I shall remember his name. He did teach us when we were little, to preach the holy name and pray for righteousness. God, how it presses on. At the name of Jesus now! Amen, please remain standing for prayer this morning. Brother Potts, would you pray for us, please? Amen, I think you may be seated unless you celebrate a birthday or an anniversary this past week. All right. Happy birthday. All right, let's sing happy birthday. ♪ Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you, happy birthday God bless you, happy birthday to you. Well, praise the Lord. It's good to be in the Lord's house today and to have each one of you here. A few things from the bulletin. First of all, the Marinos are not here today. Her dad is celebrating his 35th anniversary at the church in Faith Baptist at Fritch. And so we sent them down to be a part of that day. And so you might pray for them tomorrow as they head home from Texas. And then we'll have our annual church business meeting on Wednesday night. I encourage you to come be a part of that. We'll go through the blessings of last year, present a new budget, and then we're going to vote. Now I've already had someone ask about getting a ballot and doing a mail-in. This is not the federal government. We're not using Dominion counting machines. So I'm going to keep an eye out for any trucks that pull in, you know, with big boxes of ballots. But anyhow. We will have that and it will be a secure voting time. Anyhow, ladies meeting be Thursday night at 7 o'clock and encourage ladies come to that. Teen church cleaning Saturday. There's going to be a brown bag on February 7th and a chili cook off on the 12th followed by game night. Bring your favorite games and we'll have a good time of fellowship there. And remember to pray for those over in the prayer area and lift them up before the Lord. It's good to be in the Lord's house today. Brother James and his crew making good produce progress. Thank you. He knew the P word I wanted to say. They're making good progress out front for those who weren't here Sunday night. That's a memorial and it's going to have a flagpole in it and something that we've had on plans for a long time. Problem is a lot of the big companies didn't want to touch it because it's a small job and we have brother James starting his business. I thought there's a guy that would do a good job and has to live with it. So we know he's going to do a good job. Amen. So be excited about when that's all done, and so you might pray for safety as they work on that. Gonna have Brother Foster come back and lead us in a song, and then we'll get to our Sunday school time. Lord bless you for being here. All right, we'll sing the first and last verses of At the Cross. It was there, my plea, I received my salvation. At this time, you can be dismissed to your Sunday school classes. Alright, my class we're still in lesson number four. If you need a handout, Brother Potts has them in the back. If you'd raise your hand, he'll get you one. Alright, right up here. While he's doing that, you can be turning in your Bibles to Galatians chapter number five. Alright, there we go. Okay, Galatians chapter number five, dealing with the subject of serving one another. It's important for us as Christians to understand what our purpose is, what we've been left on this earth to do. And we see that Jesus left us a perfect example. And we see in His life and in His ministry, it was all about serving others. So we certainly need to understand this topic and understand from the Word of God what our duty is and what God seeks to fulfill through us. And we find, we find this topic here in Galatians chapter number 5 of how Paul was trying to teach the church at Galatia, how specifically they were to serve one another. So let's read our text once again here, Galatians chapter 5 beginning in verse number 1. It says, Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold I, Paul, say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. Ye did run well, who did hinder you, that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth a whole lump. I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded. But he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is this offense of the cross ceased? I would they were even cut off, which trouble you. For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another." Paul here is dealing with some believers and he has ministered to them and he has imparted doctrinal truth to them from the Word of God. And now he's come to find out that there have been others that have come alongside and they are teaching some things that are contrary to the word of God. This often happens in the life of a church and Christianity as a whole where we see what the Word of God says, but yet others would come alongside and seek to cast doubt. And it goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. This is the tactic of the devil as he approached Adam and Eve and said, Yea, hath God said. So he wants us to doubt and question what the Word of God says. And here we see an issue that has arisen within the Church of Galatia where there These Judaizers are saying that they must be circumcised and that they must keep the law, all of these things, in order to have a right standing with God. And Paul is now having to deal with this issue and establish once again who they are in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's good for us to have these foundational truths in our life that when those