeting together as others are in the habit of doing. You're gathering to consider and spur on 1 another. That's good. And that's glorious, and I want you to recognize it.

See it. And I think as elders of this church, we would put it exactly like that for cornerstone. It is a joy And I hope you experience this when you're here at Cornerstone to be in a church where there are so many ways in which people do help and love 1 another. They they keep on loving their brothers and sisters over the years. How how how many?

If we were to try to sort of add them all up, how many over the years? Kind words have been exchanged. And encouragement have been sent to 1 another. And how many texts have been sent at just the right time? How many meals have been made and delivered over the years?

How many people have served us this morning and have served across the 20 odd years of our life together. How many lifts have been offered? How many visits have been made? It would be hard for us to get any numerical grip on all of that over the years. And I hope you also see it's a joy to see this keep on happening amongst international and national boundaries.

You know, it is a joy for us to be in a church with so many nations where this love is happening between each other. We're largely speaking. There is a glorious sense of being together as 1 family. Just as a recent portrait of this, it was lovely for us. I think many of us felt to be out on Good Friday, outside the Bental Center, doing our Open Air Good Friday service.

And, if you just look at who made up the the band and the team that day, You know, we had, Paul and Finn. We had Dan. We had B. We had C. W.

We had Simon, and then serving refreshments inside. There were internationals and British born working together. That's just 1 flavor, partnering together, loving 1 another in order to serve our town with the gospel. That that's all great stuff. And it's a joy to be in a church where some people are here whenever they can possibly get here, even though they have great difficulties with their physical or their mental health, they are still here whenever they can be to encourage and love their brothers and sisters.

And so, of course, there are always things for churches to work on. But generally speaking, I don't think the command for us is get what you do not have, but keep on with what you do have with what god has given. Keep on loving 1 another. As brothers and sisters. That's the encouragement.

It's easy to miss, isn't it? It's easy to miss. It's easy to rob ourselves of reasons for thanks where we shouldn't. So keep on brothers and sisters. Keep on loving 1 another.

Secondly, let's look then at the challenge to us, the challenge to us. Keep on loving 1 another as brothers and sisters, 1 another. People in this room, 1 another. I was, reading this week about something which I, knew nothing about until this week. Hadn't even heard of it.

It's something called the Dunning Kruger effect. And I may have even mispronounced that. The Dunning Kruger effect. And basically what that is, it's the tendency of people with low ability in a specific area to give overly positive assessments of their ability in that area. So say it again, it's the tendency of people with low ability in a specific area to give overly positive assessments of their ability in that area.

And the most classic example of this which has been proven in many, many studies, as far as I can see, is driving. Most people genuinely think they are better than average drivers. Which I think is statistically impossible. I don't think most people can think they're better than average. You know, I don't know if that works, but but apparently they do.

Even people who sort of, you know, by all metrics have a very low ability to control and maneuver a car, they think that they are better than the average than most people. That's the Dunning Kruger effect in action. Another area where this happens is with people who are very into sort of fitness and well-being. So for instance, they might get a gym membership. And within a couple of weeks of attending the gym and watching some fitness videos, they then think they are experts when it comes to nutrition and physical health and exercise.

They speak as if, they they knew a lot, and actually they are overrating their own ability in that area. They don't know, as much as they think they know. So we humans are very good at this. We like to overrate our own ability in lots of areas. That's the Dunning kruger effect.

And my question would be, is it possible that we overrate our ability in loving the church? Do we overrate our own ability in loving the church. I think we can. And 1 of the reasons for that is because we think of church just in the abstract. I love the church.

You see, my problem with this verse or or rather the temptation that I face with this verse, keep on loving 1 another as brothers and sisters is that personally, I do not find that a disagreeable verse. You know, I read that and I think love your church. Yes, of course. Of course. That's what it means to be a Christian.

