Unity through God-gifted Leadership Pt. 4

I've been told to not be apologetic when when I go slowly through a passage, so I won't. I won't apologize in the sense of being sorry for taking my time in and the book of Ephesians. But what I will say is you, in the spirit of this past, we're going to talk about. If you have any comments or suggestions for. Please feel free to tell me. I I like hearing your feedback and after today you'll know how to do it in a way that's not going to make hurt my feelings and make me go home and cry or anything. But please do let me know what what you think and what your ideas are and you know I might. I might tell you why we do it a certain way or might say, hey, that's a great idea. But please, please, I I don't apologize for bringing the word of God to you, but I do want to hear what people who love me and people who I love have to say so. With that in mind, we are in the book of Ephesians Chapter 4. I'd encourage you to turn there in your Bible, and in particular, we're in this section verses 11 through 16, where we've talked, we're talking about unity and how God builds and brings unity to a church, and we've been working through this. Question and answer 5 questions and answers here. And and how God brings unity to a church. And we talked first about what God provided for the church for the sake of unity, and that was found in verse 11. Those God, gifted leaders and powered by the Holy Spirit that are there to be sort of the foundation and those the coaches for building up church. We saw that what these? Leaders do in the church is they equip the church to be the church. We saw that in verse 12. We gave these. Spirit filled and God gifted leaders to cook the Saints for the work of the Ministry for building up the body of Christ. In other. Words. That's not. The work of professionals, that's the work of all of us to build up the Church of God. God's what's God's goal for the church? What are we building towards? Are we just stacking bricks for the sake of stacking bricks? Paul tells us that the goal is for all of us to reach Christ like maturity verse 13 until we all attain. To the unity. Of the faith and the knowledge of the son of God, not just some of us, not just the spiritual elite, but all of us are to attain to this Christ like a maturity and status, and so. We are unified in that goal. That's where you can have true unity when there is a common target and common purpose. Last week we talked about the threat to God's plan for all of us reaching Christlike maturity. We talked about the danger of these doctrinal divisions and diversions that that keep us from attaining. To that knowledge of Christ and the maturity that includes not just the false teaching of others, of course, but. False teaching that we create even in our own minds. Not today. And the next time we're together, we're going to talk about God's mechanism for growth in Christ. Like maturity. And that is speaking the truth in love. See, the leaders have equipped the Saints to do the work of the ministry. But in that process there is a dynamic that is to occur as as people. Work together and rub shoulders and come into contact with each other. Disagreements arise. Conflicts arise. We take our eyes off of Jesus for a second, and we find ourselves at odds with others. So what do you do? How do we bring ourselves back into unity with the Lord and with each other? And Paul says the very basic dynamic of what happens in church. To build up the. Church is for us to speak the. Truth in love? Now, Mike Tyson's, you know, famous heavyweight world champion boxer. He is known for his quick but very hard hitting blows, he said. Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. Now I'm willing to bet most of the people in this room have actually never been punched in the face before, not by Mike Tyson or or anyone. And I don't mean when you're horsing around with, you know, your friends or siblings, things like that, but just really in the context of of a confrontation. I don't know if you have ever been punched in the. Face but. I imagine actually that for most of you. The the deepest hurts and pains that have ever come have been from being punched in the face with harsh words. With unkind, unloving, untrue statements that came from people you love. And perhaps then, more painful and disorienting than a punch from Mike Tyson. It is the things that people have said that. Just ruined your day. You're weak your life. I know. That I have been both the puncher and the punchy in my life, the one that delivered truth, the truth punch to someone's face and just strained or ruined the relationship. As a result. Some of you are. In this room. If any of that sounds like a familiar scenario where you feel like you've been punched in the face by truth, truth sometimes not real truth. Or if you've ever feel. Like you're the one. That likes to deliver truth punches to people's face. I hope today's message will be of some encouragement, perhaps a rebuke to teach us how to deliver the truth. Not like like a. You can punch, but like a bump in the right direction. Because in fact, as Christians who want to grow, we must be committed to being loving truth tellers to one another as a matter of just regular practice is the regular dynamic of Christian. Life this is. The in a way like me preaching a. Message to you. Is presenting the food, but the actual dynamic of you eating it and processing it and it being nutrients for. Your spiritual growth happen. Means in speaking the truth, in love, that that's really where the growth occurs. And so today we'll learn a