Growing in Christ

6 · The pastor makes the sermon's central propositional claim explicit and emphatic through repetition: numerical, relational, and theological growth are not inherently good

But I want to suggest that none of these things, none of these three things, numerical growth, relational growth, or theological growth, are in and of themselves good things. I want to suggest that none of those three, relational growth, theological growth, or numerical growth, are in and of themselves good things. I think something else is necessary, something essential is necessary to make growth good. And if we look back through the text, I would say that that thing is necessary is Christ.

7 · The pastor conducts a detailed textual survey of Ephesians 4:11-16, tracing the directional language and identifying five spatial metaphors for Christ's centrality: substance (body), content (knowledge), standard (fullness), destination (ahead), and source (behind)

You have all of these phrases in this section of Scripture that just keep constantly referring to Christ. Building up the body of Christ, the knowledge of the Son of God, the fullness of Christ. Grow up into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, so on and so forth. Christ is everywhere in this passage. He's not mentioned once as a nice addition to the growth that's happening here. He is the central figure of the growth that's happening in this passage. I thought of it this way. You look at the directional language. Just look back at that passage, if you have it up here or in your Bibles. Look at the directional signals in that section of Scripture, verses 11 through 16. The body we're building is the body of Christ. He is the substance of it. The knowledge we're growing into is the knowledge of the Son of God. He is the content of it. The maturity we're measuring ourselves against is the fullness of Christ. He is the standard of it. Verse 15, we are to grow up into Him. Christ is out ahead of us. He's our destination. Verse 16, from whom the whole body is joined and held together. Christ is behind us. He's the source. This is just glorious. Paul is describing a world where there is no direction that you can look and not see Christ.

8 · The pastor applies the exposition directly to congregational life by defining a 'good church' as an environment saturated with Christ

Do you understand what a good church is, friends? It's that. An environment in which there is no direction that you can look, that's what see Christ. Christ is everywhere you look. That's what Paul's talking about. He's the ground beneath the body. He's the goal in front of the body. He's the substance that the church is made out of. He's the ruler, the measurement that you hold up against to see whether or not you're maturing. He is everything in this passage. And that's what makes growth good. That's what makes numerical growth good. And without that, it ain't good. That's what makes relational growth good. But without that, without Christ, relational growth is not good. That's what makes theological growth good. But without Christ, growth in doctrine is not good. That's the key for today. To get a refined understanding, a discerning understanding of what good growth is, and then learn to seek that in our lives, in our relationships, and in the church. That's what we're doing today.

9 · Brief transition signaling the shift from expositional work and abstract application to concrete, multi-layered application addressing specific areas of life

And I think this is essential for a number of reasons, and I'll try to make application for some of this.

10 · The pastor applies the 'not all growth is good' principle specifically to numerical growth in the church, acknowledging that the congregation already possesses some discernment in this area

is numerical growth an automatic good? Well, this gets back to me as a 20-year-old. If you'd asked me then, I'd have said, oh, of course. Of course numerical growth is an automatic good. But I think many of us, not just me, now here, this or that, church is growing, and we think dermatologically. We think, well, what exactly is it that's growing? Why is it growing? We've learned, I think, especially in this congregation, some discernment in particular about the word church growth and explicitly about numerical growth. Let's be frank. God has blessed us. We are growing. But if you were using numerical growth as your gauge, you would be somewhere else. So I think everybody here, I think it's kind of a self-selecting thing. I think we all have some extra level of discernment at that particular point of application.

11 · The pastor pivots to pastoral correction by identifying Providence's particular blind spot: the congregation is rightly cautious about numerical growth but may uncritically accept relational and theological growth as automatic goods

But my job is not to preach to the people who aren't here. I'm thinking, okay, we know that. What don't we know? I wonder if we are as equally aware that neither relational growth or theological growth is good if it isn't in Christ. I would say that's most likely our particular blind spot. I think we are rightly cautious, at least at the discernment level, not negative against it, but just thoughtful about when someone says, our church is really growing numerically, we immediately think, okay, I would want to hear more. But I would tell you that sometimes when we hear that this or that church is growing, we think, but are they growing closer or are they growing in theology? I would say that reveals our own blind spots because the only question that ever really matters is, are they growing in Christ? Is this numerical growth in Christ? Is this relational growth in Christ? Is this doctrinal growth in Christ? So I think our particular blind spot is that we have areas where we would automatically hear the word growth and think, well, that's good. I'd say, not so fast, Bucko. Is what's happening in Christ.

