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[4301.42 --> 4308.08] You see, there's a connection between you showing up and you being stirred up, right? You need to show |
[4308.08 --> 4316.56] up in order to stir up. One way to think about this, I don't know if you are familiar, in some places |
[4316.56 --> 4323.06] around the world, usually tropical places, there is an algae that lives in water and it passively, |
[4323.12 --> 4328.36] it just sits there. But if you run your hand through the water, if you throw a stone in the water, |
[4328.46 --> 4334.06] it lights up, it illuminates. It's this bioluminescent algae that reacts to being stirred. |
[4336.10 --> 4342.84] That's what's happening here, right? You need to show up to be stirred up in order to glow up. |
[4342.84 --> 4347.50] Now, I know glow up means something different in the world today, but I want you to shine like stars |
[4347.50 --> 4353.94] in the universe, like Paul says in Philippians 2, as you hold out the word of life, right? You need to |
[4353.94 --> 4360.80] show up in order to be stirred up, right? To love and to good works. Part of what we do here is be |
[4360.80 --> 4369.58] encouraged to shine like stars. Next, out of this text, what I want you to see, right? That let us |
[4369.58 --> 4373.68] consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting meeting together, |
[4373.78 --> 4377.06] as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another. And this last line, |
[4377.62 --> 4387.72] all the more as you see the day drawing near. Now, in the Bible, the day or the Lord's day |
[4387.72 --> 4394.42] is a bit of a theologically technical term, anticipating that great day of judgment, |
[4394.42 --> 4398.70] that great day of the consummation of the kingdom, that great day of Christ's return. |
[4399.88 --> 4406.50] And what the author of the letter to the Hebrews is saying is that far from gathering together less, |
[4407.02 --> 4411.48] the closer we get to that day, the more we ought to be gathering together. |
[4412.70 --> 4417.46] And what we're hearing and seeing here, the fourth reason that we must gather is that the Lord's day |
[4417.46 --> 4425.40] prepares you for the last day, or that everything we do here is looking forward to that great day. |
[4425.46 --> 4432.48] But even more than that, right? The Lord's day prepares you, but also it perseveres you, right? |
[4432.48 --> 4440.02] One of the means by which we are carried and sustained unto that last day is by gathering together. |
[4441.56 --> 4445.62] Now, I'm going to ask for your grace for a minute because I'm going to nerd out here. |
[4445.62 --> 4452.56] In our church tradition, the continental reform tradition that we are part of, |
[4453.36 --> 4458.16] we have three forms of unity, three confessions or statements of faith, |
[4458.52 --> 4462.88] and the one most often neglected and forgotten is called the canons of Dort. |
[4463.56 --> 4468.72] Now, when you hear canons of Dort, don't picture massive cannons on top of a castle, right, |
[4468.72 --> 4474.68] shooting things out. Rather, here, lists and a description of a truth and an idea. |
[4475.62 --> 4482.50] Canons of Dort, the article 14 of the fourth and fifth main point of doctrine says, |
[4482.50 --> 4489.54] just as it has pleased God to begin this work of grace in us by the proclamation of the gospel, |
[4490.74 --> 4497.42] so God preserves, continues, and completes this work by the hearing and reading of the gospel, |
[4497.64 --> 4503.32] by meditation on it, by its exhortations, threats, and promises, and also by use of the sacraments. |
[4503.32 --> 4509.98] All right, so just as you become a Christian by grace through faith in believing the gospel, |
[4509.98 --> 4516.86] you remain a Christian by grace through faith in hearing, practicing, and living the gospel. |
[4517.92 --> 4524.42] Right, God does this for us, and this right here, this ordinary thing is in fact extraordinary |
[4524.42 --> 4533.86] because God is using it to persevere you to the end. The Lord's day prepares you and perseveres you |
[4533.86 --> 4539.66] for the last day. Next, let's jump to John. |
[4542.04 --> 4549.60] John 13, 34, and 35. Jesus says to his disciples who've gathered around him, |
[4549.60 --> 4557.18] a new command I give you, love one another. As I have loved you, so must you love one another. |
[4558.06 --> 4565.04] By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. |
[4566.40 --> 4576.92] Here's the idea for us, right? Gathering together shows you and others that your love has a greater |
[4576.92 --> 4579.90] purpose than your life. |
[4581.32 --> 4586.40] Right, the idea here is that the church isn't just meant to be a new community, |
[4586.84 --> 4592.20] because there are plenty of those springing up, right? Some of you are part of cornhole communities. |