You love Jesus and you love the church. There is nothing disagreeable about that command to me. But then how easy it is to treat that just as a theological idea, and not to make it live and breathe. Among the actual 1 anothers that make up the church. I was on the k 1 this week, which is the bus that I get from very near my house to the hub.

It's 1 of my favorite buses. And, I was sat behind a lady, who was with her son. She was, son was probably primary age in, near the beginning, 4 or 5. And, on her phone, because it's very hard to resist the temptation, isn't it? You're over someone's shoulder and they're on their phone to see what they're doing.

For me, at least, I don't wanna speak to all of you. On her phone, on the wallpaper, there was a lovely picture of her son. And, it was 1 of those filtered pictures. He'd been put into black and white, and, he was running through the park and smiling. And it's that it was a delightful picture of the boy, who was sat next to her.

It was just interesting to me that for the entire length of the journey, which was about half an hour because we came from Tollworth into town together, she did not, and I took note of this because I spotted it early. She did not engage him or speak to him once for the entire journey because of the, because of the mobile phone. Now genuinely, I I'm sort of worried about this illustration because I I do not say that in order to condemn that is not a fair overall assessment of her parenting. And we've all had days. Haven't we?

Where a phone call or an email just sort of takes us away for longer than we'd like. But that little snapshot, was helpful as I was thinking about Hebrews 13 because it helped me to see that it is easy to be taken up with the filtered version of a person and not the 1 who is actually sat next to you. We are in love with this sort of the idea and the image of a thing, a curated image of it in our minds that we can see, but the real thing that is actually sat next to me is somehow not worthy of my love and time and engagement. That's what makes this command challenging. I think that's why we might overrate our own ability to love 1 another because when it comes to verse 1, no one's gonna disagree with it.

I don't think And yet, in reality, what we love is maybe a previous version of a church we once knew, or maybe a different church in our past. Or maybe brothers and sisters who aren't even here anymore. Or maybe we are in love with an idea of what the church could be, if only it were different. Or maybe we love the filtered version of the people. But when I see them with the filter off, then I'm not so interested in loving them.

Or maybe we love the idea of church, but we don't make it a priority to actually be at church regularly and on time so that we can love and encourage those who actually make up the church. And so do you see everybody loves church? Everybody loves church. But in our minds, I wonder whether we're often thinking about something else and not the actual names and faces which make up Cornerstone Church now. Keep on loving 1 another.

As brothers and sisters. He doesn't say keep on loving the church. He says keep on loving those people of the same womb as you. Your actual brothers and sisters in the lord at this church family, mainly. And does that mean we can't love brothers and sisters from other churches.

Of course, we can and we must, but it tends to be a little bit easier because I don't have to jolly see them very often. Yeah? So mainly these ones, he means, these actual ones, these names and faces. So to my mind and in my own heart, that is why I probably overrate myself in this area because I treat this kind of command in the abstract. But Hebrews 13 just will not allow it.

Love is hospitality. Love is remembering those in prison. Love is encouraging your leaders. Love is being faithful in your marriages. There is nothing abstract about it.

And we're gonna look at those things together in future weeks. But in the time left today, we're just gonna spend a bit more time on this point of being brothers and sisters because it seems to me that if we can get our shared identity right, then everything else will follow on. We can get this 1 right that we're brothers and sisters here, then I think we'll find that all the others will follow. And so we've had the encouragement and we mustn't forget it. Keep on.

We have it. Keep on. Keep on loving 1 another. The challenge. Keep on loving 1 another.

Rather than this concept of church which hangs above us since 1 another. Keep on loving 1 another then thirdly and lastly as brothers and sisters. Keep on loving 1 another as brothers and sisters. And we need to, understand how radical this was for the original hearers. Because for a Jewish audience or for those who'd come from a Jewish background, at least, your brothers were your people.

So who are you gonna help? And who are you gonna serve? And who are you gonna cook for? And which prison visit are you gonna prioritize? Not gentiles.

