The Final Blessing

To the book of 2nd Corinthians chapter 13.

2nd Corinthians chapter 13. This morning we're going to finish the book of 2nd Corinthians. We'll put a nice little bow on it. Send it off to whoever it needs to go to. And as we do so. I've entitled this morning's message. The final blessing. So we're going to be looking at these last four verses. And this final blessing that Paul gives to the people of Corinth.

As he finishes up this book. I've said before that this has been a. It's a difficult book to teach. It's almost like taking someone's personal journal. And drawing lessons out of it. Because that's really a lot of what this is. It's the most personal. Straight from the heart book that Paul wrote. And because of that. The very personal nature of it makes it very difficult to bring out the truth.

But may I say. I feel like it's been a very profitable book to go through. I feel like for myself. As well as many of us here. We've confronted a lot of things. In life. That we wouldn't have confronted any other way. Other than going through such a personal book. And so as we draw to a close. It takes an interestingly very upbeat turn. In these last few verses.

What has at times been a painful book to read. What has at times been harsh messages. Now takes a very positive turn. As he gives in this final blessing. And so we pick up in verse 11. Of chapter 13. He says finally brethren. Rejoice. Be made complete. Be comforted. Be like minded. Live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss.

All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the love of God. And the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Be with you all. He starts off by saying. Finally brethren. As I was preparing for this. Actually not this last week. But the week before. I had originally. Intended for this last little section. To be included with. What I was going to cover last week.

But that phrase finally brethren. Stuck out to me. And I thought what a great way. To sort of recap what we've learned. In the book of 2nd Corinthians. Right. And so as I started thinking about it. I went through. And thought. These were all lessons from the heart of the pastor. So what were some of the lessons that stuck out to me. Well first of all. In the first seven chapters.

We looked at lessons. In the heart of ministry. And so. As we looked at those lessons from the heart of ministry. We learned that God is a God of comfort. That he comforts all those. Who are broken hearted. That he comforts all those who are in need of comforting. And I think. As we look over these last couple of years. Of life. We've been in a place where we need a lot of comfort.

I feel like our culture is in a place. Where we need a lot of comfort right now. Due to the great loss that's been experienced. As well as the great. Discouragement that's been experienced in the lives of people. And so we learned. This lesson from the heart of the pastor. As she shared with us. Is that God is a God of comfort. So that we can then go and share that comfort.

With the people that are around us. The only way Paul was able to learn that lesson. Is because he learned that lesson. In a very personal nature. And I don't know about you. But for me. God has been in the process of teaching me this lesson. In a very personal nature. So that I can then take it to the people that are around me. And so we learned finally. That God is a God of comfort.

We learned the lesson of forgiveness. We learned that there had been an individual. That Paul had. Had to deal with while he was there. And he urged them to forgive this individual. And I think there's another great need. That we have in the church today. And that's for people to quit harboring unforgiveness. Against those that have hurt them. There's a great need for those to quit harboring.

Angry feelings toward those that. Have done some wrong to them. And I don't care what the wrong is. God tells us to forgive. God urges us to give that forgiveness. Because not only does it restore. Our relationship with the. Individual but it restores. Our relationship with God. Because when we harbor unforgiveness. It actually puts a block between us. And the Lord because the very heart.

Of God towards us is forgiveness. Therefore how can we withhold forgiveness. From those that are around us. But not only does it restore our relationship. With each other restore our relationship. With God but it's truly the most. Mentally physically. And emotionally healthy thing that we do. Is to forgive people. I actually would venture to say. A great deal of people that are dealing with.

Some aspect of health issues in their life. That would go back to anxiety. That I would tell you a lot of it has to do with. Withholding forgiveness in the life of an individual. And it's caused bitterness. And that bitterness is actually affecting. Not only their mental health. But at times even their physical health. And so we learn the lesson of forgiveness.

We learn the lesson. And this was a difficult one. Of faith under pressure. That though the afflictions of life. The pressures of life. May be heavy upon us. Though as Paul said we have been struck down. We have not been destroyed. And perhaps many of you. As we went through this study. Of faith under pressure. You found yourself relating with the idea. Of being struck down.

You said I can relate with that. But remember that in Christ we are not destroyed. Because he is greater. Though our faith in a risen savior. Holds up under the pressures of this life. Because if we ever question. Whether or not we have victory. May I tell you there is an empty tomb. That declares that we do. Because the very life of Christ. Guarantees that faith.

Will hold up under pressure. We learned about our eternal hope. That though this outward body. Is decaying. Though this outward body. Is experiencing those pressures. And those afflictions. And when we look at the things. That we deal with physically. We say oh my gosh. I can see the decay of life. That it's had upon me. Though our outward man is decaying. Yet our.

