Marks of a Healthy Church

Good morning. Welcome. I'm Jason. I'm one of the pastors here. If you're new with us today, a special welcome to you. I hope I get to greet you, say hello, introduce myself. But we are today, if you're new with us, we're in the last part, the last installment of a sermon series,

which is good news because we start something brand new next week. I think we've got our Scripture journals in. So we're going to begin the book of Joshua next week. So in the back at the Welcome Center, you will see that there is available, if you're interested, a Scripture

journal. These are the ESV Scripture journals. You can go ahead and grab one of those. If you want to leave a couple bucks for a donation, that's great. If you don't have that, you can take one anyway.

And we would love, and if you're a visitor, you get it for free. We would love to have you take one of those, and we'll jump into chapter one next week. Today, we get to close out a letter, one that we've been in for about, I checked, eight months. And we are in 2 Corinthians in the last

chapter. And after 13 chapters, what have we seen? Well, I'm going to spend the next three hours summarizing it for you. No, just kidding. We have seen, I think at the very least, an apostle named

Paul who wrote the letter, be very patient. We have also seen the same apostle be very firm. Paul's laid it all out for this church, and now he comes to this point in the letter where it would

be typical, they say, to finish with a very terse, kind of disconnected closing. If any of you have ever written letters, and you're like, how do I just close this letter? You just do. And typically, that's what they did in the first century. But we get something rather unexpected from Paul today,

speaking in a hopeful tone, an affectionate voice, even conciliatory words, Paul offers the church several positive admonitions. He offers these admonitions followed by what many scholars think

is one of the most beautiful benedictions in all of Scripture. It's almost like you read this, if you've been in this book at all, you think to yourself, Paul, were you writing multiple letters at this point? Were you sitting somewhere and the lighting wasn't good? Did you mix up the letter

with another group? Because it sure sounds like you're writing something to a church that doesn't deserve this. This church is not very healthy. These Corinthians are a lot of trouble. They're in

trouble. They've given you trouble. And you've just spent the last several chapters, from like chapter 10 to chapter 13, detailing what's going to happen if you show up and there isn't the repentance that

you need to see. But I think Paul knows what he's doing. I think Paul knows that he has a loving God at work. I think he knows that Jesus, the risen Jesus in heaven, is in the business of giving grace.

And as he says in the very last verse we're going to read, the fellowship brought by the Holy Spirit can be salvaged. So we're in 2 Corinthians 13. We're going to pick up in verse 11, and we are going to read these last four very short verses. You can follow along with me as I read them.

Finally, brothers, rejoice! Aim for restoration. Comfort one another. Agree with one another. Live in peace.

And the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit

be with you all. Let's pray. Father, would you open your word again? We come today, we don't trust in ourselves and our own wit and wisdom. We trust in the holy words of scripture. So Lord, teach us this

morning. Show us what you have for us. And Lord, make our hearts ready to receive. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, like I said, we've been in this book for the better part of like eight months now, but I don't think it was until this past week you can say, good job, Pastor Jason. It took you the

entire series to figure this out. I think that there is a modern day equivalent city that helps us understand better what Corinth was like. Probably should have come up with this like eight months ago. But I found it. I found it. And it is the city of Los Angeles, California. La La Land. The city of

angels. I was thinking about this in a very similar way. Corinth was a boom town like this. Corinth meant big business, sports, tourism, entertainment, sex, religious pluralism. You don't have to go very far

in a town like LA to find any of this stuff, to find all of this stuff. And I want you to understand that a couple thousand years ago, this was true of the city of Corinth, minus electricity and the internet and all the other modern conveniences. But understand that the ports alone, it was a port city,

brought in people by the tens, if not hundreds of thousands annually. You also had the Ismian Games here, second only to the Olympic Games, which coincidentally is going to be hosted in LA soon.