12 · The pastor applies the Christ-centered growth principle to pastoral leadership by warning against two kinds of false leaders: the obvious charlatans and the more subtle teachers who are doctrinally orthodox but fail to consistently point to Christ

Now, I want to tell you, I think there's a few ways to apply this. First would be this. In the beginning of that passage, in verse 11, you have the list of offices. And I just want to point out that literally every one of those offices in the Bible have a counterfeit. There's false teachers. There's false prophets. There's false shepherds. There's false apostles. All of these have a counterfeit. And I just want to suggest to you that you need to be thoughtful about this at two levels. One, there's the fake. There's the really obvious counterfeit that are like, they're saying stupid stuff. They're flying to the Philippines on a private jet and not staying where I stayed. Like, you know, there's the obvious false, but I think we need to just take a moment and just resensitize ourselves to the less obvious false. And the less obvious false are people that teach true doctrine, teach a true gospel, but are not pointing people to Jesus all the time. Those people would also be false because the role of all of these offices is not merely to teach or evangelize or shepherd. The role of all of these offices is to teach people and point people to Christ. If you look at that context, and Dove covered this last week, but if you look at that context, you can see that these offices are God's gift to the church, but that gift is supposed to be the gift that keeps on giving one particular gift, the gift of all gifts. That is the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

13 · The pastor uses a cultural definition of skill (what you find easy that others find hard) to set up Paul as a model of someone with exceptional abilities who nevertheless counted them all as loss for the sake of knowing Christ

I was thinking this week about like what constitutes a skill. Like how do you know if you're actually good at something versus like say just the average person? How do you know you're better at something than the average person? And I heard someone say this. I thought, well, this is really interesting. This was the definition. What do you find easy that other people find hard? Like that's a good, if you're trying to figure out what you're good at, like that's a good, that's a good trail to follow. And I was thinking about the Apostle Paul and how he was good at so many things. He was good at philosophy. He was good at rhetoric. He was good at logic. He was good at theology. He was zealous. He was thoughtful. He was, he was good at a lot of stuff that a lot of us find hard. And then Paul says, I consider all of it done compared to what? The surpassing knowledge, the surpassing glory of knowing Christ.

14 · The pastor distills the preceding illustration and exposition into a simple evaluative question for assessing church leaders: Are they showing me Christ? This propositional claim provides a practical test for discerning true leadership and serves as a concrete application of the Christ-centered growth principle

This is the point. Knowing Christ is the point. And so one of the things we should do as we think about leaders is ask that simple question. Is this leader in any capacity within the church, is this person showing me Christ? Is this person leading me to Christ? Because that's why God gave them these offices to the church.

15 · The pastor applies the Christ-centered growth principle to interpersonal evangelism and discipleship, calling the congregation to lovingly but insistently help Christians in other churches evaluate their growth by Christ-centeredness rather than secondary metrics

Second point of application just so far. And that would be this. I think we really, as Christians at this church, need to be kind, careful, but insistent that our fellow Christian friends start measuring growth in a godly, Christ-centered way. And I'm speaking of people who attend our church, but also we have plenty of friends who attend other churches. And here's what I'm concerned about. I believe that there are many Christians who are not being taught to properly calibrate growth and measure growth. And they're going to places and they're involved in ministries that have one of these secondary things happening. It's a church that's growing relationally. It's a church that's growing theologically. It's a church that's growing numerically. And from their perspective, because they've not been taught on this stuff, they're thinking, this is obviously God's blessing because look at the growth. And I think we, as friends of fellow Christians, need to say, that's wonderful. I'm glad your parking lot is crowded. I'm glad you've parsed Greek words this week. I'm glad you have a great community group full of relational closeness. But all of that growth is only good if it is making much of Jesus Christ. And friends, I really think we need to be kind to those in our lives to remind them of that very thing.

