In this sermon, Scott Brown explores the topic of love in the church, specifically focusing on the expressions of Christ's love through lowliness, gentleness, longsuffering, bearing with one another, and preserving the unity of the Spirit. He emphasizes the importance of putting on the mind of Christ and viewing the church as God's precious inheritance. Brown urges believers to prioritize the local church in their lives and to walk in love and unity as Christ did. He provides practical guidance on how to deal with offenses, reconcile relationships, and pursue peace. The sermon highlights the significance of exhibiting Christ's love in all areas of life and the importance of preserving the bond of peace within the church.

Please open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter four. This is the inerrant, all sufficient, holy word of God. Verse one in Ephesians four. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called with all lowliness and gentleness with long suffering bearing with one another in love endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Let's pray.

Oh Lord, we thank you for teaching us how to walk like our Lord Jesus Christ. Such a perfect, such a beautiful representation of holiness, so helpful to us, I pray, oh Lord, that you would see in us the life of Jesus to walk worthy of our calling in him, that you would make us like him in the presence of one another, that we would have all these things that our Lord Jesus possesses in such beauty, amen. Please be seated. So as we are continuing our study in the doctrine and the practice of the church, particularly the local church, we're turning now to our relationships in the church. And we find in this passage an explanation of various ways that love looks like.

And of course we know that the greatest is love. We know that without love, we are nothing. I'm reminded many years ago, Francis Schaeffer wrote a book called The Mark of a Christian, and I pulled it out of my library. I bought this book probably in the late 70s. And he ends the book with what he calls the final apologetic.

And he says the final apologetic, the final proof of the Lord Jesus Christ is the love that exists in his people. And so here in Ephesians four, there are five things that show the love of Jesus Christ as it's expressed in his people. And this is really our call to preserve the unity of the Spirit that God has already established in our hearts. And there are ways, and there are five ways that are listed here in these verses. First, lowliness, second, gentleness, third, longsuffering, fourth, bearing with one another in love, and then finally, fifth, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit.

So the apostle is instructing a local church, the Church of Ephesus. He wrote a letter after he'd spent two years in this city. He knew them. It's interesting, he wrote Colossians and Ephesians probably at the same time, probably delivered it by the same messenger. That's why when you read Colossians and Ephesians, there are so many common threads and so many words that are common to the two letters.

But he's talking about expressions of the love of Jesus Christ in the church. And through our lives, the life of Jesus Christ is seen. We are walking in a manner worthy of the Lord. It's the Lord, it's the way that he walked. That's the way we walk, and that's what Christianity is all about.

Now, You'll recall, I started this study on the church with Philippians 2, five through seven, and the phrase, put on the mind of Christ. Put on the mind of Christ. And the whole proposition that I've been making over the weeks is that that's what we should do. We should put on the mind of Jesus Christ for the church and to see Christ's great love for the church. And to actually to help us as a local church to love the people in this local church the way that Christ loves the church, to put on the mind of Christ.

There's no institution that's more important than the Church of Jesus Christ. And I have wanted us to see his love for the church in many different ways. I have great concern, particularly for evangelicals, the way that they treat local churches, the way they treat the Church of Jesus Christ. They treat it very offhand. They do it as convenience.

It's not the center of their lives. And as you know, as you've been here, and as you've been here for many years, you've heard the same thing. Make the local church the center of your life. Arrange your whole schedule in your life around the worship of God, and the discipleship of the saints, and the fellowship, and all the ordinances that God has given. And so this is all part of really urging all of us to make the church a central matter in our lives, to think the way that Christ thinks about the church, to love the church the way that Christ loves the church.

You know, I've been very struck over the last few months, just in my normal reading in the Bible, bumping into the way that the Lord looks at his church. And like for example, I'm struck by how possessive God is toward his church, and he gives us an illustration of his possessiveness of his church in Malachi 3, verse 17. He says, they shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts. On that day that I make them my jewels And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. He's possessive of wealth that is the church.

He calls them his jewels. I don't know if you think of yourself that way, gathered together today, I hope you do. The Lord does, he's gathered his jewels together. Take a look around, there are the jewels in God's eyes. Paul prays that the people in Ephesus in that local church would see the personal value the church is to God himself.

