In 'Harmony for His Glory,' Douglas Campbell discusses Romans 15, emphasizing the obligation of those who are strong in faith to bear with the weaknesses of others without condoning sinful behavior. The sermon highlights the need for selflessness, as demonstrated by Christ, who always sought to do the will of the Father rather than please himself. True unity and harmony in the church are achieved through adherence to scripture, not by compromising the truth for the sake of getting along. Campbell urges believers to handle offenses within the church through biblical confrontation and reconciliation, ensuring that love and acceptance extend beyond mere affinity. Emphasizing that believers are called to glorify God in all aspects of life, the sermon concludes with a call to genuinely love and prefer one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, reflecting the profound love God has for each individual.

Good morning. You will turn with me to Romans chapter 15. You'll notice in the bulletin, not what the bulletin says, My plan was to get back onto Romans this week and I was confused as to where we were and I thought I knew who we were and it didn't seem right but I just thought it was and even Barbie said I think we've already done this I know I don't think so and finally Last night I discovered, we've already done this. Roman 15, one through seven. It says, We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproach you settle on me. For whatever was written in former days, it was written for our instruction that through evidence and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may be one voice, with one voice glorified as God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning with deep gratitude. Father, in gratitude for those who know you. Father, each of us in our way are weak. We are weak without you, Father.

We are weak in our sanctification and growing closer to you. And yet Father, through your design, through your perfect design, You've designed it that each of us would continue to grow closer to our in Christ. That each of us would be at different spots or places and I'll walk with you. Father, through that, that we might bear with one another as Christ has bared with us. Father, I would ask this morning that you would give us understanding of your Word.

Other than we might not just hear your words but father rightly apply them rightly to be more like you Father, let it be true of us that we would glorify your name father. Yes, this is my name Jesus name. Amen. Amen. This morning we come to Romans chapter 15 and what a blessing it is, even though it's been some time ago that we were going through the text just before this, because that text gives us understanding for this text we find ourselves in today.

That Romans 15 is building upon this idea of bearing with one another or this idea of inside of the church there will be those who are strong and those who are weak. In Romans 15.1 it says we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. So to understand verse one, We have to understand what is it that makes one strong and what is it that makes one weak? Is this, what is this talking about? Is this talking about sinful behavior?

As we went through the chapter just before, we understand that this isn't in relation to sinful behavior. It's not in relation to those things of which we should not be a part. This isn't telling us that we are to bear with our neighbor who goes to Walmart every day and shoplifts and and comes to church and has a little Sand in the corner selling his goods that he scored that week and then shoplifting endeavor It's not saying to bear with that person. It's not saying to just just grin and bear. We don't like what he's doing but you know we just want to get along.

And yet that's the position that so many American churches have taken, that we must do whatever it takes to just get along. We must do whatever it takes to just bear with one another. This morning, if you've been here and heard us preach through the previous chapters of Romans you're a benefit or you're at an advantage or if you just read your Bible you're at an advantage that others seem to not have when they come to this text. And so if we think back, what is it about those who are strong and what is it about those who are weak? If you remember just before, we came through and looked at the understanding of what this means.

It was essentially this, if you remember, that there became controversy within this church or disagreement within the church as to what we should eat and what we should not eat. The question of those ceremonial things that were the ceremonial laws that were laid out into the Old Testament, those things of which Christ fulfilled came into question. And those in simple terms, it was this, is it wrong to eat ham at my neighbor's house? Is it wrong for my Christian brother who has avoided eating ham, avoided eating pork his entire life because the Old Testament tells us not to eat that and he has done he's obeyed this law up until the point of Christ for his whole life, this was normal to him. In fact, to those Jewish people, and we talked about this a little bit before, to those Jewish people who now Christ has came, Christ has fulfilled the law, he has fulfilled the ceremonial law, we no longer need to sacrifice animals we no longer need to do those things of which cover our sin those things those people have done this their entire life in fact many of which would think of if they were to eat a pig, it would probably be the equivalent to you and I saying, hey, it's okay to eat dogs.

Right? That gives us a weird reaction, right? Because culturally, we don't eat dogs. When I was in France, a restaurant served horse. And I tried to eat it, and I started to get the gag reflex by the end of it.

