Thank you. So, so so Good morning and welcome to Greenville ARP Church. We are glad you're here this day. Whether or not your brackets are already broken and defeated, whether your allergies are giving you a sense of feeling ill all the time, all are welcome this morning at Greenville ARP Church. So just a couple of quick announcements. There will be no D groups tonight as the middle schoolers are returning from their retreats. But this Wednesday night does mark our first Wednesday back after spring break. So please plan to come for that and make sure you have signed up for the meal by that time. And then every year we do a annual retreat at Bon Clarkon in May, and the 2025 retreat will be May 2nd through the 4th. That's something that our own family has participated in almost every year, even if you are only able to come up for a day. We want to invite you to do that because the real knit of this church is built in the fellowship and the time you spend together, often outside of the sanctuary, as we share the experiences in the beautiful mountains of Hendersonville. So please go to the Greenville AARP website and consider signing up for the Greenville AARP retreat, again, May 2nd through the 4th. Now let us turn our minds and hearts to the Lord. I will exalt you, God my King, I will forever Day of glory, all praise from heaven above. Amen, would you please stand with us as we hear our God call us and gather us for public worship this morning. These words come from that great last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter 15. We'll use this as a response of reading as you see in your bulletin. Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God, the Almighty. Just and true are your ways, Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you. Amen and amen. Would you pray with me now as we come to our God? Lord, we come to you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And we come to worship and bow down before you. For you are the King of kings and Lord of lords. Great and marvelous are your deeds, O God. Who will not fear you? O Lord, as we come into your presence, we come to invoke your name, to call out to you, O Lord, that you would come and be pleased to meet with us again this morning. And we call out to you, O God, in the strong and mighty name of the Lord Jesus Christ, For if it were not in His name that we would come, we could not come at all. And so we thank you and we praise you already as we begin to rehearse the gospel that Jesus Christ, the righteous one, is our advocate. That He is the one who makes straight the path before us. As we ascend to the hill of the Lord, O God, we do not have clean lips. But we thank you and we rejoice in Jesus Christ, the one who is the righteous. And so we pray, O God, as we do come and gather this morning, that you would remind us of who you are. That you would open our hearts and our minds. That you would help us to see the Lord Jesus Christ high and exalted. and that you, oh God, through your spirit, would make us to be more and more like him. Even as we die to our sin, and as we live under his righteousness, oh God, help us to live in that gospel power. And we ask, again, that you would humble us even now as we seek to be like Jesus, as we do that which he's taught us to do. Oh God, as we unite our hearts and our voices together, make us to be like Jesus as we say now, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. and the power and the glory forever. Amen. As we remain standing, I encourage you to take the red hymnal. You find that in your pew. We'll sing together number 236, to God be the glory. To God be the glory, great things he has done, so long to be the world that he is to serve, who even in his life could not ♪ The life given only for him ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Let the earth hear his voice ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Let the people rejoice ♪ ♪ Come, come, dear Father, dear Jesus, our Son ♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear his voice. Father, through Jesus the Son, and give him more glory, great things he has done. and higher, and greater will be. Our wonder and transformation, Jesus we see. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear his voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the people rejoice. Oh, come together. A Christian life is a battle. We continuously are at war with our flesh. We're in a process of sanctification, battling with sin, seeking to die unto it day by day. The fact is until we're glorified, we're not perfect. And it's appropriate for us to come before our gracious God, confess our sins and receive from him through the gospel is pardon. Take this time to privately confess your sin and then we'll join together in publicly confessing using the confession printed in your bulletin. Join with me. Heavenly Father, we confess we disarm you by our words, thoughts, and deeds. In the mighty name of your Son, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. And hear these words of assurance from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases, yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. What a glorious thought to know that Jesus as our Savior has taken all of our sins upon himself and paid the ultimate penalty on the cross that we might be redeemed and reconciled with God our Father. Let us continue to worship, praising God for his goodness. you you stand and join with me as we affirm our faith using the Apostles Creed. Brothers