We'll read this morning from Galatians 5, verses 13 through 15. Galatians 5, 13 through 15. Hear the word of the Lord. For you, brethren, have been called to liberty. Only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, beware, lest you be consumed by one another. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. You may be seated. We are currently in the middle of a short series on the Church, and so this morning's sermon is a little different than how I would normally approach a text, because normally we work our way directly through a text of the Scripture And this is a little bit more topical in approach. And so I'm not going to actually get to our text in Galatians until about halfway through the sermon. But in our last two Lord's Days, we have delved into the concept of the church as an embassy of the kingdom. And we explored how it proclaims the gospel to the nations and how it serves as a refuge for the citizens of heaven. And now, beginning this morning and for the next three Lord's Days, we will focus on the life of the church as a community. And so we will specifically examine the roles and responsibilities of church members, of elders, and of deacons. And so this morning we will deal with the subject of the members of the church. And so what I want to do is I want to begin by making a case for formal church membership, and then move on to the duties of church members. And the reason I do that is because in our day and age, there seems to be some pushback against the idea that churches ought to have formal membership. And so I wanna spend a little bit of time addressing that before we talk about what our life together as a church looks like. And my assertion this morning is this, that church membership is biblical, it is a matter of obedience to Christ, it is a duty imposed on us by our King, and at the same time, it is a great privilege. And so you might ask, well, is formal church membership really necessary? Is it beneficial? And most importantly, is it biblical? And so we'll begin with that last question, which is the most important one. Is it biblical? If formal church membership is not biblical, then we're done discussing it. The Bible does serve as our final word on the matter, and so we need to answer this question. Does the Scripture teach actual membership in a local church? Now you won't find a verse that explicitly says to formally join a local church or that a local church ought to keep membership records. But churches have been practicing formal church membership with record keeping since the early days of the church in the first century. And so we shouldn't dismiss the practice out of hand thinking that we know better than every generation that has gone before us. Remember that our own Confession of Faith teaches in chapter 1, paragraph 6, that the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scriptures. Now, this is an acknowledgement that there are truths contained in the Holy Scriptures that are not explicit. They're taught by implication. Formal church membership, I believe, is one of these truths that is taught in the Bible by implication. The Scriptures clearly teach that when a person is united to Christ by faith, they become a citizen of the heavenly kingdom. And the Apostle Paul knew a thing or two about citizenship. He appeals to his own Roman citizenship to demand that he not be mistreated under the established laws of the empire. He was a Roman citizen and that was important. It meant something and it was something that he could prove because it was formal, it was documented. And this same apostle writes to the church in Philippi and says, our citizenship is in heaven, in Philippians 3.20. So as believers, we have a citizenship that is in the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of Christ, and that supersedes our citizenship as citizens of the United States of America. But what is the nature of our citizenship in the kingdom of heaven? We've probably seen cartoons joking about getting into heaven with someone arriving at the pearly gates and being met there by Peter, who is standing behind a podium or a desk and has to consult a list to see if that person's name is on the list. And that actually isn't that far from the truth. I don't know that Peter is the one doing the checking or that it is quite that explicit. But scriptures do tell us that when the kingdom is fully consummated, There shall by no means enter it anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life." It's Revelation 21-27. So there's a record of those who belong to Christ, whose names are written in His book. They are citizens of heaven and no one else. Do we suppose that God would frown upon that same sort of record-keeping in His churches on earth which He practices in heaven? Another way that the Scriptures talk about the Christian life is that we are made members of the household of God. And if we stop and think about the nature of family membership, we'll realize that it is clearly defined who is and who isn't a member of the family. It's very formal. In fact, a family begins with a formal covenant between a man and a woman. We call that marriage. The first marriage in the garden between Adam and Eve to the final marriage supper of the Lamb in the book of Revelation, we see that there is a formality to the nature of this family relationship in marriage. We know who the parties are that are married. They're committed to one another. There's no ambiguity here. You are married and I don't know who my spouse is. No, you know who your spouse is. When you covenant together