I don't think it tastes much different than any other meat, but it's that cultural mindset that I have. You don't eat horses, right? We have horses to ride and to take all of our money to feed them. Right? That's what horses are for.

But these same people are now learning that Jesus Christ, in Acts chapter 10, declared all foods are good. Foods are now okay. There's no longer this ceremonial law. And we could go deep into that and that's not what we want to do this morning. But there's a change in their life.

And so now we have, there's this major change within the gathering of believers. And on this side of the room they say, hey, we can eat dogs now. We've got sweet baby rays, they're tasty. Let's eat them up. And the people on this side are gagging.

They're like, what is wrong with you? We don't eat dogs. Obviously they're talking about pigs. We don't do that. And this caused great controversy.

It caused those people who have lived their lives not doing this, it caused strife within them. It was essentially what Sherpa says, it was hurting their conscience. And essentially this is what the position is. As long as you don't think you're earning God's favor by avoiding pork, don't eat pork, right? As long as you don't think by this work you're earning God's favor, do as you wish.

But to those strong who understand rightly what Christ has done don't destroy your brother because you know maybe Jake has Jake and his family have Marilyn over for breakfast and they know she doesn't eat pork and they say you know what we're gonna eat a lot of pork this morning we're gonna have rub in her face she's gonna have to sit there and eat oatmeal without any sugar and we're gonna sit here and eat bacon and stare at it. That's what the scripture is saying. Don't destroy your brother over things that don't matter. If you want to eat pork, go ahead. But don't destroy your brother over it.

It's secondary things. Don't destroy your brother over things that aren't important. This in no way is saying don't confront sin. This is in no way saying we should overlook each other's sin or differences or maybe the church down the road they come to embrace abortion as being okay. Just overlook that just so the world sees that you get along.

That's not what the scripture says. There is no unity. There is no harmony in the truth or in the church outside of God's truth. If We place ourselves outside of God's truth to achieve harmony. We are not achieving harmony.

We're achieving falsity. We're reaching out to the world with lies. Continuing on, Romans 15, 2-3. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up, for Christ would not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me." See what it boils down to is God calls us to love our brother. He calls us to love each other.

The drawn card of the church or the drawn card that we have as a church to the world isn't our great entertainment and our sound and our stages and smoke machines and these things It's the love that occurs inside of this building between genuine believers Now that love is only accomplished if we battle our flesh. We talked about this in Sunday school this morning a little bit. The problem that you and I have is that the core of all of us, born again or not born again, our flesh always tells us you are number one I am number one in this room and everybody would look at your pastor you would say well my pastor doesn't think that Wait till my kids don't have eggs cleaned and ready for me for breakfast. All of a sudden, why can't, why can't, no one can go out and collect eggs and wash them. All of a sudden I started becoming angry.

Why? Because my flesh has reminded me once again, you are number one. Don't worry about what they've done that day. Don't worry that they've not been here or whatever it is. But you and I are exactly the same.

We have the same flesh. As believers, God has given us a new heart that desires to put this flesh into subjection to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And yet, it's still here. It's still a process. It's still a working group.

But until we can begin to address the pride within us, until we can begin to say that I'm not one to one, It becomes very difficult, if not impossible, to love our neighbor as we're called to. To love our fellow believer as we should. Why? Because for all of us at our flesh level, there is this deep desire whom we grew up with before God told us Himself. We were at one with our flesh.

We, just like the Jewish people, we grew up with the flesh. I wasn't able to transport into anybody else's flesh. I've been stuck with me for my entire life. I know me very well. And at the core of my flesh is always the desire to please me and if you were honest your flesh will do the same thing.

Thank God that He gives us new hearts that battle the sin. Amen? But look at the example that scripture gives us. It says, for Christ did not please himself, but as it's written, reproacheth those who reproach you, fell on me. Christ chose to not please himself.

Look at John 4.34. Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Will this Jesus's desire? It is to please the Father. Amen.

John 530, Jesus says, I can do nothing on my own, as I hear I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me. John 638, for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. John 8.27-29 they did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father so Jesus said to them when you have lifted up the Son of man then you will know that I am he and I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me, and he has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him. Philippians 2, 6 through 8, who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Luke 22, 42 through 44 says, say father if you are willing remove this cup from me. If you remember, this is just before Jesus is going to be crucified. He says, Father, if you're willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not in my will, but in yours be done. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening him.