and sisters in Christ, what is it that you believe? was crucified, dead, and buried. He ascended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sat on the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence he shall come to judge the world. Praise him, all creatures here below. Praise him above, ye heavenly host. Praise from earth, strong and lowly host. Let us go to the Lord in prayer. Gracious and loving Father, as the seasons change, as we combat allergies and revel in the beauty of the South, welcome the long hours of the sunlight and look forward to the coming hours, we think of your beauty in all creation. how you have given us the azaleas at this time of year and their beautiful buds. You've let us see the grass turn green once again, and you've begun to warm the earth. Lord, we're grateful to live in a place of such remarkable beauty as the South. At the same time, Lord, we are grateful because we know that millions and millions live in barren lands of constant heat and dust. Lord, thank you for this land we get to treasure on a daily basis. Just as this spring as you refresh creation, Lord, we ask you to renew our hearts and deepen our love for one another. Lord, though everyone looks presentable today, our hearts would tell a different story of worry, brokenness, addiction, insecurity, anger, jealousy, and for many of us, being distracted by your gifts. Lord, I ask that you open our hearts to a new level of relationship beyond the weekly handshake, beyond the March Madness sports banter. Lord, help us to open our lives, the very hardest parts to those in the sanctuary. that you would bring to us healing and lasting joy. Give us the courage to be vulnerable, oh God, that we would share our burdens as commanded by the law of Christ in Galatians six. Lord, Psalm 133 one tells us how good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity. Let us indeed strive to be those people of unity as a testimony to a watching world. And as we strive for that unity, we lift those that we love who are not with us but serving overseas. We think of Frank and Emily Van Dalen serving in Lithuania in a country fearful of invasion from Russia. We're thankful that they are a calming presence of your gospel witness. We think of Eleanor and Elise serving in Strasbourg amongst refugees and within the church there, Lord, that you would continue to let your gospel comfort be from their lips through their teaching and through the love of these people. And we think as well of Rebecca Carson serving in Bridge Europe in Germany as she prepares for short-term mission trips this summer, Lord. Would you give her team a sense of expectation of your working through them? And we lift those here at home, we lift Maurice and Martha Beckham, Billy Brady, Cynthia Cook, Deb Culbertson, Ann Devlin, Ken Gamble, Alison Greer, Hannah Gill, Hogan Harrison, Anne Huckabee, Teresa Lewis, Paul Presley, Jeff Sartain, and Tanya Schaffner. Lord, we list these fellow congregants, these brothers and sisters in Christ, and ask you, Lord as our Father, please heal them. Be their balm and be their hope. Now, Lord, as we continue on and worship and prepare to hear your word preached, may it prick our hearts in new ways that we ourselves would be a people desiring sanctification levels that we haven't wanted before, that you would be glorified in ways we haven't seen before. Lord, we trust you to do this. In the gracious and loving name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Children, you're welcome to come forward for our children's message. And a reminder, we'll be singing our next hymn, hymn 429. That'll be unannounced after the children's message. And the children can leave with Miss Kay and Miss Julie for extended learning time. Good to see everybody. Y'all enjoying this nice sunny weather, springtime? Is your parents' cars getting covered in this yellow powdery substance? Yeah. Does it make your nose kind of run and make you sneeze a little bit? It's not fun, is it? Well, it's so good to see you. I've got a question for you, an easy question. One that you've probably, a question that you can answer from Sunday school and VBS time that you've had at the church. Raise your hand if you know who Moses is. I wanna see every hand go up. Everybody knows who Moses is. Tell me about Moses. What are some things that he did? He made the earth? The ark. Oh, that's another man. Moses didn't help out with that. That's Noah. What else? What do we know about Moses? What? Yes. Yes. He led the people through the Red Sea. Excellent. That's pretty interesting, isn't it? He made the sea, the water stood up on one side and the other side and the people, did they get their feet wet when they walked through? That's crazy, isn't it? How many of you have been to, what's the biggest river you've seen? What's the biggest river you've seen? I lived in a state called Mississippi. You think that there's a big river that runs through there? Yeah, it can be over a mile wide at points. Could you imagine how powerful God must be to make the waters part? What else do we know about Moses? What was the river he dealt with in Egypt? The Nile River. He made it turn into blood. He made frogs come out of it. He made lice bother everybody. Did a lot of crazy things, didn't he? He was a powerful leader. Do you think everybody loved him so much? Not really. He had some problems, didn't he? The people, he was doing what God told him to do. He was leading the people out of Egypt, and they started to complain and