Do you love the church? Not simply do you love the concept of the church or an impersonal, idealized church. But do you love your local, gathered church? Do you love the real Christian men and women, redeemed though still struggling with sin who make up your local church? It is easy to let offenses and failures create division and bitterness in a church, and choke out love. On the other hand superficiality in church life can hide many failures, but you can't love that which you only know superficially. Christ loves his church - and every local church - and gave his life for her. God calls us to love his church and to commit ourselves to it. We are members of one body and we ought to love and cherish one another as those for whom Christ died.

Please open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter five. This passage of scripture gives us a demonstration of Christ's love for the church. And if we would ever know how to love the church, we would have to know, first of all, how Jesus Christ loved his church. You know, Jesus said, take my yoke upon you and learn from me. And that's what we need to do.

We need to learn, learn from Jesus about how to love his church. Christ demonstrates the tenderest love for the church. And so I pray that what we're going to be doing here in the next few minutes is try to put on the mind of Christ for the church. To learn how to behave like Christ behaves toward his church, to learn how to think like Christ thinks about his church, and to, as a result of it, take action and to love the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul reminds the Philippians of Christ's love and he says, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

And we know that we are are designed by God to walk in a manner in which he walked at least that's what it says in John to first John 2 verse 6 and so I want to in the next few minutes answer the question, what does Christ's love for the church look like? How did he demonstrate it? So we'll take as our starting point Ephesians chapter five and we'll begin in verse 25. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies.

He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." And That takes us to verse 30. Now Paul states plainly here that Christ loved the Church. And then he expands on that language and he uses some remarkable words to help us to understand what that looks like.

And the first thing that we recognize here is that the church is a bride. And it's amazing that he would use that kind of language. He would call her a bride. Is that your vision of the church? I mean, Paul takes this picture of the church and he uses the most astonishing imagery of a bride.

You know, how many times have you been in a wedding and the bride, you know, is at the very beginning of her walk down the aisle to meet her husband and it just takes your breath away. It's beautiful, it's amazing. Well that's how the Lord Jesus Christ views his church, like a bride. And it might seem strange to most people that that's what he thinks about. You would think that maybe he thinks of her as sort of the old lady, you know, the disfigured, you know, messed up bride.

The church kind of looks like that sometimes, doesn't it? Have you ever been in a perfect church? No, no, no, no. Every church I've ever been has problems. And you wouldn't first of all walk in and say, this is a bride.

You might wanna say, this is the old lady. But Jesus doesn't relate to his church like that. He relates to her as a beautiful bride. And this just shows us that his thoughts are not our thoughts and our thoughts are not his thoughts. And He thinks rightly and beautifully about everything.

But he says, husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church. And that's the language of Ephesians five, just as also. It's almost like, you know, everywhere you turn, that's sort of the language. There's this comparison of Christ and his love for the church, and then of course husbands are supposed to love their wives in the same way. But he uses the highest state of human experience in terms of a bride.

And what did he, how did he love? Well it says here that he gave himself for her. He gave. And his life was not his own. He came to do his Father's will.

He left his heavenly glory. He laid down his life for his friends. He is a good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. So he gave himself for her. So it was a costly love.

It was costly because of the shame he was spat upon, he was reviled, he was nailed to a cross, He bled, he died, he was buried in a borrowed man's tomb, and he gave his life. He laid down his life for the sheep. And as he was taking the penalties for sin, He said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So his giving was a costly giving. And he was broken, his body was broken when the Lord Jesus Christ speaks of the Last Supper with his disciples in Luke chapter 22.

He says, this is my body which was broken for you. That's the way he loved. He allowed his body to be broken for the church. And The breaking was really a punishment. He was taking the punishment that the church deserved for her sins.

So rather than blaming his bride, he took the pain and the judgment and the punishment for his bride. You know, the stripes that the church deserved were laid on him. All of the sins that the church have produced cumulatively were laid on Jesus Christ. You can take that very personally too. That if you've believed in the gospel and that you've repented of your sins, you've entered into the kingdom of heaven, and you love the Lord Jesus Christ, then your sins were paid for.

That's how he loved his bride. He paid, he actually paid for her sins. You know, the modern churchgoer doesn't always feel that way toward the fellow church members. You know, often church members want other church members to pay for their sins when, in fact, the Lord Jesus Christ paid for their sins and he purchased the church by his own blood. You get this language out of Acts chapter 20 where the Apostle Paul is with the elders in the church in Ephesus and he's exhorting them in Acts 20 and he says to them, take heed to yourselves and to the flock.

