Rejoice, Again Rejoice!

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things, what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. Good evening.

Good to see you guys here tonight. Well, this is the... I don't know. Which one is this? Anybody know? Sharon, do you know?

What is it? 28th? Okay, this is our 28th Bible conference and our first one with Lance Quinn. I've gotten to know Lance first in our work together at Association of Certified Biblical Counselors and also through our association with Fellowship of Independent Reformed Evangelicals, FIRE, which we all know here. What can I say about Lance? so I could say a lot of things, but Lance started Green Out of Seminary as personal assistant to John MacArthur, and then he went to Bible Church of Little Rock and pastored there for 15 years, came back to California, planted a church in Thousand Oaks, California, and is now a vice president with the Expositors Seminary in Jupiter, Florida.

Lance serves on the board of ACBC as well as the board of fire but I know him better as as a friend he and I have had some good times together he by the way has had the inestimable great experience of riding with me when I'm driving and this last year we were together all the time because I was his ride and the poor guy was tested to the limits. But anyway, so Lance is a good friend. I love this guy and he has got a phenomenal memory.

So don't be afraid of introducing yourself to him because he won't forget it. Right, Lance? He won't forget your name. Anyway, Lance, come minister the word. Well, thank you, dear brother. To know Tim Pasma is to love Tim Pasma.

I refer to him as my blood brother, Tim Plasma. And when I first told him that, he said, you know, no one has ever said that. I said, no one has ever put those two words together? And he said, no. And I said, well, I am the first. It is a joy to be here with you and to be able to participate in this Bible conference and to be able also to have some fellowship together.

I am looking forward to having some ice cream with you later. And this is a joy to be in your fellowship and in your presence. This has been a particularly hard season over the last number of years, and I'll unfold some of those things as the conference goes on. But this is a very, very important and even sensitive subject to me in these days. Where is Christ in crisis?

So if you will, turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 4. It, of course, has been read to you already. And then even with the song that we sang, this idea of rejoicing in the Lord is something, of course, that accentuates this letter of the Apostle Paul to the Philippians. this particular matter of rejoicing or having joy in the Lord is accentuated, as I say, in the book of Philippians and it peppers the entire letter.

In fact, if you would go back to chapter 1 of the book of Philippians you might say, as some have said, that this is the epistle of joy. This is the letter of joy. Look at chapter 1, verse 4. Paul says, I am making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now. Paul founded this church, and as you know, this is a series of letters that make up what we call the prison epistles.

And that means of course that Paul is writing from prison He shackled And for a man like that to be able to write a book like this is extraordinary. Because if it were me, in a moment of reflective self-confession, I'm not sure if I were in prison I'd be writing a letter about joy. I'd probably be writing a letter to the authorities saying, when will you get me out of here?

And Paul, in this letter, is filled with joy. Chapter 1, verse 4 is an example. What about chapter 1, verse 18? And in that, and I'm going to share with you what that is as we go along, and in that, I will rejoice. and if they hadn't yet seen that, understood that, he says it again, yes, and I will rejoice. And then chapter 2, verse 2. Complete my joy by being of the same mind.

And then look at verse 17 of chapter 2. I am glad and rejoice with you all. likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me and then he says in chapter 2 verse 28 you may rejoice at seeing him again and then verse 29 so receive him one of paul's associates receive him in the lord with all joy and then chapter 3 verse 1 Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. And then chapter 4, verse 1.

Whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown. Paul is talking about joy. He's filled with rejoicing. And yet he's in a prison cell. And he's suffered a lot. He suffered a great deal.

This is a kind of letter, and especially for us, even in these last couple of years of all of these health scares, this is a letter for us. Because the answer to the question, where is Christ in crisis, is really in some ways a simple one. He's right where He has always been. He's the Lord. Philippians chapter 2 speaks of Him being Lord of all. Lord of all creation.

And that He's coming back one day to have His visible presence pronounced as Lord of all. Where He will also judge the living and the dead. And so this is an epistle, this is a letter that I thought would be a good way for us as we work our way through it and really just in one passage in chapter 4 where there are seven staccato-like commands that are very short, very pithy, but oh so power-packed.

