Speaker 1: 0:07

Good morning. This is our last week in the Membership Matters series. Some of you became members years ago, so hopefully this has been a good review. The point is to encourage you who are thinking about membership to understand what it means to be a church member, and also some of you who are thinking about membership to understand what it means to be a church member. And also some of you perhaps are inquiring into Christianity itself, and these vows just simply reflect what we would call New Testament biblical Christianity. So with that background we're going to proceed to the fifth vow this morning and by way of introduction, I want us to think back to the 16th century Reformation and if you know church history, you know that during the 16th century there was a Reformation movement within the medieval church and one of the things that they focused on was the doctrine of salvation.

Speaker 1: 1:02

It was one of the key reforms that they wanted to bring the church back to a biblical understanding of the doctrine of salvation. It was one of the key reforms that they wanted to bring the church back to a biblical understanding of the doctrine of salvation. We see that reflected in the first two membership vows dealing with acknowledging our sin and then also trusting in Christ as our Savior and all that that entails. And so the Bible makes clear that we're saved by faith alone, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ alone. We're saved by a gift of God's grace alone, according to the word of God alone and for the purpose of all, to the glory of God alone. And so those are the five sola statements, the five alone statements, of the Reformation, and we hold to those here. We're reminded at its heart that we are justified, that God saves not the righteous but the ungodly. We're justified by His grace, through faith. So we've talked about that in recent weeks. And then these great truths, they begin to transform the hearts of God's people. They begin to bear the fruit of holiness in the life of the church and out in the community, as God's people gather and scatter. And as imperfect and as sinful as we can sometimes be, nevertheless this is how God shines the light of His kingdom amongst all peoples.

Speaker 1: 2:23

At a more fundamental level, the 16th century Reformation was not just about recovering the doctrine of salvation. It was also a movement that, at its heart, recovered a biblical understanding of worship and then also even church government. And so, as the church began to reform itself and understand itself more in line with the scriptures. That had profound implications out in society. It began to have implications for the value of family life and education, and even politics outside the walls of the church. Now, one of the lessons of the Reformation that I think needs to be recovered in our day is just this that the 16th century Reformation had a profound effect upon the societies in which it affected and impacted, indeed, the world, precisely because the Reformation focused on the church.

Speaker 1: 3:28

It's almost counterintuitive, but you think about it for a moment. If the church isn't right, if the church isn't full of holiness and love and the power of the Holy Spirit, if the church isn't being the salt and light God has made us to be and called us to be, then you can see that that's going to have an effect out in society. On the other hand, if we're being the shining light on a hill, if we're being a pillar and buttress of truth, if God's church is being a house of prayer, if we're being a herald of God's grace, if we're being an army of mercy to the poor all these different things God calls us to be well, then you can begin to see that light now is shining, not just in the walls of the church but out in the society, as God's people infiltrate all the different areas of the community and of the broader society, and so reforming God's church is very important of the community and of the broader society. And so reforming God's church is very important, Reviving God's church is very important. The Reformation was really just a back to the Bible movement. That's all it was. But this is the sword of the Spirit, and so, as the church began to immerse itself in the Word of God and align itself with the Word of God more and more, god's Spirit blessed that and he came in great power. And so you have this process of reformation.

Speaker 1: 4:54

It begins in the church, yes, it begins in the institution of the church in that sense, but it really, even more than that, begins in the hearts, minds and lives of God's people. And it comes how? Through faith. It comes through faith of God's people in God's Son and in God's Word. We trust this book and of course, christ is the subject of this book.

Speaker 1: 5:20

From Genesis to Revelation, the Apostle Paul says the only thing that ultimately matters, in Galatians 5-6, is faith working through love. Faith working through love, what he means, is the only thing that ultimately matters for each one of us, and even for a church, is that we have a living faith. A living faith, a faith that goes to work through loving God, through loving one another and through loving people in our community, our neighbor. So, with that brief introduction, we can think about what does faith working through love involve in the life of the church? And so I want to bring us to this fifth and final vow this morning, and it's got two main aspects that I want us to focus on and ponder the first one having to do with submission and the second one having to do with study, although not study in the normal sense, but it sounds like this Do you submit yourself to the government discipline of the church and promise to study its purity and peace? So, with that brief introduction, I'd like to invite you, if you're able, to stand. If you can't, that's okay, we understand.

