All right, 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Let's read the first three, six verses here we're going to read. All right, 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 1. Do we begin again to commend ourselves or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men. For as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart, And such trust have we through Christ to Godward, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiencies of God, who also have made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. All right, now that's more scripture than we read a lot of times. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the songs. Thank you for allowing us to be here tonight. It's good to be home back where we belong. Pray you'd bless your word to our hearts tonight. Pray the folks would be attentive to your word and reverence it as you esteem it so highly. more than your name, which says, which says so much. And I pray you would help us to realize this is the Word of God, and we need to listen. We need to take it to heart. Try to understand it. Seek your help in understanding it and applying it in our own lives. Help us now, Father. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Now he's speaking of letters of recommendation, letters of commendation, That's recommendation. We all know what that is, don't we? Letter of recommendation. A letter of recommendation is a testimony to the character and faithfulness of the person. Anytime we get a letter from a missionary or anything, generally that's the way they do it. They send a letter presenting themselves, telling who they are, and then they'll send another letter or two with it that's from their pastor, somebody else that knows them, recommending them, testifying on their behalf. saying they're a good Christian, they're a faithful worker, they're a faithful person, they've proven themselves. It's designed to present the person in a favorable light and encourage his acceptance and approval by others because people are slow to accept and approve other people. They're quicker to do so if somebody else recommends them. Somebody else who they trust recommends them. then they're a little more apt, a little more quick to accept them. Its purpose, the letter of recommendation, its purpose is also to speed their approval by others without having to depend on time and experience with them to make a proper judgment of them. We do that. We're around people. We don't just meet them at one time and think, oh, they're the finest person I ever met. Not in these days, especially. We just don't do that. because there's so much fakery and phoniness and two-facedness and people are not real anymore. So much so that it's impossible for us to meet somebody and settle our confidence in them just from what we know from one meeting with them or whatever. And so letters of recommendation are to speed that process. It helps to know that somebody knows them who's willing to put themselves out there and say, you know, I'd like to recommend them. I believe in them. I've seen, I know this about them. They've proven themselves. That's what he's talking about here. Now these letters have always been used and they're still very much in use today. And like I've said, missionaries and evangelists and other people use them as far as the church and the work of the church is concerned. Pastors sometimes require them before considering a missionary to support them. Or, you know, people write books and you open a book and you'll see a lot of times in the beginning of the book, you'll see, what do they call them? It's a recommendation is what it is, but it's a, say it. It's from another person. A preface is kind of telling you what the book's about or why they wrote it or whatever. But there's also, you'll see a... Well, no, it's a... It's recommendations, but there's another word. Anyway, you can see that in books. Their friends or somebody else, especially religious books. They'll have a bunch of other preachers say, I read this book and it's the greatest book I ever read. You ought to read this book. This guy's really telling you something important and he's got away with words and boy, you'll benefit from this book if you'll read this book. It's the same thing. Yeah, there you go. That's that's a good word for That's that's one of the words they use. Yeah, I Endorse this that means I put my stamp of approval on it. I recommend it. I think it would be good for you I believe the person that wrote it is a good person. I believe that what they say is right well, that's That helps you if you especially if you know the person that writes the endorsement It means to It's a means, a letter of recommendation is a means to prove that others like you, that others agree with you. Boy, I'd have a hard time getting letters of recommendation, I'll tell you. And they approve of your work and you as a person. What others say about us has a great influence on what others think of us. That's what Brother Jeff said over there the other night, about there the other morning maybe he was preaching, and he was kinda honoring Brother Owen for so many years, and all the years he'd known him, and he said, he couldn't understand why people wanted to destroy other people, and then when he said that, he said, you know, he said, I don't have many friends, and he said, the ones I got, he said, I wanna treat them right, you know, I wanna keep my friends that I do have, and that's about the way it is. Yeah, you don't have too many friends. in the work of God and standing for the truth in such evil times as this. You