And the first one is rejoice in the Lord. Look at chapter 4. Chapter 4, verse 4a. rejoice in the Lord always. Now I find this very, very interesting because there is a phrase that Paul uses in the middle of verse 5, or really actually at the end of verse 5, that says this, the Lord is at hand. You see that there? The Lord is at hand.

It's actually, if you were to ask me, the central statement of this whole section. The Lord is at hand. That is why we can rejoice in the Lord always. That is why we can rejoice again and again. That is why we can let our reasonableness be known to everyone. That is why we don't have to be anxious about anything.

That is why we can pray with supplication and thanksgiving, allowing our requests to be made known to God. That is how we can have the peace of God. That is how such peace surpasses all understanding. That is how God guards our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. That is how we can think rightly with things that are true and honorable and just and pure and lovely and commendable and excellent and worthy of praise that we can think about and practice.

The Lord is at hand. The Lord is near. Now why do I say that? Well, first of all, I think we need to probably do a little bit of thinking about that phrase the Lord is at hand or the Lord is near. What does that mean? I mean, if I were to ask you the question right at the beginning of our conference, what does it mean to affirm the truth that the Lord is at hand or the Lord is near?

Well, in one sense, we could say that it's a spatial understanding. A spatial understanding. That is, that what Paul is saying is I want you to do all of these commands. I want you to obey them. these seven commands that I giving you at the end of this letter as a kind of application set of points And I want you to do so because the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come back spatially to the earth.

And if you're here when He comes, He'll want to find that you're doing all of these things. Particularly these seven commands. He's going to come back to the earth and He's going to be wanting you to be doing all of these seven things all at the same time. Now you and I would say, well, wait a minute. I know that the Bible teaches what we call the imminency of Christ.

That He's going to come back and it's going to be soon. but you and I can get so wrapped up in our lives with all of our stuff, our jobs, where we live, our families, our work, what we do and how we do it, and sometimes we forget, and very often I'm most guilty of all in this room, of not remembering and getting wrapped up in things where I'm not thinking about the Lord coming back. I think it's just true of all of us. We get so wrapped up in our lives, we get so wrapped up in what we're doing and how we're doing it and why we're doing it that we often are not thinking about that truth, the truth that Jesus Christ is coming back. and it's going to be soon.

But if He is coming back, and He is, and if it's tonight, I want to be found complying with these seven commands. I want to be able to say when I see Jesus Christ face to face, Lord I have been occupying until you come and I've been working on these seven commands and the one at the head of this list is rejoicing rejoicing he's going to want to know that regardless of the circumstances of our lives mine and yours that no matter what's going on you and I are rejoicing in Christ. We're rejoicing in His goodness.

We're loving the fact that He has placed us in Christ. He's placed us in Himself. He's going to want to know if you and I are doing what He commands. And the first one on that list as Paul closes this letter is rejoice in the Lord. In fact, I even think that when he's talking about rejoicing in the Lord, he's probably thinking most not just of your own individual responsibility to do that, but how you're rejoicing in the Lord together.

Together as a church. see take it out of you as an individual needing to be rejoicing in the Lord when the Lord comes back and occupying as a rejoicing person before the Lord comes back take it out of the realm of just your individual life and ask yourself this question am I showing the rest of the folks in my church family that I'm rejoicing in the Lord. Even in the midst of crisis, pain, sorrow, disturbance, challenge, trials, tests, disease, sickness, sickness, what seems to be hopelessness, discouragement, being disconsolate, being angry, being whatever it is, in a list like that and more, not thinking about the Lord being near, but thinking only as an individual and not doing what I've called Philippians 4, the whole chapter, showing your sanctification in public. Showing your sanctification in public.

And the first place you ought to show your sanctification in public is to your fellow members of the body of Christ in this place. Now, I'm not saying it's easy. In fact, it's quite hard. It's quite difficult. Because the trials and tests that come, they seem to come at times like a flood. And when they come, we want the encouragement of our fellow brothers and sisters to encourage us.

To come alongside us. What do you need? How can we help? To what do we pray? Do you need food? Do you need clothing?

Do you need help? you just come alongside how can we love you and you and I are saying what a wonderful group of people what a ministry in my life and you also want to be able to say if something like that were happening to them you be on the other side of it What can I do to help How can I come alongside And undoubtedly, that's what you do. And this is exactly what Paul is talking about. But then flip it all the way over on the other side.

