9-21-25 - The Greatest Of These Is Love

Good morning, and welcome to Clear Note Church. We're glad to have you all with us. Would you please stand for our call to worship? Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you that we have this opportunity to come and worship and gather together.

We thank you for your church. We pray, Father, now as we as we turn to you and as we sing to you and as we praise you that we would do so in spirit and in truth, that you would remove from us the distractions of of the previous week and of the future week, that you would have our whole undivided attention this morning. That as we hear your word preached, that it would convict us. And as we're convicted, that it would cause us to draw near to you, confessing our sin and seeking repentance and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. Be with us now as we sing and hear your word preached.

Let our singing be pleasing to you, oh Lord. Of God, which is at Corinth. To those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours, praise the Lord.

For it

is good to sing praises to

our God, for it is pleasant

and praise is becoming. Amen. Pleasant and praise is becoming. Amen.

Let's worship the Lord now as we sing to our God and savior. Let's see. He rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his right. Punishes the wicked for his judgment not on sin. The champion of justice is a savior if you call on him.

Amen.

Our call to confession this morning comes from Isaiah chapter six verse five, and it says, woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. I invite you now, if you're able to please kneel for our prayer of confession. Heavenly Father, we come before you and confess our sins. We echo the words of Isaiah that we are a people of unclean lips.

Who among us could stand in your presence if we accounted for our sins just this week? We have broken your holy law and have fallen short of your glory. We have used unwholesome speech. While our lips are meant to praise you, Father, we've used them sinfully. We use foul language and have not tamed our tongues.

We engage in crude joking, grieving your spirit. We participate in gossip and slander. We've discussed and shared things and we've avoided being honest. Our arguments with others have been uncharitable. We've spoken unkindly to our neighbors and coworkers, our spouses and children, our brothers and sisters.

We've not shown your love in our speech. We had many opportunities to praise your name throughout the week, and yet we failed to do so. We are a people of unclean lips, but father we desire to be clean. We look to Jesus and his sacrifice to forgive us for our sins and make us clean. We confess our sins acknowledging the ways we've broken your law, and we look to your promise that if we confess our sins, you say that you are faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Please, father, cleanse us. Make us a people set apart to do your will. Help us by your spirit to fight against our fleshly desires and the sins that so easily ensnare us. Give us victory over our sins. We pray all these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Now, having confessed our sins, let's stand for the assurance of pardon from God's word. If you have confessed your sins, then have faith that God will keep his promises and forgive you. Our assurance of pardon comes from Romans six, verses nine through 13. Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again. Death no longer is master over him.

For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lust, unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. So lift up your hearts.

It's a glorious God now as we strive to present ourselves as a living sacrifice to our loving savior, Jesus. Now, dear brothers and sisters, let's our faith and our hope in the Triune God as we recite the Apostle's Creed. Christian, what do you believe in God the father, almighty, maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord, ghost born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified dead and buried. He descended into hell.

The third day, he arose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father almighty. From thence, he shall come to judge the quick and the day. I believe in the holy ghost, the holy catholic the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. A man.

You may be seated.

Good morning. Welcome to ClearNote Church. My name is Timothy Deaton, and we're excited to have you here with us this morning. When you came in, you should have received a bulletin. And in that bulletin, we have these connection cards that look just like this.

If you did not receive a bulletin this morning and you'd like one, would you go ahead and raise your hand now, and our ushers will be glad to bring you one. Now, we use these cards as a way to connect with everyone who comes to our church. So whether this is your first time visiting, you're a regular attendee, or you're a member here, we invite you to fill one of these cards out. On them, you can ask us questions about ClearNote. You can ask us about the various ministries taking place here at ClearNote Church, and you can also put in prayer requests and praise reports.

And after that, after the morning announcements, the ushers will be taking up the morning offering. As the ushers take up that offering, we just ask that you would drop the connection card and the pin in the basket as they pass that along. Let's take a minute now to fill out our connection cards. Alright. And as you finish filling out your connection cards, we have a few announcements for you this morning.

And I'm gonna do something a little different this morning. When I give the announcements, if I list you as someone to talk to about that particular announcement, I'd like you to please stand up so that everyone can see you. We have plenty of new faces that maybe haven't met you or got to know you yet. So if you're helping and you're someone that I I say like, please see so and so for more details. Please stand so that everyone can see you.

Okay? Alright. First, we have our Awana and youth group programs coming up. That'll be, this Wednesday starting at 06:30PM. So this Wednesday kids is dress like your parent night, so please come dress like your parents.

Okay? There are prizes that mister Lakes will have for you. I don't know what they are, but they're gonna be awesome. So please come dress like your parent. And if you're if you're teaching, you should do your best to try to dress like your parent because that'll be really fun for everybody.

