[0:00] This morning, typically on a Sunday morning, I'm preaching through a passage of scripture.! This morning is more of a topical sermon because of Membership Sunday.
[0:11] ! I get to remind you of something.! Together, following Jesus.
[0:32] In all three words, matter. And so, the most important word is Jesus. And the way that we talk about Jesus is that He is the controlling center of our life.
[0:44] He's our one-consuming passion, our all-governing reality. He is the treasure center of our lives. And so, we individually and corporately live for Him.
[0:55] And so, we follow Jesus. And that word for following, what's that to trigger in your mind is this idea of discipleship.
[1:06] That we are to deny ourselves, take up our cross, follow Him every day. And not just individually, we as a church are following Jesus because He is so worth it.
[1:18] And it's that first word, together, that this Membership Sunday is so poignant about. We're mutually committed to one another as we're together following Jesus.
[1:29] And so, think about our church as a pack of disciples who are looking to live for Jesus together. Here's the thing.
[1:42] We suffer from what Paul Tripp calls theological amnesia. We forget who we are. We forget that Jesus is who He is.
[1:52] And so, this morning, I want to remind you of who you are as a blood-bought follower of Jesus. And that we follow Him together.
[2:04] When someone becomes a Christian, they're converted. And typically, when you may hear the word conversion, you may think about a decision made for Christ.
[2:19] And conversion does involve a decision made for Christ. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Did you know that conversion is actually this radical reorientation of who you are?
[2:31] It is a fundamental changing of a person. The Bible talks about it as someone who is going from darkness into light. It talks about someone who is dead in their sin being made alive in Christ.
[2:45] It talks about someone who is converted in Christ being a new creation. It uses some really strong, important language. And so, it's more than a decision.
[2:56] It's a radical change of who you are. Many of you have heard this illustration before. It's one of my favorites. Back in the 16th, 17th century, there's a guy named Copernicus.
[3:11] He was a Renaissance man. He was a Christian. He was a Christian. And pre-Copernicus, most of the world thought that the sun orbited the earth.
[3:23] It's called a geocentric solar system. But what Copernicus did, he made this discovery. He realized this just by observation that we live in a heliocentric solar system.
[3:38] That the earth orbits the sun. Now, here's why that matters. We've always lived in a heliocentric solar system.
[3:51] What Copernicus did was he just brought people into the reality of that. It's always been that way. And so it is with becoming a Christian.
[4:02] It's a Copernican realization. It's when we're born, we're born in sin. And we're born under this false pretense that it's all about us.
[4:12] That we are the hero of our own stories. That's what sin does. It just kind of reduces your world to you at the center of it.
[4:23] And everything orbits you, including God. But when someone believes in Jesus, and someone believes what we talked about last weekend, that Christ died for their sins and was raised from the dead.
[4:35] He went into the tomb dead and came out of the tomb alive. When someone realizes that, sees that, the Lord Jesus brings them into reality. And that the reality is that he is the controlling center of all things.
[4:50] He's always been. And so conversion is being brought into reality. Through the blood and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
[5:02] You're delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the beloved son. You've made a new creation. The old is gone. The new has come.
[5:12] You've been justified. You've been adopted. You've been redeemed. You've been set apart as holy. And that's something that only the gospel can do. Only the gospel can change your heart like that.
[5:24] That's why it's called God's power unto salvation. So this morning, I want to be clear with everybody of just what a disciple of Jesus Christ is.
[5:39] And so we use the acrostic tomb. T-O-M-B. And so if you're taking notes, you can write on the left side of your bulletin or whatever you're taking notes on.
[5:50] T-O-M-B. Jesus went into the tomb dead. and he came out of the tomb alive so that we would treasure him above all else.
[6:01] T, O, obey him in all that he commands. M, magnify him among all people. B, belong to him with all of his blood bought.
[6:13] So I'm gonna walk you through each of these letters. Many of you have heard it before. Many of you haven't, but it's always good to be reminded of it. And so Jesus died and was raised.
[6:25] So that we could treasure, obey, magnify, and belong to him together. So let's talk about this idea of treasuring Jesus above all else.
[6:36] What is a disciple? A disciple is someone who treasures Jesus above all else. When we talk about together following Jesus, we could say together treasuring Jesus.
[6:49] So when we were dead to God in our sin prior to our conversions, we were living for ourselves. That's what sin does.
