Arcade Church Service - September 12, 2021

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning arcade church how are we this morning good good let's stand to our feet together as we read from god's word and for those of you who are joining in online would you stand together with us as we as we read god's word together psalm 93 says the lord reigns he is robed in majesty the lord is robed he has put on his strength as his belt yes the world is established it shall never be moved your throne is established from of old and you are from everlasting the floods have lifted up oh lord the floods have lifted up their voice the floods lift up their roaring mightier than the thunders of many waters mightier than the waves of the sea the lord on high is mighty your decrees are very trustworthy holiness befits your house o lord forevermore and so father we lift up your greatness today and we exalt you in this place and pray god that you would open our eyes to behold the great wonders that you've done in jesus name we pray and all who agreed said amen let's worship the lord together with gladness [Music] [Applause] [Music] he has done great things we'll see what our savior has done see how his love overcomes he has done great things [Music] jesus [Music] things and i know you will do it again for your promises yes oh god you do greatness [Music] [Music] oh [Music] you have done great things hallelujah [Music] you're free every captive and break every chain oh god [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh god [Music] oh thank you father for your kindness to us this morning holy spirit would you continue to open our hearts and our minds to see the joy that has been set before us in christ that our eyes would not treasure lesser things father lift our eyes to where you are in jesus name we pray and all who agreed sin [Music] how great the chasm that lay between us how high the mountain i could not climb in desperation i turned to heaven and spoke your name into the night and through the darkness your loving kindness tore through the shadows of my soul the work is finished the end is written jesus christ [Music] [Music] such boundless grace the god of ages stepped down from glory to where i sinned and bear my [Music] [Music] the king of kings caused me [Music] [Music] hallelujah praise the lord who set me free hallelujah [Music] jesus christ [Music] [Applause] [Music] hallelujah [Music] jesus christ [Music] began to breathe [Music] [Music] your very body begins to breathe [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] who is me free hallelujah [Music] jesus christ [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] jesus christ [Music] jesus christ [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh jesus [Music] for thee all the [Music] fallen i reasons my grace [Music] [Music] my jesus [Music] hello [Music] you [Music] [Music] if [Music] jesus [Music] i love the night [Music] embrace thee as long as though has [Music] [Music] oh [Music] jesus [Music] oh it's now oh right now today's the day [Music] today [Music] again gladly forever [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] how deep the father's love for us how vast beyond old measure that he should give his only son to make a wretched treasure how great the pain of siri the father turns his face away there's roots which are the chosen ones bring many suns to glowly [Music] upon his shoulders ashamed i hear my mocking voice call out among the scoppers [Music] until it was [Music] has [Music] yes it is [Music] i will not boast in anything no gifts no power no wisdom but i jesus christ his death and resurrection [Music] is [Music] what should i get [Music] [Music] all is heart his won't have paid my wrists on yes this i know with all my heart his words have paid my ransom [Music] let's give him glory today church oh father as your children this morning we want to behold the love that you have lavished upon us from all of eternity that you have seen into the deepest and darkest parts of our hearts and you made the conscious decision to seek after us god as we contemplate the gospel as we sing it together as your people i pray that that would go far beyond the abstract and that it would become deeply personal holy spirit i ask for your work even now in this moment that you would begin to break down those walls and move into forgotten rooms inside of our hearts [Music] that we might experience the love of the father in a way that this world desperately needs thank you for your word that is true at all times and in every season and we ask for your help to instruct us in the ways of your heart father so we love you we praise you and we thank you for the gift of christ that we haven't deserved and we bless you in jesus name amen the church you can be seated and [Music] as god has lavished his gifts on us in so many different ways he has also given gifts to each one of us in varied forms to be used for the strengthening and the nourishing of the body and as as the pastor of creative arts i just want to send out a call to to those who have been gifted with music ability who have been gifted in singing we need you do you play an instrument do you play trumpet do you play cello do you play drums do you play you name it we need you the body of christ needs you so that we might be built up and rooted in love and so there's a couple ways that you can do that you can actually go on to the arcade app and click on volunteer and go to creative arts and just fill out the form there let us know about you but there's also uh if technology is a little bit of a trouble that's that's perfectly fine we'll actually be out here after the service at the hub ready to talk to you and to tell you more about how you can get involved in that but as christ has