Speaker 1: 6:36

But I'm just going to read a few verses from the New Testament that reflect and are the basis, or at least part of the basis, of this vow. The first one comes from the book of Hebrews, chapter 13, and the 17th verse, and this is the infallible, inerrant, holy word of the living God Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning. And then the second one comes from 1 John. 1 John 3. We often talk about John 3.16. You know the people in the end zone, but this is 1 John 3.16, and here's what the apostle writes. By this we know love, that he that is speaking of Christ, laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. And then also from the book of Jude, our Lord's brother Jude. He writes this and of course this is emphasizing the book of Jude, our Lord's brother Jude. He writes this and of course this is emphasizing the importance of the purity of doctrine. Listen to what he says, jude, verses 3 and 4.

Speaker 1: 7:53

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write, appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints, for certain people have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were designated for this condemnation. Ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, jesus Christ. And then, lastly, we'll go over to the book of Ephesians, in the fourth chapter, and here's what it says in verses 30 through 32. And do not grieve. The Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord endures forever. God's people said amen. Thank you, you may be seated, father, we come to your word. There is life in this book. It's a living word. So work mightily in our hearts and minds today. Help us to learn it and, as we read it, to mark it and, by the grace of your Holy Spirit, help us, lord, to inwardly digest it that it might bear fruit for you, in Jesus' name, amen.

Speaker 1: 9:31

We're going to look at it in two parts, because there's two parts mainly in this vow. In the first part we're going to focus on that word submission. You know how the vows have unfolded Sin, savior, sanctification, support and now submission. First, you submit yourself to the government and discipline of the church. Government and discipline. Hebrews 13,. Listen again verse 17. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls. As those who will have to give an account, let them do this with joy and not with groaning.

Speaker 1: 10:07

Now we live in a day, I think it's safe to say, especially, I think, since the 1960s or so somewhere in there where we kind of reject authority at a level that's become a bit unhealthy. It's good to be suspicious of certain things With authority. It's good at some level to question authority. Certainly there's a place for that. However, in our society, the self has risen up to become somewhat of a monster, and we don't really like authority too much in our modern America. I actually think, as a pastor, when I look at our society, I see the book of Judges being played out. You know the refrain from that book Every man did what was right in his own eyes. Every man did what was right in his own eyes. It sounds like this in our society who are you to tell me or anyone for that matter what I should do or how I should live? How many times have you heard something like that, something similar to that? That is not a godly perspective, I think we live in the age of self-rule and it's really a rebellion against God, is what it is. It's a rebellion against God.

Speaker 1: 11:35

To submit to the government of God's church most practically means submitting spiritually to the leaders God has placed over us, and that includes this pastor. I am under the authority of the session in this local church and I get squeezed from Presbyterian on the other side. Regionally too. That's a good and healthy thing. You want your pastor to have accountability. Bad things happen when you don't, and it's the same for all of us. The elders submit to one another, and so on and so forth. At the regional level, we as a church are under the authority, we submit to oversight from our regional body, southwest Florida Presbytery. When we go to General Assembly, there's authority that they oversee all the Presbyteries and you say well then, who's manning the store? Who's watching over the General Assembly? Well, it just so happens that all 88 Presbyteries send representatives to even oversee the General Assembly itself and the work that they do throughout the year. So we all need accountability, because don't you remember that hymn that we've sung?

Speaker 1: 12:45

I think most of you at some point or another, prone to wander Lord. I feel it prone to leave the one I love. You know what I'm talking about. We're sheep and I know I mentioned it in the first service and there was a few that knew what I was talking about. Have you seen on the X feed there that video of the sheep that's in the ditch and the guy gets it out and the sheep starts running. He doesn't even get like 30 feet, he runs right back in the ditch Right. And we can be like that spiritually, we can be like we need a shepherd and the way that God shepherds us is through the church. Through the church.

Speaker 1: 13:25

You'll notice every in the Bible that it speaks about a plurality of elders, in other words, more than one. There's a plurality of elders to shepherd God's people and to oversee every local church. And what do we see in Paul's letters? You'll notice in the beginning, a lot of times he'll say to the elders and the deacons, or to the elders and whoever, the saints in Rome or whatever the case may be, you'll notice elders plural is there a lot. It's plural. In Acts, chapter 20, luke tells us that in the church in Ephesus, when Paul went to speak to them for the last time, he gathered the elders plural, more than one.

