One Anothering, Part 2

[0:00] All right, we are in a series called One Anothering.! One Anothering in the New Testament specifically that use that term one another to talk about how we as the body of Christ should care for one another.

[1:09] Just to list off a handful the Bible says to love one another, to be kindly affectionate to one another, to receive one another, to serve one another, to bear one another's burdens to bear with one another to forgive one another, to comfort each other to edify one another, to exhort one another to consider one another and then even to confess your sins to one another.

[1:42] And so as a local church we want to foster a culture of one anothering here in this in this small body.

[1:54] We want to have close relationships and that's what's really required in order to care for others. You have to be really in close proximity. It's hard to care.

[2:05] There are believers all over the world, right? And we are part of the body of Christ universal the body of Christ that is global all over the world but we're not able to do much to care for those who are in Malawi for example Brooke Seekins will be here in a couple weeks and she has that opportunity to care for believers that are in Malawi.

[2:27] For us it's a little harder to do we can support her and her work but we have a duty and a call from the Lord to one another to care for each other in the local body that we're a part of.

[2:43] And so this four week series is really just casting a vision for that and looking at what that looks like in detail. Last week we just kind of looked at a big picture of what does one anothering look like.

[2:58] Today we are going to look at a specific part of one anothering and that's about building one another up. Building one another up. In the next couple of weeks we're going to look at serving one another and then finally at really about Christian unity which requires a lot of forgiveness and things like that.

[3:23] I want to start off with a few questions like we we did last week. I'll just pause and give a few moments but I've got what I've got about three questions here just to think about as we get into this topic.

[3:39] Is there somebody somebody in your life in the past who has really helped open up the Bible to you? Has helped you understand the Bible?

[3:49] The Bible can be a challenging book at times. Some things are easy to understand. It's pretty apparent from what you read and other things can be more challenging. Is there somebody who's been in your life whether it's somebody that you know personally or maybe somebody from afar.

[4:03] They wrote a book watched videos whatever it was that really helped open up the Bible to you? Could have been when you were a child or maybe as an adult.

[4:18] Another question. Can you think of a time in your life when you were just really discouraged? Whatever is going on you were just discouraged.

[4:29] You weren't sure how you were going to make it through something. Or you were just dejected. And somebody came along whether it was something big or something small did something to come alongside you and encourage you along the way.

[4:52] And then the third question. Was there a time where somebody took the opportunity as difficult as it was to provide some correction in your life?

[5:07] I'm sure many of us can think of when we were younger hopefully our parents were involved in that to some degree. But maybe as an adult where you were off the narrow path in some way and somebody came alongside and said hey we need you to get you back on the straight and narrow.

[5:28] Could have been something small or maybe something quite big? As you think through those questions I'd like to consider I'm expecting to leave time at the end if you'd like to share something in which you answered these questions by.

[5:53] So think about that and consider that towards the end. As we talked about last week there are God created 2,000 years ago when Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world this new group this new group formed because of what Christ did for us.

[6:15] We've always had families we've always had governments there are different institutions and clubs that you can join but God created a special group that we call today the body of Christ the body of Christ and what a it's kind of a funny name for a group we use that term body right a body of people quite often but the body of Christ what does that mean?

[6:39] It's a term that's used many times throughout the scriptures Romans 12 4 is one that we'll look at here it says this for as we have many members in one body it's talking about us individually we have lots of body parts that's what it means by members in one body but all the members or all the parts do not have the same function so we being many we as a group of believers being many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another there's that phrase again one another we are all members of one another and that applies to the church globally but even more so to a local body of believers that group called the body of Christ people that have been joined to it's like a family it's different in some ways than a natural family but the spiritual family that we have is similar in many ways we all share the same faith and the same hope in the Lord for the future we are a spiritual family and we are invested in one another and called to care for each other just like a natural family would care for one another and today like I said we're going to be looking at a specific way to care for one another in what the Bible calls edifying one another or building each other up building each other up you'll see that word in the Bible at least in my