16 · The pastor escalates the urgency of the preceding application by returning to Ephesians 4:14-15's either-or structure, arguing that non-Christ-centered life and ministry will inevitably collapse

And here's why I think it's some urgency. Remember how I referenced at verse 14, it's the being tossed to and fro bit there. And then I said verse 15 starts with this pivot. Rather, here's the deal. if you're not living a Christ-centered life, you're building a house that will be blown down by a storm. If you're not attending a Christ-centered church, you're attending a church that will, in one way or another, collapse. And so man, I think the greatest gift we could give our friends and our family is to encourage them to keep Christ-centered. Because it really is either or. Either we build our lives on Christ, the cornerstone that the builders rejected that will not crumble or fail, the kingdom that cannot be shaken, or we are in verse 14 of Ephesians 4 ready to be tossed to and fro. And I think it's just an act of kindness to perform a sort of routine relational hygiene with our friends and say, is your life centered on Jesus Christ? I hear about all the growth, but is your life centered on Jesus Christ?

17 · The pastor extends the 'not all growth is good' principle from church life to marriage and family, arguing that relational closeness without Christ is not only neutral but actively dangerous — it produces idols and dysfunctional systems

Application point number two, and that would be this. The notion of growing closer, I want to apply this to your marriage and to your family, the notion of growing closer is not in and of itself an obvious good. The notion of growing closer to your spouse or to your family is not in and of itself an obvious good. Families or couples growing closer is not always a positive. Here's the reality. There are plenty of families that are a problem precisely because they are close. I'm thinking of the Gambinos, the Castros, the Habsburgs. I could name many families that are close and they're more of a problem to themselves and to the world because they are close. Let me say this. Close marriages are not good simply because they are close-knit. Growing in closeness is not an ultimate good in your marriage. If Christ isn't the aim of the growth of closeness in your marriage, hear me well, ladies. Hear me well, men. Hear me well, young couples. If Christ is not the aim of your marital closeness, you are building an idol and it will not go well for you. I'm not trying to scare you. I'm just letting you know. Do not worship family closeness for the sake of family closeness. If it is not built on Christ, for Christ, and toward Christ, it is not good growth. Not good relational growth.

18 · The pastor signals a major structural shift from diagnostic application (what not to do) to prescriptive instruction (how to grow in Christ)

Okay. So now, what do we do? We've been very clearly told from this passage it's an either-or deal and the only kind of growth that's good is the growth in Christ. Well, this passage actually just gives us several markers of how we can make progress both as individuals and in our varied relationships growing in Christ.

19 · The pastor returns to Ephesians 4:11 to establish the first marker of Christ-centered growth: Christ-centered leadership

And the first one, back to verse 11, is just, we are in desperate need. If we are going to experience Christ-centered growth, we must have Christ-centered leaders. We have to. Whatever institution we want God to bless, we need to prioritize Christ-centered leaders.

20 · The pastor uses his marriage as an extended illustration of what Christ-centered leadership looks like in practice

You might think, well, gosh, you know, what is it like for, you know, I helped stand up an orphanage way back in the day, in my young days, when kids were young and Angela was, she was even busier, you know, in some respects than she is now. And I would be in Africa for a month every once in a while. That's not an endorsement for everybody in this room to do that. There's a lot of wisdom and thoughtfulness that go into making that decision, and I'm not even arguing that I made the right one. what I'm arguing is this. I have an exceptional wife, not because she lets me do the things I want to do, but because she has always understood that we have to pursue Christ. That's the goal. We have to pursue Christ. Not her ideal vision of a marriage, not her ideal vision of a home, not her ideal vision of a relationship. we are about pursuing Christ. So, one of the things we need are just people who lead things to say, I am most concerned about this thing I'm leading growing into Christ. My wife has let me try to do that. I'm not saying I've always succeeded by any means, but she has supported me as I've tried to lead my home into Christ. Not into the latest Hallmark Fantasy, not into Instaclose, not into Relationships for the Gram, but we were adults even at 20 who were pursuing Jesus Christ. And that has made a huge difference in our lives.

21 · Brief transition acknowledging that the Christ-centered leadership principle has already been applied to the church and now shifts to the next marker

The second thing, and you can just apply that, I already talked about that at the church level.

22 · The pastor expounds Ephesians 4:12, identifying the second marker of Christ-centered growth: Christ-serving members who function as priests

The second thing we need are Christ-serving members. There in the next section you see that God gave these gifts, these officers to the church so that they could in turn equip the saints for the work of the ministry. The word for ministry there is a word closely associated with priesthood. And this is one of the places where we get the very concept so key in the reformation of the priesthood of the believers. Now, all too often, strong-headed people who don't like to submit to authority will say, priesthood of the believers as, I don't have to listen to you. Priesthood of the believers fundamentally means it's your job to serve Christ under the authority of the offices which God created and gave the church. That's what that verse says.