would come seek to cast doubt on the Word of God or seek to cast doubt on our salvation and our standing in the Lord Jesus Christ that we would know exactly what the Word of God says and that we would know our standing and that we would be able to move forward without doubt or without controversy knowing exactly who we are in the Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul here he's trying to again establish these foundational truths in the life of the believers here in Galatia and he wants them to understand who they are and that it's and he As he often does, he gives an idea or a circumstance, and he says, if this is true, then how can this be true? And he causes them to think, and he wants them to understand then, if this is what the Word of God says, then how can this that you're trying to add to it be true as well? And he shows how these two things contradict each other, and that the Word of God is the truth that we should be following. So we looked last week here at the stand of liberty. We know that we have liberty in the Lord Jesus Christ, so we need to understand what that liberty is. I won't go through all the details of it, but I'd just like to reiterate some things that we must understand. Our position in Christ was the first thing that we looked at under the stand of liberty. So what is our position in Christ? Can anyone tell me what our position in Christ is? Can anyone remember? You probably have it in your notes even. What does our position in Christ do? Well, I'll give you the answer. Our new standing in liberty frees us from the guilt and penalty of sin. Aren't you thankful for that position in the Lord Jesus Christ, where we were under the burden and the weight of sin, but the moment that we asked Jesus Christ to save us, we were freed from that weight and that guilt, and now we are free from that penalty of sin. We have a new nature, we have a new home, and we are on our way to heaven. So this is our position, that is the liberty that we have. This is our standing in the Lord Jesus Christ that we are free from the guilt and penalty of sin. Second, we see the position in grace, the position in grace. This is also a wonderful attribute of our salvation, a characteristic of our salvation. It's a wonderful blessing from the Lord that our salvation does not require any works on our part. There's nothing that we could do to merit our salvation with God or merit His favor. It's all of God. It's all of grace. God is giving us this gift of salvation through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We simply have to accept it by faith. So it's not by works. And then we saw, lastly, the position of hope. And our position of hope is knowing this, that we have confidence that God has made made us as a believer completely righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are to become more like Him. So we have a blessed hope. And these are our standings in liberty, and these are things that we must have firmly grounded within our life. If you're a saved individual, these exist. These are here and they are in your life. Now you need to act upon them. And a lot of our behavior and the way that we act, the things that we do, stem from who we believe that we are. And you look at anyone and the way that they behave, it's because of their upbringing or who they believe they are or who they believe they want to be. But as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, we need to find our identity in these positional truths of the Lord Jesus Christ. And standing in these liberties and understanding that this is how Christ wants you to view yourself, and as you view yourself properly, then you will begin to behave as the Lord Jesus Christ doing those things that He's called us to do. So we need to understand these things before we can move on and serve one another properly. We started in point number two, and we got into the first area of this. We know, as I stated just a little bit ago, anything that the Lord Jesus Christ or God seeks to establish in our lives, we know that the devil wants to create a counterfeit to it, or he wants to divert us from that truth. And we see that he does it in these positional truths that we have as well. And he wants to shake your foundation. rattle your life that you would not move forward and do those things that God has called you to do, but rather render you useless for the cause of Christ. So He does some things to subvert that liberty. And we saw first of all through legalism. And I defined that last week and I want to give these once again because I believe it's important for us because this term is thrown around and misused quite often. But legalism is this. First of all is adding self-effort to faith in Christ for salvation. So it's adding any type of work in order to attain salvation. Secondly, legalism is also emphasizing rules more than a relationship with Christ. Again, it's pointing to works. You gotta keep these things, you gotta do these things in order to maintain favor with God. So the first area is that you're doing works to obtain salvation. The second area is that you're doing works to keep your salvation. Neither one of those are true. And we go back to our positional truths in standing in liberty. We know that our salvation is of God, is by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So he deals with these areas of legalism and we see these creeping up all around us in different religions and different philosophies that they would