This is our eighth and final week in our series on the Church entitled "O How He Loves Her". We’ve spent seven weeks talking about the Church’s Lord and His covenant love; her identity as His Bride; who belongs to His Bride: her members; who should lovingly lead her: Jesus’ under-shepherds, and finally, today, what her role in this world is, a message entitled “Her Mission and Her Man”, how the Church is to live on mission: what Jesus has commissioned His Bride on earth to do while she awaits His return for her. In other words, the Great Commission that Jesus has given His Church.

Today's passage:

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

-Matthew 28.19-20 (esv)

The blood of God's own Son purchased for Him a people, set apart for His glory by His grace. They make up the Bride and Body of Christ upon the earth: the Church.

Likewise the Lord has appointed under-shepherds to care for and look after the family of faith. But who are they, and how are they to do that? Rather than leave it up to us to determine, the Lord has provided qualifications for elders and deacons in the Scripture.

Join us today as we consider a few passages from Paul that provide clarity and counsel when it comes to appointing and approving leadership in the Body of Christ.

Today's passage:

3 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. 7 Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.

-1 Timothy 3.1-7, Titus 1.6-9 (esv)

17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

-Hebrews 13.17 (esv)

Over the last few weeks, we have seen the Lord's New Covenant promise to forgive us, thus establishing covenant with us, and, even more, to uphold our end of the covenant by causing our loving obedience to Him. Thus He promises to uphold both ends of the covenant! If your heart aches over your sin, if you have a hunger and thirst for righteousness, to be like Him, to be near Him, to honor and please Him... that is really wonderful news!

But there's even more! And that is the good news we will discover today through the gift of His Word.

1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,

To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:

2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. 16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

Yes, and I will rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.

27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. 29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, 30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

-Philippians (esv)

You're most likely very familiar with contracts, but do you know what a covenant is?

Like it or not, around these parts of the world, much of our lives are governed by contracts. We have them with the phone company, the electric company, insurance companies... and the list goes on and on.

But contracts aren't covenants. As we learned from Ephesians five last week, our marriages for example aren't contractual, but covenantal. Our wedding vows don't sound like, "So long as you'll take out the trash, I'll make dinner." Or, "If you'll bring home a good paycheck, then I'll agree to have children." Instead, marriage vows are covenantal: "I love you and will continue to do so for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do we part." Now that's a covenant: love that is not rooted in whether or not it is returned. That's the way we are to love our spouses, Paul tells us, because that exemplifies God's love for the Church, and that's ultimately what our marriages are really all about.

This week we're looking more deeply into God's New Covenant that He makes with His Beloved Church. Through passages like Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 36, Revelation 5 and Romans 8, there is so much hope provided for the Body of Christ in God's pledged and promised covenant.

Today's passage:

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

-Romans 8.31-34 (esv)

What makes the Church unique, special, different, set apart from any other organization, social club, or para-church ministry?

It's hard to know how we are without knowing who we are, or better, Whose we are.

Today we begin a short series on The Church, what makes her special, what her purpose in the world is, and how she is to accomplish that purpose.

Hope you'll join us as we begin in Ephesians 5, verse 22 for today's sermon entitled, "O How He Loves Her".

Today's passage:

22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

-Ephesians 5.22-33 (esv)