And look at this next verse, and being in agony he prayed more earnestly, and Sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground. Christ not only desired to please the Father, but his desire to please the Father was so strong that even in his agony, such deep agony that the medical field even says that this is possible. If you're in extreme agony, that blood, capillary can bust and mix with your blood and you can sweat blood from deep, deep agony. I have a problem loving my neighbor if I have the agony of washing a couple of eggs. How about you?

Do you love your neighbor as Christ has loved you? In Matthew 5, 46 through 47, it says, for if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same.

In a in a tabletop article from July 2016, Nate Batzik wrote, we convince ourselves that We only have to accept those with similar values of perceived values. We convince ourselves that we only have to do that. To accept those with similar values of perceived values. This however is not acceptance, it's affinity. Amen?

Christ accepted you when you had nothing to offer. You were totally different from Him. You are complete opposites. Christ is perfection. He is completely good.

And yet we, as we look in scripture and we do just a short survey of what's inside of us, we find that we are completely bad. We completely miss the mark. We completely fail. We completely center our affections upon ourselves. And if we happen, if to some extent, we will place some affections on those who are like us.

Maybe those who are in our family or those who share a similar hobby or those who have a similar personality We can we can muster up an ability to like those people, but we but when we look at someone who is different from us, maybe it's the guy next door who's listening to music late at night or maybe it's just the person sitting beside you this morning in the pew who has a different personality. We don't love them as Christ loved us. We tend to shun them off. We tend to not talk to them. We tend to keep our distance.

We tend to not invite them over. And yet this morning if Christ has chosen you, if you have nothing to offer and yet Christ chose to save you, chose to put His affection upon you, chose to not do His will, but to do the will of the Father of which chose to save you. When you had nothing to offer, how the more sinful for us to not love our brother, to not love those who sit next to us. And James 2, 8-13, it says, If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. But if you show partiality, You are committing sin and are convicted by the laws as transgressors.

For whoever keeps the whole law that fails in one point has become guilty of it all. For he who said, do not commit adultery, also said, do not murder. If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy.

Mercy triumphs over judgment. Jesus Christ is completely unlike us. He loves those who cannot offer anything. He loves those who cannot please him in any way he still calls us continue on Romans 5 6 through 11 for while we were still weak I'm sorry it's not anyone Romans 5 6 or 11 for while we are still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die.

But God shows his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For while we were enemies, or while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of the Son, much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life. More than that we also rejoice in God that our Lord Jesus Christ for whom we have we have now received reconciliation. The Bible says while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

And I would ask you this morning, was your brother or sinner this morning maybe sitting in this room while they are sitting against you? Will you love them enough to bear with them? Will you love them enough to bear with them? Will you love them enough to still call them friends? Will you love them enough to go to them?

Oftentimes, what happens in churches, and one thing that we have to, we rightly this morning have to understand, and if you are thinking about something else, I would ask that you think very closely on this. God has not called the church to be another VFW. Hasn't called the church to be a country club. Haven't called the church to be the Eagles club. Because I've been involved in clubs.

I've been involved in good things. I've been a member of the Hamilton Emergency Ambulance Service where we strive to help people who were in an emergency. And you know what went on within that club that I found very quickly? That there was always people fighting. There's always people fighting with each other.

There's always people trying to get so and so in trouble. And they don't want to be going around with this person or that person. And you go to the country club and it's the same thing. And you go to the Eagle Club And it's the same thing. There's always people fighting.

The church is not a country club. Hear me this morning. The church is not a club. It's not okay for us to have factions. It's not okay for us to have factions.

It's not okay for us to fight with each other. Now, there will be times when we sin against each other, and often times I give people this advice. If someone does something against you that you can just shake off and say it's no big deal and still love them and still move on and still be great friends with them, then shake it off. Don't worry about it. But if it's something that you can't live with, if it's something that's going to keep you up at night or If it's something that's going to keep you up at night, or if it's something that's going to cause you to always sit on the other side of the church from that person, if you love them, you will go to them and you will share what they've done.

