Connect – Acts 20:17-38

Good morning.

Today's reading is from Acts chapter 20, verses 17 to 38.

Acts 20:17–38

And the question for city kids and teens, if you want to have a look out for this, the question is according to the passage, what is able to build you up?

Okay, so what is able to build you up?

So maybe you can talk to the leaders about this.

Now for Milites, he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him.

And when they came to him, he said to them, You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance towards God, and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.

But I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the Lord, grace of God.

And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again.

Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you over sears to take to care for the Church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away from the disciples after them.

Therefore, be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears.

And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to find you, to build you up, and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel.

You yourselves know that these hands minister to my necessities and to those who are with me.

In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way, you must help the weak and remember the words of Lord Jesus, how he set himself dead.

It is more blessed to give than to receive.

And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.

And there was much weeping on the part of all.

They embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all, because he was the word, because of the word he had spoken.

And they would not see his face again.

And they accompanied him to the ship.

And so reads God's word.

Good morning.

My name is Peter.

I'm one of the elders here at City.

If you're a visitor, then you're especially welcome with us.

We're looking forward to getting to know you.

So do come say hi afterwards.

As we begin this new academic year, we're taking time to go through our mission statement.

As a church, you'll see that up there.

Thanks very much to Gus for that.

City Church Dublin exists to connect, which side are we?

Connect this side.

Connect people to Jesus, to grow them to spiritual maturity, that they might serve the name, serve the community and go to the nation.

So that's where we're going over these next few weeks, and then at the end of September, we'll be back into Romans, into Romans chapter 9.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

So this week, as Jung read uh from Acts 20, that's where we're at.

So if you want to open up um Acts 20 as we get into it.

Just one more small announcement.

Uh we've had a bunch of babies born recently, which is great.

Um, and uh the parents, uh I know Agostina was letting me know that he's so thankful, and the other parents are so thankful for uh your prayers, for uh your gifts, for meals, etc.

Um, thank you so much for that.

And they wanted to pass that on.

But as uh as the summer officially, it's the first of September today, um, I think, isn't it?

Yeah.

So summer has officially ended on the calendar.

And as usual in Ireland, we've been getting some sunny days.

Finally, we've been waiting since about March for these sunny days.

We're finally getting a few.

I was hoping that I could have left in my sermon what I'd written, which is we are like we're currently having nice weather, and then today comes, but sure luck.

At least we got a couple of days.

And so we're all getting back to work.

Uh, we're all getting back, kids are getting back to school, students will be going back to college in the next few weeks.

There's plenty of catching up, there's lots of chatter about what you did for summer.

Uh, what what maybe what your favorite thing was that you did.

And for some people, that's their favorite thing was getting a bit of sun, for some it was just getting away.

Uh, for some, it's the activities or seeing a new place, uh, maybe meeting new people.

Maybe you got to go on vacation and and meet friends that you hadn't seen for a while.

Maybe it's the really good food.

Some people it's actually just getting back into their own bed.

That's the best part of the holiday, is getting home.

And those favorite things, they're what they're really what motivate us to actually organize the holiday in the first place.

And to a greater or lesser extent, they often even motivate us to work hard.

The thing or things that we value most, they motivate us and shape how we live our lives.

And so valuing the wrong thing inevitably causes us to orient our lives in the wrong direction.

And as we open up God's word together, we're going to see that there's no greater thing than to know Jesus and to tell of the amazing good news of God's grace to us in Christ.

My prayer for myself and for you and for our city church is that Jesus becomes the most valuable thing in our lives more and more.

In this passage, we see that Paul is speaking to the elders of the church in Ephesus.

He's been there before, he's coming through on his third missionary journey.

He actually doesn't want to go there because he's in such a rush to get to do the work that the Holy Spirit has for him, which we'll see just down in a few verses.

But he gathers them because he loves them and he wants to tell them that they probably won't see him again because of his ministry.

He's reminding them of what he did among them for the three years he was with them, and he's encouraging them to hold fast to the words that they've been taught.

We get great insight here into how Paul lived and conducted himself as he proclaimed the gospel in Ephesus and other places like it in the first century.

Paul shows us through his life and his words why we connect people to Jesus, how we do that, and the effect it has on people.

So, firstly, why do we connect people to Jesus?

Well, we connect people to Jesus because he purchased his church.

We just sang about it there in Christ alone.

Jesus died and shed his blood, so I am his and he is mine, but with the precious blood of Christ.

Jesus obtained the church with his own blood.

Have a look at the end of verse 28.

That's what he says.

Which he obtained with his own blood.

And that means a few things.