grumble. You remember what they were complaining about? What? Yeah, man, you were right on on the Moses story. Food and water. Yeah, it's like you're twins. All right, so they grumbled and complained. You took us out of Egypt. We may have been slaves, but at least we had food and water, and now you're gonna kill us out in the wilderness, because we're gonna starve to death. That was not very fun, was it? They were grumbling and complaining about his leadership. God did have a plan. Then Miriam and Aaron, they got really upset. They were jealous, and they said, spoken to you, Moses, or is he not speaking to other people in Israel among his people?" And they were his friends. They were close to him. And they grumbled and complained about his leadership. And there was another guy, a Levite, a very influential person in the congregation and among the people of Israel. His name was Korah. And he complained about Moses' leadership. Do you think that that was fair? What was Moses doing? Was Moses doing whatever he wanted to do? And who was telling him what to do? God. So when all of that complaining and questioning and challenging what he was doing, do you think it helped Israel do what they were supposed to be doing? Or was it a distraction? It was a distraction. So Pastor Phil is gonna preach on a passage in First Thessalonians about being at peace with one another. And we've got a, y'all ever use this book in worship before? It's the ARP Psalter. It's got a lot of Psalms, and it's got one in the very back towards the end, 197, and we sing it every time we have our pastor and elders meetings, which we call Presbytery. It's where all of the local churches in South Carolina, all of their pastors and a couple of their elders meet together to do the business of the church. And we also do this at Synod. How many of y'all have been up to Bon Clarkon? It's beautiful, we do Synod there most every year. And it goes something like this, it's taken from Psalm 133, the first line says, behold how good a thing it is, and how becoming well, together such as brethren are in unity to dwell. In unity to dwell. So when the church is in unity with one another, when the leaders of the church, the elders and the pastors and the people mutually encouraging and supporting one another, caring for one another, the church functions so much better. And it's not fun when there's a lot of complaining and grumbling and friction, relational friction within the church. So we wanna strive to be at peace with one another. And I'm gonna pray that for our church, okay? Our Father and our God, we pray, for you to help us as members of this church to strive to be at peace among one another, to care for one another, to be patient and kind and generous, to show grace and mercy where it's needed. We pray, Lord, that this would lead to our functioning better as a church, so that we can accomplish the mission that you have placed over us. We pray all of this in Christ's name. Amen. to my heart, to sing my praise. Jesus, mercy ever-seeking, offers songs of loudest praise. Jesus, mercy ever-seeking, May I raise my heavenly tone, Builder of my life, O my God, And I hope my life would measure Safely to our God and rule. Christ, the great Adelter, daily I must say to thee, I have grace now, I know full well to find my own reward. Amen. Please be seated. As we come to hear our God speak to us this morning, bind with his word and the power of his spirit. Let us go to him again in prayer. Gracious God and Heavenly Father, We come to you this morning and make that our prayer yet again. Though we come every week, it is good for us to hear the gospel every week, and so we pray. O Lord, would you take our hearts. Through the power of your spirit, would you do it, O God, take our hearts and seal them in heaven above in the courts of the Lord Jesus Christ in that place wherein you cause us to be seated through Jesus Christ. We pray all of this in his mighty name. Amen. Please turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. This morning we see Paul and his fellow writers turn their attention towards the end of this small letter. They aren't quite to the end yet. There will be that formal benediction and closing in a few weeks, but they have reached the last part of the letter. It's a challenge for us to finish well. Just think about someone running a marathon. They say the last part of the race, miles 23 to 26, it's just a 5K. It's the hardest part to run. That's where we are here. This is sermon number 14 in the series. We've been at it for about seven months now. And some of the most challenging, but also some of the most fruitful and some of the most uplifting verses lay ahead of us. So I pray that you would stay with us. Turn our attention now from the glory that's to be revealed. We saw that over the last few weeks, Paul speaking of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. We turn our attention away from that for a moment back to the here and now. The, so what do we do now, pastor, part of the letter. Look with me again at our text as I read it for us again. This is 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 12 and 13. We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. What does it mean to respect someone? You remember that story from the Old Testament, the book of Genesis, the biggest part of that first book of the Bible, the story of Joseph? You know, he was maligned from the get-go by all of his brothers. He was the favorite son of his father Jacob. And of course, Joseph