Summary:
Why are words as powerful as they are? What is it about a turn of a phrase that can make us laugh or cry? Why can some words start families and other words spark wars? Words have the power to create life and inflict death.

Words are immaterial, yet contain the power to create and shape material reality. Perhaps this begins to scratch the surface of why Jesus is the Word.

Audio Transcript:
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Good morning, welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan, I’m one of the pastors here at Mosaic, and if you're new or if you're visiting, welcome, we're so glad you're here, we'd love to connect with you. If you'd like to connect with us, we do that officially through the connection card in the worship guide. If you fill it out legibly, you can toss it in the offering basket afterwards, or redeem it at the Welcome Center for a gift that we've lovingly, lovingly prepared for you.

I'm really excited about today, first of all because we have one service, we can gather together as a body, and second of all, there's no time limit on this service, so I can preach for as long as I want. I don't usually get that, so we'll see how the Spirit leads. Would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's Holy Word?

Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for the fact that you, a holy God, did not reject us when we turned from you, when we rebelled from you, when we sought our own ways, when we sought to be our own gods. But Lord, you created a way for us to be redeemed from the evil that is deep within. We thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ, who didn't just come to proclaim the way and the truth, but he is the way, the way to meaning and purpose and satisfaction in life. And Jesus, you are truth. We can't make sense of ourselves, we can't make sense of this world apart from you, apart from your person, apart from your work.

So, Lord, I pray today, give us the Word, speak to us, speak in a way that we are transformed, that we can't but be transformed because we have met with the living God. Holy Spirit, we welcome you into this place. Minister to us. Reveal in our hearts where there's sin and pride and selfishness and evil, and show us that apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ, apart from Christ on the cross crucified for our sins, there is no salvation, that we need to be saved from ourselves, from our sin, from the wrath of God. We pray today, show us that you call us to be a people with tough minds and tender hearts, just like Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

One of the things that we do here at Mosaic is every single Sunday, we do something extremely countercultural. Someone gets up here and proclaims that there is truth, with a capital T, Truth. Not my truth, not our truth, but the Truth. And in our post-truth culture, talking of something as being true is passé. We live in a culture that doesn't want to accept that there are ultimate truths about ultimate things, and one of the things that we have done as a culture is we have relegated truth, and truth has been relegated to preference. Preference has been promoted over truth. So if you tell someone, "I'm a Christian," "Oh, that's great. That's a great hobby that you have, that you follow God. What a great hobby that you have. I do yoga," or "I jog," or "I watch the NFL," or "I'm in a..." What have you. "I do karaoke." I found out there are 13 karaoke bars just in Boston itself. It's a hobby. Christianity is a hobby.

But we can't get away from the fact that there are ultimate truths. That we exist, that's a truth. That we will die, that's a truth. That we all seek satisfaction in life, that's a truth. That deep inside, there is something missing, that's a truth. And truth has been thrown out the window, it's been jettisoned, and we've replaced the idea of truth with a non-truth, and we redefine the truth. But without truth, we don't know who we are.

And along with a lack of truth, we haven't just lost facts about the world, we've lost something else, we've lost true love. Without truth, without honesty, without trust, there can't be love. And it feels like the animosity in our culture is at a fever pitch, that if you disagree with my truth, we're not just in disagreement, but we hate each other, we're enemies of one another. And by the way, this is the pattern of the Evil One from the very beginning. Satan comes to our foreparents, Adam and Eve, and the first thing he says is, "Did God really say?" Sows doubt, undermines truth, and what happens after? Adam and Eve lose their relationship with God. They lose that love, they lose the relationship with one another. Satan attacks with lies, which always leads to a loss of love.

And lies soften the brain. We don't have a foundation in our mind for a worldview. Our brains are softened by lies and our hearts are hardened. Fragile minds, fragile hearts, that's our culture. Too many people are soft-minded and hard-hearted, and that's why you look around, and people are nasty with those people with whom they disagree. But the way of Jesus is different. Jesus Christ comes, and he has a tough mind and a tender heart. He resists evil with truth, but he does it in a way that's merciful. He gives truth, and he also extends grace and mercy for those who say, "Yes, that is truth. Yes, I am a sinner. Yes, I need salvation. Lord, save me. Lord, help me." And when we do that, we receive grace, and we receive mercy, we receive the love of God.