in a marriage covenant, You don't have to wonder who it is that you're married to. In Ruth chapter 4, we see a very clear example of the formality of the marriage covenant in ancient Israel as it is publicly witnessed by the elders of the city that Boaz had taken Ruth as his wife. So marriage is a formal commitment of one man and one woman in a covenant, and we know who those parties are. Further, Scripture speaks about our adoption by God as members of His household. Again, adoption is a formal, legal act that takes place, and we can see the importance of these covenants, these covenant relationships, particularly we have with God. that God formalizes his covenant. In Genesis chapter 12, God makes a covenant with Abraham. He makes promises, covenantal promises to Abraham. But then in Genesis 15, God formalizes that covenant with Abraham through a ceremony that includes sacrifices. And then in Genesis 17, he imposes on Abraham covenantal responsibilities. He formalizes it with Abraham when he requires of Abraham and his offspring the ordinance of circumcision. circumcision would formally mark Abraham and his offspring as being in covenantal relationship with God. In the New Covenant, the formal ordinance of initiation into the family of God is baptism, which ordinarily is closely associated with membership in the local church, and for good reason. Another way that we see formal church membership implied in the scriptures is in the way the scriptures speak about the relationship between church members and church officers. Two passages should be sufficient to make this point. Paul's farewell address to the elders from the church in Ephesus in Acts chapter 20. And he concludes this address to them with an exhortation. He says, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. Now Paul called for the elders of the church in Ephesus. The whole church didn't come. It was clear who the elders were. And they came to meet with him. And he told them that they had a responsibility to shepherd the congregation. They were instructed to shepherd those whom God had made them overseers of. They were not to shepherd the flock in Corinth. or in Philippi. They were to shepherd the congregation in Ephesus, where they were elders. That was the group of people for which they were responsible. The second passage I would mention is found in Hebrews 13, where we read in verse 17, Obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give account. So believers are commanded to obey those who rule over them in the church as ones who are watching out for their souls and must give an account to God for their work as undershepherds. So which elders are believers to obey? All the elders at every church everywhere? Well, certainly not. That would be a mess. You're to obey the elders in the church to which you belong. And you are to be a member so that the elders know who they must give an account for to God. Surely Paul and I are not going to be called to give an account for the souls of those who are members of churches in Flint. I hope not. God will hold us accountable for how we have shepherded this congregation. And we'll speak more about this relationship between members and officers in the coming weeks as we consider the responsibilities of elders and deacons. But the relationship clearly implies that there is a formal membership in the church. The elders know who the members are that they are responsible for. Another part of this relationship between church members and officers that implies formal church membership is the election of church officers. The congregation is responsible to elect elders and deacons for themselves. And we see this in Acts 6 with the appointment of deacons and in Acts 14 with the appointment of elders. Formal church membership safeguards this process. Those who are actually members of this local congregation are the ones who are allowed to vote on such matters. Imagine if we did not have formal membership. And it came time to appoint new deacons, which we hope is coming very, very soon. And that's one of the reasons that we're doing this sermon series. But imagine if we got to that point, we're ready to vote to install new deacons in the church. And another church down the street who didn't share our theological convictions showed up here in mass and went, we're here, we're members of the body of Christ, we wanna vote. And they got to vote on deacons in this church. How would that work? It wouldn't work. We have formal church membership because the members of this local body get to elect their own officers. Another local church doesn't get to decide that for us. Finally, the very idea of church discipline, as outlined in Matthew 18, 1 Corinthians 5, 2 Corinthians 2, and other passages, implies that the congregation knows who is and who isn't a member. To be voted and put out of fellowship as a matter of church discipline means that one was in fellowship in some formal way to begin with. This is the work of the church, both in positive and negative church discipline. The act of positive church discipline is actually taking people into membership, and then church discipline, where we actually have to put someone out of membership, both imply that there is a record. We know who the members are and who are not members. And just generally speaking, the New Testament, throughout, assumes the idea of local church membership. The Apostle Paul uses the analogy of a body in 1 Corinthians 12 to describe the function of members within the fellowship of the local church. Elsewhere, he says the church is the body and that