doesn't help himself as we see early in his life. He really exacerbates the issue. He goes about telling his brothers of these two dreams that the Lord reveals to him. You see, the Lord had prophesied through him that his brothers, though they're older, would bow down to him like the sheaves or the stars in his dream. It invokes their indignation. So what do they do? They sell him off into slavery in Egypt, at least that's where he's taken. Let's pause. I want you to remember for a moment Joseph's life in Egypt. He's falsely accused of sexual misconduct and spends years in prison. He helps two fellow inmates get out of prison, though they quickly forget him. He even feels the weight in that moment of sending one of those men to his death. But then through all of those trials and sufferings, the Lord raises him to power at Pharaoh's right hand. And it's through that same dream interpretation, really, we could understand through God's revelation, and this is what Genesis 50 tells us, that many should be kept alive. I think that summarizes good leadership. It's the reason why all of his brothers in the end of the story actually do come and bow down before him, much to their earlier chagrin. I think it helps us to understand our passage a little bit better this morning, and we'll see two things. The first is this, that good leadership produces respect. Now, look with me at the text and notice something very carefully. Right there at the beginning of verse 12, the reason why I say good leadership produces respect is because Paul and Silvanus and Timothy start off by saying, we ask you. It's a striking thing. Notice they request these things. First thing we might say then about good leadership is that it only asks for respect and esteem. It does not demand it. Though we could say in some sense, because of the authority given to those in leadership per their office, they could demand respect and allegiance. But we might say it this way, good leadership demands this only of itself and thereby it earns it from others. Now, there is an element of necessity, I think, in respect giving to those placed in authority over us. We see that from the fifth commandment. As we're to honor our father and mother, it's not an option given to us. We're to obey the law and the command of God. We see that elsewhere in scripture. For example, Hebrews 13, it tells us, obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your soul as those who will give an account. But in this passage, they emphasize something different, a different side of that leadership. It's a request, I think, because of the actions already highlighted by Paul and his fellow writers. The respect and esteem is requested because of what? Well, look again with me at the text. The respect is given or requested because of those who labor in their midst. And we kind of gloss over that word very quickly, but it's a very pregnant term. Quite literally, those same words used of a woman in labor pains. Something that requires much physical exertion of which I know nothing about. I won't presume that, ladies, but you could tell me it's very difficult work. It's hard. And so a good admonition to those who are in leadership in our church is to make no mistake about it. Leadership requires work and effort. It's a laborsome thing. And through that process, we see it garners respect because people see how hard you work. But notice also the respect is requested because they are over them. The Lord has set them over the flock, these leaders that they're referring to. But notice they're over the people only in the Lord, not because of something that is inherent in them. Our elders and deacons are not elders and deacons because they're better than the rest of us. No, it's because they're called of God. Because they're ordained and set apart by Him. That's why they're over us. Not because they're better. Not because they've earned some place of position. No, it's because the Lord has given them this authority, this responsibility, this gift to steward. Something that is to be used for your blessing and for your benefit. Just think again of Joseph for a moment. Yes, he was number two in command of all of Egypt. The only thing that Pharaoh held back from him was his own household. But notice what he does. After suffering much, after going through all of the trials and pains and anxiety of his early time in Egypt, risen to power, what does he do? He uses every moment of his day to keep people alive. Though Joseph was disrespected initially, probably in a way that is matchless, right? To sell someone off into slavery is to say, you are as good as dead to me. You mean nothing to me. He had to learn that. But he was placed in leadership only because of the Lord's providence in his life. And so with good leaders, we respect them because they focus all of their attention. They focus all of their energy and their efforts on being a blessing to other people. They use their labors for others. That's what it means to labor in the Lord, knowing that it's not in vain. We can be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in that work, because the Lord indeed will use it, even if it's menial. And I can't but imagine that some of the things Joseph was asked to do through his time in power were things that weren't glamorous. like taking tallies and spreadsheets of every kernel of grain throughout all of the land, or keeping up with the ledger of all of those that had come to the household of Pharaoh just to have food to eat. It wasn't