Inward man. Is being renewed day by day. Because what we dwell in right now. Is a tent. It is a temporary dwelling place. And eventually this tent. Will be laid aside. And we will go before our father. Where we will receive a building from God. Not made with hands. Eternal in the heavens. And that hope is what allows us. To be able to hold on for another day.

That hope is what gives us. The ability to deal with the lost. It's one of the things. That gives us the comfort. That we need in life. It's one of the things. That gives us the comfort. That we need to continue going. Because we can say. This place is not our home. I have something beyond here. Though all of the things of this life. May be going against me.

Though the pressures of this life. May seem greater than I can hold. I can know that my hope is not in this earth. And I don't have to think. But it's going to get better here. Because as we talked about. It's not going to get better here. Things on this earth. Aren't going to continue to get better. I heard somebody. Say yesterday. We just need to hold on.

Because maybe it'll get a little better. It's not going to get a little better. Okay. The time when it's going to get a little better. Is when we go home to be with Jesus. Because that's our eternal hope. And while we're here. We have a job to do. Because the very next lesson. That we learned. Was about godly conduct. And in our aspect of godly conduct. We learn not only are we to.

Not take the grace of God in vain. In other words. Not allow the grace of God. To cause us to live. Licentiously. Because after all. I can just use my grace credit card. To cover all of my sin bills. We learned that grace does not mean. That we can take the grace of God. And become self-righteous. And claim it as our own. And say oh look at how good I am. If only everybody would come talk to me.

I could tell them exactly. How they're supposed to live their life. And the grace of God. Also should not cause apathy in our life. It should not cause us to lack care. About the things of this life. And just say oh well. Everything is what it is. I'm just going to. Float through life. Until I can finally make it to heaven. No the grace of God. Is the very opposite of that.

The grace of God produces holiness. The grace of God produces humility. And the grace of God produces passion in our lives. That we would walk with Jesus wholeheartedly. And as I said before. Our godly conduct also tells us. That we are ambassadors for Christ. In other words. I am his representative on earth. Therefore. As I live with this eternal hope. I realize that my ministry.

Is leading other people. To the same eternal hope. We also learned. As we wrapped up the aspect of the heart of ministry. About the heart of ministry. As Paul shared with us. That there's two main goals. Behind this heart of ministry. The first goal is that we would have unity. Unity in our lives with Jesus Christ. And then unity with each other. That we as the body of Christ.

Are not just a bunch of disjointed members. We are members of a body. And we are a family. That has been knit together by the grace of God. And then as there is unity. Sometimes there also needs to be repentance. Because when we stray from that unity. Either with Christ or with each other. There should be great repentance. And the heart of ministry. Is to call people within the church to repentance.

But also to call people outside of the church to repentance. To come and be a part of this great body of Christ. And so we learn lessons from the heart of ministry. But the second aspect that we covered. Is we learned lessons from the heart of giving. And hopefully we understood. As we went through these lessons from the heart of giving. That it's not anything about the gift that you give.

It's about the heart of the giver. Because lessons in the heart of giving. Mean that I will respond to all that Jesus has done for me. With every aspect of my life. Not just spiritually speaking. But there's a response. That should encompass every aspect of my life. Because there should be a full and complete surrender to God. With every fiber of my being. Whether it be with the things that I think.

The things that I say. The things that I do. The lifestyle that I live. And the way that I spend my money. They are all to be fully and completely surrendered to the Lord. I hate to keep going back and referencing Andrew Murray's book. No I don't. I love to go back and reference Andrew Murray's book. Absolute Surrender. And that one line that just continues to run through my mind.

He says what God is looking for in a surrendered soul. Is first a willing heart. And a willing mind. And he said some of you may find yourself saying. I don't even know if I'm willing to be surrendered to the Lord. And he said this needs to be your prayer. Lord I am willing. That you should make me willing. To be surrendered to you. And brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.

I think sometimes God just needs us to start off by saying. Lord I am willing. To be willing. To be surrendered to you. And then let him do the rest of the work in your life. And so we looked at that aspect of God's grace. And giving in our lives. And then of course the last section. Which should be the freshest in your mind. Is. We talked about the heart of the apostle.

Which ultimately was the defense of the apostle. Where he first of all told us about his authority that he had. Because of those that were detractors. Those that were against him. He reaffirmed to them the authority that he has as an apostle. Then he shared with us the credentials that he had. And the credentials looked a lot different. Than what most people think credentials should look like.