23 · The pastor applies the priesthood-of-believers concept concretely to congregational life, listing specific examples of priestly service (nursery, slides, armed security) and connecting Ephesians 4:12 to 1 Peter 2:9

So how do we grow in Christ? We grow in Christ with Christ-centered leaders who equip the members to serve Christ in their priestly ministry roles. This verse fits actually in the Greek and theologically perfectly with something like 1 Peter 2.9. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, called to proclaim his excellencies. Like, the whole idea of this section is that God has enabled, empowered, through his offices, a whole congregation full of priest, priestly people who are serving Christ when they go to the nursery and take care of someone else's kid or serving Christ when they run slides or serving Christ when they stand at the door and provide armed, well-armed security. What's going on is we are priests under the Lord and so how does a church grow unto Christ or how does a family grow unto Christ? First of all, the leader has to be Christ-centered but then he has to teach the people how they, with their particular gifts and their particular peace within the body, can also serve Christ.

24 · The pastor pauses the sermon's progression to acknowledge an omission and add a third marker of Christ-centered growth

And there's a thing I missed in the slides and in my notes but I remembered it as I was standing there singing. There's another piece of this that I want to mention and that is, so first is Christ-centered leaders, second is Christ-serving members, but I want to be sure to mention something I didn't remember to put in my notes and that is Christ-centered markers of maturity.

25 · The pastor reads Ephesians 4:13 (acknowledging he brought the wrong Bible translation) and expounds the third marker of Christ-centered growth: Christ himself as the standard of maturity

Look at verse 13 and pardon me, I brought the wrong version of my Bible as well. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry to build up the body of Christ until we all reach, very small print here, unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's Son growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ's fullness. So the third point you're not going to see in the notes in the slides is we have to have a Christ-centered standard of maturity. When we ask who's growing, are they growing, we don't need to make this complicated, we just need to ask is so and so more like Christ? This year than they were last year. Our whole mission as a church, serving as both pastors and leaders and members, whatever team you're on, whatever ministry you do, the whole goal is to produce Christian maturity, Christ-like maturity.

26 · The pastor expounds Ephesians 4:15 ('speaking the truth in love'), conducting a brief Greek word study to correct a common misapplication

And how is that maturity created? That maturity is created because in verse 15, or by in verse 15, speaking the truth in love, we grow in every way into him who is the head. Again, you see Christ right there, speaking the truth in love, we grow in every way. Now this passage has been used to tone check people all the time. You spoke the truth, but did you speak the truth in love? This verse doesn't mean that. I mean, there's plenty of Bible verses about gentleness and like we should aim to be gentle, but that's not what is happening here. What this verse is actually just saying is, in fact, the word speak doesn't appear in the Greek, it just simply says, let us be truthing each other lovingly, or let us be truthing each other in love. The idea is that love is the environment that the truth happens in. It's really more of a community thing than a tone thing.

27 · The pastor applies the corrected understanding of Ephesians 4:15 by diagnosing a cultural pathology: the verse has been weaponized to suppress truth-telling rather than encourage it

And I think this is really important because I think, typically, our handling of this verse actually suppresses what Paul is after. We have made speaking the truth in love into a standard so high that most people use it as a reason not to speak at all. If I'm not completely certain of my motive, if I can't guarantee it will land well, if there's a chance they'll push back, then maybe I should stay quiet. Maybe I should let someone else do it. And what we wind up doing with this verse is we wind up creating an environment where very few godly people ever speak up and we can't grow into Christ unless we, as a body, are speaking truth in love to one another. So the way that this verse has been applied is to make us all so careful about speaking that no speaking occurs and therefore no growth occurs. That's not what's going on here at all. And I want to kind of fast forward a little bit. I don't want to take too long in this sermon. I just want to say two things. I think you need to bear in mind two things. One, the day is coming when you will be judged not simply for what you have done but for what you failed to do. And you need to live your life with both lists in mind. And the day is coming when you will also be evaluated for what you have spoken and what you have failed to say. And you need to live your life with that in mind. I just want to, at this point, I can't give you all the positive instruction necessary here but I just can dislodge some of the biases you might have. The truth is is we have to have a community full of people who are speaking truth and love and if sometimes we don't execute that well, we should be so eager for Christian growth that we should say, you did a not so great job sharing the truth and love with me there. Thank you though. We just need to get better at doing this. We have to stop creating an environment where the receiver of the word is the ultimate person who evaluates the goodness of the word. That's not how this works. That's not how a healthy Christ-centered growing body works. And so, bear in mind, we have two things to deal with here. We don't want to say stupid things. The Bible's clear that we will face judgment for saying stupid careless things but also we will face judgment for the many times we did not speak up and should have. So, I don't know what to tell you about that except personally you need to ask the Lord to help you with that.