seek to add things to the salvation message or they would seek to add things to your Christian life in order for you to keep your salvation. And so we see both of these extremes out there today. So we understand that legalism is wrong, but then you have the other extreme, those that are trying to work so hard to either earn their salvation, or they're trying to work so hard to keep their salvation. And then they have the other realm here is that of license, through license. So he seeks to subvert these positional truths through license. So this is the opposite of legalism. It's the abuse of liberty. License is another way Satan uses to subvert our liberty in the Lord Jesus Christ. So a Christian who abuses his liberty in Christ thinks he is free to return to his sinful ways. In other words, he understands that he's been saved by grace and he understands that he is eternally secure in the Lord Jesus Christ because God is keeping that salvation. So now he thinks that he can just go out and live the way he wants to live because of these truths. Sadly, many modern Christian authors adopt this view and take the doctrine of grace to the extreme by doing as they please. In verse 13 of our text, Paul tells the Galatians that they have been called into liberty. But then he gives this caveat to it, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh. So this liberty we've been given is not for us to appease the flesh. This liberty, on the contrary, is given that we might please God and honor Him with our lives. So Paul tells these Galatians that use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, and that word occasion means a starting point or an opportunity, a base of operations. So you're going to take this truth of liberty that you have, and you're going to take that stand, and now you're going to build a base on that, saying, because I have this liberty, I can do what I want to do. And Paul tells the Galatians not to let freedom become a launching point for their flesh to advance its activities. Romans 6 reminds us of how we are to keep our flesh in check. It says here in verse number 1, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? This is the question that he's posing to the Romans, the Christians there at Rome, and he's saying, asking the question, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? We know that grace covers our sins, but he's asking, shall we continue in it? God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? So he's setting forth the expectation of God as He has given us this grace. Now He's given us liberty because He's freed us from the penalty and the guilt of sin. But now He desires for us to live in such a way that we would detest sin and that we would abstain from sin in our life, that we would be dead to sin, not to live any longer therein. Some Christians want to enjoy their freedom by choosing to love Christ without regard for His commandments. This is a very dangerous, slippery slope that you would start down. While obeying God�s commandments do not earn our salvation, they are still important and prove our love for the Lord. As a matter of fact, the Bible tells us, John 14, 15, �If ye love me, keep my commandments.� So we need to understand in our mind the works that we do, the things that we do that line up with the Word of God that are pleasing to our Heavenly Father, we do these things out of a heart and attitude of love. We want to please Him. It's just like the love that we have for our spouse or our children, whatever it would be. We show that love by desiring to please them. We want to do things that are acceptable and pleasing to them. So, it's no different with God and our relationship with Him. The things that we do in this life should be pointed to an adoration to God, and out of that adoration and love for God, we want to give of ourselves to Him and doing the works that He's called us to do. and pleasing Him in all the activities of our life. So we must not allow ourselves to be pulled into a lifestyle of license. And boy, do we ever see that today. We see both extremes. But I think we see a whole lot more of license going on today, where people are allowing a lot of things in their life because they understand that they have liberty, but they don't understand what true liberty is in the Lord Jesus Christ. They think that they can do whatever they would desire to do, and God will overlook it. So when we are saved, we are alive in Christ and dead to sin. The lifestyle of license is not a biblical lifestyle, but a leaning to the flesh, and it stems from the sin nature and self-effort of man. Romans 8, 5 says, For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. A good thing for us to understand is that we as a saved individual have the Holy Spirit of God living within us. And then as we look to Jesus Christ who is our example for us as believers, could you imagine the Lord Jesus Christ living in such a lifestyle of license that He feels He has a license to do whatever He desires? Jesus Christ lived within these guidelines of fulfilling the will of the Father. In fulfilling the will of the Father He was fully righteous and without sin. That is the model and that is the desire of God that we would understand that we are now alive in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are now to follow after His example. and abstain from those sinful ways. So every saved person still has a fleshly nature and is susceptible to the temptations of the flesh, but he