Transcription downloaded from https://yetanothersermon.host/_/christchurchmo/sermons/101407/wake-up-and-keep-going/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Okay, the title of my message is Wake Up and Keep Going.! We're going to read the passage together.! I'm going to read it out loud and then we'll pray. I'm going to start at verse 9.

[0:12] 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, starting at verse 9. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with him.

[0:27] Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly and love because of their work.

[0:43] Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all, see that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

[1:00] Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the spirit, do not despise prophecies, but test everything.

[1:15] Hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil. Amen. Heavenly Father, God, I pray that you would awaken our hearts to the Holy Spirit this morning.

[1:28] God, I pray that you would fill me with the spirit this morning as I teach. Lord, I pray that you would give me your burden for the church that you love so much, God. Lord, I pray that the words from my mouth and the meditation from my heart would be pleasing to you, my God.

[1:42] Amen. Amen. Amen. Good morning. Good morning. So my name is Sean. I'm one of the partners members here at Christ Church. And it is my privilege to walk through this passage of scripture with you.

[1:56] And so we'll just go ahead and start. I've broken up this passage into four points. The first point is obey your leaders and be at peace among yourselves.

[2:06] Verses 12 and 13. We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work.

[2:18] Be at peace among yourselves. So right now, the leadership at Christ Church is Josh, and eventually we'll have elders appointed. And they'll be the leaders that we're going to be supporting as a church.

[2:30] We're called to do this unto the Lord and to scripture. And so what this looks like is supporting and praying for your elders, supporting and praying for your future elders, and also in the process of appointing elders.

[2:43] And so one thing I was praying for for the church is I want us to just really be a warm welcome to the future elders here at Christ Church. You know, when I was an elder at Bellicose, when my family was doing this, and we were doing this for five years, it was so helpful when we got welcomed into the body at Bellicose.

[3:03] And throughout the process, we felt the love. We felt the love and support of the body throughout the whole season. And I look back upon it with the fondest memories. I'm so thankful for the church and for the body for that time because during that time, there's things that happen that are tough.

[3:17] When you're shepherding the body, there's things that happen that are difficult situations, and it's so good to have the body behind you as family, cheering you on, praying for you, supporting you.

[3:29] We had times when one of our kids was in the hospital. The church was praying for us, bringing us meals. Even on Sunday service, they were praying for our daughter that was in the hospital. And it was such a blessing.

[3:40] I was thinking about that the other day to know when we were sitting in the hospital that the church was praying for us. And that's what I want. I want this culture of Bellicose. And we're a young church, and we have the opportunity to lay this foundation, and we have the opportunity to lay this culture right.

[3:56] And we want to be a church that is family together to support each other well. And so cheer for each other instead of being critical. And it is within our human nature, within our sinful nature, to be critical.

[4:08] And that's something that we actually have to recognize that that's sin, to turn away from that. Now, here Christ hurts our people with strong convictions and strong opinions, which is good.

[4:19] It's good to have strong convictions. It is good to have strong opinions, but it is sin to gossip. And so that's one of the things that I want to warn us of.

[4:29] And then verse 15 even talks about, See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. And so how do you make sure that your convictions and your concerns are biblical?

[4:44] Matthew 18. You go and talk to that person one-on-one alone. You don't go and talk to someone else about it. You don't share your concerns with someone else, but you share your concerns with that person.

[4:55] Because what we don't want to do is let the enemy have a foot bolt in our bodies. We don't want him to come in and cause division. We don't want to have the church be torn apart from the devil from the inside.

[5:08] And so when the devil attacks the church from the outside, the church is stronger. But when he attacks the church from the inside, it can be torn apart. And God cares about the sin that can tear apart his church.

[5:21] And he cares about you. And that sin can tear apart you. So be quick to recognize gossip and turn away from him. And this is something that I think all of us have seen in the church.

[5:32] This is not something that's probably happened from the very beginning of time. And this is something that we have to be aware of. Because there's an enemy, an adversary who seeks to steal, kill, and destroy. And we want to be on guard against that.

[5:45] Be patient with one another. Have grace with one another. Don't be so quick to be offended. Remember your own sin and your failings. There's a quote by Charles Spurgeon that I love.

[5:57] If any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him. For you are worse than he thinks you to be. So true. When we remember that, we're not offended.

[6:07] We're like, you know what? They're right. And there's probably more. There is more. And so don't be so quick to take an offense. Don't take yourself so seriously. Remember the gospel and have grace with one another.