[8:30] New King translation the King James as well and there are other translations that use that word to edify other translations because the word edify isn't something I think we use too often it's not unused in the English language today but maybe not as common as it used to be but many times you'll see it translated as build up and that's maybe a little bit easier for us at least in this day to understand we are to build each other up and I'm going to look today at four ways four ways in which we can do that let's look at a passage here if you got a Bible open up to Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 11 Ephesians 4 11 this is an epistle from Paul to the believers who were in the city of

[9:31] Ephesus and this whole chapter this chapter four is about the body of Christ and how this group of people should operate we'll just look at five verses here it says this Ephesians 4 11 and he himself gave some to be apostles some prophets some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head

[10:33] Christ from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love and so here he's talking about the body of Christ growing up you know today we distinguish between children and adults sometimes we call them grown ups You got children and then you have grown ups and while you're a child you're still growing and after you've become an adult you're all grown up right but does that mean that even as adults we don't have any growing to do well maybe not physically at least not vertically right but we always have opportunities to grow whether as just adults in our natural life there's always new things to learn right any old dog can learn a new trick but also especially spiritually we are always growing in the

[11:52] Lord and so as Christians we need to have that mindset that we are always growing always growing in the Lord always growing in Christ that we never stop growing and so there are four ways that we can help build each other up and I want to look at those the first one we're going to look at instruction or teaching we need to just teach people people need to be taught the other one is what the Bible calls exhorting that's also a word we don't use too often we'll look a little bit at what that means the next word we'll look at is admonishing one another and that's about correction and the last one is the word comforting or encouraging one another so let's look at this first one this first one in teaching and we just that's what this verse that we just read it talks about edifying one another but the primary context is about teaching or instruction and like it says here in the beginning of this passage in

[13:07] Ephesians 4 11 the primary duty are the ones given the responsibility of making sure that instruction happens are the leaders in the church apostles prophets evangelists pastors teachers we won't get into the details of what is an apostle anyway but we'll just focus on church leaders and so when teaching happens among believers it shouldn't be just an accidental thing it should be something that we as a church do intentionally and on purpose God set leaders in a church and one of the things that the leaders are supposed to do is make sure that the people in the church are instructed that they know who they are in Christ they know what Christ accomplished for them and they know how they ought to live the Christian life and so the leaders are specifically tasked with that responsibility of equipping the saints and that's part of

[14:14] God's design for the church Paul says this in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 12 he's speaking to the church in Thessalonica and we urge you brethren to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake you have those who are teaching the scriptures to you Paul is saying to recognize them and to esteem them very highly because the work that they do is important and what is one of the best ways to esteem somebody who is teaching the scriptures to you I think the most important thing that you can do to esteem them is pay attention pay attention and so give attention to the teachers in your life when you hear a sermon or you go to a bible study pay close attention to what's being said take notes think through what's being said and ask questions and also examine the scriptures yourself like the

[15:40] Bereans did to verify that what's being taught is there in the scriptures and that's what's being communicated if someone's taking the time to teach we ought to take the time to put in an effort to understand to listen carefully to pay close attention and to invest in what's being taught this is part of God's purpose for the church that we would all grow by being instructed in what the Bible has to say to us and what God has to say to us through his word but here's another question is it just the pastors and elders in the church who are the only ones that are supposed to do the teaching well no they're responsible to make sure that the teaching happens and that those in the church are being taught and growing but it's not just them who should do the teaching you know even in a family context the Bible talks about parents teaching their children and not just teaching them their

[16:53] ABCs and 123s but to teach them matters of faith teaching them how to walk with God we read this in Proverbs just a few weeks ago train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he won't depart from it and then that famous passage from Deuteronomy Deuteronomy chapter 6 that says to teach your children diligently it talks about when you walk by the way and when you're sitting at home all throughout your life to teach specifically the context there is the law the law of Moses but to teach the ways of God to your children and so every father and every mother is a teacher at the very least in their own family to teach their children the ways of God but is it just mothers and fathers in a family is there anybody else who could be a teacher what about brothers and sisters they teach their other siblings to walk with God to help share a