Let's say that there is not everybody pulling the load to help each other, but actually conflict in the church. Maybe you and another brother or sister are not right with each other. There's been some conflict, disagreement. In the church fellowship, and we all know it, we can get crossways with one another. And do you know that that's exactly the point that Paul is talking about in chapter 4, verse 1.

Look at it with me. Therefore, my brothers, meaning both brothers and sisters, therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, I quoted it just a moment ago, my joy and crown, that's who the Philippians are to Paul, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. Why would he say that? Why would he say stand firm in the Lord? because of verse 2.

I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Now in the English text of our Bibles and I'm reading from the English Standard Version that you have as well and that word agree there actually could be and perhaps even should be translated that Euodia and Syntyche ought to have the same mind in the Lord. That's what the word agree means, to have the same mind.

In other words, not just fellowship, and not just being a part of the same fellowship, but a real, tangible agreement of being of the same mind as sisters in Christ. there was apparently in Philippi two women, Euodia and Syntyche. And I know they're funny names. In fact, because they're having issues with each other, someone once said, maybe it should be Euodius and Syntyche.

Well, they're having some kind of problem with each other. And Paul's heard that through those who have been giving him reports. And as he's closing this letter, he actually mentions their names, which find their way in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the Bible forever. How would you like to have your name right there? I entreat Tim Pasma to agree with his wife in the Lord and by the way there's no reason he shouldn't she's a sweetheart he is not I entreat Yodia and Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord verse 3 yes, I ask you also, true companion, whoever this companion is that he's referring to, who he's appealing to, help these women.

And then notice what he does. He doesn't rail on the women. He doesn't criticize them. He doesn't bad mouth them. He doesn't speak of their odious character. he says they have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers maybe that means that the house church that they're in is meeting in Clement's house and they've been a part of it from the very beginning you say part of what I'll tell you part of what this is Philippi this is in Asia Minor and this is Gentile territory and this is a Jewish apostle named Paul who also goes by the name in Hebrew context Saul who's planted a church in Philippi a pagan territory in which they have been serving in their community a multiplicity of gods they have been the worst kind of people who are rabble-rousers, carousers, sinners of the greatest sort, not having the law of God at their disposal, worshiping a multiplicity of gods, as I said.

This is remarkable that anybody's following the Lord in this town. And God has sovereignly birthed a church through this apostle, and these women were a part of it from the very start. And notice how he says, they have labored with me side by side. That's really a beautiful phrase. Side by side. Interlocking their arms together to serve the body of Christ.

He even goes further. They've labored side by side with me in the Gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the Book of Life. He has no question, no doubt whatsoever that Yodia and Syntyche are genuine Christians whose names are written in the Book of Life, but who've hidden them. a rough spot, and they are sideways with each other, not side by side, and yet He encourages them to do this.

Verse 4, Rejoice in the Lord, and rejoice in the Lord always. You have to rejoice in the Lord even when you are potentially sideways with one another. Which means you've got to work it out. You've got to work it out. Now, I'm not going to ask for a show of hands either now or on Sunday morning. How many of you are sideways with each other?

Would never do that to you, but perhaps it's gone outside of the umbrella of just that relationship. And maybe there are some folks in the fellowship who know that there's some tension in a relationship. It's all the more reason for you to say, not just as an individual, I need to rejoice in the Lord always, but I need to do it with my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in this church. command out of the gate rejoice in the Lord always and the context is clearly telling us that it is a rejoicing even in the midst of potential conflict with two ladies in the Lord in the fellowship now of course it's not only them.

He's not saying it just to them or just about them. He's saying it to the entire congregation. And sometimes in the West, in the Western Hemisphere, we're all about living our Christian life individually. But remember, these are letters that are written to an entire church, which means that when He generally says, you, it's almost always in the plural.

You as in, because I'm from the south, y'all. Y'all. To you, to you-ins. To us-ins. And this is a rejoicing in the Lord. And we have to rejoice in the Lord.

