Good morning. Would y'all stand? It doesn't sound like there's many in here, but it's full. Is it? Mercy. Let's get a little loud. A joyful noise this morning. My ears were playing tricks with me, weren't they? I did say stand, didn't I? See, I got to quit yakking. Let's quit yakking, let's worship, huh? First of all, we want to welcome all of you here to Calvary Chapel who are with us at this point live.

And then those of you who are live streaming, onlining, whatever you call that, we welcome you too, Lord. And I would ask that you just join us as we worship in song. Join me in prayer. Father, we thank you for this opportunity to worship you this morning in song, to study your word together, Lord. I just want to lift up our time together. Would you be glorified? Would you bless the children's church teachers and those youngsters as they will be spending time learning about the things of you

and their worship time and the nursery, the workers in there who are looking after the little ones. Just bless our service. Encourage the ushers and all as they move about, you know, being available to the needs that come up at times and give them wisdom. And we thank you now. And as Ryan will be giving your word out. Anoint him by the power of your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name. Amen.

We can trust you in all things. We thank you, Lord. We praise you.

To Campbell's, we know that you always know best. To you, Lord Jesus. We praise you now, Lord. We thank you for this opportunity to worship you in song. And now as we get in your word together, as we study, anoint Pastor Ryan with the power of your Holy Spirit. It would come forth with your power, Lord. And then would you give us listening? Ears to hear, hearts to perceive, willingness to obey as you teach us.

And we give you praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Lord, bless you all. Good morning. If you would grab a bulletin, we'll go over a few quick announcements here. First of all, over on the left, everything's back in action now. So that's good. Everybody that's leading things is back and healthy again. So find a spot to get plugged into. The one change that I need to make on the left-hand side of your bulletin.

Is every Sunday, we do a little time of prayer at 8 o'clock before the first service. But there's now going to be a second option for prayer. Lewis is going to start leading a prayer time for me at 10 o'clock. So while I'm in here finishing up first service, there'll be a prayer meeting going on back in the Agape room at 10 o'clock. So there'll be two times. I feel like the best thing we can be doing right now is as many times as possible.

Be praying together as a body. So that'll start next week. Over in the middle section of your bulletin. Just a reminder that to keep up with prayer requests. And man, there's been a lot going on here lately. I've had a hard time even getting them all out to you. You can sign up on Flocknote. The information's right there. So take note of that and get signed up so you can be knowing what's going on with the body of Christ and prayer needs and things like that.

So also with whatever's happening in the world right now and whatever happens with tech censorship. We started experimenting. A few weeks ago, probably the beginning of December before life happened, with streaming through our website. And so that is now up and going. So if at any point in time today this gets shut down by Facebook, you can go to CalvaryChapelArkCity.org and it'll be streamed on there.

And then Matt usually gets that processed and put up on the website that you can watch later too. So you can watch the service that way. So those are the things that are coming. So that's kind of going on. So if you would, also make sure that your mobile device is switched over to the non-noisemaking position. For our unison reading this morning, we're going to be in Psalm 54.

Psalm 54. And we'll be looking at the New American Standard Bible for that. If you don't have one, there should be one in a row or a row really close to you. As you're turning to Psalm 54, if you would stand in the honor of the reading of God's word.

And if you would read along with me, Psalm 54. For the choir director. After on stringed instruments, a mascal of David, when the Ziphites came and said to Saul, Is not David hiding among us? Verse 1. Save me, O God, by your name. Invindicate me by your power. Hear my prayer, O God. Give ear to the words of my mouth. For strangers have risen against me. Inviolent men have sought my life.

They have not set God before them. Selah. Behold, God is my helper. The Lord is the sustainer of my soul. He will recompense the evil to my foes. Destroy them in your faithfulness. Willingly I will sacrifice to you. I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good. For he has delivered me from all trouble. And my eye has looked with satisfaction upon my end.

Lord, I thank you that you are the God who delivers us from all of our troubles. Lord, I thank you that you are the God who delivers us from all of our troubles. You are the God who is the one who saves us from our enemies. And Lord, I do thank you that you are the place that we can look to for safety. Lord, that you are the God who delivers us from all of our troubles.

Not only the sin that holds us down. But the enemies that would come against us, Lord. And we can find our refuge in you. And so I pray that we would do that today. And Lord, as we get into your word this morning in 1 Corinthians here. I ask that your Holy Spirit would speak to us. Lord, that you would minister to us in the way that you see fit. Overflow me with your gift of teaching.

and overflow your people with the gift of hearing, Lord. And we just pray these things, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of 1 Corinthians 16. We're going to finish up the book of 1 Corinthians today. But before we do, man, it's good to be back. So there I was. It was about two weeks ago, and my wife washed her hands.

With her favorite Bath & Body Works scented hand soap. And so she washed her hands, and she went. She came to me, and she said, Ryan, smell my hands. And I said, ooh, I like that soap a lot. She goes, that's what I was afraid of. I can't smell anything. And so we had to take her up to the urgent care and get her tested. And sure enough, she had the Rona. And that's all that happened to her.

She just lost her sense of smell. Everything else was great. It's that teacher immunity that you've got built up from working around little rugrats all the time. And so we survived. I learned that I am definitely, I ain't made for that quarantine life, right? Like, I'm a people people, and I did not do okay, right? Like, I'm pretty sure I drove everybody in my house nuts because I pace, and I want to go talk to people.

I was on my phone a lot, and felt like a teenage boy all over again. So, except people actually called me back, which was amazing. So, but a lot has happened in the world in the two weeks that I've been gone, right? Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right.