necessarily glamorous duty, but he was set in charge, given authority so that he could be a blessing, so that many could be kept alive. But notice also, The request for respect is given out. Why? Because those who are leaders in our midst are called and charged to admonish us. Let us be careful here. Sometimes we pour meaning into words that might not should be there. This is a good thing. It is a positive thing that those who are leaders over us should teach us. The implication and the understanding is that there are those that God has set aside so that they might devote themselves to knowing the deep things of the Lord. But they then might be able to reveal them to us, to unpack them for us, so that we might be blessed and glean more quickly, more efficiently, what is the height and the breadth and the depth of the love of our God. The word there, actually, though, is that they put them in our mind. They keep these things before our very face. It's not just a typical kind of teaching that we pass on things to each other. No, they're charged to place them into our very hearts and minds. Sometimes, however, I think things can be right in front of us, and we still don't quite get what it means. Let me tell you a story about that in my own life. If any of you have been to Acadia National Park up in Maine, it's an incredible place, full of beauty. I knew nothing about it until I married my lovely wife. And her mother is from Maine, so the summer after we were married, so again, very early on in our lives together, We went up and did a family reunion, family vacation in Acadia. And while we were there, we chose to go hiking quite a bit. A lot of the family did things together and split off and did some hiking. And we chose to hike the precipice trail. Now, some of you, if you know what words mean, should already be alerted to the fact that this may not be a place that you would want to hike, particularly if you had a fear of heights. I should have paid more careful attention to that. So we go about this hike. And there was a sign at the beginning that said, you know, it's pretty strenuous. If you can't complete a hike, you might want to think twice. And we thought, well, we're young. We're in pretty good shape. Let's give it a go. So we strike up the trail. And about 100 yards in, you already begin climbing rocks to continue on the hike. That should have been another red flag to me that I missed. Well, after about 30 minutes into the hike, we're literally on the side of the cliff, a sheer rock face about 100 feet down. There's an iron rung bolted into the side that you're holding onto, traversing, and there's about that much space for you to stand on. It was terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. What I came to understand later is that this was really considered a non-technical climb. It wasn't a hike. That's what people call it, but it wasn't really a hike. Actually, and I think for my own defense, this sign was added after we were there. But there's a warning sign at the trailhead, and this is the last line of the warning. Persons have received serious injuries and others have died on this mountainside. You see, some things we can see and know, but it needs to be placed in our minds. We need to be confronted with these realities, and it's true of all of us. Because we come into this life and we walk around with certain lenses on and God gives us and gifts us with leaders in the church to help us see a little better. Principally to help us see the Lord Jesus Christ. But you know, he goes on to say there at the beginning of verse 13, that we're not only to respect those in leadership, we're also to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Now, I want you to notice something carefully here. It's not because of the fruit of their work. Right? How well they do the job, the things that they produce for us, it's simply because of their work. Because of the task that God has called them to do. That's the reason why we're to respect them and to esteem them because you and I inherently know serving God's people and shepherding them is arduous work. My wife was a perfect example of this on that day that we went hiking. I didn't make the best decision in leadership. I didn't do things perfectly. But she followed me not because I exhibited great leadership, but because she loved me, because she trusted me. And so I want to ask you this morning, Do you love and trust the elders of this church? I'm not thinking for a moment about the church universal and about those people out there in Christendom that you might know and have a deep respect for. I'm talking about those men here, finite, fallible men though we are. Do you know them? Do you respect them? Do you love them? Do you trust them? That's a different question. It requires searching in all of our hearts and minds. Notice good leadership, godly leadership, leadership led by Christ not only produces respect, there's a curious part of this last verse. It also produces peace. This is the second thing we'll see in the closing part of our passage. Good leadership produces peace. I first want you to notice something very striking. Like the beginning of verse 12, it's striking that they say, we ask you to respect. We request that you highly esteem. Just as striking, look again at the end of verse 13. Notice they say, be at peace. It's almost the opposite of what we would expect. Typical leadership out there in the world says, respect me. I'm your leader. Can we be at peace? But notice how the