It had nothing to do with papers that he would hang on a wall. Or accolades that he would be able to share. It had everything to do with his deep love for the church. And the suffering that he had experienced for the gospel. And then of course he wrapped up with talking about his brokenness. And what I would consider to be the pinnacle of the book of second Corinthians.

When he said I implored the Lord three times to remove this thorn from me. This thorn that had caused me to be humble and on my knees before the Lord. This thorn that was given to me to show my great need for the work of God in my life. And I implored the Lord three times to remove this thing from me. And this was the answer that Jesus gave him. My grace is sufficient for you.

My strength is made perfect in your weakness. Therefore I would rather glory in affliction. I am well contended with weakness. Because when I am weak then I am strong. And he shares with us that heart that he had. That the greatest thing that he could be. Is beautifully broken. Broken before the Lord in such a way that he says. I literally have nothing other than what God gives to me.

Other than the grace that God gives to me. And you know what? That's the most satisfied place I can be in all of my walk with Jesus Christ. Is in a place of complete, total, utter dependence on the power of God. For the very next breath that I breathe. And as he wraps all of that up. He now returns to this final blessing. Where he says, finally brethren. Finally brethren.

And now he's going to give six exhortations. Number one, he says, rejoice. Some of your translations may read there, finally brethren, farewell. Unfortunately that is a poor translation. On this one I do prefer the New American Standard translation. Where it says rejoice. As a matter of fact, if you looked up the word farewell. It also means rejoice. And that's the idea that's being given there.

He says, finally brethren, rejoice. The word rejoice literally means to be exceedingly glad. In the English dictionary it says, to feel or show great joy or delight. And it's the joy that can only come from walking with the Lord. After all of the sadness. After all of the having to lay on them their need for repentance. And so many of these things that they needed to do.

He says, finally brethren, rejoice. But how could they ever be in a place where they could be exceedingly glad. And showing their great joy that was inside. Inside of them. Well you and I both know that there's a key to joy. And it means to put Jesus first. Your self last. And others in between. You see, the only way that these Corinthian people could come to a place where their lives were full of rejoicing.

Is if they would begin to put things in the proper perspective. That if their walk with Jesus Christ was the most important thing that they had in their life. And their being right with Jesus was the most important thing that they had in their life. Because quite frankly friends. Being right with Jesus is the most important thing that we have in our lives. I'll go back to what my daughter said.

Remember Nora. Why do those kids do those things to themselves? Because they didn't understand their purpose in life. And I said, and Violet, what's our purpose in life? And she said, to know Jesus. Because that's the point. That's the purpose. Right? Is knowing God. Therefore if I want the most joy. And rejoicing in my life. Then I will fulfill my purpose.

Which means being right with Jesus. Passionately following Him. I can do everything else in the world right. I can have the best job in the world. I can be the best father in the world. I can be the best husband in the world. I can be the greatest friend in the world. But if I'm not right with Jesus. And I'm not pursuing Him with all of my heart. There's no real joy in my life.

And quite frankly if I'm not right there. I'll never be right here. Because the other aspect. Of this rejoicing. Is that my life be right with others. Because I've put myself last. He says, finally brethren. Rejoice. The second thing he tells them is. He says, be made complete. Be made complete. Now. I enjoy what the English Standard Version. Does with this verse.

Because I think it carries the true meaning. Of what Paul intends here. When he gives this phrase, be made complete. The English Standard Version says. Aim for restoration. Isn't that great? I love that phrase. Matter of fact. Someone should put that on their wall. Right? Like we should make a t-shirt that says. Aim for restoration. Because that's what we are ultimately trying to do in our lives.

Right? May I also point out to you. That within three verses. This is the second time Paul has made this exact same statement. Only the first time it was his prayer for the people. He said, my prayer for you is that you be made complete. That you would. Be made complete with each other. Now he continues that phrase and gives them the exhortation. Now you be made complete.

Aim for restoration. I'll tell you the exact same thing I told you last week. Because Paul repeated himself. Right? The word made there. Is the word that could also be used for mending of nets. The idea is to sew or mend back together. The word complete can be translated restoration. So in other words. It is to mend or to restore. So what needs to be mended or restored?

The same thing I just talked about in the last verse. Ryan, you're repeating yourself. I can't help it. The Bible does it. Right? Where does restoration begin? It begins in my relationship with Jesus Christ. You see. Here's what we need to understand about the Corinthian church. Is the same thing that we need to understand about the church today. Do you know why the church is so fractured today?

Fractured with each other. And I don't even just mean all of the churches out there. I mean sometimes even the church here at Calvary Chapel of Arc City, Kansas. Why are there sometimes fractures with each other? Because first of all, we're fractured with the Lord. First of all, there's some aspect of our lives that need to get right with Jesus. No, Ryan. They're the one that offended me.

