Week 9 - Life In Community, The Gathering

Living life in community. There's there's so many aspects to this and we're going to cover this in in 3 weeks really to about living life and community in the third one is what we do have our purpose in community discipleship in an evangelism. So just to give you the next few weeks this week. We're going to talk about the Gathering why we are here why it's important and what we do with the local church Gathering and then next week is the life, you know, Fellowship accountability confession discipline things like that sort of the life of the church outside of Sunday morning. There's a lot that goes into this we looking scripture for a lot of examples of what it means to be a body. I mean about you know, how we are body and if one part hurts the whole body hurts and how we should Rejoice with each other and we through with those who weep. So there's there's a lot we could do. I'm so I hope this morning we can set the groundwork. We can be edified through through what I bring and hopefully I have the time to do it if I will shut up and get on with it. So you may have seen as I skip one ahead Mark chapter 1 by coincidence this last week. I found some of my earliest knows I try to keep everything organized, but I do not another computer and I thought I think I've lost some of my early notes when I started here three and a half years ago, but one of the very first messages, if not my first message on Sunday morning of the first Sunday of 2015 was from Mark chapter 1 verses 14 to chapter 2, but in this weary this Mark chapter 1 verse 16 as he's beginning his ministry as he was going along by the Sea of Galilee. He saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net in the sea for they were fishermen and Jesus said to them follow me and I will make you become. Fishers of Men immediately they left their Nets and followed him going on a little further. He saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother who were also on the boat mending their Nets immediately. He called them and they left their father's everybody in the boat with the hired servants and went away to follow him. So we can see here. It's Jesus is preaching you wearied of him early preaching in the synagogues. There's other accounts from the gospels that really lend itself to the idea that they did a lot of the disciples probably knew Jesus already yoga per diem welding important town on the North Shore of Galilee it in, Crossroads. It wasn't a huge Town know there was one synagogue, you know, it wasn't like our churches today. You didn't have you by different synagogues on a street corner. And so Jesus taught in the synagogue they knew him but here as he's preaching we see him Gathering people. We see him collecting people to himself Gathering them calling them out and creating Community around himself. So Jesus at the very beginning of that Jesus recognize the importance of community the importance of creating that around oneself and we should to we shouldn't think that we're you know, Jesus mother needed that but I'm okay. No, we were meant for this life. We were meant for gathering together in community this week near my studies a song Elantra song can be a guy named Josh Halloran. He's out of Denver a line one of his songs. He says I play the fool again to think that I have to do this on my own. If you think you have to do this on your own, you've got it wrong. It is funny that that line comes the name of the song is stubborn. I play the fool again to think that I have to do this on my own but we can't we can't do this on our own we were never meant to do this on our own and if we had a greater realization a better recognition of community rather than individualism, you know, we kind of have that in our our country. I mean, it's America, you know, we strike out and do it on our own and we have is real individualistic idea. But if we had a bitter better recognition of the importance of community, we would rely Is that that the Christian Life is is not doing it on our own it's not being by ourselves doing it on our own and this includes relying on God and his strength, but it very much in clue just not doing it on our own a very much includes relying upon our brothers and our sisters and their strengths as well. And I told you I'd mention it because there's some good stuff I wasn't able to talk about this week but Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book life together a really great book really small so it's and rereading it. I already first time for like 10 years ago and there's some things in there. Like, I don't know like I know what are some good stuff in some things. I wasn't sure about bit a second reading out. I've grown a little bit. It's even better than it was the first time and he says here the physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable. Joy and strength to the believer. The believer feels no shame as though he were still living too much in the flash when he yearns for the physical presence of other Christians. Man was created a body the Son of God appeared on Earth in the body. He was raised in the body in a Sacrament the believer receive the Lord Christ in the body and the resurrection of the Dead will bring about the perfected Fellowship of God spiritual physical creatures. The Prisoner the sick person the Christian and