Christ is the head. If individual Christians are body parts, then we must be vitally connected to the body as a whole, which is connected to Christ covenantally, who is our head. A body part detached from your body dies. A body part detached from the body but attached directly to the head is just grotesque. Imagine if you had a finger growing out of your head. Someone who claims to be a Christian and is not united to the local church but claims to be united to Christ is some sort of Frankensteinish monster. It's not at all what the New Testament envisions. We were designed by our maker to be in community, in covenantal relationship with one another, and in covenantal relationship with Christ as his body and his bride. Church membership is biblical. It is a matter of obedience to Christ. There's no single verse that says, thou shalt formally join a church. But there is plenty of implicit evidence in the scriptures that church membership is assumed and expected of Christians. It actually makes it a matter of obedience to our Lord. The church was His idea, not ours. He instituted the church. He promised to build and defend the church. And He calls the church His body and His bride. He ordained the practice of baptism to be a visible and formal mark that a believer is testifying to their allegiance to Christ as their federal head and king. And then he gave that ordinance to the church. And he gave the church the authority of the keys of the kingdom in Matthew 16 and Matthew 18. And so the local church is the institution granted authority by Christ to put His name on people in the act of baptism. Baptism should rightly be tied closely with church membership, and therefore, because it is closely associated with baptism, and because it is assumed in Christ's directions to His churches for their organization, for their practice of discipline, formal church membership is a matter of obedience to our Lord. Now, there may be times when, as a Christian, you're between churches, when you're investigating a local church, as some of you are doing even now. You're seeking discernment and leadership from the Holy Spirit. Is this the church that He would have me be a part of? And that's right and good to do that. But prolonging membership indefinitely, or considering it a matter indifferent, should not be an option for those who take the scriptures seriously. Church membership is biblical, it is a matter of obedience to Christ, and it is a grave duty as well. We should not enter into church membership lightly. Just as you would carefully consider who you enter into a marriage covenant with, you should carefully consider which church you join. Who you marry matters. Which church you join matters. Is the truth of the gospel central to the church's life? Is Christ glorified in all that they do? Are you confident that you are savingly united to Christ by faith? With church membership comes responsibility. It's a responsibility that we're supposed to have as Christians, but it's serious. It's a life-altering responsibility. There are something like 58 at least, that's how many I counted and I could have missed one, but at least 58 distinct passages in the New Testament that give us what we call the one another commands. Love one another, pray for one another, these sorts of things. They give us instructions from our Lord and King regarding our duty toward one another, and the majority of these can only be fulfilled in the life of the local church. These aren't options for us to consider and choose from as if we're at some sort of buffet dinner. These are responsibilities placed on us as believers. We are to be in relationship with other believers, committed to one another, and engaging in obedience to Christ by fulfilling these one another commands. So when you join a church, you need to be ready to obey the head of the church, who is Christ, when he tells you how to act in his household. And so the point is that joining the church is a commitment that must be taken seriously because these one another commands involve dying to yourself and serving others. It's a grave duty, but it's also a great privilege. The church is Christ's body. It's his bride. He loves it. It's his idea. He gave himself for the church. For us to join ourselves to Christ's body should be a great privilege and delight for those who love the king. As Sinclair Ferguson put it in his book, Devoted to God's Church, which, by the way, don't like elbow each other out of the way to get there, but it is on the rack right outside the library door downstairs. But this is what he said. He said, Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. It is therefore normal for those who belong to Christ to love the church and give themselves for her too. Just think of it. Christ loves the church. It's his idea. He gave himself in order to redeem a people and to form them into a body called the church. He calls it His body and His bride. It should be our great privilege in this life to have the opportunity to serve the King of Kings by loving and serving the people that He loves enough to give Himself for them. So let's turn to our text in Galatians 5 and see what this looks like for us to love one another. I think that this text that we've selected in Galatians is sort of a summary of all of those 58 one another commands throughout the New Testament. Paul spends the first two thirds or so of this letter to the churches in Galatia arguing for justification by faith alone, apart from works of the law. He's argued that we are now free from the law, that we enjoy a new liberty when we