So let's pray. Lord, we come to You because truly there is nowhere else for us to go, Lord. And many of us know this, Lord, by experience that we have ran to so many things and found only hurt and pain and emptiness. Lord, we run to You because You are the God Most High. You are our Father. And Lord, You are a good Father. And You don't leave us to ourselves. And Lord, we ask that You would stoop, that You would condescend, that You would meet with us again as You already have this morning. Meet with us right now, that You would put forth Your Spirit that You would do the work that only You can do, Lord, that You would convict of sin in our lives, that You would change hearts, that You would accompany the preaching of Your Word to do that work that only You can do, Lord, for Your honor and for Your glory, for Your kingdom's sake. Lord, we come. Corporately, because that's what you have required. We come to your house together because that's what you are calling us to do. Lord, we pray that as we are even bowing our heads now, as you know, every heart, everything that's going on in our lives, there is nothing hidden before you. that You would speak to us, Lord. That we would see You high and lifted up. That we would hear You and not a man. That we would see You in Your glory. For it is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Ephesians 4. We are now to really a whole different part of this letter, this book, small book, which is a letter to the church in Ephesus. If you have your outline, you know the title, The Lord's Children Showing Themselves Worthy of Their Calling. the Lord's children, if you are truly a believer, this is where, as we talked about or looked at last week, this is the part of the book where really it's the test. For the rest of the book, you are going to examine yourself. and examine your family, examine your relationships to see if you are passing or where in your life do things need to change. We have made it through the instructional part of this letter in the first three chapters. As I mentioned last week, he taught us The Apostle Paul has laid this out and instructed us about how the Lord has brought about this salvation in all believers' lives. It's all of our stories and what He has done and the purpose that He has done this. And in that, twice He stopped and prayed that we would understand and get what He was saying. So he not only was bringing instruction in these first three chapters, but he was also praying that all believers would get this, the gravity of how the Lord works in our lives and what He is doing. And so this section that we're entering into, the Holy Spirit again through the Apostle Paul, has laid out the purposes, not just the instructional part, but more of an examinational part. Chapter 4, Chapter 5, and Chapter 6, the next three chapters, he's bringing the ethical implications of this redemptive work this work of salvation that He laid out in verses 1, 2, and 3, He's now giving us examinations, things for us to go through our lives and look at, to urge us to practice these ethical, moral things in our lives, like loving your wife, loving your husband, loving your children, being good workers, loving the church. What does all this mean? And so he lays these practical implications out. The pivotal verse of this whole letter is chapter 4, verse 1, where it says here, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called." Hmm. To walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. to walk worthy of this calling, a calling that He has done in your life, a work of salvation as you saw so clearly in Ephesians 2, that He has done the grace that He has poured out in our lives. And Paul is now saying, I want you to walk worthy of this grace. Do you struggle with your security in Christ? Do you? Is it because you see the sin in your own life and the struggle in your life? Do you struggle with your relationship with the Lord? I will say this, I know the gospel that is preached in most churches in America is so soft that there's people that are sitting in American churches all over, some people that don't struggle at all, that maybe they should. that as they self-examine themselves, that they need to sit back and question, well, do I really belong to Christ? Am I in Christ? This new gospel that has come out really predominantly in America after World War II, this easy-believe-ism, that just teaches, oh, as long as you believe in Christ, you're okay. Which is untrue, because Scripture plainly teaches the devil believes in Christ. And so, these chapters 4, 5, and 6 should help those who struggle with their security and should also help for those who don't really ever question. And maybe they should. These next few chapters is a way to self-examine your life. What is this life really about? What is it for? What are the purposes of this? And these examinations, these practical, ethical examination of heart should have us to sit back and go, hmm, how do I really fit in this? Where is this in my life? And why isn't it in my life? If Scripture says that it should be, why is it not? Right? A time for you to examine your spiritual walk. What is this new society that the Lord has formed, that Paul has taken such great efforts in the first three chapters to describe for us? This new family, this new society, this