Amen. Yes, please open your Bible to
the New Testament book, Second Corinthians, chapter 6, verse
14. We're going to go all the way
through to the end of the chapter and into verse 1 of
Chapter 7. Title of tonight's message is
Separated for God's Glory. As you're turning there, I'm
sure that you've all seen two things that just do not fit
together. They cannot coexist.
You can't mix oil and water. They just won't be able to blend
together. The old square peg in a round
hole. Or if you've ever frustratingly
perhaps been in a boat, a rowboat with somebody and you're
rowing forward and they're pulling backwards, just think,
what are you doing? Simply doesn't work.
Paul uses a similar image and picture for us in 2nd
Corinthians 6. He urges believers, you and I
tonight, not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers.
Now in farming terms, the audience would be very familiar
and I'm sure many of us are. The yoke was a wooden harness
that would link 2 animals together to strengthen them, to
combine their forces to plough a field.
But if you put an ox and a donkey together for example,
that yoke they would pull in different directions and the
result would be frustration for the farmer, no doubt for the
animals involved, injury perhaps, and certainly futility
when it comes to the task at hand.
Now in the same way Paul will warn the church that partnership
with the world, with the world's values, with the world's
practises will only pull us away from Jesus Christ.
But his call is not just to separate from and out from the
world or out from sin and out from compromise.
That's part of it. But there's also a call for
separation unto towards God to enjoy his promises, to enjoy his
presence, to enjoy his power in our lives.
There's, you see, both a negative and a positive attached
to this idea of separation, one being an away from that which is
dangerous, that which is harmful, that which is contrary
to God, and the other being a positive which is towards God, a
no and a yes. You see, when you're and I
became Christians, we have a new life.
We have as a consequence of that new life, new relationships.
We experience a new relationship with God.
No longer are we what the Bible declares we once were, enemies
with God. Now, instead of running from
God, we're walking In Sync with God as his sons and as his
daughters, as the family of God. There's that relationship that
we now enjoy with God. We have a new relationship with
the devil. You go.
I never knew I had a relationship with the devil
before you did. The Bible tells us that you were
once a child of the devil, but that now, now you're an enemy of
the devil. You've been transferred out of
the Kingdom of darkness and into the glorious Kingdom of light.
You have a new relationship with the church.
You have a new relationship with unbelievers.
Not sure if you recall what it was like when you weren't saved
and how your attitude towards believers was.
You thought Christians were perhaps weird.
Crazy. Now you find yourself hanging
out with the very people that you thought were crazy some
5/10/15 years ago. The people that you were joking
about and making fun of are now those that you would call
friends. What a change, what a
transformation. You have a new relationship with
the unbelieving world. You're living a life that is
separated unto God. What we're talking about tonight
is the doctrine of separation. Before we read, I want to take a
bit of time here to address this somewhat to lay a bit of a
foundation for us. So we'll spend a bit of time in
our introduction. We're going to spend a fair
amount of time on .1, and then we'll move through points two
and three fairly quickly tonight so that you know where we're
headed. What we're talking about is this
doctrine of separation. I want to point out that there
are two extremes to this doctrine, often that we find
ourselves as Christians leaning towards, and we commonly hear
separation referred to as sanctification.
Maybe you've heard of that term. So for the Christian, our
salvation, it begins with justification and then there's
sanctification. Both are part of salvation
justification. That's the initial act where God
declares you and I as believers, where once we were sinners as
now righteous. That is what we call our
position, our standing in Jesus Christ.
And then sanctification is when having now become a Christian,
there is this commencement of a lifelong process, the Holy
Spirit at work and you changing you, transforming you, making
you into the image of Jesus Christ, that sanctification both
are again part of what we call salvation justification, your
standing and your position in Christ sanctification, your
practise, how you live out your daily life as a Christian.
And a lot of times people get those two confused and it causes
all sorts of issues in them doubting their salvation because
they're not really living a sanctified life.
Many people think, oh, am I saved?
Am I not saved? And you know, that fluctuates
day to day. Justification does not alter our
position. Sanctification is what we're
concerned with and what we're particularly looking at tonight.
So Paul's focus is that once we're saved, what needs to
happen is that we need to grow in holiness and likeness to
Jesus Christ that that we live a life that is separated different
to the world and the people around us.
Sanctification, obedience to the Holy Spirit in our living.