gospel overturns the order. The leadership here are saying, we request of you. We don't demand your allegiance. We request your respect and your love because of the great task to which God has called us. But then they come out of the gates and say, be at peace. This is a command. It's an imperative. It is not a request. Notice also, it's not an extension of peace. That's what happens at the beginning and the end of the letter. Grace to you and peace. It's an offering of peace from the Lord. It's not an extension of peace, and it's not a wishful posture, well, I hope you have the peace of God. No, Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy come right out and say, you, Christian, be at peace. What does this teach us? First, I think it teaches us that this peace of which they write must be attainable. It's not a pie-in-the-sky, wishful thinking kind of a thing. God never commands of us, requires of us that which is impossible. We'll see in a moment. Now, it may be possible only through the power of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, it is attainable. God does not command of us that which is impossible, but here we see the command to be at peace. The next thing we see is that embedded in this command or imperative is the expectation that peace will come under certain circumstances. You and I often wonder, how do we do this thing called church well? Well, thankfully, God has not left us in the dark. He's written to us, revealed Himself to us, principally through the Scriptures, the Lord Jesus Christ in the Scripture. And so here we see something in context. He tells us to be at peace. You might wonder, well, how can we do that? Back up just a bit. What have we been talking about? If you want to be at peace, let's start with this. Let's respect our leaders. Let's esteem them. Let's give them the privilege of the benefit of the doubt that they're men who are being led by the Lord Jesus Christ. And though they may tell us some things at times that we do not like or agree with, let us trust and love and follow. That's one of the most difficult things about the Christian church, isn't it? God looks at us at one and the same time as individuals, that Jesus Christ could pay for your sin, your individual sin, that He took it all to the cross and washes you clean with His blood. But yet in the very same breath, He calls all of us to be united to Christ, to grow up into Him who is the head. It is an individual, but it is also a corporate and communal thing. And so our peace comes in the midst of the church. It's why we need one another. And as the Lord has revealed, as He structures the church according to His design, it's why we need leadership. If I could put it simply, and I don't know all of your backgrounds, forgive me, but we're Presbyterian for a reason. Because God has told us to have elders. He has called these particular men in your midst. It's what we do every year as we ordain and install elders and deacons. They come forward and we lay hands on them and we pray for them because these are the people that God has to lead us. Not just a general idea of leadership, but these particular people. And so if we want peace, we need to look to our leadership. We need to follow them and trust in them. We also see that peace comes about precisely in the church, not just as we follow the leadership of these men and women, the elders or deacons over us, but most importantly, as we all seek to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Right, he is, you know this, he is the chief shepherd. He is our elder brother. The one who is perfect in every way. That's why Paul says you need to have peace among yourselves. We have to remember it's hard for us as we unpack just a few verses Sunday by Sunday. All of this is written in the whole context of this letter. And so already presupposed here is an understanding that we are at peace with God. You back up just a few verses, what our brother preached last Lord's Day. that Jesus Christ, when He would return, would not come, destining us for wrath, but for salvation. As the Apostle Paul puts it in Romans chapter 5, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God. Here's what I want you to see, brothers and sisters. And this is a hard truth, so bear with me for just a moment. If you find it difficult to have peace with brothers and sisters, if you find that there's strife often in your life and particularly in the church, it could be, this is a possibility, that our leadership is in error, that we need correction at that level, and that's why we have a plurality of elders. That's why you are blessed, maybe you think that, to have multiple pastors, so that the more heads we put together, we can keep and hold one another accountable to the scriptures. But beloved, let us also consider If you find it difficult to have peace with your brother and sister in the faith, peace among yourselves as the scriptures command us to have, could it be that you do not yet know the peace of God? The peace that you can have with the Almighty? Could it be that we find offense so easily in those around us because we have not yet considered the great offense that we bring before Almighty God? And I know, look at my eyes, I know how deep and how painful it is to stop and to consider that it is your sin that put Jesus on the cross of Calvary. It is my sin that caused His body to be beaten and His blood to be shed. But my dear friends, until we consider that it is by His bruises, His wounds that we are healed, every