No, no. Let me rephrase that. We get to rejoice in the Lord. We have the awesome privilege of rejoicing in the Lord together. Together. Here's one thing I don't know, but I think I can easily presume.

That with Paul writing this here to Euodia and Syntyche, and yet not having the end of the story, I'll bet you that Euodia and Syntyche worked it out. I bet they worked it out. I bet there were others in the congregation who made sure, like the true comrade and like Clement, that they worked it out. Because that's what we do in the body of Christ. We work it out.

And we work it out because of two things. We're commanded to do so. We're commanded to rejoice in the Lord and the readiness of knowing that the Lord is at hand. you and I don't want to have conflict with other fellow believers while the Lord is coming back whether we knew he was not coming back for years to come or whether we knew that the Lord is coming back tonight and by the way I hope for the latter I would be thrilled if the Bible conference that I'm presenting to you is the very last one.

And we had to end it halfway through. This is a rejoicing in the Lord because you and I know that if there's a writer like Paul who's in prison while he's writing it, and if there are two women who need to get along, and if there are the kinds of rough roads that Paul and these ladies and the true companion and Clement and others are having, and we'll see a little bit of that as we go, we are comforted because the Lord is near. And you say, well, wait a minute.

Can't the phrase, the Lord is near, also be something beyond just the spatial return of Jesus Christ to the earth? Yes. Yes, it can. And sometimes in our Bibles. It's the Lord is near in the sense of this. The Lord is near to me and to our church personally by His spiritual presence.

He's near. He's near to us not in the sense that He's coming back right now, although He could, but that He's near to me in His personal presence. and how would that be? He is near to us in His personal presence in the near ministry of the powerful Holy Spirit who lives powerfully in and through our lives to ensure that you and I are rejoicing in the Lord.

The Holy Spirit has been given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ so that we could have the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. So when Paul says, the Lord is near, don let that be just a throwaway phrase in the midst of seven commands Let that actually be the drivetrain of your life Try to say to yourself, from this moment forward, if you have not already done so, I need to live in light of the Lord's nearness. The nearness that He's going to be with me in my trials, with me in my tests, with me in my grief, with me in my sorrow, in the presence of the ministry of the Holy Spirit and that the Lord Jesus Christ is spatially coming back to the earth one day and it is imminent.

You say, well Lance, is it one or the other? Here's my answer. I have no idea. I have no idea. It could be one or the other. Perhaps it's both.

When it's undefined like this, perhaps it's both. And if it's both, or if it's one or the other, it really doesn't change the fact that you and I are commanded to rejoice in the Lord. And we're to rejoice in the Lord because He is at hand. He is coming back, and He is also so near that you and I, honestly, as we do the other commands, as we go through them, you and I have nothing to worry about.

You have nothing to worry about. You say, well, I get that. I understand that. I can affirm that. But you see, Pastor, you just don't know my problems. Anybody ever said that?

Have you ever sat down with someone and you're telling them, I'm going to encourage you, I'm going to pray with you, I'm going to be there for you, we're going to memorize Scripture together, we're going to serve together. All of these things that trouble you, we're going to help work them out. And one of their immediate responses often, and especially not only as pastors and biblical counselors as Tim and I are, you who also help the body of Christ, might hear this siren sound that we seem to hear more often than we don't, and that is something like this, but you don't know the troubles I've had.

You don't know the problems I'm going through. Perhaps you've never had that yourself. And of course, 1 Corinthians 10.13 says, no testing has overtaken you, but such as is common to man. We're all going through it. We're all hurting. We all have challenges.

No one can legitimately say, no one in the history of our planet has ever gone through what I'm going through right now. That's just not true. And so we're all here to help. And what kind of problems? Do you know that the Apostle Paul, the very man who's writing this letter, could be saying something like this, has anyone else been in prison? Is anybody writing from prison to encourage someone else?

He probably doesn't have any show of hands. And yet, what is his attitude? Look back at chapter 1. Why, how can this man, Paul, in a Roman dungeon, stinky, smelling Roman prison, command us, you and me and the Philippians, to rejoice in the Lord always? How is it possible? He says in verse 12 of chapter 1, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.

And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Oh my! This is quite incredible, isn't it? I mean, here's a man who, whether it's Paul in a Roman imperial prison or Joseph in a dungeon somewhere in Egypt, who are both saying something like this, whatever is being meant for evil, God means it for good.