The church is God's inheritance. And so he prays in Ephesians one verse 17, he prays that the father of glory may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, why? That you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. And it's not that he is our inheritance, he is. But he's saying here that we are his inheritance.

That's how important the church is to Jesus Christ. You not only ought we see ourselves as his jewels, but also as his inheritance. He inherits us. And he likes it, that's the most amazing thing. And he makes it very clear that the church is a special people, that's the language of the Bible.

Because of the importance of their calling, that's why in 1 Peter 2, nine, we read this, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. And this isn't just in the New Testament. The Old Testament church was beloved of God. In Deuteronomy 7, six, God tells his people that they're treasured above all the people in the world. The church is favored above all the other people in the world.

God doesn't love all the people in the world like he loves his church. I know that might sound shocking, but there's much in the Bible that makes that very, very clear. In Deuteronomy 7, 6, he says, for you are a holy people to the Lord your God. In other words, you're a people set apart, you're different, there's a line of demarcation, you're different. The Lord has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.

The Lord did not set his love on you or choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you are the least of the people. And then he tells them why. He says, but I chose you. Says, but because the Lord loves you, the Lord loves his church. So you find this language of the treasure of the church in the Bible.

And I want us to put on the mind of Christ. And we're here in this letter to this local church, the church in Ephesus. But even in Ephesians, The apostle makes it so clear that God views his church as a beautiful bride. It's really the quintessential metaphor of the church, the bride. We've walked through various metaphors of what the church is, a vine, a body, a holy nation, all these kinds of things, but it's remarkable that he would use the metaphor of a bride for the church.

It's beautiful, dressed, so marvelously appointed with robes of righteousness. So She's that beautiful. You know, I saw a sense of the preciousness of the church. In your elders and in your deacons, over the weekend we had a retreat. And we prayed through all the names in our church directory, people who go here and the members as well.

We just went one name after another. And the way we did it was I had the directory in front of me and we were just going around the room and I would call out a name and then they would be prayed for and then I'd call out another name and another name like that, just going around the room for hours praying for this congregation. And after a while, there was something going on. It just, it really, it really struck me. Whenever I would call out a name, the person who was going to pray, this smile came over their face.

Almost like it was a smile of, oh, that's my favorite. That's my favorite person. And then we go to the next person, and the same thing would happen. And it happened over and over and over again. And it was like every person was their favorite.

And there was such a tender-hearted compassion, love, appreciation. These are my favorite. I thought, it was like God, these are my jewels. This is my inheritance. That's what it felt like to me.

It's very beautiful. It's so important that we preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace through these things. You know, these five manifestations of Christ's love. You know, a friend of mine preached a sermon on this text a while back, and he titled his sermon How to Keep the Church from Splitting. Perhaps the Lord could use these verses to prepare us to avoid the kinds of things that would damage this church.

And you know, there's really, there's no time to prepare when the trial comes. There's, you must be prepared. It's too late to prepare when the baby dies. It's too late to prepare when you lose all your money. It's too late to prepare when the baby dies.

It's too late to prepare when you lose all your money. It's too late to prepare when a disturbance hits the church. It's too late. The church has to be prepared. And perhaps a passage like this could help prepare us all.

Because when it happens, it's too late to prepare because offenses have grown too long. They haven't cut off the offenses. They've let the offenses grow, they've let them fester. We'll use the language of cancer. The cells have metastasized, in other words, they're spreading and they're infecting, they're establishing other tumors all over the body, they're spreading and affecting and infecting the other cells.

And two, to protect the church from the metastasization of disunity. This passage is so good for that. So you have these five ways that Christ's love is seen in the church through his people. Now I'm assuming that at some point there'll be Difficulties, it's been a long time since we've had difficulties in this church. But I'm assuming they're gonna happen sometime, but be ready, go back to this passage of scripture.

You're being prepared by God, by Almighty God through these words. Well also too, I think it's clear in these five things. There's something here for everyone. If you're a child and you have a brother or a sister, there's something here for you. If you're a husband or a wife, If you're a father or a mother, there's something here.