No, you're the one that got offended. Get it right with Jesus first. Figure out why that bothered you so much. Get right with Jesus first. And then you can begin to get right with each other. Because we must aim for restoration in our walk with Jesus Christ. That means that there's going to have to take a time where we sit down and say, Lord, search me and know me and see if there is any wicked way in me.

So that I can confess things to you. And then one of the greatest parts of our prayer life should be our time spent in confession to the Lord. And I don't mean just, Lord, I'm sorry I did some dumb things. No. Get real serious with God. And start really confessing the thoughts, the feelings, the actions, the emotions where you have been wrong. Because that's the only way that restoration can come in our relationship with Jesus Christ.

And then, as God has searched your heart and you have confessed your sin, believe that you are forgiven. Believe that you are forgiven. Believe that you are forgiven. Believe that you are forgiven. Because 1 John 1 says, if you confess your sin, he is faithful, because that's who he is. And he is just, because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, to forgive us of our sin.

And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But then once my relationship is right here, then I start getting my relationship right here. And it may mean sometimes I have to have a hard conversation. It may mean I have to humble myself and go to somebody and say, I'm sorry. But you see, if we are to be made complete, there's action that's taken on our part.

We have to aim for restoration. There's another way that this word complete can be translated. The other way that it can be translated is this. And that is to be fully equipped or mature. To be fully equipped. To be fully equipped or mature. So let's explore that aspect for just a moment, shall we? Had an interesting conversation. Several of us were sitting after we had gotten, finished getting a bunch of decorating done on Wednesday night.

Had an interesting conversation with my daughter. And she said, what's it mean to be mature? And she asked Mr. Davis and I. And we both figured we probably were not the right people to ask about that. I said, surely there's a, but our wives were there. We knew they were the right ones to ask, right? So. So as we talked through it, we kind of landed on, you know, maturity is really being able to put somebody before yourself.

That really is kind of the aspect of maturity. I think the dictionary definition is to forego temporary pleasure. I think that's actually the definition of maturity. And so maturity as believers in Jesus Christ means I eventually get to the place where I'm putting others above myself. Gosh, it's almost like I just keep saying the same thing over and over again, right?

But I would use another word for that. I would use. I would use the word love. You see, maturity for the Christian means that I am growing in love. I am growing in love for my savior, but I am also growing in love for the body of Christ because that's maturity. That's what it looks like to begin to become a mature believer in Jesus Christ. I think sometimes we don't have that view of maturity.

I think sometimes the view that we have of maturity is someone who really knows a lot about the Bible. Now, listen, those two things often go hand in hand. But I know a lot of people that know. I know a lot about the Bible that aren't very mature because they don't care about anybody else. They only care about their knowledge. And that's not maturity. Sometimes I think we think maturity means it means I don't sin anymore.

Listen, I know some people that are pretty good people from the world standards, but they don't love anybody. And matter of fact, they'll just tell you how good a person they are. So maturity means I'm growing in love. On Wednesday nights, we've been going through the law. And as we continue going through the law, I'll continue to point out the same two things.

That the law can be summed up by these two things. The law can be summed up by loving God and loving other people. That's why when we move into the New Testament, Jesus said, A new commandment I give unto you, that you love each other, that you love your neighbor as you love yourself. You know why he gives us that new commandment? Because we're not smart enough to follow all the other 395 commandments.

He says, If we will just love God with everything in us, and then love each other, then we will become mature believers in Jesus Christ. I said, Now, wait a second, Ryan. You just gave me two completely different definitions of the same word. Did I? Because I would venture to say that if you are to be made complete, you cannot be restored unless you become mature.

And you cannot become mature unless you become restored. I would tell you that you can't have one without the other. And that that's actually the exact same thing. And so he says, Rejoice, be made complete. The next one that he says is to be comforted. Number three is be comforted. The word comfort is the same word that's used in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, which is the same word that's used in John chapter 14 when Jesus promises a comforter.

And the word is this. It means, To come alongside and encourage. That's the idea behind the word comfort. And so it could say, Be comforted or be encouraged. The idea is that we are to encourage one another because some of your translations may say encourage one another. And I think that it works kind of both ways. I think there's ultimately two different exhortations that are here.