are united to Christ. He has redeemed us from the law and from the curse. But now the apostle tells us to keep the law by becoming servants to one another in love. And he warns us that there are dire consequences for our life together if we don't serve one another in love. Becoming servants to one another and so fulfilling the law is the purpose for which we have been liberated from the demands of the law. And it is the only way to live in true freedom. In verse 13, Paul sets out to show the purpose for which Christ has made us free. And he says in verse 13, for you, brethren, have been called to liberty. only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." So he reminds us that we were called by God out of darkness into light. He has saved us through means of the gospel. He's made us free and now he says, We've been called to liberty, to freedom, freedom from the law, freedom from the bondage of sin, freedom from the consequences of not keeping the law perfectly. He's called us by his grace in Christ through the gospel to liberty, to freedom. So if liberty is the calling of God, then we ought to attend to it with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. That's Paul's intention with the instructions that follow throughout the rest of the letter, really. He's already settled the question of the nature of our liberty. We've been set free from the demands of the law for justification. We don't keep the law in order to earn salvation. We can't do that. We've been set free from that toil, from that burden. We've been set free from the curse of the law because we fail to live up to it perfectly. That's what the gospel does. It points us to Christ, Christ who died for our sins, for our failures to keep the law, who lived a perfect life in righteous obedience to the law in our place as our substitute. And then he gave himself for us that we might be counted righteous in God's sight. So we don't have to set out on our own effort to keep the law in order to be justified. Rather, we trust in Christ, in His finished work, that He did it perfectly, and then He gave Himself. He gave Himself in His death on the cross, and by the power of God resurrecting Him from the grave, we are justified. Our sins are forgiven in Him. His righteousness is credited to us, and we stand before God clothed in the righteousness of Christ, loved by him as his children. Now the apostle is set out to show in what manner we are to use this newfound liberty that we have in Christ. And he gives us first a negative way that we might use it and then a positive way that we ought to use our liberty. The negative is the injunction against using our liberty as an opportunity for the flesh. The positive command is that we are to, through love, serve one another. Now, how can we possibly use our liberty as an opportunity for the flesh? Well, first, we need to understand what Paul means by flesh. He doesn't mean simply our physical bodies. He includes with it our minds, our hearts, our wills. He's speaking of the entirety of our nature as human beings, the whole person. is corrupted by and inclined towards sin. And so when Paul speaks of the flesh, that's what he's talking about. James Montgomery Boyce wrote and said that when Paul speaks of flesh, he means all that man is and is capable of as a sinful human being apart from the unmerited intervention of God's spirit in his life. In this respect, flesh is synonymous with the natural man or the old nature. So when Paul says not to use our liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, what he means is that we're not to use our freedom in Christ as an opportunity to indulge our sinful nature. We're not to give in to the desires and inclinations of the old man. And I think this can happen in at least two ways. First, we come to Christ in faith and we trust Him. We recognize I'm a sinner in the sight of God. Christ lived a perfect life in obedience to the Father. He gave Himself on the cross as a substitute. When I give my trust and believe in that substitute by faith that He died for me, my sins are forgiven. And I'm given freedom now in Him. And then we go, I have this freedom, what am I to do with it? And we say, well, I'm free from the law, so it doesn't really matter anymore, it's indifferent. Paul has said earlier in the letter to the Galatians that circumcision is indifferent. It makes no difference if you're circumcised or not, unless you did it in order to try and earn your justification, then it matters and you're not justified by it. But in the normal course of things, it doesn't contribute to your salvation in any way. But if we reason from that and conclude that God doesn't care at all what we do with our bodies, and that therefore fornication is a matter indifferent, it may have been forbidden under the law, but we're not under the law. We're set free from the law, so we can just go sleep around and it doesn't matter. That would be using our liberty to indulge the sinful desires of the old nature. Another way that we can misuse our liberty is when we excuse sin in a more blunt way. We know we've been freed from the curse of the law and that because we are sinners and we trust in Christ by faith that we experience grace from God and so we just say, well, yeah, I know this is a sin but if I commit it I just get more grace, right? I'll just sin and enjoy the grace of God. God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Romans chapter six, Paul addresses this misuse of our liberty. It's a misuse of our liberty that actually returns us to bondage again. He says in Romans