Right. Right. Right. But I felt like I would probably end up getting shut down by Facebook if I put a slide show together of the pictures I wanted to put up there of the things that have gone, have taken place over the past two weeks, and I still may get shut down. So, if that happens, go to CalvaryChapelArkCity.org. So, I'll say that a few times throughout this message, because I'm going to say an incredible

number of controversial things. So, this is what we learned over the last two weeks. First of all, we learned that if you ask a congressman to pray, they're going to screw it up. even if reverend is in front of their name, amen, and a woman. So we learned that. We learned that the village people are no longer at the YMCA. They're at the national capital. And I hope that

they start selling the buffalo headdress because I thought that that was amazing and really a staple for anyone's outfit in the wintertime. We learned that. We learned that big tech will censor you if you don't say the things that are correct. If you have any kind of a viewpoint that's different than everybody else, big tech will censor you, which is why I'm going to continue saying to go to calvarychapelarccity.org throughout this message. We learned that, that they're actually ultimately

in control of things. We had the very first African-American woman inaugurated to the vice presidency, as well as we inaugurated a new president while I was gone. And I had an entire joke that went along with that, but not only would I get shut down, but it'd probably be inappropriate. And then, but in a shock, in turn of events, we learned that if we want to unify the nation, all it really takes is a picture of Bernie Sanders wearing mittens, right? Like that has been the best thing that has happened to me

since Colin Kaepernick made the Nike commercial. What the internet has done with that has truly been a masterful work of art. And I really wanted to put that picture up there. And I had another one that I opted out of. So those are the things that have gone on. It has been a wild two weeks and I got news for you. I got news for you. I got news for you. I got news for you. I got news for

you. It's not going to get any less wild. It's going to continue to get crazier. An incredible number of executive orders were signed. And we will continue to see the church be turned against the last president that we had was one of the most pro-religion presidents that has been not only in my lifetime, but probably in history, pro-religious freedom and pro-life, pro-Israel.

And that's going to be the very opposite now. And that's okay. God's still in charge. God still knows what's going on and he knows how to handle these things. And he didn't get taken off guard by any of them. So, so we do what we do every week. We get into the word of God and see what God's word has to say about it. So we're picking up in first Corinthians chapter 16, verse one. Now this is

going to close out the book of first Corinthians. And we've learned a lot in the book of first Corinthians, right? So first of all, he dealt with division within the church that people were being divided over different things. And we learned that the only true cure for division is to get back to the heart of the gospel. Simplicity of the gospel, the message of the gospel, and then just simply be workers of the

gospel. We talked about immorality within the church. And first of all, the immorality has to get dealt with in a church. You can't just go on and pretend like nothing's taking place. And then of course, we ourselves must make sure that we understand that immorality can't be any part of our lives. We dealt with lawsuits within the church and how that can't ever take place. We

should rather take the loss as opposed to ruining not only our witness, but ruining relationships over a few dollars. We dealt with marriage and what God intends for husband and wife relationships and roles to look like in a godly sense. We dealt with order in the church as far as Christian liberty and that our liberty, though given to us by God, can never not only be a cloak for unrighteousness, but it also cannot be used to stumble another and that we need to be understanding of each other with the liberty that we have in Christ. We dealt with authority, in the church, and the fact that we all must submit to some aspect of authority. We dealt with

the gifts of the Spirit being used in a proper way. Of course, the last thing that we dealt with was the resurrection, the fact that Jesus is alive. And because Jesus is alive, it gives us hope. It gives us hope that he is who he says he is. It gives us hope that his work on earth is not finished until he takes his church home to be with him. And it gives us hope that we have something

beyond planet earth to look forward to because Jesus is alive. And so as we come to chapter 16, he wraps up the entire book, and he does so in three ways. The first thing he does is he talks to them about a collection for the saints, because I'll remind you that this is a real letter that was written by a real guy to a real church about real life issues. And so he talks to them about a collection for the saints. He's going to tell them about his

travel plans, and then he's going to close out with exhortations, greetings, and a benediction. And so we pick up in chapter 16, verse 1. It says, Now concerning the collection for the saints, As I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. On the first day of every week, each one of you is to put aside and save as he may prosper, so that no collections may be made when I come. When I arrive, whomever you may approve, I will send them with letters to carry

your gift to Jerusalem. And if it is fitting for me to go also, they will go with me. Now, at this point in time in the early church, this main church, Jerusalem, had come upon very difficult financial times. They had been supporting a great deal of widows through their ministry there at the church, and so it was costing them a great deal of money. There had been a famine in the area, which had hit the church very hard. Coupled with the fact

that there was persecution that was hitting the church very hard, the church in Jerusalem financially was struggling. Because of Paul's great love for fellow believers, and Paul's great love especially for the church in Jerusalem, where the gospel sprang forth from, he wanted to make sure that they were taken care of. And so everywhere, he was going on this last missionary journey, he was taking up a collection for the saints, a collection to take back to Jerusalem as a love offering to help support them. And so as he does so, he actually, interestingly enough, gives us three very good principles for giving. Now, as we

talk about giving in the church, it's the last thing that a pastor ever wants to talk about. At least it should be the last thing a pastor ever wants to talk about. Because as I've told you before, the men that I used to work with in construction thought pastors were only out for one thing. They thought they were only out for one thing. They thought they were only out for one thing.

They said, I know why you want to go into ministry, because you want to make all that money. And as I was laboring on a construction job, I thought, man, did I sign up wrong somewhere in life. So I don't really like to talk about it a great deal, but it is inscription. It is a way that we worship the Lord. Now, I will tell you that whether it's giving to this church, or whether it's giving to

any missionary organization or work of the Lord, you should never give because you feel forced to. You should never give because you feel like you have to. You should never give because, you feel like, oh, if I don't give, this ministry is going to go broke. You should never give because you feel sorry for the people that you're giving to. You should give for one reason and one

reason only, out of obedience to the Lord. You should give because that's what God has called you to do. Because I will tell you right now, you don't need to worry about whether or not the ministry at Calvary Chapel of Arkansas City will go on without your gifts. This is a ministry of God, and it will be here as long as he wants for it to be here, whether you give or not. The ministry

at Calvary Chapel of Arkansas City will go on without your gifts. This is a ministry of God, and it will be here as long as he wants for it to be here, whether you give or not. But when you give, you couple your finances with the ministry that God is doing. And so, he gives us three principles for giving. The first principle that he gives us is planning. Notice what he says,

on the first day of the week, every one of you is to put aside and save as he may prosper. He says, you need to plan. Part of that planning is an understanding. The understanding that everything that I have is going to be planned. And so, you need to plan. Part of that planning is an understanding. The understanding that everything that I have is from the Lord. The giftings that I

have, the talents that I have, the job that I have, those are all directly from God, and any income that comes into my life ultimately belongs to him. If I think that only the portion that I give to the Lord belongs to him, I will always screw up with my finances, and I will do it wrong. But if I instead view everything that I own as belonging to him, that he can use however he wants to, and surrender those things to him, I find I have a completely different view of my finances, and God will always give me what I need. And so, I'm going to plan. And so, I'm going to

make sure that there's plenty for what I need. And so, we plan. What is this planning that we need to do? Well, we need to pray and seek the Lord. Matter of fact, in the Old Testament, when Moses was given the task of building the tabernacle, they needed a lot of things. And so, Moses came to the people and said, these are the things that we need for the building of the