Speaker 1: 14:06

In the letters of 1 Timothy and Titus, the apostle Paul makes clear there's qualifications for this office, the elders being called to shepherd God's people in the ministry of the word and prayer and oversight primarily, while the deacons are called to a ministry of service in the sense of deeds and mercy and stewardship, and pastors are just a separate designation amongst the elders. They're called in PCA, speak, they're called teaching elders, but we just call them pastors. They're called to preach and teach. That's what they do in their full vocation. And so both elders and deacons I want you to realize this they're officers of the king. They're officers of the king. We may know them as Eric or Abe or Phil or Marlos or Dave or Stephen or whoever, but it's a remarkable thing that they hold the office in the kingdom of God under the king and they work for him.

Speaker 1: 15:17

And I think we've lost in our society a sense of the reverence, an appropriate reverence. We don't want to be stiffs, but there's an appropriate level of reference to give to an office and I think that's right. Remember Jesus when he'd preach, repent for what was at hand. The kingdom of heaven is near, it's at hand. It's because the king was there. The king was there, and the king's doing his work on earth through the Holy Spirit and primarily through his church, and so it's a remarkable thing that God's chosen to govern his kingdom through the ministry offices of elders and deacons, including teaching elders, which we'd call pastors.

Speaker 1: 16:02

And of course, all are to submit. All the officers, all the pastors, all the deacons and elders are to submit. The members are to submit to the word of God, because Christ alone is the head of his church. I always tell people in any inquirer's class or we call it the belong class I am not the local pope. I grew up Roman Catholic, so I try to make that clear. You know, I'm not the local pope, and I'm just. What am I saying? Yes, I have a special role. I understand that I have the power of influence because of my position, but I too am under the session. I too submit to them. I too am under the session. I too submit to them. Right, just as they submit to one another, they too, each elder, has to submit to the session, and so we all need, we're all called to submission.

Speaker 1: 16:59

It's not easy to be an officer. It's a privilege to be an officer, it's a joy to be an officer and a pastor, but they need your prayers because you know who Satan likes to attack, right, satan goes after God's officers, and so, for all the imperfections and fallibility of men, the Lord expects each of us just like he calls us, just like our parents aren't perfect, but he expects us to honor and obey them. He expects the same in his church, and that's for everyone, including myself, and so that's important. The pastor alone doesn't rule the church. An elder alone doesn't rule or govern the church. The session does it, but even the session isn't the final authority in the church. Christ, the head, is the final authority, and we're expected by Christ to take this book and apply it to the life of the church as faithfully as we can. That's our role.

Speaker 1: 17:53

The elders are responsible for all the leadership in a church, but the elders also delegate. You'll see this in Acts 6, and you'll see this in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. You'll see that they delegate to the deacons to focus on the areas. Typically you'll see areas of stewardship, things like finances or property, then also areas of practical service and things like mercy and helps, just things that need to be done. So what that does is it frees the elders and the pastors to focus on ministry of word and prayer and shepherding, while the deacons are focusing on a lot of the temporal matters which are important as well. So we all vow when we join God's church, in accordance to Hebrews 13, verse 17, to obey and submit to the leaders of the church, who are all under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we will give an account for that one day. That's a sobering thing.

Speaker 1: 18:57

Sometimes in PCA churches and Presbyterian churches you'll hear the word courts, that the session is a court, and it sounds, frankly, kind of cold and a little strange to modern ears. But I actually I want to tell you it's actually a term of humility. Think about the problems we've had in our society when courts become legislators, when the judges become lawmakers. Is that a good thing? That's not their role. Is it? Judges become lawmakers? Is that a good thing? That's not the role, is it and it's not the role of the session to create the law of the kingdom of God? There's only one lawgiver in God's kingdom and it's Jesus Christ. And where has he revealed his law to us? Law in the broadest sense, including his not just commandments, but promises, warning, wisdom and so on. It's in this book but promises warning, wisdom and so on. It's in this book, and so a court. The session is a court in the sense that we're to be conscious, that we're to take this book, that we're not creators of the law but we, to the best of our ability, interpret it and apply it to the life of the church. Same with the Presbytery, same with the General Assembly, same with the General Assembly.

Speaker 1: 20:01

I think in our day we hear a lot. Our society teaches us free speech has its. It's a good thing civilly, but it has its problems in terms of morally and spiritually at times. Because one of the things in our culture that Christians I think are being taught wrongly is that we can just freely criticize and complain in any attitude that we want. Hey, free speech, I can say what I want. That may be true at a civil level, but just because it's legal doesn't mean it's morally right, and I think we have to remember that.