[7:00] It's me first living. That's what our culture teaches. Live for yourself. But the thing is that God has created every human being in his image.
[7:13] So there's over 8 billion people on the planet right now. They all bear his image, and they're all worshipers. Because they're image bearers, they are worshipers.
[7:24] They're hardwired to worship God. But if you're born into sin, you're going to worship something other than God. But you're going to worship something nonetheless.
[7:37] Well, that all changed when he became a Christian. God radically, powerfully, graciously, dramatically changed you.
[7:49] He gave you a new heart. One of my favorite verses of the Bible is in 2 Corinthians 5, 515. And it gets at this idea of conversion.
[8:00] It says this, And he, Christ, died for all, that those who live, those who believe in him, might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
[8:17] And so what conversion is, is this radical shift from living for yourself to living for Christ. The one who died for you, you now live for him. It's a radical, radical shift.
[8:34] And it will result in you worshiping him. Because you're going to start seeing him for who he really is. I find it helpful in my own thinking just to help me to remember how wonderful Jesus is to do a little side-by-side comparison.
[8:49] Do you remember greater than, less than, or equal to? Okay, you tell me. Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, according to Hebrews 1, according to John 1, Colossians 1, he's the creator of all.
[9:04] So he's the creator. I'm created. You're created. Greater than, less than, or equal to. Is Jesus greater than, lesser than, or equal to you?
[9:15] Greater than, because he's the creator and you're the created. We also learn from Hebrews 1 that Jesus is the sustainer of all things, but we need sustaining. Our next breath comes from him.
[9:27] He set our days. So you tell me, greater than, less than, or equal to. Jesus is the sustainer. Is he greater than, less than, or equal to us who need to be sustained? He's greater.
[9:38] We can go all the way down. He's the savior. We need saving. He's the Lord. We need to serve him. He's the king. We need to obey him. He's the judge. We will be judged by him.
[9:49] Every time you go down, every time you recognize that he's greater, it has an effect. He's the giver of our salvation.
[10:02] And we could only receive this as a gift. There's this, there are these beautiful passages in the New Testament. I'm going to show you one right now.
[10:13] It's Matthew chapter 13. And why I love it, it's because it's a one verse parable. In Matthew 13, 44, Jesus starts using treasure language.
[10:29] Listen to this. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field.
[10:42] So he's comparing his kingdom to treasure, hidden treasure. And someone who discovers it, he covers it up to sell all that he has in joy.
[10:56] It's a picture of repentance. I'm turning away from my old way of things. I'm cashing out so that I can obtain this treasure beyond treasures.
[11:08] And what Jesus is describing in that is his kingdom, his saving reign, the saving reign of God. He talks about it as treasure and in joy, giving up everything to have.
[11:24] If you flip in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 3, verse 8, this is the Apostle Paul speaking. It's page 1166 of your pew Bible. He says, Paul says, indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.
[11:43] It's treasure language. It's value language. Paul valued Jesus so much, he would then say things like, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
[11:57] He treasured Jesus more than his own life. in Mark 8, Peter has just confessed that Jesus is the Christ and Jesus corrects that to make sure that they understand that the Christ will suffer, die, and be raised on the third day.
[12:18] And then Jesus says this. He says this in verse 34, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
[12:29] For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake in the gospels will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
[12:44] For what can a man give in return for his soul? He's doing a cost-benefit analysis. And here's what it is. Jesus is saying, I'm worth it.
[12:57] Deny yourself, to gain me, you save your soul. But if you deny me to gain the world, you lose your soul. What Jesus is doing here is saying, I am the treasure.
[13:12] I am your salvation. At the core of being a disciple of Jesus is a changed heart that is treasuring Jesus more and more and more above all else, including yourself.
[13:34] The reason why we start by talking about Jesus as the treasure when it comes to talking about a disciple is that this is the great headwaters of discipleship.
[13:45] becoming a follower of Jesus starts and continues by treasuring Jesus. It's where it all starts. It's where it all happens every day.
[13:58] It's that initial step of conversion and then every day after that, you deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him because he is worth it. He's the treasure. what we're talking about here is worship.
[14:16] Worship-driven discipleship. It's seeing and savoring the glory of Jesus and following him in light of it.
[14:28] He is so worth it. So we can say things like this. We don't follow Jesus because we have to. We follow Jesus because we want to. He's changed our hearts.