Big business in Corinth. You had temples on every corner. You had businesses everywhere. You had a robust city, a trend-setting city, a happening place where everybody who's anybody probably at some point

passes through. And so we know that our church being birthed right here, we know that they would face some challenges. And they did. Challenges morally, as the seedy culture around them influenced the church in

ways that were not good. There were challenges socially, as these were driven by upwardly mobile people that came from all different backgrounds around the region. All different social ranks and classes mixing together in this city. And we know that this led to challenges for Paul, as he planted this

church. We know that a little later on, this led to challenges against Paul, as it was fueled most recently by the arrival of the so-called super apostles. And what did they do? They denigrated Paul.

They called him a suffering apostle, mockingly. They saw him as a weakling. They called him a loser. And so very much you had a contest in this city. Weakness versus strength.

Suffering versus winning. Pleasure versus self-control. Wit and flourish versus the gospel, plain spoken. Yeah, Paul had to face down some opponents. And he had to do it to protect the true gospel.

And he knew that the gospel had to be protected. Otherwise, the integrity of this church would be undermined. And yet, right here at the very end of this letter, there's this amazing and dramatic shift. We go from confrontation to this tone of affection, from warning to conciliatory words.

Some scholars think it's even just too abrupt of a shift to be the same letter. But they're wrong. Paul knows what he's doing. And so he begins with this very brief closing word. He says this in verse 12.

He says, finally, last of all, finally, brothers. And then what he does is he launches into kind of a rapid fire list of exhortations. He gives us five of them. Five, I guess you could say, aspirations that he has

for this church, for this struggling church, to help them get healthy. Each one is a simple command. In fact, each one of them, for the most part, is a single word in Greek. But these are not simple

things. Each one is going to have to be worked at and worked through and continuously. All five of them are going to require the cooperative effort of God's grace and human effort. And it all starts with something that very easily and quickly gets lost when there's conflict. He starts out with this

one in verse 11. Finally, brothers, rejoice. That's our first command from Paul. Rejoice. Be joyful. Be joyful is how many translations have it. Same word Paul uses up in verse 9 in our passage from last

week where he talks about being glad. Sometimes we say, you know, gladness, happiness isn't the same as joy. And that's true. But the Greek word really does translate gladness, joy. They're the same.

To be joyful requires that somebody must, unless they're having a really good day, lift their eyes above their present circumstances. Lift their eyes above their present condition. You often hear it said

that joy involves choice, choosing. And Paul's certainly done this. He's had to lift his eyes above his present condition and circumstances to have joy. I mean, how else could he have written what he wrote

earlier in this letter? In the beginning, chapter 1. 2 Corinthians 1, verse 24. What did he tell them? He said, hey Corinthians, we work with you for your joy. Your joy. And when we stop and think about all

2 Corinthians 1:24

the present circumstances in this church, in this broken down situation with their apostle, when we stop and remember there is all this personal animosity against Paul, all these challenges aimed right at him, when we think about the fact that Paul is almost literally falling apart physically

and emotionally with his own sufferings, his personal weakness that he's shared about in this letter, the pain that this church has caused him to hear him say, we're working for your joy, joy is honestly just downright kind of amazing. I remember years ago when our kids were young,

my wife would keep a little decorative sign in the kitchen and it would sit on the counter and it just said, I choose joy. I choose joy. Joy is a choice. It requires you and me, like Paul,

to lift our eyes above our present circumstances and realize that God is in control. And there is nothing to not be joyful about. And I'm well aware, as you are, if you pick up your

phone or pull up a web page or the TV and watch the news, there is a business out there of telling us everything we should be concerned about. Global wars, the price of oil, all kinds of things that

people get worked up about right now. Difficult work situations, that's not on the news, but that's maybe in your life. A foreboding diagnosis that someone that you care about is walking through or you yourself. Recently, it's the disclosure of alien files as if we didn't need anything else, right?