tabernacle. I don't want anyone to give me anything right now. I want you to go home, and I want you to pray, and I want you to let God to tell you what you are to bring. And because he did that, eventually, the people had to tell him, don't accept any more gifts. We have more than we could ever use. You know why? Because it was a work of God, not a work of man. And so, we pray, and we seek the Lord, and we say, Lord, what do

you want me to give based upon what I actually have to give? I want you to take note of the fact he says, based upon your income, based upon how well you prosper, because God doesn't want you to give so much that you can't pay your bills. That's all he wants you to do. He wants you to also not being a good steward of the finances that God has given you. And so, the first principle

he gives us is planning. There should be a plan in mind. The second principle that he gives us is obedience. He says, put it aside that he may prosper. In other words, you have to actually do it. You have to actually do what God calls for you to do. Now, sometimes that's the rub, right? Like, it's really easy to hear what God has to say and to bear witness with what God has to say,

but then you have to obey what God has to say, and you have to actually do what God calls you to do. The second principle there is obedience. But I want you to take note of how this obedience should never be out of compulsion. Notice what he says, so that, in verse 2, so that no collections may be made when I come. Why does he say that? Because he does not want their obedience to be out of

compulsion. You've all gone to the rally. You've gone to the concert. You've gone to the church service where the person up there says, you don't understand. These people will starve unless you give your money right now. That's why none of us like televangelists, right? Because they're up there saying, you don't understand. This ministry is going to fall apart if you don't give your money right now. Well, if it's going to fall apart if they don't

give, maybe it's not of God. It shouldn't, obedience should never be compulsory. You should not feel like you have to. It should be wholehearted obedience to the Lord. And then the third aspect of it, the third principle is accountability. Notice what he says, when I arrive, whomever you approve, I will send them with letters to carry your gift to Jerusalem.

And if it is finished, I will send them with letters to carry your gift to Jerusalem. And if it is finished, they will go with me. There should be accountability in the way that the finances are handled. First of all, if I make a plan, I should make myself accountable to somebody about the plan that I make about how I'm going to give. For us, it's my wife and I are accountable to each other that we

are going to give, that we are going to give what God calls us to. But there should also be accountability with the handling of the finances. There should be accountability to be able to prove this is where the money is being spent so that we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the money is being used for the ministry of the Lord and not simply to enrich someone. At Calvary Chapel, I want you to be aware, any money that's given, we automatically give the top 35% that can only go to outreach. It can only go to help people pay their bills, to support missionaries, to support

missions work. Sometimes some of you have issues come up in your life and you say, I just don't know what to do. I don't know how I'm going to pay this next bill. And we pray about it and sometimes we're able to help out. That's what the first 35%, the rest of it's paying, bills and taking care of the things that we need to around here. And so there needs to be that

accountability with the finances. So he deals with this aspect of the collection for the saints. Now, the next thing he does is he tells us about his travel plans. Take note of verse five. He says, but I will come to you after I go through Macedonia, for I am going through Macedonia and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter so that you may send me on my way

wherever I go. For I do not wish to see you now. Just in passing for, I hope to remain with you for some time. If the Lord permits, he gives us aspect of his travel plans. And then he closes with a very interesting little phrase. And we'll talk about that in just a minute. He says, Hey, I'm traveling right now. And he's on his third missionary journey. He's going to move through. He's in Ephesus at this point in time, but he's

going to make a little trip through Macedonia. And then he says, I want to spend a little bit of time with you. He says, and not just a little bit of time. I want to spend a significant amount of time with you. The reason why is because he's going to spend a little bit of time with you. Because he's writing some very difficult things to them. And he wants to be able to come and have

that conversation in person with them and make sure that they understand everything that he's telling them in this letter. You know, one of those dangerous things we deal with right now is text messages and statements that are made on social media, because you don't always get the voice inflection. You don't always get the context, right? How many times have you ever gotten a text message and you read into it what that person never intended for them to read into it? He says, for that reason, I want to come to you so that you can

hear everything that I have to say. But he closes with this one little line that I think is so important for us to pay attention to, especially given the past year that we went through. If the Lord permits. You see, as Chuck Smith said, if we resign ourselves to the Lord's disturbances, we will never really be disturbed. How many of you ended sentences last year with,

at least that was my plan, right? Like every sentence I ended with was, at least that was my plan or that was the plan before COVID hit, right? Even in the board meeting we had the other night, we said, well, that's what we were going to do until COVID hit, because it completely changed all of our plans. But you know what the wonderful thing that took place last year was? We all

realized they're not really my plans. Last year wasn't what any of us planned, but it's what God planned. Yep. Deal with it. God's sovereign. Okay. And the more we resign ourself to the fact that God has his plan and he'll work it out the way that he wants it to, and stop trying to work my plan out the way I want it to, the more peace I will have in my life. Because I don't know about you, but I get up in the morning and I set up,

these are the things I want to accomplish today, right? I love to make to-do lists. You know why I like a to-do list? Because I like to cross things off my to-do list. I feel so accomplished when I make a to-do list and go, did that one, did that one, right? And I find that I don't make it very far on my to-do list sometimes. But you know what God tells me? He says, but you made it

on my to-do list. You made it as far as I wanted you to. I was telling the first service, my wife doesn't like to send me to Walmart by myself. Because when I go to Walmart by myself, I have conversations with people. Now there was a time when I would be like, no, I've got to hurry up and get my thing done. And then I would be like, no, I've got to hurry up and get my thing done. And

then I would be like, no, I've got to hurry up and get my thing done. And then I would be like, no, I've got to hurry up and get my thing done. And then I started realizing I was missing ministry opportunities. And so now, hey, I'm there. And if somebody's there that needs to talk, well, then let's stop and talk for a little while. And I might not come home from Walmart for a long time. I've gotten

more phone calls of my wife or text messages saying, you okay? And I went, yep, God changed my plan. I remember when I would just be the guy that would fill in on Sunday mornings, I would be thinking about what Mark would have called me maybe well in advance and say, hey, that needs to fill in on this Sunday. And I'd completely get a plan worked out for what I thought I was supposed to teach. And about two days before, God would change my mind. And I

would go, I don't understand, but I had this whole plan. And God's like, but it wasn't my plan. And pretty soon you just start going, well, then fine, you do what you want to do. There is so much peace in that. And then all of a sudden, when your day doesn't go the way you want for it to, you don't go, oh man, I screwed up. I didn't keep up with my plan. You say, perfect. I did everything