[18:07] Bible verse to their brothers or sisters to explain maybe to answer a question from the Bible what does this mean here's a difficult passage brother sister do you know what this means absolutely but also just friend to a friend in a church whether it's a friend in the local church or maybe just a Christian friend in the larger body of Christ it could be as simple as just sharing a scripture passage with somebody or it could be starting a Bible study with your friends getting together on a weekly basis or whatever it might be studying the Bible together you know that there's another way the Bible talks about teaching each other and that's through song turn to Colossians chapter 3 verse 16 Colossians 3 16 I'll give you just a moment to go there but this is talking about our singing and you know we sing in church we have three or four songs that we'll do at the beginning of a service it's part of our regular part of our service but did you know that you can sing anytime in your

[19:27] Christian life it doesn't have to just be at church here's what Colossians 3 16 says let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord isn't that interesting that it talks about teaching and admonishing one another by singing together you know that as we sing whether it's here on a Sunday morning in church or in some other group setting and that's something that we'll encourage in our small groups to sing at least one song together but it doesn't have to be a small group it could be with your family it could be when you get together with friends just sing a song together but that's a way that we can teach one another hopefully they're good songs that are biblical not all songs are we try to be careful as we sing songs in this church we don't sing all the songs in our hymn book because some of them we have theological agreements let's say with them and we want to make sure that when we're singing we're singing things that are true because songs teach certain things and so when we sing together we're helping to teach one another you know what the body of Christ could use more teachers not just today but I think it's been this way through the whole history of the church you know that most

[21:05] Christians even people who love the Lord barely ever pick up their Bible I would say a good chunk maybe even the majority rarely read their Bible and so there's a lot of ignorance in the body of Christ and a lot of false teachings that will lead people astray that was one of the things that Paul was talking about there in Ephesians chapter 4 and why teachers need to teach one is just to provide new information but the other is to correct and to make sure we're aligned with what is true because there's a lot of lies and falsehoods out there you don't have to turn there but I'll just mention this verse from Hebrews Hebrews 5 12 he is correcting these Hebrews and he's saying listen you guys should know more than you do he says this for though by this time you ought to be teachers yourselves but you need someone to teach you again even just the first principles of the oracles of God and you have come to need milk and not solid food listen you have not been faithful in studying the scriptures you should know more than you do you should give more heed to growing and instruction you ought to become teachers after all this time you should be teaching others and not needing others to teach you and so

[22:40] I would say becoming a teacher in the body of Christ whether it's in some kind of unofficial capacity or in an official capacity in a church is a good thing to pursue and if you do pursue it it's something that you should take seriously invest the time to understand the things that you're teaching make sure you're comfortable that you understand you're not just parroting what maybe somebody else said or something like that learn to explain things in a way that people understand you also learn what is important to teach there are some things that we can spend a lot of time on that the Bible doesn't really emphasize but maybe it's more exciting we need to be making sure that we're prioritizing the things that the Bible prioritizes or that God emphasizes and prioritizes and we also need to make sure that we understand things like what are the important things that we need to teach that we need to hold on to strongly with both hands and don't let go because they're so important and what are the things that the

[23:56] Bible may teach but we hold more loosely because you know there's differences maybe of opinion in the body of Christ and we can agree to disagree we still teach them but don't make divisions where they're unnecessary those are all important things that teachers should understand how to do in the book of James chapter three in verse one James gives this warning he says this my brethren let not many of you become teachers knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment so he's giving a warning hey don't just anybody become a teacher and just start spouting off whatever opinion you might have if you're going to become a teacher it's something that you ought to take very seriously put in the time and investment and know what you're getting into count the cost you have a higher responsibility when you get into that role next we're going to look at that word exhort or exhortation so we just looked at teaching and instruction what about exhorting what does that word even mean teaching is about explaining something it's explaining the scriptures explaining the way of God exhortation is really what comes after that once you've explained the ways of God exhortation is calling someone to live up to what you just taught them many times it's translated to call someone to exhort is to call someone to something to beseech these are older words another way it's translated is to entreat someone many times that word exhortation is the same word where people are calling out on

[25:54] God asking God for something entreating the Lord I need something from you and so we call out to others and say hey you have been instructed in something I'm calling out to you to live up to what you've been instructed to Hebrews chapter 10 I'll give you some time to open up to Hebrews chapter 10 we'll look at another passage Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 23 Hebrews 10 and 23 it says this let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works for forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of excuse me not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching we have a blessed hope the