welcomed us let's take a second to find somebody around us that we haven't met yet and to welcome them with the love of christ so if you would stand your feet and to welcome those around you to let them know you love them [Music] good morning arcade church it's so good to see you and to hear you meeting and greeting this morning i love being up here and being able to say good morning to all your faces at one time and you at home good morning um how are we doing today good good you know we are so blessed by people that are so faithful in leading worship right it's it's a gift to be able to point us in the right direction right to not be distracting but to bring us to the father on sunday mornings i am so thankful that we're able to do that together i get excited about a lot of things and i have a lot of exciting things to share with you today so i'm so glad that today is my host moment to share so we had this idea to do a creative arts night here at arcade church um there's postcards on your way out that you can grab that will tell you the details for it and i don't know if you know this but there are people here that are crazy talented that aren't necessarily up here on sunday mornings that god has given a gift to express his creativity through i have seen a sneak peek of some of these i'm going to be here it is so fantastic i won't share because i don't want to spoil it but you need to come and so on we got it here it's friday september 24th so it could be a date night it could be a gather group night you whatever and it's going to be from 5 30 to 8 30. there's lots of really great things besides art that's going to be on display there's going to be some performance stuff going on there's food trucks out there so it's it's going to be fantastic i am super excited about this so i would love for you to join me here the people that done the art will be here so you can talk to them um i'm really excited to see how the sermon on the mount has spoken through people and so yeah i'm excited about that another thing that's going to be happening is on friday night from at seven o'clock right here if you're a guy they're going to be doing a day of fasting and a night of hope which is a night of prayer and so i there's no words for how excited i am about this for men to be taking leadership to be here to be praying um that just there's no words for how excited i am about that i'm humbly quietly excited about that so please come please be a part of it fast on the f on friday come and just be ready to break that fast together and join in and lifting up the needs of the church in the community um it's going to be really great another thing that's starting is tomorrow night monday night is going to be the college age young adult group so if you're between 18 and 25 ish about seven o'clock tomorrow night they're going to be meeting here in the gym it's a great kickoff to that so if you're like oh i graduated i don't know where to go this is where you should go besides gather groups and the other bible studies and things that are available this would be a great thing to be a part of too so lots going on if you're not sure and you're going to like i am not going to remember any of that jen it's on the app so and the great thing is you can share these exciting things on the app too there's now a share button so you can invite other people to join you as well if you'd like people to come along so all of that's on the app it's on the website you can call me at the church office i'd love to chat with you so yeah come be a part of all of it thanks so much hello my name is ella lewis i've been a member of rk church for over 25 years i've been blessed to be part of a church family that shows christ like love in so many ways this bond of love has especially helped me when i was going through a kidney transplant in 2008 of may the arcade family prayed for me showed me such love and just surrounded me with such care and i i just it's something that will always be part of my heart pastor dan bryant he came to the hospital he prayed with me my women of the word class they just were there just for everything that i needed one of the ladies and women of the word she's a nurse she was there right on the spot the next morning to make sure i was up walking my women of the word class created a huge fourth of july basket to lift my spirits with decorations with plates with cups all theme with the fourth of july because i was in confinement this example of christ likeness exists only when people are willing to set their own agenda aside and think about the love of others and the care of others this experience has shown me that i'm not on this earth just to make sure my needs are met but make sure that i help meet the needs of others i am i am so thankful to the lord that he is continually showing me that it's not about me it's about him and that i need to do things his way not my way [Music] oh we love you ella good morning everybody once you get your bibles out of your devices open and turn first of all to galatians chapter 5. we'll get there in a moment i i do want to add a couple of other announcements to jen's announcements first of all biblical counseling class starts this wednesday and i really want to put a plug in for that this is something that suzanne bond and myself have been team teaching for four or five years and if if you are if you know your way around the bible a little bit and you want to go a little bit further as far as helping people with the bible then i really encourage you to come wednesday nights from 6 30 to 8 30. you don't have to become a professional counselor you don't need to get certified if you just want to learn what it means to be a biblical friend then i encourage you to do that we're meeting in the fellowship hall