We're connected to Jesus ourselves, as those who are in his church.

So any efforts that we make to connect other people to Jesus is coming from a place where we ourselves are connected.

We're united to him.

Isn't that just so wonderful?

Let that sink in.

Jesus.

He paid for his church with his own blood.

He shed his blood.

He died for his bride, for the church.

And that's you and me.

That's such amazing news.

It's wonderful, but because we're we're blood bought.

Those of us who are his have been purchased by him.

You've been purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ.

You've been united to him because of his grace.

Because he gave his life for you.

You've been connected to Jesus because he has made you his own.

What marvelous love.

What wonderful grace.

What tremendous security.

So we connect people to Jesus because we're connected to him.

He's purchased us and he's made us his own.

Secondly, Jesus has obtained for himself a flock, and that's all those who past, present, and future who are his.

You see, it's not that we determine who's in the flock, it's his sovereign will, which we're looking forward to getting into in Romans 9 at the end of September.

Best of luck.

But even though it's not our will, it's not our uh, it's not, it's not that we choose who's who's connected to Jesus.

We still seek to faithfully point people to Christ, calling them to repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul has done here.

It's not us who save people, it's God's work as his Holy Spirit moves in hearts and minds to bring them to saving faith in the Lord Jesus.

And so there's such comfort for us in that.

When we hear the phrase connect people to Jesus, we should rightly see how big that task is.

But there's comfort because we don't bear the responsibility of changing hearts.

Though, again, we are called to faithfully share the good news of the gospel to those around us and to the ends of the earth.

But even in that, when we think of the Great Commission, there's huge comfort because God has promised to be with us in that as we make disciples, as we seek to connect people to him.

So as we connect people to Jesus, we're doing it from a place of being connected to him ourselves because of his grace, and then of reaching out to people who have been obtained by him, to the flock who are his and who will respond to his voice as he's promised.

Thirdly, we're reminded here of the grace we've been shown in being obtained by Jesus.

We haven't earned it.

We aren't saved by any merit of our own.

In fact, we know that we deserve the opposite.

So why wouldn't we want others to know that grace too?

We were beggars who've been given bread to satisfy our every need, and now we tell others who are starving where to find it.

We were like the woman at the well in John 4, who she was so thirsty, and Jesus gave her, and Jesus gives us living water that will never be thirsty again.

And so we point people to that.

We're people who by grace have had every longing satisfied by our Lord.

And so we urge all those around us who hunger and thirst in their souls to find satisfaction and salvation.

We urge them to find that in Jesus.

The grace that we've been shown urges us forward to connect people to Jesus.

And we also connect people to Jesus because doing so is of greatest value.

Let's take Paul's lead here and look at verse 24.

He says, I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

That's quite something, isn't it?

Paul says that testifying to the good news of the grace of God is worth more to him than his own life.

And he didn't just say that, he didn't just use words.

He showed it too.

He refers here to the plots of the Jews against him back up in verse 19.

And in the previous chapter, before he preached for so long that somebody fell asleep and fell out of window, but in that previous chapter, there's an account of a riot in Ephesus because there's opposition to his preaching of the gospel.

He faced many dangers.

He faced much opposition for the sake of the gospel because it was more precious to him than his own life.

And it is more precious than life.

And I want you to notice here as well that Paul is what he's saying is that it's the it's the testifying to the gospel of the grace of God.

The gospel itself is so precious.

But what Paul is saying, and what motivates basically everything that he does, is actually speaking about the gospel, preaching the good news of God's grace, is what's precious.

For Paul and for us, testifying to God's grace is that's what's precious.

For Paul and for us, testifying to God's grace.

Finding this book, testifying to God's work through from Genesis to Revelation, testifying to the grace shown to us in the Lord Jesus, in his life, his death, his resurrection, testifying to the Spirit's work in us to bring us to saving faith and to keep us, that's of greatest value.

Testifying and telling others of that.

That's why we connect people to Jesus.

And we do it with all our hearts, with all our efforts.

But how is it then that we connect we actually connect people to Jesus?

We've seen the motivation for it, the rationale, the reason.

But how does Paul do it?

And what's his encouragement to us?

How does he model it?

Well, firstly, we connect people to Jesus through his word.

There are a number of key things in this passage where Paul is an example of what it looks like to bring the word to people that they might come to him.

Paul here speaks about how he declared to them, how he taught them, how he testified to them and proclaimed the kingdom to them.

This is what we're called to as a church and as Christians.

Verse 21 says that he testified to both Jews and Greeks.

He's just including everyone here.

He's testifying of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

And that's the gospel.

He declared the gospel to them.