In other words, pay attention to your life. You cannot live like everyone else lives. You cannot live the way you want to live as a shepherd. Shepherds just can't live any way they want. And he's saying, take heed to yourself, check out your own life.

And he says, and to all the flock, in other words, and take heed to the flock. Make sure you understand what's going on in the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the Church of God and then he lets this one drop which he purchased with his own blood. He purchased the church with his own blood. It was a sacred sacrifice that Jesus Christ made in order to purchase the church. And so he gave himself for her.

And so he demonstrates his love. And remember, what we're talking about is love for the church. We're learning from Jesus Christ about how to love the church. And so as we go through these various points and phraseologies that we find here, Ask yourself, do I love the church that way? Is this my disposition?

Have you learned from Christ? Have you taken his yoke upon you for the church? And I'm speaking of the local church. This love that he had for the church was a zealous love. In John chapter 2, verses 13 through 17, when the Lord Jesus Christ went into Jerusalem and he drove out the money changers from the temple, He did it because of his zeal.

He says, Zeal for my house has consumed me. If you ask yourself, do I love the church? Then it would really be appropriate to say, What does my zeal look like for the church? Do I have urgency for the church? Do I desire to eat with the church like Jesus Christ, urgently desire to eat the supper with the Lord, with His church?

Does that zeal translate into action like it did with the Lord Jesus Christ? He drove out all who were in the temple with the sheep and the oxen, and he poured out the changer's money and overturned their tables. And he said to those who sold the doves, take these things away, do not make my father's house a house of merchandise. He cared. He cared about whether the church was real or fake.

He cared about whether the church was a place of spiritual life or whether it was just a place of commerce. He cared about the church and his zeal for the church ate him up. And it's interesting when you go and read the gospels, you notice that he took a whip. And one of the gospel writers says that he wove the whip himself. Can you imagine Jesus sitting there?

Takes a while to weave a whip, and so he's sitting there and he's weaving the whip. Imagine what was going on in his mind, the preparations he was taking in order to deliberately go and express his zeal for the church. He invested his time on it. And so the Lord Jesus Christ has zeal for his church. But the problem with us is that we would really rather have a moderate religion.

We would like to have a more real, reasonable religion that's not characterized by zeal. But here the Lord Jesus Christ does have zeal for the church. Now we would rather have a mild Jesus because we would like to be mild, but Jesus is not mild toward the church at all. We would like Jesus to have a balanced life. We would like to have a kind of Christianity where too much zeal is avoided.

But that's not the Lord Jesus Christ at all. The whole tenor of Jesus' disposition toward the church was the tenor of zeal. And you just might ask yourself this, if I take my temperature for the church, does it come out on the zeal side of the thermometer or does it come out on the dispassionate side of the thermometer? But the Lord Jesus Christ's zeal ran hot. He also was affectionate toward the church.

The Apostle Paul writing to the Philippian church, said this in Philippians 1-8. He says, God is my witness. How greatly I long for you, with all the affection of Jesus Christ. And Paul is, of course, expressing his own affection for the church. He longed to be with the church.

And he recognized that his longing had a source. It came from Jesus. He longed for the church with the affection of Jesus Christ. Paul learned from Jesus about love for the church. And so his affection was the same affection that Christ had for his own church.

And so you should put that thermometer in your mouth and ask, do you have the affection of Jesus Christ for the church? Now we talked about zeal a minute ago. Now This is different, this is affection toward the church. This has to do with the inclination of a heart toward the people in the church. Do you love the people in the church?

Do you long for them? And if you're saying, no, I don't really long for them, don't blame it on the church. Don't blame it on the people of the church. Blame it on a lapse in your own sanctification that you've not really known the love of Jesus Christ for his church, you don't have the affection of Jesus Christ for his church. Well, you might say, well, you don't know the people in my church.

If you knew them, you would know why I don't have affection for them. Because there are hypocrites there, there are all kinds of people, their lives aren't together, they're legalists, they're antinomians there, the preacher doesn't even preach everything that he should preach. And so if you knew my church, you would feel the same way. You would be just as dispassionate as I am for the church. With thoughts like that, we have to ask, well, does Jesus Christ see his church for what it really is?