[6:19] And one of the keys, too, is not being offended, is being humble. That's the key right there. Don't take it so seriously. When someone says something, you know, I'm far worse than they even know.

[6:33] And that's okay. So let's not be critical of one another. Let's not put each other under the microscope. But let's actually, like it says in verse 13, be at peace among ourselves.

[6:45] Let's pursue unity together in this. And if something happens that you could be offended by, just say, you know what? You're probably right. You know, thank the Lord.

[6:55] And don't take it so seriously. Also, part of supporting our leaders is really the process of taking part in the church ministry together. Don't let it all fall on their shoulders.

[7:07] Don't let it all fall on your MC leader's shoulders. Don't think other people are taking care of this. Be part of this together. And what that looks like here at Christ Church is in our MCs, in the missional communities. This is how we do church.

[7:19] And so what that looks like is MC gatherings, hosting the building, cleaning up after meetings, caring the needs for others in the church. Don't let other people care for the needs of others. We need to be the church together.

[7:31] We need to do this and partner with the church. Giving up your resources, your time, and your money. And sometimes we think that, you know, time, there's other people that can do that.

[7:42] I'm too busy. Well, if the Lord puts it on your heart to address a certain need, to bring a meal to someone, to reach out to someone, to pray for someone, to let them know you're praying, that's the Holy Spirit. Listen.

[7:53] Listen to what the Holy Spirit is doing. And be part of the body. Partner together. That brings me to point number two, which is care for the body.

[8:04] Verses 14 and 15. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

[8:15] See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to every one. The only way that we can really do verses 14 and 15 well is through relationship.

[8:29] You know, look at verse 14. Admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. If we don't have relational equity with one another, we're not able to do this well.

[8:41] If we don't have relational equity, we're not able to receive correction very well. If we don't have a relationship with one another, we're not able to sometimes even see these things. Right? Admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted.

[8:53] How would you even know if you don't know someone well? You have to be in each other's lives. And that's how we have things set up and we desire to be functioning as a church together within our mission communities.

[9:05] It's to do life together, to do life on life together. Where we're walking through life together is family. Where we know what's going on. Where we know how each other's doing. And then when something happens, we're quick to respond.

[9:17] We're quick to reach out. When something tough is going on, we're quick to share what's going on. We want to be the ones that each other counts on. We want to be family, brothers and sisters. And that's what we're called to do.

[9:28] Unto the Lord. And to keep going. Right? We need to wake up when the Holy Spirit is alert in our attention. And then we need to respond and we need to keep going. And so this is important.

[9:40] We need to pray for the people in our mission communities by name. You know, one thing that Mindy and I do, my wife, we pray for the people in our MCs by name. We take turns with a different person.

[9:50] We try to do each night. And then we just pray together about that person. We pray for them. And when you start doing that, the Lord actually will put stuff in your heart for them. And reach out to them.

[10:01] Be specific. Let them know. We're praying for you. The Lord really highlighted this to me. Don't make it generic. Don't just say, I was praying for you. Just want to let you know that. Say, hey, the Lord really highlighted something. We need to listen and wake up to the Holy Spirit.

[10:15] And I was praying for the church. That's one thing that came highlighted. Was I really want us. We're open to the spirit. And I know we are doing that. But I want us to wake up to the Holy Spirit and respond.

[10:26] And because that's the spirit of the living God. Living inside of us. For those that are followers of Christ. And the Lord is a spirit for strengthening and building up the church through the giftings. So is a church impacted by your presence?

[10:40] How is a church impacted by your presence? That's one thing I think we should really actually take an inventory of our lives. What does the Lord want you to do more to build up the church and strengthen the church? And don't look to other people to do that.

[10:52] This is your church. Or if you're a visitor, it's another church. The Lord wants you to make an impact and to strengthen and build up your church. That's what he's given the spiritual gifts for. So use your spiritual gifts.

[11:04] 1 Corinthians 12. The Lord has given these spiritual gifts for building up the church. For building up the body. And sometimes we rely on our own strength too much. We actually think that we can do it.

[11:16] That's very prideful. We can't do it. Apart from God, we can do nothing. Matthew 15.5. Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing. We need actually to remember when Jesus went away, he said, It is better that I go.

[11:30] Because when I go, I am giving you a spirit. And so we need to remember, he gave us a spirit for this. Use the spiritual gifts. Use the gifts the Lord has given for building up the church.

[11:41] And if you don't know what your spiritual gifts are, this is a question that I've had. I would say, start serving. And that's why I've told people, start serving. Jump in and start serving. Because the spiritual gifts are actually made for serving.