Exile sees in the companionship of a fellow Christian a physical sign of the gracious presence of the Triune God that's a big stats a big statement. Let me read it again the prisoner the sick person the Christian and Exile season the companionship of a fellow Christian a physical sign of the gracious presence of the Triune God we guys are Christ to each other we visit we Comfort we weep with those who weep we Rejoice with those who Rejoice we are that sign of God to each other. Visitor and visited in loneliness recognizing each other the Christ to his present in the body. They receive and meet each other is when we to the Lord in reverence humility and joy You see we need each other. We need each other for strength for encouragement. But also for growth the Proverbs 27:17 iron sharpens iron as one man sharpens another we need this strength encouragement but growth and what's our cut one of our key words route to study formation. Formation. This spiritual life is Divine Life. The spiritual disciplines are our formation into the image of Christ and Community. Does that very thing? So if you want to look over the First Peter chapter 2 This else idea has iron sharpening iron. They got me going on. This really neat image that Peter uses. Peter says that's not just read. I'll read the whole thing. because the context is great and then we'll get to the point towards the end there for And if you're interested about what they're for is there for ghoul re chapter one so chapter 2 verse 1 there for putting aside all malice and all the seat and hypocrisy and envy and all slander like newborn babies long for the pure milk of the word so that buy it you may grow in respect to Salvation. If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord and coming to him as a living Stone, which has been rejected by men but his choice and precious in the sight of God. You also are living stones being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices like Paul's As Romans 12:2 offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. We are Stones being built up together to AA spiritual house. So in addition to strength and encouragement, we gather together we meet together. We have Community for formation because what happens when you take stones and you try putting them together to build a solid house or if you're going to be any sort of solid you're going to need to be square stones at an end and stones and even just round Stones as they rub together what happens when you rub two rocks together that have a bunch of edges bunch of rough edges the edges start to chip off break off and rub off and they start to look like each other where they get together and they start to be able to fit together better, but what is required What is required for two stones that are you know, couple Blockheads to stones after rough edges what is required for them to be in a fit together? They have to lose a little bit of themselves. And this is where I love and I shared this before but I love this picture. This is from late for Century early 2nd Century. So run the time of the the Apostle John this was written and this is called the shepherd and buy her moss and he has a series of visions and it's for edification and instruction and he has this Vision hear about at our being constructed he see something and he sees a great tower being built upon the waters out of shining Square stones and the tower was being built in a square by 6:00 young men who'd come with her the person leading them through the vision and countless other men were breeding bringing Stones some of them from the deep and some from the land and they were giving them to the six Young. And they were taking them and they were building. But I'll skip it been here says but other Stones were brought in from the dry land and some were thrown away and some they placed in the building and others they broke into pieces and through far from the tower many other Stones were lying around the tower and they were not using them for the building for some of them were damaged. Another has had cracks and others were too short and some wear white and round and did not fit into the building. I wanted to get a picture about the right here. The first car that says that they fit one another so closely that the joints were not visible and the structure of the tower looked as if it were built of a single Stone K. They fit so tightly together the this building a structure which is a a chapel a a place of worship, but it looks as if it was built As one stone as I want to look for a picture to give you guys something like this and I came across this and somebody here and cut 1st Peter chapter 2. We just read you come together as a living stones like living stones are being built into a spiritual house will look at those stones. They weren't required to change very much where they they weren't required to change. They were stuck together as they were nothing is required of them and you have this a structure to be sure but a solid structure I would not lean too hard against that but that's not the picture that Peter wants to present. This is not the picture. We see of The Shepherd of her Moss instead what made me think it made me think I was the temple Yo, we in this this today to Thousand Years Later. Look at these Stones. They use for the temple. They fit so tightly they were