Does his knowledge of his church break his affection? No, because Jesus Christ came to save sinners. As the Apostle Paul said, of whom I am chief. And it's often self-righteousness that dampens love for the church. You show me a person who doesn't love the church, most of the time you either have a non-Christian or you have a proud person who has a harsh spirit and an affection has run dry.

So Jesus is affectionate toward his church. Affectionate. You know, how would you express your affection to a church? If you love anything, you give it some kind of affection. Affection is typically expressed in what?

Time spent. That's how we express affection. We arrange our lives so that we're part of the thing that we have affection for. And so with that thermometer in your mouth, asking yourself about this matter of affection, You know, I hope all of you belong to a local church. If you don't belong to a local church, let me just urge you to go and belong to a local church.

Go and belong somewhere. And if you do belong, then ask yourself the affection question. Is it the affection of Jesus Christ? Is it the way that the Apostle Paul expressed it? He said, God is my witness how greatly I long for you with the affection of Christ.

So God knew that it was true. God knew that it was a great affection. And God knew the source. It was the affection of Jesus Christ. But not only is Jesus affectionate, he's also dedicated to the church.

In Philippians chapter two verse 17, Paul said that he was being quote, poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of their faith. So he was pouring out his life for the church. He had dedicated his life to the church. I don't think we should make the mistake of saying, well that was the apostle Paul, he was an apostle. That was, He was supposed to do that, that was his job.

But for me, I don't need to be dedicated to the church. That's a mistake. Because brothers and sisters are required to be dedicated toward one another. And there are over 50 one anothers to show you how you should be dedicated to one another. And there are many places in scripture that would teach you that it's not just the elders and the deacons who are supposed to be dedicated to the church of Jesus Christ.

But the apostle Paul says that he was dedicated. The apostle Paul also speaks of suffering. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered for the church in Colossians chapter one verse 24. Here the apostle Paul is declaring that he rejoices in his sufferings for the church. He says, I rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ.

For the sake of his body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. The apostle Paul suffered for the church. And so you might just put that thermometer back in your mouth and ask, what's my suffering level been for the church? Have I suffered for the church or not? Would I even be willing to suffer for the church?

And also there's laboring for the church in Philippians chapter one verse 28 and 29. The apostle speaks of his laboring and striving. He says, in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end, I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily. Here, the Apostle Paul is saying that he's laboring for the Church.

He actually pours out his energy for the Church. Laboring for the Church is a critical matter. If you love the Church, you'll labor for the Church. There's a striving. You know, if you get involved in the Church, you'll find that you'll be worn out every once in a while.

Maybe a lot, depending on what's going on. The Apostle Paul labored. We should labor for the church. We live in a world where people really, they want to be labored for in the church, but they don't want to labor that much. They don't recognize that they've been given gifts for labor in the church, that all members are profitable, all members have been gifted, and all members have a role to play, and they're designed to labor according to that giftedness that God has given them.

Everybody should be laboring in the church. And then the Apostle Paul also speaks of it in terms of cherishing. Of course this language is also borrowed from Ephesians 5 that he nourishes and cherishes his church. So you might put that thermometer back in again and it's the cherishing thermometer. Is there very much cherishing of the people in your local church?

By the way, we're not just talking about this nebulous church in the stratosphere, this blob of impersonal church, I love the church. No, to love the church, unfortunately, it means to love people in the church. And so, because the church is made up of people, that's a problem. You know, the church would be a lot easier to love if there weren't people in it. You know, it's not, the church is easier to love as a philosophical concept.

But when you actually meet real people and some of them you know they're rude and some of them are unsanctified in various ways or you know some of them are not very nice because God's still trying to you know make them nicer by his love but you know you can find yourself in a church, but do you cherish them? It's harder to cherish the uncharishable. But God says, no, my church is not uncharishable at all. You can have Christ's love for his church. The apostle says that, but we were gentle among you just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children, so affectionately longing for you.

We were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives because you had become dear to us. That's in 1st Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 7 through 12 And the apostle speaks of his gentleness, but he gives us a startling image here. Now here's the apostle Paul, okay? He's a pretty rough guy. He's been stoned, He's been dragged out of cities, he's been shipwrecked, he goes to Ephesus, he says, we fought with beasts in Ephesus.