Alien files. But I need to remind you and myself, joy is not rooted in any of these things. God is above all of these circumstances. God is the sovereign Lord over all. And that includes even

rumors of aliens. He commands all powers and principalities, angels and demons, even Satan himself, the Bible's very clear, is restricted by God. And when you know that, and when you personally

know that, like the song says, while in heaven he stands, no tongue can bid me thence depart, you can have joy. When you remember, as Paul is going to write in just a month or two after this letter to the Romans, that nothing and no one can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ

Jesus our Lord, neither height nor depth, nor angels nor demons, nor rumors of aliens, nothing can separate you, you can have joy. You can choose joy no matter what. That's his first command.

But they're coming rapid fire. So let's get into the second one, number two. Second command is this. Strive to be mended. Strive to be mended. You say, well, that's not what the verse says. Mine says,

aim for restoration. And that's a fair enough translation from the ESV. But actually, I think the majority of scholars would tell us, I agree with them, that the ESV right here maybe doesn't capture all the nuance quite well enough. Restoration is the goal, yes, and you can't hit a goal without

aiming for it. And we should aim for it. Paul even prays that, you know, he's telling them, he's praying that they'll hit the goal. Verse 9, I pray for your restoration, he told them. But the command here is to do more than just aim. More than just aim. I don't know if any of you here are hunters or bow

hunters or you just like to shoot guns. It's important to aim. Always be important to aim. Be ready. Aim. But at some point, you got to get to past intention to action, don't you?

At some point, ready and aim is all well and fine, but you're going to have to fire. The CSB, I think, gets it a little bit better. It says, become mature or grow to maturity.

I actually prefer the NIV of all translations. It says, strive, strive for full restoration or mending. The images of nets being mended like fishermen would do in the ancient world.

Strive for mending. This is what the restoration business is all about. Of course, something else to note, we don't often do this here, talk about tenses of words, but the tense here is passive. And so that's why we say strive to be mended, not just strive to

mend yourselves. That's a good reminder that we need help to do it. And we have help to do it. And what exactly does Paul want to see mended in them? What are the problems? Well, we don't have to go very far back into the book. I mean, he just gave us a summary list in the last chapter.

If we turn back one chapter to 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 20, he gave us a little list of some things they needed to work on that were tearing them apart. Things like quarreling, jealousy,

2 Corinthians 12:20

anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. It's like quarreling, Paul would say, and fighting among yourselves have torn you Corinthians apart. And your anger and your

jealous hostility have driven your peace and unity very far from you. Sins of slander, all that gossip, driven by hearts full of conceit. It has created total disorder. Your ways and your relationships

have really been torn up there in Corinth. And you need to be mended. I've been praying for you to be mended. And now, as I close this letter, I want you to actively strive in the Lord to allow the Lord

to do His work of mending. I sometimes think, you know, if only the Corinthian problems were only Corinthian problems, right? If only it weren't the case that, in fact, many of our churches tear, have tears, that we

sometimes tear at each other. Some of our families have tears, and we tear at each other there too. The truth is that a lot of times we struggle with the kinds of destructive sins that tear our peace and tear our unity.

And so often our relationships are in this state of disruption. Sometimes we even quarrel and fight with each other. You're like, were you in my home this morning? I hope you didn't, but maybe you did. You're not the only one.

And I would remind us the cause of this. Always remember, there's kind of two causes. You know, it's easy to sometimes say, you know, it's all us, why am I so terrible, and get down and, you know, in the dumps and beat ourselves up. But we do have an enemy working against us.

His name is Satan, the accuser. And he and his minions are very much prowling around like a roaring lion looking for victims like us to devour. They affect us. They tempt us.

They influence us. That's one source of trouble that we have. We also have something else that beats inside of our chest. And that's our own sinful hearts. Our own fleshly tendencies. To like it when

others do or say something bad so we can belt right back. Or to like it when we see something happen so we can feel good and go talk about it to somebody else. That is what tears.

And so as Paul wraps up things here in this letter, this is a second critical admonition from him to strive to be mended. But he doesn't give us long because he goes right on. Same verse.