small affliction that anyone offends against us, will jeopardize and challenge our peace. But know this about the gospel of Jesus Christ. If the God of the universe can drown our sin in His grace, if there is more grace always and forever in our great God and His love than there ever could be sin in your life, if Jesus forgives you, not once, not twice or thrice, but 70 times seven, an infinite amount unto all of eternity, then you and I, through His Spirit, can forgive one another. Because here's the hard reality of church. There is no peace where there is not forgiveness. That's really the command, isn't it? That when we look out You don't have to look at anybody right now. There's no afflicting of conscience in this moment. But when we consider what it means to live together as sinners, we have to understand that I will need to ask your forgiveness, and you will need to ask my forgiveness. That's inherent to what it means to be the church. and to grow together. It always comes with a cost. But thanks be to our great God that Jesus Christ has paid that ultimate cost so that you and I can freely forgive one another. I want to leave you with this image as we close. I think it's a helpful illustration to see this dynamic of leadership and following in the church and what it means to be at peace among ourselves. I didn't grow up rowing, but I like rowing. The older that I get, the more that I like it. Maybe it's because I can just sit down and work out. But if you know proper rowing out there on the water, You might know the term, the coxswain. He's the only one in the boat. He's typically the small guy who doesn't seem to be doing anything. He's just sitting there relaxing in the back of the boat. I'm making that a little bit facetious, but he's in the back of the boat and all of the other rowers are in the front of the boat and they're the ones doing the work. They're the ones rowing nonstop, putting forth all of the effort. But here's the strange reality, and I think what highlights this dynamic of leading and following in the church. The coxswain doesn't appear to be doing all that much work, but he's the one as the leader of the boat, keeping his eye on the prize, looking forward to the direction of where the boat is heading. It's almost ironic that all of the rowers, the ones doing all of the labor, are turned backwards. They don't see where they're going. They're trusting and leaning onto that leadership of the man calling the shots in the back of the boat. That's somewhat the dynamic we see in the church. The elders, the leaders, they're giving essential leadership, but they're not necessarily the ones doing all of the heavy lifting. That often falls to the laity, equipping the saints to do the ministry and the work of the church. The hard, the rowing, the labor that actually moves the church towards her goal in the Lord Jesus Christ. But here's the thing, everyone in the boat, has to trust that the Lord has given them their job and that we're all in the boat moving together towards the Lord Jesus Christ. And so whether you're called to be a rower or whether you're called to be a leader, the one in the back, keeping your eye fixed on the Lord Jesus, calling out, we need to row now. We need to wait now. We need to go right or left. We all are called to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Spirit bless us and help us to do that work. Would you pray with me? Lord, we come to you and we thank you. Firstly, chiefly, that Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd. that He is the One who did not count equality with you a thing to be held on, but humbled Himself, taking on the form of a servant, leading through suffering, leading through judgment, leading through sacrifice. And so I pray, particularly, O God, would You help now our elders, our deacons, our lay leaders in the church, that we would be like the Lord Jesus Christ, That we would lay down our lives for the sake of the church, your bride. That we would cherish her with as much love as the Lord Jesus. That we would keep our eyes fixed on him with as much resolve as he fixes his gaze upon us. O Lord, that we would be strengthened and encouraged in your mighty spirit. That we would be equipped to do the work. Oh, God, I pray just as well for all the rest of us. Would you help us in humility to respect our leaders, to hold them in high esteem with great love because you have placed them over us, even though they're sinners and they will at times fail us and let us down. Oh, God, nevertheless, would you help us all to follow Christ? to hear the voice of that One who is leading us unto glory. And I pray then and only then, O God, that You, through the power of Your Spirit, would make us to be at peace. We know that you are the subject in that sentence, oh God. And so when we fail, when we struggle, when we find it hard, oh God, make us to be at peace. Through Jesus Christ, the great Prince of Peace, we pray, amen. As we close our worship, I encourage you to sing this with that truth in your heart, beloved. Hymn number 409, blessed be the tie that binds. you I'll sing the name what he shall sing. I love it as we leave this place, as we're waiting to see that day. I hope you find this to be of encouragement to you along the way. This is the word of our God, that blessed, good benediction spoken for you. And now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, may he equip you with everything good, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Amen. Amen. Okay.