[11:54] For service. And so as you serve more, as you start stepping out there more, as you start taking care of the needs of the body more, you'll actually see the giftings come out. And other people will recognize it too.

[12:06] So jump in, start serving, and be open to the Holy Spirit. Another thing I've found too is that the Lord, he is so faithful. He takes care of the church.

[12:16] We don't have to think about it. He's the one that tells us and highlights things. And if you notice a need, a lot of times, that can be a heads up and that's how you're gifted. I've had people talk to me before and say, hey, how come we're not doing this?

[12:29] And I thought, I didn't even think about that. That could be a way that you're gifted. Start praying into that. Start helping out with that. Start jumping in with your spiritual communities, helping out with your MCs, talk to your MC leaders, and use those things that you have a burden for for building up the church.

[12:46] So instead of being frustrated, I would say, take part. Do this together. Partner with the church well. Be patient with one another as we're using our gifts. Actually appreciate the gifts in others.

[13:00] I've seen this before, and I'm sure you guys have too, where sometimes you have a certain gifting, and the other gifting is not your gifting, and you don't understand that other person's gifting, but we have to recognize that these gifts were made actually to work together.

[13:13] So we need to do this in love and humility. And so sometimes you have a mercy gifting over here that thinks someone with a prophetic gifting over here is being too direct, and you need to realize this is all meant for building up the church together.

[13:28] We need to operate in this well. And so be patient, be humble, and remember this is actually for building up the church and to bring God glory. So let's do this.

[13:39] Let's pray and care for our church together. And as we do this, we need to treasure Christ. This is essential. We need to remember that Christ is the reason why we're doing this.

[13:50] This is the reason why we're gathered here today. It's because of Christ, because of Jesus. And we need him. And he is the author and perfecter and the finisher of our faith. So we need to do this unto the Lord.

[14:02] We're not doing this for ourselves. We're not doing this to see the church grow. We're not doing this so that we can pat ourselves on the back.

[14:12] We're doing this to bring God glory. We're doing this because we treasure him. And this brings me to point number three. Take joy in the Lord.

[14:23] Remember the gospel. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

[14:34] No, we cannot do this if we're not actually taking joy in the Lord and remembering the gospel. And if we're being honest, we don't always do this. Rejoice always.

[14:46] Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances. We don't do that. You know, if we take an assessment of a given week of our lives and really take an inventory, we realize we get upset about the silliest things.

[15:01] We really do. It's our own selfishness. We get upset about traffic that happens sometimes, about maybe kids being naughty. And the reality is all that stuff is temporary.

[15:12] Traffic is bad sometimes. Sometimes kids are naughty. And we need to remember, like, actually, we're actually not that important. My preferences are not that important. What is important is actually what's eternal.

[15:24] And when we remember the gospel, we remember that we sin, all of us, before a holy God. And the just payment, penalty for our sin is eternity.

[15:35] And now when we deserve hell, that we sin before God. And he had mercy. He had mercy and sent Jesus. And Jesus took that punishment on the cross and paid the price for us.

[15:47] That he paid the penalty for our sins. And that through Christ, by following and believing him, that we get to spend eternity with him. When we remember that, these little things that are so silly, they're nothing.

[15:58] And it's actually a distraction that keeps us from taking joy and remembering what's important. When we remember that we're going to reign with him forever, that one day Jesus is going to return and make all things new.

[16:11] And all of this is going to be under his rule. No more sin. No more suffering. We can't help but be joyful. But if we're thinking about our present circumstances, we will get frustrated.

[16:23] And what this means is to turn, right, turn our hearts to the Lord. Remember, like, okay, I'm frustrated now because of this that happened. This inconvenience in my life. Whether it's work or whether it's this or that.

[16:37] I need to remember the gospel. I need to remember what's really important. That Jesus is on the throne. In 1 Thessalonians 5, if I go back to verse 2, which is just 10 verses prior.

[16:50] It says, For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. I'm going to go to verse 9. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with him.

[17:07] Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. I love that. I love that reminder. And also, Paul writes, just as you are doing. And that's my encouragement to us this morning.

[17:20] I think we're doing a good job. I really do. This is not a review. This is an encouragement. I'm building each other up. Reminding each other of Jesus and the why. Why we're doing this.

[17:31] But let's keep going. Let's awaken our hearts to the Holy Spirit. And let's keep going. Let's keep going, building each other up. Let's not stop. And as the church grows, as more people come in, keep doing that.