All children three years old to twelfth grade are invited to come to the Awana and youth group programs this Wednesday. Next, I wanna remind you all that our fall festival heyday is coming up. It's this Saturday, September 27, starting at 4PM. There's a sign up sheet in the narthex out here, and there's a chili cook off sign up sheet. I don't I mean, you guys still have spots left.

Right? Okay. Yeah. So there's spots left for that, so please sign up for that. About the fall festival heyday, please see Emily George, who I don't see, or Maggie Baker, who is in the back right here.

Please see one of them and talk to them about helping out with that. Remind you our church workday is coming up, Saturday, October 4. That'll be here at the church starting at 9AM. If you have questions about that, please see, Michael Lakes and Clay Carmichael for more details. And then Mr.

Lakes has another announcement. And then Mr. Lakes has another announcement.

And then Mr. Lakes has another announcement. And then Mr. Mr. Lakes has another announcement.

He worried me when he said finally. I'm like, not finally. Not finally. Good morning. Few months now in order to make sure everyone knows what it is, the men's retreat is coming up.

It is October at Camp Allendale. Pastor Tim Bailey is gonna be our speaker. He's gonna be talking about being a disciplined man. Okay? So we're very excited to have him come and speak for us and to have this time of fellowship.

Registration is $75 It's open now on realm. You just go in like you would to give your normal tithe and offering. But instead of saying general fund, you say, men's is it men's retreat or is it men's ministry? Men's ministry and then there's like a subject or a but if you give $75 and you give it to the men's ministry, we're gonna know that's for the men's retreat. So I'll accept Bitcoin.

I'll figure it out. If that's really the only way that you could pay me $75, I probably won't take gold bars. That's a little too complicated. But, any other method of payment, we're happy to accept. If that is a barrier to you attending, please talk to me.

I I will work it out. Okay? So just to recap, October is the men's retreat, $75 registration fee, open now, I'm hoping that we can do two more Sundays, but they need the they need the final count two weeks in advance. So I'm just asking them if they can postpone that a little bit, so we can get another Sunday in. Quick as you can.

And that's it. That's all I got.

Thank you, Michael. This does conclude the announcements. We now present to the Lord his tides and our offerings.

Praise him above ye heavenly host. Praise father, son, and Holy Ghost.

Our scripture lesson this morning comes from Hosea chapter five. And in this chapter, what I call our attention to is they actually are unable to return to him. That's what he says in verse four. Their deeds will not allow them to return to their god. They have gone so far into their sin that they cannot return.

They are unable to return to him. And that is their judgement. That's part of their judgement, is that they are unable to return. Draw. And so, it serves as a warning to us.

That we would draw. Wow. Far we allow ourselves to stray into our sins. That we would be quick to confess and repent and to draw near. Because if we wait And then we try to draw near.

The Lord won't accept our sacrifices. That's what happens to Israel later in this chapter. And so we should be quick to repent of our sins. This is the word of the Lord, and it is eternally true. Hear this, oh priests.

Give heed, oh house of Israel. Listen, oh house of the king, for the judgment applies to you. For you have been a snare at Mizpah and a net spread out on Tabor. The revolters have gone deep in depravity, but I will chastise all of them. I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me.

For now, oh Ephraim, you have played the harlot. Israel has defiled itself. Their deeds will not allow them to return to their God for a spirit of harlotry is within them and they do not know the Lord. Moreover, the pride of Israel testifies against him, and Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity. Judah also has stumbled with them.

They will go with their flocks and herds to seek the Lord, but they will not find him. He has withdrawn from them. They have dealt treacherously against the Lord, for they have born illegitimate children. Now the new moon will devour them with their land. Blow the horn in Gebia, the trumpet in Ramah, sound an alarm at Beth Aven, behind you Benjamin.

Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke. Among the tribes of Israel, I declare what is true. The princes of Judah have become like those who move a boundary. On them, I will pour out my wrath like water. Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment because he was determined to follow man's command.

Therefore, I am like a moth to Ephraim and like rottenness to the house of Judah. When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to King Jerib, but he is unable to heal you or to cure you of your wound. For I will be like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear to pieces and go away. I will carry away and there will be none to deliver.

There will be none to deliver.

I will

go away and return to my place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face. In their affliction, they will earnestly seek me. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated.

And to your and to your and to your and to your and to your and to your and to your and to your love for one another, love for the large our hearts, we ask that we might love others even as you've loved. For Charlie Kirk's family, that you would be merciful to them as they continue to put their life back together. We do pray, Father, that you would strengthen his

protect his And and and and and

and we pray for, it to be we pray for our nation would repent. That we would turn aside each one of us from our sins. And

the

lusts of our heart have led us astray. Congregation, and that you would give him favor in the eyes of his congregation, that they might follow his leadership. We pray, Father, that you would help lazy or turned aside. We think well of ourselves at the point where we should be and embarrassed. And embarrassed.

