Unity in Truth and Love

The truth includes the historical facts of Jesus's life and death and resurrection. And so John himself writes in 1935, he, I, he who saw it has borne witness. His testimony is true and he knows that he is telling the truth that you also may believe. Truth describes how Jesus's people are made holy. And so Jesus prays in John 17, 17, sanctify them in your truth, in the truth, your word is truth. Truth is the way that we must worship God. And so Jesus tells the woman at the well, God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. And to this end, he promises to send the spirit of truth to and dwell and guide and help his disciples. We see that in 14, 17, 15, 26, 16, 13. In John 8, 44, Jesus confirms that his words are truth, that he has received from the Father, and that those who reject him are proving that they are not of the truth. They are not children of God, but they are children of Satan, who is a liar. And so in many ways, what we see throughout the gospel of John is that truth is synonymous with the gospel. It's the good news that God sent his son, his perfect, holy son into the world to become a man, though still God, but to live the perfect life that we owed God, to die the shameful death that our sin deserves because of our rebellion against God, to be raised from the dead so that all who repent of sin and believe in him would likewise be raised to eternal life with God the Father rather than facing his wrath. for all eternity. And so from that, we learned that life is all about having a right relationship with God. It's understanding our place in this universe, that we were created for God's glory, that each of us have rejected him and gone our own way, but in Jesus, God pursues us to bring us back to himself. The truth means that we believe that Jesus is who the Bible says he is, that he accomplished what the Bible says he accomplished, and that we live in response to those realities. So friends, if you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, this is the most important thing that you need to know. You need to ask what truth it is that you're living by and how that lines up with the claims of Jesus. And if you have questions about that, you'd like to explore that, consider taking time to read through a gospel with a member of this church, somebody you know, somebody you may meet this morning. Just a few weeks to read together, piece by piece, and discover who is Jesus, what is he claiming about himself, what does he accomplish? But even now, friend. If you are convinced of your sin and your rebellion against God, be assured, all you have to do is turn to renounce that sin, to ask God for his forgiveness, to resolve to follow Christ. Today, even now, can be the day of salvation. Now that we kind of have our minds wrapped around what John is talking about when he says truth, let's look back at verses one to three. the elder to the elect lady and her children whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son in truth and love. So we see that truth is related to love and unity, which we'll consider in just a moment. Truth abides in us and will be with us forever. And then I think hopefully the ESV editors put a colon after verse two to help flesh out what this means. So grace, mercy, and peace will be with us. That's what it means for the truth to abide in us and be with us forever. Grace, mercy, and peace with us. These are realities of the gospel that flow from a relationship with Jesus. And so grace is God's favor, his disposition to do good to people despite our guilt. Mercy is God's help, his willingness to use his power and his resources to meet the needs of people who need help. And peace refers to God's rest rather than hostility and enmity. We exist in harmony with God through Jesus. We become his friends and his sons forever. And the source of these blessings, John says, is God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. And John is very intentional to make the claim that these blessings flow from the Father and the Son equally, together. And it's not a question of agency. You know, like if you ask your kids, who feeds you? They could rightly say God. They could rightly say mommy, right? God in His sovereignty has provided all things, but He also has given you a mommy who loves you and who shops for you and who prepares the food and gives you that food. But that's not what John is saying. These blessings of the gospel flow from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, equally divine in giving these blessings of salvation. And so we see that a right understanding of Jesus is one of the particular burdens that John has in writing this letter. We'll jump down to verses seven through nine. For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. So there's a concern for truth because there are deceivers. Many people then and even now make false claims about Jesus and they are anti-Christs. They are sent on an anti-Great Commission to oppose the message and the work of Jesus. That's what they're doing. And now it's not entirely clear from the letter what exactly the false teachers are denying. He says they don't confess the coming of Christ in the flesh. It seems to be a denial of the real humanity of Jesus, of the God-man Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Seems like they're saying he didn't really have human flesh, he only appeared to have a human body. And that kind of teaching sprung up early in the church and it stems from a kind of philosophy that taught that the material world is bad and the spiritual world is better. And so this idea came about to sort of protect Jesus from the corruption that is being creation and not a higher spiritual being. But as we've considered, this is a deviation from