Speaker 1: 20:41

It's very common in our day and it's easy for all of us perhaps to get caught up in criticizing leaders out in society and then we bring that into the church and what we find is we find ourselves sinning against the leaders in God's church because we just think it's okay to just say whatever we want. You know, think about it this way, you parents, god commands us to honor our father and mother. Right, that's a command one of the. It's the fifth commandment. That doesn't mean your children can't come to you if they're disappointed or frustrated or hurt Maybe you even sinned against them but they can't come to you with what I call the toad. Right, I'm sorry, my kids, you can plug your ears for a minute here, but that's not okay, right? So there's one thing it's not to make people be quiet. No, you need to be able to talk to your leaders openly and freely, but we have to be careful we're doing it.

Speaker 1: 21:47

I don't have the right, as a pastor, to just be disrespectful to my session. That's not right, and if I am, I need to apologize for it and get it right with them. And it's the the same with all of us. So it's just like this in God's church Obey your leaders and submit to them. Let them do this, listen, let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. Here's a good prayer for all of, including this pastor, because I affect other officers too, Lord, can it be said I'm a joy to my leaders? Can it be said I'm a joy to the officers of this church and the leaders of this church? Lord, am I unnecessarily making them groan? That's a good prayer. Each person can examine himself. We don't always get it right, but that's what we should be striving for. That's what the author of Hebrews is talking about. One quick reading through the Gospels reveals that the Lord's apostles and his disciples had many sins and failures. Nevertheless, we still obey their inspired teachings. We still obey their writings in the New Testament, and so one of the laws of Christ's kingdom is that he uses fallible men to lead his church, and we're called to obey his officers, each one, including the officers themselves.

Speaker 1: 23:25

You know what happens when you don't have established authority in your home. What happens? You have chaos, don't you? Have you noticed this? If you come to me, young people and you got young children, I'm going to tell you this right here. Here's the advice I'm going to give you. As a parent, I've raised four. You need to break their will from age two to five, and if you don't do it by age eight, you're really in trouble. You can't convert their soul, but the military taught me, you can break a will Because you have to have in your home the established authority that you're the authority and they're not. You see, if you're constantly fighting that battle, it's very hard to establish an atmosphere of grace and love. It's hard to do that in an atmosphere of chaos. So you establish the authority, not because you're holding it over their head, but so you can get on to the things. If you're the authority, not because you're holding it over their head, but so you can get onto the things, if you're fighting that battle, it's very hard for there to be peace in the home. And so it's the same in the church, where people are always criticizing and going after their leaders and looking for everything. It just creates a toxic environment and it's not good. Come talk to us. If you have an issue, we'll talk to you. We may or may not agree, we're going to fail you sometimes, but pray for us and try to be a joy and encouragement to all your officers, if you can.

Speaker 1: 24:59

The discipline of the church. So this vow speaks of the government of the church submitting, but also submitting to the discipline of the church. So this vow speaks of the government of the church submitting, but also submitting to the discipline of the church. This too is in the first part of the vow. Let's think about discipline.

Speaker 1: 25:12

Usually when I bring that word up, people think negative, it's corrective punishment or it's discipline is punitive in some way. That may range everywhere, from an informal verbal correction all the way at the other end to a formal excommunication. I've been involved in everything from A to Z in there and I can tell you as a pastor, excommunication is the most difficult, one of the most difficult things I've had to do. I hate it, but you've got to do it, and you'll never get put out of the church because you sin. You'll get put out of the church because you refuse to repent, and usually that's after a good process, long process, where people just dig in. But you know what the good news is Out of the five people that I've had, along with the elders, put out of the church after a long process, two came back. Two came back and repented. That's what we're after.

Speaker 1: 26:16

Even when you do discipline, you're doing it for their good. It's called tough love and it's not fun to have to do it. If you're a parent, you understand what I mean. It really is true that it's harder on the parent. You'll learn kids. You think they're lying now but they're not. It really is harder to do that. It's very hard as an officer to have to put someone out of the church. There's a lot of tears in that. Have to put someone out of the church. There's a lot of tears in that and a lot of heartache. And so pray for your officers, but we're aiming to have them restored. We're saying to them we love you when we think your soul's in real danger. Please, it's a last plea after a process.