little bit about how to help each other grow by speaking the truth in love verse 15. Rather speaking, the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way and to him who is the head into Christ. If this word rather which sets it the. Contrast, we just talked about deceptions and deceits and schemes and craftiness, and these are the words and attitudes of a person who's trying to get what they want by subterfuge. By subtle deceptions, well, that is not how we grow as Christians by just trying to get what we want by manipulating people into giving us what we want. Rather we we give what do we give? We give the truth, speaking the truth is actually just one word in Greek. It's a verb. So you could almost conceive of it like truth thing. So we don't have a verbal form of truth, but. The Greek the Greeks did so. You could in a way say say this is true thing in love and well it can mean speaking truth which is in Galatians 416 for example there's a more general sense of just being honest and all of your dealings with people being transparent. Again, the opposite of cunning, craftiness, deceitfulness, and scheming, what God wants is for Christians. To seek unity to pursue Christ's likeness. And because Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. We will not and cannot attain that maturity without being committed. To truth. Now, that doesn't only mean don't speak heresy, don't speak unbiblical things. It means that in all the words that you say to others and all of your attitudes, there's never to be a hint of error. Or intent to deceive. No schemes, no ulterior motives in what you say. It's not just that what you say is technically the truth, but even if you were to tell the truth or just one side of the truth, in order to manipulate someone's opinion. Even though what? You technically said was true. If your heart was to lead them astray, that would still be contrary to this idea of speaking the truth in love. Now, what is love? Harold Honer in his commentary on Ephesians, his epic commentary on Ephesians. Frankly, he says it very simply. Love is to. Seek the highest good in the one loved. It's wanting just wanting to do what's best for others and I'll just add this even at a sacrifice to yourself. So combined with true thing in love, you have this act of being. Transparent and honest with others because you genuinely desire their good. 1st Corinthians 13 four through seven. You're probably familiar with these words. This is how we truth. Paul writes to the Corinthians and 1st Corinthians 13 four or yeah 13 form. Love is patient and. Mind love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things love. Never end. When we speak the truth to others. It is to be saturated marinade soaked in these qualities before you send it out. Before you deliver it to someone else. Truth must be absolutely drenched. In this attitude of seeking the best for someone else, and therefore you will go so far as to question your own motives, why am I saying this? What am I? What am I trying to gain or accomplish? Who am I? Doing this for. This is essential to our dynamic as a church because we live at a time. Where it seems very popular to say. That the truth, you know, facts don't care about your feelings. That the truth is the truth and no matter how you argue with it or deal with it, it's the truth. You know, I'm not doing you any favors to sugarcoat it or to to try and make it more palatable for you. But this is not the way of the Christian it's not the way of the church. And our dealings with each other will see at the end of of this passion for 16, we're trying to build ourselves up in love. Love is the goal too. It's not. Just the means. Of what we do, but it's the goal. And so we cannot ignore that. Why we say something, how we say? It all matters. Has it been drenched, saturated, marinated in truth? Paul continues on to say that we are to grow up in every way and to him who is the head into Christ, the word for grow is a word for organic growth, like that, like a plant that grows out of the ground. A lot of that going on right now with all the rain which is, which is lovely for Southern California, but not lovely if. You know, you got a lawn that you need to weed and take care of, but this actually here the idea of growth is, is that growth of a body, natural growth of a body. This means it's speaking the truth and love is is as basic to our growth as a child needing. Sleep and needing. Food to grow just as basic as that. This is something that characterizes it. It is essential for us to grow, and we should expect to be on the receiving end giving end of speaking the truth in love. Now it's interesting the way that Paul puts this and one some of the reason that this is probably going to be 2 sermons is because. There's a lot of weird. Grammar here and I know you don't quite see it in the English translation, but but Paul was not. Doing English speakers a lot of favors when he was penning this because there's a lot of kind of weird grammar and weird pictures, but you have to think of it like this. Paul says that the Christ is the head right of this body and that this head is both the goal of our growth, like we're trying to be more like Christ. And he's also the source of our growth. So you can think of it like this the the body exist to do the will of the head. Right. The heads in charge. Anything the body does is by direction of the head and to align with what the head wills and wants to do. So the body is growing and it's in unity, and conformity to the head. That's what it means for the head to be the goal for the body's growth of