Today's Sermon:
You Can Do It Even When You Can’t

I. Command: We are to ..... - Vs. 1-2

Motivation: Christ ..... - Vs. 3

Means: The Hope ...... - Vs. 4

Purpose: God’s Glory in .... - Vs. 5-6

II. Command: We are to ..... - Vs. 7

“Community is intricate and complex. It consists of many people of various moods, ideas, needs, experiences, gifts and injuries, desires and disappointments, blessings and losses, intelligence and stupidity, living in proximity and in respect for one another…It is not easy and it is not simple.” (Eugene Peterson, Christ Plays in 10,000 Places, 252)

Motivation: Christ is a ..... Vs. 8-12

“If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if, on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder Hod from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches there are for us all in Jesus Christ.”

“This applies in a special way to the complaints often heard form pastors and zealous members about their congregations. A pastor should not complain about his congregation, certainly never to other people, but also not to God. A congregation has not been entrusted to him in order that he should become its accuser before God and men…Let him, in the consciousness of his own guilt, make intercession for his brethren. Let him do what he is committed to do, and thank God.”

Purpose:

- Vs. 8-12

Means:

- Vs. 13