[4593.08 --> 4598.22] That wasn't a thing five years ago, right? Some of you are part of pickleball communities. |
[4598.22 --> 4602.66] That also wasn't a thing five years ago, right? There's all sorts of new communities springing up. |
[4602.66 --> 4608.18] What's different about this one? The church is meant to be a new kind of community. |
[4609.86 --> 4616.04] It turns out that the gospel is, in some ways, divine hospitality, right? |
[4617.88 --> 4625.68] This was said by Sam Alberry and Dane Ortlund in a book that they wrote called You're Not Crazy. |
[4625.68 --> 4631.70] They say that the finished work of Christ on the cross is not God's way of saying to us, |
[4631.88 --> 4636.78] you're now free to go, but it's God's way of saying to us, you are now free to come. |
[4637.62 --> 4640.34] He's not sending us off, he's inviting us in. |
[4642.08 --> 4649.10] And the way that we live that kind of love received from God is by loving others in that same way. |
[4649.10 --> 4656.12] And so part of our gathering here continues in your gathering on Wednesday and Tuesday and Thursday |
[4656.12 --> 4659.88] as you invite people into your homes, as you invite people into your lives. |
[4660.40 --> 4666.62] Part of the gathering that we have here, giving our love purpose and showing us true love, right? |
[4666.70 --> 4668.56] Jesus says in John 15, |
[4668.78 --> 4674.32] greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for a friend. |
[4674.32 --> 4680.92] The kind of love, this new kind of community that the church is living and experiencing and sharing |
[4680.92 --> 4685.62] is one that is willing to die to self for the sake of another. |
[4686.18 --> 4693.34] One that is willing to sacrifice my comfort or my finances in order to build wealth in Africa. |
[4696.24 --> 4700.32] This is what we gather to do. |
[4700.32 --> 4707.96] It turns out, again, Josh Vincent summarized it. |
[4708.02 --> 4715.30] He said, the local church is God's chief evangelistic strategy for a lost and dying world. |
[4716.98 --> 4718.20] That's why we gather. |
[4719.12 --> 4722.78] To show God's love to the world around us. |
[4722.78 --> 4729.42] To be made more and more able to live that love to the world around us. |
[4730.32 --> 4738.66] We gather because doing so shows your love has a greater purpose than your life. |
[4739.20 --> 4743.50] Because your love reveals the love of Jesus. |
[4744.04 --> 4746.12] A love that took Him to the cross. |
[4746.74 --> 4753.24] A love that moved Him to keep perfectly the demands and commands of the law in my place. |
[4753.24 --> 4759.18] A love that moved Him in grace to give me His righteousness. |
[4759.48 --> 4761.36] To lay that on my shoulders. |
[4761.68 --> 4768.68] To impute that to me like I am clothed now in Him such that when God looks at me, He sees His Son. |
[4770.62 --> 4776.74] And even though He died, that same Jesus was raised three days later victorious over sin and death. |
[4776.74 --> 4779.64] And out of that same love that brought Him down. |
[4779.64 --> 4781.82] Out of that same love that raised Him up. |
[4781.88 --> 4785.00] Out of that same love He now loves us. |
[4785.18 --> 4787.76] That we might love others. |
[4788.58 --> 4789.80] That's why we gather. |
[4790.48 --> 4793.74] To be reminded of this truth. |
[4798.40 --> 4804.04] For our sixth reason, we see Ephesians 3, 10, and 11. |
[4804.04 --> 4806.34] Where Paul writes, |
[4806.34 --> 4816.02] His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. |
[4816.20 --> 4822.36] According to His eternal purpose that He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. |
[4823.52 --> 4825.18] Now this one's easy to miss. |
[4826.48 --> 4831.48] But there's something mysterious about what happens here. |
[4831.48 --> 4839.14] Our gathering makes angels and demons look on in wonder. |
[4840.04 --> 4840.90] Did you catch that? |
[4841.72 --> 4847.94] That the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. |
[4849.96 --> 4852.48] Through the church. |
[4854.82 --> 4859.38] 1 Peter says that even angels long to look into these things. |
[4859.38 --> 4865.78] When individual believers gather to glorify Christ together. |
[4866.02 --> 4870.52] Even the cosmic forces in unseen realms tune in. |
[4871.28 --> 4873.30] And try to make sense of what's happening here. |
[4875.00 --> 4878.60] And sometimes I think it's really easy for us to miss that. |
[4878.68 --> 4880.72] Because our focus is so small. |
[4880.80 --> 4882.92] Because what's in front of us seems so big. |
[4882.92 --> 4886.82] In fact, I want to articulate that. |
[4889.10 --> 4890.16] We have a picture. |
[4890.32 --> 4891.86] Can we put that picture up on the screen? |
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