as one stone. Here's a close-up picture to Sears ago. They fit Stones together this tightly, but what was it what was required of that? How did they do this through a lot of work through losing some of the rough edges losing as a Shepherd says losing some of their selves and I I miss that part. I'm going to know well, I memorize the guy asks what how are they going to be able to be fit together? And the guide says just the round Stone cannot become Square unless it loses some portion of itself. So guys this is what we do and communal Community does to us we're going to fit together as Peter says into this building to spiritual House ruby built up his living stones into a spiritual house. We must lose some of ourselves. We must be rid of Pride rubbing up against other people. You'll either break them or be broken or you give up your pride. You'll give up your self-sufficiency. You'll give up your me first attitude. These are some of the rough edges that have to be trimmed away if we're going to be fit together for the spiritual house. So again, we need each other and this is why we get together Hebrews chapter 10, you know, this fact that the phrase here is what usually happens the phrase of a scripture comes to me. I'm like, yes, I'll go look it up and then the context makes it all the better. So you guys know this phrase about you. Let us not forsake the assembling of assembling together as is the habit of some but listen to the whole thing. Let us hold fast the confession of Our Hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and to Good Deeds not forsaking the assembling together as is the habit of some but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day Drawing Near to be participants not to forsake but to partake not yet not to forsake but to partake to participate in the life of the church Until We Gather on Sundays on a day of rest right as a day to rest we gather together to Worship the Lord together. And so Sunday is not just a day of rest. What is the day of a fellowship for we gather together? And approach God together. This is the Gathering where we do everything that we do throughout the week the spiritual disciplines, right and just give me the second part of our message today where we do all those things that we do together where we come and do them together, but talking about rest. I came across this quote it the other day about a young man. His name is Cody Jacob. I was talking with a few years ago. We were talking about Sabbath and what it is to rest and in Kodi says this yeah, but it's not a day to sleep in its a day to go to church and to rest your soul. You're right. Sunday is a day of rest, but it's not a day to sleep in a day to be lazy today to go to church and rest your soul. And so again, we talked about the being countercultural. Right we have to do we have to always have to be going to have to be doing something and it's problematic to live in this cultural atmosphere that does not encourage rest. Another quarter. I found says that Sunday is a day of protest against the servitude of work and the worship of money you like that Sunday is a day of protest against the servitude of work in the worship of money and we do it on Sunday. We don't do it on Saturday, but we do it on Sunday because that's the day that the Lord rose early in the church, you know, you read they met in the synagogues right in that church and synagogue, but Sunday when they met together for their communal their communal meal and then it was called The Parting of the ways where we where we in Judaism really there became that difference would happen is we continue meeting on Sunday. We incorporated everything we did it in the synagogue that the church practice but we did it on Sunday because it maintained that place of prime importance for us Ignatius. You remember him he wrote seven letters to different churches and he was a disciple the Apostle John he wrote this we live according to The Lord's day or we live under the observance of the Lord's Day on which our life has also written. How could we ever live without it? We worship on that day when Christ he says our life has risen, how could we ever live without it? It is again. Like I said, it's a prime importance is not just something we could do if we feel like it. I mean, I guess we do whatever we want but we really need to live in accordance with with David community. And we see in the early church the it's important. I just a few years will 200 years later in the the persecution under Diocletian. There is a a person of the house the the priest of the house the presbyter saturnine is answers the door at this guy's house. And and they say you you're not. This is an unlawful Gathering. You're not supposed to be here any diseases. What are you guys doing here? And he says we have been celebrating. What is the Lord's he says we have we have done this because that which is the Lord's cannot cease so they were under the threat of persecution of death for getting together and can't be one of those things where they're like, You know, we really don't have to do it this way. Right the wrongs don't want us to do this. You know what let's just go out in the country. Let's just sneak off under a tree and let's sit around talk about Jesus. Let's just go out there and grab the fishing pole and go out on the lake. I commune with Jesus out