the body, sort of there to serve the purposes. Of the head and what you know, my brain wants to. Do at the same. Time the brain is necessary to coordinate the processes of the body's growth. Our bodies won't grow without a head. Attached to it. So the head is the source of the body's growth because you have all the things going on in your brain that that signals to the rest of your body how to grow. And so. On don't take that. Analogy too far, but that that's the spiritual truth that Paul is trying to get at, that the church has as its source, Jesus Christ. He's the one that brings the church into existence. Without Christ, you don't have a church. He's the source of the existence of the church, and it's continued growth at the same time. The goal of the church is to become more and more like the head Jesus Christ. That's what the body is there for. It is the. The source has its sources. Jesus, it also has this goal as she is all about. Jesus, in other words. So when Paul says that we are to grow up in every way to be like Christ. There's a totality that every aspect of our life is to be formed and conformed to Jesus, because he's our source. He's also our goal. There's no compartmentalization of our lives. I'm just a Christian. When I'm at church or Jesus only has lordship over certain areas of my life or Christianity. Only factors in when I'm dealing with XYZ situations and issues. Rather, Paul is arguing that. Every aspect of our lives and this Church's life is to be in conformity to Jesus, both as a. Source as the head of the body. Just like you don't have and. You don't want. Rogue body parts that just decide to do. Their own thing. You know, just going off, that's that's what cancer and disease is, is when you have body parts that are not wanting to be a part of what the head is doing, so to speak. That's dangerous to the health and life of your physical body, but it's also dangerous to the health and life of the church. Now this also means. Then when you match that up now with this idea of speaking the truth in love, that tells us what kind of truth we're talking about, what kind of truth we're bringing to bear in the lives of others. We want to tell someone something about something. We want to be sure it has to do with Christ's likeness. And not just personal preferences. One of the most. Frustrating things that I saw as a child and now I realize the danger of as a parent is forcing your kids to fit into a mold meaning and and usually this mold is fashioned in the image of the parent or some. Idealized version of the parent, for example, you know I. Washed out AA. Football in high school. So my kid is going. To the NFL. Since I blew it my kid, they're gonna. I'm gonna push him to succeed where I failed. Or, you know, I could have been the best bassoon player in the world, but I got lazy. So my kid is going to be the world's best bassoonist, that sort of thing, right? And so you are doing or if you are very successful. Well, my, my child is going to be just as successful. Just as great as me, that's a very strong temptation, of course. You have. Churches that can be around an identity or personality like that where it seems like you're just trying to create cookie cutter versions of Christians or or the pastor or whatever. But see, Paul is saying the goal is Christ. That is the body that we're trying to conform ourselves to. If I have to bring the truth to someone's life, I need to be very careful that it's not just I have a certain preference. That I'd like everyone to submit to that I like things a certain way, and it'd be nice if everyone got on board with that. I really do have to be able to say. If I'm going to. Occupy a pulpit is to be able to tell you this. Is for the sake of being more like Christ. The only reason I got something to bring to you is that you might grow in Christ. Not Yuri. Likeness, or pick your favorite pastor. Bring the truth and love in every way growing to be. Like Christ, we. Means we're very careful to understand the source. Of the truth you want to say, and the goal of the truth that we want to say, where is it coming from? This idea of of why someone needs to change what they're doing or criticism or concern I have and what is the goal for and if I cannot say the source is Christ likeness, and the goal is Christ. Likeness. Perhaps it ought not to be sad if it doesn't come from God's word and Christ's heart as the source. If it doesn't build Christ's body and fulfill his purposes as the goal. Maybe I don't need to speak that. Truth, even if it's loving so. To speak, or at least you be clear. This is just a personal preference, sure would like your your your tie and shirt to match. You know I have a problem with that. So I'm bringing that up. I came. I came out with a different tie, you know, this morning, Catherine's like. You know. That's that's wear a different tie. I forgot the I forgot the exact wording you said. OK, but you know, that's fine. I know that's her personal opinion, so if you just got a personal opinion, preface it that way. But there's a difference between saying, you know, it really build up the Church of God if you didn't wear that. Be very careful about. That kind of statement, if the Bible doesn't say anyway. Now obviously, when you I'm kind of getting at it. But what's implied when you read between the lines here? Isn't it enough just to be true for each other? Why even add the in love part? Like, isn't it enough just for me to to to tell you the honest? Well, you know the answer. You you can't just tell the truth to people. When it happens to be nice and pleasant, the truth