First of all, I think that we are to encourage one another. In other words, call each other aside. And let each other know just how good of a job that you're doing. Let each other know that you're not alone, that you've got a friend in me, right? That you can do, through the work of Jesus Christ, the thing that you're trying to do right now. I think that one of the greatest things that happened during VBS is to see the little kids have somebody older come alongside them

and put their arm around them and encourage them to do the right thing. One of the great things that happened to us when we went to that camp a couple of weeks, a couple of weeks ago, is that my daughter got to see a bunch of, both my daughters got to see a bunch of older girls, a bunch of 19, 20-something-year-old girls, encourage her in the things of God and let her know through their actions that she was not the only one trying to live for Jesus, that there's a bunch of other young folks that have that desire. And so, my friends, encourage one another, right? I don't have the gift of encouragement.

Listen, you can still do it, right? The greatest things. The greatest things that ever happened to me are when someone just simply lets me know that they're praying for me or that they care. And I think words like that go a long way in the lives of each other. We are to comfort and encourage one another. The other aspect of it is that we should be allowing ourselves to be encouraged by the Lord.

Ryan, God's not here. He's not putting His arm around me. I understand that. But God has given us an entire book full of scriptures and promises that He can give to us. I remember Pastor Mark sharing at one point in time that we must learn to encourage ourselves in the Lord, comfort ourselves in the Lord. In other words, allow God to comfort us through His Word.

How does that work? You need to figure out what the promises of God are from His scripture. I say figure out because you need to get into it for yourself. And you need to pray, Lord, show me the verses that are for me. Because, listen, there's some that are just for you. I realize everybody gets to read them. But God means those for you. And He wants you to find those scriptures.

And as you find those scriptures, that becomes your encouragement. And when life seems to go the wrong direction, when life is becoming a great big bummer, you can say, but Lord, this is what your Word says. Do you remember that story about David? David and his mighty men were living with the Philistines, which was a bad idea. And they went out to fight with the Philistines, which was a bad idea.

But the Philistines sent them back. And when they went back to the town that they were from, their town got raided and all of their families got stolen. And you know who everybody looked at and they were really angry with? David. And David was like, uh, my bad. And he kind of starts getting a little bit nervous. But you know what it says David does? It says, David encouraged himself in the Lord.

That's a direct quote. David encouraged himself in the Lord. What does that mean? He reminded himself that God is in control. He reminded himself of God's promises. Let me tell you. A little something that happened here last. I don't even know when it was. Friday night? Is that when the air conditioners went out? Yeah. So here we were. We got 70 little kids in here plus 50 leaders.

That's a lot of bodies in one sanctuary. And I'm singing songs and doing actions, which is literally the most embarrassing thing in the world for me to do. So I'm already warm because of that. And I sweat like a champion. I have no idea why, but I just am really good at it. And so I'm standing. I'm down here singing songs. And I'm going, dude, I don't feel any cold air moving.

This is not good. This is a bad situation. This is bad. Right? That's how I felt. And so we realized every single air conditioner in the entire building went out. That's a bad night. Right? Luckily, they were tiny kids and not big kids or adults because tiny kids, I don't think they know the difference. They're sweaty all the time anyway. Right? Like, this is what they do.

They're like, whatever. I stink. Yeah. Right? Right? Every teenager, every little boy is just like, smell me. I smell bad. Anyway, so we're like, oh, my gosh, what are we going to do? And I said, this is the perfect object lesson because our lesson was God is faithful. Trust God. And it's like Pastor Allen and I just had to say, we just got to trust the Lord.

God's got a plan in this. This is just attack from the enemy. And we encouraged ourselves in the Lord. Mutually encourage each other because we're like, this is just attack from the enemy. We ought to trust God. We ought to trust God because he really does know what's going on right now. That's what it means to allow God to comfort you, to be comforted. But I want to speak a word to some of you right now because some of you are not good

at letting somebody come along and comfort you. You're not good at letting somebody come along and encourage you. As a matter of fact, you can believe God's promises for everybody else but you. And somebody tries to give you a word of encouragement and you say, I know, but stop. Allow that to encourage you. And this is, I really do believe this is a word for somebody here.

You need to allow somebody to encourage you because you're going through difficult things. You're going through hard stuff and you need to allow someone to encourage you. The most frustrating thing in the world is when you know beyond a shadow of a doubt, God gave you a word of encouragement for somebody. You go and you put your arm around them and you give them this word of encouragement and they almost tell you, but that's not for me.

And you're like, but that is for you. I know I can believe that for everybody else, but not for me. You don't know what's really going on. You basically are saying that the promises of God are not true. Allow yourself to be comforted. Allow yourself to be encouraged. And so he says, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted. Number four is to be like minded, to be like minded.