the truth, right? Jesus is clear that he is man. It denies the inherent goodness of creation, though now under a curse because of sin, but creation is good. But more importantly, it severs the hope of the gospel message. Because if Jesus wasn't really a human, then he didn't really die. And if Jesus didn't die, then we are still under God's wrath because of our sin. The cross is not just a powerful symbol or analogy of God's love for his enemies. The cross is the payment. It's the economic transaction whereby God forgives sinners. He pours out his wrath on his eternal son and counts sinners, finite, weak sinners as righteous in his presence. It's a real transaction that's taking place. God is purchasing men and women out of slavery to sin and into his kingdom. It's the way that God can maintain his perfect righteousness by being just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. And we see that in verse nine, Jesus' teaching is the standard of true faith. He states this both negatively and positively. Those who do not abide, those who don't live in, those who don't stay and camp out in this truth, but go on ahead, do not have God. They claim to be going on ahead, as John says. That's the false teachers thing. Let's go on ahead. Let's move on. Let's go past these simple core doctrinal truths. We have special knowledge. We're going to go on ahead. But in reality, they're leaving the truth. And it would be like, you know, going on a hike and there's the group that has the map, right? And here's where the trail leads and here's the destination. And some people saying, we don't think that's the right way. We're going to kind of break off and go that way, right? They're gonna, we're gonna bushwhack. In reality, that's the way to getting lost. It's the way to destruction. On the other hand, he says those who abide in this teaching have both the Father and the Son. Those who stand firm in and hold fast to the gospel are those who truly have a saving relationship with God through Jesus. So friends, I just want us to stop and linger on those words for just a moment. Some people have God. This is the wonder of the gospel. True Christians actually have God, have the Father and the Son. Just like in a marriage relationship where a husband and wife belong to each other in a way that radically changes their relationship to each other, but also to everyone else in the world, right? Marriage is actually given to us as a picture of this reality. Christians who are united with Christ by faith, saved by his death and resurrection, have a life-changing personal relationship with Almighty God. God the creator, God the holy and righteous one, God the all-wise and all-knowing and all-powerful and all-present becomes our Father who loves us and cares for us and is committed to us. He has us and we have him. That is an amazing truth. So Christian, I want you to meditate on that reality. Take that truth as deep and broad and wide as it is and meditate on it. Get it deep down in your soul so that it becomes ballast that makes you unshakable in the storms of life. As the winds rage and the waves come, The greatest thing that anyone can know is that God loves you, that he is for you. If you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, what do you have that could compare to that reality? What kind of achievement or acclaim could stand up to having a personal and familial relationship with your creator? Members of Jefferson Park Baptist Church talk about this reality and encourage each other in it. This is the truth that God has given us to actually care for each other meaningfully. We'll think more about that in a minute. We see here that essential to Christianity is a right understanding of who Jesus is and what he's done. But this isn't just a purely mental or intellectual or confessional issue. It's practical. Confessing that Jesus is who he says he is, confessing that Jesus is the king, must also mean living under his authority, right? And so John writes in verse four, I rejoice greatly to find some of your children walking. in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. The truth isn't something just to know, it's a lifestyle, it's a way of life. It's the metaphor that John calls a walk. So it's possible to know or confess this truth, but not actually walk in it. That's not the goal. And in fact, a lack of evidence of walking can make somebody's confession of that truth suspect, right? In this way, the walk is more like a race. And so in verse eight, he says, watch yourselves so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. We hear warnings like this from Paul and Peter and the author of Hebrews. Failing to persevere in the truth is an indication that you never had it to begin with. They seem to be in the race like everyone else, but they weren't. So what about you this morning? Is there evidence that you are following Jesus? How is your relationship with Jesus leading you to do what you otherwise would not do? To say yes when you might otherwise say no, or to say no when you might otherwise say yes. To work when you might otherwise rest, or to rest when you might otherwise work. To speak rather than remaining quiet, or to listen rather than speaking, To give what you would rather hold on to, or to ask when you'd rather not make yourself vulnerable. One of the ways you know you're following Jesus is if you're going somewhere you wouldn't have otherwise chosen to go. Christians are called to walk in truth, to affirm and respond to the reality of who Jesus is. So let's consider the second point, walk in love. Verses five and six. And now I ask you, dear lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. So here John is emphasizing a particular command from Jesus that his disciples love one another. This