And that's what we're to do too.

We declare the good news that Christ died to save sinners, that we can turn to God and trust Him and have faith in Him for salvation.

Again, in Romans, when we get to chapter 10 next month, we'll hear Paul say in verse 14.

How then will they call on him whom they have not believed?

And how are they to believe in him whom they have never heard?

And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

And how are they to preach unless they are sent?

As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.

But they have not all obeyed the gospel.

For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

We must testify to this good news, to the gospel of grace, which we heard from someone, and through which God brought us by the power of his Spirit to saving faith in the Lord Jesus.

We must declare to people that they should turn away from any other way to God to repent.

This is what it looks like to connect people to Jesus.

And it's not just a once-off thing.

Though God can change hearts as he wills, we still continue to declare the truth of the gospel without ceasing.

Paul spent three years, night and day, admonishing them, declaring this gospel, and teaching them everything that was profitable.

And that's what we do at City, that's what we're called to as a church.

And that's what you're called to.

And the day that we stop declaring the gospel is the day you come and sit us down as elders and you say, What's going on?

You're not preaching the gospel.

Whatever about having a slick service, amazing music, an exciting kids' ministry, community groups to beat the band, the best tasting coffee, even a building of our own.

It's all worthless if we're not preaching the gospel.

That's why at City Church, our service is all based on the Word.

It's governed by the Word.

There's no set liturgy in the Bible, there's no set way to do this on a Sunday morning, but there's plenty of direction and principles, and that's why we begin our time of gathering with a call to worship from God's Word.

We hear God call us to worship through his word.

And it's not just that we use the Bible in our service.

As I said, we're governed, we're directed by it.

So at the top of the service, we behold God's holiness and glory, adoring him for who he is.

But like in our confession today, we acknowledge and we see that we're not worthy to come before him because of our creaturiness and our sin.

So we confess to him.

And we receive assurance of pardon from his word, whether in a song or something like Exodus 34, 6 to 7.

The Lord, the Lord, is a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

That's the gospel.

And where else but God's precious word and his perfect word do we find that?

And so as we continue through our service, we praise Him for His work in our lives.

We find prayers of praise and thanksgiving throughout His Word.

Maybe you think of going to the Psalms first.

There's so many prayers of praise there.

We've just come off the end of uh looking at a bunch of Psalms, and not all of those are prayer, are prayers of praise and thanksgiving.

There's many laments.

There's more melancholic Psalms.

Well that's important too because it gives words, it gives words to our struggles, to our voice, it gives voice to the difficulties that we have.

And we sit under the preaching of God's word each week at this point because it's what we base our lives around.

We're people of the book.

The Bible is the center point of all that we do here at City.

That's why this music stand is here.

It serves the purpose of holding the Bible at the center of our time of worship here every Sunday.

Everything that happens on a Sunday, we want, and by me saying we, I'm including you, we wanted to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly.

And the word of Christ, this word has governed every part of our life at City.

Again, we like to have good coffee and we like to have donuts because we want to serve people, we want to make them feel welcome and follow God's word and getting us to show hospitality.

That's why everyone who came in early this morning to serve food and to set up all the equipment, that's why they did that.

They were motivated by God's word and their love for Him.

And His their love for each other, for you, that the Word of Christ might dwell in us richly as we gather together.

Our musicians came in early to practice because they want to lead us well as a congregation in singing.

They don't want us to be distracted.

Although I'm very thankful for the grace shown me when I'm up here and I make plenty of mistakes.

Our kids' ministry is centered around God's word.

Teaching from God's word is the focal point each week, and every other activity, every other game, every craft is there to reinforce that biblical truth and that the children would see Christ clearly.

The teen's ministry is there to help them understand God's word and to fall in love more and more with Jesus as they go through this really important time in their lives.

And again, the potential of a new building that will all be worthless if we don't preach the gospel.

Now, please do pray for everyone.

Everything related to the building.

Pray for God to graciously provide.

He's been so good already.

And as you pray for provision, though, pray more for us to grow as a church who love God's word.

Pray more for us as a peace people to increasingly declare the truth of the gospel.

Pray more for us to proclaim that God's kingdom has come through his Son, the Lord Jesus, that the lost people of this city and this land, that they would come to know Him.

If you're going to pray for success, pray boldly that we would succeed in connecting people to Jesus.

Can you all pray that this week?

That God would use his church to connect people to Jesus.

Can I get an amen?

You might have noticed, I haven't mentioned yet about community groups.

But let's see what Paul says in verse 20.

He taught them in public and from house to house.