God wanted me to do. Today. He says, if the Lord permits, and then we move on from here and he gives us a very interesting statement, including more of his travel plans. He says, but I will remain in Ephesus until Pentecost for a wide door for effective service has opened to me. And there are many adversaries. That's an interesting verse. Is it not? He says two very, almost mutually

exclusive things. He says, I'm going to hang out in Ephesus until Pentecost. When he wrote this, probably winter springtime, Pentecost is sometime in June. And so he says, it's going to be a little while before I leave Ephesus. Why? Because an effective door of ministry is opened. And if you know very much about the book of Acts, I believe it's around chapter 18 or 19, somewhere right in

there. You know that God opened a major door for him in Ephesus and people were coming from the entire region. So that according to what it says, everyone from the region heard the message of the gospel. That's how amazing it was because people would come, they would hear, and then they would take the gospel to wherever they lived. And so he says, I'm going to hang out in Ephesus until Pentecost

from all over the region of Ephesus. And so the gospel was going out in an amazing way. And so you hear that and you go, no wonder he wanted to stay. There was a huge door open to him to minister the gospel. And it would make complete sense if he didn't include the last part. He doesn't say, but there are many adversaries. He says, and there are many adversaries. You know

what that phrase actually means? There are many who are entrenched against me. Now, wait a second. If there's an effective door open, for ministry, why are there adversaries? Because sometimes the bigger the door that God opens, the more people want to close it. The more adversaries you're going to have. Now, I don't know about you, but it seems like the adversaries have gotten pretty great here lately to the gospel.

Am I right? All of a sudden, it seems like there's this, these adversaries against us. And you know what all of the church wants to do right now? We want to run. Lord, take us home now because this is it. And what we're not seeing is the effective door that's open. Even though there are many adversaries. I read a very interesting article last week by a guy named

Michael Brown. It was called why a Biden presidency could be good for the church. Now, he wrote this actually back in December, but after the January 6th thing took place, he decided it was time to publish it. He starts off by talking about his own political views, but he makes this statement. He says,

How can I say such a thing? Simply stated, it is because many of us Christian conservatives put too much trust in a man. And I would venture to say, if we were all very honest with ourselves, we would find that we were in the exact same place. We found that our trust began to be in a man and we started looking to a man. I would venture to say that too many of us as believers in Jesus Christ would more easily align ourselves with

a political party or a political candidate than we would with a man. And I would venture to say, we would with a man. And I would venture to say, we would find that we were in a political party That's a little bit more of a political right now. we would. And we found that that was the thing that identified us more than the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's such an easy thing to do. As a matter of fact,

the same thing happened in the old Testament. You remember the guy, Isaiah, he wrote the book of Isaiah. Do you know when God really began to use Isaiah in the, in the year that King Uzziah died? Why? Because up to that point in time, Uzziah, who was a very good King is who Isaiah had aligned himself with. That's who Isaiah had found his, hope in. That's who Isaiah had found his identity in. And in the year that King Uzziah died,

that was when Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up. The writer goes on to say, as for the church, the more that we realize that we cannot look to the White House or to Congress to do our bidding, the more we will get back to the gospel basics. And it is those basics alone that can save the nation. To quote the words of the Psalms, it is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. Psalm 118 verse 9, which may I point out is the exact center

of the Bible. You see, one of the best things that can happen to us is for us to realize that our hope continues to be in the same place that it always should have been, and that's simply in Jesus Christ, not in a candidate, not in a man. He closes out the article by saying this, an adversarial presence in the White House could be the best thing that happened to the church of America in years. Maybe this is what it will take to wake us up. An awakened church remains the hope of the nation. You see, my

friends, there is a massive door open to us right now because everybody in the world, everybody in the nation at least, feels the exact same thing. Something's not right right now. We can all feel it. There's this dreadful anticipation inside of all of us that something's just not right. Everybody knows it. Everybody senses it. But only we have the true answer. Only we have the true

place of hope, not because of who we are, but because of what the word of God says and because of who Jesus is. And we have this massive door that's open to us. But what we need to realize is against us. mean we can run. It doesn't mean we give up. It doesn't mean we hide in our bunkers with our food storage and all of our guns and ammo and pretend like the rest of the world doesn't exist. It means

we get out into that world and take advantage of this door that's open to us in spite of the adversaries, and we begin engaging people for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because my friends, an effective door is open because the world is looking for hope. You're the one that has this treasure hidden in an earthen vessel. Don't run. Don't leave Ephesus just yet, because an effective

door is open. Well, we go on from there to continue talking about his travel plans. Notice what he says, now if Timothy comes, see that he is with you without cause to be afraid, for he is doing the Lord's work as I also am. So let no one despise him, but send him on his way in peace so that he may come to me, for I expect him with the brethren. Now, Timothy is going to end up coming there, and he's going to do a great work in Corinth, but

Timothy's such an interesting guy. He says, make sure that he's with you without fear. Why does he say that? Because Timothy is what we would refer to as a timid sort of individual. As a matter of fact, I feel like if there was anybody in the Bible that I would relate to the most, it's Timothy, because Timothy was a worrier. Timothy was a nervous guy. That's why he had

those stomach issues. Paul had to say, it's okay to drink a little wine for your stomach, because he probably dealt with ulcers of some sort because of the worry that he constantly gave into. And he was a little bit scared to make bold statements, which is why Paul had to say, don't let anyone despise your youth, but be an example in godliness, in godly character, because it was really hard for him. And I can understand that. There's a reason why I didn't want to go online for a really long time, because I

knew the criticism that could potentially come from it. I know the potentials that go with making your voice heard beyond just simply the small congregation that you have that sits inside of you. I know the potentials that go with making your voice heard beyond just simply the small congregation that you have that sits inside of you. sanctuary on a Sunday morning. And I get nervous about that sort of thing, but the Lord keeps

telling me the same thing. Stop. Start doing what you're called to do and let me take care of the rest. He says, hey, make sure that you take care of this guy. He says, make sure that he's not with you in fear. As a matter of fact, he says, let no one despise him. That phrase despise him means treat him of no account. In other words, don't be disrespectful of Timothy. Why do you say that?