ought to stand in front of a hostile crowd and tell them about Jesus and tell them they ain't going to go to heaven if they don't trust him. Tell them. The world is so rabidly, has so much hate for Jesus, it's unreal. And you can just feel it now. At funerals like today. And anywhere else, boy, they're hostile. They love their beer. They love their filthy living. They love their profane life in this wicked, ungodly world. But they do not love Jesus. They hate Him. You can talk about anything else, but you mention Him. Tell them how wonderful He is. They sneer at you. It's the kind of world we're living in. Don't think that the world's going to love you. Don't think they're going to embrace you for being a Christian. I mean, where do the times now when it's going to cost you? And you're going to have to come to the place where you're willing to stand, outside the camp with Him. And it's always been that way, but people, it's getting real now. What others say about us has a great influence on what others think of us. Ain't that the truth? A lot of people, you know, and it's something that really bothers me, because I've seen what it does through the years, is people saying bad things about other people. You know, it destroys churches. It destroys lives. And we just shouldn't do it. That's all there is to it. If we're gonna say, if you don't have anything good to say, Don't say anything. Be a recommender, don't be a putter downer. Y'all listening to me? Very important. Now Paul says here that he has no need of a letter of recommendation. Do I need letters of commendation from you? There are other things much more effective than a letter of recommendation. Now this is what the message is tonight and I want you to hear it. There's things better than a letter that somebody else writes saying he's a good guy. You can trust him. There's something better than that. You want to know what it is? In light of some things, a letter of recommendation is unnecessary and almost absurd. The actions and the influence of some people speak so loudly that a letter of recommendation has no meaning or influence at all. Now, what good would it have done the Apostle Paul to have a letter of recommendation from these people who he had won to the Lord? I mean, he's won praise to him in the first place. Does he need them to write him a letter of recommendation to somewhere else? Do we have to enlist the aid of other people to put our foot forward and gain any ground, to do any work, to accomplish anything in the work of God? No. No, we don't. What you need is God. What you need is the truth. What you need is the Spirit of God. And you need to know that you're yielded to God and that God's leading you. That's what you need. You don't need the approval. You don't need the recommendation of other people. If that's what it took, we'd be grounded for sure, because there's very few people who recommend me as a pastor, a preacher. You know, the religious world is just as hostile as the ungodly world toward the truth. Maybe you don't believe that. Maybe you don't understand that. You just ain't in close enough. You ain't in where you can see what's going on. This world is given to idolatry. It's just like it was when Paul was sitting there in the city and he looked around and saw that they were wholly given to idolatry. And his soul was stirred within him. That's what it is right now. Preacher gave me a bunch of stuff to read, like always. And I read this article in a magazine. It was Trinity something or other. I don't know what that is. But whatever it is, they're a mess, I'll tell you right now. But it spoke of the general consensus of Christianity, right now. It was on the subject of pornography. And it said that they did a study, a survey, whatever, and they come up with figures. 68% of men who profess to be Christians watch pornography, you know, regularly. It said, now listen to this, it said 50% of the pastors watch pornography regularly. Now that was, they cited another survey that did that. They didn't do the survey. But here's their take on it. Now see if this makes any sense to you or see if you can figure out where this came from. They said that most churches deal with this issue and this matter as if it is a moral issue and a moral matter. And they said it's really not a moral matter, it's a brain matter. They said that when you, science, modern science has discovered why we get in bondage to sinful habits. And this is why. When you do something over and over repeatedly like that, it cuts trails in your brain. And so then your brain just operates like that. And then it came to this, didn't it? I showed it to her, I said, look at this. This is a Christian magazine saying what Christians believe now. And it said that, here's what it come down to. It said that, therefore, 68% of Christian men love the Lord Jesus Christ with all their heart. But they're hooked on, you know, they're hooked on pornography. All right, now, it's chemical reactions in your brain. It's not sin. There's no moral issue. It's just a physical thing that happens. And that's why you get hooked on it. Where do y'all, do you think any? You know, that's why that I preach and believe and have for many, many years, you are not born with a sinful nature. Sin has, does not have its basis in this flesh. This body is not why we sin. Now they believe that, and so does everybody else, and that's where you come to. Sin is a physical issue. It's because of your DNA. It's because of the way your chemicals work in your brain. And therefore, you need drugs. or you need some kind of physical treatment that'll solve the