there. No under the threat of death, they met together. So the guards at this point they want to talk to the person who owned the house Emeritus and so they pull him out and ask him. Why did you let these people you can't be letting people in your house and he says this he was told you had to forbid them entry and he said I could not for without the Lord's day. We cannot exist. Without the Lord's day. We cannot exist was so important to them to be gathered together. And here's another quote somebody talking about this. This is not some arduous obedience to the law which the church impose coming to church is not an obedience to a law that has been imposed butts in an expression of interior necessity and desire. It points to that which has become the sustaining Center of one's existence of one's entire being. It indicates something that has become so important that it must be done out of the feeling of great inner security and freedom, even at the risk of one's life. It's something that we wouldn't do it on Sundays because we have to we don't come to church because we have to but just as damn it's an expression. I must it's an interior designer and interior compulsion, but we are still sometimes we drag our butts out of bed. Yes. I said but from the pulpit we drag ourselves out of bed and we say do I have to go to church today when it should be a passion something. That's all consumed the center of one's existence. So why what makes it that important and it's going to be the second thing we talked about. What do we do? What is it that we do here? That makes it so important I need to do we come to sing a few songs. So we we liked songs we come because we like giving our money away. Why do we come here? And that will tell us why is it is of prime importance? So the purpose then of the Gathering just make sure I didn't skip something the purpose of the Gathering of Us coming together is to encounter God. Yes, I know we pray we talked about it's what we've been talking about the whole time we can do this in our house, right? I encourage you will. I studied then to to be in your home to be praying to be reading God's word. Yes, we can do that. We've also been called out. That is what church means the Greek word. Ekklesia at coleto is be called out at out aletto to call we've been called out. So we are called to be here together so that we can encounter God to meet Christ here and the result of that just like with the spiritual disciplines with talking about the result. The purpose of that is the growth of the believer. It's our transformation. There's are being turned into a stone that can fit together. And so I want to go back. I want to take a look at some of the disciplines we talked about and how we do that corporately now. That's what church is really practicing the disciplines corporately but I want us to remember that with our disciplines with with the the prayer the fasting worship personal time and worship study of gods were the purpose is transformation to the image of God into as a pulse As Romans 8 and to the image of his Divine son. It is for us to become like Jesus. So the call will use this in our section and worship. I want us to look at it again. So I'm 95. It's just the first few vs 2 vs O come let us sing for Joy to the Lord. Let us shout. Joyfully to the rock of our Salvation. Let us come before his presence with Thanksgiving. Let us shout. Joyfully to him with songs. Now we talked about this during prayer, but we're going to see it for all the other disciplines that they are all meant to be corporate as well corporate. I don't mean like no Corporate America and in Starbucks the hell I mean corporations. I mean as a body Community corporately we do these thing to take a look at this like we did with the prayer with the Lord's Prayer O come let us sing. Let us shout. Let us come before his presence. Let us shout. Joyfully to him. You see again. It's let us do this. It's not an individualistic idea. We do this together as well. And so we have that we have prayer. Our Father who is in heaven Hallowed be your name our father verse 11, give us this day our bread forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors lead us not into temptation, but Deliver Us We pray and like when we we talked about this there is there should be individual prayer you and the Lord talking together, but in our very model of prayer, it's us it's corporate. It's all of us together and in study, but we back to 1st Peter chapter 2. He says like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word so that buy that you may grow in respect of Salvation. So with worship which will come back to again in a minute we started there was some 95 in prayer we do it corporately study as well long for the pure milk of the word so that buy it you may grow in respect to Salvation. If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord see our study also is not to be done in isolation. I love this quote. I almost had it memorized but I'm going to put it down here I put down here cuz I'm a goober. I forget things but Christopher Hall in his book reading scripture with a church father says this How can we hope to understand the Bible if we needlessly cut ourselves off from our own communities reflection and history. We need one another and each other's insights past and present if we are to understand