And there are two extremes that people often head to in there.
One is isolation and the second is assimilation.
Isolation is this where where Christians often feel like that
they should never ever talk to a non Christian ever again.
Never be around a non Christian ever again or do anything with a
non Christian. Now, if you go to a restaurant,
you've asked for the sanctified section.
And we want a spirit filled waitress, please, if we can.
And we want the Holy Ghost menu. And so we have churches that
have restaurants and we have, you know, churches that have all
sorts of activities based on kind of isolating believers
together, you know, ask for no more and creating these
Christian bubbles. Now, I don't believe biblically
that as we read the Scriptures that that God wants us to live
a, a monastic life, to go out into a monastery and to fully
isolate from the world that that may serve a purpose for a period
of time, don't get me wrong, but not as a permanent feature of
life and living. You see, the salt is no good
unless it gets out of the salt shaker, right?
You and I, we are called the salt of the earth.
A light that is hidden under a bushel has no effect.
We are called the lights of the world.
And I think one of the reasons why the world has gotten so bad
is because the salt and the light have not permeated into
the world as they should and having a a sanctifying effect on
the world around us. Now, I believe we need
Christians in every area of life.
We need Christian bankers. We need Christian lawyers, we
need Christian principles, Christian teachers, Christian
nurses, Christian sales assistants, Christian grocery
store workers, to to influence, to permeate like the salt of the
earth and the light of the world.
But the second extreme to that is assimilation, where we become
too much like the world. Rather than being a light to the
world, we become like the world. When we're like the world and
it's ideas and it's philosophies and lifestyles, then we're no
longer any good to the world. The salt that loses its
saltiness is good for nothing, Jesus said, but to be thrown out
in the way and trodden under the feet of men.
Jesus declared. You see, there's no difference
then between the non Christian and the Christian.
And there ought to be. So we can find ourselves
swinging from one of two extremes, either isolation or
assimilation. So where do we go when we're
unsure? What example do we look to?
We look to Jesus, right? Jesus demonstrated this, this
tension of what? Is it isolation or is it
assimilation? Which one is it?
Remember that Jesus went to the home of a Zacchaeus.
Remember the wee little man? We sing the song.
It was a tax collected, despised by many.
Even his own disciples freaked out when Jesus said Zacchaeus,
come down from that Sycamore tree, I'm coming to your house
for tea. And a few moments later, what
happened? Zacchaeus was a converted man.
When Jesus allowed the sinful woman to let down her hair and
to touch his feet, to wash his feet with her tears and then to
wipe those feet with his hair, some of the religious leaders
freaked out. Does does he know who she is and
what she's done? And then consider we looked at
it briefly this morning, John chapter 4, when Jesus waiting at
Jacob's well outside of a Samaritan town and along would
come a Samaritan woman, wicked by all definitions of various
people. She'd had five husbands and she
was now living with a man who was not her husband.
The modern church would have a freak out session would not have
a bar with the likes of that right?
She even was shocked that Jesus would spend time dialoguing with
her. She said you a man and a Jew
would talk to me. And So what is Jesus example as
we look to him? Jesus actually had contact with
sinners, but he was never contaminated by them.
That's the secret. So we we want to, we need to
make and have contact with unbelievers, with non
Christians, but we don't want to be contaminated, influenced by
them. The influence ought to happen
the other way. And this is a delicate balance
that Paul covers for us tonight in our passage as we now move to
this. We're to be separated from the
world and separated unto God, to be Christ like and impactful for
the Kingdom of God. So I want to Orient our thoughts
under 3 headings tonight as we examine the verses before us.
Firstly, the incompatibility of the yoke in verses 14 through to
16 out of chapter 6. Secondly, the invitation to
separation in verses 17 and 18. And then lastly, verse 1 of
Chapter 7, the incentive of holiness.
Let's read verse 14. Do not be unequally yoked.
I'm reading from the New King James Version.
Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness?
What communion has light with darkness?
Notice all of these terms that he employs here are terms of
intimacy of affiliation. Verse 15 and what accord that
word accord there is where we get the English word choir, like
a collective of voices singing and functioning together as one.
What accord has Christ with Belial?