[27:09] Bible calls it Jesus coming again and as we wait for that blessed hope we have a task to do he mentions here one of the things we need to do as believers is hold fast we've been taught the word let it go hold fast that confession of faith and hope and then the second thing is to live it out to live it out by stirring ourselves up to love and good works that word that in my Bible is translated stir up some of your Bibles it may use the word provoke to provoke yourselves or to provoke one another to love and good works we need to call on one another to stir up love to stir up good works in our lives you know considering the visual of stirring up

[28:10] I think of coals and a fire you have a fire that has over time started to burn out but you still have some embers left over and if you need you need that flame right once once you just have those cooling embers it's not as hot anymore it's not doing its job and many times in the Christian life we talk about having our hearts set on fire for the Lord and we all want to be burning flames for Jesus right hearts on fire for the Lord but you know what sometimes the flames dwindle whatever whatever the reason sometimes it's just the cares of the world sometimes it's our own selfishness and apathy but we need others to come alongside us and help with those little coals that are left over stir those up fan the flames take some deep breaths and blow some fresh oxygen to get those flames going again so that we all live on fire and a flame for

[29:28] Jesus it uses this phrase in verse 24 Hebrews 10 24 it says and let us consider one another you know what that means you need to look around you need to pay attention to those who are around you what's going on is the flame that maybe was once there is it kind of died down in our friend in our family in somebody in our church do we need to take an opportunity to exhort them to encourage them to call them to stir up those embers to become on fire for the Lord again you know if we just wait for other people to come to us and say hey I need you to exhort me to love the Lord to follow the Lord you might wait your entire life and it will never happen what's the likeliness of that happening of somebody coming to you

[30:33] I need you to call me to follow the Lord boldly it's probably never going to happen in your whole life so we need to look for those opportunities to exhort others here's an example from the book of Thessalonians you don't need to turn there but I'll just read this you see this all over Paul's epistles this was Paul's primary job his job was to teach and to exhort and to admonish all these things and so as we read through his epistles to the churches this is what we're reading this is what he's doing and so I saying listen

[31:40] I just this is in chapter 4 so we just give them a bunch of instruction and now he's saying alright it's time to do something about this and I want you to abound more and more in walking the Christian walk to live the life that God intended for us to live the next one we're going to look at is this word admonish again a word we don't often use though it's not unfound in our modern vernacular but what is admonishment anyway you know it really is just a specific type of exhortation a specific type of calling people to a certain task the definition is a warning or a correction and so you have positive exhortations calling people to something an admonition is calling people away from something that they need to veer away from when it comes to a there's two types there is the proactive type and we did this when we were in proverbs we talked about the sinful woman especially men right you want to stay away from that woman who might try to seduce you and so you give a general warning being proactive look out we teach our sons look out for those wayward women who might try to seduce you and so that's a proactive warning but then there are times where someone has fallen into bad habits bad behaviors sinful sinfulness and we need to bring in a correction where we're reacting to something and I'll tell you what those are the more challenging tasks this admonishment of the four

[33:41] I think is the most difficult you know leaders have a specific duty to to do these things to teach exhort admonish as shepherds of the flock of God going back to that passage that we read in 1st Corinthians not 1st Corinthians sorry 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 I'll read it again chapter 5 verse 12 and we urge you brethren to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you recognize those who have leadership in the church one of their jobs is to admonish people to correct them to call them of things to stay away from but also to bring correction when needed and to esteem them very highly and love for their work sake and here's the next verse that we didn't read before now we exhort you brethren warn those who are unruly comfort the faint-hearted uphold the weak and be patient with all and we'll emphasize that one phrase warn those who are unruly but this admonishing task even though maybe we prefer that other people do it that just would keep that with just the leaders of the church but it's a task that is important for the entire church to do

[35:09] Romans 15 14 says this I myself am confident concerning you my brethren that you also are full of goodness filled with all knowledge able also to admonish one another and so as members of this body as members of the body of Christ we have a job we have a calling each of us to bring correction when needed you know leaders can provide general correction in a setting like this to warn about this or that but we don't always have the personal relationships the personal insight into the day to day lives of the members of the church to know what's going on to know that there's a need for some kind of correction you know smaller churches I think can handle that better you can know your people better bigger churches