sin problem. Now, if you don't see nothing wrong with that, you don't even understand nothing and you're lost in the fog. It is not a physical matter. Sin is a moral issue. It's of the heart. Jesus said so. It's out of the heart that all that comes. Fornications and thefts and all that. comes from the heart, comes out of your mouth. That's what defiles a man. It's not chemicals, it's not something that you, it's not because you are physically designed to sin. It's not true. And see, you stand for that, you're out. in every, I don't know of a mission board, I don't know of any church, I don't, other than ours, well Brother Owen and them and a few others, but they all got it in their statement of faith. You can't go to a Bible college unless you agree to that statement of faith, saying that you believe that men are born sinful. and it's a part of their nature. You gotta agree with that because everything else depends upon that. Everything else they believe depends upon that. And so that's where it's taken Christianity to that absurd place that I just described there. And so, you're not gonna be accepted in that. Anyway, let's get back on track here. The actions and influence of people speak much louder than a letter of recommendation. Paul's speaking here also of his confidence in himself and his own ministry. A letter of recommendation gives us confidence and makes us feel better about ourselves and what we're doing. Knowing that somebody approves and agrees is encouraging. He says these people were his epistle. That's what he says there, ye are my epistle. They are his letter of recommendation, written in his heart and known and read of all men. Paul knew in his heart what a difference his preaching and influence had had on these people, you see. Follow me. It was a positive thing that gave him confidence that what he was doing was right. To him, it was evidence that God had validated his ministry. You all understand it here. I mean, Paul said, I don't need letters of recommendation to you, from you. I don't need you to approve me. What I need for you to do is live right and live according to the gospel that I've preached to you. That's better than any letter of recommendation. When people see you living right and walking in the truth, they'll say, you know, he taught them right. There's results there that are obvious, that validate his calling, that prove that he's told them the truth and he's given them God's Word. To him, that was enough. He's still there. These people were also a much greater testimony to Paul's ministry and his character than a mere letter would have been. Anybody can write a letter, just like anybody can say words out of their mouth. Doesn't mean a thing. Your walk talks louder than your talk talks. There you go. Fits right in here. What we need to see is reality in the walk of people who listen to the preaching. You know, what I need is not letters of recommendation from anybody else. I don't need them from the other preachers in town here. I don't need them from preachers far off. The only thing that's gonna help and make others believe that I'm telling the truth is when you live right. And you live according to what I'm preaching to you. That's right. The other way just proves, I mean, it's a letter of condemnation whenever The preacher preaches and preaches and people just don't live it. You know, they just go right out there and do as they please, right contrary to what he showed them out of the Word of God. Now if he's just preaching his ideas and his opinions and his preferences, but that ain't what I do. And that ain't what I'm gonna do either. I'm gonna preach the Bible and I'm gonna show you why. And if you don't believe it, it's on your head. If you don't live it, it's on your head. But a letter of recommendation is a poor substitute for the testimony of God in your own heart. See? Paul's confident that God's called him and put him into the ministry. I mean, it's what he says here. No letter of recommendation is gonna do more than that for him. It's not gonna even do that. I was trying to think of a quote I heard the other day. Let me think if I can pull it up here somewhere. It's up here like this. Spurgeon, he said that, don't get angry when other people speak evil of you. You're much worse than they think. So there you go. Any preacher is judged by the type of people his ministry produces, and you know that's right. He's judged by others on this criteria. And it's not always fair. Because people don't practice what the preacher preaches to them. That's common everywhere. I mean, you're not gonna have a church where everybody agrees and walks the same. That's why we're crippled. That's why the church is in such a state as it's in. There's no unity. There's no agreement. Everybody, every man does what's right in his own eyes. Ain't gonna listen to nobody. Ain't gonna be convinced by nobody. Always got an argument. Always contentious about things. Even if it's straight out of the word of God. No regard or respect for age, elders, people that are way ahead of you in this deal. You know, I'll do as I please. I know, I know. All like a bunch of teenagers, like a bunch of 13 year olds that think they know everything. That's what we got now. Everybody's that way. Nobody's willing to listen to counsel. Nobody's willing to be instructed. That's why the church is grounded everywhere. He's judged by others. He judges himself with the same criteria. Preacher condemns himself when he sees people just won't do, you know, they just won't listen. They won't agree. They won't listen. They won't study. They won't look for