The word literally means agree with one another. Now listen, we live in a world where nobody agrees with each other, right? Like you want to, no, don't do this. It's a terrible idea. I was going to tell you, if you want to figure out who agrees with you, go talk to somebody about a vaccine, but don't do that. That's a terrible idea, right? Right now on Facebook, the little thing popped up underneath and just said, find out more

information about the COVID-19 vaccine, right? I hope that that happened or I just got censored one or the other. Anyway. We don't agree with each other very much, right? Even within the church. I don't care what your thoughts are either way on this, by the way, do what you want to do. I don't care. But when it comes right down to it, we have a hard time agreeing with one another.

This, what he's saying does not mean you cannot have a mind of your own. It means that we as the church need to be on the same page. We as the church need to be in the same book and we are to be like minded. The only way. That I can know that we can be like minded is if we will all stay focused on Jesus and make sure that knowing him and bringing other people to him is the focus of our life.

Sometimes I hear little debates come up. I hear people be like, well, I'm not getting my way about this within this church or other churches or whatever. Well, that's not the way I want it to be. And they get all upset. They get all upset about things. And then I think real seriously about what I've had to do in the last seven months, what I've had to do over the last four years, the number of funerals that I've performed, the

number of people I've had to come alongside and comfort, the number of people that are going through desperately hard things. I think, you know, I can't even always tell you some of the things that I get to do. And I think, you mean to tell me somebody is upset about that when I'm comforting families of suicide victims, when I'm comforting a family that lost their daughter, when I'm comforting a family whose son has to go in for brain surgery at the age of 17, when this is the real stuff that's going on and this is the real things that are happening, this is what we're upset about. Can we please just get our focus back on Jesus?

Can we please just get our focus back on the right thing? Because that's the only way, brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, that we'll ever be like-minded. We're always going to think differently on certain things, right? Some of you are not always going to like the right football team. Some of you don't like the Chiefs. And that's okay sometimes. Some of you are even New England Patriots fans.

And while I don't know that Jesus agrees with that, whatever, right? Like, it is what it is. We're going to think differently. Some of you like the country music. I can't change you now. And that's okay. We don't have to think the same on all that kind of stuff. But we do have to come back to the fact that though we think a little bit differently on some of those things, Jesus is at the heart of it all.

The real Jesus who is in here, who is spoken of in Scripture, who doesn't cater to our wants and desires. But instead says, you must, if you want to follow me, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. As long as we're on the same page with that, then I can lay aside some of the more trivial things. I can say, it's okay that we have different views of music.

It's okay that we have different views on our end times theology. We can have different views on some of those kinds of things. It's okay. Because when it comes right down to it, we still know that we have one Savior and his name is Jesus. And we're all pursuing him with all of our hearts in the way that the Scripture says that we are to pursue him. Friends, we must pay attention to the fact that there is a different Jesus out there

right now. I meant to print this article off and talk about it. Somebody shared an article with me the other day about the movement that is afoot within the church. And it's basically what we talked about on Sunday. Last Sunday morning, the feel-good movement, that what-does-it-do-for-me movement, the Jesus-doesn't-need-you-to-lay-aside-your-sin-and-your-wants-and-your-desires-to-follow-him-wholeheartedly-he's-okay-with-whatever-you're-okay-with.

That's literally, there's literally an anti-Christian movement at work within the Christian church today. And so now more than ever, believer in Jesus Christ, we must be like-minded about the Jesus that is proclaimed in Scripture. The real Jesus in real faith. Because there's not time to be, to be quarreling over silly things. It's time to be made complete and become like-minded.

Number five, he says to live in peace. Live in peace. All these kind of build on each other. Have you noticed that? Live in peace. Literally, the idea is given in the phrase, live in peace. There's no sweet definition that I can give to you. But I do want to tell you about two other places in Scripture where it talks about this. I love what Paul says in the book of Romans about this idea.

He says, and do all that is within your power to live at peace with all men. Do all that is within your power to live at peace with all men. Now, there's two sides to that coin. Some of you have said, I have done all that's... Within my power, and that person will not make peace with me. Then you can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that your conscience is clear before God.

Because you've done everything within your power to live at peace. Some of you have found that you can't live at peace, but you've not quite done everything within your power. You're like, I tried that one time seven years ago to live in peace. I said, I'm sorry, and they didn't accept it. That's it. I'm done. No. There's more within your power that you can do to live at peace with that individual.

And so Paul addresses in the same way, do all that's within your power to live at peace with all men. But why is he so intent on this? Because remember what Jesus said? Blessed are the peacemakers. Right? Like, he is our peace, as it tells us in the book of Ephesians, that has broken down the middle wall of separation. Therefore, there is great peace that comes in the life of a believer.

There is great peace that comes in the life of a believer individually, but there should be peace among us because of the unity that we have in Christ. Is that not what we celebrate when we come together for communion on Sunday mornings? Is the peace that we have because of Jesus Christ? And so he says to live in peace. And then number 60 gives us the promise of God's presence.

