Building The Church

[0:00] I'm going to go to the Word of God to 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 11 and I'm talking about building the church.! Now we could think of building the church as a superstructure, an edifice as such, but we're talking more about the church which really is you and me.

[0:16] It's the people of God and how we can be a people building church, a church that cares for people, people building people, because that's what the Word of God talks about. Edifying is the subject really, edifying or building the church.

[0:31] And our Lord says, I will build my church, doesn't He? He says, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And it's interesting, that word where He says, I will build my church, is the same word edify.

[0:46] The same word that we translate edify is the same word our Lord says, I will build my church. So you could say, our Lord could say, I will edify my church.

[0:56] That's what He wants to do. And He wants us to do that edifying with one another as we'll get to. So the church is people, it's you and me. And it's people building people is the church.

[1:08] God wants His church to be filled with constructive Christians. That we're construction workers, we're creating, we're developing, we're growing, we're strengthening one another.

[1:18] And so the question is how? How are we to build? And Paul exhorts here in 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 11, Wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also you do.

[1:34] He says edify one another. Again that word edify, it means build, build up. It's saying as a church, we have a responsibility. It's God's command. And He says edify one another.

[1:47] Three words. Edify one another. So God wants edifying. He wants a building up of His people. That's why we gather in par is that edifying process, isn't it?

[2:01] As we come together, as we fellowship, it's here as we gather that we can be edified and edify one another. So not only do we get edified, we give edification.

[2:14] We edify and we are edified. And if there's something wrong with the church, then I'll put to you, I know it's a bit of a secular slogan and I don't mean to be too crass here, but we can be a Bob the Builder.

[2:31] I don't really know much about it, but some children's cartoon, Bob the Builder. And the question posed to Bob the Builder is, can we fix it? Can we build it?

[2:43] And the answer is, yes we can. And I'm not meaning to get too far out of a court here, but there's that sense where we should be like Bob the Builder. And we should have an attitude, if there's something wrong with the church, can we fix it?

[2:59] It's up to you and me, because we're all part of that building process. It's not just the preacher, the pastor, it's every one of us building the church, edifying one another. Can we build it?

[3:10] Can we fix it? Yes we can. So having that heart to see what others can become in God. As we look at one another, these living stones that we are, seated on these blue seats, that we are living stones.

[3:26] We are building blocks. And what can we become in God is the thought here. And it's up to you and me to build up one another. If we see a brother or sister that needs building up, then it's up to you and me to do some of that work, isn't it?

[3:40] If they need a lift, you give it. If they need a hand, you offer it. If they need comfort, then you reach out with comfort and with care. It's about building the church, building up one another.

[3:52] And if we, the church, need building up, we need to build it up together. It's all of our work. It's a mutual responsibility that we all have to make the church function, make it work better, fix it if it needs fixing.

[4:06] To build for God, get to work on yourself first. Fix your own faults. Correct your own faults. And solve your own problems before you try to correct faults or problems in others.

[4:18] I know I, for one, it's easy to see the faults of others. And sometimes we are like the Pharisee, aren't we? With the log in the eye, picking out that little speck that's in the brother's eye.

[4:30] Why it's so easy to be critical about others when really we should take a good hard look in the mirror, at the man in the mirror. So rather, let's have the heart to edify one another. Look out for one another.

[4:42] That means you. That means me. That means be there. When there's fellowship, be there if you can. God helping you. Because it's part of the edifying. As we meet, as we gather, as we're together, we can do the edifying with one another.

[4:56] If we're not together, it's pretty hard to do so. And there's parallels like in nature. There's apparently some trees called the sequoia trees of California.

[5:07] They're redwoods. They're spectacular, towering as much as 300 feet above the ground. But it's been observed that these huge, towering trees have got an unusually shallow root system that spiders out just under the surface of the ground to catch as much of the surface moisture as they can.

[5:26] But this is their vulnerability because their roots aren't deep in the ground. And so when the stormy, heavy winds come, they could bring these giants crashing to the ground, but it rarely happens because the roots of these trees, as they grow together, the roots hold the group of trees strong.

[5:45] They grow in these clusters with these intertwining roots. And that provides the support for every tree to be strong. And it's the same with the church, with our fellowship. We grow stronger together as we support one another.

[5:58] There's encouragement for one another. And it's like that picture of a tree that otherwise would be weak, but because the trees are together, they're strong. And if you're not here, you won't be able to build others up.

[6:10] So it's good that you're here tonight. And those that might not be able to be present, but are at least with us in spirit watching, we can't obey God and edify one another if we don't get together.