And that's what Paul is saying. What's happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. Can you imagine if you and I, in the good old U.S. of A, were finally hearing from our government, and it may not be too long from now, you can't preach the gospel. You can't preach it anymore. You can't have a church service. You can't gather together.

And they haul us all off to jail, and we're writing to our friends and neighbors, and we're saying, I want you to know, dear folks, that what has happened to us has really served to advance the gospel. Would we be able to say that? So that it has become so known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ and that most of the brothers, the others who are trying to preach Christ, they've become even more confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, and they're now so much more bold to speak the word without fear I would think it would be the reverse wouldn it If I in prison and if they say if you stop preaching that Gospel we'll let you out.

In fact, that's exactly what happened with John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim's Progress. They said, if you just stop preaching, because we haven't given you a license to preach, if you just stop that you can walk out of those prison doors right there right now and he ended up staying in prison for over 12 years how? why? because Christ is to be preached whether you have a license to do it or not Christ is to be preached Paul even goes on there in verse 15 And some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. In other words, there are those who do it with wrong motives and those who have right motives.

The latter, those who do it from right motives, they do it out of love. They preach Christ out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former, that is those who do it with wrong motives, the former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, envy, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. You would think that Paul would say, and here's what I want you to do.

I want you to go find these guys. I want you to go get them. And I want you to teach them a lesson not to do that. What does he say? What then? Only that in every way, whether there are these guys who are preaching Christ out of pretense or guys who are preaching Christ out of truth, Christ is proclaimed and in that I what?

I rejoice. What an attitude. What an attitude. You ask me the question, where is Christ in crisis? I tell you. He's right where he is.

Right where he ought to be. He's ruling and reigning in the world. He's ruling and reigning in the universe. And he says, I must be preached. I must be witnessed about by those who are proclaiming him. And that's not just the preacher.

That's all of us. We're proclaiming Christ in the way we live. We're proclaiming Christ in how we talk to others. We're proclaiming Christ how we minister to each other in the fellowship. We are to do it, and we're to do it with a rejoicing spirit. and by the way if you go back to chapter 4 that first command gives way to a second and it is this again I will say rejoice you see that at the end of verse 4 again I will say rejoice why does he say it again?

I think he's saying it again because of emphasis I think he's saying it again because there is such a tendency in all our lives, including myself, most certainly including myself, that when the trials and tests of life come, the first thing I do invariably is go inward. I focus on my problems. I look at nothing but my own challenge of how I'm going to respond to this and why is the Lord doing this and is this fair and is this right?

Instead of the second command. Again, I say rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I will say rejoice. I don't do that as often as I should. I'm thinking about how can I get out of this?

Why am I in this? Who's going to help me? Why is this something that seems unrelenting? Lord, what are you doing? Why are you doing it? Don't you know that this is not the right path?

Which is essentially my saying, why don't you just get over into the other chair and I'll take over the driving privileges. I think that second command, again I will say rejoices here, because you and I need to be reminded of it again and again and again. Is that not so? And then there's a third, a third command here. Verse 5. let your reasonableness be made known to everyone.

Let your reasonableness be made known to everyone. I'm going to unpack this very, very briefly and then we'll enjoy some ice cream together. Verse 5. Let your reasonableness, some translations may have gentleness. let your gentleness be known to everyone. This particular word translated reasonableness in verse 5 there usually means something along the lines of not insisting on your rights.

Which might fit, I think, pretty well in what Paul is commanding especially Euodia and Syntyche not to do. Insisting on their own positions. Whatever they were at each other's throats about It was something probably that had to do with their own positions, their own rights, their own will, their own desires, their own attitudes, whatever it was they might have been fighting about.

And that may be a good idea of what happening in verse 5 here Perhaps though the alternate translation is the better word or the better idea Gentleness Gentleness It's hard to say. It's hard to say which one's best. But, if gentleness is the better idea, other passages might echo this same use of the Greek word. And here are a couple of those contexts.