We are proud. And so we pray that you would and reveal these things to us as we sit under the preaching of your word this morning. Now may the words of my mouth and the meditation of every one of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

So this morning, we're going to be revisiting the topic of small groups. This was the sermon I was going to preach last week. And, the importance of continually devoting ourselves to the word, to fellowship, to eating together in prayer. These are the four devotions found in, axed chapter two. This week, I want to show you the benefit, the main benefit of small groups.

And that is simply love.

Love given and love received. And care for one another. We bear each other's burden. But there's a temptation that arises in us that when we come to church, when we're around other Christians, do our hair and we dress up.

All

in an effort to come and to say I'm doing good. I'm doing well. I was busy. And I'm tired. Whole story, is it?

Sometimes the last week was very rough, very difficult. Perhaps you're in trouble you're struggling this morning. We've all learned to put on a And to tell everyone we're doing well. And to tell everyone we're doing well. That ought not to be the way it is.

It shouldn't be that only our families and moments of particular let your hair down. You can talk about what's going on before you have the solutions and before it's in the rear view mirror and ask for help. Ask for prayer. Each one of us has troubles and burdens. And so when we get together, try when we can be with one another and receive help.

That's what small groups are supposed to be for. That is love. Love chapter. This is the chapter where Paul is exhorting the Corinthians and us to love one another. The chapter as we work our way through it.

We will not be going through you verse by verse in every word or we would be here for a good law. The first few verses, Paul compares, makes comparisons, compares love to a number of things. And he says love is supreme. Then he goes on to define love, what it is as well as what it isn't, in the center of the chapter. And then he begins to talk about being a child.

He says, when I was a child, I used to be like this. But then when I became an adult, a mature man, these things were done away with. And I want you to understand that when he's talking about the child about childishness, this is connected to love and this is connected to the sins of the people that they were committing. And effectively, what he's doing is there's a section where he says, your behavior is childish. You're behaving like children.

Children don't know how to love well, but mature Christians ought to. And then he finishes where he began by saying that the greatest gift, the supreme aim of our life, ought to be love. So we're going to work our way through this, through the sections, working themselves out in our lives as we spend our time together. Would you please stand now as we read the word of the Lord from First Corinthians Chapter 13. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not I have become a noisy gong or clanging.

And know all mysteries and all knowledge. If I have all and if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me. And so but do not have love, it profits me. Love is patient. Love is kind and is not love does not brag and is not arrogant.

Does not act unbecoming. It does not seek its own. It does not take into account a wrong, suffer does not rejoice in unrighteousness. But rejoices with the truth. Love never fails.

But if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away. If there are tongues, they will cease. If there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when the perfect comes, the partial will be done.

When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, think like a child, think like a child, reason, like a child, and I did a way with child. Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now, I know and and then I will know fully just as I also have been and then I will know fully just as I also have been and then and then I will know fully just as I also have been and then and then I will know fully just as I also have been and

You may be seated.

So as I said, he begins this chapter with some comparisons. And in all those comparisons, he says love is supreme. Love wins out. Love is the thing that is most important. He compares it with speaking in tongues, with prophecy, with having all knowledge and faith, things are worthless, that they don't benefit us at all, if we don't have love.

So the first thing we ought to recognize is that our behavior is not supreme. Of no benefit. And what a shame it would be to live your entire life. And what a shame it would

be to live

your entire life. And what a shame it would be to live your entire life. And what a shame it would be to live your entire life. And what a shame This is the case that Paul's making in the beginning. The things we give ourselves to, the things that are very important to us, love is above all of them.

And even if those things are good in and of themselves, they're worthless in comparison to love because they don't glorify God. And so we have to ask ourselves, what do we think is more important than love? May seem like a strange question, but you have to realize the things that Paul's mentioning here in this chapter may not be the things we would put at the top of the list, but they were the things that the Corinthians put at the top of the list. They gave preeminence to speaking in tongues. They aspired to the gift of

and and and and and

and and things that you value and the things that you literally have done, even though they were sacrificial Many of these things, if we read this list, we go, I don't know that I would do that thing. But they had done that thing. And Paul comes back and says, but if there was no love, Prophets you nothing. Some of us may look at the the extraordinary nature of some of these comparisons. Giving all that I have.

I said earlier that they took a vow of poverty. It doesn't say they took a vow of poverty, but it does say that all that they had, they gave away for the sake of others. They sold and gave to the -Yeah. -The rich young ruler, that is what Jesus told them. Have to do to inherit eternal life?

He comes and he asks the teacher. And the teacher says, You've read the law. How does it read to you? And he tells him. And Jesus says, How have you done?

And he says, I've kept all these things from my youth. Go and sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you'll have eternal life. And it seems unreasonable. The rich young ruler thought that was unreasonable. In fact, he didn't do it.