[14:40] We value him now. We love him. So let me ask you a question. When was the last time you privately adored Jesus?
[14:56] Worshipped him? You spoke his worth to him? You told him how wonderful he is? When was the last time you did that?
[15:10] A disciple is someone who has been radically changed by the gospel and treasures Jesus above all else. So let me issue a challenge this week.
[15:24] There is a way to treasure Jesus daily. You take things from what the Bible says about Jesus, you read it, you take it to heart, and then you speak it back to him.
[15:36] Let me give you an example. Last week I made reference to Isaiah 9-6, which is that great Christmas prophecy. You know, this son is going to be given, a child given to us.
[15:49] His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. These are four titles of the Christ, and here's what you can do.
[16:01] You can say, oh Lord Jesus, you are my Wonderful Counselor, and today I'm going to need your wisdom. Would you help me?
[16:13] Lord Jesus, you are my mighty God. You are totally God, totally man. You are risen and reigning. All things are in your hands. You are Everlasting Father, which is a way of talking about kingship.
[16:28] You're my king. I will obey you. You're the Prince of Peace. Oh Lord Jesus, will you bring shalom to my life today? Would you help me to walk in peace and be a peacemaker?
[16:40] Do you see how that works? And so you take these truths about Jesus, you digest them, and you speak them back to him. Nobody drifts into treasuring Jesus.
[16:55] You cultivate it. It's like opening up a treasure chest and letting your fingers work through the gold coins and lift up rubies and look at them in the light.
[17:05] That's what we're doing with different aspects of who Jesus is. And it affects our souls. What is a disciple? Someone who's been radically changed by the gospel, and now they treasure Jesus above all else, even more than themselves.
[17:25] Jesus went into the tomb, dead, came out alive, so that you would treasure him as well as obey him in all that he commands. At the end of Matthew 28, Jesus has been raised from the dead, he appears to his disciples, and he speaks to them what's called the Great Commission.
[17:41] And this is what he says. He says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. It is a massive statement.
[17:54] What Jesus is saying here is that I have the right to require obedience of all people because I'm the king of kings and lord of lords.
[18:06] He's been risen from the dead. And he's just not an all-authoritative king. He is our all-authoritative treasured king.
[18:21] He's got all this authority and he's got all this worth and it is our joy to obey him in all that he commands. As you read through the Great Commission, you read this.
[18:37] Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. In other words, as people are converted, they are to publicly identify with me.
[18:53] And then he says, verse 20, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
[19:06] Now, the observation that Jesus is requiring right here is not just looking. He's talking about obeying. He's requiring obedience of us who are present followers of Jesus and then anyone who becomes a follower of Jesus, we teach them to obey all that Jesus has commanded.
[19:33] Disciples are those who have been radically changed by the grace of God and now they treasure Jesus and obey him in all that he has commanded. He went into the tomb dead and he came out of the tomb alive so that we would so that we could obey him even with joy.
[19:52] Because we know his commandments are not burdensome. Therefore, are good. So, what commands are we talking about?
[20:04] One could say, well, all of the commands of the Bible we are to obey. It's as if the triune God is calling us to obey from all of the scriptures, right? But more specifically, we can point to a specific place in the Gospels where Jesus lays out a series of his commands.
[20:25] And that is in Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7. Would you turn with me there? Matthew 5, 6, and 7. This is the Sermon on the Mount. This is Jesus, his kingdom manifesto.
[20:38] This is him declaring in the Beatitudes, this is what my followers, my citizens are like, and then he goes on to say, this is how they live. And he unpacks a series of commands.
[20:50] What I want to do right now is I want to help you to see the commands. I want you to see what Jesus is calling you to. So that's not just vague, but specific.
[21:04] So in Matthew chapter 5, if you look at verse 21, there's a heading. It says, anger. Anger. Jesus calls his citizens, his followers, to live a certain way when it comes to our anger.
[21:20] He requires something of us. Not to be ruled by anger. Not to sin in our anger. And then in verse 27, he talks about lust. He requires something of us when it comes to the stewardship of our bodies sexually.
[21:36] Both physically and mentally. He says things about divorce. He requires things of us in verse 31 and 32.
[21:47] He talks about oaths. What he's getting at there is being a man and woman of your word. He requires something. Retaliation. When you get slapped, he wants us, requires us to respond a certain way because we're his disciples.
