Episode Transcript
[00:00:18] Speaker A: Let's open our bibles together to the book of First Corinthians, chapter five.
First Corinthians, chapter five. Thank you, Ethan.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: And it's awesome to have your family.
[00:00:31] Speaker A: And Tristan, your family here.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: We love these guys, and we believe in what God is doing through their lives.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: As you're turning to one corinthians, chapter five, I just want to say I believe that the best way we can celebrate our two year anniversary as Hope church, Asheville is to continue walking through a book of the Bible together.
I don't know when the last time was that someone reminded you of this. Hopefully it was very recent. But God wrote a book.
God wrote a book. God has spoken, and he is speaking to his people still. So why would you or anyone else want to hear what I think? Why would you gather together on a Sunday morning, Sunday evening, to listen to what a man thinks when God has spoken? I'm interested tonight in what God has said. We study through books of the Bible here at Hope Church, Asheville, because we believe that God is speaking in it, and our prayer is that he would speak to us in a way that would change our lives. So we gather together to hear God's voice. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. His ways are higher than our ways. And that is actually my life's verses out of the book of Isaiah.
I realized those are my life's verses. When I was eight years old, sitting in a sermon right back on this side, about halfway sitting beside my mom, and was flipping through the Bible. I remember the preacher that was preaching, and I remember reading through those verses, and something just happened in my heart. And I believe what it was was just a young boy who was realizing how big God was, realizing that there was comfort in knowing that his thoughts are higher than our thoughts, his ways are higher than our ways. And a few years ago, I had the privilege of hearing Francis Chan preach on my life's verses at the passion conference. And as I was there, he read the verses.
And then as he was preaching to about 60,000 people, he said after he read these verses, that God's thoughts are higher than his thoughts, and God's ways are higher than our ways. He said, do you want to know what I think?
And a few people in the building, it just kind of a little mumble through the building. And he said, do you want to know what I think? And the place just went crazy, you know, people said, yes, yes. Started yelling and screaming and clapping, and he said, no, you don't. Why do you want to know what? I think I just read you a verse that said, God's thoughts are higher than my thoughts, his ways are higher than our ways. And that's what I want to remind us of tonight, that we're here to hear God's word because he has spoken to us. We should never settle for man's thoughts or man's opinions when we have access to God's word. So the chapter we're going to be in tonight in chapter five deals with some very difficult issues. And I'm going to be talking to you tonight about the cost of unity.
It is amazing how applicable this chapter is to our anniversary gathering and celebration and this service here tonight. The main topic of this passage of scripture is not sexual immorality. The main passage of this, the main point of this passage and the main topic is church unity.
Now, church unity involves church leadership. It involves gospel community, covenant, partnership, church discipline, as we're gonna see and walking in obedience to God's word and God's spirit. And I was recently reminded that a sermon is a journey. So we're going somewhere tonight. We are on a journey, walking through scripture together. So I want to tell you right up front, before I even read the passage of scripture, where we're going, I've got this on a slide I want you to see. This is where we're going tonight. When you are feeding on God's wisdom, focusing on the gospel, embracing biblical community and loving God, you walk in obedience and avoid sin.
When you're feeding on God's wisdom, focusing on the gospel, embracing biblical community and loving God, you walk in obedience and avoid sin. Let's look at our text tonight. I'm gonna read the entire chapter. It's one corinthians, chapter five. I'm gonna start in verse one and read all the way through verse 13.
I wanna remind you, this is God's word to God's people.
The Bible says it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans. For a man has had his father's wife and you are arrogant. Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit. And as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in my spirit is present with the power of the Lord Jesus. You are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good.
Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. Not meaning the sexually immoral of the world or the greedy or swindlers or idolaters. Since then, you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard or swindler. Not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outsiders. Purge the evil person from among you. This is God's word. And I want to ask you to go with me, if you will, to the Lord in prayer before we continue through the sermon. Father, we thank you for your word tonight. God, I thank you that it is true. Lord, I thank you that you have given it to us. We have access to read your words, to hear your words and to embrace your truth. God, I pray that your holy spirit would be active here in our midst tonight. May you convict us of sin. May you draw us closer to our lord and savior, Jesus Christ. And Father, I pray that you would be honored in everything that is said. May the gospel be proclaimed in Jesus name.
Amen.