He went away discouraged. He went away depressed because the scripture tells us he owned many things. But here, in this passage, we have reference of someone actually doing it. It makes you think of Ananias and

-

when everyone was selling their belongings and giving to each other as everyone had need, they said, oh, we will do is we want to get in on this. So we're going to go and we're going to sell our land. But there were terms, and and they had made, where they kept rights to the land and were able to, to still profit from it. They had, they had made a show of love. And God struck them down for it.

Gotten to the place where you would consider that type of And if you were, would you be motivated by love or would you be motivated by what the people around you, as Ananias and Saphire were,

would you

be concerned about what others would think of you in doing such things? So maybe for you, it's not speaking in tongues. Poor or being martyred yourself. What is it that you find to undercut your love? That's the question.

Is it financial responsibility? Is it having the right doctrinal beliefs? Is it having a large family? Is it going to college? Landing a good job?

Driving a certain car? Living in a certain part of town? What is it? The list that Paul gives here, I don't think are at the top of Americans minds. But we do have to ask ourselves, what's at the top of our list?

What does my life revolve around? What do I get upset about when it doesn't go right? What causes me to be angry or to withdraw? Things I've mentioned, as as potential options aren't bad things. I didn't list any sins.

It's not simple to want to live in one part of the town versus the another or drive a certain car as opposed to another. Those aren't sinful things.

And

determine the rightness or the wrongness of our desires, but rather to ask ourselves, do these desires suppress love? And if they do, they have become a problem. Because we've taken something of supreme value, and we've taken something of supreme value, and we've taken something of value and traded it in for something that is worthless. And no matter how bad we want it or how hard we pursue it or how much of it we have, it doesn't gain any value. Draw.

It doesn't become any more pleasing to draw. You can want, pursue, and attain many good things, godly things, mis. What was going

on in

the Corinthian church? Well What was going on in the Corinthian church? Well, probably the most glaring and shameful thing was incest. But on top of that greed, lawsuits, they were suing each other. Food at the Lord's Supper.

Like, they were coming to the Lord's Supper as they practiced it at that time. And the wealthy were getting rich and the poor were going without any food. And their observation of the Lord's Supper was likely not And what they did was they brought their own food to the and themselves and were gluttons regarding it while there were poor people in their church who were going in their church who were going hungry at the same time. I think many of us would look at that and just go, that's just not how Christians behave. They must not have been Christians.

What Paul does is instead of saying that, he comes to them, and he says to them, this is not love. This is so far away from love. Few times, but it goes before each descriptor. Love is patient. Love is kind and is not jealous.

Do you think there were jealous people in that Yes. I don't think that he stood up or rewrote this letter to people and was speaking in the abstract to them about sins that they weren't given to. Kind and is not jealous. Love does not brag and is not arrogant. He's just airing all their dirty laundry.

He's just picking one piece up after the other. Saying this is your dirty piece, and this is your dirty piece, and here's how you guys are doing. Who are imbibed toward one another because they won't forgive each other? Does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, it hopes all things, and endures all things.

All of which he is saying to them, you are not doing. All of these descriptions of love all are are given in the context of how Christians ought to relate to one another. This means that our love for God is expressed in the context of our life lives among each other. It's easy to say that we love those who are far off. It's easy to say that we love those who have passed away.

It's easy to say that we love those that we don't have to interact with. But it's very difficult to love those that we live in close proximity to. Scripture warns us in first John two, that the one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness. One who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not. Ask you, is it easier to love God or to love your brother?

I didn't have brothers growing up. But But I have a lot of kids. We have a lot of brothers and sisters in my house. And we find in our house, as I trust you do in your house, that love is often in short supply. But because it's in our home, and the relationships are fixed, we try to work it out.

Because we're brothers after all, right? I have to share a bedroom with you, or we have to sit at the same table, and Our who don't share our genes, who don't share our names, who don't share our, our priorities, whose sensibilities are very different, and whose giftings are opposite of ours. These two are our brothers. We are each other's brothers and sisters. And we have a lot of differences.

You remember that section in first Corinthians where they're going on about spiritual gifts and and and you have you have the one saying, well, because I am I'm I'm I'm not an hand. I don't remember which one it is. Because I'm not a hand, I'm an I, need of you. And he says, no, no, no. What's going on?

They're just irritated with each other. They're just frustrated that the other one is not like them. Do you ever get frustrated that people aren't like you? They feel like an outsider. Do they irritate you?

Do you do you judiciously avoid eye contact with them because you don't want to get into a conversation with them because they aren't like you? Because they might talk longer or be irritating or bothersome to you. They might presume upon you. They might tell you about their week in a way that might take a little bit of your time and energy. They might upset your lunch plan.

If we have to tolerate that in our home, so be it. But in the church, it shouldn't be that way. So we But if we're brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and grandparents and children, love We love Yeah. And the interesting thing about

they're like they're like they're like they're like

they're like they're like they're like they're like they're like they're like they're like they're like they're like they're like they're like they're like each church has its its gifts, its things it's good at, its things it's bad. Something about young people. We have something about marriage and something about children because that's what's filling the chairs. 43. I'm not old, but here I am.