[6:21] So it's good and important to do that. We want to be that growing church. And it happens as we're together, as we encourage one another. And everybody has a part to play in the church. Every one of us needs to do that part.

[6:34] How do we build each other up then? How do we edify one another? If we're instructed to, and we are, as we read, then what are some of those essential building tools for building the church?

[6:47] And number one I put to you is love. Building with love. Now, 1 Corinthians 8 verse 1, in part, it says, Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifyeth.

[7:05] It can be a mistake. Some churches might have a lot of knowledge, a lot of imparting of knowledge, but the love is lacking. We can place an overemphasis on knowledge.

[7:16] Being a Christian isn't all about amassing some store of information. Now, that's not to negate that we shouldn't have knowledge. We should have knowledge because the word says that my people perish for lack of knowledge.

[7:31] It's important that we know the truth. And there's a love of the truth. And Bible knowledge is important. But it's when we get that skew-wiff that the knowledge becomes the dominating factor because we can get puffed up.

[7:47] In other words, we can get inflated and, you know, think of ourselves more than we are. We can get conceited and selfish. And some people, when they have knowledge, even when they have Bible knowledge, it can fill people up with their own importance, as if it makes them better than another Christian.

[8:03] But what really matters is the love. Because charity, love, edifies. Love builds up. So that's what really matters. That's of the most important consideration.

[8:15] The love. God places an emphasis on love. He says that love is greater than faith. When you see faith, hope, charity or love, He says love is the greatest.

[8:26] He says in the word of God, it says love covers a multitude of sins. It says love is the fulfilling of the law. Without love, we like a clanging cymbal. A gonging cymbal.

[8:38] So love is that cement. It helps the church to grow. It helps us to edify. It cements us together. It glues us together. It strengthens us. These living stones. And edifying others means sticking together as a church.

[8:51] That we can be stronger through thick and thin. And love means we care. And we show it. When people will notice that. As the word of God says, our Lord says, By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one for another.

[9:11] So the Lord God says that love is that hallmark of His people, of Christians, God's people. We should love as God has loved us. And love shows that God's working in us.

[9:23] Really every believer is being fashioned and fitted for heaven. But we're not complete yet. We're not the finished product. As Paul says, I've not apprehended yet. I haven't got to that finishing line just yet.

[9:35] We're not that finished product. We're still in process. And there's still a few rough edges. You know, Julie can tell you about all my rough edges. I'm still a Christian under construction.

[9:46] And we're a work in progress. We're still on that journey of faith, aren't we? And God's still working, developing, shaping us. So let's help each other to get there. To that place of greater Christ-likeness.

[9:58] Love edifies. Love builds up. And love is seen in action. It's something evident. And love means kindness and compassion, consideration.

[10:10] For the church to be built up, it's going to take love. And what does love look like? What does it show? Love welcomes people. Love values people.

[10:21] Love cares for people. Love sacrifices for people. Love extends itself for people. When we have love, we'll be available. We'll give of our time.

[10:32] We'll build relationships in the church. How wonderful it would be if people knew our church as a loving church. That is something that stands out.

[10:43] It marks this church. This church body. This fellowship. That love is here. It's the love of God. That we should be known as a church that loves. That there's growing faith and a growing love.

[10:55] Love. As 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 3, Paul writes, We are bound to thank God always for your brethren, as it is meant, because that your faith, it says, Your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth.

[11:12] Wouldn't it be good that our faith grows? Not only our faith, but our love as well. They go together, don't they? Our faith grows and our love grows. It abounds. It increases. There's a generous love.

[11:23] A self-sacrificing love. A love that gives and keeps on giving. That knows no limit. That flows in everything that we do. And this love that we speak of, it's not a pretend sham kind of love, but it's definitely real.

[11:37] As Peter writes in 1 Peter 1, 22, he tells, See that you love one another, love one another, that repeated theme through the word of God.

[11:56] See that you love one another with a pure heart, fervently. Notice that it says an unfamed love. Unfamed. Unfamed. Now, I believe in the boxing game, you can feign a punch.

[12:09] You know, they do that in the movies, don't they? Or when they feign a punch. In other words, someone throws a punch and the actor just bounces away, but they've not really even connected.

[12:19] Or maybe just touched his face and it looks like he's got punched. It's a feigned punch. In other words, it's fake. It's a pretend punch. It's not real. And Peter's saying here that our love shouldn't be something feigned, like a pretend thing, a sham, a fake thing, but the very real, true, genuine love.