[36:12] I think find it more difficult sometimes I think some churches just avoid it intentionally because it's a challenge it's hard to do nobody! it doesn't feel good nobody but it is needful you know I think of a time we had my wife was running a mom's group for homeschoolers or a homeschool group I should call it and there were moms part of this group and as they had met for a few weeks was getting to know the moms and this was a Christian homeschool group so these were Christian people who loved the Lord and found out along the way that one of the moms she was pregnant and so expecting a baby and found out that she was not married and living with the father of the baby and so was a little bit taken aback that's not the kind of way that a Christian should live she'd get married and so had the opportunity to admonish her to give a correction hey this is not how you ought to be living the

[37:22] Christian life what's going on what's the situation how come you're not married but it was difficult to do as you can imagine that's a difficult conversation to have and I thought well this is really something that her church should should be involved in they'd want to provide that kind of admonishment that kind of correction and so we found out where they went to church and I called up and talked to one of the pastors it was a larger church with many pastors and was able to get through to one and said hey there's this family that we know and they're having a baby but they're not married and they both go to your church we found out they love the Lord but they need some instruction and some correction from you guys and I gave the name do you know these people oh yeah we know them I said well would you be willing to talk to them about their need to get married no that's not something that we would really do if they came to us and asked us what we thought then we would give them instruction but otherwise we're not going to bring it up and that's a failure that's a failure on the part of church leadership to provide the necessary instruction that they ought to to the people in their church but we kind of understand it right that's that's hard to do and well people might decide

[38:49] I don't want to be a part of this church but you know what there are people out there that will actually appreciate that kind of instruction and they'll grow in the Lord so because this is challenging here's a question well how do we do this how do we do this I'm just going to give a few passages and just a little bit of ideas here on how to give a correction one in a spirit of gentleness and a spirit of humility and the Bible actually speaks to this Galatians chapter 6 verse 1 says this Galatians 6 1 brethren if a man is overtaken in any trespass or sin you who are spiritual so those who are living uprightly restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness considering yourself lest you also be tempted and so when there is somebody who is not living the

[39:51] Christian life the way that they ought to bring that correction to restore them to wholeness to living the kind of life that God wants them to live but do it in a spirit of gentleness there's no need at least in the beginning to be severe and we should always look out for our own pride well I would never do what that person is doing or has done the warning right here in Galatians 6 1 considering yourself lest you also be tempted that's that's the warning that Paul's given that's why we give it in a spirit of gentleness and humility any of us can be susceptible to temptation and sin even as Christian believers who love the Lord yet I will say that sometimes and the Bible speaks to this directly as well sometimes you have to increase the severity in 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 14 Paul teaches this and he's teaching this to the

[40:54] Thessalonians 2 Thessalonians 3 14 and if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle or this letter note that person and do not keep company with them that he may be ashamed so sometimes you need to divide with people when they're not following God the way that they ought to and they're being rebellious really and not listening to instruction and to admonition yet it says this in verse 15 yet do not count him as an enemy but admonish him as a brother this is somebody who is a believer resisting correction from the body of Christ from the church yet they are still a brother or a sister in Christ and even though there needs to be some more severe type of correction!

[41:52] we ought to still treat them not as an enemy but as a brother or sister someone that we love somebody that we want to see restored somebody we want the best for them and that's why we're bringing the correction so who is allowed to admonish like we said it should be any of us parents obviously can admonish their children for example you know what you need to apologize to your sister bring that correction a husband might have opportunity to admonish his wife darling you should not be letting the kids get away with those kinds of things or sometimes a wife might need to admonish her husband is that allowed it is and many times necessary sweetheart you know what you are too severe with the kids that happen what about brothers and sisters can brothers and sisters admonish one another you know what you need to tell mom what you did or a friend to a friend you know what during that

[43:11] Bible study you just you didn't let anybody get a word in edge wise and you kind of just kind of took over the whole conversation and didn't really allow anybody else to share you should reconsider you know how you interact in a Bible study like that and those are a lot of those are just gentle corrections that we can provide sometimes things become more severe you know what brother I noticed you're spending a lot of quality time with that woman it doesn't look good and you know what it doesn't look good because it's not good and you need to look at how you're spending your time and who you're spending it with those corrections are necessary to make sure people stay walking with God the other thing to talk about with this is how we ought to receive correction!