And I remember Dan saying years ago, he said to me, he says well, to the elders, I believe. Job. We're good at helping young people and their marriages and raising their kids. That's what we have. That's what we're gifted out.

And that's what we should lean into. Now, those weren't your exact words, but that was basically, a We've not had some targeted marketing campaigns where it all of a sudden. Timothy won't doesn't do that for us yet. Right? It's who God has brought.

And some of you have come already married, and some of you have been married in the church, and some of you came from broken homes, and some of you came from, from intact homes, and some of you grew up Christian, and some of you didn't. But here we all are, with an incredible resource of young people, of energy, of energy, of, of of malleability, of teachableness, of children. That's something we're good at. It's something God's chosen for us. When I talk to my friends or to people outside of the church and about my church, if they're if they're distanced.

And they're like, that is such a blessing. Can you imagine? No, church is nobody's like, our church is full of 60 and 70 year olds, and it's gonna die soon. And we're trying to figure out how to slowly close down the ministrations. But keep the old people secure.

Completely, and people secure. Completely, and people secure. Completely, and people secure. Completely, and people secure. Completely, and people secure.

Completely different. You know what's true about young people as well? And I love you. And it's true of me, is that they are immature. They have very little experience in life, and they make lots of mistakes.

They also have the energy and the time and generally the will to fix the stuff. But they're not seasoned. They're not experienced. They say stupid things. They have crazy ideas about home and marriage and family and child rearing and you name it.

They've got weird ideas. Ideas that haven't been haven't stood the test of time. They lack perspective. Because life has been short for them, their perspective is not deep. It's not long.

And

get weary of them? When they come to your small group, you're like, oh, that's good. They're bad kids. Like, they just make such a mess with all the food. And their parents

don't know what to do about it.

And You young If you young people don't know, that's something we have to fight. Something I have to fight. My point is that love is work. And me saying that it's work to for us to love one another is only to tell you that what Paul is saying here is true and necessary. He's telling the Corinthians, you're gonna have to work at this because you're not good at it.

You don't love each other naturally. We have this idea, this romanticized idyllic idea that love is just this natural thing that just flows out of us. And it turns out it's not. It is when you're dating and getting married, but it doesn't last that way. It matures and it deepens, and it burns hotter than it used to, but not in the same way.

It's like white hot poles versus like the fire you just started with all the char the lighter fluid on it. Both fire, both hot, completely unusable versus very productive. And so all of Paul's admonitions about love have to do with the conflicts that arise between God's people in the context of a local church. These things are not unique to the Corinthians. There are things that we And so and so, it's a it's a it's a Do we consider our own impatience, our own jealousies?

Do you ever get jealous of people in the church? Do you ever like, draw a drawdown on other people? Because they're not as good as you. They don't know as much. They don't do as well.

Do you ever get in a fight at small Or in the car outside of small group and then come in with puffy red cheeks? Acting unbecomingly?

Do you

ever get frustrated when people don't serve you in the church the way they you think they should? Are you always ready for a fight amongst the brothers? Are you always ready for a fight amongst the brothers? Do you go home after church and recount all of the people or all of the circumstances where people didn't love you? Are you glad when that foolish brother of yours gets what he deserves?

Do you get tired and want to give up? Are you a cynic regarding your brothers and sisters? Do you have any hope that things will get better? And will you bear with it and endure it? Now all I've done I realize I didn't none of that was me quoting scripture, but all I'm doing is reading and saying this is how we are.

Are you any of these ways? I'm most of these ways, maybe all of these ways at various times. Not all the time, but they're they're they're living temptations in my heart, that I have to fight on a daily basis, not just with you, but with my family as they do with me. The question is, do you think that that work is appropriate and necessary and good, not just in your home and in your four walls, but in this house with these brothers? Or do you make it your aim to keep everyone far enough away that none of this ever really has to happen?

I tend not to mind initially and it depends on the argument. But I tend not to mind when Christians get in arguments or fights, As long as they resolve them. I really get concerned when they argue and they fight and then they they don't ever come back to it. They just kind of decide, we're just going to take a step away from each other and just live like that. Point, they come back together and they have another fight and then they take another step away from each other.

That's concerning to me. Because that's divisive. That is a lack of love. The fact that we have differences of opinion and irritate each other at times is to be expected. It's unfortunate, but it's inevitable.

The question is not whether that will happen, but what will we do with one another when that happens? Isn't it when there's conflict? And our own lovelessness begins to take hold. What's this all have to do with small groups? Well I said at the beginning, small groups are are an extension of the family.

They're a family meal. They're time spent together lived in close proximity to one another. And that closeness ought to be close enough excerptations from Paul find some usefulness. We should encourage one another, our spouses or our children toward love on the backside sometimes. A healthy small group is one that's working toward obedience to this, toward loving one another.