is no longer under its power. So we have the ability as saved individuals to have power over that sinful temptation in our life. Galatians 5.16 says, This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So if we're having issues with sin in our life, then we need to do more walking in the Spirit. We need to spend more time with God. We need to spend more time searching those things of the Word of God to be true. And the lifestyle that we live, make sure that it lines up with God's expectation on our life as a Christian individual. So our Christian liberty is not a license to live in sin. So then what should we do with this liberty that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ? If I can't do what I want to do, what is this liberty all about? Well, it's about service. It's about service. The service of liberty. Because we are in Christ, we are freed from legalism and we are freed from license. We're freed from these two realms. As Christians, the freedom we enjoy in Christ is not an opportunity for sin, nor is it an opportunity for self. It is an opportunity to serve. So the service of love. Galatians 5.13 of our text says, For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. 2 Corinthians 5.14, For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead. So this liberty that we've been given, we now understand that we've been given this liberty as an opportunity then to serve others. An opportunity to serve as the Lord Jesus Christ served. The service that we render must be driven by our love for the Lord. The security of Christ's love for us is what motivates our love for Him. And Christ's sacrificial death for us should spur us to consider what we can do for Him instead of ourselves. 1 John 4.19 says we love Him because He first loved us. So our response to Christ's love for us is that we ought to love Him. We ought to reciprocate that love and we ought to show forth that love by desiring the same things that He desired. And He desired to serve others for what purpose? That they might understand their need of Him. that they might understand they need a Savior in their life. And we are to show forth that same love to individuals that they might come to the same saving knowledge that we have of the Lord Jesus Christ. The origin of what you do is more important than what you actually do. What motivates your actions today? We serve because we are motivated by God's love, not out of a fear of violating a law. This is what the Judaizers were trying to teach here to the believers at the church of Galatia. They had been saved, they had accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, now they're coming alongside and saying, you've got to keep the law. You've got to keep the law in order to appease God and remain in favor with God, and it causes fear. And it should cause fear if those things were true, because all of us know that we cannot uphold all of the law. There's no way that we could keep it. As a matter of fact, the Bible tells us if we violate the law on one point, we're guilty of all of it. So that would be a fearful thing, but thank the Lord that He has given us a liberty that frees us, that allows us to move forward without fear, that allows us to move forward motivated by love and serving one another as we ought. Mark 12 and verse 30 says, And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. So in these two verses, we understand the heart of God. We understand our purpose. And we understand what we've been left here to do. And it's to show forth the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. So when we love the Lord, we will love other people and desire to serve them. So we see the service of love. Next, we see the service of others. the service of others. And Mark 10 45 says, for even the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. So as we've been stating all along, this was Jesus Christ. This was his purpose for coming to the earth. He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. He came to serve. And that's the exact same reason why we've been left here. You may ask the question, if I'm saved, then why am I still here? Why does God need me here? Well, it's for this purpose, for us to minister to others. Others still need to hear. This world needs the Lord Jesus Christ. I think that's without a doubt and we understand that. They need the Lord Jesus Christ in their life and they're going all sorts of different directions and going the wrong direction, making wrong decisions. They need Jesus Christ in their life and we've been left here to serve them, to minister unto them. The Christian life was designed to be a serving one. George Grant said, �For centuries, Christians have been the primary agents of charity and compassion in Western culture. From the first century forward to the founding of the American colonies, Christians took the lead in caring for the hungry, the dispossessed and the afflicted. This was, in fact, the hallmark of authentic Christianity.