Speaker 1: 27:00

But then discipline. I want you to understand something about discipline. It's largely positive. Discipline is actually largely positive. What do I mean? Most discipline and you can see the word disciple and the word discipline it comes through the teaching of God's word. Most discipline comes from a positive, in a positive way, from time spent around God's people Discussing what Spiritual things, the word of God, talking about how we're living, trying to live the word of God out, encouraging one another in that way, singing the word of God together. You may not think of us singing these songs as part of the discipline of God, but it actually is. He's encouraging us in a positive way to be a good disciple as the word of God as we sing it to God, it also soaks into our hearts and minds and souls.

Speaker 1: 27:47

Encouraging one another is a big part of discipline. We hear this well in Colossians 3. Listen, we may not think of this as a discipline passage, but it is. Listen, colossians 3, 16 and 17. Let the word of Christ dwell richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God, and whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God, the Father. Through him. That's discipline we're teaching. We're getting people to go in the way of holiness and the way of love. How? By singing together, by getting, encouraging one another in the word of God, and so most discipline is a positive thing and it comes how, by living in a Bible-centered, a Bible-saturated, a Bible-loving and a Bible-believing community of Christians. A Bible-loving and a Bible-believing community of Christians, by the very fact that you take your membership seriously is a great part of God's discipling us and thus disciplining us, especially from that positive direction.

Speaker 1: 28:54

Now Proverbs speaks about the rod of correction. That's Proverbs' way of saying sometimes love has to be tough and that's hard and there's a place for that. However, with most parenting, your discipline is going to be more positive in nature Spending time with your children when you can, enabling them to see that you live a holy life. When you fail, they see you confessing your sins and failures at the cross of Christ. When you fail them in sin, they see you come to them and you apologize to them and seek their forgiveness. That's part of what it means to discipline our children. We're teaching that there's grace with God and there needs to be grace with one another. It means we're striving to do good works daily, and they to the best of our ability. And they see that when we come together and talk about the Scriptures together, when we have casual conversations in the car, going down racetrack road, about the things of Christ and what's happening at school and are we trying to handle that in a God-centered way, all of that is discipline.

Speaker 1: 30:10

Deuteronomy 6,. When you rise up, when you walk along the way, when you lay down at night, it's a lifestyle. So discipline's way more than just the negative part. It's largely positive. It's an investment into the spiritual life of one another and our families, and that's what it is in the church. So submit yourself to the very word-saturated life of the church, share a Christ-centered life together, spending time with one another, and you see, in this way, discipline is not just something that the officers do. We're all encouraging people in the way.

Speaker 1: 30:53

There's times that you're going to see one of your brothers or sister does something, and the fact is, most of the things in life we should just overlook Proverbs says overlook much in love. But when you can't overlook it, it's when it begins to rupture the relationship or people are going to get hurt in a significant way. You shouldn't overlook that stuff. Or people are going to get hurt in a significant way. You shouldn't overlook that stuff. But when you go to them, you can go to them in love. And sometimes, most of the time, it's probably not even going to be an officer. It's going to be a fellow Christian that goes to you and just says, hey, I love you and I just want to talk to you about something, I'm for you, and then talk to them about it. I've learned through the years and I think I've already told you, but I think it's true you can pretty much tell people almost anything if they know you love them. And so I want to encourage you to do that.

Speaker 1: 31:45

Discipline is a community project but it takes intentionality. So do you submit yourself to the government discipline of the church? That's the first half submission. Second half has to do with study. Now, it's not study in the normal sense. Listen, do you promise to study the church's purity and peace? Study in this sense is kind of the old English and Scottish way of saying to make an earnest effort in promoting the purity and peace of the church. I wish they'd changed the word to strive or promote or something, but it's an earnest effort to promote the purity and peace of the church. Let's think about this just for a few minutes.

Speaker 1: 32:24

1 John 3.16,. I think this encapsulates what that means. It's the heart of it. By this we know love, that he, christ, laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. The brothers in the scripture means brothers and sisters. So it'd be very easy, I think, for us to read the vow to promise to study the church's purity and peace and conclude that if we perhaps just get the main doctrines of Christianity down, that we have the purity of God's truth in place.

Speaker 1: 33:01

Yes, that's part of it, but it's only part of it. We have to uphold the purity of doctrine in the church. Now, as you do that, you have to do it wisely. There are some things that are of primary importance, some things are of secondary importance and some things are of third tier. And, as we were told at seminary, guys, if you ever try to jam every one of your beliefs up into a primary thing, you're going to be the most obnoxious Christian on the planet, right? There are some things all Christians hold to and those are the things we center around. Secondary things you know baptism, and you know we could talk about some other things that you can debate and you know. And then there are third tier things, like whether maybe Chick-fil-A is Jesus' chicken, you know, or something like that. But whatever, I heard somebody say that around here the other day and I thought that's interesting.