He sought to connect people to Jesus through his word by teaching them a public like we do here on a Sunday morning.

And from house to house, like we do in community groups.

This is a motivation for why we have midweek gatherings at all.

We recognize that declaring the good news of God's grace and proclaiming the kingdom, it doesn't just happen on a Sunday morning.

It's to happen all the time.

And it doesn't just stop with community groups.

It doesn't just stop with Paul going from house to house.

Look at verse 18.

You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time.

Paul spent a lot of time with these people, seeking to connect them to Jesus, to declare God's word to them.

It was part of life.

That's how wonderful the gospel is.

That's how precious it is to know Jesus, to be united to Him and to His people.

Pray that you would be more and more connected to Jesus.

Pray that you would spend more and more time in his word, both by yourself and with others.

I mentioned already that if we stop declaring the gospel here at City, you should come and sit us down.

And that's what Paul basically says to do because God's word is so precious.

And connecting to people, connecting people to Him, to Jesus is so important.

As we connect people to Jesus, we must keep his word fully and not allow it to be altered.

Because you see, the gospel is offensive.

It requires people to admit their weakness and sin, that they can't save themselves, but that only Jesus can save.

And that exclusiveness is not only seen as arrogance or stupidity by some, it's also seen as dangerous to many.

And so whether those people themselves come in as fierce wolves, like Paul describes here in verse 29, or maybe like in the next verse, even from among our own selves, men speaking twisted things, who succumb to the pressures of the world to preach a different gospel as if there is a different gospel, we must be alert and we must admonish those who try to change this precious gospel.

And Paul continues, uh continues to this beat uh through his ministry.

When he writes to Timothy, who's one of his best, he leaves Timothy later on.

We we find he leaves him in Ephesus and writes to him in 1 Timothy chapter 1 to encourage him to keep others from teaching these twisted things.

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

Paul consistently over the course of his ministry is so concerned that the word is kept pure.

The word of God is too precious, he cares too much about his people for us to let it be changed, or even for us to shrink back from declaring the whole gospel.

Thankfully, here in Acts 20, Paul commends these elders, the Ephesian church, he commends them to God Himself and the Word of His grace to build them up and to sanctify them.

They don't, and we don't rely on ourselves to be able to protect to protect ourselves from these false teachers and of twisting the gospel.

But we do go as far as the point of admonishing everyone where needed to keep the truth of the gospel with tears.

But again, we rely ultimately on God and His Word for that.

So we connect people to Jesus through his word.

We also connect people to Jesus through prayer, and by that I mean both praying for and with people.

Paul did that here after talking with the Ephesian elders.

Look at verse 36.

And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.

I know that's not a huge thing in the narrative, but it's crucial to get.

We hear from God through his word, and we as a church want to declare that word to people so that they're connected to Jesus.

But we also want them to speak to him, and we want to bring them to him by praying for them.

Paul instructs the people to pray for those around them in his letter to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 2.

1 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

He tells Timothy that in every place men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.

He's encouraging them to pray, to be connected to Jesus.

He also prays, so he's encouraging people to pray, but he's also praying for Timothy.

In 2 Timothy chapter 1, he says, I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers, night and day.

2 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

And as he prays for the church as a whole in Ephesus, hear what he says in his letter to them in Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of our hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his inherent in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand, at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the age to come.

He's praying that people are connected to Jesus.

And he doesn't just stop there in chapter one, he prays again for them in chapter three.

And I want you to pray these prayers yourselves.

In chapter three of Ephesians, he says, For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.

To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.

Amen.

What powerful prayers.

Pray those same prayers for God's people.

Pray them for your brothers and sisters in city.

You'll find them.

Write them down.

Ephesians chapter 1, verses 15 to 21, and 3 verses 14 to 21.

Ephesians 1:15–21

Let's be a people who pray those prayers for city church and for each other.

And this is why we pray on a Sunday morning, because we're connected to Jesus ourselves, and we want others to be connected to Him too.

That's why we pray for and with each other.

It was such a kindness this summer that many of you have been praying for me and my family.

My dad spent a weekend in hospital.

He's fine now, praise the Lord.

But I was brought before our Almighty and powerful and caring God by those who prayed with me.

And it's been my privilege for me to be able to pray with those of you who've shared needs and burdens with me, that I might pray with and for you.

Let us increasingly be a people who connect others to Jesus through his word and through prayer.

And we connect people to Jesus for no gain.

We've received so much grace in the gospel that to declare it for money or for the praise of man would be crazy.

Paul is at pains to say here in Acts 20 that he wasn't out for gain.

He even worked so that he could support himself.

He worked so he wouldn't be a burden.