six that if we give ourselves to sin knowingly in this way that we actually become slaves to sin. So that's taking liberty that Christ died for and going, no thank you, I'd rather be a slave. In 1 Peter 2, verse 16, Peter calls this misuse of liberty a cloak for vice. It's hypocrisy. You're pursuing the desires of the sinful man and hiding behind liberty and freedom as an excuse. The results of misusing our liberty are horrendous. Firstly, as we've already said, we become slaves to sin. We're no longer really free in that case. But more than that, it harms others around us. Look at what Paul says, for you, brethren, have been called to liberty. Only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh Down in verse 15, he tells us what that looks like. He says, if you bite and devour one another, beware, lest you be consumed by one another. This is what happens when we use our liberty as an opportunity for our sinful desires. We become slaves to sin. And because we give in to our pride and our anger and our fear and all these other desires of the old nature, we devour one another like rabid dogs fighting over a scrap. As John Calvin put it, It can lead to nothing else than the ruin and consumption of the whole body. How distressing, how mad it is that we who are members of the same body should be leagued together of our own accord for mutual destruction. When we insist on using our liberty as a cloak for vice, as Peter said, to indulge the sinful desires of our old nature, we end up hurting, enslaving ourselves to sin and hurting those who are around us in the church. We end up using other people to satisfy our own greed, our own selfish ambition, our own pride, et cetera. And I think pride is the sin that we most frequently like to indulge. It's the one that we are prone to veering off course in pursuit of self-justification because of our pride. The cross offends our pride. What do you mean I can't do anything to merit salvation? That I'm a sinner, that I can't be good enough. I have to completely depend upon Jesus. Surely there's something I can do to be part of this. The only thing you contribute to your salvation is the sin that made it necessary. Our pride is offended by the gospel. And our pride causes us to put ourselves first and to use others. And when that pride is indulged, tolerated, overlooked, or excused within the fellowship of the church, it results in hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambition, dissensions, heresies, envy, and the like. That's verses 20 and 21. This is the result of the misuse of our liberty in the corporate life of the church. And I'm sure that if you've been in church for any time at all, you've seen this happen. In fact, if we're honest with one another, we would have to admit that at times we've given in to our own prideful and sinful desires and have become part of the problem. But Paul doesn't just point out the negative, the misuse of our liberty, He exhorts us to use our liberty rightly. He says, don't use your liberty in that way. Put off the old man and put on the new man made in the image of Christ. Here's what it looks like to use your liberty rightly. For you, brethren, have been called to liberty. Only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Now there's a certain irony here. We've been freed from the law, freed from the curse. We have liberty in Christ. And then Paul says, use that liberty to become servants. Use your freedom to voluntarily serve others. You're set free from the law, set free from the demands of the law, set free from the curse and the guilt of your disobedience to the law so that you can voluntarily serve others in the church. Paul consistently refers to himself as a bondservant or a slave of Jesus Christ. We are to consider ourselves slaves to God, Romans 6.22 tells us, and servants to one another. Our freedom from the law is a freedom to love and serve God rather than sin, and he has commanded that we use that freedom to serve others, just as he served us. This is really the essence of what it means to love someone, to give yourself for them. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. John 3, 16. The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2, verse 20. We were born into slavery to sin, unable to free ourselves from its tyrannical rule in our lives. And then Christ gave himself as a sacrifice in our place to free us from that bondage. To become a slave again to the law by choice is both foolish, Paul says in chapter three, verse one, and burdensome, he says in chapter five, verse three. But slavery to one another in love is joyful. It's the work of true freedom. It's the fulfillment of the law, he says in verse 14. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. See, it's not the outward keeping of ceremonies and rules and rights that's at the heart of the law. Rather, it's a love for God and for our fellow image bearers. That's the intent of the law. In Matthew, chapter 28, verses 35 and 40, 35 through, I don't think that's the right chapter. In Matthew, somewhere, one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him and saying, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. So the command to love your neighbor comes from Leviticus 19 verse 18, which we read earlier this morning. It's really just an application of what we call the second table of the 10 commandments. The last six of the 10. To rest in Christ by faith, trusting in his righteousness and not your own, is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And that faith works itself out through love towards your