Next phrase is the third command. Third command is this. Allow yourself to be exhorted. Exhorted. Again, I know, technically the ESV says, comfort one another. But you have to understand

that the sense of the word is much broader than comfort. Comfort's included, but there's a lot more here than just comfort each other. It's actually an interesting Greek word called parakaleo, from which we get a word, a noun. We say paraclete. Some of you old timers are like,

I know what the paraclete is. That's the Holy Spirit. The comforter. But we could just as easily call him the exhorter. Because that's what the word means. Jesus talked about him coming.

John 14, 16. He said, I'm going to go away and I'm going to send the paraclete, the comforter, the exhorter. And while the Holy Spirit is a comforter, he does more than just comfort. He's also a guide. We know that he's also a teacher, that he guides us on all truth, and he exhorts

us. And part of that involves convicting us. He's a convictor. He convicts us of sin. The Greek word itself has a wide range of meaning. And given how we know that some of these stubborn church members here in Corinth had put up a wall against Paul, they weren't receptive to him,

given that we know how they railed against him, and rallied against him too, and rebuffed his apostleship and his teaching, and some of them were continuing in their flagrant sins.

Surely Paul meant more than just comfort. Allow yourself to be exhorted, to be guided, and taught, and encouraged, and comforted. You know, it's easy for some of us to pick up on one

or the other in this sort of semantic range. Some of us are really good at the comfort and the encouragement side, and not so good on the correct and exhort side. And others of us are really good at correction and exhorting, and not so good at the comforting and encouraging. But we know whether

it's in our homes, with our families, or in other kinds of family relationships that get complicated, sometimes extended family relationships, we know it's hard to have the balance of both.

We know that's also true sometimes in the church. If you're here today as a parent, if all that you do is only correct your child all the time, or if you're here as a friend to someone, and all that you do to your friend is admonish them all the

time, you're probably not going to keep a friend for very long, for one thing. But neither are you going to be a very good parent if you don't ever correct and exhort a child.

We don't want to embitter the children God has given to us. We don't want to exasperate friendships that we have, but we want to have this balance. We want to be like the Holy Spirit without being the Holy Spirit. Because we need His work as well. We need His work foremost and

fundamentally. So, third command from Paul, allow yourselves to be exhorted.

Fourth command, he gets right at it. Fourth command is this, be of the same mind and purpose. Be of the same mind and purpose, or yeah, agree with one another.

And that's certainly consistent with the meaning here in the original language, but it is again, richer and fuller than just agree with one another. This is why the Christian Standard Bible says,

be of the same mind. The NIV says, be of one mind. The same mind, one mind, same purpose. It's interesting, but it's identical to the wording that you may have heard in another,

maybe familiar Bible passage for a few of you. Philippians chapter 2, maybe you've heard this verse. Philippians 2 verse 2. Paul says, complete my joy, interesting there's joy again, by being

Philippians 2 · chapter mention Philippians 2:2

of the same mind. Exact same phraseology here. Having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. And Paul will go on to explain to those Philippian Christians that being of the same mind and of

the same purpose will mean that they don't do things from selfish ambition or vain conceit. That they'll actually have some humility and that from that humility, what he goes on to describe as a Christ-like humility in Philippians 2, they will learn to defer to one another.

You see, having the same mind and purpose means more than just agreeing with people. If you're in some kind of an argument with your spouse, or again, with a really good friend, I mean, you can agree to go, all right, whatever, we'll do that. That's not the same thing as having

the same mind and same purpose. It's deeper. And yes, it does involve something like deference toward one another. Deference toward your spouse. Deference toward other parents. If you're a

parent, I think about something that often gets parents kind of in these disagreements is you just start talking about what are you doing for your kids for school? What are you doing? And then you have parents have some very strong convictions. Terry and I had very strong convictions. And we don't

all have exactly the same way of going about reaching the same goals. But we do have the same goals, at least I hope, in the church. But we need deference. You might need deference with your friends here at the church who might have slightly different goals and priorities than you have.

