O How He Loves Her

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.

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.

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.

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.

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".