themselves. They won't accept the truth and walk in it. He says, I'm wasting my time, you know. What am I doing? What's the use? After any church looking for a pastor is going to look at the results of a man's previous ministry. That's the way they work it nowadays. Now, you know, I don't know. You know, I don't know how accurate that is. God's ways are not man's ways. That's just, you know, it's no wonder we have all this success-oriented preaching and it's so popular and this prosperity deal and all this that they preach all the time. Ain't no wonder that it's so widespread because that's the way most people think. That's the way most churches operate. If they need a new preacher, they're looking for somebody who is successful, who's had a grand ministry and won hundreds and thousands to the Lord. They want somebody that can get them in there, get them saved, baptized, and make a showing. They want to make a showing. I've seen churches do that all. God ain't got nothing to do with it. What about just looking to God and praying and saying, Lord, send us a man, the man you want here. I can't do it that way. We got our criteria. We got to check him out, find out how successful he is. Well, if he's real successful over yonder, what does he want to come over here for anyway? Why would he want to come to a church that's losing when he's in a church that's winning, if that's the way it is? And is the preacher the whole thing? I mean, does it all depend upon him? Whether the church goes forward or not? No, no sir. Buddy, I've known several good men who didn't make it because the church just would not work with him and go along and agree and try. Some old hardhead or several of them. And usually, many times, it's a bunch of women in the church or one woman in the church or one old hardheaded man. That's the way it works. I've been around long enough to see and watch and figure out what happens. And that's what happens. Church is like your chicken pen at home. Somebody's gonna be the head rooster. Somebody's gonna be the head hen. And everybody's gonna submit to them or they're gonna peck them to death. That's the way it works. People are just like low-down, stupid chickens. And they get anchored somewhere in a church where they, you know, I've been in church more than once. Sit down and, you know, not know anybody and have somebody come up, some old man say, hey, you're in my seat. I've had that happen more than once. You're in my seat. I've been sitting in, one man told me, he said, I've been sitting in this pew for 45 years. Well, okay, there you go. Sit down. Anyway, he may know in his heart that he did the will of God and did what was right, even if the results were not positive. I've known a lot of guys that got voted out for just trying to do right, for trying to lead the church in the right way and they wasn't gonna do it. And he got voted out. So the next church he goes to, well, how was your last ministry? Well, they voted me out. Oh, what'd you do? Did you run off with the piano player or something like that? No, I just, I was preaching the word of God. Oh, sure, yeah, he was preaching the word of God. People don't run a preacher off of preaching the word of God. Surely not. Ain't that what the church is for? Ain't that what he's supposed to do? Yes, they do, too. Oh, yes, they do. But other people must simply judge him based upon the visible results of his influence so far. See, that's just kind of the way it is. So what are we talking about here? Well, Paul said, I don't need letters. I need you to do right. I don't need letters from you. Anybody else? I don't need to send letters. What I need is for the people I preach to to listen and believe the word of God and then live it. That's what I need. You are my epistles written in flesh. Ain't nobody gonna believe me if the people I preach to don't pay no attention. They're just gonna laugh at me. They're gonna count me as nothing, as a fool, as a joker. They're gonna write me off as nobody, nothing to be reckoned with. This applies to all of us and not just to preachers. I mean, it's true of all people in the sense that we're known by who our friends are and who our enemies are. Every one of you is sitting in here tonight. Everybody knows who you are by who your friends are and who your enemies are. Birds of a feather flock together. Oh yes, yes they do. They most certainly do. They are our epistles because they're far more effective in communicating to others what we really are than any written letter is. The people I associate myself with, that I identify myself with. The way I live my life, that is my epistle. That's my letter of recommendation or my letter of refusal, condemnation. The longer you live, the more you'll see this is true. and that birds of a feather do flock together. Why is people read these epistles and are not fooled by written letters that might or might not be true? People, I've seen some low-down phonies have a stack of letters of recommendation. And they was as rotten and wicked and immoral and filthy as they could be, but they had a whole bunch of people to say, he's a good man. Yeah, I'm telling you. But it comes out eventually and then everybody knows. Best letter of recommendation that all of us have is the way we live our life. The people we associate with, the things that we enjoy, that we participate in, that we indulge ourselves in, that's our epistle. That's our letter of recommendation. That's what tells everybody what we are. You know, people will take up for one another. I've seen people who've done wicked, wicked things, and be wicked, not just one sin, not