Are you a worker? You work for somebody? There's something here for you. Because these things really are designed to be expressions of the love of Jesus Christ in all the different areas of our lives. But This particularly is focused on a local church.

Now, I wanna remind us of the structure of and the logic of Ephesians. It's really, it's arranged like many of the New Testament letters. The first three chapters focus on what God has done, the beauty and the power of the gospel, and then chapters four through six speak of how to walk because of what God has done, because of the power of the gospel. How do you live it out? And some have arranged Ephesians like the first three chapters as wealth in Christ.

The next three chapters is the walk in Christ. And then chapter six, the warfare under the power of Christ. But the doctrine comes first. The power of the gospel comes first. And so, you know, faith comes by hearing.

It's very interesting, you know, the second half, chapters four through six, are called the practical section. That's why there are 41 commands in Ephesians, 41 imperatives, 40 of them are in chapters four through six. Because it's a chapter about how to walk. The creed is followed by conduct. The doctrine is followed by duty.

And so these are the duties of a local church for how we ought to walk. And notice it's an urgent call. I beseech you, I beseech you, I urge you. This is an urgent thing. Hey, this is an urgent thing for every church.

The problems that the apostle was addressing in the Ephesian church are latent in every church. And so he says, I urge you. In chapter 12, in Romans, he says, he uses very similar language to the Roman church, he says, I beseech you by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice. I beseech you. And then he used this word walk.

This is, the word walk, it's one of Paul's favorite metaphors for the Christian life. Because it's about shoe leather, it's about what you do, where you go, and how you walk. You know, everybody has a certain gate in their walk. This is the gate of the Christian, the walk of the Christian. And if you go to the next chapter, you get the same word where he says, and walk in love, just as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma.

The walk in the church is a walk in love. In Galatians 5, 16, Paul tells the Galatian church, he says walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. You walk in love, you walk in the spirit. You know John, in 1 John, in 3 John 4, he says, I have no greater joy than to see my children walking in the truth. So the Christian life is a walk.

It's not just an intellectual exercise. It's not just the embracing of doctrine. It is the embracing of doctrine, but the doctrine has to put your feet to motion. And that's what he's explaining here. And he's explaining how you preserve the unity of the Spirit because the unity of the Spirit has already been established.

We have been made one with Jesus Christ. We are partakers of his nature, and we become one with him. And that's something that's done, nothing can break up the unity that you have with Jesus Christ. But what the apostle's saying is, you know that kind of unity that you have with Christ. Now walk it out with your brother.

Preserve the unity of the Spirit. You don't create the unity of the Spirit. You just preserve what's already been implanted in your soul. And so walk it out. And we're actually, we're walking according to something that is of God.

One of the themes that I've attempted to communicate here in this series is that we should walk in the church the way that Christ told us how to walk. We should think about the church, not according to our own fancy. Don't relate to the church your way. God wants to deliver you from your way, walk in God's ways in his church. And so there are these five ways that Christ's love is seen in the church.

And the first two I think are connected with all lowliness and gentleness. These are a pair, they're related, lowliness and gentleness, or it's also translated as meekness. The two are connected. And lowliness, I believe, is how we see ourselves in relationship with other people. And meekness is the actual way, or gentleness is the way that we present ourselves to one another in the body.

So I will focus first on lowliness. This is the first way that Christ's love is in the church. Isn't it interesting? Christ's love is in the church through his jewels, through his inheritance, through us, through his people. So the first way is lowliness.

That means that you're not, you're in the process of changing from looking down on other people. Instead of looking down on other people, you're looking up because you're lowly and you treat them better. You prefer one another in honor. That's what Paul told the Roman church. Paul told the people in the Ephesian church to submit to one another.

In other words, when you submit to someone, you put yourself lower. The Greeks used this word to illustrate reducing body swelling. You're all swelled up, you think you're so big, and this word, lowliness, shrink, shrink the swelling and stop being so puffed up. Lowering your opinion of yourself. Lowering your pride.

Making others higher. These things are maintained privately in the heart. This is a secret sin. It will come out. It might even come out by flattering other people.