1 Timothy 3, you don't have to look it up, but you might want to write it down. 1 Timothy 3.3, we are to be as elders, if we're characterologically qualified, not violent, but gentle. Not violent, but gentle. You might translate it, not violent, but reasonable. Reasonable. if there is one trait that comes in so handy as an elder in a church whether it's large or small it's being reasonable being gentle or how about Titus 3.2 and this is really applicable in our day and age with the government and what we say about them Titus 3.2 to speak evil of no one to avoid quarreling to be gentle In fact, it says about our responsibility to talk to unbelievers, it says in Titus 3, to show perfect courtesy to all men.

And I say, well, I blew that one. Showing perfect courtesy? To being reasonable? Yes, that's what it is. To be gentle. Or how about James 3.17?

Wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle. Gentle. Can you see the gentle Paul or some of his associates going to Euodia and Syntyche and saying, you're not gentle with one another. You need to be gentle. Or how about 1 Peter 2.18. Slaves, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good masters and the gentle masters, but also to the unjust ones.

So, that third command there, let your gentleness or your reasonableness be known to everyone. Boy, wouldn't it be great if in the church fellowship, when someone was ticking off all of the attributes of your life near the top of that list would be something like this. Wow, she sure is gentle. Man, he is one reasonable guy. That's what Paul is saying. You're commanded to do.

That's what I'm commanded to do. And I love this because 2 Corinthians 10, verse 1 says that we should be like our Christ who is the meek and gentle Christ. Can you imagine? The meekness and gentleness of Christ. Now I've chosen either the idea of gentleness or reasonableness, but in the outline point that I've given you, I've used the word forbearance.

Forbearance. show your forbearance or manifest your forbearing spirit to everyone. You forbear. You know, in Colossians 3.13, the Bible says this, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Now this is not the same word, gentleness or forbearance, but that idea of bearing with one another is very close, very close in meaning.

In fact, we could probably use a little bit of street language here when we re-translate Colossians 3 and it might be something like this. With regard to you and other members of the body of Christ, put up with one another. Put up with them. That is so hard to do. It's so hard to do. I know I need to put up with her.

I know Syntyche's out there. I see her every Sunday. I wish she'd miss church every once in a while. Oh yeah, Euodius is sitting right there. I'm not pointing to anybody over here. But the Bible says, let your reasonableness, let your gentleness, you need to put up with each other.

You need to bear with one another. This is what I call showing your sanctification in public. It's not enough just to say, Lord, I'm having great quiet times. I'm praying well. I'm just so encouraged about my individual spiritual life. Take it one step further.

Show others your wonderful current spiritual life by ministering to them. Encouraging them to rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice and oh by the way let your forbearing spirit manifest it to the congregation. Be reasonable. Be a forbearing spirit among the saints around you. Perhaps we might even say a congregation that is collectively doing these things will have an even greater witness to those outside the fellowship so that someone says in this community, I need to show up there.

Something's going on. Those people are different in a wonderful way. wouldn't that be an opportunity for a testimony for Jesus Christ let's bow together in prayer our Heavenly Father these staccato like commands coming one right after the other they are so helpful to us because they challenge us to go inward and ask the question, who am I as a professing Christian? How do I live my life?

How do I respond to others around me whether they're in the fellowship or not? But if they are in the fellowship, how much do I encourage them to rejoice in the Lord? do I rejoice in the Lord by showing them my sanctification in public do I encourage them by being reasonable by being forbearing with them putting up with all of their idiosyncrasies all of their blemishes and they with me oh Lord we know that this can only happen if the Spirit of God is at work in us We want to show the watching world that we have a unity of Spirit among us. That we're all pulling together arm in arm, ministering side by side.

And we ask that the near Christ, the one who's either coming so quickly or through the ministry of the Holy Spirit is already so near to us now that we are and can rejoice in the Lord no matter what crisis has come into our lives. Oh dear Christ loving, gracious Messiah the gentle and meek Jesus. Help us be this way. Infuse us with a love for one another that transcends what the world knows nothing about.

Allow us to be a powerful witness in this community. Draw others to us. Give others an opportunity to see how the gospel is being lived out in our lives. Challenge us. Change us. Because we know where Christ is in a time of crisis.

He's right here building His church. And we are that church. And may we be all that He is creating us to be for His glory and our good. In Jesus' name, amen.