Because the people of Corinth were a little bit disrespectful. They were kind of mean, right? They questioned Paul's credentials all the time. He had to continually defend who he was as an apostle. How much more will they do so with Timothy, who has a hard time standing his own against the critics? He says, make sure he's with you without fear and that you treat him

with a great deal of respect. And then he goes on to talk about Apollos. He says, but concerning Apollos, our brother, I encouraged him greatly to come to you with the brethren. And it was not at all his desire to come now, but he'll come when he has opportunity. Now, that's a loaded verse. And if you haven't studied the first portion of 1 Corinthians, you wouldn't understand why that is as powerful of a verse as it is. Because if you remember,

what was the division that took place? Well, some said, I am of Paul. Some said, I am of Apollos, right? In other words, there was a faction of people who followed him. Now, if I'm Paul and I start the church of Corinth and I want to make sure people aren't turning against me, I don't send the other guy there. But he does. You know why? Because Paul didn't care who was doing the work of the ministry as

long as the work of the ministry was taking place. He didn't care who was getting the credit as long as Jesus was glorified. He didn't care who did the work of the ministry as long as the work of the ministry was happening. You see, we have to make sure that we don't care who it is that's giving out the gospel of Jesus Christ, but that the gospel of Jesus Christ is going out. Because

sometimes there's people that you may disagree with some of the things that they say, but they're truth of the word of God. And you go, but I disagree with them on these other things. But do you agree with them on the main things? Because sometimes it doesn't matter whether or not they're part of Calvary Chapel. Sometimes it doesn't matter whether or not they're a part of the

denomination you are most fond of. What matters is that they're giving out the truth of the word of God. And so he says, he can't come right now. Doesn't feel like he's supposed to, but he's going to be coming. Now, as he closes up these travel plans, we're going to camp out for a little while on this. Last set of verses, because now he's going to give us the exhortations, the greetings, and the

benediction. And so he gives us five exhortations. Let's look at verse 13. He says, be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men and be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. Now I urge you, brethren, you know, the household of Stephanas, that they were the first fruits of the vine. And that they have devoted themselves for the ministry of the saints, that you also be

in subjection to such men and to everyone who helps in the work and labors. I rejoice over the coming of Stephanas. I really screwed this name up for service. Fortunatus, there it is, and Achaicus, because they have supplied what was lacking on your part. For they have refreshed my spirit in yours. Therefore, acknowledge such men. Amen. Five exhortations he gives to us here. Number one, be on the alert. Be on the alert.

Literally, it means to keep a watchful eye ever open. I've simplified it to two words, be ready. We need to be ready as believers in Jesus Christ, ready for whatever's going to be coming, ready for whatever's going to be happening. We need to be ready for what's going to come down as far as potential persecution of the church and silencing of the church over the next few years.

We need to be ready for false doctrine within the church to continue to rise because I do think that there's going to continue to be more and more false teachers who will continue to arise and try to lead others astray because that always goes hand in hand with persecution. There will be an even more emphasis on a seeker-friendly, easy, social gospel that will continue to go out that will completely eliminate the truth of Jesus Christ. We need to be on the alert for that. We need to be ready for that, but we also need to be ready for the second coming of Jesus because I think it could be at any point in time.

I think it could be any time. It could be tomorrow. It could be a hundred years from now, but I think that we still need to be ready. Jesus, when his disciples came to him in Matthew chapter 24 and said, what will be the signs of the end of the age and the sign of your coming? He answers those questions and he closes with this, be ready because you do not know the day

or the hour. We don't know, and so we need to be ready. Peter, in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 13, says you need to prepare your minds for action. Same idea, be ready. So what does it mean for us to be on the alert? What does it mean for us to be ready? Well, I think it's three things. Number one, you need to keep your heart right with the Lord. Your heart needs to continually be right with the

Lord. Now, if you're here this morning or if you're watching online and you've never received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, that's the first way to be right with the Lord. That's the first way to make sure that your heart is right with the Lord, because if you have never come to Jesus in your life, that's the first way to be right with the Lord. Number two, you need to keep your heart right with the Lord. That's the first way to be right with the Lord. That's the first way to be

right with the Lord. Because it says that the wages of sin is death. And until God begins to convict you of that sin, you will continue to say, I am okay. I have no problem. And you will bask in your self-righteousness. But I pray that if that's you, that God will convict you of your own sin and that you will come to him and you will say, I am a sinner who is lost and who needs a

Savior. And that's all that it takes. Lord, I'm a sinner. Please be my Savior. And if you do that, he will come into your heart and he will make you brand new. And so this first aspect of being right with the Lord is that you need to get your heart right with the Lord. You need to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. But then there's a message for those of us that are

believers. And that's that our hearts need to stay right with the Lord. We're told in the book of Hebrews chapter 12, that we are to lay aside the weight and the sin, which so easily ensnares us. You see, there's two different words that are used there. The weight is simply the cares of this world. The things that may not necessarily be sinful, but when they pull us away from Christ,

they are an issue in our lives. And there are things that pull us away from Christ. There are things like entertainment, materialism, family sometimes that are not necessarily evil in and of themselves. But when they encumber our relationship with the Lord, they become a problem. When they distract us from seeking the Lord, they become a problem. And we need to lay

those things aside. Those things need to be confessed to the Lord. Lord, this is my distraction. This is my issue in life, and I need to give it to you. But not only that, we are to lay aside the sin. And you know as well as I do that just because you're a believer in Jesus Christ doesn't mean that you can't be someone who is given to sin. You can't be someone

who carries an area of sin in your life that you're unwilling to let go of. A life-dominating sin that you're unwilling to repent of. And my friends, if we're going to be ready, then you'd better get rid of the sin. You'd better confess your struggles to the Lord. You'd better confess your sin to the Lord and allow him to be able to remove it. Because I can't be fully focused on Jesus if I'm also focused on all of these other things.