[17:43] Keep doing that unto one another. Remember, delight in the Lord. Delight in his presence. Are you a worshiper of God? Not just on a Sunday morning, but are you a worshiper of God?

[17:55] What is the rhythm of your life? What is the pattern of your life in being a worshiper of God? And that just doesn't mean worship in a song, which is very important. But also worship in our everyday life, in our circumstances, in our day-to-day.

[18:08] And if not, become a worshiper of God. Get alone with him. Spend time with him. Take joy with him. When you're, wherever you're at, worship him. Thank him for his goodness.

[18:18] When you're driving, when you're working, all the time, continually do that. Don't cease. Don't cease thanking God for his goodness, for what he's done for you. And that's how we rejoice in him at all times.

[18:30] It's worshiping him. Remembering him. Remembering why we're Christians. And so how we think about God impacts our lives. It impacts how we think about life. It impacts how we react to circumstances.

[18:43] It impacts how we respond to trials. And this is the most important thing that we can do as Christians, is actually enjoy God. This is the most important thing we can do to impact the lives of the people we care about, is to impact God.

[18:56] His impact is to enjoy God. And so as a dad, as a husband, the best thing I can do for my family, for my wife and my kids, is to enjoy God.

[19:07] Just spend time with him. When I was an elder, that was the best thing I could do for the church, was to enjoy God and spend time with him. As a mom, as a wife, that's the best thing you can do for your kids.

[19:18] And your husband is to enjoy the Lord. Spend time with him. Whether you're single, the best thing you can do in your singleness, for the people around you, your coworkers, your roommates, the people in your church, your friends.

[19:29] Just enjoy God. And that's how we're able to actually be filled. We can't give if we're not filled by the Spirit. And if we try to do that, we're going to run out. And it's just going to be dead works, which is not pleasing to the Lord.

[19:43] So remember that apart from him, we can do nothing. John 15, 5. We need to be filled by the Spirit. We need to have oil in our lambs. We can't live off of old man either.

[19:54] We can't live off of the stuff that the Lord gave us years ago. We need fresh food. We need fresh food from him. We need this. We actually need to realize our need for the Lord.

[20:06] I think that's one of the things that enters us and keeps us from receiving from him is we think we got him. And the answer is we can't do anything without him. We have to realize that without him, we are nothing.

[20:18] Okay, number four, be open to and listen to the Holy Spirit. Actually, I'm going to talk about discipleships.

[20:30] This is one thing I wanted to talk about before we get into that, is we need to pursue, orient each other's lives. Right? We need to remember to do that well.

[20:42] And that's part of caring for the body. Right? So there's a pastor that I'm friends with that was pastoring for over 30 years, and him and his wife are now in their 70s, and now he's caring for his wife, who's having health issues.

[20:58] But one thing he told me, that if he were to do it all over again, he would really aim at pouring into three people, who would then pour into three people, who would then pour into three people.

[21:10] Can you imagine the impact on the kingdom if we all did that? Right? Just ongoing discipleship. Amen. Okay, Lord, who are the people you want me to pour into right now? Who are the people you want me to pour into and share a crisis in my life?

[21:23] And look for these people. And then they're going to do that. And then they're going to do that. Really, really focus on discipleship. And we were talking on Wednesday night, some people stuck around in our house.

[21:35] After our gathering, we were talking around the kitchen island. And it was not planned. We were just talking about just the Lord's faithfulness, the Lord's goodness. And where we see, through discipleship, this person discipled this person.

[21:48] Now look and see, they discipled this person. It's like, praise God. It's just a lineage of Christ followers. And Paul and Timothy relationships. And it's so encouraging to see.

[22:00] And these people didn't plan it. They just were doing this. They were just doing this because the Lord says to do it. Right? They weren't trying to be strategic about it. They were just, the Lord's the one that's strategic. They were just actually saying yes to what the Lord was doing.

[22:12] And so all of us should be aiming to have these relationships. You know, Titus 2, men and women. We should be aiming to look to mentor someone, disciple someone, and also have people pour into our lives.

[22:25] Right? And the reality is we need to have humility to do this well. We need to have humility to receive. And we need to have humility to allow people to pour in and to pour into someone else's life.

[22:38] That has to be done with relationship. The way we have it set up here is in the MCs. But we're small enough. The Lord's highlighting it to you. I would say pour into that person.

[22:49] We want to be following Jesus. We want to be doing this together. Right? And as the church grows, keep doing this unto the Lord. I'm going to read a part of Titus 2. Verses 2 through 12.