It is not the mark of a healthy small group, where everyone is working hard to keep everyone at arm's length. As you grow together with your small group, there will be occasions for you to take offense, to take offense at something that gets said or done. Something that's left unaddressed. Something you think should be changed. We're just starting our small groups again up after, you know, having done them for years in the fall.

But these things these things have come to our ears, the elders years before, that there's problems in this small group. But that family, this family doesn't like that family. They're kids are out of control. Dinner's not until 02:30 in the afternoon. They leave our house a mess.

They don't help clean up. They stay for dinner. And it was supposed to be lunch. All of those are things we've heard. And all of those are opportunities for us to prioritize love.

When those things well up in your heart, I don't want you to be like, Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. I can't believe it. I just want you to say, This is an opportunity for me to love my brother, Because when you do that, you're, you're loving in the manner that God loved you.

There are times when Jesus was teaching and he was he was preaching when he was very direct. Even aggressive. I mean he flipped over tables and drove people out with whips at points in the temple. But there are these other times where he deals with people that would just irritate you. You remember when he was weary and he was tired and he wanted to sleep and the people just followed And then the disciples are like, you know, they went within that far.

They're like, It's getting to be late and they're hungry. Send them away into the towns so that they can go get themselves some dinner and find a place to sleep. Seems reasonable enough. Disciples? He's sinless, but they're not.

Would you not have been irritated at that? Don't want us to miss the opportunities that come across our lives. It's a love one. Paul said, when I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child. But when I became a man, I did away with childish things.

These impulses, this lack of love, it's childish. Right? When you have young children at a certain age, they're not even capable of thinking about their life or what's going on from outside of themselves. They cognitively don't have the ability to do it. Young children.

Or it's like, why don't you know better? Well, one part of the answer is because they're not capable of observing themselves and their behavior and their desires or their from outside. And even, I'd say, you know, eight, nine, 10, and older have the ability to begin to to think about themselves as, you know, they're looking at their life. And they're saying, that was wrong of me, or good of me, or or mean, or these types of things. But before that, they didn't even have the ability to do it.

They can they only perceive their life from the inside. They don't think in terms of like, this person did this to me and so I reacted this way and whether and what I did was either right or wrong. They're not capable of it. And what you find then is that that's why young children often scream, cry, throw things, and they have all kinds of trouble own behavior at all. All they know is that was mine, and he took it.

And then one it doesn't the ability to look at ourselves from the outside does come at a certain age. We're capable of it. But that does not necessarily mean that we do it on a regular basis. We have to realize that we're capable of living as children and reasoning and thinking and processing like a child even though we're adults. We only think in terms of ourselves and how we're affected and what our desires are and and and how we should be served and whether that's fair or not in our way of reckoning.

Paul calls that childish thinking. And he says, I used to think and reason and act like that, but when I became a man, life with one another as quarreling three and four and five year olds. Even if we keep that quarrel quiet until we go home. We should have a different perspective than a child. Do you ever look at yourself and say you're just acting like a baby?

You're just whining and crying about this, bellyaching about something. You are not to be Part of being a mature Christian is being able to love those who sin against you or irritate

you or don't understand you. Or don't understand you. Or don't understand you. Or don't understand you. Or don't understand you.

Or don't understand you. Or don't

understand you. Or don't understand you. Or don't understand you. Or understand. That is the beauty and the gift of Christ's death and resurrection, is that it gives you the ability to truly love one another, to overcome sin, to where when you sin, you don't have to just get further away.

And stay in fellowship and unity with those who you sin against and who sin against you. We could all multiply our reasons for our cold grumpy hearts toward one another, but we do have to circle back at some point and see if the larger problem, the real foundation, isn't actually our lack of love. I'll end with this. We've been talking a lot about our self examination of our own hearts and examining whether or not we're truly loving or just, thinking that we're loving. Given to you and sacrificed for you, and sacrificed for

you, and sacrificed for you, and sacrificed for you, and sacrificed for you, and sacrificed for you, and sacrificed for you, and sacrificed for you, and sacrificed for you, and sacrificed for you, and sacrificed

for you, and sacrificed for you, and sacrificed you Do you remember it with gladness and thankfulness that they came to you in your struggle? And they helped you carry it. That's what I'm that's what's at stake. That's what I want. I desperately want us to give that to one another.

And what gets in the way for what we're giving up when we give into those sense. Because that kind of love, when we've received it, is memorable. And you know what's better than receiving that kind of love? Giving that kind of love. Remember, Jesus said to us, it's better to give than to receive.

More blessed to give than to receive. And so as we live together as a church and a family, brothers and sisters, there's going to be disagreements and conflicts and objections to any number. And, and, and objections to any number. And, and obedience to God. And some of them will just have to do is what's at stake.