28 · The pastor applies the Christ-as-standard principle to speech patterns, diagnosing a universal tendency to create a Jesus-in-our-own-image and calling it a second commandment violation (idolatry)

And then I think more simply, each one of us has a perverted view of Jesus that is made in our own image. And if you are the kind who has an emphasis on gentleness then Jesus is the doesn't hurt a fly guy. And if you're the kind of person who has an emphasis on prophetic edge then you're the Jesus tossing tables guy. That is a violation of the second commandment. We're not supposed to create a God in our own image. So what we do is we read the gospels routinely and we get exposed to the real Jesus and we're reminded those of us with the tendency to be too hard of how kind patient and gentle Jesus is and those of us who are too timid are reminded of the other. My point is that even as we evaluate what does Christ-like speech look like? You just have to know Jesus and use Jesus as Paul says as the determination of maturity, as the standard upon which we judge.

29 · The pastor introduces Ephesians 4:16 and narrates his exegetical struggle with the phrase 'every joint with which it is equipped,' framing it as a puzzle he had to work through

And finally, I think the final piece of this was the one that surprised me the most. It's the one that caused me the most trouble and that is as we continue to progress into 15 and 16 we see this. From whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. love. The phrase that caused me trouble is every joint with which it is equipped because it seems in the text to be a very necessary part of the growth that is happening. From whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

30 · The pastor narrates his lifelong struggle with joint problems, beginning with childhood rheumatic fever and culminating in a catastrophic knee injury at 16 (caused by trying to impress a girl)

Now I have one advantage my whole life has been about joints not this kind. My whole life has been about joints. When I was a kid I had some kind of rheumatic fever set in and I don't know exactly what that was but by the time I was a teenager my hips were bad and when I was 16 I had all sorts of problems even as a kid. And when I was 16 my left knee blew out and it was a really bad full hyperextension. So my knee goes this way and my knee went fully that way and I fell down on my foot pressed up like a puppet you know like a collapsed puppet and it tore everything in my left leg. And all this to make it worse this if you know me this sounds this sounds right. That happened it was going to happen no matter what. I had a problem a physiological congenital problem but it happened because I was trying to impress a girl at the driving range and I took a really aggressive swing with the driver and so far from impressing her I look like a rag doll a heap on the ground. Anyway that knee thing happened when I was 16. To this day to this day I have a bad hip now I have a bad SI joint on this side I have a bad shoulder on this side because as one joint fails boom boom boom boom boom everything goes and so if I just didn't care what that dumb girl who I don't even remember her name now no.

31 · The pastor resolves the exegetical puzzle by consulting commentaries and determining that the 'joints' in Ephesians 4:16 are the relational connections between members — specifically, covenantal commitments

So I read this and I thought okay I know I know kind of what he's saying and he's saying we are that connected. We are that connected. The joints have to work. work. But I just couldn't figure out what is the joint itself that he's talking about. And so I just had to defer to multiple commentaries at this point and through thorough study and examining the Greek and so forth that the connection is the point. I was thinking too deeply about it. The point is is the connection, the commitment. Your body wouldn't work if your parts weren't committed to each other. That's the takeaway there. I mean I was making it too complicated but I do understand now the whole idea is like we don't function, we don't grow unless our parts are connected and what is that connection? It's just a covenantal commitment that mirrors the steadfast love of God.