So, as we read through this passage, I want to just walk through and point out seven things that stand out in this passage that I believe the church needs to be reminded about tonight. And I'm going to warn you. Some of the things in here, you probably already picked up on them as I was reading through it. Some of the things in our scripture tonight, some of the things in the text are going to go against what our western american mind and heart leans towards. Some of us are going to say, you know what? I don't think that's right. That doesn't sound very christian to me.
And there are many people who have left churches that are doing exactly what scripture is telling us to do. And I'm thankful that it's not my opinion versus another pastor's opinion or your opinion versus this person's opinion. It's what has God said? Because God has spoken clearly. And the first thing I want to start out with tonight, just reminding us of this passage, makes it abundantly clear that sexual immorality is wrong.
And it's funny that I should even have to say that. But we live in a world that has been blinded to this truth. According to scripture, we believe that the world knows this.
Even those who call themselves atheists, even those who proclaim to have no faith, believe no book, believe no scripture, they know in their hearts, but they have denied the truth. And the sad thing is that churches are capitulating to the culture rather than trying to change the culture, rather than shining a light in the darkness. We're turning our lights off so we can look more like the world.
But the Bible is absolutely, abundantly clear. Sexual immorality is a sin. It is wrong.
Jesus came to die and shed his blood for the sexually immoral. That is the truth of the gospel. But he came to save his people from their sins, not to leave them in their sins. Number two, sexual immorality is the result of believing a lie or worldly wisdom.
Remember that this verse is connected. This chapter is connected to the chapters preceding it. And I've heard so many preachers preach sermons on this passage of scripture, this chapter, or maybe just a few verses in it, that never connected it to what was said before this in the first four chapters. So that's why I love preaching through books of the Bible, because we already know that this book is about a church that is divided. Something is bringing division into the church. But sexual immorality is just a result of believing worldly wisdom, believing the lie of Satan. Sexual immorality is the fruit of a deeper problem.
As Christians, we believe God's truth. We embrace God's word as authoritative and good. But the church in Corinth was believing the worldly wisdom, the philosophy of the greek culture that they were saturated in, and the roman culture that had taken over their city. And they were looking more like the culture than they were like people of the book.
So we need to realize that there's an issue here of the root and the fruit. Sexual immorality is the fruit of not believing the truth of God's word.
Number three, sexual immorality divides the church. Immorality divides families. It divides marriages. It divides husbands from wives, children from mothers and fathers.
But it also has the effect of dividing congregations who value personalities more than they value God's precepts.
And when you think about what God's word has to say about immorality. We need to realize that it's not about who's in our family or whose side of the church we're going to take. If this family's arguing with this family. No, the Bible is clear. It's authoritative, it has spoken, and it's not about who I like better. It's not about the extenuating circumstances. It's about thus saith the Lord, and immorality always divides. And when it's allowed into the church, it divides the church.
In these verses, he reminds us that, number four, sexual immorality springs from pride and leads to pride.
Immorality has been intentionally connected to the word pride in our generation, in our lifetime, in a way that I don't know that it has ever been connected before. And this is not by the church. We're not pointing our fingers and calling it pride. They are putting it on billboards, t shirts, hats, anything they can get it on, and declaring their pride for their sin.
And the problem was with the church at Corinth. They were doing the exact same thing. Why was it happening in their culture, in the church? And we see it still happening today. And I can drive you within two minutes of this church and take you to a dozen other churches that are displaying the pride flag to say that they affirm sexual immorality in a way that is clearly against scripture.
All pride or all sin springs from pride.
The problem with pride is it spreads and it increases, it grows.
So I think what Paul is trying to tell us, and tell the church in Corinth, is that tolerance of sin leads to boasting about sin. It springs from pride, and it leads to more pride. When we tolerate sin, we eventually end up celebrating and boasting about sin, which leads to the division of the church and the destruction of the church. Paul told us last week that those who are dividing the church are attacking the temple of God, God's people, the thing that God shed his blood for.
Number five, sexual immorality in the church should cause the church to mourn.
It should cause us to grieve.
It should cause us to weep and seek to see restoration. Because while Paul is speaking very firmly and even harshly against this sin, he's doing so in order to restore people back to fellowship.
And I believe that those who celebrate sin of any type, because Paul's going to bring in some other sins that he puts on the same level as sexual immorality.
Those who celebrate sin do not know the heart of God, and they don't love God.