He says, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Now, I've struggled with this just a little bit. Because this almost feels like I'm going to die. This feels like an if-then statement. If you, then I. And so I've struggled with this thinking, okay, so is this a, if I don't live at peace, God won't dwell with me? And the more I studied this, the more I said, that's not what's being conveyed here.

The semicolon that's set there would give me the idea that the translators here feel like this is a standalone statement. The God of love and peace will be with you. I saw a church sign here. And it said, I'm going to get myself in trouble. Oh, well, let's do it anyway. It said, if you will, I will, signed God. And all I could think was, who put the old covenant on a church sign?

Like, what is that about? Like, that's the old covenant. That's what God said in the book of Exodus. And you know what the people said? We will. But you know what happened? They didn't. The new covenant says, I did. I will. You follow. Because now God is the one who's on the hook for everything. That's the difference between the old and new covenant. Is that God does it all.

Because he is the one who is at work. So when I read this, I thought, no, this isn't an if-then statement. If you will live at peace, then I will dwell with you. This is a live in peace. I will be the one that dwells with you to give you the peace. J. Vernon McGee in his commentary said, It's a beautiful promise. It's a promise of the fact that you are not alone.

I was reminded of the story of Elijah while we were on vacation. I was reminded because I read it. And that story of Elijah, after he had defeated the prophets of Baal. And I think this was the biggest thing that I came away with from our vacation, all of our time together as a family and together with friends and together with believers in Jesus Christ. One morning I was reading this section in the book of Isaiah.

2 Kings about Elijah. And Elijah does what he does with the prophets of Baal and slays the prophets of Baal after God did the amazing thing of consuming the sacrifice. And so then God provides rain and it's just crazy. But Elijah hears that Jezebel is coming after him. Jezebel was the evil queen at the time. And Jezebel says, I'm going to kill Elijah for what he did to all those prophets of Baal.

And basically, and this is what God showed me, Elijah had a mental breakdown. He literally had a nervous breakdown because of all of the pressure of ministry that he was experiencing. And as he had this nervous kind of mental breakdown, he just went and ran and sat by a creek and God provided food for him, food that allowed him to run for 40 days. I don't know what that is, but surely before I run a 5K, I need to eat that, right?

Right? He runs and he runs and he runs and he goes up to the top of a mountain. As he goes to the top of the mountain, several different natural disasters take place and God wasn't in any of the natural disasters. No, instead God was in a still small voice. Little side notes in my Bible said, in the voice of a whisper. God showed up and said, Elijah. He said, I'm the only one that's left.

No one else, everyone else has bowed the knee to Baal. God told him, he said, you're not alone. I still have 70 prophets of God that have not bowed their knee to Baal. You are not alone. And sometimes, brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, especially in the last year and a half that we've been through, I would say that many of us at times have felt isolated and alone.

God wants us to know that we are not alone. We are not alone. Not only do we have the entire Bible, but we have the entire body of Christ that is around us, which, may I say, is why you come to church on a Sunday, watching online. If you have the ability to make it here, don't settle for watching online. If you live in a different city, shoot me a message on Facebook.

I'll find you a church in your city. Don't settle for watching online. Because you need to know that you are not alone. And one of the ways that we do that is by gathering as the body of Christ. Mutually encouraging each other. Mutually convicting each other. Building each other up as we meet with God together. But not only are we not alone because of the body of Christ,

but we're not alone because the Holy Spirit dwells with us. Because God is always there. As you go throughout the Old Testament, all of the great men that God used in the Old Testament were all told the same thing. You are not alone. You are not alone. You are not alone. You are not alone. Your presence will go with you. It was fascinating. The very next day after I read that about Elijah,

I was reading about Paul. And Paul was in prison in Jerusalem. And he was very... No, no, excuse me. It was when he was in Corinth. He was serving in Corinth and everything was really crazy that was going on around him. And he was fearful because of all of the things that were going on around him. And God told him, don't be afraid. I have many people in this city.

In other words, you are not alone. You are not alone.

Friends, God is always with us. His presence goes with us. And his presence gives us everything that we need. Because he is the God of love and peace. We are not alone. So he is able to give us love and peace. And so after he gives these six exhortations, he begins to give his benediction. He says, greet one another with a holy kiss. Again, not an overly hotly contested verse,

but this is how they gave holy high fives and hugs back in the day. It was simply a greeting of love that they shared with each other. I always tell the story of a guy that I went to Bible college with. We called him Pete the Egyptian because his name was Pete. He was Egyptian. And he loved to give you a holy kiss on the cheek. And it was a little weird, but we all dealt with it.