And so I don't want you to give love with, begrudgingly. I don't want you to do the right thing because it's the right thing. I want you to do the right thing God. God really does see these things, remember these things, bless these things, things we disagree about, it doesn't really matter You can host small group. You can lead small group.

You can provide all the food for small group. You can teach at small group. You can do all of it. Know. But if you pursue love, recognize where I fail in this area.

And help me to, help me to fight it by faith. Give me love for my brothers and my sisters. Lord. It'll be incredible what God will do to you. You'll find that you'll love people.

You'll find this this beautiful garden of love growing that you didn't plan. All of a sudden, your irritations with them will melt away. They won't be there anymore. And it takes faith to believe that. That the people who irritate you, the things that are going on, that if if they truly, as an example, have a have a a mouthy, snotty, disrespectful, disobedient, messy eating Do you believe that that can change?

Or is it just hopeless? Is it just like, well, they're just terrible parents and that's all there is to it. Guess we'll just have to let them come and spread a little of their mess at our house every day. Can't wait till it's over. That You may not.

Your kids may do something else that's equally irritating. They may never cry at all. They may just shove everybody down, be a big bully. I don't know what I don't know what it'll be. Loving one another is a privilege.

The other option is to live all by yourself and most of our world is or at least maybe not our world, though we could argue that birth rates in the world are in serious decline. But in America, more and more we're choosing to live by ourselves so that we don't ever have to love anybody. Everything's becoming contactless. Right? COVID taught us that germs were bad and ought to be avoided and there's, you know, you can get sick.

Winter's coming and small groups are going to be affected by that part of the fall.

You're going

to bring your kids to small group and then you're going to get the text at 08:00 on Sunday night. My kid just puked. And you're going to be like, no. And you're going to you're going to start to view your child as just a ticking time bomb. People who didn't recognize earlier that their kid was sick.

Because they'll say silly things like, Yeah, he didn't eat much breakfast this morning. You know? And I looking back on it now, I can see that Because while you're not dealing with a mess yet, they have a puking kid. What can you do for them? How can you serve and love them?

These are the questions we have to ask ourselves. It's a paradigm shift. It's a different way of thinking. It's a Christian way of thinking. And as I said, the other option is to be alone.

All of America, largely, young people your age are choosing that path. They're choosing a lot They're choosing to be alone. They don't want to get married. They certainly don't want to have kids. They want to make a bunch of money.

They want to go live and consume and consume and consume and produce nothing. Started that way. You're young. You've married. You're having children.

And bless you, blest you for it. But, man, have you got work to do, Stylton, and loving each other. Your kids are a lot of work. I know they're a lot of work in your house, and yet we still have to love the brethren, and bear with each other, and care for each other, and teach each other, and pray for each other, and admonish each other. And then So that when at the end of this, the spring, in May, when our small groups are wrapping up for the year, so you know, so we can have the summers off, you'll actually miss those people.

And that next year, what the elders will be dealing with is all the people who don't want to be switched out of their small groups. Who are inviting those same people to their house over the summer for informal get togethers. That's what I hope God does for us and with us. When you're irritated, you have an opportunity to love fight your temptation to be irritated, to be grumpy, to withdraw. Trust the draw will bless you.

Let's pray. Father, we do pray that you would help us to love each other and care for each other. And to bear with one another in our weaknesses and sins. It's hard to conceive of how jesus

has been dwarven. And to bear with one another in our weaknesses and sins. It's hard to conceive of how jesus

has been dwarven. Jesus has been toward us. The sort of love that you have for us, it's it's not the kind of love that we think of and talk about and exhibit. Unless you've worked in our lives and changed us and given us the the ability to truly love and a desire. And trust that you've planted these seeds in our hearts.

And if we've left them dormant, we pray that you'd water them and bring light to them such that they draw. So we give our hearts and our lives to one another. Help us to be a blessing, to love each other, to care for each other and our weaknesses, to seek after you locked arm and arm with one another. Help us to move faithfully but quickly through the tensions and the difficulties that arise from living close to one another and having each other in our homes. You pray that you'd make our fellowship suite.

And that you would knit us together as a family. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. And that you would knit us together as a family.

I want

to read to you now the words of institution from first Corinthians, chapter 11, the Lord's The apostle Paul says, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you. The Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was betrayed, took a and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is and a and a and a and a and a. He took the cup also after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you, drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Man must examine himself. And in so doing, he has to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For in

so But a

man must examine himself. And in so but a man must examine himself and in so doing, he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason, many among you are weak and sick and a number of sleep. Now, I I want to say a few things about this meal.

This meal is for Christians. It's for those who are committed to loving one another. It's not for those who have done it well. It's for those who wants to do it well in the grace and power that God provides. Okay?

This is a meal for sinners, provided that those sinners have professed their faith and joined themselves to Jesus Christ. That's what this means. It's meant to be an encouragement and strength to our spirits and and to be made real to us by the power of the It's been to remind us that in our sins, God hasn't looked at us and despised us and cast us off and said, no more. But rather that he's looked at us in our in our weakness and in our sins and said, in our weakness and in our sins and said and that's what he's done. Through this meal, through the death of Jesus Christ, we receive his life, his righteousness.