just one problem, but living that way, and their mommy, or their daddy, or somebody, grandma or grandpa, just defend them to the death. Oh, they're good, they're a good kid, they're just, you know. Everybody, the only problem they got is everybody just don't understand them. Do you think that that testimony convinces everybody that that kid is a good kid? Well, their mama believes in them. Their grandpa believes in them. You think everybody believes that? No, everybody thinks their grandpa's a fool. Their mama's a fool, because they know what they are. How do they know? Because of how they act, who they're with, who they identify with, what they love. Everybody knows. So take up form all you want, ain't gonna do no good. Those epistles, those letters of recommendation don't do any good. They're ineffective eventually because everybody knows. Everybody's gonna know what everybody is. Then realize also that others are judged by you and your actions and your character and your attitude and your spirit. You understand? Realize that others are judged by you. Your actions, your character, your attitude, and your spirit. It just goes with our name. With the church we go to. You can go right on up the ladder. What country you live in and belong to. People will just judge one another that way, like it or not. Say, ain't supposed to judge. Well, you can just cry about that all you want to. People are going to judge. They're going to judge till the last breath is drawn on this earth. People are going to judge. Ain't going to stop it just because you say, you ain't got no right to judge me. That ain't going to stop it. People are still going to judge you. And that's a bunch of phony junk anyway because you go around judging everybody the same way. Everybody does. That's the way it is. We look at people and we size them up and we look at how they're living and how they talk and we know pretty well what they are. I watched a guy down there at the funeral today, and it ain't hard to figure out what he is. Standing up in a funeral home, in the front of all of the crowd there, a hundred people at least, standing up there twisting and squirming like Elvis Presley, and you know, and drunk as a skunk. Now, oh, he's saved. He's just kind of messed up right now. Ah, baloney. You ain't gonna give me that junk. I ain't swallowing it. I know, I got a different opinion than you do. You're judging. Why, you got a right to judge. and judge such twisted judgment. Well, how come I got a right to judge like that? And then tell me I ain't got no right to judge? No, I ain't buying that and I ain't going along with it and I'm going to buck against that stuff. Yeah, and I'll say something. Well, especially those you go to church with and associate with as Christians. They're going to be pretty judgmental. I just wait to say, well, I shouldn't be. Well, you're that way too. You're that way. You're not for just letting anything go, are you? Somebody offends you, you're not going to stand for it, are you? Somebody live wicked or do something wicked in front of your kids, you're not going to go for that, are you? There's another reason for church discipline and for a covenant between church members to live according to certain standards of morality and behavior. You know, if you're going to be a member of the church, you ought to live according to the standards that are preached at the church and the way and what the church believes. Amen? It's a covenant. See that? How many of you have ever read that? I wonder how many of you have ever read that. That used to be a big deal. Every church had a church covenant. Because that's what a church is. A church body is a group of believers that have covenanted together. Do you know what that means? That means a mutual promise. It's a mutual commitment. And to live according to these things. It names drinking on there. It names some other things on there. And that's old, man, that's from way back. Churches had covenants, and they said, we're gonna live like this. I remember a Mennonite over in Virginia. They put a guy out of the church, because he got a TV or something. And I was talking to him about it, and he said, well, he said, everybody condemns us for it and everything, but he said, it's in our covenant. We agree together to live according to these standards. And if you don't agree, don't be a part of the covenant. You know, don't say, I believe this, and then you don't do it. And everybody in the public knows it, and it's a bad testimony for our church. It's just what I'm preaching to you right here. It's a letter of condemnation. You're putting out, it's just like sending a letter to everybody in town that this church don't, you know, don't do it right, don't teach right. And I don't agree with them. It's, I want everybody in town, no, I don't agree. I go there, but I don't agree. Shouldn't be that way. The ministry, the message from the church can't go out there. Now we're not, our message is not about standards, but they're not gonna believe about Jesus if we don't agree on other things too. You can't present a thousand different ways or a hundred or five different ways to live for God in this wicked world. It's pretty easy right now to tell the difference between good and evil in this world. Good's getting mighty scarce. Salty people, Christians are getting mighty scarce. Ain't too many of them. And are disappearing quick. There's another good reason to honor your family and their name and reputation. Who you are should greatly govern your behavior and your life because people judge others because of you. They judge your whole