It can come out in a lot of different ways, but this is a secret sin of thinking too highly of yourself. And so he's saying, you know, walk in lowliness, not in self-aggrandizement. You know, The apostle uses this same word in 1 Timothy 2, 9, 10. He's talking about modesty, modest dress among the women in the church. And he says that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel with propriety in moderation.

Same word, lowliness. In other words, the whole idea is not flaunting, the whole idea is moderating, understating. So It's an inward disposition of the heart. And the apostle says, do not think more highly of yourself than you ought. Now this is also a quality of the Lord Jesus.

Jesus told us that using these exact two words, lowliness and gentleness, he said in Matthew 11, 29, he uses both of these words referring to himself. He says, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you shall find rest for your souls. You know, pride is such a destroyer in the church. You know, Solomon told us that pride comes before a fall in Proverbs 16, 18. In Proverbs 28, 25, the proud person does a lot of damage.

He who is proud of heart stirs up strife, but he who trusts in the Lord will be prospered. Isn't that interesting? He who trusts in the Lord. You know, Jesus said, blessed are the meek, or blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. They have an inheritance.

They are okay. They're not worried. And so the Lord prospers them. In Proverbs 18, 12 we learn that pride is a destroyer before destruction of the heart of the man is haughty. 1 Peter 5 indicates that young people tend to be proud.

In 1 Peter 5, five, likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility. For God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. You know, Peter assumes that young people have a great struggle with pride.

And it comes out, comes out before their parents, comes out before their bosses, comes out, might even come out before their pastors. You know, young men tend to shoot from the lip. But God resists the proud, so you younger people be clothed with humility. Humility is the clothing of the Christian. It's the clothing of the heart.

It's the dress code of the church, clothed with humility. And you know, the apostle, He's telling us in different ways in his letters to the churches, put off your grave clothes and put on your grace clothes, put on your humble clothes toward one another, and don't think too highly of yourselves. Charles Bridges, he said that pride was like a viper in your bosom. You know, humility's a blessing in a church. Isaiah illustrated it when he said, but on this one I will look, one who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word.

So, a manifestation of the love of Jesus Christ in a church is this kind of lowliness. And a healthy church is a place where people aren't looking down on one another. They actually are looking up. They treasure one another. They see one another as his jewels.

Okay, so the second way Christ's love is in the church is through gentleness. This word is usually translated meekness or mildness. It's a, it's a, it's a way that you express yourself. Meekness is not weakness, you've probably heard that said many, many times, but Jesus explained meekness in Matthew 5-5, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. The meek are secure.

They know what they'll inherit. They're not afraid. The meek are solid. Meekness creates peace. They know they have an inheritance in God.

So they're not rattled. They're not rattled by somebody who's gonna try to mess with their inheritance. And of course, the same word is used in Galatians six on the fruit of the Spirit in terms of gentleness. You know, the Lord tells us one place particularly where this quality of gentleness is to be used and it's Galatians chapter six. Go ahead and open up there, look at Galatians six.

You know when someone sins against you or someone is caught in sin, you know in the church, in this case the Galatian church, how do you restore them? Your wife sins, your husband sins, your son, your daughter sins, your friend sins, and you know it. What are you gonna do? How are you gonna deal with this? Well, we're told in a spirit of gentleness.

Now, in this passage is one of the most brilliant, concise, helps as how you approach somebody who's fallen into sin. And I wish we had time to really lean on this, but this is so practical, from the raising of a child to dealing with a spouse who has sinned. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. These are qualifications. In other words, don't you dare go jumping all over somebody without these qualifications.

And what are they? You're not qualified to deal with the sin of your brother until you do this, and what do you do? First of all, you who are spiritual, you are filled with the Spirit of God. Do not do it unless you're filled with the Spirit of God. And what is the filling of the Spirit?

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, et cetera. Don't do it until you're filled with the Spirit. You who are spiritual. The next word, restore. Your objective is not to nail them, your objective is to restore them, to bring them back.

You want healing, you want beauty, you want a new vision. You're not there to nail them against the wall. In a spirit of gentleness, that's our phrase out of Ephesians 4. Considering yourself. Most of the time when someone else sins, we've sinned that way too.