That's another term for Satan, for the devil, or what part has
a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement verse 16 has
the temple of God with idols for you are the temple of the living
God. As God has said, I will dwell in
them and walk among them. I will be their God and they
shall be my people. Paul begins do not be unequally
yoked with unbelievers. Now let's go a little background
here that remember Corinth was a very large city some 700,000
they estimate in population at this point in time the city was
a wealthy city. It was called the Vanity Fair of
the Roman Empire because Corinth was this resort type of
destination. It was a city that attracted
pleasure seeking tourists from all over the region.
And when I say pleasure, it was wicked pleasure.
It was a port city which made Corinth a convenient and popular
stopping place for sailors usually looking to get drunk and
to indulge in one night stands. The slogan was at that time what
happens in Corinth? Stays in Corinth.
Sounds so familiar doesn't it? The city of Corinth was also
filled again with these shrines, with these Pagan temples, the
most popular being the temple of Aphrodites.
The goddess of so called love employed in this temple some
1000 plus prostitutes, both male and female, who went out every
night soliciting business in the name of worship, selling their
wares. In fact, in Rome at the time,
they had a saying to describe those whose lives were
characterised by living loose, by being immoral and typically
drunk all of the time. They were said to be behaving
like a Corinthian. And so it was to these believers
living in this city, Corinth, this type of environment that
Paul writes these words. Be not unequally yoked to an
unbeliever. Now, this is probably the most
familiar and most often quoted portion of Scripture out of
Second Corinthians. I'm sure that you've all heard
of it. The context, again, is important
for us to consider in verses 11 to 13 and in verse 1 of chapter
6. What Paul has been talking about
all through this is how that was that the Corinthian church were
being persuaded by false teachers to disregard Paul's
gospel, which was the gospel of Jesus Christ that he was
preaching. And so there was this error in
the Corinthian church that they were being LED astray by these
false teachers. And in fact, by by identifying
them in this way, what really Paul is saying of the false
teachers is that they're unbelievers.
They're not in fact saved that what they're teaching is
something that is altogether contrary to the gospel.
The problem again with the Christians in Corinth is that
many of them, one way or the other, were either buying into
the philosophies of these false teachers or, as we discovered in
First Corinthians, they had a reputation for being a very
carnal church. They embraced all sorts of
liberties and thought they had all of these freedoms that saw
them breaking many of God's moral laws.
As a consequence, they're either buying into the deceptions of
the false teachers or they were embracing lifestyles and ways of
living that were akin to their old ways of living prior to
their salvation and coming to Jesus Christ.
So this writing that Paul says do not be unequally yoked
together with unbelievers in verse 14 is a call and a
reminder for them to be separate.
So let's look at this picture that he has for us, the yoke,
the binding of two animals together.
Paul takes them essentially back into the Old Testament, into the
Pentateuch, the book of Deuteronomy, specifically in
chapter 22, verse 10, which specifically forbade the yoking
together of an ox with a donkey because they have different
strengths, different gates, different temperaments.
It was unkind again to the animals.
It was unproductive for the farmer.
And Paul uses this to demonstrate, to show how
disastrous spiritual mismatches are.
What was the yoke again? A yoke was that wooden frame or
bar with typically loops, often made out of leather at either
end that would fit around the necks of the two animals,
harnessing their power together, forcing them to function as 1
entity, one being. And so yokes then have 3
characteristics which will connect to why it is.
Paul uses this as a picture first.
It would tie 2 animals into a close relationship with each
other, having a a common goal and a master over them.
And this would not be a superficial relationship.
Then the second is that that yoke would not be easily broken
kind of a permanent relationship.
And This is why the Church has often always taken this passage
to refer to the marriage relationship.
You know, marriage is that kind of yoke, a permanent, binding,
lasting connection with somebody else.
It is more than a superficial relationship.
It is a relationship that cannot be easily broken.
That's the the picture that is in mind here.
Now it could also be argued in this that when Paul is talking
about here this yoke that it applies to any close
relationship then that we as believers have with unbelievers.
Consider the dating relationship.
People talk about missionary dating.
Ever heard that phrase? It can refer to friendships or
even a business partnership or the big push in today's day and
age, in the spiritual age in which we seem to be living of of
multi faith worship of it, we'll just let's have a gathering.
We'll have the the Muslims speak, the Hindus speak, we'll
have the the Buddhist speak, the Jew, the Christian alike, and we
can all come together. And that yoking now the third
mark of a yoke here is that it constrains someone.