also needs to be told when it's not exactly an easy pill to swallow, which is why we need that in love part. Because after all, most people don't have a problem with the the truth part. Everyone's got an opinion in here. Every everyone has an idea of how things should be, and I will even say most of the time it's biblical. And godly because there's a lot of mature believers in here. But oftentimes we struggle struggle with the in love part that can be elusive, and I don't think this can be reduced to a formula. And maybe you heard of the compliment sandwich, which I guess is you're not supposed to do that anymore. But that's when you say a nice thing, you punch him in the face with the truth and you say. Another nice thing. As if that, like, we'll make them forget that you punch him in the face with the truth, you know. Hey, Larry, you. Thanks for helping out the work day. You do great job mowing the lawn, but you missed the spot. Looks terrible. But you're really good at it, so I know you're going to take care of it. Right, like apparently you're not supposed to do that in business, but there's all kinds of tactics and approaches, you know, spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. So you just, you know, you give them some sweet incentive that will overcome the bad news that you have to give or sometimes it's, I've heard people say, you know, just wound quickly and then you. Focus on fixing it afterwards, right? So just give me the the bad news. Tell me up front. I can take it and then you know, we'll work through it together. You can go to leadership. Training course. There's, you know, the principle of the velvet hammer and things like that. You can go to leadership training courses, get all of that. There's a lot of biblical examples now. This is the part where I I think I'm going to. I'm going to edit myself a little bit so. Excuse me if. I go through this a little bit quickly, but the Bible has tons of examples of course of people speaking the truth and love. And you could go through from Genesis to revelation and see. How this is done and and get lessons from it. But you know what you'll come to understand. There's no like methodology. There's no like, just handle conflicts in this way, or just this is the how you do constructive criticisms as if there's just one way to do it all you have. You know, David, when he sinned. Cuba, you know and and killed Uriah. What did Nathan do? Nathan came up to him, told him a story about a rich man who took the the the lamb of this poor guy and killed it. Ate it. And David was super upset that guy. Should die and. Then Nathan said, what? You're that guy. It's you. Alright, you're the man. So there's there's one way. I mean, you know there I I think you could you could draw lessons out of that, that. Nathan loved David. He loved the Lord as well, and he knew that even if David, who had the power to kill him after. I killed Uriah. It was still a loving thing to do to bring this truth to him, to fear the Lord more than to fear David. I mean, you could draw Prince out of that. You have. You have Jesus talking to the rich young ruler. And Mark 10. Remember him? He believed himself to be a good, righteous man in God's eyes. I've done all the commandments kind of thing, but then the text says that Jesus loved him. And said one thing, you lack go and sell all you possess give to the poor and you have treasure in heaven and come follow me. What does man do? Walks away. He had many possessions. Jesus loved him. And brought this hard truth in front of his eyes, yet without even making one accusation. Speaking the truth in love, I mean it's you don't even have to make an accusation to convict a person. But helping someone to draw a biblical conclusion about himself or herself in a tactful way, or just in one incisive statement that's speaking the truth in love or. Here's the classic example of what looks like just straight punches to the face. Truth bombs. Jesus and Matthew 23. Does not mince words. He accuses the scribes and Pharisees of being hypocrites and whitewashed tombs. He uses kind of some nasty verbiage towards these scribes and Pharisees. But he. Was warning them. Of the consequences of their actions and when he ended that discourse, what did Jesus say? He says Ohh Jerusalem. How long? Like a hen with their chicks to gather you in underneath my wings. Now, this isn't like passive aggressive. Or anything that it means that ultimately Jesus words came from a tender, welcoming heart, not a confrontational 1. It was them who was rejecting Jesus, not the. Other way around? I mean just. This is almost like jarring. How suddenly? Jesus switches to that, so it has to color when you talk about loads, you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. I mean, it has to. Change how we think about that, because the Jesus is a lion right of the tribe of Judah. He's picturing himself as a chicken. Right. If you really think about that, that's like. That's a very bizarre language for a man to use. For one thing, big, tough Carpenter guy, and he's calling himself a hen gathering little chickies in under wing. There's very few images that are kind of more tender than that. And that's after giving really some very harsh statements. But it tells you about Jesus. 's heart. I and it just I I. When I was thinking of that, I just, you know, when was the army? Just imagining if my team. Leader was just chewing us out, right? And then he. Called himself a chicken. Like a hen. I'm so upset right now. I'm like a a Mama hen. That just wants to. Gather you in under my wings, but.

You won't do it.