[23:03] So this is what we are to be doing.

[23:59] We are to be mentoring one another. And when it talks about older men and older women, I would say that speaks to mature Christians. Right? So don't look at it necessarily as biological age.

[24:10] Right? I've had many people older than me actually disciple me, imploring to me. And we need to be realizing that it's the Holy Spirit that's in us. Right? It's not man's wisdom.

[24:21] It's actually the Spirit of the living God. Right? So we should be able to receive from someone much younger than us because it's the Holy Spirit in them. Right? It's not just man.

[24:31] Man's wisdom is like here. And then we think sometimes like, oh, this person's really wise, so he's a little bit here. And then you think, oh, God, the Holy Spirit. I can't even fathom. Right? How immeasurable.

[24:43] Right? And so we need to actually be humble and be willing to receive from a young child that has the Holy Spirit because it's the Spirit of the living God. Of course I want to hear that.

[24:54] And so there's many times where I receive from our kids and I receive. And the Lord corrected me. I was like, wow. Yep. I'm sorry, Lord. And so we need to have this humility to be able to do this to one another.

[25:08] Okay. Going back. I realize I skipped that part. Be open to the Holy Spirit. Verses 19 through 22. Do not quench the Spirit.

[25:22] Do not despise prophecies, but test everything. Hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. What are some ways that we quench the Spirit?

[25:33] What are some ways that we're not open to the Holy Spirit? John Piper, on this verse, he talks about quenching the Holy Spirit is virtually the opposite of fanning it into flame.

[25:45] When we live our lives as if we don't really need Him and can do the Lord's work on our own strength. Do we do that sometimes? The answer is yes, we do. And we need to actually realize our need for the Holy Spirit.

[25:59] We need to realize that we must decrease and He must increase in our lives. And so when God interrupts your thoughts, listen. Don't be too quick to dismiss it. I know there are people out here with giftings and prophetic giftings.

[26:13] And my encouragement to you is this is from the Lord. These giftings are meant for building up the church. The beauty of the prophetic gifting is that it highlights, the Lord uses that to highlight things that are off, that need to be brought in alignment unto fallen Christ.

[26:28] And I would say this is super important. Don't turn away from this. Don't despise this. And when the Lord gives you something, listen. Because it's the gifting from the Lord. It's the Holy Spirit that's talking.

[26:39] And of course we need to do this biblically. Everything needs to be tested biblically. Everything needs to be done according to the Bible. And if you have questions about that, feel free to talk to me after the service or one of the MC leaders.

[26:50] But we need to be open to this. And when I was praying for Christ Church, I actually felt like there was a mild lethargy. I was praying over this.

[27:01] And that maybe we've gotten a little bit comfortable. Maybe we're not doing this as much as we used to. We're slipped into a little bit of self-reliance. Things are more manageable.

[27:13] We're a little bit older now in the faith. And that's really dangerous. Because we're neglecting what the Lord's given us for His church. And I want to remind us.

[27:23] Remember years ago or a time ago when the Holy Spirit was really speaking in your life and you were responding. And the Lord was really speaking. Maybe it was a crisis mode. Maybe it was something that was really crucial, really important.

[27:36] And you had other people praying. You were calling on people to pray. It was a crisis situation. It was a really important situation. And the Lord spoke. And He came through. And He answered prayer. We need to have that same fervency in response.

[27:49] And my actual answer to this is we're currently in a battle. This is important. And this is crisis mode. And one of the schemes of the devil is to have us slip into lethargy thinking things are fine.

[28:03] Things are good. The church is growing. People are doing pretty good. Work is good. Family is good. But the reality is we're in a battle. Things are not good.

[28:15] There's an enemy, an adversary who wants to destroy us, steal, kill, and destroy us. He wants to tear you apart. And he wants to tear apart this church. And so we actually need to be on our toes.

[28:28] And we need to realize that our present circumstances are not comfortable. Even though the devil may have us in a comfortable thinking spot when we're thinking it's good. But the reality is there's lots of people all around us that desperately need Jesus.

[28:44] Right? Outside of these walls. There's a high school across the street where these kids need Jesus. And we're on a mission. The Lord wants us as soldiers for Christ to be going together and sharing the gospel with them, evangelizing.

[28:56] We need to be fighting for souls. Right? Because when Jesus comes back, the day of the Lord, which we're going to look forward to that as Christians. But if you're not in Christ, right?