You're gonna prioritize love for your Jewish brothers. That's the thinking or it would have been much of the thinking for their for their history. But in this kingdom, which cannot be shaken. There is a glorious expansion of who the family is. And the roots of that, we saw together all the way back in Hebrews 2.

This is where that thinking begins. In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that god for whom and through whom everything exists should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. Both the 1 who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. And so Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. It's 1 of my favorite verses in the whole book there.

Jesus is not ashamed to call his church brothers and sisters. As the risen savior looks upon the church, and he sees people from a Jewish background. He says those are my brothers and sisters. And as he looks at the church and he sees believers from a gentile background, he says those are my brothers and sisters. And as he looks at the church and he sees English British born members, he says those are my brothers and sisters.

And as he looks at the church and he sees international born members, he says those are my brothers and sisters. As he looks at the culture, which is known for being loud and expressive, he says, they're my brothers and sisters. As he looks at the culture, which is known for being more quiet and reserved, he says, yeah, those are my brothers and sisters. He looks at them all, And he says, they're my brothers and sisters, and I'm not ashamed to call them such. And if that is how the lord Jesus names us, dare we think of each other in any other way?

Keep on loving 1 another as brothers and sisters. I know it's a familiar idea to many of us here, but if we are Christians this morning, part of Cornerstone Church, We are a family. We are a family to Jesus, and we are a family to 1 another. And Hebrews is saying, that has got to be worked out. If we are going to love each other in an enduring way, our brotherliness and our sisterliness has to be thought about and then applied into our actual relationships.

That's how we'll do it. On the next few slides, I've tried to get together all of the things that unite us as brothers and sisters. From Hebrews or Hebrews 1 to 12, at least. These are all the things which we have in common together if we're Christians here. And I you why we're gonna do this in a minute.

So have a look up on the screen. Same ancestors in the faith. Same lord of all things. Same creator. Same savior who has purified us from our sins.

Same superior name we trust in. Same warnings against drifting away. Same message entrusted to us. Same holy spirit giving us gifts. Same crowns of glory and honor.

Same creation under us. Same glory we've been given, same pioneer of salvation, same holiness in Christ, same identity in the eyes of Jesus with family, same flesh and blood, same freedom from death and the devil. Same merciful and faithful high priest, same heavenly calling, same apostle, same builder of the house, same house we belong to, same confidence and hope in which we glory, same possibility of a hard heart. Same call to encourage, same need of encouragement, same promise of rest, same command to enter that rest, same living and active word of god to sit under, same lord to whom we must give account, same priest who has been tempted in every way, same throne of grace to approach. Same mercy and grace to help us in times of need, same source of eternal salvation, same need for solid food and training, same strong warnings against falling away.

Same encouragement to show diligence to the very end. Same call to imitate people of faith, same anchor for the soul, secure, and firm, same forerunner who has entered god's presence on our behalf, same guarantor of a better covenant, same priest who always lives to intercede for us, same wants and for all sacrifice for sins. Same law on our hearts and minds, same blood of Christ to cleanse the conscience, same living god to serve, same eternal inheritance, Christ appearing for us now in god's presence, the same 1, same destiny to die once, same second coming to wait for, same enemies under the foot stall of Christ, same confidence to enter the holy place, same assurance that faith brings, same faithful god, same command to love and spur 1 another on, same command to not give up meeting together. Same day to prepare for, same conflicts in the world, insult, and persecution, same lasting possession and ritual reward, same confidence in what we hope for, same assurance in what we do not see. Same great cloud of witnesses surrounding us.

Same sins which threaten to entangle. Same race marked out for us. Same pioneer and perfecter of faith. Same hearts which can grow weary. Same struggle against sin.

Same father who disciplines those he loves. Same feeble arms and weak knees. Same caution against bitterness and immorality, same mountain, city, assembly, god, judge, mediator, same voice who speaks to us, same unshakable kingdom, same call to worship god. Exceptably. These are the things which you have in common with your brothers and sisters.