Considering yourself. Consider your own sins. Don't come in there acting like you're the ruler and the judge and the holiest of holies, you're not. We all sin in many ways. You who are spiritual, restore such a one as spirit of gentleness, considering yourself, and then, really a matter of humility, lest you also be tempted.

In other words, you need to realize you're vulnerable. You are so vulnerable. That person was vulnerable, you're vulnerable too. So that's how you engage someone who's fallen into sin. And if you don't have those, then don't say anything.

We should stop. We should always stop ourselves. Don't you wish you had always done that? I do. I do.

So now we turn to long suffering. Now the first two, lowliness and gentleness, I think those are related, they're connected with the word with, with, lowliness and gentleness. Now, we have with long suffering and bearing with one another. I think this is another pair, they're similar. They have different twists.

With long suffering, bearing with one another in love. So the third way of Christ's love is long suffering in long suffering. Another way to visualize this is to use the language of ballistics. Do you have a long fuse or a short fuse? A long fuse gives a long time.

A short fuse means you better run, things are gonna blow. And so, you know, when someone has offended you, do you have a long fuse? It's an interesting word, Greek word that the apostle uses. It's a word you'll probably recognize, macro, macrothymia, macrothymia. Probably recognize macro, macrothymia, macrothymia.

Suffering long, suffering big and long. The most common suffering that we experience is microthemia. Short suffering. We just can't take it. I'm done, I'm done with you.

I don't need this. That's microthemia. God doesn't want his church to be into microthemia. It's macrothemia. Long, long suffering.

You know, we live in a world where everybody's a victim. In Christ there are no victims. Because you have a way to deal with your victimhood. And this is one way. Now I've, of course, I'm not talking about physical violence and sexual abuse and things like that.

I'm not talking about that, that's different. But this has to do with nursing offenses for a long time. Everybody knows it's a disaster for a husband and wife to nurse their offenses more than just a few minutes. You know, whatever it is, you gotta get reconciled fast. That's what Deborah and I do.

We get reconciled really fast. I mean, I frankly, I can't do anything without being reconciled with her. I can't. You know, when we were raising our kids, I had them memorize a verse. It's 1st Scott 1-9.

1st Scott 1-9. First Scott one nine. First Scott one nine. If your feelings stay hurt, it's your own fault. Okay, So don't walk around your life with your feelings hurt.

Macrothemia, go long. No microthemias in the church. You know, it's always heartbreaking when somebody leaves a church, our church especially, because you fall in love with them, and then they say, we don't like you anymore. But you know what, my experience is normally, maybe not in every case, but normally by the time somebody leaves a church, they actually left about a year ago in their minds. And they've just kind of been doing time.

Something happened, somebody offended them, they heard something they didn't like, they nursed it, they piled it up, they kept piling it up and piling it up and they knew I'm not taking it anymore. But they don't leave for about a year. They already checked out. I know that's not true with everybody, but it's fairly common. Pastors will tell you this.

Because we people nurse their offenses. You know, Paul uses the same word in 1 Corinthians 13 right out of the gate in 1 Corinthians 4. He uses macrothymia. He says, love suffers long and is kind. I'm so glad, Trent's preaching through 1 Peter.

1 Peter 3, 18, finally all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another. Love as brothers, be tender hearted, be courteous, not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. For he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace.

Seek it, don't let disturbance continue. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. And the ones who do evil here are the ones who don't seek peace, seek the peace. Are you crosswise with anybody? If you're not seeking it, you're doing evil.

1 Peter 3 is so clear. And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed. That's why Paul said in Ephesians 5, one, walk in love just as Christ walked. In Colossians chapter three, the apostle makes it really clear, this was a problem of the churches.

This is not unusual. You shouldn't be freaked out if this happens. This is something that churches struggle with. I mean, not only does the apostle write to this local church in Ephesus, he says a real similar thing to the church in Colossae. In Colossians 3, 12, He says, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies.

How come? Tender mercies might have been dying. Put on kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you must also do. But of all these, put on love, which is the bond of perfection, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which you were called in one body, and be thankful.