And now, you know what he's saying, but I was like a mother. I was like a nursing mother to you. This macho leader, you know, left for dead apostle. How does he relate to the church? Well, he cherished the church like a nursing mother cherishes her own children.

You know, the picture of a nursing mother with her own children is a remarkable image for us. It's very close, isn't it? Holding a baby in your arms is one of the most amazing things you'll ever do, especially when it's your own. You know, it's nice to hold babies. I've held a lot of babies.

Oh, but I'm telling you, When you hold your own baby, it's different. It is different. You look in their eyes and you have them up against you and there's nothing like it. This is the image here. Cherishing like a nursing mother cherishes what?

Her own children. I'm not making up these words, these are the words of God. Her own children, so affectionately longing for you. What a remarkable picture. Also the Apostle Paul speaks of imparting his life to the church.

In 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 8, he says, we were pleased to impart to you not only the gospel but also our own lives because you have become very dear to us. So there goes the thermometer and again, this has to do with imparting your life. Do you love the church in such a way that you're actually imparting your life, Meaning that you're actually with the people in that church. So that your life is being imparted. This is the way that God has designed his body.

Because every member has value and every member is gifted and the impartation of life happens as a result of the gathered church of God. He imparted his life. He says in 1 Thessalonians that he toiled night and day for them and he imparted his life for them. Here's another word, another thermometer, rejoicing, 1 Thessalonians 2 19 and 20. Well, the church was a source of joy.

He says, for what is our hope, our joy, our crown of rejoicing? Is it not even in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? Therefore you are our glory and our joy." Can you say that about the people in your church? That when you think of them you think they are my glory and my joy. This is the affection of Jesus Christ that was given to the Apostle Paul for the church.

And As you test yourself, do you rejoice? If you're not rejoicing somehow in the church that God has given you, don't blame the church. Ask yourself why you cannot rejoice in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, this can be a challenge, I know. There can be many troubles in churches, sins coming to the surface, really heartbreaking things happen right in front of you.

And you can become weary, but you won't become weary if you remember that God has called you to rejoice in all things. And to even rejoice in the brokenness, to rejoice in the all things that work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. God is creating a story of rejoicing. He's weaving a tapestry of beauty in the church, even its problems, even its failures and difficulties. And if you've ceased being able to rejoice in the Church, recognize that something has gone wrong, that you've left something really important because you are talking about the bride of Jesus Christ and you might be thinking about her as the old lady but she's not.

It's not the church that's the problem. And then fervent in prayer this is another quality of the apostle Paul's love for the church, 1 Thessalonians 3, 9 and 10, where he speaks of the fervency of his prayers. He says, we rejoice for for our sake before God night and day, praying exceedingly that we may see your face and perfect what is lacking in your faith. This is This is a fervency in prayer. It's a lot easier to complain about a church than it is to pray for a church.

It's a lot easier to have mixed feelings about a church and spend more time meditating on your mixed feelings toward your church than it is to pray for your church and to be fervent in your prayers. And often we default to what's easy rather than what ought to be. There are so many ways that Jesus Christ loves his church. In Hebrews 13, 5 and 6, he loves her by being present with her. He says, I will never leave you or forsake you in John chapter 14 verses 1 through 21 he loves his church by sending her a helper the Holy Spirit another Helper He says I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.

In John chapter 14 verses 1 and 2, he loves his church by comforting his church. He says let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me, in my Father's house or many mansions. Jesus Christ comforts his church. He desires to see comfort in the lives of the people of his church.

The Lord Jesus Christ sent prophets to his church in Jeremiah 29 verse 19 and in 2nd Corinthians 8 verse 9 he became poor to make the church rich. In Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 31 Moses says that God God carried His church like a father carries his son. Isn't that an amazing picture? Here you have a picture of a father carrying his son, and he's carrying him through the wilderness in the midst of the blasts of heat and the deprivations and the troubles and the wars. God is carrying his son in his arms.

In Romans chapter 8 verse 26 he prays for his church. In Jeremiah 31, 3, he draws her with loving kindness. We read in that text, the Lord has appeared of old to me saying yes. I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn you.

You know, he sanctifies the church from her former defilement. He makes her alive together with Him. He nailed her sins on the cross. He holds her together and He nourishes her. He hides her in God.

He came to serve her. He came to fill her with converts. He came to give her life in that more abundantly. He feeds her with living bread. He pours out living water.

