You Have a Part to Play in the Church | 1 Timothy 5:1–16

In this sermon, Pastor Caleb explains why the church is called to be different from the world, how Christians should care for the vulnerable, why family responsibilities matter, and how every believer has a part to play in the church family.

At River Oak Church, we are a welcoming family of imperfect people who share a passion for God, a passion for others, and a passion for graciously sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.  We enjoy an informal environment and Christ-exalting modern worship, and we are committed to following the truth of God’s Word.  We welcome you to come as you are, from wherever you’ve been, and join us!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, good morning. Hey, my name's Caleb. I am one of the pastors here. You may have heard, you may have heard uh that I am taking a sabbatical. If you're like, man, I don't know what that Christian language is. A sabbatical is when a generally when a pastor uh goes, uh takes a time away from uh pastoral care ministry uh to spend some time resting, refocusing uh for the sake of re-entering um back into ministry to continue to do it better uh maybe than what would have happened without a sabbatical. And so it wasn't that uh the elders of the church looked at me and were like, man, Caleb looks beat down. He needs a sabbatical. I mean, he probably they probably did say that, but that's not why they offered the sabbatical. Uh rather, they said we want to build this into the rhythm of how we care for leaders in our church by building in sabbaticals. And so they said, Well, we're gonna offer Caleb the invitation to take a sabbatical if you'd like. And I said, sure, I'll I'll take it. Um, and so that starts next week, and we'll be through the summer. So if you would be praying for me and my family as we seek to rest well, but also to spend some time uh focusing on uh who Jesus is and his plan for us um and how we work through that, uh, and that we would come back better and and able to do ministry even more so. And you'll still see me around, just so you know, because this is my church family. Uh, this is where I'll worship, and so we'll still be worshiping here and be around. Uh just maybe not up here as much. Cool. Hey, also, happy Father's Day. Congratulations. Yeah, all right, cool. Y'all are excited. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great. Hey, fathers, just so you know, just so you know, uh, we did not do a photo booth. Yeah, you're welcome. Uh you're welcome. We all know what you're thinking. You're like, don't tell my wife, I hate those things. I got it. Uh, but we did. If you walk out here, you hang a left, you're gonna see a wall. At the base of that wall is a table, and it is packed full of snacks. So go over there and get a snack. Get as many as you want. Kids, you're not a father, don't touch those snacks. Don't you dare touch them. You're gonna be like, I'm getting one from my dad. No, you're not. Well, you know. You can give a half a pack to your dad. Hey, um, this morning we're in 1 Timothy chapter 5. 1 Timothy chapter 5, verses 1 through 16. If you have your children in the room, we are so glad they are in the room with us, worshiping with us. Uh, man, the way that you worship, they will worship. The way that you pay attention and prioritize God's word, they will pay attention and prioritize God's word eventually. Yeah, key word. Like, why aren't they doing it? They're four. All right. Um this passage is interesting. Where we're at, this is an interesting passage. If you don't understand cultural context, you will miss it. Hierarchy was the norm in the Roman and Jewish culture. At the time that God's word was being written, the culture was built on a scale of hierarchy. That if you uh were thought to be more valuable, more important, you had more privilege. You had you had the ability to do more things. And if you thought, if you were thought to have less value, less privilege, you were able to do less things. And here's how this worked. Uh, particularly in the Hebrew Jewish culture, they had a temple, and at the temple was the place of worship. Uh, and and what would happen is in the temple they had courtyards outside the temple, and each courtyard uh would progressively get closer to the center of the temple, and the center of the temple is where the high priest would go to meet with God, where the presence of God, God chose to have his presence reside there with people. And to get into that center spot, you had to do a lot of uh religious sacramental uh practices, because if you stepped in there in any kind of unholy way, you would drop dead in the presence of a holy God. So only there were certain people that could go in there. However, there were some priests that could get pretty close to there, but if you were not a priest, you had to stay outside of there. And if you were a Jewish man, you could get pretty close to where the priests were going. But if you were a Jewish woman, you had to stay outside of that area. And if you were a non-Jewish person, well, you couldn't get as close as the Jewish person could get. And if you were a child, you couldn't get as close as an adult could get. And everything was built on the scale, depending on who you were, uh how you were raised, how you were born. That depended on how important you were, how close you could get to the presence of God. There was a lot of having to kind of earn your way into these important special places. And then Jesus came. And what Jesus came to do and what he did was he disrupted all of that. That Jesus came and he would boldly proclaim, I have come to save all who would lean on me and call me Lord and Savior, who would find new life in me. And through me, all are now heirs and co-heirs with Christ. It was this uh this massive upgrade for all people, not just men, but men and women. All were thought to be the firstborn son in that position in the family of God. He says, Man, this is this amazing thing that you get to have a relationship with God as if you were his firstborn child. That you're an heir and a co-heir with Christ. You can read about that in Romans 8, 15 through 17. And Jesus would proclaim that despite the rest of the world, the church was going to be different. That it would not operate in the way that it had traditionally operated. It would not operate according to the Jewish Hebrew culture. And in fact, the church still is different. That in all religions, Christianity is the only religion in which men and women are viewed as equal. I don't know if you know that. We're the only place where you can both, we can both sit in this room together and worship the Lord together. And though we have different roles in the church, value before God, value in the church are equal. With this wild new truth, this pendulum would begin to swing from uh ultra hyper-regulation to this unruliness. Like, oh, all the all the regulations are gone, all the rules are gone, all the all the stipulations are gone. Man, we can kind of just do what we want. And so the church was having this tendency to go from this hyper-regulation to this unruliness and how they began to handle church. And so as you read, like 1 Corinthians, as you read 1 Timothy, what Paul is writing and doing is saying, hey, we have a freedom in Christ, but there should be an order to the church. And so as he writes 1 Timothy, he says, here are some ground rules for God's house on how the church should be ordered and move forward. And now you should understand it is largely descriptive, not always perscriptive. But there are some truths and some things we should take from here. And what he writes in 1 Timothy chapter 5 is he writes about how we operate as a family. And you get this picture in 1 and 2. He says, Don't rebuke an older man. Let me hear that. Don't rebuke an older man. Happy Father's Day. There it is. You couldn't do things, so here's why he's saying this. You couldn't do things in the temple until you were 40 years old. And like I explained last week, if you're over 40, according to Jewish religion, you have a very, you have a lot of wisdom. You're worthy of respect. However, now these young men had this new freedom in Christ. And they were able to lead and do things within the church that they were not able to do things in the Jewish temple, even though they were not yet 40 years old. And so he's telling them, hey, when you create correct an older man, you should do it with respect in a way that encourages him. Ephesians 4 29 actually says, Have no foul language come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear. He says, Don't uh rebuke them, but rather exhort him as a father. That word exhort means encourage. The word encourage means to put courage in. He says, in the way in which you talk to older men, you should speak in a way that gives them courage. And then you should do the same for your younger men as brothers, for your older women as mothers, and for your younger women as sisters with all purity. He says, and don't do it with any kind of other thought of what you may gain, but rather in purity as mothers and fathers, as brothers and sisters, you should encourage them, that you should speak truth over them, not rebuking, not belittling, but helping them walk with Jesus well. The picture that God's word paints of the church is that of a family. He says, actually, the way that this is ordered well is a lot like a family. That we should love one another as a family, that we should play a part in the church as a family, that we should have a responsibility and own our part in the church as if it is our family. We should live sacrificially as we do in a family. We should live in unity as we do in a family. That many in today's culture, especially walking to churches about this size, and they come with the thought of this isn't a family, this is a Chick-fil-A. Yeah, and I'm gonna walk in, and they're gonna say, What can I get you? And I'm gonna say, I want a side of God's word, some good worship that's good for me, and they're gonna say, My pleasure. Come back again next week. This isn't a Chick-fil-A. Chick-fil-A's closed on Sunday. This is a church, this is a family. He says, No, you have a part to play in this family. That you're a mother, a brother, a sister, a father in this family. That you should act like that in the same way you contribute to your own family. You should be looking to contribute to this family. And with that in mind, our church being a family is a priority to us as well. That we want River Oak to be a family as it's reflected in God's Word. It's a reason you see us put a priority on membership. Membership allows us to be a family with one another. It allows us to support each other well, to encourage each other well. It allows us to walk in unity together. It's why we put such a big emphasis on our care ministry. Because we want to care for our family, for those who have the habits and hurts and hangups. Man, we we want to we want to love them well. It's the reason in which we we have such an emphasis on our groups that you can come into this place and be like, man, Sunday is awesome. I'm a Sunday goer. But if you are not walking with people in intentional, deep relationship, you're missing the sweetness of the church family. Man, when you get to walk with people as they're learning to walk with Jesus and they hold you accountable and they encourage you and you hold them accountable, you're praying for one another. There's a sweetness to that. There's a sweetness to the seven, five, seven groups that are happening. There's a sweetness to our life groups and our other groups that are happening. Like, this is why we put an emphasis because we want to walk as a family. He says, Paul goes on to tell Timothy, he says, but there's a specific part of our family in which we should really learn to love well. And he begins to talk about widows. Now you should understand something about the widows of this day. Widows of this day were the some of the least valued people in society. The way that you got value in society in this culture was the way that you could contribute to society. If you could contribute to society, then you were valuable. If you could not contribute, then you were not valuable. So men had the opportunity to work, had the opportunity to vote, had the opportunity to make big decisions and own property and houses and land. They could contribute to society in that culture. And women who could have kids, especially sons, could contribute to society because they would raise up sons who would then go on to lead as the next generation for the community. But a woman who no longer had a husband to support and no longer was bearing children, she became a burden to society. She became the person that the Jewish culture would kick to the curb, that they would be lucky to get the remnants, that the workers would go through the field and they would harvest the crops and whatever was left on the ground, if they had permission from the owner, they could go through and try to pick up the scraps. The church will be different. The church will care for the least of these. Over and over and over again in God's Word, what you see is God has a special burden and heart for those who are the least of these in this world. That he has a deep love for them. And so if you're in this room and you're like, I feel like I am the least of these in this culture, you should know God loves you deeply. He has a deep concern for you. Would you run to him as father and find that he is the good father? And so he tells them, here's what we do with the widows in our culture. Here's what we do with the people who feel like the least of these. He says, verse 3, support widows who are genuinely in need. This means in the church there are widows who are genuinely in need, and then there are those who don't, and he begins to break it down. He says, But if any widow has children and grandchildren, let them learn to practice godliness toward their own family first and to repay their parents, for this pleases God. I've watched my parents care for their parents. I've watched my grandfather care for my great-grandmother. I've watched my uncle care for my grandmother and his great-grandmother. I've watched this over and over again, and what is true about it is what is true, truly being said in God's word, that this is what is pleasing to God. That this is a sacrifice, that the way you love and you bear with your parents is pleasing to God. In fact, if you're honest about it, it's generally their care for you over the past how many every years that enables you to care for them. And it's the ministry that God has given you. So don't grieve that ministry, but recognize God is using you in it and calling you to it when it comes time to care for your parents. Embrace the opportunity because it is pleasing to the Lord. You want to be pleasing to the Lord. Care for your parents well. Love your parents well. In the same way they did when you were in need. Even if they didn't when you were in need. You get to be the hands and feet of Jesus' name. He goes on, he says in verse 5, the widow who is truly in need and left all alone has put her hope in God and continues night and day in her petition and prayers. It says, The one who's truly in need is the one who's all alone and continues to pursue the Lord over and over again. What it means is that if you're a godly woman and you don't have anyone to take care of you, the church is your family. And we will take care of you, and you will help take care of the church, and we will create a new relationship. That this is who our church should be. Our church should be about taking care of the widows in our society, in our community. Now, for a widow today, especially Father's Day, can be particularly hard. It can be particularly hard because God's word says, and the two become one flesh in marriage. And that when you are married, you become one flesh, and that when one leaves, it is like losing a part of you. And I can only imagine how hard that is. I've walked with some people through those seasons of their life. And man, it can be so devastating because death is unnatural to us. God says, in the beginning, I made you and I created you that you would live. It is sin that brought death, and so death is not natural. And so it feels unnatural. And it can be so hard, but on the other side, what I've experienced is that these women who have walked through such extreme tragedy and still find satisfaction in Christ tend to be the spiritual powerhouses of the church. They tend to be the prayer warriors and the theologians and the master encouragers, and they are crucial to our church. The ones that really are in need. He says, though not all are like that, look at verse 6. And there's a reason I think Paul wrote this letter to Timothy and then let Timothy read it while Paul was at a distance. It's getting dangerous. He says, However, she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. Command this also, so that they will be above reproach. Imagine Timothy like read that, and then he's like, I don't think I'm gonna say that. And then the next line's like, Command this, Timothy. You better say it. He says, But for the widow who always wants more, who can never be satisfied, she can't be pleased, there is no life-giving quality coming out of her. Don't commit the same resources to her. She becomes a problem for the church. For the one who's gone through extreme loss and then still says, What can I get from me? What can I do for me? How do I make me better? What do I do? He says, Man, there are those, and and and there's no life-giving quality coming out of them. But then he says, he commanded it not to hate on people, but rather it says, preach this so that they will be above reproach, that they might live differently. Right? You always see Paul's heart in this. He's like, I'm not just calling people out to bring them to shame. Rather, I'm telling you, hey, pay attention to how you live. Don't don't be put in this category. Live above reproach. And then he has this kind of inserts verse 8 in the middle of this. He says, But if anyone does not provide for his own family, especially for his own household, he is denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. Here's what's being said. Men, we have a responsibility and it starts with our family. We have a responsibility, it starts with our family. It doesn't matter how many Bible studies you are in, it doesn't matter how much you've given to the church, it doesn't matter what others think about you, if you neglect your family in the meantime, he says you're worse than an unbeliever. What does that mean? Even an unbeliever can care for his family. Even someone who has no understanding of the eternal uh love of Jesus, of the compassion and the kindness of Jesus can still care well for his family. And if you know the love of Christ, experience the forgiveness of Christ, and yet do not love your family, he says you're worse than the person who doesn't even know about Jesus. Don't believe the lie that there's anything more important. And for moms and for wives and for children, I would just encourage you that a word of encouragement for your husband, for your father goes a long way. We should be people who are eager to encourage our fathers and our husbands and say thank you for the way that you have loved us well. And dads and husbands, you should understand that Paul writes a whole section in the Bible about what happens when you're not there. That your role is so crucial. He says, Man, widows, when you're missing that piece, the church has to bear the burden of what that man represented. It points to your importance, to your value as a husband and as a father. That your role is a privilege, it's an honor, it's an important position. Don't take it lightly. Don't like halfway buy into it. The Lord has given you this ministry. So thank you for taking it seriously. Thank you for being serious about your role as a father and a role as a husband. We want to honor you today in that. Now, Paul gets real specific in verse 9 with the qualifications of who should be taken care of by the church. He says, No widow is to be enrolled on the list for support unless. She is at least 60 years old. Now, in Hebrew Jewish culture, 60 was old. It's different today. Right, ladies? It's different. I'm not calling you old. The Bible did that, not me. No, it's different today. But he's saying those who are in the last later years of their life. I was thinking, I was talking to my grandfather. He was in the hospital this week, and I said, Man, how you doing? I said, Maybe they could get you right when you get out of here, but you know, get you back to like how you're feeling when you're like 88. He's like 92. And he said, Man, I just want to be back to how I was when I was 91. He said, Everything started falling apart when I turned 92. I was like, What? You're an animal. Old looks different today. He's saying, but no one should be enrolled unless she is in the later years of her life. And has been the wife of one husband. That doesn't mean not married, not married more than once, but rather faithful in her marriage. And is well known for good works. Whether you're a man or woman in here, if you want to be well known for good works, he says, hear the good works. Hear the good works you should be well known for. That is, if she has brought up children, raised them in the way of the Lord. She's shown hospitality, cared about other people, feeling welcomed and encouraged. She's washed the saints' feet. This is not some religious spiritual talk of like she prayed over them. No, when those dirty feet walked into their place, into their room, into their house, she got down on her knees, unstrapped the sandals, and washed their feet as a sign of respect. It's what you did when people came in your home. You would clean their feet, that they'd be able to be comfortable and relaxed. It says, This woman is one who didn't uh avoid that, but in humility said, No, I want to care for people deeply. I want to be a dirty foot washer. Helped the afflicted and devoted herself to every good work. It says the widow that should be enrolled is one who's at the later end years of her life, who has no plans to get remarried, and who is following Jesus well, and you just see it. It says, but, verse 11, refuse to enroll younger widows. For when they are drawn away from Christ by desire, they want to marry, and they will therefore receive condemnation because they have renounced their original pledge. See, these people were women who needed the church to commit to them, and then they would commit to the church. But they would then denounce that. It says at the same time, they also learn to be idle. They go from house to house. They are not only idle, but they are also gossips and busybodies saying the things they shouldn't say. Paul is saying, hey, there should be some standard that the church sets to determine who really needs help and who the church should take care of. And what would happen is these godly older ladies would enter into an agreement with the church that the church would begin to take care of them, and in turn, they would begin to serve the church. They would use their free time to say, yeah, I want to go and invest in the church. I want to be idle, I want to be ministering as the Lord has equipped me. And we have several of these ladies in our church, and they are crucial to our church. But there's evidently also some younger ones who had lost their husband, but their greatest priority was not Jesus, but some man. They wanted the church to provide, but then what they would do was everything they would do would just hurt the testimony of the church. And then they would find a man, they would follow the man, they would leave the church. And Paul says, hey, there are some we need to invest in, and then there are some we need to pray for and not invest in. He says, Know the difference, Timothy. And he says, and here's how you would know that there are some older women who who obviously are following Jesus, and then there's some younger women who are very self-indulgent, who are making it about themselves, who are not about Jesus, and they're gonna find a man, they're gonna run away, and all that investment was for nothing. He says, Therefore, therefore, because of this, as a result of this, I want younger women to marry, have children, manage their households, give the adversary no opportunity to accuse us. For some of us have already turned away to follow Satan. He says, So here's what you should do, younger women, if you have lost a husband. If you've gone through that tremendous tragedy, God's Word says, It is okay to find another husband. It is okay to ask God to bring a man into your life. It is okay to begin to pray for that person. He says, and you should, and you should have children, experience the blessing of children, whether they're birthed, whether they're adopted, whether they're fostered, whether they're the neighbor's kids that you're just gonna love really well, and kind of be like a uh a second mom to. That you should manage your house, and that you should not believe the lies, that the world uh has something more important for you, that the world has something better for you. What's being said is he says, hey, our most important relationships on this planet is with Jesus, then with our family, and whatever is left, you should devote to a career. He says, That's where you find the biggest blessing. That's where you find your purpose, that's where you should walk in. You should commit your time to Jesus, ladies. You should commit yourself to your family, and then you should look for a career. Don't believe the hype that women, you're only valuable by the career you have. It's just not true. The most important thing you could do is invest in the next generation, your children, the kids God has put around you, to love them well, that they may grow up to be men and women who love our community well. And now here's the thing: that same standard, that same uh relationship, it's the same for men and women. Men, the same is for you. That the most important relationship you could have is with Jesus. And the second is you should invest in your family. And the third, you should go to your career. That I've said this over and over again: your family does not need your paycheck as much as they need you. Your family does not need you and your paycheck as much as they need you walking with Jesus and out of your relationship with Jesus, ministering to your family, and then going to your job in that way. He says, that is what your family needs. And there are seasons that bring us away and seasons that bring us back. I know we have a military community, you can't control that. He says, but what is your priority? What is your priority? Is it Jesus family career or is it career family Jesus? That you should pay attention to that, that you should own that. And then secondly, Paul says, if any believing woman has widows in her family, let her help them. Let the church not be burdened so that it can help widows in genuine need. He says, hey, if there is widows in here and there is a and you're you're a family member and you know the widows in your family, he says, your responsibility is that you begin to care for them, love them, support them, take care of them. He says, don't burden the church with that. He says, let the church be burdened with those in genuine need, but also let the church be burdened with its main purpose. See, the main purpose of the church, the primary responsibility of the church is actually not to help people. Don't hate me yet. Let me finish this thought. It's actually not to help people. See Matthew 28. See Luke chapter 10. The primary responsibility of the church is to bring glory to God by living out the Great Commission and making disciples who make disciples. He says, Man, that is the mission of the church. It's the reason that if you come in lobby A on the fountainside, you look up on the wall, what you see in like 1,000 print is our mission to live every day captivated and changed by Jesus. It doesn't say our mission to help people. No, helping people without Jesus is useless. No, our mission is to live every day captivated and changed by Jesus, to lead people to live every day captivated and changed by Jesus. That is the mission of the church. And here's the result of discipled people. Here's the result of people who are disciples making disciples is that a discipled people changed by people, changed by Jesus, become a part of the mission of Jesus and do things to help people. That we become the church to the church when we become disciples who love God and want to see people love God. It's the reason that our church does things like rock builders, where we take a group of men and women and we go to communities in need and we go and build churches and help people. It's the reason we do things like serving spoons, where we give people food to eat, that maybe needing it or in a hard place. It's the reason we do things like vessels of hope, where we pray for people who are going through sickness and make them blankets and encourage them. And regeneration, where we walk people through their hurts and hangups and habits to find healing and wholeness in Christ and angel tree, where we buy gifts and love the least of these in our community, and do things like casts, where we invite the homeless into our church that they may see and sense the aroma of Christ. We do things like CPC and Operation Christmas Child and Young Lives and our roots ministry, that we do these things to serve as evidence that we are the church, but they are not the primary function of the church. Acts chapter 6, it says that the widows were getting up and saying, we're not cared for. And what did the apostles say? They put deacons in place to care for these ladies. Why? He says, so we don't have to use our time doing this, but rather the main purpose, which is equipping the saints for the work of ministry. He says, that's the main purpose. That we may equip more, but then we would be the church to the church. That the disciples in the church, those are walking with Jesus in the church, would go and help those in need. And so I'm going to close as we think about what this means, as we desire to be the church to one another, to our community, with two questions. The first question is this are you in need? Do you find yourself to be in a place that you're like, man, I really need some help in my life right now? I really need some help in the situations going on right now. If the answer is yes, I would I would ask you, are you a part of any group here at River Oak? Are you a part of our 757 groups, which are happening this summer? Or are you a part of our life groups, which will kick back off in the fall? Are you a part of any group? Our groups are the first line of care. And when we get a call generally in the office for someone who is in need, 98% of the time they're not in a group. And two the 2% where they are in a group, I mean the group has loved them well, and we're just joining the group in what they're doing. But it's not that only people outside of groups need help. It's that those in groups find the church in the group. And the church gets to be the church to the church. So I would encourage you if you're not in a group and you're in a place that needs help, there's actually a sticker on a chair in front of you somewhere. And at the end of the service, you can touch your phone to that. And it will bring you to a place where you can join a group, where you can connect, where you can find these ministries. It's like the easiest thing ever. If you're on the front row, you just toss your phone backwards. And then like let somebody do that for you. They'll toss it back, hopefully, if they're honest. The second question is this. Um, or the second thing, actually, the second resource is uh also every service at the end of the service, we have our spiritual response team standing right here. That they're here to pray with you and talk with you through the things you're going through, through the tough moments. They're here to pray with you through those things. And then at all of our welcome desk, we have people and they want to walk with you and help you. You can just stop and welcome them and say, I need some help, and they're there to help you. And then we have our care ministry, which meets most Sundays in this corner of the lobby, way in the back. And you can go up there, and there are people that are specifically trained to walk with you through the hard things. That we want to be a church family who cares deeply for the people around us. There is places for you to find help. The second question is this What are you doing to help people in need? What are you doing? How are you playing a role in the church family? What are you doing to help people in need? Here are some ways that you can help people. Here are some ways that you can serve the needs of the ministry. The first is this you can give. You can give. To minister to people, to keep the lights on, to find places of worship. That you can give. That you can let your money serve eternal purposes, and you get to do it as an act of worship. That you can give. The second is this you can serve. That you can serve in this church family as a part of this church family. Every Sunday, more and more children are walking into our children's ministry. And I don't know what's in the water here at River Oak. But like girls are popping off like left and right. We need people who are willing to teach our children God's word. The harvest is plentiful, but according to children's ministry, the workers are few. So you have an opportunity to invest in the next generation, really to make an eternal impact. To set up, to lead. Some of you have been trained. Some of you have degrees from seminaries and Bible colleges. And if you're honest, you're not actually applying your knowledge. You should serve. You should step up and say, Man, I should lead a group, I should teach a class, I should invest in the next generation, I should be a part of what they're doing here at River Road. And lastly, you can pray. You can pray. You can be intentional about spending time at the throne of God through the blood of Jesus by the power of the Spirit, bringing your request to God for our church, for this ministry, to the one who can make a difference. Whatever the situation, as we worship here, my encouragement is that you would be intentional about your next step. How do I operate in the church family? How do I fight for my marriage or my children? How do I recognize? What do I need to do? And so as we worship, it's your opportunity to respond in obedience. Will you pray with me? God, we love you and we thank you for your kindness to us. Lord, would you give us insight and discernment and wisdom to respond obediently? God, would we be a people who are eager to give to your kingdom things? God, would we be a people who are eager to be a part of our church family where we get to serve and invest in the people around us? God, would we be eager to come to you as our good Father with things on our hearts and minds? And Lord, would you answer those prayers? And God, for the for my church family who's in need, Lord, would you bring the right people around them to help them, to invest in them, to lead them? God, would you ordain those relationships and those connections? Would you bring healing? Would you bring hope? Would you bring life? And God, would you encourage our fathers as we go from here, as we worship you? In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 40:28

Good morning, everyone. We are glad you were able to join us, and we pray that it was encouraging for you this morning. We ask you to subscribe. That way you can see all of the sermons. But we hope to see you in person next week. God bless.