the Bible and this is why we have Pastor teachers. This is why we have commentaries. This is why we have Bible studies. This is why we have Sunday School. So that way we learn from each other isolationism is danger ISM there write that one down isolationism is dangerous. This is how you. People like Charles Taze Russell and the Jehovah's Witnesses. This is how you have Joseph Smith who went off what alone into the what woods and prayed what Lord which one of these are right? And he says none of them. Let me give you a new one. There you go is your Mormonism this isolate isolation leads to Mormonism. There you go. You have your isms younger your rhyming now that we work together. We study together we grind together and we work together to understand and to encounter the word of God together. And that's Sunday morning Gathering you'll we'll talk more about other things like, you know outside the walls, but within our context here, that's why we give Primacy to the word of God here because Long for the pure milk of the word why so that we may grow height growth transformation in respect to Salvation. So we might grow and so God speaks here Sunday mornings. Hopefully, hopefully I get out of the way enough that you can hear him and not just me. I hopefully my time spent in studying in in Desperate pleading with him God. I got nothing you got them. You got to got this cuz I got hopefully this submission to him hopefully God speaks, but if nothing else I'm speaking his word and he can speak to you through his word as well. So he speaks here until study. We study corporately I'll get back to that. Sorry, I didn't give away. But so also what were some of our other disciplines fasting. Well, I don't have a couple examples but I don't have it up on the board Isaiah Chapter 58 again Israel fasting but not fasting rightly not fasting for the Lord and the Lord calls him on the carpet Isaiah 58 and he says is this a day that I fast for you to just like throw dirt on your heads and and bl pitiful of stuff know this is the type of fast I choose and it goes into talking about corporate actions actions of service along with the fasting and this is why is 1 aspects of Lent and that's something you know, I know mine is Ash Wednesday in Catholic, but it's not just a Catholic thing three-quarters of the world celebrate lent together Eastern Orthodox Catholics anglicans. Lutheran's a lot of Methodist. Do I know Marty up here? At the Methodist Church does a lot of Presbyterians do lent is a time of corporate fasting where your fasting together with the entirety of the church with all the rest of your brothers and sisters. It's a beautiful thing so we can fast together corporately as well and the service we talked about last week our last one didn't mention any corporate practice of a service, but I think it kind of goes in hand in hand and we talked about doing things as a church we meet the needs of the needy weed or block party. We're hopeful that is a form of service. Hopefully we're serving the community. as a service all of the spiritual disciplines we get together and we do together. We do life together. And so one of the things that I think we think most about I'm going to come back to worship here. We think the most about in regards to Sunday. What we do corporately is worship. Do we come together and we don't just sing because we know singing isn't worship singing a singing you're not going to tell me that you know that the Beatles were up there worshiping God they're singing where is it is not just singing singing is not worship. But again as the offering of yourself to God we think of Sunday mornings are time of worship. But the Heart of Worship You Remember The Heart Of Worship Is sacrifice Romans 12:1. It's a sacrifice of ourselves coming to Christ laying ourselves on the altar as a Living Sacrifice that is your spiritual service of worship. And so that gift of yourself that that reciprocal gift of self back to God as he is giving himself to us. So to hear in the Gathering worship is still The gift of ourselves to God he see we have in our IR mind as idea of what we can get out of church we come we should come prepared to give that's worship. But we off and we have that phrasing. I didn't get anything out of the service. How much did you give how much did you surrender to the Lord? Then we go around searching for the the service that suits our needs but it's it's easy to fall into that trap because that's how we've been thinking about church for a long time now. That's how we think about church so much rather than God's gift to us as I only go see what I can get. Let me go see what that that passed was going to say today what I can get out of it. Rather than what I can give us like like we talked about you weren't here. So I'm going to like this birthday. I just want to clean house. That's what I want for my birthday. But we all bought her stuff and didn't give her a clean house. We made the boys clean up but it's like often times our mom would say that and what do we do? Cuz I can I do something else can't I just buy you something and get it over with and when you do that like we talked about when you do that, that gift is not about them. Is it a gift about you you did what you wanted that was not a gift for them. You're giving them a gift for yourself and so like that when we come to church looking