So today, we're going to talk about how we as a people can receive God's truth, receive God's grace, and then speak truth in love to ourselves and to our neighbors in a way that really transforms the world. We're going to look at Ephesians 4:11 through 16, Ephesians 4:11 through 16. The text will be on the screen. You can follow along either there or in your Bible or on your app.

"And he," Christ, "gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love." This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative Word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts.

Three points to frame up our time. First, we look at God's Word of truth and grace. What are we to do with it? We're to receive the words of truth and grace, and three, we are to counsel one another with words of truth and grace. So, first of all, God's Word of truth and grace. One of the questions that we ask ourselves often is, "Am I the person that I am supposed to be? How can I become the person that I'm supposed to be? How can I become the person I was created to be?" In self-help circles, it's "How do I become the best version of myself? How do I level up?" And people making millions of dollars on becoming gurus and motivational speakers and life coaches.

Well, Scripture comes in and says there is actually a standard of perfection, there is of truth, there is one perfect person who lived, and his name is Jesus Christ. And we grow into the best versions of ourselves by resembling Christ in character and in spirit, and in the way that he lived. This is what's going on in Ephesians 4:11 through 16, that Jesus calls a particular people to minister to one another. That we, as God's followers, are given the prophets, the priests, the pastors, the shepherds, and they are to equip us for the work of the ministry. And what is that work? That work is to be united in faith, to grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and we do that by speaking to each other, speaking truth and love, which is courageous and compassionate. And so we grow together in the knowledge of the Son of God.

Why speaking? Why are words so powerful? Why, in Christianity, in faithful churches, why is the sermon at the center of what we do? Why is the Bible at the center of our faith? A book with words, 66 individual books brought together, over 40-plus authors, written over 1,500 years in three-plus languages, in three continents, and we say this is God's Word. Why? Why, God, would you choose to reveal yourself like this, in the Word? Because words are powerful. Why are words as powerful as they are?

I love words, I've always loved words. I grew up speaking Russian at home, and people ask me all the time, "Hey, where'd you learn Russian?" Because I grew up here since I was age six, people ask, "How did you not forget Russian?" I didn't not forget, I had to learn it here, and people are like, "Who taught you?" And honestly, I fell in love with the language. I fell in love with the going back and forth between English and Russian. I fell in love with Russian literature, Russian poetry. I fell in love with Russian rap, and one of my favorite things to do is to pump myself up with Russian rap. My wife says, "You got to stop doing that." I say, "It gets me going, baby. It gets me ready to preach God's Word." I love that there's power in words. I love comedy, the turn of the phrase actually makes people laugh, and sometimes makes people laugh so hard that they cry. That's really the...

Why are words so powerful? The philosopher Heidegger said that words are houses of concepts, that these words bring together concepts, they're full of a concept, and the concept is what shapes reality. So how is it that something immaterial, words, shapes reality, shapes a material reality? People speak, and things happen. Families are created through words: "I do." Wars are started with words. Why are they so powerful? How is something immaterial able to shape that which is material?

And we really begin to understand this by understanding how everything was created, that the immaterial God created the material word. How did he do it? By speaking. God speaks, and things happen, things are created through the immaterial. In Genesis chapter 1, the phrase "God spoke," and things were created, 10 times in chapter 1, "God said," and it happened. Psalm 33:6, it says, "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host." So God reveals himself in creation by creating through his Word, and then God's Word is also associated with deliverance, salvation, redemption. The world is fallen, so God needs to send his Word to redeem, to re-create, to transform. Psalm 107:20, "He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction." The Word goes, the Word heals.

That's why, when we see that Jesus Christ is revealed in the Gospel of John... And by the way, if you are not a Christian or you're just looking into Christianity, exploring Christianity, there is no better book to start off with than the Gospel of John. Read the Gospel of John, meditate on the Gospel of John with an open mind and an open heart, and see, see if these words are living. In John 1, how is Jesus revealed? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." This is Jesus Christ. He is the Word. So when God was creating, when God was speaking, Scripture says that Jesus was there with him, and that all things were created through him, that Jesus is the very Word of God, the extension of God himself. Jesus didn't just come speak words, he embodies words of truth.