from 6 30 to 8 30 every wednesday night it's either suzanne teaching or i'm teaching sometimes we both do and it's a great time to simply become equipped with the word of god to to help people and so we really want you to think about that you can go to the app or the website and sign up to let us know you're going to be there if you're not really sure you kind of want to kick the tires a little bit then come on wednesday night and suzanne can be able to help you a little bit with that okay and then also uh this friday night september 17th as jen mentioned uh someone asked me how many guys are you wanting to come to this and my response without being too snotty was all of them men if arcade church is your home or if you're thinking about making it your church home you need to be here many of us are going to be fasting on friday you don't need to fast or to come we're going to break that fast however with communion so don't think that you have to fast if you've never fasted before i highly recommend you talk to your doctor first on that all right especially if you're my age so just saying all right but we love for you guys to be here uh i i'm guessing that your wives would love for you to be here your children would love for you to be here and wives please don't elbow your husband right now but rather we want the holy spirit not you to encourage him to come all right so this friday night seven o'clock and i hope that you can be here let's pray father we need you we cannot even express the ways that we need you and the beautiful thing is that you have said to ask and to seek and to knock so we are asking seeking knocking specifically this weekend lord god there are many people in our country that are have reawakened these old griefs that really never went away when they lost loved ones on september 11th father i pray that wherever these people reside right now that the church is truly the church for them and father for our country we are like any other country in this world we have learned how to kill our enemies we have not learned how to defeat them and the only ultimate way that an enemy can to be defeated is to win them over as a friend as father that is where you come in because we can't do that we were your enemies many of us in this room despised you we ran from you and yet you chased us down and you you regenerate our lives so that we want to no one else but you we humbly ask father that you defeat your enemies that way all we can do is build bigger guns bigger bombs and that's the best that anyone in this world can do and so lord god we ask that you intervene with your church that enemies may be defeated by turning them into friends that would be a miracle that only you can perform so we humbly ask that you do that we pray these things in the holy name of christ and all god's people said amen amen all right well we are continuing in our series uh fruit of the spirit um uncontested and i hope that you were blessed last sunday we're going to be just going through and dealing with each of the nine fruit of the spirit uh throughout this fall and whenever i think of what people who do not are who are not christians what they think of the church this image comes up in my mind and it's this image right here this is what i think the non-believing world thinks of the church it's a grocery store with empty shelves the store is open the cart is there the checkers are ready everything's ready but there is nothing to offer people and what happens in the american church is that we look at this and say therefore we need to we need to stock the shelves with things that people want we need we need to have programs for every single age group we need to have programs for every ethnicity we have to have programs for those people born in september we need to have programs for those who are left-handed because jesus loves them too we need to have programs for all these people and so we spend all of our time stocking the shelves making sure that people have what they want and there's nothing wrong with having programs for age-related people there's nothing wrong with that but what happens so often is it's exhausting as a church because guess what people's needs and wants shift they change and so now we've got take things down and restock take things down and restock and it is just absolutely exhausting to do that but what i contend and one of the reasons why we're doing the fruit of the spirit is this truly along with these programs they're really great but if we do not bear the fruit of the spirit these programs these these ministries that we have they mean absolutely nothing and we will spend our entire church life and those of you have been involved in church you know what i'm talking about is just restocking the shelves making sure that we're putting things up there that people want but ultimately what people want and what they need is fruit of the spirit and the hard thing about that is you really can't stock a shelf with that because it's something that only god produces galatians chapter five if you'll if you haven't turned there if you would please galatians chapter five if you're not sure where that's it you might be new to the bible there's a there's a blue bible in the pew rack in front of you you can go and turn to page 974 and you can follow along with me galatians chapter 5 we're going to read the entire section that we looked at last sunday and then we'll talk about one specific fruit of the spirit the apostle paul writes in verse 16 of galatians 5 but i say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do but if you are led by the spirit you are not under law now the works of the flesh are evidence sexual immorality impurity sensuality idolatry sorcery enmity strife jealousy fits of anger rivalries dissensions