And you will give them opportunity to repent. You'll give them opportunity to make things right and if that doesn't work you'll you'll go to a friend a friend believer and you'll explain to them and you'll go to them and perhaps you find out that you were wrong all along And if that doesn't work as Christ has told us, if they are in outright sin, then you are commanded to take it to the church. Not because you hate that person, not because you want to see them put out of the church or anything like that, but because you love them so much you want them to be reconciled to you and reconciled to Christ. You don't want them to live in this world where they think everything is okay until they keep their last breath and they awake and out. That is the most hateful thing you can do to a person.

Is to convince them that everything is okay. Never be willing to confront them. Never be willing to say, hey brother, you can't do this. This is what scripture says about the thing you're doing. You can't continue on this.

This is what Christ told us this morning at Sunday school. We talked for just a bit. Christ cannot be your savior or Christ cannot be your savior or I'm sorry if Christ is your savior He is also your Lord. It can't be absent. You can't have Him as a Savior and not have Him as a Lord.

You can't go to Scripture and say, this is what Scripture says, but I don't like it. I'm going to live how I want and still say christ is your savior because the bible says he is your lord and savior he is your commander and savior when he changes your heart it's not it's not even that you obey him that gives you salvation. It's the fact that you're saved that you want to obey him. You desire to please him. You begin to desire to be as he is to the Father.

My desire above all is to please the Savior. This morning if you have something in your heart against your brother, if he has done something to you and this morning you avoid him or you feel differently towards him and you can't let it go because it's not important now if it's not important I would be happy to forgive him Christ forgave you way more. Somebody could break into my parents' house today and beat them to death. And it will not even come close to the essence that I've committed against Christ with my life. If I can't forgive somebody, it's because I don't understand what I've been forgiven of.

So this morning, forgive your brother. Don't just say, oh, I forgive them, I'm not gonna hold on to it but not love them, not not not want to spend time with them, not want you to know them, but really forget. Really put it behind you and if you can't go to him and say hey do what Richard has told you to do. It's okay. Our American culture, we became so ingrained with not offending anybody that somebody could be stopping in my cookie jar every day and not know it and I wouldn't say anything.

But when I saw maybe Marilyn walked with my, well you can't come up with a bizarre story, I put my cookies and bags on my sidewalk and Marilyn's maybe working on the leaves or planting flowers and every day she steps on my cookies. But instead of saying anything to her, I just be quiet. I don't want to offend Marilyn. But after weeks of this, I avoid Marilyn. Don't want to see her, she's stuck on my cookies.

Before long, it grows. I don't like her. I don't want to be around her. Before long, Marilyn, you know, we kind of need this church for you to open up here. Could you move to the back?

All right, this is all extreme, but this is what goes on in our hearts. It's the same with me being number one in the flesh saying that. It's the same thing that goes on in your hearts. What if I overcame the American culture and I said, hey, Marilyn, can I talk with you a minute? I've got my cookies here and you keep stepping on them and I'm really, I don't, I feel like you're being very disrespectful.

Was there a reason for that? And Marilyn says, oh, those are cookies? I thought that was dirt you had here. I didn't realize they were peanut butter cookies. I thought it was some fertilizer or something.

I thought I was mixing it up for you. And then she comes over with a great big batch of monster cookies. And I was loving my sister. We're reconciled. Amen.

Let's not do this within the church. We take small offenses and we build them up. We build walls and we don't love each other. And we come together and we do our duty, and we hurry up and get out of here to go to people that we really love. These are the people you really love.

These are the people that you're called to live in harmony with. Continuing on, Romans 15-4. For whatever was written in the former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might find hope. This harmony, we're reminded here in Romans 16, four, this harmony can only be achieved in truth. It can only be achieved in scripture.

There can be no true unity apart from the Word of God. That is why the American culture of not offending anybody doesn't work. It's not rooted in the Word of God. This is why for many years we have, for many decades, we have been influenced by, oddly enough, it's called Campbellism. There's a mainstream Christian denomination that its roots are in Campbellism.

It's not nothing to do with me. I don't believe it. The Campbellism is this. It says we must get along at all costs. Doesn't matter what the other churches in the town believe, we must get along.