You know like. There's Jesus like you. See that there is? I don't know if you can say he's frustrated if God can be frustrated. I suppose he. Can, but you can tell that his heart is not like I hate you. I want nothing to do with you. You guys are the worst. When he ends on this very tender picture, very almost bizarre if. You think about it. You can do this all over Scripture and you're going to see. Maybe a 2 step, three-step, five step method for trying to communicate a concern to a sister, or correct a brother on something. But I think there's a reason Paul doesn't give any methodology here. Instead, he just gives the simple qualifier you speak the truth in love. I don't care what. Method you use if you want to call me out on something, tell me a story. Tell me I'm that guy, right? Make an incisive statement about the things that I want and pointed out. Ohh yeah, I am really wanting something sinful or just. Call me names and then hug me. Say it's so frustrating to deal with you sometimes, but I love you so much. I I don't care how you want to approach me, as long as I know that you love me. That's all I need to know. And I know. If I'm if I. Know that the reason you're saying what you're saying to? Me is because you you. Love me? You could say it in the most awkward and offensive way you could butcher your entire approach. But I will get it. I'll understand. I I know that was. Really awful how you said that. I know you. I know you care about me. I think that's a really important lesson in this is that sometimes people really stink at speaking the truth. In love, in very helpful ways, but. If you know that someone loves you when they say it, there's a lot of grace that you should be able to give. I'll also say this. That's why I don't believe in Internet church. Or getting having as a primary means of. Your spiritual growth. People you know, distant, like, just voices on your computer speaking to you. Because how do you know? They love you. They never even met. I don't think that's a healthy way to grow as a Christian is just getting truth from people where you don't know if they really they might in that generic sense of I I love everybody or that generic sense. I love the people. I'm ministering too. But do you think that's really what Paul means? When he's saying that the very basic mechanism and dynamic for churches to grow in unity is speaking the truth in love is that it's like a well, I, you know, I've never met this person. Of course they love me. I don't think so. I think there's a very real sense in which this mandates that we have personal, real, intimate connections with other believers and other Christians, and with pastors and for you to know, I want those kids to know that I love them. I'm willing to. Take the time. Out of the Sunday service to minister that I want them to know personally that I love them, not just remotely. Of course the Pastor loves everyone. Now what if? Someone gives you the truth without any love. Now the truth is the truth, and that's something to agree with the. Person on, but maybe the next. Thing to talk about is the lack of love. And I appreciate you telling me that you're right. You're right. That was. That was a really bad thing I did. But do you hate me now? I I get the sense that you don't really like me, that this is not a personal thing. It's not just the you want to correct anything. Can we talk about our relationship? Because again, in verse 16, the goal isn't we're not just trying to correct everyone's behavior. The goal of the. Church is not just that everyone lines up and and is acting and behaving in this moral way, and that we're all just conforming to like some conservative moral ethic or something. The goal is to be built up in love. So if you hear the truth from someone and it doesn't feel like it was marinated, soaked, drenched in love, I I think the hard thing to do, the mature thing to do is say, yeah, you're totally right about that. And I'm so sorry. I was wrong. Can we just talk about, you know? You know our our relationship, I mean is there, you know is this creating a rift between us? Is there any love lost between us? How can I show that? I love you. It's because it's. Not just about, like, getting people to behave a certain way, trying to be built up in love. Now I will say that while there may not be any right methodology, you know one step, 2 step, three-step process to confronting someone or or sharing concern with someone. What generally isn't an option is saying nothing. What the Bible doesn't really have too much of a category is if truth needs to be told to a person. Not doing anything about it or running away from it or or or giving cold shoulders. Those aren't an. Option, at least not for a biblically mature. Believe her. I don't know how it is in other churches. I can only speak to our church family here. And I've been here for pretty much my entire adult life. But I would say we've got a pretty. Conflict averse crowd. In here, meaning we do, we tend to do you guys and I too tend to do all we can to avoid conflict. Which is good. It's good to no, not like head. Go headlong into a confrontation with someone. But what I've seen is when conflicts do arise, and I'm sure this is true for a lot of churches. But I am speaking to ICC. Reconciliation is often a battle for you guys. For me, too, if that reconciliation is even sought at all. And I've seen people literally run away. Leave the church rather than speak the truth in love. And think that's can be very harmful. Overall to a church we can't grow, you understand? Like if we don't speak the truth and love to each other, we cannot grow as. The church. So while it might seem like a good thing if you have a conflict with someone, either to not say anything or just you know what, I'm just gonna leave. I don't want to be someone who creates conflict. I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna leave. That actually doesn't help the church grow speaking the truth and love helps the church grow. But just. Saying nothing. It's actually harmful to our growth. In other words. We and I am again, including myself here, can sometimes be more interested in peace, faking than peace making. And Paul is saying here that if we really want to grow as a Christian. We want to really be united as a church. We need to. Be in a regular habit and pattern of speaking the truth in. Love to each other. And if you don't feel like you're an expert on any of these things that you, you, you, you don't have any right to say these things or you're just ornery person and you're never going to be able to, you know, say something nicely or kindly, I think Paul would say, it's worth working on. Again, the truth part, I think all of us have done pretty good. You know your Bibles most everyone here knows their. Bibles pretty well. But seeing the necessity of speaking it in love, that can be hard. If I ask you how many of you want to grow in Christ likeness, raise your hand. I hope everyone would raise their hand. And if I said how many of you then are willing to have difficult but necessary conversations with others, I hope your hands would stay up. I'm not going to embarrass anyone. Now I want to end on on God see. Let me tell. You being God, has a lot of perks.