These are all the things that we are united in. And which we share together, isn't that glorious? Now here's a second list which is shorter. These are things which might divide us as brothers and sisters in Christ. Now here, I have not included false gospels and heresy, which require separation.

Or major major sin, which requires a form of separation. These are things which divide us or could divide us which ought not to and which will not, if we can get the first list. Yeah? Here we go. Your music style is different from mine.

Your food traditions are unfamiliar to me. You value value structure and planning. I value flexibility. You prefer formal communication. I prefer informal conversation.

You value tradition. I value innovation. You prioritize relationships. I prioritize tasks and outcomes. The I isn't me in this.

I just wanted to say it's not you and I here. I'm not sort of I'm speaking it with a royal you and a royal I. The way we write and send messages feels normal to us. It feels rude or unclear to you. You express disagreement directly.

I express disagreement more carefully. You are comfortable with change. I find change difficult. You support this political party. I don't think politics matters.

You take 1 view on a less central doctrine. I take another view on a less central doctrine. Your culture is loud and expressive. My culture is quiet and reserved. You think of hospitality in 1 way.

I think of hospitality in another way. You ask lots of questions. I feel questions may sound confrontational. You value the education of children highly. I'm not persuaded that school means anything.

Now please hear me on this. I'm not wanting to suggest that these things never need confronting and that these things never need talking about or dealing with, but mostly they don't. And in fact, they should be reasons for us to rejoice that we are different and that we come together as brothers and sisters. And so the question for us, and I'm trying to make it as practical as we can when it comes to loving our brothers and sisters in the church, will we allow those weighty uniting things from list a chiefly that we are blood bought and of the same womb brothers and sisters, will we allow those things to largely cover over the things in list B? Or do we want to be in a church where the things in list B rise up and roll over and crush everything good and bonding about the things in list A?

How do we wanna live? How do we want to think about each other? That's the question. This is gonna seem like a weird illustration, but we, we got a book out from the library in the past couple of weeks about, sea creatures And, 1 of the ones I was reading yesterday with the kids was about porcupine fish or puffer fish. And, you, you all will have seen these things.

I'm sure. They, kinda, I don't know if I can get that up. Can I use that? Coming up. There it is.

You see a porcupine fish or a puffer fish and it's, you know, swimming into the pool and it's looking all relaxed and calm and its spines are all relaxed at that point. But then it sees something, which it thinks it's dangerous. Or for the purpose of this illustration, it sees something which is annoying to it, and, it goes like this. Yeah. And it explodes.

I mean, what a creature that is. That's a phenomenal thing, isn't it? Yeah? And so there it is to begin with, it comes and it comes into church, if you like, and it's swimming in, and its spines are all relaxed. And, you know, it's smiling, and it's ready to be happy and to love other people in the same part of the part of the pool or the ocean.

But then it sees something which annoys it or it hears something which irritates it and it puffs it puffs up and is ready to do battle with its brothers and sisters in the ocean. And can't we be like that? You know, we approach church or we wake up in the morning, and we're swimming in, and we're happy, and we're smiling, and our spines are down. But then somebody says something to us, or they don't, they ignore us. Or at least we perceive that they've ignored us, or they avoid us, or do something we'd rather they didn't, and whether externally or internally, we pop up like this.

Yeah? Most British people do it internally, you know, the the puffer fish has still gone, but it's inside and it's smiling. And if you could see it, what it actually is, that's what it is on the inside. Yeah? That's so so common.

And so at that point, I'll get that off the screen now. At that point, I've gotta learn to think right. Haven't haven't I? I've got to say to myself, Tom, remember the lists. For some reason, god decided to save people, Tom, who aren't exactly like you in every way.

And if only he'd consulted you, Tom, you could have given him advice on, what sort of people ought to be in the church. But I'm afraid he decides who comes to church, not you. And so what am I gonna do? I've gotta say to myself, this is a brother or sister for whom Christ died. So I will work at love.