[22:03] love your enemies. This is a requirement, a calling of us.
[22:14] It's not optional. We are to love our enemies. So what I'm helping you to see here is there is commands that Jesus has made known clearly for us to trust him and obey him in.
[22:29] Chapter 6, verse 19, addressing materialism. Chapter 6, verse 25, being anxious over what you have or don't have. Chapter 7, verse 1 through 5, talking about judging other people.
[22:46] Not to be hypocritical in that. But I wanted to point you to something at the end of chapter 7. People don't realize that this parable of building your house on the rock, they don't realize this is the conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount.
[23:07] This is Jesus kind of summing up the sermon. Look what he says. Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them.
[23:18] will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on the house but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. It perseveres all the way to the end.
[23:31] Remains faithful. But then, verse 26, everyone who hears the words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against the house and it fell and great was the fall of it.
[23:50] And so we have two sets of builders. Both hear what Jesus says but only one of those groups does it. Be a hearer of the word and a doer of the word.
[24:05] James 1.22. What Jesus is calling us to is obedience. Now I know that it's not popular to talk about obedience in our culture.
[24:16] But this is exactly what Jesus is calling us to. It's normal for Christians to obey our king because he's our treasure.
[24:28] He's got all authority and his commandments are not burdensome. They're always meant for our good. I think it was Gary Smalley that wrote a book years ago The Five Love Languages.
[24:45] Anybody hear that book? Do you know what Jesus' love language is? Turn with me to John chapter 14.
[24:59] What communicates love to Jesus? John chapter 14 verse 15.
[25:12] Jesus says, If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Verse 21. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.
[25:30] Verse 23. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. What communicates devotion and love to Jesus?
[25:46] It's not ecstatic experience. It's obedience. Obeying him. Trusting him. Obeying him.
[25:58] So here's a question for you. When was the last time you consciously obeyed a command of Jesus? You came across a command of his in the word and you're like, I've got to obey him here.
[26:13] I've got to change the way I'm living and I'm going to obey him here out of trust and love for him. When was the last time? So here's the challenge.
[26:24] This week, make your way through the Sermon on the Mount. Walk your way through all of this glorious sermon in which Jesus is laying out his kingdom manifesto.
[26:40] This is what is to be true of my citizens. And as you're reading through it, ask the Lord Jesus to pierce your heart with his word. Show me areas, Lord, where I am disobeying you and show me where you want me to obey you.
[26:55] And because you are my treasure and I love you, I will obey you. Could you imagine a church postured towards the Lord Jesus and his word like that?
[27:10] What is a disciple? A disciple is someone who's been radically changed by God's grace, the gospel. And now they treasure Jesus above all else and they are seeking to obey Jesus in all that he commands.
[27:22] Not perfectly, but they're seeking to obey him. Which brings me to the M of tomb. Treasure, obey, magnify.
[27:36] Magnify Jesus among all people. When you treasure Jesus above all else and you're seeking to obey him in all that he commands, do you know what happens?
[27:49] you shine. You stand out from the rest. It's what Jesus talks about in Matthew 5, 16.
[28:03] He uses light language. You're the light of the world. In verse 16, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
[28:17] Do you know what a marquee is? A marquee is this lit up sign on the side of a theater and it's like an arrow pointing to what's inside. And so when a Christian is treasuring Jesus above all else and seeking to obey him in all that he commands, he gets lit up like a marquee but he's not drawing attention to himself or herself.
[28:38] He's drawing attention to Christ. You see, what happens is that when we are seeking to treasure and obey Jesus is that God brings our changed life.
[28:52] What he does is he brings the kingdom, his kingdom into the public eye. That word magnify, there's two ways to think about it.
[29:05] Either microscopic magnification, it's when you're looking through a microscope at a mitochondria and you're looking to kind of bring it up so you can see it's a small thing made big.
[29:16] That's not the kind of magnifying we're talking about. We're talking about, as John Piper says, telescopic magnification and that is where you are kind of being used by God to show other people this heavenly glory brought near.
[29:35] The kingdom is brought near through your changed life. by obeying him because you treasure him. When you're seeking to build your house upon the rock of Jesus' commands, it brings something of Christ's kingdom into the public eye.
[30:01] You start to stand out. People will experience the difference Christ makes in your life and some people will mock you for that. Other people will be curious about that.