fellow believers. by loving them as you love yourself. Paul is essentially saying that if you would be obedient to your God and King, then love God and love each other. Love God by clinging tightly to the truth of the gospel and not turning aside out of the way of salvation to pursue your own self-justification and your own righteousness. Love God by seeking the holiness and the purity of the church's doctrine. Love God by honoring His gift of redemption and using the freedom that He has given you in the way that He intended, not by making yourself once again a slave to sin, but rather by serving your fellow believers. Love one another not by indulging the desires of the old nature, but by pursuing holiness in the fear of the Lord. Love one another not by excusing our pride, but by seeking humility before God. Love one another by seeking the good of others before yourself. Love one another by being of one mind in the truth and pursuing peace in the church. Love one another by overlooking offenses and forgiving. Love one another. The Puritan William Perkins wrote and said, the love of God and the love of our neighbor are joined together as the cause and the effect. The love of God is practiced in the love of our neighbor. Christ is the only one who did this perfectly. He loved God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength. He never gave in to sin. And He loved His neighbors, those who had been given to Him by the Father, elected to salvation. He gave His own life for us that He might redeem us from our bondage to sin and death. That we might be born anew with His spiritual life infused into us. remade into His image in the beauty of holiness. And having been born again to this new life by the Spirit, we are now to walk in newness of life, put off the old man and put on Christ. This duty of church membership to love and serve one another takes many shapes. There's all sorts of loving service that we can do for others in the church. But I want to point out a couple here in closing that all of us can do, regardless of how long you've been a Christian, or how much you may or may not know about the scriptures, or how equipped you may or may not feel to serve others in the church. I believe that we can all, through love, serve one another in these ways. First of all, we serve one another through love when we pursue personal holiness and obedience to Christ. This isn't really that difficult to figure out. We know when we're being prideful. We know when we're being selfish. We know when we're being impatient. So one way that we can serve one another through love is to put these sins to death. Put off the old man and put on Christ. Humble ourselves, seek the good of others, be patient with one another, forgive one another. Secondly, we serve one another through love by praying for each other. And you don't have to know a whole lot to pray for others. Even if you only prayed for one person in the church each day, And even if you don't really know a whole lot to pray for them, if you just prayed for them and asked for God's blessing on their day, imagine the far-reaching impact that would have if we all did that. It would mean that everyone in the church would likely have someone else in the church praying for them every day, taking their name before the throne of grace and asking for the king's blessing on their life. What an incredible thing that would be if as a church we prayed for one another in that way. Thirdly, we can serve one another through love by simply showing up. Hebrews 10, 24, and 25 says, and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another in so much the more as you see the day approaching. By simply showing up, attending CLA, the Sunday service, the prayer meeting on Wednesday night, you are stirring others up to love and good works. It's an encouragement to others when our brothers and sisters desire to join with us in learning more of Christ and worshiping Christ together and praying together before the throne. This is, in fact, I think one of the most Christ-like things that we can do to love one another. Think about it. Christ came from heaven to earth to tabernacle among men, to be with us in order to love us by giving himself for us. If Christ's desire was to be with his people, surely we can desire to be with his people as well. And finally, we can serve one another through love by practicing hospitality. Here's one of those one another passages from 1 Peter 4, 9, be hospitable to one another. Now this works in a multitude of ways. Being hospitable to one another can simply mean hanging out after the service and visiting with each other, making someone feel included, asking them about their day, asking them about their week, about what they've been studying and learning from the scripture. It can also mean inviting others to share a meal with your family or to join you in some activity or event. It can also mean accepting such invitations when they're extended to you. Hospitality has to have two parties in order to work. And again, Jesus gave himself for the church in order to make us sons, in order to bring us into his household and to seat us around his table. And then he instructs us to give ourselves to one another by being hospitable to one another. Christ loved the church, he gave himself for the church, and he so closely associates himself with the church that he calls it his body and his bride. It is our great privilege to serve the King of Kings by serving the people that he loves and gave himself for. So let us, through love, learn to serve one another. Let's pray.