Why is that the way that God reshapes the word? Because Satan lies, and the lies destroy love, and Jesus comes, and he embodies both truth and love. So his coming, his working, his teaching, his dying, this is the final decisive message of God that God articulates himself through Christ, through what he said, through what he did, through what he was. That's why in John 8:31, Jesus says, "If you abide in my word," in the very words of the Word, the written Word of God, the living Word of God as attested to in the written Word of God, he says, "you are truly my disciples." And then he says in John 15:7, parallel, "Abide in me." Abide in the Word, abide in me.

Hebrews 1:1 through 2 says, "Long ago, at many times, in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world." So Jesus isn't just deed; deeds can be ambiguous. Jesus isn't just a thought; thoughts can be discombobulated. Jesus isn't just a feeling, because feelings are misleading. Jesus is Word, Jesus is Truth.

In John 1:14 through 18, that same chapter of John 1, it says, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." The immaterial becomes material. "And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him, and cried out, 'This was he of whom I said, "He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me."' For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known."

Jesus came, the Word embodied, and he's full of what? He's full of grace and truth. And he comes, and he proclaims this message of the gospel, so we are to listen to him. If we are to develop tough minds and tender hearts, we are to listen to him. Jesus would often say, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." We change by listening, not talking. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes from the Word of God.

Grace and truth. God speaks tough truths with a tender heart. When God speaks, sometimes he speaks blessings, and he often speaks of curses. Those who reject him are under a curse. He speaks words that give life, and he speaks words that actually destroy. He speaks the law at Sinai, and he speaks the gospel from Golgotha. He speaks truth, and he speaks grace. Tough and tender speech flows out of God's tough and tender character. Romans 11:22, "Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off."

So what are we to do with this truth, this tough truth and this tender love that God offers us, truth and grace? We're to receive the words of truth and grace. How do we do that? We set up the theology; now, how do we do that practically? What are we to do with this teaching? I'm going to set up point two, point two is "Receive the words of truth and grace," with a quote from Richard Sibbes, who was a phenomenal preacher and theologian, and about 400 years ago, he wrote The Soul's Conflict and Victory Over Itself by Faith. And he says this: "If it were an easy thing to be a Christian, if religion stood only in a few outward works and duties, but to take the soul to task, and to deal roundly with our own hearts, and to let conscience have its full work, and to bring the soul into spiritual subjection unto God, this is not so easy a matter, because the soul out of self-love is loath to enter into itself. Because the soul out of self-love is loath to enter into itself, lest it should have other thoughts of itself than it would have."

What's he saying? He's saying we don't want to look deep inside of our souls. We don't want to acknowledge what's within. That we all have a tendency of self-hiding, self-blinding. We don't want to come face-to-face with our own sin, with our own evil. Do you recognize this resistance within? And only when you recognize that there is this resistance, that we don't want to look into our sin, acknowledge our sin, until we see that, there is no hope for us.

Until we become spiritually aware that we are deeply broken inside, and that we are responsible for that brokenness. Until we awake to the fact that our nature is evil, that there is a darkness inside that we are deathly afraid to look at. Until we realize that your trouble is that you yourself are wrong, there's something wrong with us. Until we realize this, that we need a Savior from the evil within, that Jesus is not just a counselor, he's not just an advisor, he's not just a comforter, he's not just a consultant to make your life better, that Jesus Christ is a Savior, and that we need salvation. Until you realize that, you won't understand yourself, you won't understand the world.

Modern secular thought from the 19th century or the early 20th century and even today, what they've been doing is probing our resistance to knowing ourselves accurately. Nietzsche, Marx, the psychodynamic psychologists Freud, Jung, Adler, the existentialists, they all agreed that we resist looking in the mirror, we resist knowing our true selves. And they could never agree on what we are avoiding or what the alternative is. What do we avoid when we avoid looking deep within? Is it perverse sexual impulses? Is it murderous hostilities, a cosmic dark side to our souls, craving for power and superiority? A fear of death, perhaps?