[30:14] I believe one of the most compelling witnesses to Christ is a changed life. It's a life that contrasts from everyone else around you.
[30:28] People see something that has changed in you. You're starting to go to church on a Sunday morning, Sunday after Sunday. It wasn't that way and now people are like, why are you going to church on Sunday morning?
[30:40] And you're like, I can't get enough of Jesus. There's been a change. People start seeing that you are living by the words of Jesus and they take notice.
[31:00] It could look like this. A friend comes up to you. I notice you don't sleep around like you used to. And you get to say, well, I don't sleep around anymore because I follow Jesus now.
[31:17] And I'm just obeying what he's commanded. I'm trusting that his good and right ways are one man, one woman, for life, in marriage, and that this good gift of sex, it is to be enjoyed in the context of marriage between one man and one woman.
[31:37] That's how you answer it. I'm just following Jesus. I'm just building my house on that rock. You have co-workers come up to you at work and they're like, hey, why don't you trash talk everybody else like we do?
[31:53] What are you, better than us? And you get to say something like, I actually used to trash talk you, buddy. Just kidding. I used to trash talk, but as a follower of Jesus now, I'm just taking what he said seriously.
[32:13] He says in the sermon, he said, hey, treat other people like you would be treated. It's the golden rule.
[32:24] And so, I realized, man, I don't want people trash talking me, so I'm not going to trash talk other people. That's it. You want to know why I don't do it? It's because of Jesus.
[32:40] This is how we magnify Jesus. Jesus. We name drop him. We give him the reason for the change in us. We're just given credit to where credit's due.
[32:55] The way to magnify Jesus among all people is by treasuring him above all else and obeying him in all that he commands. Now, you may be asking a question like this.
[33:06] Hey, I'm not magnifying Jesus. Well, then the question becomes, well, are you obeying Jesus? No, I'm not obeying Jesus. Why aren't you obeying Jesus? Well, I'm not treasuring Jesus.
[33:18] Well, that's where we go. That's where the heart change starts. Treasure Jesus. And then will come the obedience. And then will come the magnifying.
[33:28] And when people come into contact with a genuine Christian whose life is actually being changed by God's grace, it's a game changer.
[33:43] On Christmas Eve, we do this thing here where we darken the sanctuary. It's the last move of the service and we light candles at the front and those candles get lit all the way to the back and then all of a sudden this dark room is lit up with light shining.
[34:01] That's who we are, church. We're God's light shining in a dark place. This dark city. Your neighborhood, your family, your workplace.
[34:16] So here's the question. When was the last time you actually named dropped Jesus with a non-Christian? That you gave him the credit for the change that was being seen in you?
[34:32] The contrast. When was the last time you did that? So here's the challenge. Would you pray? Lord Jesus, this week, would you give me an opportunity to witness to you and the change you've wrought in my life?
[34:47] Would you help me to see it when it comes and would you make me brave, unashamed of you? I love talking about my wife. Do you know why? Because I treasure her.
[35:01] Out of the overflow of your treasuring, the mouth speaks. So if you're having a hard time talking about Jesus, maybe you need to treasure him more.
[35:13] This brings us to the belonging. Jesus went into this tomb dead and came out of the tomb alive so that we would treasure him and obey him and magnify him among all people.
[35:25] And the B is the B of belonging. Belonging to Jesus with all of his blood bought. What we're talking about here in this belonging piece is being a meaningful relationship with one another because of Christ.
[35:44] Here's the reality. If it weren't for Christ, we wouldn't know each other. We wouldn't. Christ has brought us together.
[35:56] He is the unifying agent of our relationships. He's the hub of our fellowship. We are in relationship with one another because he died and was raised for us.
[36:12] And Jesus calls us to live out our relationships with one another in a particular way. In John 13, 34 and 35, he says, A new commandment I give to you that you love one another.
[36:27] Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. And so, this love ethic is to be the thing governing our relationships with one another.
[36:41] But let me just be clear on that. It's just not like rubbing our backs. How did Jesus love us? He laid down his life for us so that we would live for him.
[36:51] And so, the best way that I can love you is by giving myself so that you would treasure Jesus above all else. How about that? How about we give each other ourselves to one another to that end that we would love Jesus more, treasure him and obey him and magnify him together.