I certainly think at some point you're going to need deference toward your leaders. Deference toward your leaders here in the church. Because church leaders are called to look beyond our own selfish interests to the interest of others in the church. And I would say that's a telltale mark of

good leadership, whether in the home or in the church. It's when leaders, those with leadership, consider things from the perspective of what is best for our home. Not necessarily what's best for me.

What's best for our home. Or what's best for our church. Not necessarily best for what me and my family might want at the given moment. What's best for my church as a whole. Clearly, this was a major

problem in Corinth. Mainly because they allowed bad leaders to come in. They allowed these bad leaders to come in. And Paul knew that their agreeing with one another and being of the same mind and same purpose was not going to happen without getting rid of the bad leaders.

But that would be absolutely necessary for this church to realign and get healthy. They needed to realign both with God's true apostle who contained God's true message.

But it was the only way for them to be legitimately of the same mind and purpose. So that's the fourth admonition. Be of the same mind and purpose.

And then finally, he gets to the fifth one. Kind of the end of the sentence here. Fifth command is this. Live in peace. Live in peace or be at peace.

Of course, we know this didn't start with the apostles. It wasn't original to Paul. This talk about being at peace. Many of us will remember it started with the Lord himself.

With Jesus, even while he was still on earth. Let me remind you what he said over in Mark chapter 9. Mark chapter 9 verse 50. He said to his disciples, Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.

Mark 9 · chapter mention Mark 9:50

Be at peace with one another. You know, peace is not just an ethereal state of being. In the real world, it's something that you've got to work at and cultivate to live at peace.

I maybe would say it would be better to say, Be living in peace. Be at that state. Keep the state of peace.

And what is peace? Is peace just harmony? Harmony for the sake of harmony? I know people like that. Do you know people like that? I just want to keep the peace.

I just want to have harmony. But that's not biblical peace. Biblical peace is not peace at any cost. Paul is calling them to a peace that will come from unity in the truth.

The truth has got to be the source of peace. There cannot be peace. Not in this church, Corinth. While you still got some people running around in unrepentant, illicit relationships.

That's not peace. You can't have peace when people persist in things that are not good, but that are evil. And Paul knew this. In fact, not long after this, again, he's going to write Romans, the book of Romans, probably within a month.

And as he sits down and pens this letter to the Romans very soon, which he'll actually do from Corinth, by the way, here's what he's going to tell them in Romans chapter 16, verse 20.

Romans 16:20

He's going to say this, The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. That doesn't sound very peaceful, somebody to be crushing somebody else.

And that helps us realize that there is a battle for peace. There is a cosmic battle that God is fighting. And one day God will win. And the God of peace will crush Satan under the feet of his church.

That's interesting. This is what leads Paul to go on in this verse to say, The God of love and peace will be with you. God is the source of all of our peace.

And God is also, as much as he's a God of peace, he is a God of love. A God of love inconceivable. A God of love who made peace because of how much he loved the world.

A costly peace. It was a peace that cost God himself. But it was a cost he was willing to pay out of his great love. And really, Paul continues with this theme of love as he moves on into the next verse because he really knows that love binds all of these commands together.

He knows that love is the source of our being joyful. God's love. He knows that God's love is the only thing that can empower us to strive to be mended.

He knows that God's love will enable us to allow ourselves to be exhorted. He knows that God's love will help us be of the same mind and purpose and help us to live in peace.

And he wants the love, Paul does, to be manifested in the church. In fact, manifested very tangibly. Did you notice what he goes on to say in verse 12?

He goes on to call this church to show love in a way that was very, very appropriate in the first century world. With the greeting of a kiss.

A holy kiss. Greet one another, he says in verse 12. With a holy kiss. And then he says, all the saints greet you. As a way to remind them like, you're not the only ones out there, Corinth.