He gives her the light of the world. He guides her because he's the way and the truth and the life. He's her Good Shepherd. He's her rock. And he came to gather her as a hen gathers her chicks.

He took her sins upon him. He drank the poison cup of the wrath of God that she deserved to drink with all of its poison And glass and shards that would that would shred her on the inside Jesus Christ drank the poison cup for the church so that she wouldn't bleed and die for her sins But that he would bleed and die for her sins and he died for her while she was ungodly and he made himself her chief cornerstone and he writes her members on the palms of his hands this is Jesus Christ's love for his church he places her members on a throne and let's don't forget this last one. He will destroy anyone who destroys her. In 1 Corinthians 3, 17, we read this. If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him.

For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are." Anybody who tries to put his hand on a single member of the church of Jesus Christ, God will destroy them. Why did he do this? Why did he do all of this? Why did he love her that way? Well, it says right here in verse 26, it says exactly why he did this.

That he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word." And so his love was not theoretical at all. It was applied and he was sanctifying and cleansing her. The church comes to him in rags and he gives her a garment, and new garments and a new name, and clothes her with robes of righteousness and puts a crown on her head. This is what Jesus does for his church. He does this so that he might sanctify and cleanse her.

And what was the objective of all of this? What was he trying to accomplish? Verse 27, that he might present her to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So he desired to make a glorious, pure church. And Here's one thing that I think that all Christians need to recognize.

When you love the church, the church gets more beautiful. When you deprive the church of your love, the church gets uglier because the love that we are given to give to the church is meant to have an effect to sanctify and cleanse her. Like when you go to your church are you thinking that you are actually one of the tools in the hand of the Lord to bring about the sanctification of that church? Or do you just go to hang out and talk about football games? Or are you looking your brothers and sisters in the eye and you're asking how you might be a blessing for their sanctification?

So that rather than instead of just shucking and jiving with your buddies and your girlfriends, you're praying together. You are caring for one another. You are encouraging one another. You are inspiring one another. What do you do when you are with the gathered church?

Well, the objective of Jesus Christ is for a glorious church not having any spot or wrinkle or any such things. Jesus Christ is spending his time working out the spots and the wrinkles in the church, just like a husband is supposed to work out the spots and the wrinkles of his wife. You know, when wives get older, they get more spots and wrinkles, don't they? And, but God has called husbands to pay tender attention to her spots and wrinkles not to despise them not to criticize her for them but to work them out to be there nourishing her, cherishing her, giving her what she needs so that the spots and the wrinkles and the working out of them is palatable. But this is what Jesus wants to do for his church, to deal with the spots and the wrinkles.

Well, there are three things here. Do you see this? Spots, wrinkles, and then he says, and any such thing, like whatever else. Whatever flaw there is in the church, it's for you, it's for you to deal with. And be a blessing to the church in that way.

And of course the Apostle Paul is making an argument for husbands, he says, "'So husbands ought to love their own wives "'as their own bodies, for he who loves his wife loves himself. And that same principle can be applied to you in the church. When you love the church, you're loving yourself. There's a reciprocation that takes place when you love the church of Jesus Christ. It's a blessing to you in the same way that a husband does that.

And so Christ loved the church and He gave Himself for her. And it's a great contradiction to the Christian nomadism that we find today where no church is good enough for people, where the church offends, and then there's a break in the relationship. Or you go to a church and people are cold to you and you say they're not meeting my needs or the preaching doesn't warm your heart and if people offend you you go to another place. The truth is God brings sinners together in the church to help people know how to love more And so when somebody's cold to you or walks by you, have you ever thought that God was trying to teach you how to love more? And He, by His sovereign grace, sent someone to walk right by you and ignore you.

He sent them there and you hated them instead of learning to love more, which was God's design in the beginning. And someone offended you and said something unsavory to you, maybe even wrong, and you stomped off, and you told everybody in the community what a bad church that was, when actually God was desiring to sanctify and cleanse you. And he rose someone up to offend you, to sin against you, to steal from you, to lie to you. And he raised them up for a purpose and you missed it. Does anybody need to go back to their old church and find those people that God sent in His heavenly love and go be back and be reconciled and to repent and say God was trying to teach me and I rebelled.

You know family idolatry is another sin that leads to lack of love for the church. Family idolatry is another sin that can lead to lack of love for the church. This is the sin of permitting our earthly family from keeping us from doing what God has commanded us to do. By putting our families above the word of God, by neglecting the people of God, using our families as an excuse, The Lord Jesus Christ understands this whole matter and He's spoken to it. He says, he who loves his father and mother more than me is not worthy of me.