[12:40] That our love for the brethren be a genuine love, a real love. So build with love. Secondly, we should build with grace. This is a second essential tool for building the church, for edifying the church.

[12:54] It's grace. Building with grace. Acts 20, 32, Paul says, He says grace is able to build you up.

[13:13] The word of God's grace. You know, this book from cover to cover, it's grace from Genesis to Revelation, isn't it? The whole book is grace. Grace. Marvelous. Infinite. Matchless.

[13:23] The grace of God. And this saving use of the gospel, it's grace from start to end. Grace, that God's kindness and mercy, that he should deign to offer it and that we should be glad recipients of it, to have the grace of God.

[13:37] And it's all about the grace that he has given us and the grace that builds us up. It's the word of God's grace. The saving use of the gospel. It's God's precious kindness and mercy that he extends towards us in Christ.

[13:50] And we are the people of God thanks to his grace. He's graciously given his heart. He's graciously given his tenderness, his mercy, his salvation gift, his forgiveness, his pardon.

[14:03] All thanks to his generosity and his kindness, his understanding. His love incarnate, isn't he? Grace incarnate. Our Lord Jesus. And God's awesome, amazing grace is ours.

[14:15] And it's ours to share. It's ours to give. It's ours to display. Nothing received, nothing by but simple faith. Received by simple faith, the grace of God.

[14:27] And friends, when you think of the grace that he's given, his forever gift, his salvation, he's given so freely from God's absolute tenderheartedness, we have received it.

[14:38] We're not only recipients of it, but we are communicators of it. So will we be that church that is filled with the grace of God, that preaches grace, that lives grace, that talks grace, that walks grace?

[14:51] God's amazing grace is available at any time we need it as well. As believers, we know there's a throne that we can go to. And it's 24 by 7, by 365.

[15:03] We don't have to wait for some appointment or some strict time or some meeting place. We can access this grace at any time, at any place.

[15:17] And Hebrews 4.16 tells us, we should let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

[15:29] So the grace of God, it teaches us many things. As it says in Titus, that the grace of God teaches us. It teaches man the path to take. His glorious grace.

[15:40] Think of it today, that his glorious grace accepts the weak and sinful, the unworthy, the most unworthy, the most unrighteous.

[15:51] God's grace is extended to the sinner. And he welcomes and converts such. God's grace is awesome and transforms the soul.

[16:02] And it brings a brand new life, a whole new dimension of living. So, it's fundamental to us, as the church, the assembly of God's people, that grace makes this possible.

[16:14] Grace makes the church possible. And Acts 4.33, it says that there was great grace among them, among the people of God. There's great grace there. And so, I put to you that it's incumbent on us to give grace to people.

[16:31] Think of that. If you've received God's grace, why don't you need to give God's grace to others? To give grace to people like God does. We know we don't deserve it.

[16:44] We might think others may not be deserving. But grace overlooks that they do not deserve it. Grace transforms us. Grace transforms us so much that we speak a new language.

[16:57] We learn to speak a new language. I put to you, we're going to speak with new tongues. We're going to speak with grace. That's what we're going to do. Amen. Ephesians 4.29, it says, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

[17:15] So, I put to you that God can transform us. Grace can transform us so much that we learn to speak a new language, the language of grace. Grace can transform us so that when naturally we would be other than graceful, that God will give us grace to speak grace, to minister grace, to be gracious, to keep sweet.

[17:34] When naturally we would be the opposite. When that grace would keep us sweet, it would keep us praising, it would keep that gentle spirit that will speak grace when we meet others.

[17:47] The question is, are our words gracious words? Think of that. Do we measure our words on the grace scale? How gracious are they?

[17:58] Are they words of criticism or fault finding? Or are they words of grace, words of encouragement? Instead of being angry, being filled with hatred and resentment or attacking others, rather let us be forgiving.

[18:11] Let us be like Christ. Let's speak his language. The words he would speak, he would minister grace unto the hearers. Let us be that church that's reaching out in grace, that's growing in grace.

[18:24] We show grace in our thoughtfulness of others. We extend grace in our caring and giving of ourselves. Minister the grace, it says.

[18:35] Minister grace. Give it. Give grace. Impart grace to others. So what does that look like? Grace in our words. Grace in our attitudes.

[18:46] Grace in our actions. Can we think of that? The people are hard to be gracious to. Maybe they're the ones we've got to be gracious to. You know, it's kind of hard, isn't it?

[18:57] The Bible says God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Maybe we don't have enough grace because we're not humble enough. Maybe we'd be more grace filled if we were more humble.