And each of them is partly correct, and all these things fester within our souls, but Scripture calls a spade a spade and says there is a truth about us that we need to come face to face with if we are to be saved. Ecclesiastes 9:3 gives us a great explanation of what's going on. Solomon, the great philosopher, Ecclesiastes says, "This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead." There's an evil deep within our hearts. We fiercely resist seeing ourselves as God sees us, because then, we begin to understand that we're helpless.

We can't do anything about that evil, and we fiercely resist seeing God as he is, that God is holy, that God is totally other, that there's nothing evil with him. That he, by his nature, resists evil because he loves so much. He loves you so much that he resists anything that would destroy you. If you've ever had a loved one who's battling with an addiction, you understand just how angry that is to see this person whom you love killing themselves. In the same way, God's wrath resists the evil within ourselves and the evil that's done to us.

People often ask, "If God is good and if God is great, why doesn't he just destroy the evil in the world?" Well, let me ask you a question: If God is to destroy the evil in the world by pressing a magic button, would any of us be here a second after? No. We've all sinned. That's why we have this anti-God bias, because we understand that we are guilty before a holy God.

Matthew 12:33 through 37, the words of Jesus Christ: "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."

All these philosophers that we mentioned, every theory about what's wrong with us, why we resist looking inside, every theory tries to propose a way to make right. Either gain insight into personal history with psychodynamics, undergo a reeducation experience, parenting, owning your dark side, make authentic choices. Problem is, every single one of them gives the same exact solution: You got to save yourself. That you can save yourself, that you can do something to make yourself acceptable before God. And this is where Christianity comes in and says, "No, the truth is that we are all evil, but there's a greater truth than that. The God of the universe is offering grace to every single one of us." We got ourselves into this mess, and we can't get ourselves out. That's why we need Jesus Christ.

One last thing, when we talk about the philosophers, we talk about the psychologists, I was listening to Elon Musk this week, and Elon Musk was asked, "What would you tell millennials, millennials who want to transform the world, which field should they go in?" And he said this, he said, "We need to figure out a way to connect our brains to the cloud." To transmit our thoughts to the cloud, our dreams, everything that's going on inside. He said, "We got to figure out a way of recording it." And he said, "That way, we will never forget anything." I'm like, that's trippy, on the one hand. On the other hand, that's ludicrous. Like, that's already happening with the Internet, where people are just like, "These are my thoughts," in 140 characters, in 280... I'm like, "Ah, that's terrifying." I don't want to read that. I don't want to see these images. Imagine if everything is out there. Imagine if everything is recorded.

But it is. It's already connected, not to the cloud, but to God. God sees everything, every thought, every intention, every inclination, every dream, everything. I shudder at the idea of anyone even getting a glimpse, a glimpse of what goes on in here, and I'm a professional Christian. I read the Bible all the time. That's my job. You look and say, "Ooh, no, let's not talk about that."

And this is why I love Christianity. Christianity calls a spade a spade. This is who we are. We're evil. But there's salvation, there's grace that is offered because of Jesus Christ, because of the work of Christ on the cross, that God becomes flesh, that God lives the life that we were supposed to live in Jesus Christ: Perfect love toward God, perfect love toward neighbor, never a sinful thought, never a sinful inclination, never a sinful word. And he does that as a substitute for us, fully God, fully man. He goes to the cross, he's crucified, excruciating pain.

And that's the crux of Christianity, that God's mercy and God's justice come together, that Christ absorbs the penalty that we deserve to pay for our sin. He absorbs the wrath of God, God's resistance to evil in the world. He takes it all upon himself. He who knew no sin became sin, became our evil on the cross, so that we might become the righteousness of God. And we, my friends, we can look into the evil within our hearts, and we can be honest before God about the evil in our hearts, about the sin in our lives, because there is grace. Because God is saying, "I already know. Now receive the grace. Receive the mercy, receive the forgiveness. Become a child of God."