We must gather, We must do things where we all gather together and we hold hands and we sing songs together because that's what's going to win the world. But in reality, Jesus Christ is who wins the world and He is the Word of God. He is truth. We cannot be unified apart from truth. Romans 15 more reminds us, this is talking about the Old Testament, so for whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that's that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

Our hope is founded in the scriptures. It's not founded in cast everything off that makes us different and just get along. So this morning if you take it to heart, if your brother does have something against you and you decide to go to him, be sure that you have searched the scriptures be sure that you're coming to him with scripture not just I don't like what you said not just for instance maybe maybe maybe somebody confronts me and says, you know, you're me number one is really starting to show a little bit in these areas, and then I decide that I don't like them after that. Maybe somebody biblically comes to me, or maybe they just, they think this is what Scripture says and they're trying to help me see it. But maybe I don't like it and after that, I just decide that I'm gonna stay away from that person.

We can't come to somebody and say, I didn't like that you pointed something out in Scripture that I shouldn't be. Maybe it's that someone is living with their boyfriend. And one of the older ladies in this church goes to this young lady and says hey I want you to see in scripture what this says about what you're doing and then from then on out there's a chip and they Stay away from you and I'm not saying this morning that that's you but they were right If the scripture says that you shouldn't do that you should love that person more than anybody else in the church Because they were the one willing to tell you truth Amen, You can't go to them and say, well, I didn't appreciate you pointing the scripture out to me. You're not going to find support for that in the scripture. You're going to find support for you should love them.

Look what Jesus said. To think of the idea that we should just forget about doctrine and just get along. Look what Jesus says in Matthew 10, 24-36. He says, Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace with a sword, for I have come to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a person's enemies will be those in his own household.

Why? The unsaved person hates the truth. If God miraculously saves someone from a household where everybody else is not saved and they begin to stand up for the word of God, it brings a sword. There's going to be much hard times in that household. Amen?

And for you, the sworn Christians, If you stand for the word of God, it's going to be more and more evident that you've earned a sword in this world. They are more and more not tolerating it. It's going to continue to get worse and worse. Today it might be a good thing for you to decide who will I stand for? Will I stand for the truth?

Will I be obedient as Christ? Will I stand for the truth unto death? Because I don't think anybody in here is too old to not potentially be subjected to it. It could be very soon approaching that America could experience real persecution. Will you be obedient to death?

If you say yes this morning, Then why won't you be obedient to love your brother? Because that's easy. Amen? Romans 5, 5-6 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accordance with Christ Jesus, that together we may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This morning, harmony isn't even about us being alone.

It's not even about saving problems from the church. Your pastor loses way less hair when people get along. Guarantee it. But it's not even about that. It's about glorifying our God.

Glorifying Christ. Glorifying our Father. It's the very thing that God saved you for. The other problem with American culture is this. We think that God saved us because He did it for us.

He did do it for us, but not primarily. If you are saved this morning, God saved you for Him. He saved you that He would be glorified. He did it for you as a side effect. You get that?

Because this is hard for an American to understand. God didn't save you. To get to salvation, what are you doing with it? Are you taking advantage of the blessings that he has given you so that you might build up more entertainment? I would say even things that are great to take advantage of.

I love that my family and my kids get along. Now they're not perfect kids, don't get me wrong. But one only has to spend a few minutes on social media and see a lot of people hate their kids. I've shed little tears in the last month thanking that one day my kids are going to move away. You Look at the world and they can't wait for Christmas vacation to get home unless they can get their kids out of their hair.

This isn't a life of a believer. Within our family we're to glorify God. Within our work we're to glorify God. Within our relationships at home we're to glorify God. When we come together on Sunday morning with our relationship with our brothers and sisters, we're to glorify God It is the chief end.

We are to know God and make him known. It is our priority one as a believer. Is that our priority? And finally I'll leave you with the command in Romans 15 7. It says, Therefore welcome one another, as Christ had welcomed you, For the glory of God.

Now this, we don't have a lot of potty in common. Because Maddie can stitch everything I've got. I love Maddie. The world I love Maddie. The world claims to those who are like them.

The world claims to those who to think of my hobbies and the things I like and I don't like. I'll be completely honest with you and after this message you still have to love me. If you put basketball on your TV and force me to watch it, it would be a heavy burden. I would be smiling and I would love me with my brother or sister. I would be bored to tears.

No interest in basketball. To the same. Caleb loves basketball. I love Caleb. I want to hang out with Caleb.