And so when we come forward and we partake of it, we testify to and proclaim our faith in Jesus Christ, in his death as a payment for our sins and in his, coming back to Earth to receive us into glory. And so it's meant to strengthen us. If those things aren't, real to you, if you're not a Christian, then I warn you, don't partake of this meal because the scripture warns us that those who eat and drink, eat and drink judgment to themselves if they don't partake of the body rightly. And so taking of it right Partaking of it rightly simply means that you have a knowledge of your own sin and your own need of salvation and that you look to Jesus Christ for that salvation. That's what it means to partake of it rightly.

Now, as you examine yourselves, there may be occasion for you to find sin in your life, that you're unrepentant of. Now I want to talk just a second about unrepentant sin. When you examine yourself, it would be incredible for you to discover an enormous un unrepentant of. Because those sorts of things take a while to grow. Okay?

They don't just pop up overnight. And so when I speak of unrepentant sin, I'm not saying, result of the sermon or or this fencing of the table that I was awful toward my spouse earlier today or last. That's not necessarily what I mean. You may well need to go and repent of that and and ask their forgiveness before you come and partake of the meal. What I'm talking about are the sorts of sins you've been nursing and hiding and you're unwilling to have exposed because you really don't want to get rid of them, though you don't think in those terms.

I just I just want to be able to continue in my lusts and in my greed and in my pride. I just don't want anyone to know about it. They don't think in those terms but they act in those terms. And so when you examine yourself, what you're being exhorted to do by the Lord is to look, are there things in my life I'm unwilling for anyone to know? I'm unwilling for anyone to address?

I'm unwilling to change. Because Jesus didn't come so that we could stay in our sins. He came to free us, not only from the guilt of them, but the power of them. He came to break the chains of death and sin. And so if you find that you're still living in them, heed the warning to examine yourself and to be sure that you are free of them and wants to be free of them and are pursuing freedom from them.

As you fall and stumble and trip as we all do in our pursuit of righteousness, that doesn't prevent you from coming to this meal. But a secret withdrawal, even if it's only in your heart to to nurse those sins along, that is the sort of warning that That's what Paul's warning against here. That would be for you to eat and drink unworthily and to eat and drink judgment to yourself. And so when I warn you, don't partake of the new if that's the case, I'm not trying to be mean to you. I'm not trying to to exclude you.

I'm not trying to to beat up on you. I'm trying to warn you because I don't want the judgment of God to rest more heavily upon you. Rather, I want to see you. That's the exhortation here from the apostle and the exhortation that we observe. And so we require at ClearNote Church that those things be true of you and that you be a member of in good standing of a bible believing church or that you'd be pursuing that.

I realize that there's visitors. I realize that there's transition. I only mean to exclude in saying this those who are opposed to church membership and who say I will not submit to or Even though they're sinners, I'm a sinner, these men sitting here are sinners. We're not perfect and we sin against each other, against our spouses and against And against And against And his church to keep watch over our souls as those who will give an account. And so if you're, if you're opposed to that sort of care, then God is opposed to you.

And it would be a great sin for you to come in rebellion, in that rebellion, to this day. But if you're in process and you're changing churches or you're visiting, you're checking us out, then we realize we're not the only church, we're not the only Christians. We trust that your examination will be a self examination. And if you and your and before God that you're you're in right relationship with him, then we welcome you to this table. Come and partake.

Because we're brothers and sisters, not and we know each other really well, but because of the shed blood of Jesus, right? And you partake. And you would use this bread and this cup now to strengthen us. Equip us to do your will. Please forgive us for our sins.

And give us a sharp eye toward our hearts that lead us astray so often. We pray that you would Yeah. Us away from our things you love and to pursue them. And also hating the things you hate and repudiating. Have mercy on us.

We pray in Jesus name. Amen. If you have children who have not yet been admitted to the Lord's table, please bring them forward with you. And after you partake of the elements, we'll have two officers on either side that would like to pray with you and your children for their obedience, for their salvation, for their coming to faith. And the

and the and the and the and the and the and the and the and

the and the and the

and and conquerors we are. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look for it, his wonder for and And the things of earth will grow as free indeed. In the light of his glory and praise. And praise.

A. J.

A. And before us now, we ask and prepare our paths that we might walk. A. J. A.

S. Sensitive to our sins and to our humility before you. Help us to repent quickly and to return to you. And give us the joy and contentment and peace of obdience. We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

As we sing our closing hymn, the Lord's Prayer. The deacons are going to be taking up an offering for those in need among us. So we ask that you would give generously to that as you're able. And this is responsive. So the men are gonna sing that first line, and then the women will repeat, and then we'll join in together halfway through.

Amen.