divisions envy drunkenness orgies and things like these i warn you as i warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of god but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control against such things there is no law and those who belong to christ jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires father this is the reading of your word to us we praise you and we thank you and your son's holy and precious name jesus amen so what we just got through reading are two lists of character traits character traits of those without christ and character traits of those with christ it's it's as simple and as complex as that but what we're looking at with the fruit of the spirit is simply character traits that are produced in us by the spirit of christ that's what happens to us now a good definition i think of fruit of the spirit is this and you'll be getting this several times throughout the course of this series fruit of the spirit defined is god through the spirit of jesus christ producing outwardly what he has planted inwardly all right so god through the spirit of jesus christ producing outwardly what he has planted inwardly when you take a seed and you plant it into the ground it becomes invisible and so how do you know if it's alive or not because it will soon come to the surface and begin to grow and to sprout and to bear fruit but so much of what we don't see is under the ground and that's what happens with us the spirit of christ comes into us and begins to produce things inside of us that show outwardly do you know christian christian do you know this that the spirit of christ is in you right now the spirit of christ is in you you don't need to ask him to show if you've placed your faith in jesus christ as lord and savior the spirit has come into your life from the outside of you and now he is transforming you from the inside out that seed of the spirit was planted in you and now he grows and that this this is why this is such a miracle because when the spirit of christ comes into us many times we don't know but all of a sudden we find out that our our desires begin to change it's like like children whose taste buds have changed all of a sudden broccoli tastes like brownies carrots taste like cookies and something happened inside that their taste buds changed and that's what happens to us to keep the metaphor going our taste buds for sin and righteousness change and all of a sudden sin has this bitter taste to it and righteousness begins to well up within us and we want to grow now has anyone here arrived at that balcony anybody anybody yeah no we have not arrived at that but we are arriving and god is producing in you the very things that make you look more and more like jesus and the first one we're going to look at today is this one the fruit of the spirit is love now some scholars and i'm not in a position to argue with that they would say that love is the dominant fruit and everything else falls underneath love that makes sense to me i'm good with that love and what happens with that but the fruit of the spirit is love now we need to kind of unpack love here a little bit if you've ever been to a wedding ceremony that i've officiated at i use this quite often just to talk about this but the word love in the greek language occurs four times three times in the bible and it's very difficult because love is a loaded word in our culture right but in the greek language it's not because they've got four different words for it three of them are in scripture the first one is right here eros it is based on self-seeking pleasure it's where we get the word erotic there's nothing evil about the word it's just simply this self-seeking i am seeking to please myself and this kind of love is because of kind of love it's very emotional it's based upon emotion i will love you because you give me pleasure and so i feel pleasure i feel the emotion of that then another kind of love is the word philetto and you might know this one from philadelphia or philanthropic philadelphia is a city of brotherly love this is relationship love brotherly love based on mutual satisfaction and again this kind of love is conditional is it because of kind of love and again it's emotional all right i don't know of anybody that that is my best friend who doesn't supply something to me in return and so it's because of kind of love i love you because you're my friend i love you because we like the same things or i love you because we like the same sport to the same teams i love you because of that or because we have a lot in common all right so it's a very conditional based upon emotion but the word as many of you already know that we find in in galatians 5 but throughout jesus teaching is this one agape it's based upon self-giving or self-sacrifice now it's different from eros and philadelph because it is not a because of kind of love from arrows so it's not because of kind of love from phileto but rather it is even though kind of love and even though kind of love that's based not on emotion but on action undoing so i will love you agape style i will love you even though you've betrayed me i will love you even though you make me angry i will love you even though you want to destroy me i will love you regardless of what you do now you know why i put that in the wedding because that is the kind of covenant that a husband and wife have is that no matter how you turn out as my spouse i am going to love you i'm making a future promise that i'm going to love you no matter what and that's the kind of love that is used here in the scriptures and it's described by jesus on the night that he's betrayed and he says this to disciples this is before the he's been arrested before he's been beaten before the nails go into his hands he