He used his trade as a tent maker.

I never want to do this for the paycheck.

And to do that would be to fail to understand the amazing grace of the gospel in a catastrophic way.

Now I am very thankful that they're the resources for me to be able to do this all of the time, to be able to give more of my efforts to it for the goal of connecting people to Jesus.

But it must never be for gain that we speak about the gospel.

And not only is Paul saying that he seeks to connect people to Jesus for no gain, he also connects people to Jesus through suffering.

We've seen that a little already, but let me make it more clear now.

We as a church and as individual Christians, we seek to connect people to Jesus, though we suffer for it.

There are going to be those who think we're crazy or even dangerous for declaring the gospel.

For declaring that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

Paul did not shrink from declaring to them anything that was profitable and teaching them in public and from house to house, testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, as we've seen.

Paul declared the gospel to Jews, despite the fact that they were plotting to kill him.

And he declared the gospel to Greeks, even though they'd been he had been beaten up on many occasions, you can read through Acts, and even had people rioting because he preached the gospel.

Even moving forward from this point, Paul knew that he was going to suffer for the sake of the gospel.

Listen to what he says in verse 22 and in verse 23.

He says, And now, behold, I'm going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.

Not only does Paul not want to profit off the gospel and declaring it to them, he willingly goes headfirst into suffering for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of preaching it to the lost people in every city that he comes to.

He's motivated, as we saw earlier, by testifying to the gospel of the grace of God.

May the desire of our hearts be to testify to that gospel of God's grace in our lives, no matter what.

Again, pray that for yourself.

Pray that for me.

Pray that for us as a church.

So we connect people to Jesus through his word, through pay, through prayer, and though we suffer.

And finally, what's the effect of all this?

What happens when people are connected to Jesus?

We've seen some of those effects already.

When we're connected to Jesus, we seek to connect others to him, to point others to him.

We become a people of the word and a prayerful people as we're connected to Jesus.

And we suffer for the sake of the gospel as we're connected to Jesus.

But lastly, connection to Jesus is deep connection to his people.

Look at the deep affection Paul has for these elders and that they have for him at the end of the passage in verse 37 and 38.

And there was much weeping on the part of all.

They embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful, most of all, because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again.

These elders they deeply loved Paul because they were united to him.

And they were united to each other by virtue of their union with Christ.

Connection to Jesus is deep connection to his people.

There's something so unique and precious in Christian community.

It's not found elsewhere, it's not found in work, it's not found in social or sports clubs, it's not found with housemates or friendships or even in families.

The bond between brother and sister in Christ is like nothing else.

Lots of you have experienced this as we've said goodbye to people at City.

I remember my first weekend away in 2017, a long time ago, we said goodbye to a couple who'd been at City.

And I barely knew them yet.

Because of our mutual union with Christ, there was deep affection, and there were many tears as they left.

As we're connected to Jesus, we enjoy deep, deep relationships with our brothers and sisters who are in Christ.

And our affection for them only grows as we grow deeper in love with Jesus.

And this is compelling to the world around us.

Maybe you're someone who doesn't have a relationship with Christ.

You're not connected to Him, but you love the community here at City.

It's attractive, isn't it?

It's unique.

It's something so special that you don't get elsewhere.

And I am so glad you're here.

We're all glad that you're here with us.

But being connected to Jesus is better.

There's no greater thing than being connected to Jesus.

If you're not connected to Him, then you're missing out.

In fact, at the end of the day, you're not even going to experience the fullness of being in community.

And what you do experience, even now, it's worthless because you're not united to him now.

You're not united to Jesus now.

And that means not being united to him for eternity.

As I said, we're so glad you're here.

We're glad you've been among us.

We love you.

We enjoy spending time with you.

But I urge you to be connected to Jesus, to turn to God Himself in repentance and to come to Jesus by faith.

For those of you who are connected to Jesus but who aren't feeling the joy of being connected to your brothers and sisters in this way that we see Paul here and we've been talking about, do pursue others in love.

But first and foremost, seek to grow more and more in love with your Lord Jesus.

Actually, all of you, whether you're enjoying a relationship with your brothers and sisters or not, pursue that.

Grow deeper in love with Jesus.

As we do that, as we grow deeper in love with him, our love and affection for each other becomes all the sweeter.

Think about what it would look like for all of us to connect people to Jesus and to grow more and more in our union with him.

So pray those big prayers of Paul in Ephesians, in chapters 1 and 3.

Meet Jesus in his word and in prayer as you connect people to Jesus.

And as you grow more and more in love with him, knowing your union with him, be united in love more and more to his church and to his people.