[29:09] And if you're not saved, you're going to spend eternity in hell. And that should be on our hearts and our minds when we're looking at people. Right? When we're going to go to a latter day, when we're talking to people at work.

[29:20] We should be alerted to the fact that life is short. And I want to know where this person is going. Right? And I have a responsibility as a Christian to share the gospel with them. The Lord has called me to do that.

[29:32] And so I say the Lord has interrupted your thoughts about someone. And the thought comes in, I should share the gospel with them. Yes, you should. We need to respond.

[29:42] We need to not hesitate. No matter how awkward it may feel, we need to respond to the Lord and have a yes in our hearts to the Lord when he's calling. We need to, the other thing is, when I say prioritize our time and spiritual gifts for building up the church, we need to really make that a priority.

[30:03] We prioritize all things that really don't matter, that don't have eternal value. Entertainment, comfort. Remember, we could take an inventory of our lives and realize we need to prioritize the kingdom of God.

[30:15] We need to remember God's sovereign hand in our lives and remember that God has us here right now to build up and strengthen our church. So we need to wake up. We need to wake up spiritually from our distractions.

[30:27] And I say this morning, if the Lord has even highlighted some of those things, I would encourage you guys to repent from those things. This is something that we have to keep going on. This is not something that we've ever arrived and we're good and we're in a spiritual spot where we don't need to repent from distractions.

[30:43] We don't need to prioritize the kingdom. This is something that we have to continue going until Christ returns. This is something we have to continually deny our flesh in. And sometimes what that means is we need to say no.

[30:57] We need to say no to the things that are temporary so that we have time to say yes to the things that the Lord wants us to do for the kingdom. And so sometimes that means praying, asking the Lord before we make a decision on things.

[31:12] Because the Lord knows what he wants us to focus on. And sometimes we've already said yes to something we shouldn't have said yes to. And we don't have that time to do that. And so we need to actually be strategic with how we spend the Lord's time.

[31:24] You know, I think this church, I think we do a pretty good job caring for each other. But I think we can actually wake up and realize there's more than the Lord has for us, right?

[31:35] And as this church grows, I would say we need to be doing that more and more. We need to be pouring into each other. We need to pour into new relationships. And we need to make disciples and make disciples. We need to be aiming to pour into people.

[31:48] We then will pour into people and make disciples and encourage one another. Keep going, right? Call out sin in each other's lives in love. That has to be done in love. We need to have a burden for each other to be following in peace.

[32:01] And this needs to be done in a balance of love and in relationship. But if we're not doing this, we're actually not doing what the Lord has called us to do in the Bible. And so we need to obey what the Scripture says in this.

[32:13] Verse 22. Abstain from every form of evil. This impacts how we hear from the Lord. Now, if we're in unrepentant sin, we're not going to hear from the Lord.

[32:24] We're not going to be able to partner and do these things. And so there's a reason why Paul puts this in this letter after all this. It's because this is what keeps us from being effective. We need to turn away and repent from sin.

[32:37] God takes sin seriously. His church needs to take sin seriously. We need to take sin seriously as Christians. And we need to take this so seriously because it realized this is sin.

[32:50] It can tear us apart. It can keep us from actually hearing from the Lord. And it can keep us from receiving what the Lord wants us to receive. And it will tear apart this body. So we need to be quick to call out sin, to repent and turn away from it.

[33:04] And we need to spur each other on to do this in love. We need to care for each other as family. So I'm going to summarize with four points. Number one, God has you here to build up and strengthen this church.

[33:16] We need to pursue unity. Number two, care for the body. Be in a relationship with one another. Love each other well. And do this. Be the one that people go to. Right?

[33:27] Sometimes people have people in their lives that they go to when there's something they want prayer for. Or they have a need. They need help with something. A move or a yard project. Be that person in the body.

[33:37] Do that one another. We don't want people to have to go outside of the church to have these relationships. This is what we want to do for each other. We want to be family. Number three, remember what God did for you. And take joy in the Lord.

[33:49] Remember how God changed your life. Without being filled by his spirit, we are nothing. Right? You know, remember, God changed my life. Not only for eternity, which is the biggest thing we could ask for, right?

[34:02] But also right now. God has given me his spirit. He changed my life. And because of that, I'm going to take joy in him. And listen to the Holy Spirit. Number four, wake up spiritually from distractions and listen to what God is saying.

[34:14] I'm going to close with this verse, Colossians 3, 1 through 2. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. For Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

[34:27] Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. For you have died, and your life has been with Christ and God. And when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory. Amen.

[34:37]  Amen. Amen. Amen.