There are tough truths in Scripture, that apart from God, apart from the sacrifice of Christ, apart from grace, that we will bear the penalty for our evil for all of eternity. That's truth. A tough truth in Scripture is that not one person is a child of God in their nature. We're creation of God, but we are not children of God until we are adopted into the family of God by grace and faith. All it takes is receiving the gospel. All it takes is believing, "Yes, God, I am a sinner. Yes, God, I repent of my sin, I turn from my sin, I turn to Christ. Jesus, save me, and Jesus, I give my life completely to you." Once you do, you become a Christian. That's all it takes. All you need is to recognize your need. That's all it takes.

And then there are these incredible promises that work themselves out, that God is for us. This is Romans 8:31 through 34. "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 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? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 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."

So stop running. Stop running from Christ, stop running from God, and accept the grace that he gives you to face life fearlessly. See yourself in the mirror, and then see God's gaze and God's grace. You don't have to keep denying, you don't have to keep resisting or wallowing. God is with us. And God is also in us, that God gives us this incredible power. Some of you don't want to become a Christian because you're like, "I don't have the power to not sin." In whatever sphere, probably one of the biggest ones that keeps people away from God is, honestly, sexual sin. People are like, "I can't become a Christian because I don't want to give that up." And God says, "Not only do I forgive you, but I give you power to live the life that I've called you to live, a life of freedom, a life of satisfaction, a life of joy."

God gives us the Holy Spirit, Romans 5:5, "and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Why do I believe that Christianity is true? Why do I believe that this... Yes, the objective truth of holy Scripture, the objective truth of the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, you can study it, there's incredible... There's so much proof. But also, I talked to God this morning. I experienced God today. I experienced the Holy Spirit. I feel God's power coursing through me. He speaks to me. I commune with him, I experience his presence. God is real, he is in us.

That's why in Ephesians, up to this text, over and over, the text tells that there's "surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe in accordance with the strength of his might, strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us. Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might."

There's wisdom for the asking to the one that says, "God, I am a fool." There's healing to the asking of the one that says, "God, I need you to intervene." God gives good gifts to those who ask. He says if you ask, if you receive, you will receive good gifts from the Lord. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you.

And also, the grace of God promises that he will come to us. He will finally make all the wrongs in this world right. 1 John 3:2, "Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is." The Good News isn't just past and present, it's also future, that once you accept Christ, God promises you eternal life that begins now, and you will live forever. This is what Jesus will do, and what he will do reshapes what we are to do. 1 Peter bases the transformational power of God's presence in our lives based on what will happen in the future. 1 Peter 1:13, "Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance."

God's grace also applies to our lives when we recognize that we still are broken people, still living in a broken world, and we need God to come and to give us mercy. Jesus dies for the wicked, but he also defends the innocent. He feeds the hungry, he gives refuge to the broken, he heals the sick. And when we do experience anxiety, when we are in the depths of depression, what we are to do is to cry out to him, and as we do, he hears.

You know how you know that you have experienced the truth and grace of Jesus Christ? This is the ultimate test that you have experienced regeneration, that you are a Christian, that you have a relationship with God. This is the primary test, I'll tell you: It's that you talk to God. You have honest conversations with God directly. You no longer just talk about God, you don't talk to people who know God about God as if God is a friend of a friend, so when you're hanging out with Christians who know God, you can talk about God. When it's you and God, one on one, in silence, you got nothing to say. That means you don't have a true relationship yet. Do you talk to God?

The greatest example of this, and I challenge you to study this chapter this week, Psalm 119. You know Psalm 119? It's the longest chapter in the Bible. It's like when you're reading through Scripture, this is the chapter that you always skip. Like, "Yeah, it's not for me. Too long." It's longer than some books of the Bible. But it's one of the greatest articulations of someone's conversation with God. And by the way, if you study the structure of it, it's a tightly structured acrostic. It has got 22 sections; each section begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and every one of the sections has eight lines, and every single one of those lines begins with that letter. And Psalm 119, it begins with three verses about people in general, about God in general. The fourth verse begins to personalize things, that we stand accountable to God.