It does not commit independent action.
The two animals had to work as one.
So putting all of this together, to be not yoked together with an
unbeliever would mean this. Not putting ourselves in a close
permanent relationship, not easily broken or a relationship
that would restrict us or constrain us in our actions, in
our thoughts, in our expressions with a non believer.
So this would definitely apply to a close friendship.
This would definitely apply to the dating relationship,
definitely apply to the marriage relationship.
Even a business partnership would fit under that umbrella of
the picture here that is given to us by Paul and the principle
that he pulls out through verse 14 and into 15 when he asked
these five rhetorical questions. What partnership has
righteousness with lawlessness? The obvious answer, None.
What fellowship is like with darkness?
The obvious answer, None. What accord has Christ with
Belial, a name for Satan? None.
What portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?
None. What agreement has the temple of
God with idols? There isn't any agreement.
Each answer is the same. There is no relationship.
There is no fellowship. There is no accord.
There is no portion, There is no agreement.
Oil and water don't mix. Christ and compromise don't
belong together. And so establishing the picture
and the principle behind it now he reminds them of the presence
of God. We you are the temple of the
living God. And the issue isn't just
incompatibility then with sin, it's about intimacy with God.
If God dwells in us as the temple of God, his argument is
how can we yoke ourselves, bind ourselves, connect ourselves
with that which defiles His presence?
The two cannot cohabitate just as his example is.
God would not allow an idol to be erected in the temple and him
be OK with it. You know, they would be familiar
with the Old Testament and God's harsh words against you shall
have no other gods before me. The picture is there.
It just, it cannot exist. I don't know if you've ever seen
the Looney Tunes cartoon where you've got the sheepdog Sam and
then the wolf Ralph. He kind of looks like a wily
coyote. And they're all cordial and
friendly, you know. Good morning, Ralph.
Good morning, Sam. Good night, Ralph.
Good night, Sam. And then they clock in.
They punch their ticket and commence the day's hostilities
against each other as sheepdog and wolf trying to catch the
sheep. You know, God and and the devil
aren't like that. They don't kind of coexist in
this cordial relationship. Where?
How are you, Satan? Oh, yeah, not bad.
God and you. Yeah.
Good.
And then commence hostilities. They cannot coexist together
Christian as the temple of the living God in whom God dwells
cannot have cohabiting via yoking things that devile defile
his presence. And so the application then
consider it for young people who are your closest friends.
Are they pulling you toward Christ or away from him?
For singles here, be wise in your dating relationship.
Marriage is the deepest, the strongest yoke to.
Going in opposite directions will tear you apart.
And for all of us, what are you yoked to in daily life, in in
the partnerships that you have in in the business practises, in
in your entertainment choices? Do they honour Christ or do they
hinder faithfulness to Him? So that's our first
consideration, our second, the invitation to separation.
Verse 17 to 18. Therefore come out from among
them and be separate, says the Lord.
Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.
I will be a father to you. Verse 18 And you shall be my
sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.
Paul here quotes the Old Testament prophet Isaiah and
also Ezekiel. And there's a call to purity
here that he declares and separation doesn't mean
isolation. In this Paul is not telling
Christians to withdraw from unbelievers after all.
Again, he himself lived amongst engaged with unbelievers,
preaching the gospel again and again, but it does mean refusing
to share in their sin. A good example is to think of
Daniel in Babylon who was able to serve faithfully without
defiling himself. And there's a call to privilege
here. Notice the promise that God
gives, having separated out from the promise is I will be a
father to you. And then back in verse 16, and
you will be my people, he says. And there's a relational aspect
here. It's not a a legalistic thing
going on. God calls us to come out from
sin, not to punish us, but to welcome us into his presence.
You see separation out from the world is separation under him
and leads to intimacy and fellowship and a strong
connection of privilege with him.
And it builds into a priority then because we see that if God
is our father and, and we are his children, you know what that
declares for us? Our identity.
It prioritises who we are in this world.
We don't belong to the world, we belong to him.
We're we're above the things of the world.
We have a clear calling, a clear identity, a clear character
about who we are as children of God.
We're sons and daughters of God. And so the point is again, that
certain things are fundamentally incompatible.
Imagine for the athletes amongst us trying to run a 5 kilometre
run with a sandal on one foot and a cowboy boot on the other.