says this to his disciples a new commandment i give to you that you love one another just as i have loved you you also are to love one another and then he says this by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another all people will know that you are my disciples not by your voting record not by your political persuasion not by whether you think of anything socially or not but rather by how you love that is the proof of your love for me and jesus says that and so these kinds of things about love they they simply show us certain specific realities and if you're following along in your notes i'd like you to follow along because we have a couple of realities that i believe the word of god teaches because now we're going to move from what john has quoted jesus is saying to what john writes in his first letter so if you have your bibles turn to first john first of all to chapter three first john chapter three if you're not familiar with where that's at there's a table of contents at the beginning or you can go all the way to revelation and turn left to a couple of pages okay and you'll be and you'll be right there two realities of incontestable love this is no one can contest this no one can come against this there is no argument that suffices to refute what god has done in our life first of all love is incontestable evidence of christ in you it's incontestable evidence of christ in you eternal life is received by faith but it is demonstrated by church attendance right or wrong you've been wanting to say wrong for a long time in church you just had a chance to do that eternal life is received by faith but it's demonstrated by what love let's look at first john chapter 3 verse 10. by this it is evident who are the children of god and who are the children of the devil john you need to tell us what you really think here by this it is evident who are the children of god and who are the children of the devil we're all ears john what are you saying here whoever does not practice righteousness is not of god nor is the one who does not love his brother for this is the message that you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another how do i know how do i know if i'm a child of god or a child of the devil he answers that question in verse 14. we know that we have passed out of death into life because of the prayer we play prayed because of the isle that we walked because of the decision that we made 30 years ago we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers whoever does not love abides in death i don't know any other way to unpack that except to just simply let the words sit the rock of our assurance is not in the prayer that you prayed to ask jesus into your heart the rock of assurance is not based upon the isle that you walked the rock of assurance for you and for me is the spirit of christ was planted in us and he is manifesting himself more and more and more in love none of us here has arrived for me i have already failed this morning but the evidence of that comes to us and how do you know that a seed that is planted in the ground how do you know it will grow into a tree how do you know it will bear fruit because in time it's going to grow and in time it's going to leaf and in time it's going to bear fruit that's how you know how do i know that i am growing in christ or how do i know that a loved one is growing in christ because of the seed of the spirit been planted in you that you become to look more and more like christ i think for me that's why i've lived so long i'm a slow learner i'm a slow grower because even uh even as i say these things i i'm thinking i'm playing this slideshow in my own head of the multiple times i have absolutely blown it i should be further along in following jesus than i am but then i realize if christ is not in me i would not be having this turmoil in my mind and so i thank god for the turmoil i thank god for the frustration that i should be farther along than i am and this is the part where my wife would say amen amen and many of you would too and so if you are wrestling with that you're oh man i just don't know if love is in my life i don't know if love is growing more i don't know if jesus is growing more and more in my life someone who does not have the spirit of christ would not be having that dilemma that alone is assurance that christ is there for you that christ is in you it's pretty cool what's that that's the first reality the second reality love is incontestable evidence of christ in the world we need jesus in the world we need that i think that we would all admit that and that that means us that means us that we go in to the world and what john does flip over to chapter 4 of first john and he gives us some facts about love let's just get to know it here a little bit better okay first of all we know that god invented it god invented love he says as much in this in this ver passage in chapter four verses seven and eight beloved let us love one another for love is from god and whoever loves has been born of god and knows god i can't help but think of that chorus from the 70s it did not it been in my head all week still there anyone who does not love does not know god because god is love how can you say that god is in your life when you are not loving because the very presence of god in the world in your life means love because by definition god is love now if you're not a christian if you're at home or if you're not a christian you're here you're saying amen to that because christians need to be more loving and the problem that we have in our own country is we're all saying you first but what happens so many times we forget the fact that the very god that we've sung to the very god that we worship is love but then a second fact about this jesus