He goes on from there in the book of Hebrews chapter 12 to say, let us look unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. And the idea of looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Which means we take our eyes off of everything else. You see, I have this beautiful ability to not be able to multitask. I'm a one-track-minded human being, right? I don't understand people

that can multitask because it makes no sense to me. I'm doing something and I'm doing it 100%. I am either driving or I'm looking at deer, right? I can't do both at the same time. That's why my wife yells at me a lot, right? That's why they put those strips on the side of the road. That's why you can drive by Braille sometimes. I'll start to drift off and be like,

and she's like, Ryan, I'm like, that's why those are there. Okay, don't worry about me. Don't you worry about it, right? And while that's bad while driving, that's the way we're supposed to be in our walk with Jesus Christ. Because unfortunately in our walk with Jesus Christ, too many of us have gotten too good at multitasking. Too many of us have gotten too good at trying to

keep one eye on the Lord and one eye on the world. And he says, be alert. Keep your heart right with the Lord. Number two, he says, be in the word. If we are going to be alert, we need to be in the word. I will beat this drum until the day that I die. And hopefully after the day that I die, somebody comes along and picks up the mantle and starts beating the drum for me. Because you've got to know what the word of God

has to say. I had a conversation with somebody right before first service and they said, you will not believe it. I read Psalm 24 this morning and it was like reading the newspaper because it was so calling out everything that's going on in the world. And quite frankly, I battled between, I said, I read the same one because I was in a toss up between Psalm 24 and Psalm 54 for our unison reading. Psalm 54 was a little shorter, so I went with it. But they both are the same. Like

adversaries are all around us. We've got to cry out to Jesus for help, right? And the more that you're in the word, the more that you are aware of false doctrine, the more that you are aware of the things going on in the world and keeping your heart focused on the plan of God. But you know what else being in the word does for you? Being in the word gets you in contact, not just in the word, but in the plan of God. And that's what it does for you.

Not just with the knowledge of the word, but with the knowledge of God. You see, I hope that every time you approach the word of God, you don't just approach a textbook that you can learn things from. I hope that you approach a letter written to you by a living God who wants to meet with you. When you come to church on Sunday morning, I don't want you just to come to a church service. I want you to come to a meeting with God. This isn't just a meeting with other

believers. My hope and my prayer every Sunday is that this is a meeting with Jesus. That Jesus is here because he is. And that Jesus is here because he is. And that Jesus is here because he is. And you're meeting with him, and you're communing with him, and you find your heart lined up with him. That's what being in the word does for you. Because he wants to speak to you. All you need to

do is listen. Not only do we need to have our hearts right with the Lord to be alert, not only do we need to be in the word to be alert, but we need to pray to be alert. Matter of fact, Jesus told us to watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. I'm continually told over and over over these past few weeks of the importance of being in prayer. Not just simply throwing up

prayers into the air, not just simply doing my duty, but diligent, heartfelt, desperate prayer unto the Lord. Crying out to Jesus for help. Crying out to him with the things that are going on in my life and the things that are going on in other people's lives. You see, my fear is that we've become so cold in our religion that prayer has become cold as well.

That's not what God wants. God wants our hearts to be alive with prayer. You see, prayer is what ushers in the work of the Spirit. Because prayer aligns our hearts with what the Holy Spirit is doing. And that's where our hearts need to be as believers in Jesus Christ. We need to be alert. The second thing that he tells us to do is he tells us to stand firm in the faith. Stand firm

in the faith. I love this idea because it gives the idea of somebody that has a strong stance that cannot be moved. Somebody that is not going to be moved easily because they're standing so strong in what they believe or standing so strong in what they're fighting against. And he says, stand firm in the faith. So what does that mean? Well, I stole these from David Guzik. Three main areas where we need to stand firm, where scripture tells us to stand

firm. The first one is in our liberty. We stand firm in the liberty that we have in Jesus Christ. What does that mean? It means I don't live my life constantly fearful that I'm not going to be able to do what I want to do. I'm not going to be able to do what I want to do. I'm not good enough because of what Jesus has done for me. I live my life in the freedom of the

knowledge that I am accepted and the beloved because of the work of Jesus Christ. And I don't live in this constant fear that I'm not good enough. Now, I want us to all understand something. We're not enough. There's a big movement right now. You're already enough. That is absolutely not true. You are not already enough. Apart from Christ, you are a sinner destined to hell. That's just all that there is to it. Your righteousness will

never be enough. Your good works will never be enough. Your good looks will never be enough. None of those things will ever be enough because you are not enough. But in Christ, He is enough. He blesses me with His righteousness. He blesses me with His goodness. And He makes me who He wants for me to be. You see, apart from Christ, I'm nothing. But in Christ, I have everything because

He is my sufficiency. And so, my friends, am I enough? No. But I have enough because I have Jesus Christ. And because His righteousness is overflowing me, I have the freedom to say, I don't have to worry any longer about whether or not I'm accepted because His blood guarantees that I am. And I can stand strong in that liberty. Number two, we stand firm in our unity as the body of Christ. This one's being

questioned, called into question a lot right now in our culture. There's not a lot of people who are especially in the body of Christ. Matter of fact, I have seen the body of Christ so fractured this year over politics. And I have seen so much ugly come out over politics. And we need to get back to what truly unifies us. And that is the true message of the gospel. That is the truth of

who Jesus Christ is. We stand firm in our unity. But not only that, the third thing that we stand firm in is the apostles' doctrine. The third thing that we stand firm in is the apostles' doctrine. And I will then simplify that to this, the truth of the word of God. This is going to continue more and more to get called into question about the truth of the word of God. We saw it happen

in Congress the other day, right? When this congressman stands up, who should know better, by the way, this congressman stands up and prays and closes with a man and a woman. Now, not only is it ridiculous that he did that from a theological and educational standpoint, but it's ridiculous. It's ridiculous that he would do that from a pastoral perspective. And I want to tell you why.

I got criticized because I criticized him. Because how dare I criticize somebody who maybe just needs to be restored. But you need to understand something. Somebody said, well, are we supposed to allow a congressman to teach us the truth of the word of God? No. And if reverend wasn't in front of his name, I wouldn't give him nearly as hard of a time. But as a reverend, he should know

better. As a congressman, he should do his due diligence if he's going to get up and give a prayer and understand verbiage that he's going to use. And I want to tell you, I'm not going to use that the word amen is a gender neutral word that simply means so be it. It has nothing to do with men and women. So from a congressional perspective, I say it was ridiculous for him

to do that. Again, if I get shut down, you go to calvarychapelarccity.org, okay? But not only that, as a pastor, he should have known better. As a pastor, you should be able to stand. If you are going to bear the name of reverend, someone who is representing God, you had darn better do well properly. You had darn better do it in the way that God intends for it to

be done. Otherwise, you are misrepresenting God. And we all know what happened to Moses when he misrepresented God. But you know what my biggest problem with the whole thing was? My biggest problem with the whole thing is that you know why he did that? Because shortly before that, Congress decided that they will no longer recognize the fact that there's two genders.