Speaker 1: 33:56

But we need to be after serious error, because that hurts a church in its health, and we need to go after heresy hard, because that can be fatal to people. Heresy is not just error, it's something that can take the heart out of Christianity. Not just error, it's something that can take the heart out of Christianity. And the church through the years, has made a distinction between heresy and error, and so listen to how Jude says it. Contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints, the faith not my faith personally per se, but the faith, the body of truth that God has. Given that we have to contend for, some things are worth fighting for. Now we fight like Christians. We don't fight like the world, right, we fight different. Right, paul fought the good fight. There's a place to fight, but we fight as Christ fought. We don't fight like the world fights, but we have to contend for the faith.

Speaker 1: 34:54

Absolute truth is not highly valued among many in our society. Have you heard someone say, well, that's my truth. What I told the first service? I said I'm going to walk into the bank one day and say to them how much money is my account? Well, they say, mr Colerave, you got 2,500 bucks in there. Well, my truth says I got 2.5 million in there. See, when we deal with math, we know it's ridiculous.

Speaker 1: 35:25

But see, there's truth in the spiritual and moral realm as well, is there not? The most obvious example is the Holocaust. Do we not see that that's not a matter of opinion? I mean, that's such a low-hanging fruit. But yes, we have to be after the truth, but we have to also remember that the truth, the purpose of it, it's to bear fruit.

Speaker 1: 35:45

What fruit, according to the Scripture? The fruit of love. We hold on to the truth not to be obnoxious with it, not to club people over the head with it. We do contend for it, but it's all out of a concern for love, love for God and love for other people. Knowledge without love is useless. 1 Corinthians 13. Remember, we must speak the truth. How? In love? Ephesians 4. Paul says in 1 Timothy 1, verse 5, that the aim of their ministry, the aim of their teaching, this truth is love. We want the truth about God and who he is, and the truth of the gospel to result in love, and so we have to strive for the purity of the church in both doctrine, especially in doctrine contending from the truth. But we have to do it in a way that also breeds and produces peace. You'll notice peace.

Speaker 1: 36:40

There is the second part of the second half. What do I mean by peace? I mean it by the Hebrew way, shalom. Not just psychological peace, like Americans often think of it, not just psychological peace, but the wellness of everything. If a Jew came to you and said shalom. What they mean is I want everything in your life and in your world to be complete, mature, fully satisfying, good and great, and you fully satisfied, like it's a huge, comprehensive term. If I say I want there to be peace in this church, I just don't mean psychological peace, I mean biblically. I want the church Westtown to be everything she can be the fullness of your wellbeing, completion, your maturity, firing on all cylinders, having the greatness of God's blessing overflow. That's what peace is. And so we're vowing to do what we can, to the best of our ability, to make Westtown flourish as a church.

Speaker 1: 37:44

John puts it this way it means laying down our lives for the brothers. And what does that mean? It means that when we become church members at this church or any church really, but at this church it's more than just going to church on Sunday, it's we're doing everything we can to have this body be everything we can all be, individually, as families and together as a church. It's a glorious vision. I want to say this to you from Ligon, duncan, as I begin to close here when the world looks at the church and it sees harmony, not a fake harmony, not a pretended harmony, but a harmony that exists because we do sin against one another. A harmony that exists because we do let one another down. A harmony that exists because we do hurt one another, but we do something really strange.

Speaker 1: 38:45

Duncan says we forgive one another, we're reconciled to one another, we accept one another, and when the world sees that, the world says something's going on. There Is that the gospel thing. That only happens of God, that only happens because of grace. That's why we have to pray for it. That's why we need to seek grace from God that we can be everything he's called us to be. So I leave you with this word from Peter Listen.

Speaker 1: 39:20

1 Peter 3. Finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless For to this you were called that you may obtain a blessing. Peter's writing to persecuted Christians, and do you know what he's saying? As bad as you're hurting, bless those who are persecuting you. That you may obtain a blessing. The world doesn't understand that, but when we look at the cross, that's where we can begin to understand that Christ died for us when we were yet sinners. So let's stand. I have one question to ask you to close out this series Westtown Church Do you submit yourself to the government and discipline of the church and promise to study its purity and peace? If you do say I do, well, let's pray.