But I'm not just talking tonight about people who celebrate sin. I can't imagine this sin happening in our church. And us getting on Facebook and saying, guess what? This horrible sin is happening in our church. Look how much we love sinners. This is awesome. That's basically the equivalent of what they were doing. While I can't imagine us doing that, I also think this word mourning that we should mourn over sin in the church. I think he's implying that this also extends not just to those who celebrate it, but to those who gossip and revel in the sins that are committed.
And I just wonder if that's not also pride.
One proud person celebrates the fact that they're sinning. The other proud person says, did you hear what they did? Did you hear what she did? Did you hear how this happened? Let me spread this around. And we gossip and we say it in a way that we just revel in the sin that is literally destroying people's soul, destroying a church. And we can celebrate those things in a way that is pointing a finger or in a way that is proud of the sin that we are committing.
And when we gossip and revel about sin, we misunderstand the gospel.
Because while God is clear, he speaks out against sin. He doesn't leave any room for allowing this or permitting this in the church. But the heart of God still has deepen compassion for sinners. Why am I dealing with this tonight? Well, because first of all, these are God's words. God put it in the Bible for a reason. We need to hear this. But another reason I'm dealing with this is because we need to have God's heart of compassion for sinners. They are believing a lie. They're trapped in a pattern of sin.
And we just so happen to be in one of the main cities that is celebrating every type of sexual immorality.
I hear it and see it every day on our streets in a way that breaks my heart.
I have a couple different responses. One response is political, Nathan, where I just get angry because, you know, I'm a conservative, I'm a political party.
I'm embracing this conservative. So that can make me angry and view those people as my enemies.
Then there's another side of me that hears it and I'm like, you know what?
This is against what God has told us. This is against God's design.
But then I think there's another step where I see it and my heart breaks for the people that are trapped in that sin. And I can remember the day when I was trapped in that sin. And I can remember the time in my life where the lies of Satan had me bound to a point where I was literally bragging about my sin.
And I should never preach against someone else's sin without realizing how sinful I am and without realizing that that person is made in God's image and they're deceived.
Whatever sin it is, as he brings up these other sins, we need to understand that that person is created in God's image, and we need to love them. And you can love people while you're speaking up for the truth of God's word. There's a delicate balance to that, and we don't always hit the target, but that's what we should be striving for.
Number six, unrepentant sexual immorality should result in church discipline. This is what one corinthians chapter five is clearly saying.
And there is no way, as the church of Jesus Christ, to argue against what God has given us through the apostle Paul. This is scripture. This is God's word.
Christians are called to promote the health and the unity of the church by removing. Listen to this permissive, boastful and unrepentant believers from fellowship for the purpose of restoration.
The reason we use church discipline, removing people from fellowship in the church, is because God commanded it. And it's so that they can experience the full consequences and weight of their sin in a way that would drive them back to Jesus, bring them back to the cross. We never do it just for punishment, just to humiliate them, just to prove something. We do it in order to restore them. And if we do it with anything but tears in our eyes, we're missing the whole point of the gospel.
Church discipline is not something that's talked about a lot. And I honestly believe this is one of the main reasons why our churches are in such bad shape, because we're not operating in the way that God clearly tells us in his word to operate. So I want to just take a few minutes to explain what church discipline is. Church discipline is the process of correcting sin in the life of the congregation and its members.
That's what church discipline is. It typically starts privately and informally.
As Matthew chapter five says, you go to the person one on one, you talk to those people, you lovingly, informally talk to them about their sin and invite them to repent and share God's word with them. This may turn into a great conversation, weeping and repentance and confession, or it may turn into an argument, but it usually starts privately and informally, it grows to include the whole church. When necessary, you usually go to the person one on one. Then you take someone else with you and confront them again. Then at some point, if they're unrepentant, you. There is a time, and this is what I was saying, this goes against our american church mentality, but there is a time to stand up in church or in a family, in a church meeting with just the members, and say, we have to conduct church discipline tonight. It's awkward, it's not any fun, it's painful, but it's what the church is called to do. The final step of church discipline is what some call excommunication. Removing them from fellowship with the church, removing their membership with the church. And it's actually excommunion. It's a removal from being able to receive communion with the body of Christ.
And this just happens to be the first Sunday of the month, and we're going to be receiving this together in just a few minutes.
And just the juice and the bread on the table reminds us of the importance of the privilege of receiving these elements together as God's people, as a family.