[19:10] He gives grace to the humble, but he resists the proud. 1 Peter 5 verse 5. So think of that, that humbleness of mind. To take the place of a servant. To serve others.

[19:21] To put aside our prejudices, our selfishness. To lay aside our criticism and our self-righteousness. And to consider others. Then the church can be edified.

[19:33] There's an edifying. That which is good to the use of edifying. Speak that. Speak what is edifying. We're instructed to edify one another. It's a command. It's actually God's command.

[19:44] So it's important that we look at finding that way that we can edify one another. The word of God says, let all things be done unto edifying. So everything that we do.

[19:57] Every little thing that we do. Let it be the edifying intent behind it. That drives what we do. So we've seen building with love.

[20:11] Love, charity, edify, it says. We've seen grace. Minister grace. Speak it. Let it proceed out of your mouth. Build with grace.

[20:23] It's good for the use of edifying. And thirdly, build with encouragement. Here's another essential tool. Encouragement. Now, I know that I like to get encouraged every now and again.

[20:34] 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 11. It says, wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also you do. So it's saying there, comfort yourselves.

[20:45] You could put that, encourage yourselves. Encourage one another. And edify one another. So this word comfort, we know it speaks of the Holy Spirit.

[20:55] The paraclete comes alongside to help. He comes, he comforts, he encourages, he lifts, he uplifts. So Paul combines comfort or encourage with edify.

[21:09] There's a couple of times he does that. And this verse is one. So we started off with this verse. Encouragement. Encouragement goes hand in hand with edifying. They go together.

[21:23] Edifying and encouraging are mentioned together. And encouragement counteracts discouragement. Think of that. We're living in days with a lot of discouragement, aren't we?

[21:35] It seems like the world news, what next? You think, and politics, it's all bad, isn't it? A lot of discouragement.

[21:46] A lot of discouraging things out there at the moment. And on the home front, you know, we've got all many, many challenges. We all face different challenges. Everyone's got something they're carrying.

[21:58] And friends, the devil is a discourager. He wants to weigh you down with discouragement. And we can get overcome with discouragement, overwhelmed with it. And there was a time in the Word of God when David was discouraged.

[22:11] And we read of that in 1 Samuel 30. It says David was greatly distressed. You know, he was a hunted man. He was hated by some.

[22:24] And he was a wanted man. And it says, and David was greatly distressed. And even the people that were there, I suppose, even those with him, it says.

[22:39] The people spake of stoning him. Because of the soul of all the people was grieved. So everyone was grieved. The whole lot. All the people were grieved. So it's like he had no one standing with him.

[22:55] And he was greatly distressed. And people were grieved. Every man for his sons and for his daughters. Their city was burnt. Homes had been destroyed. In the context, wives and families.

[23:07] Children were gone. All hope had gone. It was a hopeless feeling time. All hope had gone. And here was David. He was in the firing line.

[23:19] He was staring down the barrel. He'd reached the end of his row. He had good reason to feel sorry for himself. But what does it say? But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.

[23:33] David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. He was in danger from the enemies, his enemies and his friends. It looked like there was no way out. What did David do?

[23:43] But David chose to encourage himself in the Lord. Now sometimes you might only have yourself to encourage yourself. But at least do that. Start with encouraging yourself. He strengthened himself by having an encouraging outlook.

[23:56] And David also, as we see, he was an encourager in many ways. Encouraging a whole lot of others. A whole load of others who were going through a time of despair.

[24:08] They came to David. And he encouraged them. So encouragement is a powerful thing. It's a powerful thing. And when we might have our own seasons of feeling greatly distressed, when we might have discouraging times, encourage yourself in the Lord.

[24:23] It's powerful. Moses was one who encouraged the people. As we read in Deuteronomy 1, 21, it reads of Moses, they urged the people. Encouragement is powerful.

[24:34] Encouragement. He says, Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee. Go up and possess it. As the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee, Fear not, neither be discouraged.

[24:47] So Moses' message here, he says, Be not discouraged, fear not. He says, Be encouraged, be encouraged. Encouraged. When someone's down, how can we help pick them up?

[25:02] People like to know that others appreciate them. Bless them. We all need encouraging. And you can be encouraged even by discouragement. Even in the situation, as we read earlier, of David's situation, in that time of discouragement, he found occasion, he found the strength to encourage himself.

[25:23] He actually said, No, I'm not going to be discouraged. I'm going to be encouraged. He encouraged himself in the Lord his God. And even when there's kind of negative times, we could think how figuratively, we should not dwell on the negative, but develop through it.