� So when Christianity truly understands their freedoms in Christ and use it to serve others, they can bring the people in their community to the Lord and help them find freedom in Him as well. It sure sounds like this is a plan that's from God, doesn't it? It sounds like a plan that will work. It sounds like a divine plan. Think about the impact that we can make for the cause of Christ when we use our freedom for its rightful purpose. So when you think about liberty and you think about the purpose behind the liberty we've been given, we've been given three different areas or avenues in which we can take a viewpoint of liberty, and that is legalism, that we need to work for our salvation or we need to work to keep our salvation. That of license, that we're free to do whatever we want to do. Because we call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we're saved, we're eternally secure, we can do whatever we want to do. And then we could understand from a biblical viewpoint that the liberty that we've been given is a freedom now to serve one another. So we need to understand our freedom in Christ. Think about the impact we can make for the cause of Christ when we use our freedom for its rightful purpose. I would also submit to you, think about the impact that we have when we use our freedom for the wrong purpose. We all have a testimony and we have an impact on the lives around us. So if we take this liberty that we've been given and we apply legalism to it or we apply license to it, think about the impact it has on the individuals around us. certainly have an impact. It had an impact on the Church of Galatia and Paul had to filter through it and deal with the issue. So what are some of the ways we can serve others? Well there are five ways and I believe they're in your notes here. Five ways to serve others. First of all, restore. Restore. God calls mature believers to help restore repentant Christians to the body of Christ. So we understand there's a There's a restoring that needs to take place because we still have the ability to commit sin, and we do, we need to be restored. Our relationship is secure, but our fellowship can be hindered. And we've seen it to the point where people even fall out of church because of the sin that they are involved in. So we, as Christians who are right with God and want to use our liberty in the right way, are sent forth to serve others in the area of restoration. Galatians 6.1 says, Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such in one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself. lest thou also be tempted." So go to them understanding that you're capable of the same sin they're committing. You're capable of doing anything that they've done, but go to them in a spirit of meekness seeking to restore them to the fellowship of the Lord Jesus Christ. Restore them to the fellowship of the body of Christ or a member of Shawnee Mission Baptist Temple. So we have the ministry of restoration. Secondly, we have the ministry of bearing burdens. We are to bear one another's burdens. In context, this speaks primarily of the burdens of restoration or even temptation. This involves us praying for and encouraging each other in spiritual growth and victory. Aren't you thankful that we take time to pray on Wednesday nights, that we're praying for one another. We understand it's an important role for the believer to bear one another's burdens. to take these petitions to the Lord, and understand that the Lord hears them." Galatians 6-2 goes on to say, "...bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." So you're asking, what can I do for the Lord Jesus Christ? How can I serve Him? Well, here's a good way for you to serve. Everyone can pray. Everyone can bear another's burden and bring it to the Lord. So that leads us into the third area of praying. Prayer is one of the most significant ways we can serve one another. It is something every Christian can participate in. It is something every Christian needs. Ephesians 6.18 says, We need to be active in participating in prayer, not only on Wednesday nights, but every day of our life. Petitioning the Lord for the prayers of the individuals in our church, and then those lists can go outside the walls of this church, and for people we know that we want to see saved, and the list goes on and on. We have much to pray for. We have a great ministry in serving one another in the area of prayer. Fourthly, we see giving. What demonstration of Christian love is there when our words are not backed up by our deeds? The Bible tells us to be a doer of the word and not a hearer only. So he's telling us, as you understand what the Bible commands, as you understand the truths of the word of God, then you need to live them. You need to display them. And they need to be a part of your walk with the Lord. So we ought to walk or talk if we are going to genuinely serve others. James chapter two and verse 15. If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit?" And I don't know, I'm sure you're familiar with Peanuts comics, Charlie Brown, and I'm thankful that he was a Christian man and he often wrote in biblical truths in his comics or in the TV shows that he portrayed. But Charles Schultz, he drew a Peanuts comic strip based on this particular portion of scripture, James 2, 15 and 16. Charlie Brown and Linus are all bundled up in their house while Snoopy is out in the cold shivering in front of his empty dog dish. Charlie and Linus are having a discussion on how sad it is that Snoopy is hungry and cold. He's cold and hungry. We ought to do something about it. They walk outside and say, be of good cheer, Snoopy. And Snoopy just looks at them as if something is missing. And that's often the way that we view our service. We know what the right thing is to do. We see the situation. We see the need. Yet we just say what should be done, but we don't put anything in motion. So we need to be willing to give in our service. And then we need to visit. Going