Did you know that there are some people who believe that everything we know as reality is just a computer simulation? There are some people who believe that some advanced civilization is so far beyond our capabilities as a human society that they have programmed us into their own simulation.[1] In other words, nothing that we know as real is real.
Brothers and Sisters, when you begin wondering whether you are strong enough to make it to the end, remember where John points us. God gave the new birth. God brought us to faith. God produces obedience. God strengthens our assurance. God preserves us so that we persevere. And God has given us eternal life in His Son. From beginning to end, our salvation rests upon Jesus Christ. The grace that saves us is the same grace that keeps us, changes us, strengthens us, and will finally bring us home…..
"It is not good that the man should be alone." God spoke these words in the garden, before He made Eve. They still stand (Genesis 2:18). We were made for one another. That is how God built us. Yet we live after the fall, in a world where real closeness often feels just out of reach. Ecclesiastes says it plainly. "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up" (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10).
Loneliness is one of the wounds the fall left on us. It is the gap between the way God made us to live and the way we live now. The church is called to see that gap, to feel it, and to love the people who fall into it.
Okinawa is a very real part of my story. It is where I grew up, where I have memories and family connections, and where many things feel wonderfully familiar. I will probably always have a special affection for it. But as much as I love Okinawa, it isn’t my ultimate home. Neither is Florida where I currently live, or the state of Maine that I lived in for 28 years. As a Christian, my true citizenship is somewhere else. Paul reminds us, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).
Few subjects are more uncomfortable for Christians to discuss than church discipline.
In a culture that tells us to mind our own business, avoid uncomfortable conversations, and never judge anyone else, the biblical command to confront unrepentant sin can seem harsh—even unloving.
But 1 Corinthians 5 gives us a very different picture.
Paul is writing to a deeply troubled church in Corinth. They had divisions, sexual immorality, lawsuits between believers, confusion about Christian liberty, and numerous other problems. Yet Paul does not abandon them. Instead, he continues to give them gospel answers.
“People who serve are people who stay.” This is a popular saying that, for a few decades now, has gained popularity as a truism within American church growth movements and around the staff meeting tables of myriad local churches. The idea behind this maxim comes from a line of thinking that prioritizes church growth via programmatic pathways focusing on guest assimilation and member retention, or as another saying puts it, a need to “close the back door.” These pathways or “assimilation systems” aim to maximize guest experience in hopes that they become regular attenders, regular attenders become meaningfully connected or members (if the church has formal membership), and members find ministries or programs in which they are committed to serve. Because of course, “people who serve are people who stay.”