But excommunication or excommunion or removing someone's membership doesn't mean that the church is consigning someone to hell. We don't have that power. Only God has that power. And it doesn't mean that we are declaring with a certainty that that person is not saved. Church discipline is for people who are saved, but are boldly walking in unrepentant, disobedient sin.
So we're simply saying that a church no longer affirms the this person's profession of faith and is no longer affording them family fellowship, the goal of discipline.
Church discipline is always redemption and reconciliation. He tells us in verse five that it's part of protecting the other sheep in verse six and honoring the name of Christ in verse one. So church discipline is always for reconciliation. It's protecting the other sheep and honoring the name of Christ. I do want to say, just as an aside to this point, abusive church discipline is a great evil to be guarded against. Pastors have abused church discipline, and some of us have experienced that. What does abusive church discipline look like? Legalism. Disciplining for things that are not in the Bible. Disciplining people for opinions rather than what the scripture clearly says.
Disciplining people for personal liberty decisions. That is an abuse of church discipline.
It's an abuse of authority. It's not taking the proper steps or it's slander and gossip against people. We can call something church discipline that looks nothing like biblical church discipline.
Paul also goes on to say that when we remove someone's ability to take communion and participate in the fellowship of the church, we remove their membership, excommunicate. Excommunion them. We are delivering them to Satan in a way that will result in the destruction of their flesh, their sin, their idol will consume them in a way that can bring them back to a place of repentance and restoration.
This body, this flesh, is temporary. Our soul is eternal.
So we are commanded.
And again, this goes against.
I'm gonna be honest with you. This goes against my feelings.
I want to find another way around this, but this is what God clearly says. We're commanded not to fellowship or associate with anyone who calls himself a believer and is tolerant of sin.
He says in verse eleven, but now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brotherhood. If he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, a reviler, a drunkard or swindler, not even to eat with such a one.
To me, that seems harsh.
Can you agree with that? That feels like that's not what christians should act like. Can't we still invite them over, still love on them?
According to the Bible, when church discipline is employed, it is a removal of fellowship. He also goes on to say that christians are to humbly judge one another within the church.
He says, we're not supposed to judge outsiders. They're acting like they're going to act. They don't know Jesus. They're lost. They're part of the world. They don't have the Holy Spirit living in them. All they can do is sin. I if we rejected them, removed fellowship from them, they would never get saved. He's talking about believers in the church who fall into sin and then become bold about it.
And I believe that some people have left a community of biblical christians who were doing it right, but it hurt their feelings.
And maybe they didn't understand that the church was doing it right. Maybe they were feeling judged because they were sinning, and they needed to be judged by their brothers and sisters in a way that brought them back to reconciliation. I'm not talking about slander and gossip. I'm talking about confronting people in their sin.
So we are to humbly judge one another within the church. This word judge means to hold accountable, to show discernment, to examine in light of scripture, even to contend with, to dispute or to govern, which pushes us back to church leadership. There's a lot about church leadership in this passage, but this does not apply to those who are in the world. We are to love them and be around them in order to influence them and win them for Christ.
That is good to know because I've been part of churches that said we're to be separate from the world in a way that just totally excludes ourselves from the world. The Bible does talk about biblical separation, but it's always talk about separation from sin, separation from immorality, not separation from people who need to hear the gospel. Now, there are places that we probably shouldn't go. There is wisdom and discernment that needs to be employed in this, but we are to regularly be around people that don't know Jesus.
The final point, number seven, and I think this is one of the main points of all of this, including church discipline. There is protection for believers within the church.
Do you see how Paul is making this point?
The reason that people are removed from church fellowship is because we're removing them from the protection of the body, delivering them to Satan, which is directly correlated with removal from the church. So the implication here, I think it's actually more than an implication. But what Paul is saying here is that there is protection in the church. How are we protected in the church? First of all, we have protection from church leadership. There are leaders that look out for our souls, that love us, that instruct us, that comfort us, that confront us in our sin. Leadership is a blessing from God, a gift from God to lead us, protect us, comfort us and instruct us. And biblical leadership is essential to church health. If you find a healthy church, to truly healthy church, I can assure you they have healthy leadership.
They have a healthy form of church government that are loving one another and leading in the way that God's word says to lead. So there's protection in leadership. There's also protection in community. There's protection in this, in eating meals together and opening up to one another. There is accountability for our sin. There's wisdom, there's correction. When we get out of line, we are to judge one another in the way that God calls us, to judge, to be discerning, to challenge one another in a loving way, speaking the truth in love. There is protection for believers in the church.