new church. There's two main characteristics. I couldn't fit it in your outline because there's so many other points that you needed in the outline that I gave you. But there's two main characteristics that is in this new society that the Lord has formed. One is that His people are one, they're unified, that He has comprised and composed and put together this group of people so different, everyone broken, everyone with a baggage and brokenness of life, everyone struggling, that we find unity amongst pirates, right? We're a bunch of pirates, you know, that the Lord has forgiven, and He has brought us together. We're a bunch of broken, dirty scallywags. And which makes the second point all the more beautiful. One is that there's unity. The second is that we are holy people. We are called to holiness. We are called to a pursuit of purity. We are to be distinctly different than this world. Amen? We are not to be like this world. We are to be like our Lord Jesus. And so, when you talk about bringing a group of broken people together as one, and you talk about bringing a group of broken people together to make them holy, I want to know about it. Right? Because I fit in that group. I am a pirate. that needs the Lord Jesus. Unity and purity are the two foundational truths that prove if this is a biblical church or not, and what a biblical congregation looks like. And does this congregation belong to the Lord? Or does it belong to some church growth strategist? Or church philosophy? Or man's philosophy? What does a living church of the Most High God, what does it look like? Believe me of this. It's not made of perfect people. It's made of scallywags saved by grace that love Him most. Right? That love Him most and pursue Him more than they pursue anything else in life. Let's dive in. Are you excited? So every week until we get to the end, you have a spiritual test. The examination starts now. And believe me, this is the most important test you'll ever take in your life. It starts today. Let's jump in. Are we living up to our calling in Christ? Are we living up to this holy calling in Christ? We're going to start looking at it this morning until the end of chapter 6. To God be the glory. The first question you see on your outline is this. Do you hear The call. Can you hear it? Let's look at verse 1. Let's read it again in chapter 4. It says this, "'I therefore,' this is the apostle Paul, he's saying, "'I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.'" Here we are again. Paul labeling himself the prisoner of the Lord. Just like in, if you remember, chapter 3 verse 1. Look at it. It says this in chapter 3 verse 1, For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of the Lord for you Gentiles. So he's calling himself a prisoner of the Lord again. If you look and he does this, he's done this all over, but you can write it down and read it later. In 2 Timothy 1, verse 8, it says, "...therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner." Right? but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God." So we see him calling himself again the Apostle Paul who, if you remember, is in chains. As he writes this letter to the church in Ephesus, to the believers in Ephesus, he's literally chained up. writing this letter. And he's saying, I'm a prisoner of the Lord. I'm not a prisoner of Nero or of Rome. The Lord did this. The Lord has brought me to these chains. The Lord has put me in this situation. Not anybody else. He wouldn't give Nero that credit. Amen? Nero doesn't have that power. Only God. And I remind you of this because some of you are in most difficult places. Struggling, right? Hurting. Groping. And you need to remember that the chains that you're wearing, whether it's emotional, spiritual, physical, financial, whatever it is, they're the chains of the Lord. It's the Lord's doing and workings in your life for His glory to work out His salvation in you. And so we see that Paul reminds again, he's the prisoner of the Lord. And then he says, I beseech you. I call on you. I plead with you. He's asking with deep emotions. He's entreating them. This is a word of intense feelings. strong desires. He's imploring these believers at Ephesus. Listen. He's begging them. Please listen to this. I think if the Apostle Paul, through God's Holy Spirit, has delivered this to us, and saying that he beseeches, I think we need to hear. He says this, walk. Walk. That's an interesting thing. Walk. We're going to get to the worthy. Walk worthy. We're adding here. We're building. Walk. Let's look. If you look in this same chapter, actually, to verse 17 of the same chapter in Ephesians, it says this, This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their minds." Meaning, don't walk like those pagans. Don't look like them. Don't think like them. And he's imploring them. Look in chapter 5 of Ephesians, verse 2. I'm going to read verse 1. Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children. and walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice of God. Look at verse 8, chapter 5. For you were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. as children of light. Amen? What about 15? Drop down a few more verses. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. Stop being foolish! Stop acting like this world Walk circumspectly. Know what's happening around you. See these things. Go to Ephesians chapter 2. I saved this for last. This is just in the same book. Ephesians 2. I'm going to start with verse 1. And you He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked. Right? You walked in your deadness. according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience." Saying, you see all these people, all these folks that are being disobedient? They're walking according to their prince. Look at verse 10. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Just so you know, This is throughout Scripture, the concept of walking worthy. It's not just the Apostle Paul. But I want to share one verse with you. You write it down. You can read it later. I want to read it to you. I want you to listen. 1 John 2.6 says this, He who says he abides in Him, which is in Christ, it's a capital H, ought himself, lowercase h, that means us, ought himself also to walk just as He walked. I'm going to read it again. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked." So the apostle John is saying, listen, if you're calling your name by Christ, if you call yourself a Christian, walk as Christ! Right? That's pretty clear. That doesn't mean walk like Brandon Griffin. Please, Lord, don't do that. Or walk as yourself. How many times have you heard, well, this is just how I am? Demonic. That's believing a lie. Well, this is just how my mind works. Okay? Wrongly. Repent! Right? Bless my wife's heart. I can't tell you how many times I have gone to her in 30 years and said, honey, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Because my first reaction is anger. And it's wrong! It's against God! It can't be right! It's not right. No matter how many times I say I'm sorry, it's wrong and against God. Walk. Walk. In the Scripture, it's all over the place. And then Paul, he puts it on us. and he adds a word to it. Walk what? Worthily. Wow! Okay, walk worthily. This is literally what this word means. It means to live in a way that is harmonious to your vocation." Do you know what that means? That's an old word. It's a word for your job, your duty, what you're called to do. So when he talks about walking worthily, he is meaning here to walk harmoniously with your calling. If you are a Christian, you need to write these down, but I want you to look at this also. In Philippians, which is our next letter, we're going to go from Ephesians to Philippians. Philippians 1.27 says this, so that whether I come to see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel." Glory! Walk worthy of the gospel. Tell yourself all the time, stop. This is not what Christ wants. Repent. Griffin, right? Well, you need to repent in your last name. Colossians 1.10 I'm going to read verse 9. for this reason. We also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you." He's talking about this church, this group of believers in Colossae, where he's saying, we've heard about your faith, we've heard what God is doing, and he's saying, we haven't stopped praying for you. and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding," verse 10, here it is, "...that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him." That doesn't say pleasing you. are pleasing somebody else, right? What does it say? Guys, it's in English. Fully pleasing Him. That doesn't mean, okay, on Sunday, I'm going to please the Lord. Right? What about Monday? fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in knowledge. Hello? I'll tell you, there's some people that all the theology they know is what they learned on their grandma's lap 40 years ago. Are you growing in your faith? Are you growing in your knowledge? Do you hear the call? Remember, this calling belongs to every believer. If you are in Christ, you are not exempt. If you're not a believer, if you are not in Christ, you go do what you want to do. Right? This is only for believers. Do you hear that call to walk worthy according to the grace that the Lord has poured in your life? Do you hear it? It does not matter how you feel. It does not matter what has happened. It does not matter about the past. Do you hear me? All the struggles, all the pains, all the sufferings. Do you not think the Lord knows that? Do you hear the calling to walk worthy according to the grace that our Lord has poured in your life? I'll tell you, if we got that one point right, Lord, Hallelujah. Amen? If we got this first verse right, first verse, one verse, could you imagine what our marriages would look like? Seriously. Could you imagine what our families would look like? Could we imagine what would new hope look like? What would our friendships look like? The bottom line is this, do you walk the talk? Yeah, I'm a believer. Or, Are you living the way you want to live? Point number two. Do you see the call? Have you heard it? Can you hear it? And now, can you see it? Let's read verse 2 and 3. Can you see it? It's something that you can tangibly see. You can see it in people's lives. It's fruit that you can taste. Do you see it? Verse 2 and 3 says this, I'm still in Ephesians chapter 2. 2. With all lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering and bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Paul mentions practical components here that are essential to living in a right relationship in a community. and in a community of the redeemed. Really, if you want to know, these things can be practiced outside the community of the redeemed. But they should really be working in the church. But outside, if we use these and understand this, we can see that we will have more right relationships with anyone. It will help. But these components do not work as they should with the unregenerate. Do you hear me? Do you understand what I mean by the unregenerate? Those who God Almighty has not changed their heart. And only God can change a heart. Only the Lord can do that through the power of the Holy Spirit. You can't even do that. God Almighty. That's a work of the Almighty God. So these things that we're talking about are spiritual things. And this one reason, this one major reason why the church in America is so broken, do you want to know why? and why unity in the church in America is really almost non-existent. Or I should say biblical unity, because we're about to talk about being unified fleshly. Let's talk about biblical unity. Why it doesn't exist. It's because of this. There's unregenerate church members. because God and Satan cannot sit on the same row. Do you hear me? And we have built churches and whole ministries in America where we have tried to do all kind of gimmicks to bring people in, to fill up the church with ungodly people. instead of preaching the Word and calling people to repentance. You know, in seminary, they told me, Brandon, you will never build a church going verse by verse by verse through books of the Bible. They won't want to hear it. unregenerate church memberships. Members that are not redeemed. And that is the problem with unity. this principle of unity, this principle that we're about to go through of looking at tangible things, items, characteristics that you can see in a person's life. These principles apply not to just the church, but it applies to marriages. Examine your marriage. Do they have these characteristics in it? Examine your families. Examine your friendships. Examine your work relationships. You can only have true unity in the Holy Spirit. Outside of that, you do not know what unity really is. Only the Lord Almighty can do this. So He lists for us six spiritual characteristics. Now listen, we're about to get to, you can have fleshly unity but not spiritual unity. And I am standing on the side that true unity is only spiritual unity. Y'all need to amen that. Do you understand? You can have a worldly unity, but it's not true and deep. And we're getting to that. But let's look at these six spiritual characteristics that Christians know if they're walking worthy of their calling. Okay? The first one he says here is lowliness. Right? Lowliness. Y'all know what this is. We've been memorizing a passage of Scripture all month. It's our Scripture memory for the month. Lowliness. It means humility. To know yourself. To know your weaknesses. To know your sins. To put other people before you. lowly of heart." The next thing that he points to, spiritual characteristic, is gentleness. Now, I want us to understand what this means. This does not mean weak. Gentle does not mean weak. Hear me. Gentle means meekness. It means strength under control. It means a quiet restraint that you are able to pull back. It really means trusting God over your own self. It really means trusting the Lord over what you think or how you feel. That's a big one. Because we run off what? Our emotions most of the time. And listen, your emotions will lead you astray 9 out of 10 times. Guaranteed. I want to say 9.9 out of 10 times. But some of y'all are probably a whole lot better than I am. So I'm going to give you 9 out of 10. But gentleness means this quiet strength under control. Long-suffering. Oh Lord, do we need longsuffering in the church of Jesus. Longsuffering. It's a word that we have lost in America. Do you know why? Because the only thing that matters is what we think. We worship in America our freedom more than we worship God. I'll tell you, you share the gospel in China, it doesn't bother them when you start talking to them about the sovereignty of God. They get it. They're like, oh yeah, there's a God that rules over you, that tells you what you need to do, But you know what? You talk about the sovereignty of God in America. They want to flush that. Wait a minute. You mean I don't get to tell God what I want and then ask Him to bless it? What? I think I'm called to be a millionaire. Right? and God needs to bless that." Or whatever. And I mean, it's phenomenal to me. Long-suffering, slow to anger, patient, long-tempered, I remember Dr. Vaughn talking to us about this, this very word, as we were going through Ephesians. He would give us tests, wow, on one verse that we would write all day long on the Greek structure. I remember this word, longsuffering, and I remember Him looking at us and saying, listen, believe me, I have suffered long with y'all. I sit in my study as I write these sermons and I think to myself about Dr. Vaughn and I think to myself, Lord, if I could talk to him one more time, the questions that I have for him. And I remember him saying so clearly to us, if you are ever going to be good shepherds to your people, you suffer long with them and then suffer more. You want to have a good marriage? You suffer long with your spouse and then suffer more. There is not an end to long suffering. It doesn't mean sweep it under the rug. Don't misunderstand this. It doesn't mean turn a blind eye. It doesn't mean speaking to the problems. That's not what longsuffering is. Longsuffering is being patient, loving, slow to anger. And then you've got forbearance, lowliness, gentleness, long-suffering, forbearance. To bear with. To bear with. That's what it means. To carry. To stand. It actually has the connotation of standing with. The picture that A.T. Robertson paints is a standing beside. A standing beside. It's not a forbearance that goes, I just have to go to the other room. Our men, I just have to go to the woods. None of the women said amen to that? Of forbearance, this picture that Paul is painting is a standing with. A bearing with. The next characteristic is love. Love. 1 Peter 4.8, you know the verse. What is it? Love, what? Covers a multitude of sins, right? Thank you for loving me, honey. Last, a bond of peace, which really is the same thing. Do you know what? Peace bonds brings you together. But the picture that the apostle is trying to paint for us is that it's a striving. You work for peace. And listen, do you know to have peace, most people in America mean that peace means the absence of conflict. That's so wrong. No wonder we're so messed up. Do you know what peace is? Peace is that in the midst of turmoil, in the midst of strife, in the midst of everything, that you're working hard to forgive, that you're taking great pains to deal with the problems. I often tell young couples that are getting married, don't be foolish. You're going to fight. And there's biblical ways to fight rightly, to fight correctly. And one of them is to forgive. To forgive one another rightly. To do these things correctly. The bond of peace. Dealing with the problems together. working through them. Do you know the church, the underground church in China, I've told you this so many times, when you are in, when they finally accept you, they go get you and say, hey, we want you to come in. Because they are so protective of this unity and the bond of peace that if there's a problem in the church, even a little scuff, They get it right, right then, that day. You know why? Because all it takes is one person to get mad, to call the authorities, and the whole group goes to prison. I kind of wish we had that standard here. That we had to work so hard every day to make sure we're right with each other. Could you imagine if we worked that hard in our marriages? In our lives? With our friends? These characteristics that He lays out, how are you doing with them? When you examine yourself, how are you doing with these? lowliness, gentleness, long-suffering, forbearance, love, peace. Where are you? Stop fooling yourself. Stop sticking your head in the sand. Go through these steps. Stop thinking about somebody else. Think about you. Where are you on these matters? How are you doing in these six characteristics? The third thing, do you understand the call? So do you hear the call? Can you see the call? And now, do you really understand it? Do you get it? Do you understand deeply this calling? It's in verse 4 and 5. Let's read it. It says this, there is one body and one Spirit, notice that's a capital S, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, capital L, One faith, one baptism. Alright? We have a responsibility. If you hear the calling, if you see the calling, you need to understand you have a responsibility. You have a responsibility to live up to the calling of Christ. This product. Look around. This gathering. This is the Lord's work. This is His working. He has brought this together. This is His product. Okay? We're using this as a test tube right here. This is our experiment. This product, the church, and the unity that God has brought to us is only at work by the power of the Holy Spirit. Okay? The work of the flesh can also unify people. Did you know that? You already know this. And it is very powerful, the work of the flesh. And it's very dangerous. And it will deceive you. And you need to sit and say, what is spiritual and what is secular? What is holy and what is fleshly? And you can understand these different callings. I just listed just a few things. There's so many things that can unify you in the flesh that we get caught up in that's not spiritual. Your teams. Right? I mean, how in the world can anybody be a Miami Hurricane fan? Right? Only the ungodly are Miami Hurricane fans. That's right. Right? I mean, truly. But teams, that's a fleshly thing. That's a worldly thing. There is no absolute, no eternal significance in that. I promise you, when you're in heaven for thousands and thousands of years, you will never not once be asked, what team did you cheer for? Amen? I promise you. It won't happen. And there are people that pour their lives into that. They spend more time over their team than they do the Scripture. How can that be? Because it's fleshly. and it unifies you, and it's deceptive. What about clubs or associations or groups that we're a part of? That'll suck you in. Because we have children, I'm going to be nice on the next two, and it's a broader scope. But what about bars? drinking and partying. You know what I'm saying. Boy, that'll unify people like that. Amen? You build a barn and put a keg in it, you'll have a bunch of friends. And they'll meet you every night. Amen? The good old drinking buddies? Unifying. Boy, you get a couple of them down, you knock a few down, and buddy, you love everybody. What about lust? I mean, just lust. That unifies people that hate each other. What about money? What about business? What about jobs? What about entertainment? What about philosophies? Having the same belief in something. I'm not talking about spiritual beliefs. And last, I save this to last, because this is probably the most dangerous of all for believers. Bloodline. I have seen more believers shipwreck their lives over following their children than following Jesus, or following a spouse than following Jesus. I have watched it. Well, there are my kids. I'll tell you what, if you're an elder at New Hope and you're not willing to church discipline your own child, you're not willing to be an elder at New Hope. As much as I love my children and I would be skinned alive for them, you can ask any of them. I have told them since they were children, I love you, I am your dad, but your dad will always follow Jesus, not you. You decide to go down a different path, you do it apart from your dad. Not with me. You can ask him. So you can taste the fruit of what unity is. You can understand what Paul is speaking about here. You can decide what type of fruit it is. Is it the Lord's fruit or is it man's fruit? You can see it. And you may say, well, preacher, all I see when you talk about unity in the church, unity in our marriages, all I see is division. I see denominational division. I see racial division, social division, economic division. I mean, we could go on and on. You can't legislate unity. It's a gift of the Spirit. You can't just bring about it and organize it and vote on it. It's not a democratic system. It's a gift from God. When the Lord's Spirit is upon us, do you know what? We love each other rightly. Men, do you want to know why you don't love your wife like you should? You're hindering the Spirit. Sin! Repent! Women, you want to know why you don't love your husband as you should? It's sin in your life! Repent! Love Christ most and you will love your husband! It doesn't matter what you feel, how you feel, what's going on with you. You pursue Christ. And unity comes. There are six doctrines here, and we've got to go. We've got to hurry. There's six doctrines that bind us together. He says, one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. These are doctrines that we understand we need to have unity in. There's a lot of places that call themselves churches, but 1 Timothy says they're doctrines of demons, they're teachings of demons. They're not teachings of Scripture. So what does it mean to be one body? He's talking about the invisible church. Not the visible church that you see, but the invisible church, the true believers, the ones that love Christ, the ones that pursue Christ, the ones that you know are in Christ. And the one Spirit is only the Holy Spirit. And that Holy Spirit that dwells in me, guess what? Dwells in every believer. It's not a billion spirits. It's one. That's what makes us one. that we have one Spirit. So what happens? Listen, I can't tell you how many times people have sat in front of me and said, well, God just told me to do that. And I will say to them, to trip them up, well, God told me for you not to do that. And don't we have the same Spirit? Then who's right? Right? What does that mean about marriage? Hello? Boy, that's a pin drop right there. One spirit. One hope. We all have the same promise. Brandon doesn't have more of a promise than you. We all have the same promise of the eternal hope in Jesus Christ. One Lord. We only have one Lord. Jesus, right? He, as Acts 4.12 says, as John 14.6 says. I'm trying to hurry. One baptism. Can I tell you? There's one baptism, and it's the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It's the baptism where God brings you into His family. And lastly, verse 6, why? Why the call of unity? So, do you hear it? Hear the call? Do you see the call? Do you understand the call? And now, why? It's very simple. Verse 6. And then we're going to go home. One God and Father of all, who is above all and through all, and in you all. Amen? To show the glory of God. to show His glory. Why? Why has He done this? And listen, do you know what? A family that loves Christ together, that shows His glory. A marriage that loves Christ together shows His glory. Friends, buddies that show Christ together show His glory. A church that loves Christ together, it's His glory. Amen? What are we doing? This is not a game! It's not about whether you feel like doing this. You're either in or you're out. You're either in the Spirit or you're in the flesh. This is not a game. Let's pray. Lord, thank You for Your Word. Pierce our hearts. Grant us repentance. Do the work that brings You the most glory. Stir in us like You've never done before. Lord, do a work at New Hope for Your honor, for Your glory. Lord, in the marriages in our church, grant repentance. in the friendships, in the relationships. Lord, our relationships at work, Lord, You do a work in us, in our families, with our friends. God, please, Lord, do this work in us, and we will quickly point to You. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.