To it.

It's a nice thing to be God's nice thing to be God, and one of those perks is that everything he does is in perfect harmony. Congruity. With all of his other attributes, so Jesus can be wrong to you, scribes and Pharisees and. Jerusalem, Jerusalem. I'm I'm Mama. Chicken just wanting to bring you in. I mean, he can he. Can do that perfectly. It's just a perk of being God that he can bring righteous indignation, even wrath, and be loving somehow, someway when he. Does it? Is very difficult for us finite beings here on this side of heaven. To accomplish that, but consider this in Jeremiah 2329. God is speaking through the Prophet. And, he says is not my word. Like fire declares Yahweh. And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. That doesn't seem very. Loving at all. Right, for a hammer to to break people in pieces, the word of God is like a hammer. But I love what RC Sproul says about this passage. God's hammer smashes not just the icons of the world around us. It also smashes the idols of my heart. It is hard, heavy, even painful, precisely because of the love of the one who wields it. He has promised to forgive me for my hard heart, but has also promised to soften it. What if the dangerous thing? Is your hard heart. And what if it takes? Truth to crack it? To break those idols. Is it not then a loving thing? For the truth to come into your life. Job 1315 Job says though he slay me, I will hope in. And then he says. Yet I will argue my defense, because on the one hand, he absolutely trusts that even to. The point of. God taking his life there is love behind it. And there's a reason and a purpose. But of course, job at that point in his in his, in his testimony in the Book of Job. But I would love just a chance to defend my case. Uh, but I appreciate just that idea, though he slay me, I will hope in him. This is like saying and I I was debating whether to to close on this on this kind of image. But there's a sense basically where you know if if Mike Tyson was there. And he needed to punch me in the face. But I knew. That he loved me. I know this is. Awkward, but you. Know there's a spiritual lesson here, but if I trusted him and knew that he was doing this. For a good reason. There's a reason why I needed to be. Punched in the face. I mean, I'd be OK with that. I'd be OK with that. But it only works if I. Know absolutely. Trust that he loves me, you know. Well, even greater God. We know he loves us because he sent Jesus Christ his own son, to die for our sins. That's the proof of his love. What more could he do to demonstrate his love for us? Therefore, if we feel like we get punched in the face, by God. We need to be like job and know that there's gotta be a reason for it, even if I don't see it right now. And likewise, then as a church. We feel like we're going to. Bring truth to someone's life.

We need.

To make certain that we've demonstrated as best as we can that this has been soaked, marinated, drenched in love, and that this person knows that I love. Him that's key. You can make it awkward. You could do it poorly. I know you love. I'm gonna take it well. So I hope that this is helpful. I know this is just half of a sermon. You know, the other half is going to have to save till till next time it's going to fill it out a little bit. But I did want to take the time just to open that door. If you have problems, issues, concerns, criticisms.

You need to. Bring them.

Up to whoever you. Have the problem, even if it's me. This is the kind of thing that's very dynamic and mechanism for churches to grow, so we can't shy away from that. We can't say no, we don't do that. Can't say ohh. My, you know, culturally, you know, I I just not comfortable with confrontations. I'm just not gonna do it. It's disobedience to the Lord, and it's going to hurt yourself, so consider. I hope this morning. How you can grow in this regard now, if you're not a Christian this morning. You do have a. Truth punch in the face. The your Sinner. That you need the forgiveness of God, but God and his love is not just trying to bring pain and suffering for no reason, but rather he is calling us to see the consequences of sin in this world and in our lives. And saying there is a way there. Is a hope. Through Jesus and his bloodshed for us, there's love and those painful truth bombs. So he's calling you. If you're not a Christian. To put your. Faith in him. Trust him that he loves you and he showed it by sending his son to die on the cross for your sins.