I don't think you're going to go very fast.
You might not even go very far. There are things that just do
not work well together, right, or belong together.
And there are things that will keep you from experiencing all
that God has for you. You know, when you read
Scripture, it's all through the Bible.
You see this pattern everywhere. This principle declared again
and again God calling His people to come away from the things of
this world, and then to be separate.
And we call that word holy, or set aside for the purpose of
Him, to be with him, and for the purpose of His use.
God called Abraham Genesis 12, out of air of the Chaldees.
He called Lot out of Sodom Genesis 19.
He called the people of Israel out of Egypt in Exodus and and
gave them a whole list of laws that would ensure that they
lived and and worship different to the nations around them.
Today God calls you and I, the church, to be separate, and one
day soon and very soon, Jesus is coming and He will call us home
to be forevermore in His presence.
And so you are tonight either one of the people responding to
the call to come out or you're part of the crowd that God is
calling people to come out of. There's only two options when it
comes to Scripture. There are the righteous and
there are the lawless, those in the light and those who love
darkness, believers and unbelievers, those who are the
temple of God, those who worship idols.
And if you're in the group tonight that has responded to
the call of God, then you need to be aware of the warning that
Paul gives of not being too cosy with the world, knowing that it
is going to try to pull you away from the holiness and purity
that God desires for you and in you.
And the world does this by urging you to appreciate, value,
pursue, to tolerate and approve of things that God condemns.
But let's not just talk about the things that God wants his
people to come out of and to pull away from.
But also let's notice the divine initiative in the heart of God
in this. He doesn't just sit idly by and
and let things happen. He invites us in this to come
into a deeper and deeper fellowship with Him.
I will be your Father, You will be my sons and daughters.
And He's offering to heal more and more of our wounds, offering
to teach us new ways to live, giving us a purpose and an
identity in Him, a reason to live each day, and the spiritual
strength to do it. I will be a father to you.
We're part of the family of God. We have access to him in a way
that others don't possess and have.
That means he's wrought resources at ours.
That means his power is ours. There's a wonderful dynamic in
all of this. And so for families as an
application in this, what boundaries maybe need to be
established and set in your home, in media, in in
friendships, in in priorities so that Christ remains central for
for workers. Where do you need courage to say
no, to compromise, even even if it costs advancement for all
believers? Don't think tonight of
separation is lost. Oh man, what am I giving up and
what am I sacrificing? Think of it as gain.
And what you're gaining is this. You're gaining God's smile,
God's welcome, God's fatherly embrace, and so press into a
greater relationship with him, separate, come out of the world
and separate unto him. And there's an incentive lastly
of holiness that now springs out of this.
In verse 1 of Chapter 7, Paul concludes therefore, or since
having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from
all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in
the fear of God. And so the motivation that he
declares for us in this, the incentive of holiness is
therefore or, or since or because we have these promises
that should, should, should motivate you unto holiness.
And what are the promises? The promise that he's just
written for us is that God would dwell with us, that God would
walk among us. God would be our God and and be
our Father. You see, holiness then isn't
motivated out of a fear of punishment or or a fear of being
caught with the hand in the cookie jar, but by the joy of
belonging with God the Father and the method of holiness.
Let us cleanse ourselves here. This this doesn't mean self
salvation that we have to earn our salvation, but rather here
it's Speaking of a lifestyle of active repentance, like washing
your hands before a meal. We confess our sin and and we
turn from it so that we enjoy fellowship with God.
And then there's a maturity that comes out of it.
Bringing holiness to completion or to perfection, says holiness
then is progressive. Day after day, verse by verse,
chapter by chapter, book by book through the Bible, year by year,
the Spirit conforming us into the image of Christ.
Maybe in all of this, this this marriage illustration might
help. April and I have been married
for 26 years, right? Take a drink of water, all
right? But you know, it's not enough
for me to just love her and be devoted to her and, and be
committed to her. You know what else I have to do?
I have to say no to other women, right?
We say, but we, we had that in our vows, you and no other,
right? We, we make that declaration.
It's it's totally unacceptable for me to tell my wife I love
you. You're my wife.
I'm I'm married to you. But there are some other women I
like as well I want to spend time with, and I'm going to take
them out to dinner and buy a few things She'd be like.