They will no longer recognize that there's a man and a woman. All bills, now, will be written in a genderless format. So as a man who is supposed to represent God, he has now taken away what God created because we are told not only in the Old Testament, but by Jesus, that God created them male and female. And this is the place that our country is right now. This is why an effective door, this is why an effective door for the

gospel is open. Because people are tired of what they're seeing. Non-Christian people all over, this is the place we're going. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard anybody do in my entire life. And it's not going to stop there. The word will continue to be twisted. The word will continue to be twisted to prove people's points. I read this thing, and it was a meme, and it would have

been funny if it wasn't so sad. Somebody had a word of the, or a verse of the day calendar. And you know what the verse of the day was? Bow down and worship me, and I will give you all the kingdoms of the earth. And somebody wrote, great promise. If it wasn't made by Satan. It would be hilarious if it wasn't like people are probably claiming things like that because they don't know the truth of the word of God. We must stand firm

on what the word of God has to say. So we're to be on the alert. We're to stand firm. And then he says, be strong and act like men. Be strong and act like men. I coupled those two together because they seem to go together really well. And I asked myself, what does he mean when he says that? And one phrase came to my mind. Do the hard thing. Right? That's what we as young men were taught

growing up. That's what my father taught me. As a man, if you're going to be a man, it means sometimes you're going to have to do the hard thing. Sometimes you're going to have to go to work when you don't feel like going to work. Sometimes you're going to have to be the one that takes care of your family when you don't feel like being the one that takes care of your

family. You've got to stick around even when sometimes the world would tell you don't stick around anymore. You have to do the hard thing. And my friends, right now, there's a lot of hard things we're going to have to do. And it's time for us to stand up and do the difficult thing that we're faced with. He gives them that exhortation. And then the fourth exhortation he gives is this. Let all that you do be done in love.

Let all that you do be done in love. There's a lot to get frustrated. About. And there's a lot to get angry about. And there's a lot to get fired up about. I've gotten pretty fired up this morning, but I've had two weeks to think about this. My wife is so tired of hearing me right now. I'm so glad I get other people to talk to.

But if at any point in time, I begin to present the truth that God has given to me without wanting to love someone, then I've absolutely failed on the truth of the word of God. I truthfully hope that somebody pulled that congressman aside, a fellow pastor, and said, what are you doing? You've missed it. You've missed the truth. Just like I would hope that if I ever did something like that, one of you or somebody on my board would pull me aside and

say, what are you doing? What's going on right now? And would do so out of love. There's been so much hate that has gone on in our world and so much quote unquote efforts towards love that have nothing to do with love. They have everything to do with self-indulgence that it's time we as the church began to show what love truly looks like. Let all that you do be done in love. And then he gives one last

exhortation that has to do with submitting to godly authority. Notice what it says. Now, I urge you, brethren, you know, the household of Stephanas, that they were the first fruits of a K.I. and that they have devoted themselves for the ministry of the saints. He talks about three fellows, Stephanas, and later he mentions Fortunatus. Whew, did that one twice in a row.

Praise God. And Achaicus, these were three men. Stephanas and his entire household were the first ones that got saved in that area. And it was probably at his house that they were meeting and having church because they wouldn't have had a church building like you and I think of today. So they would have had to meet in somebody's house. Those three guys, though, would have taken

the letter to Paul about not only the issues taking place in the church in Corinth, but the questions of the church in Corinth. And he says, these are godly men who have devoted themselves to ministry and need to be in subjection to them. It's kind of interesting when you look at the verse 15, it says, you know the household of Stephanas, that they were the first fruits of a K.I. and that they devoted themselves for ministry to the saints. I love the way that

the King James Bible translates that because it literally says they have addicted themselves to the ministry. Isn't that great? That's what we as ministers actually are. We're actually addicted to the ministry. I was watching a pastoral question and answer thing from a pastor's conference, probably from back in the 90s, and Gail Irwin was on there. And if you've never

watched or read anything by Gail Irwin, I want to highly recommend that you do so. There's a book in my office right now, and I have several copies of it. It's called The Jesus Style. If anybody wants to borrow one of those, I'm happy to let you have it because it's a great book about the servant life of Jesus. But somebody asked him about pastors working to support themselves, and he goes,

well, what you have to understand is I'm doing the best Gail I can right now. My nose is way too long. Well, what you have to understand is we as pastors have to sometimes work to support our habit, the habit of ministry that we've become so addicted to. And I remember listening to that and me thinking that's exactly what we do. Sometimes I got to work to support my habit because this

is the only thing that I'm made to do. I used to tell people I was put on this earth to do two things, mow lawns and teach God's word. And now I realize I've been put on this earth to do one thing, teach God's word. It's the only thing I can do. Not only is it the only thing I can do, like skill-wise, but it's the only thing I can do. Because as I sat there over the past two weeks,

I wanted so badly just to keep giving out God's word. That's why I made Facebook videos, because I was just like, well, I got to tell somebody. And my wife's tired of hearing it. I'll just put it on the Facebook machine. Maybe other people can hear it and be blessed by it. Because that's all I can do. Because I'm devoted to it, because I'm addicted to it. And I'm addicted to it because I know the power that it has.

God's word has. I know that it's the only thing that has the power to set us free. I know it's the only thing that has the power to bring us hope. I know it's the only thing that truly has the power to bring healing. I know it's the only thing that truly has the power to change the hearts and the lives of people. That's what the word of God is able to do. And so all I can do is just keep giving it out. And if they decide that I can't be the pastor

here any longer because the church is shut down, because that's what happened, then I'm going to be the pastor here any longer. And if they decide that I can't be the pastor here I'll go to all your houses and I'll tell you everything I can learn from the Bible because I'm so confident that it's the only thing that we need. So he says, they've devoted themselves to the ministry and you should be in subjection to them. You should respect their devoted ministry.

Now, he goes on from there to issue his greetings as Paul often does at the end of his letters. He says in verse 19, the churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you heartily in the Lord with the church that's in their house and all the brethren greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. He says, all these folks that I've been around, everyone I talk to about you guys, they say,

hey, make sure they know how much we love them. Send them a quick shout out for us. And then he says, and greet one another with a holy kiss. Now, this one always gets a lot of people, especially if you've never read scripture before. You're like, no, wait a second. First of all, it's COVID time. There's nothing holy about a kiss right now, right? Like that's just, that's non-COVID compliant.