But at the end of it, I promise I'm concluded, no matter how different Caleb and I are, we have something greater in common. We're adopted children of the King. I might not be able to talk to him about basketball, but I might be able to say, Caleb, I was reading the Word of God this weekend. This just stood out to me. Isn't this amazing?

I was taking a, going through a course entitled the reformed pastor and the thing that this weekend one of the message I am Hamilton shared he said the fuel for the reformed pastor is the understanding that God loves him to hear me That's something I have to share with people. I said, do you know that God just doesn't love you? If you are born again, if you are a new creation, if you are an adopted child of God, He doesn't just love you, He loves you dearly. You are precious to him. You are redeemed.

Even the angels marvel over you at the love God has for you. That's the fuel. That's why I can love you even if you like that weird swore-fuck basketball. I mean come on Caleb, the guys can touch the minutes. If God loves you dearly and you have nothing to offer him, can we not love our brothers and our sisters dearly?

Look around the room. I tell my kids, I tell young people all the time you can have friends in the world but they're really just acquaintances in this room should be your best friends because you're gonna if they're born again you're gonna be with them for eternity if I if I go camping with my brother Rick for two weeks. I can't go, there's people, I was a kid, but I can't go camping with my family for two weeks. One of the, yesterday I was sharing with one of the guys, he was talking about a brother in Maradotia. And I said, oh yeah, I love this guy.

He's a brother. He's like, oh, he's your brother? Well, not biologically, but yeah, he's my brother. The relationship inside the church is different. Sure, we have our flaws.

I have annoying things. My wife puts up with more than you could ever imagine. I love her. I love Rick. And I'll hang out with you for weeks.

And we're not fighting. We're getting along. I don't know that I've ever watched NASCAR. I'm not gonna, if I did say something bad about it, you can't dislike me. But I love people who watch NASCAR.

Jake, I'll give you one last illustration. Jake can tell me all kinds of things and Rick does too. Tells me all kinds of things about cars. Public Kennedy would too. And I smile and say, oh yeah, that's nice.

No idea what you're talking about but good luck with that. What a blessing to have brothers that do understand. Brothers that I love and who love me and who will show up with oil in their hand and they'll say, if you're not gonna change your car to spoil, I'm gonna do it for you because I can't watch this. I'm joking around now, but we're different. We're different people.

But Christ bore with us. And we have nothing to offer. Let us glorify God by loving our brother and sister. Not just saying it, not just being nice to each other once a week, but really loving them. Preferring them.

I love my parents. I prefer to go on vacation with many of you. Why? We have something to talk about. There's something that we're all interested in as born again believers.

That's way more important to me to talk about than even politics. I can get wound up in entertainment politics, but you know what? It's a hell of a being compared to Christ. Amen? Amen.

Amen. Let's write. And my father, we come to you this morning with the command to love each other, but even more than the command to love our neighbor, but to live in harmony with one another as believers. And Father, so many times, I have failed. So many times Father, we have failed.

Father, if there are those or anyone in this room who they feel like their sin is more than you could ever put up with. They feel their past the point of ever being redeemed, ever being saved. Father, I pray that you would reassure them that they don't know me. And that God, there's not one end here who ever came to you, whom you saved, who ever had anything to offer, but the sin that made salvation necessary. Father this morning, I pray that they would turn to you.

Your word says, your truth says, that if any man would come to you, you would in no way cast him out. You command no matter where we're at in life, no matter how bad we are or think we are, you're commanded to repent, to turn, to trust in the work of Jesus Christ. The seek you until you give us a new heart. And Father, I pray that not another day we go forward until they sought you with everything that they had. Sought you until they found you.

Sought you until you changed their hearts. Father, for those who know you, For those whose heart keeps changed, for those whom are agonized by this flesh that continues to drag us down, continues to think that we're number one, continues to well up our pride that we wouldn't love the neighbors sitting next to us as we should. Father, help us, we come. Father, I pray that this church in Elveston, that God above all, we would glorify your name. That we would be known for people who love God who love each other How do we need you?

How do we need you? To draw us. We need you to Help us to separate truth from untruth. Help us to overcome things that we hold on to. Help us father this line, truly love you deeply, truly love each other deeply as you love us.

I pray that this leads you to the same. Amen.