You've got a lot of other Christians. Friends, we think about the holy kiss. And honestly, it just doesn't translate very well to today. But you need to understand there's nothing inappropriate or questionable or weird about a holy kiss in the first century.

Much in the same way that I would say today, you and I might give each other a hearty handshake. You know, the kind where you really do grip the whole hand.

And maybe pat the arm and do maybe kind of a shoulder to shoulder if you're a guy. Or maybe an actual hug. The holy kiss had good precedent back in this day.

The Corinthians, they were Greeks. They weren't Jews. But for the Jews, they kissed each other all the time. You might remember the one time that Jesus went to the house of a Pharisee named Simon.

And the Pharisee was pretty proud, as most of them were, when they interacted with Jesus. And Jesus actually rebuked this one, Simon, in Luke chapter 7, verse 5.

Luke 7:5

And one of the things he said, the first thing he said was, When I came in the door, you didn't greet me with a kiss. Or maybe you've heard a story called the prodigal son.

The story of the parable of the prodigal son. You had the father who his son had gone off and squandered all the money. And he was waiting for him.

We don't know how long. And as soon as he saw his son, as soon as he saw his son over the horizon, what did he do? Luke 15, 20 tells us that he ran and he embraced him and he kissed him.

He kissed his son. Now again, I think we should probably recognize that our time and culture is a bit different when it comes to these things.

We are not necessarily community kissers. At least I'm not. Don't wait for one. It's not coming. Most of our lips are reserved for our spouses and closer family members.

And that doesn't change the fact that Paul is calling for the church to demonstrate their love tangibly. Even physically. To show that they are a bonded spiritual family.

Because that's what families do. I know, you know, as our kids have grown up and gone out and then they come home as they did a week ago and then again last night.

When they come home, it's not like a, hey. You know, when they get through the door like, all right, you're here. Get ready for more food to be gone.

I hug the boys. I also kiss them. Not on the lips. That would be weird. But I kiss them on the cheek. Because they're my boys. They're part of the family.

Holy. And so what we're saying is that in our churches right now, yeah, the practice of a holy hug is probably very appropriate. Or the hearty handshake.

Some of you are not so touchy. That's okay. That's okay. You know, the proverbial Christian side hug? You know, it gets a lot of teasing. But it's not actually a bad idea.

You know, things like the Billy Graham rule get teasing too. We've learned that that's not such a crazy idea either. The side hug might be appropriate in cases of opposite sexes.

It might be best. The greed, whatever it is that constitutes a loving greeting. A sign of warmth. A sign of respect. Care.

Whatever it is that you can do to communicate the bond of love and affection and support that we should have among a family of believers like we are.

Whatever it is that we can do to show and signal not just to each other but to a watching world that, yeah, we care about each other. We are a spiritual family.

Whatever we can do to demonstrate that our love as a church transcends differences. Differences in backgrounds, in education, in ethnicity, socioeconomic status, whatever the differences are.

We show that they are all transcended in the gospel by our love. And Paul says, find a way. Find a way to do that tangibly. To show how you are bonded in God's love.

In God's great love. A love, as Paul goes on to write in the very last verse, in this beautiful closing benediction, that is the source. His love is the source for that grace that we have from Christ Jesus our Lord.

A love that is also the source of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit that you have with one another. And that Paul now prays they'll have an even greater capacity.

As we bring things to a close here this morning, we're actually going to have an opportunity to celebrate our unity as a church. Don't worry, I'm not going to ask you to stand up and hug everybody.

You can see the Lord's table is before me. And we'll get to that in just a moment. But before we do, I'd like us to reflect on these four short verses.

And specifically these five rapid fire commands. These admonitions. Because if it's true that they really do show the Corinthian church what it's going to look like for them to be healthy.

And I think it's very fair for us to assume they're also going to help this church, our church, any church today, to be healthy. So let me ask you a few questions.