[44:15] correction no it doesn't feel good it doesn't matter who it comes from but you know what we need to practice receiving correction and we need to get good at it a common response I think when we're correct corrected is well you're not so perfect yourself right at least we think that we don't necessarily say it but we think that but you know what a good response is when somebody corrects us thank you for sharing that with me thank you for saying that to me I needed that that's something that I am going to take to heart I'm going to consider and you know what thank you for having the courage to say that to me because I know how hard that was that's a great way to to take a correction because it is it's difficult and you know what if you do not take correction well and you always become stiff and antagonistic when anyone ever corrects you then you know what's going to happen nobody's going to people are going to avoid it they're not going to say anything anymore because they know well it's not going to have any impact it's not going to have any effect we looked at this right with the proverbs the fool the fool will not receive correction right and will never grow in wisdom and so all of your good and godly friends who are willing to say something they're going to spend less time around you and the only friends that will stay around you are going to be those who they're fine with whatever you do as long as it doesn't hurt them they're not going to say anything they're willing to tolerate any kind of bad behavior and that's a really bad place for us to be

[46:17] I'm going to finish up here with the last one and that has to do with encouragement or comfort you know all of us have seasons in our life where we've been weak sometimes those are short seasons and sometimes they last a long long time I think about new parents it's a season of difficulty you're doing something brand new and it's really really hard times of discouragement when you're trying to do something and you seem to keep failing everything falls flat health challenges that we might be dealing with or maybe strained relationships that we're having to figure out and deal with or maybe it's the grief through the loss of someone that we love we're going through a period of difficulty of challenge where we are weak and we need somebody who is strong to come alongside of us to comfort us to strengthen to encourage us

[47:28] Paul had opportunity to do this in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 he was talking to believers who had lost loved ones and he was telling them about the hope that they have for their believing family the hope they have for the future and he finishes up with this because I won't read the whole passage 1 Thessalonians 4 18 after he gave them all these comforting words he says therefore comfort one another with these words there's that one another again so we have opportunity to comfort others with the scriptures as opportunities arise what are some ways that we can comfort and encourage one another you know just say a word hey I know that you're going through difficult sometimes just acknowledgement encouragement is encouraging sending a card or a note we're thinking about you we're praying for you sometimes just telling someone you know what you're doing a great job

[48:32] I know you probably don't feel that way but you're doing a great job sharing a scripture sometimes it's just lending your ear just to listen hear someone out listen to what they're going through sometimes people just need a hug sometimes they just need somebody to just be there with them to sit quietly with them and sometimes people are in such a weak state in their life because of grief or whatever that they don't even have the strength to pray and they need somebody to come alongside them and pray with them because they can't do it on their own and we can be there and do that for them and with them I'm going to wrap up this is how we ought to be as the church the body of Christ this is how the culture that we need to have here in this body at Grace

[49:42] Bible Church this is the way that God designed it to be and we need to be diligent we need to be alert we need to be looking out looking for opportunities paying attention to the needs that are around us looking around finding ways in which we can help build one another up where we can teach and instruct those who need it we can exhort and stir up those to live the Christian life with boldness where there's opportunities maybe to provide a correction and then find opportunities to comfort and encourage those who need it who are in a state or season of weakness what do you think are we willing to do that all right let's pray father we thank you so much for your word thank you for this body of Christ that you have designed and you have put us in that we are members of one another pray that you would work in each one of us to give us the attention the insight that we need to look around and see the needs that are around us and work in us to be an encouragement to others to have the courage to correct when opportunities are there to teach and also to comfort those who need that comfort work in us each one of us to do that in this local body and to others in the body of Christ we ask these things in Jesus name amen amen well I went kind of long but is there is there anybody that had something that they would be willing to share along these lines

[51:35] I know it's a scary proposition so alright alright well thank you everybody just as a reminder as we dismiss here so small group sign ups if you'd like to join one of the small groups which I highly encourage if that's something that you'd be willing to join I saw at least one person signed up for both feel free to do that and check both of them out and then what are the other things that we had to voy voy