Because Christ has first loved me. And I will try to memorize just 2 or 3 things from list a, and I will just take a moment in my puffed up state. To drift off to some cave where I can calm down, and I will say to myself, 2 or 3 of those things, and then I'll say God help me because the things that bind us together are so much more beautiful and weighty than this silly thing, which I've probably misinterpreted anyway. And so help me help me to see these things and to keep on treating them as brothers and sisters. That's real life, isn't it?

And so, yes, sometimes in this church, we will feel like ignoring each other. And we will want to avoid each other, and we will be a pain in the neck to 1 another sometimes. And sometimes I'm gonna feel myself inflating rapidly, but I'm going to keep going at this because the unifying factors in our relationship are not that we come from the same country. And not that we have the same social background, and not that we like the same food or the same music, and not that we have the same approach to education or the same politics. The unifying factor is that we are from the same womb.

See, sometimes I think that in order to love each other authentically, it feels like that love must be spontaneous and free. Know, it's just gotta come and be free. Biblical love is never automatic in that way. Never. It must be worked on and thought about or like water in a leaky bucket.

We will find it flows away Oh, so quickly. If it's not thought about and worked on. Keep on loving 1 another as brothers and sisters. Friends, if you wanna know whether you have any reverence for god in your heart or whether you are worshiping god in an acceptable way, then how do you feel when you look at list a? And how do you feel in applying it to 1 another?

That's how you tell if you're worshiping god in an acceptable way. How do we know if we even believe that god is a consuming fire? We love his family. We love his family. Reverence for god is when you look at the first list and say, yeah, that's my people.

That's who they are. That's the names and the faces in my church. That's that's who they are. And so the challenge for us to reflect on, if we are coming and really it's just a kind of come when we can come if it's convenient for us. Just to sort of check-in with god from time to time.

And if there is no growing interest in the people who actually make up the church, then whatever that is, it is not acceptable worshiping God's sight. If we are just in love with the idea of church, whether it be a former 1 or a future 1 or a filtered 1, then whatever that is, it is not acceptable worship to the god who is a consuming fire. If we are willing to call certain people, brothers and sisters, but not others, Then whatever that is, that is not acceptable worship to the god who is a consuming fire. The worship that god loves is the earthy, practical, help, and encouragement given to the actual people who make up the actual church. And as I said at the beginning, by god's grace, I think that is something that we really do have.

And I think we ought to be encouraged that as god looks upon our body of believers, of course, there's ways we can grow. But I think he would say to us, keep on. Keep on loving 1 another. 1 another. As brothers and sisters.

Let's take a moment quiet, and I'll just give you an opportunity to think about that. It might be that there is a particular name or face who you'd like to pray about or pray for. Perhaps there's a conversation it would be appropriate to have with somebody in response to this. Maybe you just wanna say thank you for the church that you're part of. Anything at all.

Let's have a few minutes of quiet, and then we'll pray. Father, we are so grateful to you for all the ways in which, you do enable us and help us to love 1 another in this church. Think of that being scripture if if, you know, all all the books in the world wouldn't be able to hold all the deeds and the words and the things that have that have been done over the years. And, we are so grateful to have this and to see this and, We trust that for us as a church, this is a keep on message and not a get what you don't have message. Please help us.

We pray, and we recognize the temptations and the challenges we face. It's so easy for us to turn these things into the abstract to overrate our own ability in these areas. We pray that you would save us from just loving theological ideas that have no bearing on reality. Help us please to love the brothers and sisters, the 1 anothers who make up this church. We're so grateful for 1 another.

Please help us. We pray to love 1 another and to do this for the glory of the lord Jesus Christ who is a consuming fire. We love him. We want to serve him and understand him better, and we want to love 1 another in his name. So help us we pray in Jesus name.