family because of you. Ain't he, ain't his name Miller? or whatever, don't they? You do, you do. Well, that's old so-and-so's boy. Yeah, they go to that church up there, look at him. When are they gonna give up? Can't they see there ain't nobody listening to them? Ain't nobody believes what they're saying up there. Look! Paul says, I don't need a letter. I don't want you to write nothing on a piece of paper. You don't need a baptism certificate. You don't need a paper saying you're a member. You need to live right. You need to show the people out there and your family and your friends that you agree with what that church teaches. You know, and people that can't, I've told people before, in other churches, I've said, well, now look, if you can't agree with what the pastor's preaching, because it's important stuff, and if you can't agree, and you ain't gonna go along with it, and you're gonna get out in public and contradict what your church believes, then you ought to get out of that church. Go down the road and worship in one of them bell temples, where anything goes, and everybody can do what they want. It's not bondage. It's freedom. Freedom from sin. It's freedom to live right. We don't have to agree on every jot and tittle, but we have to show that we're one. We have to show that we agree on the book and on holy living. We have to show that we agree that sin's bad and wrong, and it hurts God, and it's contrary to Him, and it's what's run the whole universe. And if we can't agree on that, then we ain't going nowhere. Yeah, that's right. Pretty easy, really. You don't have to have much education. You don't have to have a lot of knowledge and understanding to know these basic things. Stand for what is right. and go to church and try to learn at church the difference between right and wrong. Learn to discern. Listen to the word of God. Study the word of God at home. Go home like the Bereans did. When you come to church and I preach something and really plow, you need to go home, get your Bible and say, now look, we're gonna search the scriptures and see if these things be sold. And they were highly commended for that. Yes, sir. Because then they searched the scriptures and guess what? He did tell them the truth. And these things were so. And so there was more unity. And more strength there. A better testimony outside of the church. As they said, ain't no use talking, trying to talk them out of it. They agree. They all believe that way. Can't understand it. Won't you search the scriptures? And see if they be so. Don't need letters of recommendation. We don't need for everybody to go around telling, oh, Brother Mike, he's such a great guy. You'd really like him. They wouldn't believe you if you told them that. Because I'm mean, you know. Yeah. I'm mean. Yeah. Nobody likes him because he's mean. Look at him. He's got that beard, and he's got that mean look on his face all the time. He scares little kids. No, we don't need you to go around trying to take up for me or take up for your church. Just live right. That'll do it. That'll do it. That's what he's saying here. That's what he's saying. Amen. Let's stand. Amen. Oh, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren, when brethren dwell together in unity. It's wonderful, wonderful. But it's a rare jewel. It's a rare thing. It'd be good if we could just have services all the time, like we had over Sunday morning. There's unity at a time like that because everybody puts down all the disagreements and all the bad things that's happened through the years. So I told them, I said, you need to focus on the victories and not on the on all the people that's left and won't never come back, and all of the disasters in lives, and says, this is part of the deal. You ought to focus on the victories, the good things, what God's done. And through all the years, I said, back home, I said, we go on for months, don't seem like anything happened. But then when I look back over a period of time like that, and start thinking and adding up, I said, boy, yeah, God is working. He's doing things. And so when you go over the years, you can see how much God has done a lot of good. Sure, there's going to be the other. They went out from us because they were not of us. If they had been of us, they no doubt would have continued with us, but they went out. They were doing that back then, 2,000 years ago. So they're going to do it now, too. Amen. Father, thank you for your word. Bless our hearts and minds. Help us, Lord, to live right and be a good testimony for you, primarily, that we'd be a good Christian, that we'd show Jesus to the world by the way we live and by our good and holy conversation out there. in the world where we have to go. By the way we dress, the way we present ourselves, by our spirit toward other people, by the very way we speak to them and look at them that they would realize that there's something different about us and that the Spirit of God lives in us and it really does make a difference. I pray you'd help us to be a good testimony for our church. and for one another, our brethren in Christ, that we wouldn't shame one another, embarrass one another, be a disgrace to one another in the way we act and think and the things we say and do out there in the world where others can see and hear us, Lord. I pray that you'd help us all to be your epistles written in flesh here that others could believe and see. I pray you watch over us and get us home now. I pray you guide and direct us through the rest of the week. Help us, Lord, in our lives to be a witness for you and to do your will in Jesus' name. Amen.