And So what I'm saying is, as a Christian, just like in
marriage, it's not enough for you to say I love Jesus, I love
Jesus, I love Jesus, I'm a Christian.
You also have to say I don't love the world.
I'm not attracted to the world. I'm not going to follow the
world. I'm not going to be like the
world. You see, again, there's a
positive a yes, and there's a negative no.
So just as in the marriage relationship, I have to love my
wife. I keep my distance, I have my
eyes only for her. Say no to others.
That's what it means to be married.
And as Christians, we are the bride of Christ.
The Bible says don't then flirt with the world.
The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh.
John puts it this way in first John, love not the world nor the
things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the
love of the Father is not in him.
So guard your heart, guard your mind.
What you watch, what you read, what you listen to, you know,
the podcast, the information, the advice that's given out, who
you associate with and, and what they promote and what they
advocate, the ideologies that the paradigms in, you know, the
parenting philosophies that people espouse.
Say no to the world, Verse 17 and 18.
Therefore, come out from among them.
Be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean and
I will receive you. I will be a father to you.
You shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord
Almighty. So God's call tonight, it's not
just don't be yoked, don't be yoked.
His call is be mine, be mine. And it's a jealousy, not against
other things, but it's a jealousy for us, for our
benefit. Separation isn't about distance
from the world so much as it's about devotion unto Christ.
So the incompatibility of the yoke is you cannot serve Christ
and compromise by by serving and and following and and loving
others and other things. The invitation to separation
come out, separate out from the things of the world and separate
unto God, and He will welcome you as His child.
The incentive of holiness is a a pursuit of purity because his
promises are yours and mine and ours.
So again, there's very practical applications in this text.
And I again for the young here in our midst, choose your
friends and future spouse wisely, prayerfully for parents,
protect your family from worldly compromise.
For workers, live with integrity in in your business and in your
career and in the decisions made for us as a church, Be holy.
Together we are God's dwelling place.
To be yoked with Christ as freedom to be separated unto Him
is joy. To pursue holiness in His
promises is life. Let us endure in this
separation, not as lost, but as glory, for God Himself is our
reward. So tonight, look at the things,
look at the people in your life and ask, is, is this leading me
closer to God or further away from him?
Don't just ask, is it OK? Ask does it please God?
Does your heart, do your desires accurately reflect God or do you
need some work done in there? Now the best way that you can
grow stronger in your walk with God is to get into God's Word
and get God's word into you. Psalm 119, verses 9 to 11.
How can a young man person cleanse his way?
By taking heed according to Your Word?
Verse 10 With my whole heart I have sought you.
Oh, let me not wander from your commandments, Your word.
Have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you?
So Christian, believe it tonight.
If you want to grow, you want to mature, get into the Word, the
Bible, and get the Word into you.
If you don't establish it, have some daily reading of Scripture
and praying. Download an audio Bible on your
phone. Listen to it.
Get into a Bible study and you need to remove to eliminate
certain things out of your life. But but don't just leave that
space empty. Well, I've I'm done away with
those things. Instead, fill it with with other
things, with good things. You need to form new habits, new
patterns, new desires. You need fellowship as we are
tonight. You need connection.
You you need to fill that with the right things.
And so here's now the connection in this 1-2 Corinthians tonight
in chapter 6 is do not be unequally yoked.
You can never hear the word yoke, I think, without
remembering the words of Jesus in Matthew 1129 to 30, who said,
take my yoke upon you. Learn from me, for I'm gentle
and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
My yoke is easy and my burden is light.
I like the sound of that yoke. Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you for this word tonight.
Perhaps the conviction the Holy Spirit brings in studying, in
looking through this, as we examine and consider ways that
we have been unequally yoked, help us to separate out from the
world the things of the world, the things that are contrary to
you and separate unto you, to press into you and enjoy the
intimacy of that fellowship. You as our Father, we as your
sons and daughters. For we are your temple, Lord
God, we are your dwelling place, we are your people.
And may we as a church be marked by a pursuit of holiness, of
sanctification, desiring all the more to be like you.
Lord Jesus Christ, You've loved us with an everlasting love.
So now, Lord God, I pray for your people.
May we enjoy your presence. May we know that you are with us
each and every day. Empower us.
Enable us to live for your glory, to be the salt of the
earth, to be the light of the world.
Pray and ask these things in Jesus name.
God's people said Amen.