And then, for 172 verses, it's just a person having an honest conversation with God. "I, God, your servant, I'm talking to you. Lord, the God who speaks and acts, God whom I need, God whom I love." It's not a person talking about God, it's a person talking to God, because they have experienced the Word of God being planted in their life, and then it's an outpouring of what happens when that Word is planted. It's real talk about how real life meets the real God. Have you had that honest conversation with God? If not, today, today's the day of salvation. Have a conversation with God. "God, I don't know what it is, but I haven't talked to you. I don't know what's keeping me from having a conversation with you." Have that conversation. Truly face yourself, your circumstances, your sin, God, your Savior, and cry out, plead for God's help in life's fundamental troubles, and assert who you are in him, affirm the identity that he has given you.

And point three is that we are then to counsel with words of truth and grace. Because Jesus is full of truth and grace, it's possible to form a community of people who are growing ever more in truth and grace. Ephesians 4:11 and 12, "He," Christ, "gives the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, the teachers." Who are these? These are people, equippers of the truth. Apostles are foundational to wake a person up, to build a foundation for the truth. The prophets come in and call people to repentance with hard truth. Evangelists come in, they share the Good News, the tender love of Christ. Pastors and teachers take the truth and feed and protect the flock.

But the job of these truth-tellers and love-bringers isn't to do the ministry, it's to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. This is verse 12, "to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ." Who are the saints? That's every single person who accepted the grace of God. It's a sinner who becomes a saint; you've been set apart for God's work.

This is why church is so important. We don't just gather as a group of strangers to accept a word, and then go live our lives individually; that we are a people to accept the Word and do something with it, and what we do with it is, in verse 15, we speak the truth in love to one another. "Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ." So, if you are a Christian, and you are not connected to a body of believers, I'll submit to you, that's exactly why you are not growing in your faith. This is God's plan for growth. "We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."

We speak the truth in love to one another. That takes work. It's actually... It's super countercultural, because when we see people, even Christians in our lives, who are making foolish decisions, who are not submitting to the truth of God, the natural reaction is, "Who am I to meddle? I don't want to get into that." But Christ says that we are to love one another so much, and this is the word love, "speak the truth in love," it's agape, it's a self-sacrificial love, it's hard. And we are to practically speak the truth in love, and have hard conversations with one another when we see that a person is walking away from the Lord. Something like, "I love you and respect you as a person, and I want what's best for you, but you are destroying yourself with what you believe and how you are living."

"I love you, and I have to speak truth to you." It's both. And you do it in a way that's true and loving and personal and appropriate, because that's what God does for us. Here at Mosaic, we talk about creating a culture of congregational care, and most people's... And if you're new to Mosaic and you come from another church background, for a lot of people, this is really alien, because they haven't experienced the idea of congregational care. Most people's church experience rarely aligns with this description from Ephesians 4. This very idea that we are to mutually counsel one another, it's just alien, because a lot of people think that counseling is something you leave to the professionals, so to say that the church has a primary counseling responsibility is to say something like, "The church has a primary brain surgeon responsibility." "No, you do that to... Those are the professionals. We're not going to speak to... We're not going to speak truth, we're not going to counsel one another."

But this is how Jesus teaches that we are to be so closely intertwined with one another that we do speak truth, and we are counselors, because we are a kingdom of priests who minister to one another. Now, the question is, are we wise priests or foolish priests? And the example is Jesus Christ himself, that he didn't just preach the gospel, but through interpersonal relationships, he had conversations in which he pointed out sin, and extended grace, and just did that over and over. Hebrews 4:15, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin."

So these are the conversations that Jesus had with people. "What do you live for? What are you living for?" Told a parable of the foolish rich man who just keeps living for money, keeps living for money, had a huge harvest, and just stores himself treasures for himself, just living for himself. What are you living for? Is that making you happy? Where do you try to find your identity? Who are you? How do you explain to someone, who are you? Your essence, the foundation for your life. How do you treat other people? Honestly, how do you treat other people? Not how would you like to treat; how do you treat them?

What do you do with Jesus himself, the most influential person who has ever lived? And if you're not a Christian, it would just be irresponsible not to study the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, who's impacted the world like nobody else. And he conquered the world, he's got a kingdom, not a kingdom of force, but a kingdom of love. What do you do with your anger, your anxiety, your indifference, your passion, your depression? Where do you turn when life is hard? What do you want? What do you want more than anything in the world? Why do you want that? What do you fear? What do you trust? What do you love?