Let's look at the application.
I want to ask two questions tonight. Number one, how do I lovingly participate gospel community?
We're talking tonight about the cost of unity. The cost of unity is believing God's word and doing what God's word says submitting to leadership, avoiding sin, confronting people, sometimes removing people. This is a part of the cost of unity. It's not fun.
Our flesh resists it, but it's a part of what God is calling us to do. So how do we lovingly participate in gospel community? How can we truly promote unity that fights against division? Number one, love God and love others.
Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And love other people. Focus on loving. Love does confront people in their sin, but love also forgives people. Love also believes the best about people. Love doesn't judge other people more harshly than you judge your own sin in your own life. Number two, walk in obedience.
We are called to walk in obedience. This promotes unity. When you're by yourself and you're tempted, whatever your temptation is, you think that you're the only one. This is affecting, but it affects the body of Christ. It affects the church of Jesus Christ. It's affecting your brothers and your sisters because sin always grows and expands and spreads and increases. We're called to walk in obedience. This is how we lovingly participate in gospel community and fight for unity.
Community includes the word unity. It's how we live together in unity. Number three, confess sin.
This is something we're called to do to God, agreeing with God that our sin is wrong, agreeing with what God says about our sin, and also confessing our sins to one another.
I experienced this this week with christian brothers. Confessing sin, asking for prayer, being transparent, asking for advice, asking for wisdom, praying together. This is an important part of the christian life, confessing sin and then being willing to confront sin.
Every parent knows that when you love your child, you have to confront them.
A parent that never confronts their child is not truly loving their child in the way that the Bible says. We have to be willing to confront our brothers and sisters again, speaking the truth in love. There's a lot more I could say about gospel community, but these are some things that we see in the book of first corinthians and in this chapter. Here's the main point of what I want to look at tonight. How do I avoid this type of sin in my life? Because I can stand up here, I can preach. The worship team can stand up here and lead. Worship people can lead small groups, we can pray for one another. But you are the only one participating with the Holy Spirit in obedience to God's word that can keep sin out of your life. I can't do that for you. You can't do that for me. So how do I avoid this type of sin in my life because I have to watch out for me. I have to guard my heart, and you're called to guard your heart. So I want to go back with what I opened with. This is the answer to the question, how do I avoid this type of sin in my life? When you are feeding on God's wisdom, focusing on the gospel, embracing biblical community and loving God, you walk in obedience and avoid sin. I want to put that back up on the screen because I want us to look at that. We're going to leave that there for just a little bit when I'm doing these things. When God's word, God's truth, the music that repeats the truths in God's word, the gospel being echoed from brothers and sisters in Christ, people being around, people that obey the command that God gives us through Paul, that whatsoever things are pure and honest and of good, report lovely, praiseworthy thinking on those things, feeding on God's wisdom, which includes rejecting the wisdom of the world, focusing on the gospel. Paul in this passage of scripture and throughout the book of one corinthians brings us back to the gospel. He reminds us that Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed, our salvation has been purchased, the blood was shed, we're born again. We're christians.
So now we're called to walk in unity and avoid sin. Focus on the gospel, remind ourselves and remind one another of the gospel, embrace biblical community and loving God when we do those things. What is the fruit of that?
Walking in obedience and avoiding sin. Here's the problem with the church. We spend all of our time, all of our energy focusing on obey and avoid sin. Obey, avoid sin. I've got to obey, I've got to obey, I've got to obey. I've got to avoid sin. I can't do this, I can't do this. I can't do this. And we focus on that so much that all our mind is focused on is our sin and disobedience. He says, feed on God's wisdom, focus on the gospel, embrace biblical community, love God and the natural fruit of that. The side effect of that is going to be that you will obey God and you will avoid sin.
Has that ever worked out for anybody trying to beat themselves up and say, I'm not going to sin, I'm not going to sin, I'm not going to sin, I'm going to obey today?
No.
But being around God's wisdom, focusing on the gospel, embracing biblical community, loving God, turns into the type of person who obeys and avoids sin.
We should focus on embracing humility, feeding on God's wisdom, surrounding ourselves with a biblical community of believers, loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, which means physically, mentally, emotionally and passionately. That's how you to love God with all of your physical strength, with all your mental capacity, with your emotions. Yes, it's okay, christians to be emotional.
That's not the fullness of the christian experience.