is in John 13, 34, and 35. Jesus says, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. So this is a matter of obedience to Jesus's authority, to Jesus's role as king. It's his commandment, and John emphasizes that several times. So in what sense is that commandment new? After all, we heard from Leviticus, Joseph read this morning that God's people were told, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But Jesus qualifies this command with his own love for his disciples. So he says later, just as I have loved you, Sorry, he says, just as I have loved you in 1334, and then a little later he tells his disciples, greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. And so it's the extent of love that's new. Jesus would lay down his life and die a brutal death for the redemption of sinners. Almost all the apostles would go on to die martyr's deaths for proclaiming Jesus' name. And here, John is telling us that Jesus calls all disciples to radical self-sacrifice for the good of one another. We see also that this love is a matter of our witness. By their sacrificial love, Jesus' disciples will distinguish themselves in the world. All will know that we are his disciples if we love one another. And so it's helpful for us to see here that love is not primarily a feeling, right? It certainly would be normal for affection to accompany love, and maybe it's a helpful indicator something is off when we don't have that affection. But love is more than just a feeling of affection towards someone. Like truth, it's something to be lived out and walked in. It's a commitment to act in a certain way toward a certain person. And this is why marriage is the greatest expression of love between a man and a woman, right? You can have all sorts of feelings. You can do all sorts of things. You can go on the romantic dates. You can have the most lavish gifts. But the highest expression of love is when two people come together and they pledge for the rest of their lives to give themselves to the other person regardless of the circumstances, right? That's the height of love, the commitment. Members of local churches, Jefferson Park, we also make a covenant when we join a church. It defines how we will live together, right? It's not till death do us part like marriage, but for as long as the Lord sees fit to have us here together, right? And Lord willing, tonight we'll recommit to one another and for the first time with some new members to walk together in brotherly love. And it's important for us to remember as we make covenants, whether it's marriage or church membership, that we're making commitments first and foremost to God. We're making commitments of how we will act. We're not outlining our entitlements from other people. Now when it's working properly, there's mutual self-sacrifice. It is a glorious thing. Marriage is beautiful when spouses are seeking to outdo one another in showing honor. The church, similarly, is a glorious thing when members are sacrificing for each other's good. But we make these commitments to God regardless of how others are performing. So a few questions for application. Do you think that love is optional? Maybe you wouldn't outright say it that way, but is your life characterized by sacrificial love for other people? If it's not, I think you have to pause and ask yourself if you're really a Christian. What does it mean to follow Jesus? We are confronted with his command here, love one another, right? How are you doing that? Is your love sacrificial? So Jesus says we have to love as he loved us. And again, this could be warm feelings, it could be notes of encouragement, it could be tight embraces, it could be all of those things, but it has to be more than that, right? That's how the world loves. So where is your love for Jesus costing you? What are you having to give up in order to demonstrate that love? Who are you loving that you wouldn't naturally love? And related to those questions maybe is, is your love demonstrable? Does your love stand out in a way that causes others to marvel or maybe even pity you for following Jesus's example? I think that we could answer those questions if we simply took some time to audit our time, our money, and our energy. Because that's where we're gonna demonstrate what we truly love, isn't it? But what are the things in your routine and your budget that are fixed? And what are the things that are negotiable? What will you drop everything to do? And who are you willing to disappoint and why? I think as you answer those questions, you'll find out what you really love. Third, we're called to walk together. So walk in truth, walk in love, walk together in truth and love. And so if we look back at verse three, grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, in truth and love. So the gospel realities that come to us in truth and love must find their expression in Christian community. And this is gonna overlap a lot with what we've just been thinking about love, but I think we wanna look at this separately because it's easy to assume and then to overlook this priority. Truth and love have to go together. So to quote Ray Ortlund, truth without love is harsh and ugly. Love without truth is sentimental and cowardly. So like a dough that has to be just the right consistency for the biscuits to come out properly. So truth hardens love and love softens truth. It has to be in the right balance in order for it to work. The command from Jesus is to love one another. We see in the intro John loves the elect lady and her children, they are God's chosen ones. He sends them greetings from another elect sister, that is another local church. They are bound together in love with all who know the truth. John is showing us a particular kind of love that should