[25:40] Now, we don't use such cameras these days, but it's like you go into the dark room, and the negative is there. You put the negative into the dark room, and maybe you're actually in God's dark room, but God is developing a beautiful picture out of your life.

[25:55] There's that sense where we go through the dark room, the negative, and then out of it comes a beautiful picture. And the devil will give us lots of negatives without us being negative to each other.

[26:07] So rather, let's be an encourager, that we can encourage ourselves in the Lord. And so be encouraged, encourage yourself in the Lord, and then what flows from that is be an encourager.

[26:19] Be an encourager. Now, you might not feel much about encouraging others, but sometimes you get an encouragement by imparting encouragement to others. It's kind of a funny thing, really, isn't it?

[26:32] I know I've heard it said when someone's really in a total place of despair, that they actually find someone who's feeling worse than them and encourage them. And that actually helps them to see things in a new light.

[26:46] Because we can get bogged down in the midst of discouragement, in the situation we're in. But if we can encourage ourselves in the Lord, and if we can be like the folk that Moses challenged here, that we'll fear not.

[27:03] We won't be discouraged. He commands us. The Lord commands you. Don't be discouraged. Rather be a channel of blessing. As we've talked about in times recent of Barnabas.

[27:14] He was another one. He was known as an encourager, the son of encouragement, his very name. So how can we be an encourager and be encouraged? How can we take on that ministry of encouragement?

[27:25] Surely there's people we know that could do with some encouragement. Let's be that encourager. Your words have power. Are you building or tearing down?

[27:36] Are you criticising, just destructive and complaining? Or are you constructing and comforting? Someone has said that encouragement is oxygen to the soul.

[27:47] And we can be like a construction worker, building up the kingdom of God. Friends, the Lord wants this church to be edified. He wants us. He wants us to be stronger. He wants us to build and keep on building.

[27:58] Build one another. Build up one another. There's a lot of emphasis on that through the word of God. But Satan wants the opposite. He wants to divide. He calls disagreement. He wants to destroy and pull the church down.

[28:09] But we know that we can know God's help to withstand that. We can pull down, as it were, the enemy strongholds of discouragement.

[28:21] Pull them down, that discouragement. Pull down the doubt and the gossip, the pride, whatever it is that's hindering. Someone has said, in order to grow, the body needs me.

[28:33] In order to grow, I need the body. There's a sense where being together helps. It helps. It helps us grow. And it helps the body to grow when we're there.

[28:44] Even if we might feel like we've got nothing to give. There's an encouragement that comes as we get together. As we find those supportive things to say.

[28:54] Let all things be done unto edifying. And we see the result is when the churches are edified, as we read in Acts 9, the churches had rest. It says they were edified.

[29:05] They were built up. They were walking in the fear of the Lord. And in the comfort, that encouragement again, of the Holy Ghost, they were multiplied. So it says when the church was encouraged, when it was built up spiritually, there was a multiplying.

[29:20] They were edified. They were multiplied. One follows the other. As the church is edified, God multiplies. It goes together. And the Holy Spirit brings that encouragement.

[29:31] So I pray that we'll have that heart, every one of us, to see this church edified, see it encouraged, see it building up, spiritually building, building up strength, spiritual strength.

[29:46] And so as we are stronger, we'll be able to do damage to the kingdom of darkness. It's interesting when the Lord says, I will build my church, I will edify my church, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

[30:03] You know, sometimes we have a bunker mentality or a fortress mentality, where we just hide in a holy huddle and kind of fend off the attacks of the devil.

[30:13] But actually we're meant to be attacking the devil and storming the gates of hell. It's kind of that, we've got the wrong picture, haven't we? The gates of hell, they should be quaking before the church of the almighty God, in a sense that by God's power and strength, the people of God should be an invading army, a conquering army.

[30:35] Think of it, how can we build up one another? Now, it takes careful planning and skill to labour and build. We know, I know there's some that I'm aware of that have got plans of building a house or such construction and it takes a long time to get through all the council paperwork for one and all the processes and all the difficulties that come to plan and to build something.

[31:05] But it takes just a short time to bring it down, doesn't it? It takes just a short time of destruction to tear down a building. I know as a younger man we lived in Munsa and my dad had plans for a little cottage we were in and we had to demolish a wall to make the room bigger.

[31:25] In a way it's quite easy to smash down a wall, to destroy a building. It's relatively simple, isn't it? But to build something takes time and intent and purpose.