to people's homes, whether it be to pray with them or to encourage them, whatever it might be. It's a way to show care. In James 1, verse 27, it says, Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. If any of you have ever been in that situation where you're shut in, you know what a blessing it is to have someone encourage you or send a card or just give a phone call or a text, whatever it might be, those words of encouragement, that's a way in which we can serve. And I'm thankful that many in our church pick up this area of service and they're faithful to care for those that are shut in and to show their concern and their care for them. So we have many areas here that we must understand from this position of liberty, the stand that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, understanding the fallacies that can come our way, understanding if someone presents us with something that's contrary to the Word of God, we need to evaluate it and then look at the Word of God, what our liberty is. Does this match up with the service God would have for me? Is this serving God through serving others? We can accept Christ as our Savior and we enjoy a new position of liberty in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are freed from the guilt and penalty of sin and our salvation is solely by grace through faith, needing neither our works nor our keeping of the law. It's all of God. Satan, however, wants to keep us in bondage to sin and attacks our liberty through legalism and license. A true understanding of freedom we have in Christ will lead us to serve others because of God's love for us. And when we use our freedom to serve others, we exercise our liberty in Christ as God intended. I don't know about you, but when I see God's plan and then I see the devil and how he tries to subvert that plan, it makes me angry. Because you see exactly how he's trying to hinder the work of the Lord. And we can talk politics if you want, and I'm sure all of us would raise some hairs over it. But we see things that are going on that aren't right, they're not correct, and we are angered by those things. But yet as a Christian, we have an absolute truth that cannot be altered by man. So, if we're angered by those political things, we ought to be angered by these legalistic or license areas that creep into the Christian life, understanding that they are subverting the plan of God, that they are hindering the plan of God. And now as we see this plan of God, that this liberty we've been given is to free us to minister, to free us to get the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ out to a lost and dying world. So when we see the devil subverting us it should cause us to be angry and it should cause us then to be more motivated to do what God has called us to do rather than what the devil would have us to do. So three kinds of Christians exist in the world today. The first kind is the pharisaical Christian who self-righteously declares, I do more than you so I am better. The second kind is the narcissistic or sensual Christian who uses his freedom as a license to live however he pleases. Then there is the third kind of Christian who sees his freedom in Christ as an opportunity to serve. So as we desire to be a mature Christian, we need to be motivated by grace to serve others. And that motivation should not derive from a promotion of self or to serve self, but rather it should be derived from a motivation of love for the Lord Jesus Christ. I think as Christians we ought to be more determined today that we serve the Lord Jesus Christ and make sure we're fulfilling His desire because our time is short. We need to be faithful in doing what God wants us to do. So we need to use our liberty in the right way. So which kind of believer are you? Which category do you fit in? And we need to make sure that we are falling into the category that we are willing to serve one another. This is the plan of God. This is what God desires, and this is how we can reach the loss for the Lord Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father, we're so thankful for the liberty that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I'm thankful that we have the Word of God that helps us to understand these foundational truths that we can stand on. And when the devil attacks and casts doubt on these truths, that we can stand firm on the Word of God. And we can say, thus saith the Lord. And Father, we're thankful for how absolute your truth is. And we're thankful that you preserve the Word of God for us in a world that is full of darkness, full of lies and deceit. Father, we're thankful that we can turn to the Word of God and have a firm foundation in you. And Father, we can have hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that our eternal salvation is forever settled in heaven. Father, we just pray that now that you would help us to be faithful to serve you with our lives, faithful to serve one another, and faithful to minister as we ought, spreading the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ, being a help to those in need, being an encouragement to those that are struggling. Father, we just pray that you'd help us to use our liberty for the right purpose, and I pray that we would see these truths and be determined to act on these truths in our life. Father, we'll thank you for all that you've done in Jesus' name, amen. All right, Jim, about 15 minutes and we'll meet right back in here for the worship hour.