But emotions aren't wrong, they're not sinful. They're to be in line with God's word and passionately. We're to passionately love God.
And if we do these things, we will crucify the flesh, we will be killing sin in our life. We will deny ourselves, we will take up our cross, we will love sacrificially, we will give cheerfully, we'll serve humbly, obey willingly, and we will repent consistently.
These are the things that bring unity to a church.
This is our two year celebration and you may think, man, this is kind of a harsh sermon for a two year celebration. Don't worry, it's not the first time.
[00:38:49] Speaker B: I've been accused of that.
[00:38:52] Speaker A: But this is for promoting the unity of the church.
And this is what God has to say to his people tonight.
Church is a celebration, but it's also disciplined.
It's also commitment, devotion, dedication to walk in the things that God has commanded us. We're going to have an opportunity to live this out tonight as we receive the table of our Lord. I'm going to ask the piano player to come forward and pastor Earl is going to lead us tonight as a church in receiving communion together.
[00:39:36] Speaker B: All right, well, this is an honor and a privilege to be able to be here, be a part of this tonight.
Been discipling this young man for the.
[00:39:48] Speaker A: Last couple of years.
[00:39:49] Speaker C: Last year, year and a half, sometimes.
[00:39:52] Speaker B: It seems like two years.
Logan has been a blessing to me personally and to this church, and I'm just going to let him share the reason he's here tonight. This may be a surprise to some.
[00:40:03] Speaker A: Of you guys, but I remember when.
[00:40:06] Speaker B: I made the choice to do this exact thing after God called me into ministry.
[00:40:12] Speaker C: So a couple weeks ago, I was having a conversation with someone and they just asked about my baptism and salvation story and I started explaining kind of the thing you hear a lot. I was said a prayer at a young age, got baptized. I was like five or six years old, but growing up, I never really felt, there wasn't ever any signs in my life. I never really followed Christ in any way.
[00:40:37] Speaker A: And so I was like, you know.
[00:40:38] Speaker C: I was 17 years old. That's when I believe I was actually saved or trusted Christ.
And then they were like, well, when did you get baptized? After that, I said, oh, well, now that you mention it, I don't think I ever have.
Just kind of was burning about it and mentioned something to Nathan, and here we are.
[00:40:58] Speaker B: That is awesome. And that's what the christian life is about, is stepping out in obedience, regardless of what it may look like and regardless of what other people think. I surrendered to preach and then was baptized after that in the same church, and everybody was like, what are you doing? And it was a matter of conviction for me that it was the first command to obey after salvation is the first step of obedience for christians. It doesn't save us, but truly saved people will walk in obedience.
[00:41:31] Speaker A: So, Logan, I just want to ask.
[00:41:32] Speaker B: You a couple questions. Do you believe that God created you in his image? Do you believe that you, along with all mankind, are a sinner by birth and by choice? And do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins and rose from the grave so that you could be saved? And have you placed your full hope and trust in the full weight of your salvation, on Jesus Christ and Christ alone? All right, then. In obedience to the command of our lord and savior, Jesus Christ, and on your profession of faith, I baptize you, my brother, in the name of the Father, the Son in the Holy Spirit, buried with him in baptism and raised to walk in newness of life.
[00:42:34] Speaker A: And I just want to ask that.
[00:42:35] Speaker B: You all continue to be in prayer for Logan and Brooke as they follow God and what he has for them this season. Thankfully, they're here with us and serving, and they're such a blessing to us. But they're praying about next steps and what it is that God has for them down the road, possibly even missions. And so we're going to keep them lifted up as a family. So thank you for being here. I don't know any better way to celebrate what God's done in Hope church in two years. And I'm looking forward to what he has for us moving forward. So let's all stand together, and I'm going to close this in prayer. Father, we love you. God, I thank you so much for the fact that you are holy God, and you have done great things.
[00:43:17] Speaker A: We're weak.
[00:43:19] Speaker B: We're feeble. We're many times disobedient. We're divided.
But God, you are good, and this is your church. And Jesus, you said on the rock of the apostles and on yourself as the foundation and on scriptures, you would build your church, and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. So, God, we're clinging to that promise. May many people be saved, baptized, as.
[00:43:42] Speaker A: We shine the light of the gospel.
[00:43:44] Speaker B: And, Lord, I just thank you for using us. I thank you for this family that you are putting together. And I just want to give you all the honor and glory and praise in Jesus name. Amen.