characterize all Christians and their relationships with one another. We understand that through our union with Christ, we are adopted together into God's family, therefore made brothers and sisters with all who are likewise loved by God our Father. We are all one family. And so we want to work to cultivate this sense of brotherhood among what we refer to as the universal church, right? That is all Christians throughout the world, throughout all time. We live in an age of intense polarization, of deep tribalism, and we need to resist that as Christians. Now, I'll argue, I'll be the first to argue that denominations are helpful, that we want to take Jesus' words seriously, and we may not agree on certain kind of important but not essential doctrines, and so we have different churches for that reason. I think that's good. But we don't want to let those differences overshadow the common ground that we share in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so we should rejoice when we hear of the health and the growth of other gospel preaching churches, whether it's in our city or around the world. We should grieve when we hear of congregations that are struggling. We should be bothered when we hear about persecution of Christians around the corner or around the world because they are our brothers and sisters. This is one of the reasons we pray regularly for other local churches who are also doing gospel work, because we have this brotherly, familial connection with them. It's why we try to support gospel work taking place in various parts of the world, because we want to see the gospel flourishing here, but we also want to participate in what God's doing in East Asia and Zambia and Guinea and all other places in the world. Every one of us can and must participate in this work, right? One way we can do that is in our prayers, right? Everyone, every Christian can and must pray. And so one of the things we try to do as a church is on Wednesday nights, gather to pray, and we devote a decent portion of our time together to pray for needs that are outside of this body, right? Things that are not immediately pertinent to us, to think about causes, things that God is doing around the world. Other things we can do are support the work of those who are doing gospel ministry outside of the church. And so we think about the way that that works. God has blessed us with financial resources. We come together and adopt a budget that reflects gospel ministry here and in other places. And the more we give, the more ministry we can do, both here and around the world, right? So be generous in your giving so that we can participate more fully in God's work. It's an amazing offer that Jesus makes us, that we can trade worldly goods, worldly things, for heavenly things, eternal rewards, where moth and rust don't destroy and thieves don't steal. That's a great investment, that's a great trade, something temporary for something eternal. God has gifted some of you with the ability to make money, and maybe you should consider that that's how God has called you, to make worldly money so that that can then be redeployed for kingdom, heavenly purposes. So we can pray, we can support, but we can also participate, right? Some of us can go to other places, maybe on short term trips, maybe to do ministry for a lifetime. Maybe it's to use the job training you've received here to get to places where there is urgent gospel need, places that are closed to missionaries coming in. Maybe it's just to support other faithful churches in other places. We wanna be conscious of and rejoice in what God is doing all around the world. But we also wanna think specifically about our local church. And in fact, most of this letter, I would argue, doesn't make sense apart from the context of a good understanding of a local church, right? John is writing from one local church to another local church. The kind of love that Jesus is calling Christians to is not just random acts of kindness, but it's the kind of sacrificial commitment that happens in local churches. It's impossible for us to love every Christian around the world. The local church defines who it is that we're committed to loving in this particular way. And it's in the context of the consistency of our love that the world can see and take notice of us as Jesus' disciples. And so the local church is a place where a group of Christians commit to walk together in the truth and love of Jesus. If you think back to verse 9, who is it that those deceivers have gone out ahead of? In one sense, certainly they've left the universal church, but that's played out in the local church, right? There was a group of Christians, and they departed from those Christians to do their own thing, to teach their own thing, right? They've left the group to go on to something else, and it seems possible if not probably likely, that the false teaching about the nature of Jesus is in some way bringing into question his commandments that the Christians are to love each other, right? This group split off, and not only did they split off in doctrine, but they split off in their relationship with the other Christians, so-called Christians. So John warns true Christians not to depart from the truth, but to keep believing it and to keep expressing their faith in their commitment to keep loving each other. And I say all that to say that helps explain what's going on in verses 10 to 11. One of the most confusing parts, I think, of 2 John. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting. For whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. Because on the surface, that sounds really unloving, doesn't it? It sounds like we should be called to love our enemies, so why would we be so unkind and cruel to some people? And we have to take a step back and consider what's going on in the first century, right? As you would expect, traveling was different than it is now. Hotels were often dangerous and dirty and places of ill reputation. And so when Christian missionaries traveled from place to place, they depended upon the hospitality shown to them by strangers. So a traveling teacher would come to town, he'd find another Christian, they would share this truth about what do you believe, what do you believe? They would extend a formal greeting to one another, and that was sort of their credibility in the community, right? It's not just meeting a physical need. Greeting a teacher was endorsing him. It was giving him access to the community. And so we see that this letter comes with official greetings from one church to another, right? John brings greetings from the sister church. That's the last verse. It's an official thing going on here. So practically, we'll go back to our buddy Bill, everyone in town knows Bill is a Christian. So if the teachers come and stay at Bill's house, then he could go around the community saying, yeah, I'm here, I'm a friend of Bill's, I'm teaching, I'm a new teacher to town, but I'm a friend of Bill's. And so what Bill certifies, I'm here to teach and represent, right? And it could even be that the house that John is referring to is not just a personal home where you would show hospitality, give a bed to sleep and food to eat. It could be the house where the church actually met, right? Don't receive him in, don't let him come and speak to the community. Well, false teachers came around and seized the opportunity to take advantage of people, right? An easy way to make a living was to come up with a new teaching, something more, something special, something beyond what the Bible, what the apostles are teaching about Jesus, and then to live off of the hospitality that people would provide. And so I think we need to make sure we are understanding John isn't talking about unbelievers, he's not saying don't greet unbelievers, don't show hospitality to unbelievers, or even those who are confused maybe about what they believe. He's talking about those who have intentionally departed from the truth of Christianity to make contrary claims about the person and work of Jesus. They're not confused, they know exactly what they're doing. And John forbids the church from receiving the false teachers because they would be endorsing and supporting their wicked works. They would be spreading false teaching about Jesus. They would be undermining their own efforts of gospel witness in their community, right? I want us to be clear this morning that everyone is welcome to attend our church. Everyone is welcome in the doors. You don't have to be good enough or believe enough of the right things to enter the building, right? You actually have to give up your goodness in order to become a Christian. The particular concern in John's letter is to not confuse who is actually a Christian. That's the distinction he's trying to preserve. Who is actually a Christian? And to stand against those whose teaching is not in line with the truth of the gospel. And so that's one of the reasons we are careful about who joins this church, right? We have a membership process where we listen for people's testimonies and we hear them confess the true gospel and how that has intersected with their lives. We also want to be careful about who speaks at public gatherings, right? Believe it or not, every now and then somebody will show up at this church with a desire to speak publicly. And we usually, always since I've been here, do not allow that. We just don't let random people come and speak, because we don't think that would be helpful. We're happy to get to know people and understand them, but we try to ensure that those who come to teach are those who affirm the same gospel that we do. Now, with all this warning, it's easy to lose, I think, the implications of what John is really saying. The reality is that in a local church, we participate with each other in a very special way. The reason that showing hospitality to false teachers was dangerous was because church members are intimately connected with each other. The people that influence me also influence you. People that influence you influence me. This is the nature of church membership. We are connected with each other, so we aren't just watchful for ourselves individually, though of course we must be, but we are watchful over each other. We are conscious that our expressions of faith affect each other's expressions of faith. All of this affects our church's witness to the world. And so we see that there are, at times, good divisions. When someone persists in contradicting the truth, we want to separate from him or her. We don't want that individual to be wrongly assured that he is in the truth if he's not, right? But we also don't want outsiders to be confused about the message of Jesus. But this also helps us see why bad and wrong divisions are so harmful, because it reflects poorly on Christ when we divide over things that aren't important, when preferences become entitlements, when differences in philosophy become personal. And to be clear, I'm not saying that it's always bad to leave a church. I think sometimes it can be better to leave sooner before things get ugly or personal. But I think many times Jesus is most glorified when we persevere, when we do the hard work of forgiveness and reconciliation, that brings him glory. The church is to be a place where Jesus' people come together and display his love. It's our common commitment to his truth that unites us. And it's the obedience to his command to love one another that sets the agenda for how we live together as his people. I want us to think