He says, all the saints greet you. And then he closes up in verse 14. He says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. And the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. And the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. I love it. He first of all says, the grace of our Lord Jesus.

The unmerited favor that was purchased by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. And that grace was the only thing that would give them what they needed to overcome all of the things that they were dealing with as a church. The grace was what they needed to restore their relationship with Jesus Christ. The grace was what they needed to restore their relationships with each other.

And the grace is what was needed to maintain those restored relationships in a somewhat controversial church. And that grace was all purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. Who, as he says in chapter 8, verse 9, though was rich in grace, or though was rich because he was rich in grace, became poor for us. He says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says,

the love of God. Because God is love. Somebody pointed this out in the commentary and I thought, maybe that was the basic thing that you can say about this verse, but it's also the thing that I think we forget the most often is that God does not fit into the definition of love. He is the definition of love. If we want to know what love looks like, if we want love

to flow through our lives, then we must know the author and the giver of love. The very definition of it in our lives.

And then he says, in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit who is the one that unites us and gives us all things in common. He commonly dwells in us and when we gather as a church is very present with us. It's a beautiful ending. It's Trinitarian in nature. Did you notice the Trinity that was given to us there? Only, oddly enough, the Trinity was listed in opposite order of what it used to be.

Usually the Trinity is listed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This time it's listed as Son, Father, and Holy Spirit, but it's the Trinity nonetheless. And as he wraps it up, he wraps it up in the way that only Paul can by reminding us that the work of God in our lives is the most needed thing that we have. Amen? This morning is Communion Sunday. And so, as the elements are here,

I just want to remind us of what we do when we gather as the body of Christ to share Communion. And I can't think of a better section of Scripture to lead us into Communion because that's exactly what it is. Communion celebrates the oneness that we have, the unity that we have. It's first of all the unity that we have in Christ. That each of us because of the work of Jesus Christ

that he did for us on the cross by dying and shedding his blood and rising again, allowed us to be unified with him. Allowed us direct access to him so that he could come and make us home inside of us through that presence of the Holy Spirit. But not only that, there is great unity that we have with each other because of the sacrifice that was made. In John chapter 17, Jesus prayed for the church. He said, Lord, I pray this for

these and not for these only but for all who will come after them. That they would be one as you and I are one. And the only way we can celebrate that oneness is because of the blood of Jesus Christ. Because you're as big of a sinner as I am. And I'm as big of a sinner as you are. And the only reason we can be here being the people that we are is because of the grace of God

through Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for us on the cross. And so we come together and celebrate that. Paul says every time that we come together we proclaim the death of Jesus Christ. And so we're told that we're to do so in an appropriate way. The only way that we can do that is first of all if you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus as your Lord

and Savior, today should be your day of salvation. Otherwise this is just juice and crackers and it doesn't do you any good. Nor does it mean anything to you. Matter of fact, Paul gives warnings against doing such things if you don't really know the Lord. But the other way that we take it in an appropriate manner is to make sure that our heart with the Lord is right as we do

so. That if we're going to celebrate unity that our hearts truly are unified with him and with each other. And so as the worship team gets ready to head up, I would ask you that you would begin to ask the Lord to prepare your hearts. That as the worship team plays this last song and as the ushers are handing out the elements that you would really allow God to do that work of searching in your heart.

And pray that prayer, Lord search me and know me and see if there be any wicked way in me. And then do that simple little step of confession and allow that cleansing work of the Holy Spirit through the blood of Jesus Christ. To make us one with him again. As you receive the elements, if you would please stand and then we'll partake together.

Worship you, worship you, you are worship you, worship you are. We make a miracle, promise keep a light in the darkness. My God that is who you are. You are we make a miracle work, promise keep a light in the darkness. My God that is who you worship. You are worshiping. You never stop working. Never stop, you never stop working. Even when I never stop working.

Never stop, never stop working. Would you bow with me? Father we come before you and just thank you Lord. I thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Lord I thank you that you restored meaning to our lives because of the blood of Jesus. Lord you restored joy. You restored peace. You restored broken relationships. Father I just want to pray that as we take this time to partake

that we would be well aware of the sacrifice that you've made for us. Lord we thank you for it and ask that this would be a day where we celebrate not only your death. Lord but that we celebrate your life. We just thank you Father for who you are. In Jesus name. Amen. Let's partake.

Would you bow with me one more time? Father as we go out from this place I ask that your word would continue to sink deeply into our hearts. Lord that you would fashion in us the hearts of the men and women of God that you want for us to be. May we take this truth with us the rest of the week. In Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed.