I would like to ask if we would be in prayer for them throughout this week. I'm going to ask Ron and Karen if they would pray for the bride and groom respectively. And Ron, if you would pray for Jordan to know him, and if you would pray for him and the establishment of his new home. And Karen, if you would pray for Barney and for her, and for her part in this as a Christian wife. and that the wedding ceremony itself would be pleasing to God. Then the second request would be for the conference and the results of that, and the souls that were saved, and the lives that were changed in connection with the time of Devin and John Higgins, and Bob, if any of you have any answers, you will pray for those who were there. There were six of them, and then there was a colleague of A's, a colleague of A's in the guest library, who came to know Jesus Christ during a conference at Talbot. And then, in the event of the lesson, which was carried on downtown Chattanooga, there were a large number of others, a good number of others, who came to know Jesus Christ. And so we desire that the youth would find someone to follow them up, and that the contacts made with these should be continued. And it was obvious to me before the end of the program that they were going to lose many times, because some of the boys who had re-entered the state and re-entered life were finding that even in their own families, these decisions were being conducted. and so that we would pray to God to keep these men close to him in his thoughts, and while we're in the here and now, let's pray. And then Bob Templeton was going to ask that he would pray for Bob Heminger and Lee Bittner, and the other men who are going on back from the congregation this year, the other trainees too, as they've gone out into various areas. We hear good reports of the work of the trainees who were here today out in Covenant Heights. in Colorado, and down in Chattanooga, it was a real blessing to have the men there working. And some of them will be going from here back to another conference in Pittsburgh. And to have men and women who know how the Word of God can speak to their own lives, and to be able to share this with others, high school and college age, and to share it in a positive and direct way, clearly. This is a blessing. And so we'll pray for these men as we bless them today, we'll honor Father and then we'll be going back there and we'll also be going on to the seminary in the fall. I don't remember her, maybe you do. Lincoln, Nebraska, she's on the staff of the Bible broadcast or something she does there. And she asked that we pray for her in her Sunday school work. The youth group doesn't seem to have the vitality and the program that ought to have. And I helped her with some things. All right, good. Let's remember Jeannie on this. And John, would you lead us in prayer for Jeannie and others like her who have gone out into other ministries. They have not been in the training program, and sometimes we're trying to begin thinking that these are the only ones we pray for here. But there are many others here. So Max Bauchner, he's with us today, and Max is just just beginning his training period with Don Fields and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship staff and workers. And he's just been released from the United States Army and looking forward to getting back into civilian service, but more particularly and on into training under his Lord Jesus Christ. Are there any other requests at this time? Yes, Ron. Yes, I'd appreciate if the congregation would pray for a man down in Bloomington Hospital A friend of Carol and myself from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he had an operation Tuesday. It was a large cancerous tumor. And the doctors say he might have a year to live. I presented a gospel to Dave last night, and he's doing some real business with God, and told him that we would be praying for him. And he's desirous. to come into a relationship with God. There's a man about Ron's age, a man he'd known when he was in school down there at IU before. So this would be hitting him very hard at this time. Another request, Helen? Yes, a girl by the name of Katie, who was at the home of her unmarried mother. She was only in one study. And in talking with her, she said, yes, I know Christ in the way that you do, but I'd like to get to know Him better. And to pray that she would have a real desire to continue in the study at home, now that she's gone. All right. Let's, Mary? Yes. All right. Mary just returned from Palestine and a trip with the Billy Graham Association's tour, and we want to hear more about that a little bit later. Let's bow our hearts in prayer, and I'll ask that you pray in this order. First will be Ron and Carolyn, and then Bob Hinegar, and then Bob Pimple, and John Kissling, and then I'll close. Thessalonians, the fifth chapter. And we'll be reading from the first verse, continuing down through the 24th verse. Of course, we've already thought about the first part of this, but I'll read it again in order to refresh your memory on this. 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 1. But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you. He's talking about the return of Christ here. Of the times and the seasons for that return, you have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as it leave. Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night. They that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together within. Wherefore, comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also ye do. And we beseech you, brethren, to know then which labor among you and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you. and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake, and be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the people-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all. See that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the spirit, despise not prophesies, prove all things, and hold fast that which is good, and abstain from all appearance of the evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, and also will do it, who also will do it. Now this is towards the close of that first letter. And the whole world was wondering whether or not this new religion, and it was new, in a very real sense it was new, whether the new Christianity could really stand the test or not. And Paul, had been there sent by God in this little town of Thessalonica, except that it was an important town of Thessalonica for three days, three seventh days, reasoning in the synagogue, reasoning among them. So far as we know, this is all the longer he was there, three days. Then he was forced to leave town. The big question was, would they stand or would they fall? He had had to go on to Berea and from there down to Athens and from Athens over to Corinth. And he sent a messenger back to Thessalonica to find out what had happened to these brand new Christians in this community here. And the messenger came back to him, probably reached him while he was still in Athens. He may have been writing from Athens, he may have been writing from Corinth when he wrote this back. And the messenger apparently brought him the report that they were strong in their faith and that they still loved Paul and the other two who had been living there. They didn't resent what had happened there, but that they loved them, wanted them to come back. This was one of the first tests. If the people there had resented what had happened, it would probably have been a good indication that it hadn't really been of God at all. And this is, incidentally, one of the first Christian epistles or letters written, 1 Thessalonians. One of the very first that was ever written. A follow-up letter, encouraging them and reminding them. And that's what he's doing in the first chapters there, chapters 1, 2, 3. reminding them of the relationship which Jesus Christ had established between himself and themselves. And over and over again in these first two chapters, and on into the beginning of the third chapter, Paul says, you remember what kind of an entering in we had unto you? The things that happened there we couldn't have done. No other man could have done. God must have done it. You would have resented it if anybody else had done that. He told them there, you remember about how How it was as a nursing mother with her children, the entering in that they had had unto them. A mother that gives of her own body and the calcium out of her own bones for her babies. And then he tells them that they entered in unto them, they talked with them as a father does with his children, one by one. And then he's expressing a concern in that second chapter about lest they be orphaned. And it's a father and a mother and an orphan in the situation that he's concerned about. We had to leave you in a hurry and we're concerned lest you have fallen away because we had to leave you so rapidly. But over and over again through those first chapters he says you know that no one but God could have done the sort of thing that's happened in your lives and caused a change in your thinking that's been there. In those first chapters this is what he's emphasizing. The relationships. among the, between the Thessalonians and Christ himself, and the relationship that God had established between Paul and the others who were with him and them. In chapters four and five, Christ is teaching these young Christians in four general areas. In verses one through eight of chapter four, it's about morality and immorality. Of course, this whole setting there at Thessalonica was one rampant with immorality. They worshiped goddesses and gods using sex orgies in order to do it. Nothing new about this. It's not a new morality that we're facing today as Christians and as young people and old people too. It's just the old immorality warmed over again. And still it was important. And so God in the first eight verses of chapter four is talking to them about the immorality that was rampant at that time. Everybody else is doing it. Go ahead. Well, this is what he's saying is important. That we get this now in the context of our love for Jesus Christ. In verses 9 through 12, he's talking with them in that fourth chapter about the ministry of labor. And apparently there were some of them who had begun quitting their labor and depending upon the others to support them. And it was As we find out in the very next verses, verses 12 through 14, because Christ was returning. They said, well you don't need to work, you can let somebody else support you because Christ is returning and why don't you spend your time just thinking about his return. Busybodies, they're referred to in the second epistle to the Thessalonians. People who ran around developing all kinds of rumors about maybe those who were already dead when Christ returned would have a head start on those who were already alive. Or maybe those who were still alive when Christ returned would have a head start on those who were already dead. And so there was apparently some kind of a dissension there. And in this letter here, in verses... Well, beginning there in verse 13 and carrying on through chapter 5 verse 11, he tells them that there's really no head start in either case. That those who are already dead won't have any advantage over those who are still alive when Christ returns and vice versa. Because all will be caught up together with him in the clouds. But the problem came about at that point where some were working. And so in verses 9 through 12, he talks to them very pointedly. That's God's right to work program there in 9 through 12, I think. His poverty program, and a very interesting one too, the ministry of labor. Laboring with our own hands, minding our own businesses, seeing in our professions that which will glorify God as part of our profession of faith. Now, today, down in chapter 5, beginning in verse 12, and going on through to verse 24, he's talking about Christian relationships or relationships among Christians. Those who are over us, verse 12, verses 14 and 15, those who are around us, the unruly, the feeble-minded, the others. Verses 16 through 18, a description of a Christian fellowship that's a healthy one. Rejoicing, praying, thanking. And then in verses 19 through 24, continuing work of God, the way in which God, by using his Holy Spirit, by the work of his Holy Spirit, continues this kind of fellowship. In other words, in this section, verses 12 through 24, we have a picture that God is describing to us of a healthy Christian fellowship. You might call it a church, but it's a healthy fellowship of Christians. Towards the end of a letter in which he's warning them to look out for what's going on around them, he describes the standard. Christ is describing a standard of Christian fellowship. He doesn't just condemn what's going on around, but he describes what's to be accomplished. I was talking with some of the, a couple of the girls in the training program who are teachers, and they told me about how teachers in the School of Education have been taught to make out a lesson plan. Well, I guess even I knew that. They, a lesson plan. What do I project to teach today? Or a syllabus through this semester? What do I want to teach through this semester? But now they tell me that they're also preparing an achievement conduct chart. Not only what I'm going to teach, but what I want to see accomplished by what I do teach today for this semester. What does the accomplished product look like and sound like and be like? And so I draw a description out here of what the finished product is to look like and sound like and be like. And it seems to me that towards the end of this letter here, this is what Jesus Christ is doing. He's drawing for us a description of the accomplished product, the finished result. And beginning in verse 12, we'll pick up the text there. And we beseech you, brethren, to know them. It's a very interesting word for know. And something John Kisling was saying this morning in the adult class reminded me that this is one of those knows. Edinae is the Greek word. To know them who labor among you and are over you. The word means to see in them their true character and to recognize the worth that's in them and to appreciate their value. The same word is used in 1 Corinthians, the 16th chapter and the 18th verse. Since they have refreshed your spirit, then acknowledge them. Not just know them, but acknowledge them. not just to be aware that they're around, but acknowledge the way in which God is using them in your own life. In other words, be sensitive to the spiritual influence that people around you are having on you. And when you find that God is using someone in your life in a good way, you're in touch with this person, and a week later you realize that God used that man in your life. Five months later you're in touch with him again and you realize that God has used that man in your life. Become aware of this and acknowledge it. Know this person. Learn to open your life to his influence. To let more of it in and be thankful for it. Know him. This same thing goes on down there in verse 13, "...and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake." Because of the witness that God is speaking to you through them. The faithful witness. Then love them. And this involves three things, knowing them. It involves their laboring among you. The word for laboring is toiling. That is the fact that they are willing to toil. To put themselves out. in order to see that this ministry comes to you. And they're being over you in the Lord, and they're admonishing you. Very often we don't think of a friend as admonishing us. And yet faithful are the wounds of a friend. It's an amazing thing, wouldn't it, to become a Christian and then never have Jesus Christ correct us. And yet, when was the last time that you were corrected? through your own reading of the Word of God, or through a Christian friend. And if a Christian friend did correct you, how could you take it? See, this is the acid test. And yet, he speaks here of those who are over you, and who admonish you, and who toil with you in Christian life. in verse 13, not only to acknowledge, that is to admit the way in which God is using them, but to esteem them very highly, because of the way in which you find God using them in your own lives, and be at peace among yourselves. Back in verse 11, Christ had said, comfort one another. Back in verse 18 of chapter 4, 418, Christ said, Wherefore, comfort one another with these words." And in verse 15 of that fourth chapter, he had asserted that the words that he was speaking to them at this point were his own words. Herein lies the principle of Christian life and growth. It's very, very important. It's simply this. Whenever a problem in Christian life and growth arises, such as the problem that they were facing here. Well, maybe those who already die will be ahead of those who are alive when Christ returns. Maybe those who are alive when Christ returns will be not ahead of those who are dead. Well, what about the timing for the Resurrection? When will Christ return? Some said this, and some said that, and someone said something else, and there was a lot of confusion going on. This is the kind of problem that arises. There is a number one source of comfort and answer when problems like these begin to arise, and that is God's own Word. Comfort one another with these words. God's Word is a number one source of answer. And in a number two source of comfort is to be found in Christian fellowship, someone else. who will speak faithfully to me through the Word of God. And in choosing and in welcoming the counsel and the comfort and the help of another Christian in my own life, I am to find one who labors with me, who is over me in the Lord, who can admonish me. And every time I find that kind of Christian influence coming into my life, it will be a stimulating thing. It will not be the kind of comfort that sort of pats me on the head and says, well, now you're all right to begin with, so just go home and forget about it. It will not be the kind of comfort that just sympathizes with me and feels bad with me. It will not be the kind of comfort that just rebukes me and makes me feel more miserable either. But it will be the kind of comfort that will stimulate and instruct and help me to know better than I did before what it is that God is actually saying through His Word. These are the men then that I have to esteem highly, in love, because of this work that God's using them to do in my own life. So often today we're asked to respect a man because of his position, or his title, or his education, or his family name, or his past accomplishments. We're asked to respect him and to esteem him highly because of all these other things. And we can't really respect Him because of the way in which God's using Him in our own lives because God's not using Him in our own lives. And so we're in a bind. We're asked to respect Him, but we can't. Officially, we do. But spiritually speaking, we can. And this does not mean that we live at peace among ourselves. This is the very thing that causes us to be in tension and in conflict. among ourselves. We set up false standards among ourselves of respectability. Rather God has one set and man makes another set. And therefore we do not live in peace among ourselves. We cannot trust, we cannot respect the counsel of those who are technically and officially put in positions of responsibility. because they have not spiritually had this ministry in our own lives. Spiritual oversight hangs upon spiritual respect. And without the latter, they cannot really be the former. Verse 14, he goes on, so much for these Christians over us, now for the things around us, the people around us. Verse 14, now we exhort you, brethren, warn the unruly. comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. The word unruly means literally the quitter, the one who's out of step. It was a military term. You ever seen a line of men when you were watching men pass in review? And a line of men, and there was one man down there that had two legs, or he had both legs off to the, well, you know, somebody else was out of step. It was a problem. But this was the problem with this unruly man. He says, warn the unruly, the man who's out of step, and the man who, incidentally, it also meant the quitter, the dropout. Warn the quitter. And the feeble-minded. This really didn't mean the feeble-minded in the sense that we usually think of it. It meant the fearful. The one who was so fearful that he just couldn't do anything. Literally, those whose souls are small. They don't expect big things of God. I was, we were down at Covenant College last weekend in Chattanooga, or last week in Chattanooga, and on Dr. Nuremberger's door, now Dr. Nuremberger is a psychologist of some reputation in the United States, and I just happened to be passing his door there at the college, and I looked up and he had a very interesting sign on the door, quoting from him. Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered, no one was there. Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered, no one was there. The feeble-minded, comfort the fearful. It's the brave soul and part of the responsibility of the brave soul who has learned to measure boldness in Jesus Christ. To comfort the person is always fearful. My father-in-law has a sign over his desk that even the turtle never got anywhere until he stuck his neck out. But how is it that you begin becoming bold in Jesus Christ and accept thousands of people have failed simply because they never saw anyone succeed? And it's not just a case of going along and saying, well, go ahead and do it. Go ahead and do it. And telling somebody else to do it, it's setting a pace. Showing someone else how to be bold. This is part of that healthy Christian community and fellowship. Showing someone else how to be bold in their study of the Word of God. Showing someone else how to be bold in their prayer. Showing someone else how to be bold in their obedience to claim great things of God. And showing someone else how to be bold in witnessing. Setting a pace. Supporting the weak. Literally it means cling to the weak. Cling to the weak. Don't let a weak brother just drift away and disappear. Tie him in. This is part of the Christian fellowship. Spiritually weak. Emotionally weak. Psychologically weak. Temperamentally weak. Prone to wander off. Don't let him wander off. Tie him in. This is part of the healthy Christian fellowship. Cling to the weak. And then be patient toward all. Now that's the hardest thing that a Christian has to do, to suffer a fool to be a fool. To understand what he's doing. To be patient toward all. Verse 15, and don't take revenge. See to none render evil for evil, but always follow that which is good. Not only among yourselves as Christians, but also to all mankind in general. Very interesting quotation here, and this is not the only place that this quotation occurs in the New Testament. Or something very similar to it, maybe not exactly the same words. But the early fathers seem to have quoted this, the people who lived in the first one, two, and three hundred years after Jesus Christ. They kept quoting this as being a saying of Christ. Very interesting way in which they treated this particular thought. This word in these words here. But whether Christ said it or not, it's in God's word. It's there. See that none render equal for equal, but always follow that which is good. It's the exact opposite of the non-Christian view of retaliation. In verses 16 through 18, Christ is giving us three marks of a genuine Christian fellowship. First he says it's a happy fellowship, rejoice evermore. You know, there could seem to be no small contrast between this idea of Christians who rejoice evermore, and on the other hand, Jesus Christ, who was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. How can you say Christians rejoice evermore and Jesus Christ was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief? Aren't these two things in conflict? Well, I think the answer to the apparent conflict is to be found in the fact that Christians He does not wear a face painted that's false, a clown face, immune to the feelings of life. But he knows pain, and he knows persecution, and he knows sorrow. He knows not only these things, but he knows God's reasons for these things, and God's providences of life that brings him into these things and out of them on the other side. It's a never failing source of joy to him. Not only to know the pain, but also the reason for the pain and the fact that he'll be taken out on the other side of it. He can rejoice evermore. The other factor that's involved is that the Christian knows sorrow better than the non-Christian really. He's not numb to what's going on around him. As a matter of fact, he is more sensitive to the most important things. to the sorrow caused by sin and a broken relationship with God. He understands that. And he can understand that better than a person who does not know salvation and God's love. He knows the sin issues and he knows the convictions of life. And the purest joy is part of the most heartfelt sorrow, the most heartfelt sorrow. These two things, you see, are not in conflict. And the Christian who rejoices evermore does understand the man of sorrows who is acquainted with grief. The two things are not in conflict, but rather the two extremes and an understanding of the reason for them, or what adds the spice and the purpose to Christian life. First to rejoicing in that fellowship. And second, in verse 17, it's a praying in that fellowship. Pray without ceasing, he says in 17. Sometimes we think we can't pray unless we're together in a group. But did you ever know that you really pray best together with people who pray in private? You can always pray best together. with those men and women who were praying much in private. And it's not even the moving of the lips and the noises of the vocal cords that make prayer idle. It's the elevation of the mind and heart to God that really counts. That's the only real way to pray without ceasing. It would be a horrible thing to be praying, wouldn't it? Throughout the day as we were talking to somebody else and praying, how could you talk to somebody else and be talking to God at the same time? And yet it is possible because it is the elevation of the heart to God. And if there's anything that we're saying to someone else, or doing with someone else, that cannot be prayed in prayer to God, then there must be something wrong with it. And so our lives should be in an attitude of prayer. praying without ceasing. This is part of a healthy Christian fellowship. And then in verse 18, it's a thankful fellowship. In everything give thanks. There's always something there for which to give thanks. Even in the bitternesses, the disappointments, the sorrows, and the failures of life. In everything, he says, give thanks. We see and we know that God's controlling and working through to the end of it. There in the end of verse 18. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. The will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. So often we're trying to think of this as being what Jesus did in being born there in the manger and then in living through life and then in dying on the cross. This is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. We see the will of God in Christ Jesus in His life for you. But it's also through Him that God keeps on today ruling and governing the entire world, physical, political, and spiritual. And therefore, these circumstances in life, we say the things that happen to us as Christians. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. The things that happen to the Christian, this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. These are the three marks of a healthy Christian fellowship. It's in joy. It's a happy fellowship. It's a praying fellowship. It's a thankful fellowship. It has a lot to rejoice about, it has a lot to pray about, and it has a lot to be thankful for. People to rejoice about, people to pray for, and people to be thankful for. And this summer I've been particularly impressed with the fact that this is the kind of fellowship that God has given to us here. People to rejoice about, people to pray for, and people to be thankful for. As we've seen the trainees come and go, and as we've seen other souls come and go, people to rejoice about, and to pray for, and to be thankful for. In verses 19 and 20, Christ is adding one more element that's essential to Christian fellowship, the working of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we call this the unction or the oil of the Holy Spirit. And over and over again, he says, comfort one another among yourselves. Don't be at odds with each other, but be working together smoothly. Well, that's the purpose of oil. And this is the purpose of the Holy Spirit in connection with the frictions of life among people. Verse 19, be careful not to quench his work. by carelessness or hardness of heart or immorality. In verse 20, especially, despise not the prophesying. Usually this word prophecy means that which has to do with foretelling, predicting the future, telling what's going to happen five, ten, maybe one, two, three, or a hundred years in advance. Foretelling. But the word literally means forth telling. The prophet was the man who forth told. He pronounced or enunciated to men the will or the commands or the instructions of God whose minister he was. Occasionally he might be charged by God to predict something that had to do with the future. But in these words here there is not the slightest reference to anticipation of future events. 1 Corinthians 14 and 3 gives us a definition of prophesying as we have it right here. 1 Corinthians 14 and 3. He that prophesieth speaketh unto men edification and exhortation and comfort. He that prophesied speaketh unto men edification and exhortation and comfort. Verse 20, literally despise not the teaching whereby God teaches you through other men today. It's not just a case of reading the word yourself and of enjoying the fellowship, comforting one another. But also of learning. God says I put certain men in positions of responsibility to teach. And don't despise those. Sometimes I think he used that wording in order to keep ministers or preachers or Bible teachers from getting big heads. He said, well at least don't despise them. Because they do have their place. They're useful. I do use them. Number one is my own word. You go to it yourself. Comfort one another. Of course, but don't despise these other men. They do have their place and I do use them. Verse 21, Prove all things, hold fast the good, and abstain from all kinds of evil. The word for prove is dokimakete, test. It may very well be the English, the word in which we get our English word document. A documented article is valuable because it's proven. We know the sources from which he got his information and the reasons for his conclusions. And this word, this Greek word meant to test the ore. They'd get a penny or a coin and they would test it to make sure that it had a certain amount of metal in it. This was the word that was used to document it or to prove it, to test it. Test the good and abstain from all kinds of evil. It's interesting that the article is used with the Greek word for good. The good. Test the good. There is only one good, but then when he goes on to the evil, there are many different forms of evil. One good, but all kinds and varieties of evil forms. Prove or test the good and look out for all these different forms of evil, manifold and variable as they are. Find the good and let all these other things disappear. Verse 23, And yet without God, all your cares and efforts are completely in vain. And therefore, he says, I pray God that God himself may interpose in all this. Because only through the God who is peace, can you have lasting peace. And only through the God who is holy, can you be sanctified or made holy. The last part of 23 and 24, I pray God that your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. because only the one who called you to be that way can preserve you and make you that way. And he'll be as faithful to finish his work as he was to begin it. The spirit, that part of me which relates me to God. The soul, that part of me which relates me to men. The body, that part of me which relates me to the physical world around me beneath me. The God Christ who called me to himself is promising the perfect what concerns me under the day of his coming. And this then is Christ's description of his picture of Christian fellowship. It has respect for the spiritual leadership that God has given to it. It's a relationship of those around us clinging to the feeble, the fearful, the others around us, helping us. In its activities, rejoicing evermore, praying without ceasing, thankful in everything. And in the continuing work of the Holy Spirit, understanding the teaching, the testing, and the sanctifying that is going on. So far as I can see, this is Christ's picture of a healthy Christian fellowship. This kind of business will be going on in the souls and lives of the men and women who make up this kind of fellowship. Lord, we thank Thee for giving us this standard of accomplishment, this conduct achievement, this description of what a healthy Christian fellowship will look like and sound like and be like. Lord, we desire to be that kind of fellowship and we thank Thee for giving us people, people for whom we can pray. people for whom we can be thankful, people with whom we can rejoice. Lord bless us as we would be faithful in the lives of those around us, those above us, that we would recognize them and their spiritual leadership. And as we would open our hearts and lives to them and desire that Thou would teach us through them, we pray that Thou would also bless us as we would cling to the feeble, as we would strengthen the weak, as we would counsel and comfort one another. And then, Lord, bless us as we would be aware of the work which Thy Spirit does do, causing others to teach us with authority, and helping us in our relationships with each other. Lord, we desire to be a fellowship, molded after this example which Thou has given to us here. We pray these blessings now. Lord, Any soul here this morning who does not know Thee, grant that they might have seen in the wisdom with which Thou hast written these words, that which they would desire to look into more. We've not talked much about the work that you did on the cross a few years ago, in dying there in order to take away sin, but Lord, grant that the message of that cross would come through loud and clear, and that any soul in whose heart Thou hadst been working could see in thee that example and that message of love and compassion which would cause them to ask that thou wouldst come into their heart as God, as Savior, to be Lord. Bless any soul just now who would say unto thee, Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Be my Savior. I desire that thou wouldst take away my sin, that thou wouldst do it with my life whatsoever thou wouldst. I thank you now for coming into my life to be my Savior, Lord. Lord, hear that prayer as you heard mine a few years ago. Hear that prayer. And together we rejoice. and we thank them in Jesus' name.