modeled it john says this as much in first john chapter 4 verses 9 through 11 in this the love of god was made manifest among us in this in what in this the love of god here he's going to answer that question that god sent his only son into the world that is the love of god manifest the love of god was shown to you and me with him coming into the world so that we might live through him in this is love not that we have loved god but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins why do we use these ten dollar words nobody says that word anymore we just did propitiation that's a that's a it's a theological word that says this on the cross jesus christ saved you not just from the penalty of sin but from the wrath of god god's anger all that anger against the world's sin was funneled to his son jesus christ and there with the death of his son his anger was assuaged his anger was turned away from you to his son now if that doesn't blow your hair back i don't know what else will is that we are saved for god from god we're saved from his anger we're saved from his wrath we're safe from what he thinks about sin we're saved from the judgment of sin upon us every single person who bows the need of jesus christ has been saved that way that's all that john's saying here but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins beloved if god so loved us also ought to we also ought to love one another if god loved us that way then because of the death of jesus christ my anger against you should be turned away anger towards me should be turned away because i am called to model that love which is the third we reveal it god invented it jesus modeled it now you and i we reveal it we reveal it verse 12 helps us with this no one has ever seen god if we love one another god abides in us and his love is perfected in us no one has seen god no one but everyone sees you and when we love with the love of god through jesus christ god becomes visible this invisible god becomes visible because nobody loves like christ modeled that love nobody and so when we i mean people can fake it for a while but the bottom line is nobody can live that way if it were not for the spirit of christ in them how beautiful how powerful is that that we can be able to do that for the glory of god and that's why probably every sunday at least that i i preach on this and the other pastor's going to be involved in a couple of weeks but parents leaders bosses supervisors managers coaches teachers what you lead your people with is what you will lead them to if you lead them with arrogance if you lead them with dominance you will lead them to that but if you lead your children with love you will lead them to love if you lead your floor to to love with love you will lead them to love if you lead your store and your supervisors or your direct reports if you lead them with love you will lead them to love you will become the greatest billboard of the grace of jesus christ speaking of billboard in the uk there was this bus campaign a few years ago and this was plastered on billboards and on buses on signs commercials throughout the uk and it said i don't know if you can read it very well but it says this there's probably no god now stop worrying and enjoy your life i love the word there's probably no god there's probably no god now stop worrying and enjoy your life but then all of a sudden a non-christian looks at that and says wait a minute wait a minute i know so and so i know so and so they used to be a jerk and now they love me and that can only be because there is something miraculous going on with zion's side of them i know so and so and they were this way they were the works of the flesh to the hilt and all of a sudden something has happened and so now i see them as the most loving person on the planet you can't say there's probably no god because they say it's the spirit of christ in them so the best apologetic we could ever give as i mentioned a week or two ago is not that noah's ark was found on arrowrad it's not that we found chariots at the bottom of of the red sea and it says pharaoh was here that is not the best apologetic the best defense for the reality of the presence of christ in this world is what he has done in you and in me no one can contest that no one can come against that no one can ever refute that period well how do we cultivate this let's try to get practical as we can number one in times of indifference preach the gospel to yourself you see the opposite of love is not hate the opposite of love is indifference you see i i could hate you or i could love you and we understand that but if i say i don't hate you i don't love you i don't even care if you exist you're transparent to me i see right through you you don't exist to me i don't care that you breathe or not breathe i'm indifferent to you is it possible that that's what you are with your heavenly father i'm just i don't care i know i should i just i just don't i don't care god to you may seem like a distant relative you know they're there you don't care what may need to happen is preach the gospel to yourself preach the gospel to yourself i i wrote down some of the lyrics to the songs that the team led us in this morning who could imagine so great a mercy have you imagined the mercy of god have you allowed your imagination to run the how the mercy of god stooped to save you if ever i have loved thee my jesus it is now i will not boast in anything but jesus christ so what may need to happen is rather than try to try to make love grow in your life is simply just preach the gospel of jesus christ to yourself that you are far more wicked than you ever dared think and you were far more loved than you ever dared hope and allow that to go all the way to allow that penny to drop all the way to