to see what we can get out of it. We're not worshipping God. We're not focused on God that we focus on what I can get and it shows that my heart doesn't really belong to him. It still belongs to me because I want what I get. I'm not yet given up. Yet sacrifice myself on the altar because I'm coming to get a meal I'm coming up. So if I'm not yet sacrificed that you'd given myself. I'm not yet worshiped. So are we worshipping on Sunday morning? I was a question for you. Are you are you just coming to sing a good song? Are we worshipping so with this idea and this idea of what we're ship really is. I want you to realize that Styles can vary for not coming here to see what I can get for what I can give her. We're coming for an encounter with God and to place ourselves at his feet then all of a sudden all these questions about style of worship kind of Fall by the wayside both in like, you know, we have our own little our own little liturgy. You know, we we we sing We Do announcements we pray we sing or we give we sing we do this we go home we have our own set. But yeah other churches have different ways of doing different different orders for senior Church of God churches where everything sent you these responsorial Psalm you have everything going in the same way. We're no different from them really ours is just we just pick what we wanted to but style cherkin very If it's not about you, you can go to any church and worship if it's not about you. I don't know they didn't have any drums or rock and roll. I didn't really worship. What's your fat? I went to that church and all they did was sing hymns. And and it it was just wasn't my thing my thing my knee. That's your fault because worship is not about worship is about you laying your feet yourself at God's feet. And so if you're looking for a Snappy tune, you looking for entertainment you're looking for the wrong thing. There's a song a Christmas song and in the middle of it. It's a refrain actually, it's unfortunate. She says it more than once and you know what? It bugs me. Don't let it bug you but she says going to Get My Worship On which grumpy cat says no. No, that's not know. You ain't going to get your worship on worship is not get something you get on worship is something you do for the Lord where you give yourself to the Lord, but I'm not I'm not saying ask before I'm not saying drums. We had to drive up here Cody did some drums once and we can practice more we'll get some drums, you know, and he'll guitar and style is one thing. I'm not saying it has to be boring. But maybe it's not about conforming worship to your style maybe not conforming that to you and your needs but conforming yourself to worship. Maybe that itself is an act of submission. Where you lay down yourself and say, you know what? I may not necessarily like the style of music music but it's not about this style. I'm going to get myself to God. Maybe it's about conforming myself to what worship His rather than trying to get it to conform to what I desire. It's not about what you desire what God desires. So maybe in order to learn this lesson of submission. Am I do is good to sit and services. We don't necessarily dig the music with go to some loud music and stuff and say, you know what? It is good for me to be here cuz I'm learning to worship cuz it's not about the music I might do is good to sit and services that are focus more on God rather than what we desire that aren't necessarily entertaining in and of themselves are entertaining a quart or own preferences because it's not about us. it's not supposed to be about us worship is not what we get out of it, but we give to God and We want to give our best we want to give our cell and here's what makes this time. Beautiful. Here's what makes this time this corporate Gathering beautiful as we get to come and we get to do it together. There's one thing and you should Worship in your home in the quietness of your own house or the loudness. We should worship that way but the beauty of it is that we get to come and do it together. We get to come and offer ourselves corporately as a fragrant Aroma as a sacrifice to the Lord together. And there's one more thing and I got the time so I want it I want it. I wanted the time for this. I'm glad I have the time there's another thing that we haven't talked about that is worship that we do as a community as well. And those are the sacraments communion baptism these things that we do together and that word Sacrament. You might hear the Sakura right in their sacred. It is something sacred that we do with each other and to the Lord. In fact now that I think about it, I don't know include a broader range of sacraments New York Methodist Presbyterian course Catholic and Orthodox, but I'm trying to think now I don't I don't know if you can categorize any of the sacraments as individualistic. I don't I ate all corporate her to Pastor tell a parishioner that a communion is between you and God for the context was going to say don't worry about it. Community is just between you and God that's not right. All right, respectfully to that past and I don't even remember who it was. It was in my notes from years ago. When I was writing notes on different things communion has never been an individualistic thing communion is always been a communal Gathering communal offering to the Lord communion