I mean, that's why John, the Apostle John in 1 John 4.7, he says this is something that comes from God, This is something that Jesus Christ manifested. And when you walk in a manner worthy of Christ, you are walking in love, and you are seeking peace and pursuing it. He said in 1 John 4.7, "'Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, "'and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this is love, the love of God was manifested toward us, that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him.

You know, it's interesting how John talks about love. Well, of course, he's called the apostle of love, but in 1 John 5, he talks about loving those who have been begotten of him. He says, whoever believes that Jesus Christ is born of God and everyone who loves Him, who begot, also loves Him who is begotten? If you love the begotten Son of God, you will love the begotten, the church. You'll love the people.

Like, hey, love the church isn't some general, oh, I just love this ethereal, universal church. No, it's the people. It's the people. You can't love this thing, but you can love people. He says, he continues on in 1 John 5, "'By this we know that we love the children of God "'when we love God and keep his commandments.

And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world? But he who believes that Jesus is the son of God. So long, long suffering.

This element of love has to do with waiting, not acting. It's waiting. It's hard to wait, isn't it? That's the love. Did Jesus Christ wait much for me?

For you? How long has he been waiting? How long? So the fourth way Christ loves in the church is in bearing with one another. Bearing with one another in love.

Now, you notice the qualifier, bearing with one another. Oh man, I just am so sick and tired of this. I hate this, this person is, this is such a burden. No, no, no. Bearing with one another in Love, in love.

And we know what love is, it's like the definitions are all over the Bible. We're not just putting up with one another, we're doing it in love. And you know, to bear with someone is to demonstrate patience in spite of the difficulties that they are presenting to us, to be patient, to remain patient, to wait patiently. I'm quoting someone here, there's quotes here. I don't even know who it is.

To be patient, to remain patient, to wait patiently. It assumes that you actually, in the church, you might come to a place where you say, I don't need this anymore. I'm sick and tired of bearing this. I'm not gonna bear this anymore. I'm not gonna talk to him.

I'm gonna avoid him. I'm not gonna bear it anymore. I've moved on. Usually when people say I've moved on, it's code, not for biblical love. There's a lot more bailing on one another than there is bearing with one another in the church.

You know, Jonathan Edwards wrote a commentary on 1 Corinthians 13 called Charity and Its Fruits. Beautiful book, you should read it. It's so good. Here's what he says. Love disposes us to meekly bear the injuries received from others.

That's what love does. Love suffers long and is kind, 1 Corinthians 13. Love does not envy, love does not parade itself, is not puffed up, love does not behave rudely, love does not seek its own, love is not provoked, love thinks no evil, love does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

And how do we do it? How do we bear with one another? Ephesians 4 32. And be kind to one another. You take action, you go toward that person.

You be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ has forgiven you. That's how you do it. That's how you bear with one another. You don't say, I'm just gonna avoid that person. That's not love.

It's humanism. It's human wisdom. Has nothing to do with God's love. It's a corruption. Romans 12 explains so much about what love looks like and how we're not to be aloof with our brethren who offend us.

Is it possible there's somebody here that's been aloof with a brother who offended them? Is it possible? It might be. Romans 12, nine, let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good.

Now we get to the action. Be kindly, affectionate to one another in brotherly love. That's taking action. In honor, giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence. In other words, don't hang back, don't let it fester.

Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, in other words, have a vision of hope, not the vision of, well, they're just like this. They're always, That's how they're gonna respond. I'm not gonna say anything. Have a vision of hope, have a vision of rejoicing in hope. Have a vision of continuing steadfastly in prayer.

Bless those who persecute you. Bless and curse not. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things.

Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it's possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Isn't that interesting? I'm preaching this in a time of peace in this church.

I hope it's preparation. But maybe it's preparation for something going on in your life not in this church. Maybe with your wife or your children. Because these things apply everywhere we walk. If your enemy is hungry, feed him.

If he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. You know, I'm so amazed at how often this kind of thing is tied back to God's love for us. In Romans 2 four, we're reminded of the forbearance Christ had with us.

Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance. It's so easy to forget how long-suffering God has been with us and we forget how we're not long suffering with other people. The fifth way Christ's love is in the church is endeavoring to preserve the unity of the spirit. Now this has to do with zeal, this has to do with going after it, this has to do with not waiting around for it to happen. In other words, you know, Don't let those cells metastasize and go infect everybody else.

Don't avoid the people that have offended you. You pursue, you go for it. Now, hey, this is the whole theme of Ephesians. It's unity. It's the unity that God established with sinners by sending his son, and the same unity that God desires to be replicated among his people, to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.

We endeavor, we pursue the unity. You know, sometimes it's hard one. I remember years ago, I guess it was 30 years ago, Deborah and I, we left California, we lived in Dallas, Texas one year. We went to a church there. And there in this church, two men got crosswise with each other in their construction businesses.

And I mean, it was bad, really bad. So it got so bad that these guys ended up in the pastor's office, they repented, they forgave one another. It was so awesome. And then the next Sunday, Deborah and I were sitting there, and they brought these two men up on the platform to tell their story of reconciliation. And so the pastor told the story, you know, just how bad it was and now how good it is.

And they were both standing there, you know, the pastor, one on the right, one on the left, and the pastor asked one guy, so tell us what your thoughts, and he started telling the story, and all of a sudden the guy on the other side interrupted him and said, that wasn't the way it was. This is in front of 700 people, right? And they got an argument there, right there on the platform before God and the Holy Spirit and everybody. And There's a lot of fake reconciliation that goes on in the church. It's in word only, but not in the heart.

And the story keeps getting told. Because there is no real forgiveness, there is no real pursuit of love. It's just on paper. So, now we've preserved the union of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This is a bond.

This is a bond of peace. You know, we have a very special thing here in this church. I believe we do have the bond of peace, you know. I'm not preaching this message to deal with some terrible disunity that's happening. I just don't see it, maybe I'm blind, I don't see it.

I think it's been very sweet for years in this church. So I'm very, very thankful for that. But you know, we've been watching the war in Ukraine and there's no bond of peace there. Homes are bombed, buildings are destroyed, husbands and wives are trying to find each other, children are separated from their parents and friends will never be together again. Last week, AP Newswire said 11 million people fled the country.

Who knows how many of them will find one another again? You don't know. And you have broken buildings and broken lives and broken families. This is a metaphor for what can happen when the bond of peace is broken in a church. Homes, my experiences, people who cause division, tremendous trouble falls upon them often.

Children scattered, friends never again. I was reading Jonathan Edwards farewell sermon this last week he was voted out by 90% of his congregation. Jonathan Edwards was voted out by 90% of his congregation. One of the dumbest things in church history, really. But he writes this, he says, you know, "'Things may happen in a church "'and you'll never see your friend again, "'but you will meet them again.

"'You will meet them again before God, "'and we will all stand before God and give an account for how we treated one another. So these are very, very, very important things. Let me close with this. All of these things, all of these five things, lowliness, gentleness, long suffering, bearing, preserving the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Every one of these things the Lord Jesus has done with us.

He's done every one of them, every one of them perfectly. I've been grappling with these words lowly and gentle and long suffering and bearing and preserving. And I've just thought what a poor disciple I am. But the Lord Jesus Christ was not a poor disciple. And he obeyed all these perfectly.

So that those who struggle with being long suffering and gentle, they can come to him and he will forgive them of their sins and He'll continue to help them along the way. This is the Lord Jesus. And I'm so grateful that He is the one who has done all these things for us. So the Lord is issuing a call for how to walk in the church, to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, so that when you or I are walking in the church, what would we see? We would see Christ's love walking in the church through one another.

Let's pray. Lord, pray that you would take your words in this marvelous, cleansing flood of testimony in your word that you would take all these things and you would help us to love one another. I pray for every father that he would love his children like this, pray for every mother that she would love her children and her husband and her husband love her. And I pray that the elders and the deacons would love one another and all in this church that way. Pray that all of the brothers and the sisters here would love one another like this.

That you would preserve the bond of peace through us by the power of the Holy Spirit in this church. Lord your ways are such pleasant ways. All your paths are peace. We adore you Lord for being so good, for being so kind, to be so long-suffering with us. And so now we just wanna continue worshiping you, amen.

Thank you.