32 · The pastor applies the 'joints as commitment' metaphor by identifying consumerism as the disease that destroys covenantal commitment in the church

The joints in verse 16 are the relational connection, points between the members, the places where the supply of Christ actually gets transferred, where the body actually moves, where energy is actually transferred. And the greatest enemy of this kind of steadfast covenantal commitment is consumerism. It's essentially like whatever it was that I had and we've got some other people that have had similar things, you get this disease and your joints just all get destroyed and it's like whatever that disease is biologically, what that is in the church is consumerism. It causes the commitment levels that we're supposed to have with one another to fade. It causes a dysregulation. Friends, I think we've all been in situations in local churches where the preaching wasn't exactly what we liked it to be, the community wasn't what we hoped it would be, the music wasn't what we hoped it would be, the worship wasn't growing as fast or the worship wasn't as compelling as we'd like it to be, and yet some of us are stayers and some of us are consumers. That's pretty much the deal. We either decide to love the people in our body or we decide to love these other things. Like, it really can come down to that sometimes. By the way, that's not a universal. It's just a reality that consumerism is in the air we breathe, and it's something every one of us should be extremely mindful of as we move throughout the world, and we should just be asking, is my commitment to Christ's body rooted in a love for Jesus Christ, rooted in allowing Jesus Christ to love others through me, or am I a consumer?

33 · The pastor quotes an unnamed revitalization pastor who defined real Christianity as long-term commitment to a local church and whose fourfold vision ('preach, pray, love, stay') included buying cemetery plots nearby

One pastor who helped revitalize the dying church once said this, do you want to know that your Christian life is real? Commit yourself to a local group of saved sinners. Try to love them. Don't just do it for three weeks. Don't just do it for six months. When he came to that church, it was nearly dead, that he was asked for his vision for the church at that time. They're expecting some kind of silver bullet program, and he said simply this, preach, pray, love, stay. And he and his wife started shopping for cemetery plots nearby.

34 · The pastor makes a theological claim linking commitment to the nature of Christ's love: commitment is the essence of love, not its byproduct

How does anything grow into Christ if it's not committed like Christ is committed to us? What I've learned over 30 years is this, the quintessence of Christian love is commitment. Sacrifice flows out of commitment. Everything flows out of commitment. Jesus died for us because he chose us before the foundation of the world. His death, his sacrifice for us, was downstream of his commitment to us.

35 · The pastor synthesizes the sermon's five markers of Christ-centered growth into a single summary statement, creating a memorable framework for evaluating and pursuing growth

So how do we grow as a church? We grow into Christ, and we grow into Christ because we have Christ-led leaders. We have a Christ- centered ministry among the saints. We have a Christ standard for maturity. We speak to one another in Christ-like ways, and we have a Christ-like commitment to one another.

36 · The pastor expounds the final phrase of Ephesians 4:16 ('builds itself up in love') by establishing a hermeneutical principle: whenever the New Testament mentions love, it refers to Christ

And Paul ends this passage by saying, that we will be built up in love. Built up in love. What kind of love? Here's a hint for you. When you read your New Testament, I haven't preached in two weeks. Give me five more minutes. When you read your New Testament, and you ever see an apostle mention the word love, you should immediately discipline your mind to think of Jesus Christ. Because I sure guarantee you that's what they were thinking of as they wrote that word. Whenever you see the word love in the New Testament, get your mind disciplined to thinking of Jesus. Because I promise you, every time that word was mentioned by these apostles, they couldn't help but think of him who walked with them and died for them and was raised with them. That's really what we see over and over again in Scripture, is when we say, let's grow as a church in love. Well, what are we using now? What are we using this week for our definition of love? We don't change our definition of love. It hasn't changed in 2,000 years. The world's changes about every four or five years right now. But ours has been the same.

37 · The pastor concludes by citing two Johannine definitions of love (1 John 3:16 and 4:10), both of which define love as Christ's self-sacrifice

1 John 3, 16. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 1 John 4, 10. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. With that, we lead right into our celebration of the Lord's table and understand that everything we do should be in the shadow of the cross of Jesus Christ, where love was demonstrated and not only demonstrated, but imputed unto us so that we can go likewise and love the brothers.

38 · The closing prayer consecrates the Lord's Supper by asking God to enable the congregation to see Jesus and the love demonstrated at the cross

Let's pray. Father God, we pray that as we observe your table now, Father, we pray that you would give us the grace to see Jesus and to see the great love you demonstrated for us and that while we were still sinners, you sent Christ to die for us. Lord, please make much of Jesus Christ in our church and in our homes. We ask these things in his name. Amen. Come and receive the elements. Take them back to your seat and we'll partake of them together. Amen. Amen. Thank you.