Going back to the first command. Number one. Are you contributing to the joy of your church? Are you contributing to the joy of your church?

I'm asking you that if the impact you're having in your church, whether it's here or if it's somewhere else, is it contributing to other people's joy?

Does it add to their joy? And is it also reciprocally adding to your own joy? Some of us do ministry in the church. Many people are serving right now with our kids.

Are you able to do whatever ministry God has called you to do with joy? And are you able to do it for joy? Remember what Paul said? Chapter 1.

I do all that I do. I endure all that I endure for you guys. For your joy. Because the funny thing is when we do things for other people's joy, what tends to happen is we get some joy too.

It's like giving a gift. I like receiving gifts, but I've come to enjoy giving them more. Can you say the same? Second question. That second mark of health.

Number two. I would ask you, are you seeking ways to be mended? Are you striving to be mended? In other words, I'm asking you, are you growing toward maturity?

Are you striving for full restoration? Because remember, you're probably going to get torn at. You're probably going to find at various points throughout your week, throughout your day, that people do things that tear a little bit.

Micro tears, right? Little micro tears. You get enough of them, you have an injury. Are you striving to be continually mended?

Third question. Are you allowing yourself to be exhorted? Exhorted. I'm asking, is this your default position? To be in a state that is teachable?

You're exhortable, if I could make up a word. Meaning that you're capable of receiving input. And maybe, if needed, maybe even correction, right?

Do you allow God's word to teach you? To correct you? To encourage you? Maybe even rebuke you if you need it? That's what 2 Timothy chapter 3 tells us the word of God is for.

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

That's what it's profitable for doing. All of these things. And then, of course, there's the unity piece. The fourth command. Being of the same mind and purpose.

So the fourth question is, are you? Are you of the same mind and purpose with your church family? But I could even say with your spouse, if you're married.

In your home.

Remember, this means more than just agreement. It means that we share the same mission. The same values. It means that you share the same priorities.

Whether it's as a parent. Or whether it's as a member of a church. Even if we have sometimes some slightly different ideas about how to reach the goals that we have.

Sometimes two parents can have similar goals and have different ideas about how to reach them. It's called coming from different backgrounds.

This is what premarital counseling is all about. You know you probably are not two cloned families. You probably have seen things done differently.

Oh, but we both want to raise good children. God honoring children. We want to have them walk in the Lord. Well, I know. But there are different ways that you've probably seen that done.

But a commitment to the same purpose means you will at times have that deference. You'll be able to be humble enough to say, you know, maybe my spouse, maybe their parents actually may have been a little stronger in this area than what I saw.

And then sometimes you find vice versa. The opposite is true. And we need deference in the church too. Not just in the home, but in the church.

Where will we be without your deference? We need you to defer to those whom God raises up as your leaders in a church. You know, I might get to wear the tag.

I guess my door says lead pastor. But I sometimes have to defer to others. It might actually be better wisdom for me to defer to the thoughts of my staff.

My staff. Our staff. They're not mine. It might be wisdom for me to defer to our elder board. And I have. Being of the same heart and mind. Having the same love.

Being in full accord. That's the fourth command from Paul. And let's go on. Let's finish with the fifth one and ask that question too. Fifth mark of health.

Number five. Are you enriching the peace and harmony of your church?

What I'm saying is, are you enriching? Are you adding to it by your thoughts? By the thoughts that you share with your words? By the things you say and by the things you do.

Your actions. Are you enriching? Are you adding to the peace? Or are you doing another mathematical thing where you subtract from it?

Is your presence, ask yourself, your presence in your church making it a more peace-filled place? Because of your involvement in it. Well again this morning as I mentioned, we have an opportunity to tangibly celebrate our love and unity.

And we want to do this at the Lord's table today. And again, we are so glad if you're here with us. If you're new, we just want to say that we celebrate this table openly.

We have one requirement. That you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. If you do, then we want you to participate with us. Emil吉