[37:16] This kind of loving one another is not conditioned on someone else's ethnicity or someone else's biological sex or someone else's neighborhood that they live in or someone else's experience, time in jail, success in life.
[37:30] We are to love one another as Christ has loved us sacrificially and unto Jesus. This is, I wanted to quote a Boston song, more than a feeling.
[37:48] this is a commitment that we make to one another. Our salvation is bound up together, our salvation in Christ.
[38:03] So here's a specific way I want to apply that this morning, on this membership Sunday. Sunday. I'm not sure if you have thought about why you come to church on a Sunday.
[38:16] Maybe you come to church on a Sunday because, hey, I just want to get built up, I love to sing, I want to hear God's word, it's good, I want to pray, that's good, or I come on Sunday because I need to serve and that's good, but have you ever thought that you come and gather on a Sunday morning out of love for other Christians?
[38:40] I am showing up to build up. I am showing up, not so much for myself, but for others. I am gathering in order to experience this belonging because I love these people, I'm committed to them.
[39:02] Think about belonging as uniquely taking place when we gather on a Sunday morning. This 75 minutes on a Sunday morning is the most important 75 minutes in our life as a church week by week, bar none.
[39:24] This is the most important time we have together, and here's why. It's the only time during the week when the whole church gathers in person.
[39:38] The only time. When we gather together, we see each other, we're in each other's presence, one place, one time, and one focus, one people.
[39:52] We're the church. Did you know that the word for the church in Greek is ekklesia? And that means, it means called out ones, it means you're set apart, but what it also means is simply the gathering of God's people, the assembly of God's people, the congregating of God's people.
[40:11] When the people gather together, that's the church, we're the church. the visible representation of the blood blood of God. That's what happens when we come together.
[40:25] It's the only time during the week that we sing glorious truths about the treasures of Jesus. So grateful for Zach, for his team who lead us. They work hard, they're skilled, so that we sing these wonderful truths about Jesus together.
[40:41] Together! One of my favorite things to do, you might do it too from time to time, I'll stop singing so that I can listen to everybody else sing. And I am so encouraged by that.
[40:53] God gets something, Colossians 3, done in us. When we together are singing to God one time, one place, one focus, one people, it's the only time when we get to pray together in person.
[41:13] One place, one time, one focus, one people, confessing our sin together, thanking God for things that he has done in our life together, praying for our mission partners together, praying for brothers and sisters who are in need together.
[41:28] It is so unique. It happens just once a week, 75 minutes. And of course there's the preaching of his word.
[41:40] Whoever's preaching from this pulpit has put a lot of time in preparing a message to preach. But it's more than that. When God's word is faithfully preached, God himself is forming his people with his word.
[41:54] One place, one time, one focus, one people. It's unprecedented. It's unprecedented. contested. We love one another this way.
[42:07] We love one another by coming on a Sunday morning and gathering together. It's contested. Sometimes you don't want to come. Do I have an amen? Sometimes you don't feel like it.
[42:19] Sometimes you don't want to wrestle the kids into the car. Sometimes you'd just rather stay at home. But can I just ask you, do you think those are love motives? We love one another by gathering together on a Sunday morning.
[42:39] So let me ask you a question. Are you working it in? Is one of your motives for coming on a Sunday morning at 10 a.m., the 75 minutes of unprecedented time together because you love God's people?
[42:56] Let that soak in. Let that motivate you. you. And the challenge, the challenge would be this. If you don't like coming to church, if you're not wanting to obey Jesus, not wanting to magnify him, could it be a treasure issue?
[43:19] A treasuring Jesus issue? I would challenge you to treasure Jesus more and you will find his love for his people in your heart. On this membership Sunday, I've been asking and answering the question, what is a disciple of Jesus Christ and a disciple of someone who's been radically changed by God's grace?
[43:43] So much so that they treasure Jesus above all else, obey him in all that he commands, magnifies him among all people, and belongs to Jesus by gathering frequently out of love for one another.
[44:00] Jesus went to the tomb dead and he came up alive so that we could live this way, together, following Jesus.
[44:11] Let's pray together. Lord God, Lord Jesus, there is no one like you. would you stir our hearts, would you call us to treasure you all in new and fresh and profound ways, and that we would treasure you together and obey you together and magnify you together and of course, belong to you together.
[44:37] You are so worthy. God, thank you for adding to our numbers. Would you add more for the glory of your name? Amen.