about one more aspect of the local church here in verse 12. Though I have much to write you, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to come to you and talk face to face so that our joy may be complete. The local church is special because it's where face to face interaction happens. There's something unique about this time when we gather together to share in the Word of Christ together through singing and reading and praying and hearing it preached and taking the ordinances together. I don't think John is at all intending to minimize the spiritual good that comes from writing. After all, this is a letter. He's written other things. Moreover, we know that God wrote. God made his word available to us in writing. We considered this this morning in Sunday school. He inspired a book so that we would know him and his saving message. Now, of course, God's word is perfect and ours is not. But God has ordained that we would be people who live by his word and therefore speak his truth in love to one another in the context of real personal relationships. So the Apostle John wrote that he would rather talk face to face than to write. I think we should consider his wisdom here. There are some things that would be better said in person than in writing. We live in an age where putting things in writing is really easy, isn't it? A sarcastic text response, a scathing email, a rant on social media. When we feel we have something to communicate, it's really easy to do so. But I think we should stop. I think we should follow John's example. We should slow down. We should consider who we're seeking to benefit in our communication. When it's something difficult, I would submit that we're usually much better off to communicate in person, where we can not only interact with words, but with tone, with facial expressions. We can clarify. If it's something that we wouldn't say in person, or if we wouldn't say it that way in person, perhaps it's not something we should say in writing. Notice the reason that John wants to communicate in person, so that our joy may be complete. The goal of relationships in the local church is a shared joy in Jesus. That's what this place is here for, so that we can share Jesus together and rejoice. That's why God has given us each other. In verse four, John said that he rejoiced to hear some of the church members were walking in the truth, and now he hopes for a face-to-face meeting to see it in action, to complete that joy. So I think we should ask ourselves then, what is it that makes us rejoice? What is it that brings us joy? For John, it's clear that it's Christians persevering in the faith. Christians being faithful, that's what brings him joy. Earlier this week, a member asked me how he could be helpful to me. And I said effectively that, what I just said. That really is my best answer. The most helpful thing somebody can do, the most faithful thing, the most joyful thing somebody can do is walk in truth. live in obedience to Jesus in your home, in your workplace, love your family well, serve the church faithfully. This is what God's agenda is for us, brothers and sisters. It's what pleases pastors. We hear Paul talking about that in Philippians 2. So I just want to share a few things in the life of Jefferson Park that are encouraging, that give me reason to rejoice. Faithful presence. Those of you who are just here consistently, very encouraging. Those of you who meet practical needs by serving meals, by babysitting, by stepping up to fill ministry needs in the life of this church. Those of you who show hospitality and regularly have other members and people into your homes. Those who visit people who are in need. Those who meet together regularly for study, for accountability and prayer. Those of you who confess your sin and extend forgiveness to one another. Those of you who regularly share the gospel with your friends and neighbors and family. In all these things, sharing Jesus together is what should bring us joy as Christians. And friends, that's the only thing we really have to offer to each other, isn't it? The world has more expensive toys, more extravagant diversions, better entertainment, but we have Jesus. The best way that we can grow individually and as a church is by thinking about him and talking about him regularly as much as we can. In his presence is fullness of joy, and at his right hand is pleasure forevermore. So brothers and sisters, let's make that our commitment. It's Jesus who connects us to God and to each other. And so when we meet together, let's talk about Jesus, let's talk about His glory, let's talk about how He's helping us, how we're growing in our relationship with Him, understanding Him, obeying Him. Let's ask each other for help and encouragement when we're struggling to believe or follow His commands. Let's remind each other that there is great reward in following Him and great danger in neglecting His salvation. and let's walk together in his truth and in his love and keep doing it as we sing until he returns or calls us home to his eternal joy. Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, we praise you that truth and love are the person of Jesus Christ. We praise you that you have revealed in him the truth about who you are and about who we are. Praise you for the love that you have demonstrated that you didn't spare your own son but gave him up for us all. Father, we confess our failure to live and walk in the truth and love that Jesus has purchased for us. We thank you for Jesus, our great, powerful, redeeming, persevering king, and we pray that we would live together in obedience, that we would help each other walk in his commands to be united in truth and love so that our joy is full. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.