the bottom so you can be able to see and know what jesus christ has done for you number two without seeking a response bless somebody you see if you if you bless someone and you expect them to reciprocate that's not love but when you bless someone with no intention whatsoever of them reciprocating then all of a sudden that is the ultimate form of love now many of you are in gather groups i was going to make this great commercial for gather groups but you know what praise god we have a waiting list the good news is we have a waiting list for gather groups isn't that great the bad news is we have a waiting list for gather groups but we refuse to grow on grow beyond our leadership and so if you could just remain patient until january i know it's three or four months away but it's going to go quickly because we want to be able to have more leaders prepared but within those gather groups or within your small group if you're in a small group is find someone and love them with no strings whatsoever with nothing to reciprocate young people you can do that you see that person who's marginalized in the cafeteria and nobody likes them and maybe for good reason but the problem is that the spirit of christ is in you you have no good reason to not love them and so find a way to reciprocate find a way to to go and love that person because that person is indeed an image bearer of god and they desperately need to experience the love of god but maybe they will never experience it until they see it in you third in the midst of conflict stubbornly persevere this is probably the number one reason why people leave churches and go to other churches they have a conflict they can't stand seeing that person in the same room on sunday morning and so they go and they find another congregation biblical love says this i am going to stubbornly persevere that as far as it's up to me i will be at peace with this person or with these people and so we stubbornly persevere to pursue love to pursue reconciliation to pursue peace in the midst of conflict stubbornly persevere who are you in conflict with if they're in this room love would say sacrifice reconcile maybe it's someone at the office or maybe someone at school or someone on your street stubbornly persevere in the midst of conflict and then finally when you see it in others shine the light when you see the love of jesus christ in another christian one of the best things you could do is simply say what you just said there or what you just did there can only be attributed to the spirit of christ in you and i want you to know that i am so grateful that i was allowed to experience the love of jesus christ through your words through your actions i want you to know that was not lost on me but i saw jesus in you i think that that would make someone's day that would put a spring in their step that they so desperately need in everything well it's very easy for us to go through this and say okay i'm things are going to be different now i'm going to change things up and i'm going to go out there i'm going to be more loving look out world here comes the second coming of jesus and you're gonna blow it before you get to the car so would i because there's nothing that you can do it's like when you plant a seed in the ground and you say come on baby grow you can do it grow but it has to happen you've got to nurture you've got to cultivate but god is the one that causes the growth downward before it's upward and so what do we do well um megan mark croft made these for you and it's that prayer that i mentioned to you uh on about from john stott last sunday and those cards are out there in the in the foyer maybe you already have one i don't know i mean you may have picked one up but uh this is just a way i'm gonna i'm gonna do this and i encourage you the same is every day i'm gonna pray this prayer i'm not gonna recite it i'm gonna pray it i'm gonna pray this prayer every day and if you don't have it i'll just read it to you right now this is from john stott he's with the lord right now he's a a very fine pastor in uk years ago heavenly father i pray that this day i may live in your presence and please you more and more lord jesus i pray that this day i may take up my cross and follow you holy spirit i pray that this day you will fill me with yourself and cause your fruit to ripen in my life love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control what would happen if you genuinely prayed this prayer every day during this series would it be possible that others around you would begin to see fruit welling up from the beauty of jesus christ in you and rising to the surface and all of a sudden the fruit of love is seen in and through you i think that'd be pretty awesome let's stand together just to let you know if uh when we close i'm going to have the benediction here in a second but if you would like to have time of prayer the elders and their wives will be up here in the front and please come forward after the service is over and you and one of them will pray with you pray for you pray over you uh we encourage you to take advantage of that opportunity don't don't leave if if the holy spirit is welling things up within you maybe an expression of that is simply to come forward and have one of these people pray with you and for you okay may the god of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another that together with one voice you may glorify the god and father of our lord jesus christ therefore welcome one another as christ has welcomed you and we say together for the glory of god have a great day i love you hey you

Channel: Arcade Church

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Id: YoZbBeB6U9c

Length: 97min 10sec (5830 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021