[31:38] And we should have the same heart that we want to build this church. God helping us, he will build a church but we're part of that building. We're part of that edifying because we should build one another. We're all Christians under construction.

[31:50] I'm just another brick like you. And we're all under construction, every one of us. Romans 14, 19 it says, Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify one another.

[32:04] So Paul's saying here in Romans 14, follow after, pursue those things that make for peace, those things that are building peace, that are peacemaking, and follow after those things with which we can edify one another.

[32:21] So what are those things again that we've looked at? Build with love. Let love be at the core. Let us be a church that loves one another. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.

[32:35] It's not to negate we want sound Bible doctrine and Bible knowledge. But the love should be that focus there, that charity.

[32:46] Love edifies, it builds up. We should build with grace, so that we've received his grace, and we should impart his grace. We should be gracious to one another, that our words should be filled with grace, not a corrupt communication, but that grace, we'll minister grace to the hearers, that we'll speak it, we'll minister it, we'll be gracious, we'll realise the grace we've received, we should extend grace to others.

[33:11] And thirdly, we should build with encouragement. Build with encouragement. Again, as we read, wherefore comfort or encourage yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also you do.

[33:25] So, as we kind of take stock, and maybe take a step back, and think about our lives, and our own selves, as we could try to hopefully make some application of what I've been talking about tonight, are we helping or hindering others?

[33:44] Are we such that we build us, not demolish us, that we are building, God helping us, seeing God's church built, through our building one another.

[33:55] We'll build up one another. Build up one another. See the people all around you, think, how can I build up that sister? How can I build up that brother? What can I do to build them up?

[34:06] So they'll be stronger. So we'll be stronger together. There's a joy in Jesus, that we have this salvation, this great grace, and we can share that joy with others.

[34:17] In 2 Corinthians 1 verse 24, it talks about how we should be helpers of another's joy. It's easy to be thinking, well, how can I make myself happy?

[34:27] How can I get more joy? How can I feel more glad about myself and my situation? But 2 Corinthians 1 verse 24, it talks about how we should be helpers of another's joy.

[34:41] How can we impart joy to others? How can we make others joyful? How can we be such that we'll encourage others such that they'll be glad? That we can bring sunshine to another's life.

[34:54] What words will we choose when we talk to others? Will they be words that edify? Sometimes we can use words hastily, can't we? I know I can and I know I've been rightfully told about that and that was helpful to me when I wasn't really speaking words that were considered or wise.

[35:15] But are our words unwholesome, unhelpful, maybe hurtful, even without us, maybe even really being conscious of it? I know that I for one could learn more in that regard.

[35:29] So let's rather speak wholesome words, words that are building words. Let's speak words that edify, that build up, helpful words. Wouldn't it be better to rather not speak the unhelpful words?

[35:45] Just let, don't, just zip the lip. Don't speak them rather than speak words that would hurt. And so friends, I pray that there's been some, something you can apply here tonight about your life, about how we can, how we can be that building church, that church that builds one another, that can encourage one another.

[36:05] And the action is really, it's up to you and me. It's about our personal responsibility before the Lord. It's whether you obey what that says or not, really, isn't it?

[36:19] It comes down to that. If we obey what he says, then there'll be a blessing and it'll be to his praise. To obey what he says, it's about our own personal application of it.

[36:32] We can choose not to. We can choose to refuse to. Or we can choose, yes, I can do and will do that. I'll edify one another.

[36:43] So let us pray. Lord, we thank you that you care about your church, every gathered soul here. Those that would be here if they could be, Lord, for your people gathered in lots of little places all around this globe.

[36:57] Lord, we know you care about every one. And Lord, we pray we'll be a people building people. We'll care about building others up such that we'll be encouraged too in the process, but we'll think about others rather than ourselves.

[37:15] We'll look out for the interests of others, the needs of others. Lord, help us to have that heart that will love one another, will have grace. Lord, that will encourage. And Lord, give us the words to say and help us to not say the words we shouldn't say.

[37:30] Lord, that we'd rather not say words that would not encourage or could hurt that rather find the words that would be words that wherewith we can minister grace to others.

[37:43] Lord, pray if there's any yet to trust you here today that they'll know the saving grace that you showed man at the cross where everything was done to save sinful man if we but receive the grace that you extend to us by faith.

[38:01] Trust you for your saving. Lord, help us to put your word into action that will be mindful of these things we've heard about. Lord, for what your word tells us to do that will obey it and put it into action we pray.

[38:16] All for your glory we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.