with those who surround you and like we talked about so many times with those who have gone before us they we've been celebrating the sacrament since the beginning of the time. It's at the birth of the church. This is one consistent think our brothers and sisters from all ages. We do this together and today our brothers and sisters across this world. We all celebrate this together and just like then Sunday was essential without the Lord's day. We cannot exist communion was essential to the early church. They would also say without this we cannot exist. It was Central to them and I've I've a lot of churches do a weekly have a friend. Who is Pastor of a Reformed Church. He planted the church actually when he when he was very adamant. He wanted to do communion every week. You want to do it every week because of its importance in that other people I've heard so, you know, well, yeah, you can't do that because then it starts to lose its meaning I don't think so like pretty little lady over there. I give her a kiss every day and 20 years. It's not lost its meaning. You know, when I kiss her it's it still has its meaning is an expression. What's what is it? It's an expression of love. Right and it does not lost its meaning so perhaps if we saw Community is an expression of love. That wouldn't lose its meaning And that's exactly what it is. It's an expression of love. And when you look at it that way it will always retain its significance because because because what's their right what's in communion? It's the gift of Christ to us. We see him sacrifice for us. It's our worship as we give ourselves to him and that again friends is the ultimate definition expression of Love is the gift of oneself for another and so when we do it that way, so perhaps the problem is perhaps the problem is that we love too little Pat's kiss my wife. I quit doing it because I love too little. So that's true with any of this. I will keep a closer this what with any of this we talked about this morning through prayers worship and sing songs scripture is sit around and read words does look at her page right and not get not get anything out of it. Right? So any of this can lose its meeting when it becomes wrote and perhaps that's the case perhaps we don't dig worship because we love too little because not no longer about love, but it's about Duty, right? And so we love to little that. I don't put this. For the one who loves no amount of information of knowledge of experience of the other is enough. If I love my wife. I can never know too much about her always want to know more always want to experience her in her thoughts more and more and so with God if we love We love God, we can never get enough. We can never know enough. We can never experienced enough and what love wants more than anything guys. This is true invisible relationships. This is true of love, but love wants more than anything is Union with the Beloved. What loved ones more than anything is Union with the Beloved and so God doesn't want us to tell us that he loves us just to tell us I love you. I love you not to just give us his word, but he wants to give us gifts. He wants to give us himself. And what God wants from you is nothing last he wants true worship. He doesn't just love you. He wants you we often think that the church is about obligation. I got to go but God says it's about love. So earlier I asked why is this why is it so important? Right? Hopefully there's a little bit for you. Hopefully there's a little bit so you can see that through all of these things through all of these these things that we do the disciplines practice corporately that God meets us here in a special and unique way. Yes, you can meet with God chill in your room. That's what we've been talking about for 8 weeks, but he calls us out your ekklesia called out the Greek word though, Hall not just telling me just call. But I mean called together means an assembly so we have been called out. We've also been called together and he's called us together so that he might meet with us in a special and unique way. And so that we as a body my offer ourselves up and worship in a special and unique way corporately participating in worship together participating in the Divine life together. So we might be transformed together. Together let's pray. Or we thank you so much for calling us out and calling us together Lord. We thank you for your work of iron sharpening Iron Stone molding Stone Lord. We ask that you would help us to be conformed to your image that you we might be made into a useful Stone to be built up into the spiritual house sitting together perfectly and Lord where we are rough on the edges help us work with our brothers and sisters to have those edges rubbed off. Lord where we are to round help us lose some of ourselves so that we might become straight so that we might become profitable to the building. Or we thank you so much for calling us for transforming us into that stone to be fitted. We thank you for your work that you do Lord. We ask that you increase our love so that we might participate in this work. Lord we love you so much. We thank you so much over and over again. Help us live this this week Lord in our lives remind us Empower us strengthen us and help us eat that strength and encouragement from each other as well. We ask these things Lord in your name. Amen.