Plus in the 21st century church, especially in Western culture, not really what we do. I remember I went to Bible college with a guy named Pete. He was Egyptian. We called him Pete the Egyptian because we were super creative like that. Every now and then that dude gave you a holy kiss and you'd be like, whoa, brother, Western culture, man, different here. Eventually the process stopped in the church too

because they were being accused of immoral things. But the idea behind his statement is very true. Make sure that you express love towards each other in the way that you greet each other. Make sure that you express love towards each other in the way that you greet each other, right? Like as a youth pastor, I developed this thing, probably started when I was in college ministry

because I didn't ever want there to be a question about how I treated the young ladies that I worked around all the time, especially as I've gotten older. So I started doing what I called the holy high five because as much as I'd love to just put an arm around them, I knew that that could oftentimes not look good. And so in the way that I would show them all love is that I would see them and I would give them a high five. That's why you may notice some of the kids that grew up in my youth group around here, even though I'm not a Christian, even though I'm the senior pastor and they're growing up with their own kids now, they'll still high five me.

That's why. It's because I started doing that a long time ago. I've already instructed my wife that when I die, she's told me we have to die at the same time, but should I die before her, she's to cryogenically freeze my body in the high five position with a smile on my face and station me right next to the front door so that anytime somebody comes in and leaves, they can high five me on their way in and on the way out because that's my own holy kiss. That's my greeting.

I love it because everybody knew that of me. Well, so one of my youth group kids took this really far. We used to go to Young Christians Weekend at Silver Dollar City. And again, this was, ah, I'd still do it today. We decided who can high five the most people. This dude high fived everybody in the park. And there's this point in time where you stand in this really long line

to get in for the rally, the concert that you get to go to. And so there's just this huge line of people. And so as he's coming to meet us, he says, high five, everybody in the line put a hand up and he says, the whole way down, I'm like sanitize those hands, son. But that is awesome. Holy high fives all over the place. But it was cool because they knew that that was my greeting of love to them.

And he says, that's what you need to do. Greet each other with a holy kiss. Now Paul's going to write his own personal greeting. He says, the greeting is in my own hand, Paul. If anyone doesn't love the Lord, he is to be accursed. Maranatha, the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen. Now, according to tradition, Paul had,

he had a vision problem and had a hard time writing. So he wouldn't write his own letters. He dictated them to a secretary who would write them out for him. Now, I think that's probably part of the reason why I also think Paul was an incredibly geeked up sort of guy and he couldn't sit down long enough to write a letter. So he had to walk around and dictate it to somebody.

And every now and then they'd be like, hold on. Okay, now go. I just, that's the way I think he wrote his letters. I could be wrong, but he always signs them and everybody knew his signature because he would just write Paul. This is authentically, you know, I'm Paul and I approve this message. And so that's what he's doing here. But then he gives his own greeting.

He says, if anyone doesn't love the Lord, he's to be a curse. That dude was so hardcore. He would never make it in the church today. Right? You're not supposed to say things like that. If anyone doesn't love the Lord, let him be accursed. And then he uses a word that many of us haven't heard before. And that word is Maranatha. If you don't know what the word means,

it doesn't mean that much to you. So let me tell you what it means. The word means, oh Lord, come. Or come quickly, Lord. And as Paul is writing this letter on this third missionary journey, he says, come quickly, Lord. You know why? I think there's a couple reasons why. Number one, Paul had been through so much in his walk with the Lord up to this point in time.

He had endured so much pain. He had endured so much heartache. And he could see the handwriting on the wall of what was coming for the church. Because I think he could begin to see that the Roman Empire was going to be very opposed to the things of the church. And he didn't want to have to see the church go through what it was going to have to go through. And so he said,

oh Lord, come. I think the other reason he said it is because he had devoted his life to serving God. The God that he loved so deeply because he had been saved so greatly. And he couldn't wait to see him. He couldn't wait to see his Savior face to face. And so he said, Lord, come quickly. And I don't know about you, as much as there's an effective door open

for ministry right now, I find my heart just going, Maranatha. Lord, come quickly. Come quickly before my kids have to go through the things I'm afraid they're going to have to go through. Come quickly before the church is going to have to go through the things I'm afraid it's going to have to go through. And come quickly because I can't wait to see you. And then he closes with two statements.

He says, may the grace of God be with you and may my love be with you. He says, may the grace of God be with you because the only way they can live out the things he's taught them in the book of 1 Corinthians is if the grace of God is at work in their lives. And he says, may my love be with you because he's had to be a little bit harsh with them and he wants to couple that by doing all things in love. And he closes out simply by saying, amen.

Let it be done. So be it. And that closes out the book of 1 Corinthians. But I want to tell you something. The end, only is the beginning because at the end of the book, that's where the obedience begins. Can you imagine? This probably would have all been read in one setting, right? As it came to the church in Corinth, as it came, as this letter arrived and they unrolled the scrolls,

they would have read this whole thing. Can you imagine a few of the people sitting in there going, oh dude, he's talking to me, right? Like sometimes y'all feel that way, but he was actually talking to them because some of them were actually doing the things he said. And at the end he says, amen. And they're like, good book. Listen, that book does you no good

unless you obey it. What does James tell us? He says, don't just be a hearer of the word, be a doer of the word. Those who are hearers of the word, it's like a man that looks in a mirror and walks away and completely forgets what he looks like. You're just deceiving yourself. And so while we finish the book, it's now time for the obedience. Amen? Let's all stand.

I pray that as God has not only been working on your heart today, but that as God has been working on your heart through this entire series on the book of 1 Corinthians, that God's word will continue to do what it has set out to do in your heart. That as you take this time of introspection while dad closes out with this last song, that you will take time to allow God to show you where your heart needs to be made right with the Lord. That you will allow God to show you where you have that escapist mentality instead of saying, even though there's difficulty, there's an effective door and I want you to do that. Amen?

Amen. Amen. I want to take that door. I want to follow through that. Those areas where you need to stop waffling and stand firm. So allow God to search your heart and allow him to do what he needs to with his word. Father, we come before you and thank you so much for who you are and just pray that you would continue to strengthen us in you. Lord, may we be blessed

by the things that we've heard from your word today. And Lord, may we draw closer to you as we have been convicted and comforted and instructed through your Holy Spirit may we take these words and live them out. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. Sing along with me as we do this song.

Your sin Jesus is called Have you come to an end of yourself for a drink from the well Jesus is called There's arms all this is called Bring your sorrows and trade them for joy Ashes a new life is born Jesus is calling for loving us. You're up there in glory. We've accepted you as our Savior. If you're any here that haven't, just simply ask Jesus to come into your heart to forgive your sins, to make you the person he would have you be.

Just believe. Rely on him. Cling to him. Trust in him. And if you're making that choice the first time, please tell somebody he loves you and keep coming and getting in God's word. Amen. God bless y'all. Have a good week.