This is no case for rejecting your family or neglecting your responsibilities to your family, Jesus Christ is not saying that. But he is saying that sin can rise up in a person's heart and they can actually so idolize their family that they have in turn rejected God. A few years ago, I invited a dear friend of mine to come and give a message about family idolatry. His name is Jeff Pollard. And I wanted him to address people who have over exalted their families and undervalued the church.

This was many years ago, and I'm just gonna read you some of the applications that he brought in that message. And he was trying to explain what family idolatry really looks like in real life. And he says, and I'm quoting him now, number one, family idolatry looks like this. Family members come for a visit. It is on the Lord's day.

We have not seen them for a while, so instead of worshipping God, which He has commanded us to do, we stay home with our family, which He has not commanded us to do. This is family idolatry. Number two. You know that the Lord has put your finger on something in your life that is contrary to scripture and needs to change. And because of your affection for father, mother, husband, wife, son, or daughter, or any other family member, you do not forsake it.

This is family idolatry. Number three, our children have a gift for music, sports, academic pursuit. An event or a conference associated with that gift comes up. We come back so late from the event which God has not commanded us to do that we are tired and do not come to the worship of God on the Sabbath which God has commanded us to do. This is family idolatry.

Number four. We are so concerned that our children get the best education, have great experiences, play sports, see great sights, attend great events, which God has not commanded us to do, that we do not have family worship, or we rarely have family worship, which God has commanded us to do. This is family idolatry. Number five, the Lord's day arrives. It's a day in which God's family will take the Lord's Supper, which God has commanded us to do.

An opportunity to visit with a family or go on a picnic or a family outing arises. We put aside the Lord's Supper, which God has commanded for us, for a family event, which God has not commanded us. This is family idolatry. Number six. A new family is visiting the church.

We've not spoken to them much or maybe not at all. Your view is my spouse, my children are not very outgoing. We just like to stay to ourselves. So we don't open our home for hospitality, which God has commanded us to do in order to keep our family's comfort zone, which God has not commanded us to do. Number seven, you have a busy week ahead and you feel the need to rest.

You say, we need to get our sleep Instead of gathering with the saints for fellowship and instruction and prayer as God has commanded, we get to bed early and rest, which God has not commanded. This is family idolatry. There are so many different ways. Here's one last one. You love your games so much, your sports so much, your talents so much, your wife so much, you love your husband so much, or you love your children so much that you do not do the things that you know God has taught you to do.

There's so many ways that love for the church can die. But we have though, we have the Lord Jesus Christ to teach us what love for the church looks like. And it is so full of affection. It's full of zeal. It's full of passion.

It's full of labor. It's full of mercy and kindness and affection. It sees the church like a bride, not like an old hag. And we've gone through one element of another, of Jesus Christ's love for the church, and the love of just one fleshly man, the Apostle Paul, and his love for the church. And I think we've seen that Jesus Christ desires his church to be loved by her people and my prayer as a result of this this engagement in Ephesians chapter 5 and all these other passages of scripture is this that you would put that thermometer in your mouth and you would take an accurate reading and you would ask yourself the question of your love for the church of Jesus Christ.

That you would pray to God that He would help you to love her more, to love her ordinances, to love her gatherings, to cherish her saints, to be a part of encouraging the broken hearted, building up the weak, helping the wayward to find the way back, perhaps even chastising, but giving your life for the church. The Lord Jesus Christ gave himself up for his church and so should you. Let's pray. Lord, Lord you have in this beautiful passage shown us of your love. Oh I thank you for your love and your devotion to your church.

How wonderful are your thoughts toward your church and I pray, oh Lord, that you would raise up a mighty army of people who would love your church. I pray that if there are any who have been sinning against the church, they would stop and repent and they would be restored to their church. I pray that people would fly back to churches that they've left if they need to. That you would give them such devotion, such love, such affection, such labor for the church. Lord, in this very room now, oh God, I pray that you would convict anyone who has hated your church and turned them and that you would give them in the next decades of their life a beautiful experience in your church, loving her, nourishing her, cherishing her, washing her with the water of the Word.

Oh Lord, for a glorious church and for your people regarding everything in their lives to promote the beauty of such a bride. Amen.