And then Jesus would counsel with Scripture, he would counsel with the Word of God. The most frequent topic in the book of Proverbs, which is the book of... It's a guide of wisdom, and the most frequent topic is how we talk. It talks about money and sex and work and food and drink, but more than any other topic, it's how we talk, and that wise people grow in wisdom by spending time with wise people. As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another, and it's difficult. Like, when iron strikes iron, what happens? Sparks fly, but you get sharper. Something changes.

So, how do we... How does this practically look in our church? The vision is that we have conversations with one another about God. Like, it's cool to talk about how great the Patriots are this year, that's great, we can start there. It's cool to talk about the weather, it's cool to talk about how wonderful autumn is in Boston, it's cool to talk about the... You know, all this stuff. But as Christians, do we talk about Christian things? Do we have, just even in casual conversation, do we talk about Christ? And yeah, in the church, but also in your families. Husbands, do you talk about God with your wife? Do you talk about the gospel, do you talk about pursuing the mission of God? Do you talk about the things of God? Because you always talk about what your heart is filled with, and God says, "I want your heart filled with the presence of God, the truth of God, and speak truth with one another, and connect it to the lives of one another."

2 Timothy 3:16-17, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof." Sometimes speaking about God has to include reproof, which just means rebuke. "For correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." So, dear Christian, when you hear another Christian, perhaps in community group or in a conversation, spout heresy, just false, our job is to say, "I hear what you're saying, and you're wrong. You're absolutely wrong. I love you, but you're wrong. That's not true."

We're commissioned by God to do that, to correct one another. And because there is love, and because there is humility, that allows us to say, "You know what? Yeah, you're right, I am wrong. I am in sin." I accept that reproof, I accept that rebuke. This is what it means to be tough-minded and tender-hearted. "I know you love me, you want the best thing for me, you want me to know God as he is, you want me to live the life that God has called me to live, so thank you for correcting me." Welcome correction of wise Christians into your life. "Please speak into me. What do you see that I'm not seeing? Where are my blind spots?"

And then, when they do, do it with love. Ephesians 4:29 through 32 says, "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."

Colossians 4:6, "Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person." Seasoned with salt, what does that mean? I'm not talking about, like, New England salty, like, "Ooh, this person's really..." What it's talking about is like, it's flavorful. It's flavorful. If you're new to Mosaic, I am... I love steak, I just do. I couldn't preach this sermon, historic sermon, without mentioning steak. But you know what makes... Steak in and of itself is phenomenal. You know what makes steak even better? Salt. Just a little salt, just a little pepper. It's flavorful.

Christians who know God are salt. You are salt and light, meaning you're flavorful. It's interesting to be with you, because you speak truth. Nobody does that. In our culture, people speak truth about each other behind their back, to other people. That's our culture. And Christians are saying, "No, no, no, I'm not going to... No, I'm not going to do that behind your back. I'm going to do that to your face, because I love you." It really is, it's absolutely radical, and if you have those people in your life, man, hold on to those people and become like those people. 1 Corinthians 13:6 says, "Love rejoices with the truth."

Now, I'm going to close with this. If you're not a Christian, if you're not a Christian, we, we want you to become a Christian. Like, we are proselytizing you. You know what that means? We're trying to convert you, that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to get you to join. That's basically why we exist. And not because we just need more people on the team, it's because this is true. This is the best thing for you. Why would you want to live this life apart from God? Why would you want to live this life apart from the power of God? Why wouldn't you want your sins forgiven? Why wouldn't you love to... Why wouldn't you want to accept the love of God?

1 Peter 3:15, "But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that's in you; yet do this with gentleness and respect." We have this hope, and this hope is Jesus Christ. What's the reason for the hope that's in me? Thanks to Jesus, the Word of God, who's full of grace and truth, I am fully known, and yet I'm fully loved, and you are too. If you today receive that truth that, "God, yes, I am a sinner, there is evil festering deep within, and I accept the grace," and then that makes the people that extend truth and grace. Amen. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for this time you've given us in the Holy Word. We thank you, Lord, that you speak tough truths to us, which soften our hearts, tenderize our hearts. Make us a people who speak truth in love to ourselves and to our neighbors. I pray this in Christ's name. Amen.