Praise the Lord. We're going to continue moving forward in these changing times, whether we like it or not. The best way to respond to change is to remain solidly planted in God's Word. And that's usually the bulk of the messages that are delivered here. We'll begin today with a familiar passage of text from Matthew's gospel record, and it's from that sermon that our Lord gave that's called the Sermon on the Mount. I don't think he called it that, but that's what we call it. In that sermon, our Lord spoke about blessings, blessings to a number of groups of people, blessings for those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, and those who are meek. Blessings for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessings for the merciful. Blessings for those who have pure hearts. He blessed the peacemakers and those who were persecuted for righteousness' sake. And finally, He blessed those who are reviled and persecuted and have evil spoken of them for His name's sake. As we walk and follow Christ, We're starting to see that there is a great divide between believers and non-believers. You know, it seems like every time that I make a post on social media about the book that I've written, the atheists come out. It's like it's an atheist magnet, and they challenge me on God's very existence. and that God would have authority over them, or that they were created at all. One guy says, I have no creator. And I think, wait a minute. These are, in fact, changing times. There's no doubt about that. We have people who do not believe that Christ is real or that God exists, and they will stop at nothing to, at least now, verbally persecute those people who stand with Christ. Falsehood and darkness are opposite of His way. In fact, in His sermon, after pronouncing the blessings, He said believers are to be salt and light. We're to preserve the truth. We're to illuminate the world with the light of Christ. We're to shine light in the darkness. Because, as I said, falseness and darkness are opposite of His way. That's the enemy's way, Satan's way. Continuing on in our Lord's Sermon, we learned that He declared His fulfillment of the law instead of abolishing it. He didn't eliminate the law, He lived it! And that law being the law of loving God completely and loving our neighbor as ourself is what he's referring to. He's not talking about all the jots and tittles of the law of the Jews. He lived in perfect obedience to the Father, and he makes it possible for us to obey also. After all, he is in us. That's what he says. that He will come and make His home with us, in us, within us. And so if He is in us, He guides us out of, and we pray for that guidance to deliver us from evil. We pray for it, but do we live it? And as we come into this year, it's called 2022, as we come into these changing times, there needs to be a clear and decisive integrity within the body of Christ. Too many are just like the world. We don't want to be like the world. At least we shouldn't want to. He explained anger and lust as matters of the heart. Because those things begin within us. They're within us, and that's where they have to be dealt with, within us. And you see, all of these things add up to the point that we're getting to. He straightened out the matter of divorce. The religious of that time were sending wives away without giving them a certificate of divorce. They were sending them away for just any reason. I don't like the way you cook. Get out of here. or whatever. They weren't divorcing them. And that made it impossible for the women to remarry without committing adultery under the law. And it also left them without any means of support. They had no way to support themselves, and some would turn to prostitution because of that. Terrible, terrible situation. And he addressed it right there in that sermon. He set the matter straight. Divorce is unlawful except when sexual immorality is the cause. If there's sexual immorality, he said, except for sexual immorality. Don't put your wives away. Because the men at that time were in control. That's not the case anymore, but that's how it was at that time. And after these things, he delivered that brief teaching that we're going to look at today in the fifth chapter of Matthew. Find that on page 1497 if you want to use the books there in your seat. 1497 is the page that it's on in here. Fifth chapter of Matthew's gospel record. We're going to begin at verse 33. We're only gonna read a few verses through verse 37. This is what's written there. Again, you've heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord. But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your yes be yes and your no, no. For whatever is more than these is from the evil one. I pray that God would add his blessing to the reading and hearing of his word. He did a quick comparison. to the traditions they were following, because they had made it easy to get out of agreements. They had lowered the threshold. They had reduced the standard. Again, he said, you've heard that it was said of those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord. We can find reference to this in the book of Numbers. Numbers chapter 30 and verse 2, if a man makes a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, there's two things there, swears an oath to the Lord or binds himself to an agreement. He shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. Yes, I'll be there. How many times do you hear somebody say, I'll be there! I'll do it! But then they don't. And later they'll tell you, oh, I forgot, or I told you if I could. The Lord says, love the Lord God completely with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. See, and love is the bottom line. Because if we love ourself, we are people of integrity. Because anything less takes away from our character in the eyes of others. In Deuteronomy chapter 23 and verse 23, it's written, that which is gone from your lips, you shall keep and perform. Whatever comes out of your mouth, you are to do it. This is what's written. for you voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth." When we make promises to God, now, I've found myself in situations where I say, oh, God, if you get me out of this one, I will serve you the rest of my life. Anybody else? Yeah. I found myself in some situations I was remembering as I was writing this sermon, oh, man, what was I thinking? I walked up under a bridge. It was a big bridge in Pittsburgh, and I took pictures, and someday I'll make those pictures available, because they're very interesting pictures. I saw lots of pigeons, and I always wondered, why don't you see baby pigeons? And I thought, this is just my thought, maybe the ones we're seeing are the babies. You just imagine big pigeons. I didn't see any big ones under the bridge. I saw eggs, but no little baby pigeons. Anyway, that's just a side note. I'm not going to get on that rabbit trail any further. Oh, thank you, Lord. In Ecclesiastes chapter 5, it's written, when you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it, for He has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed. Better not to vow than to vow and not pay. Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin, nor say before the messenger of God that it was an error. Why should God be angry at your excuse and destroy the work of your hands? You see, when our Lord is saying, let your yes be yes and your no be no, He distilled all of that down into those few words. If you say it, do it. Don't back out. Don't turn your back on it because this little thing happened or that little thing happened or you slept in because you were too tired because you stayed out late or whatever the excuse is. In other words, when you make a promise, especially to God, keep it. Now, think about that because it goes beyond just saying, well, God, I promise you this. When you choose to follow Christ, you have made promises that you may not even be aware of. They're unwritten. It's better to not make a promise than to make one and not keep it. And don't excuse it as if it was a mistake. This is what is written. The bottom line is, don't let your mouth cause you to sin. That's what God's Word says. Matthew chapter 5 and verse 34 is where we read, But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is His footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Now there are those who say, when he said, don't swear at all, he meant that absolutely, and then they take other parts of Scripture and say, well, see, there's a contradiction. Because there are other parts of Scripture, especially in the New Testament, and say, when you make a vow, keep it. It says to make the vow, but make sure you keep it. The Lord is telling us here, it's better not to make a vow if you're not going to keep it. If you don't intend to do what you say, don't say it. It makes that clear. In Isaiah 66, in verse 1, it's written, What he was referring to, thus says the Lord, heaven is my throne. See, he said, don't swear by heaven, for it's God's throne, and earth is my footstool. And he said, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. Where is the place of my rest? In Isaiah it's written. And 2 Chronicles 6, verse 6, it's written, Yet I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name may be there, and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel. You see, David is the king that's referred to when our Lord said, That's the home of my king. It's the throne of my king. The most religious of that time, these were the religious people. These weren't the people that were non-religious. The most religious had lowered the standards to such a degree that they could easily step out of any agreements that they had made, and they could step back in if they wanted. They eliminated the truth, and they developed a system of lying without outright lying. We've done the same thing today, even among those who name the name of Christ. We've lowered the threshold for making vows and agreements. It makes it easier to break our word or to not commit. Commitment is a difficult thing. I have found that in my ministry, that commitment is the hardest thing to get from people. And this is why we praise God for those who are committed to helping with the music team, even though we struggle, because we have commitment. We'll get some training, we'll get some teaching, we'll get something, whatever we need to get that straightened out. Today it's become common to say, I'll try. Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, maybe, maybe, with any luck. That gives us a way out. Some Christians use Lord willing, You know, that's a great thing to say, because the Scripture tells us, you say you're going to do this and do that and all these other things tomorrow, but what you should say is, Lord willing, I'll do this and that and the other thing, because God is in control. But they use it as a way out. Lord willing, I'll be there, brother. Just say no if you're not gonna be there. Nope, I am not gonna be there. I have better things to do. I have other things to do, whatever. But don't say you're going to, Lord willing. See, because that caveat, that way out, that little side door is sin. That's what the Lord says. We'll see that clearly. Others say, with God's blessing. Well, God isn't gonna bless that. He doesn't. Some don't use those limits or stipulations, though. They just blatantly choose to ignore their word. They break agreements. They refuse to keep their word. Just outright. What happened? I thought you were going to be there. No, no, I changed my mind. Okay. You know, the divorce rate's the same among those who name the name of Christ as it is in the rest of the world. That is horrible. We are to be people who keep our word. I can't tell you how many people I have married. And whenever I counsel people, and anybody who's here that I've married will tell you, these folks, I just married them a couple months ago. What did I do whenever we counseled? I tried to talk them out of it. Don't do this if you don't mean it. You've got to keep your word. You must keep your word. Now that we think is a really big deal. Marriage, you know, we're going to lay down our vows. We're going to stick with them. In sickness and in health. And somebody gets sick and they say, well, I can't deal with this. In good times and in bad. With financial support or not. And they say, well, I can't do this. This isn't what I signed up for. Do you know tenants still violate rental agreements? I have tenants. I have had tenants who have begged me to live in my property. Chris and I have a home in Pittsburgh, and we have a rental property next door. They've begged me. Oh, Pastor John, I will take care of your property like it's my own. Three months in, they quit paying the rent. They start cussing me out for trying to collect it. I'm not kidding. These are people who call themselves Christians. Wait a minute. What happened to letting your yes be yes and your no be no? Well, I can't afford it. Why did you move in? Just quit. Just quit paying. Governor Wolf said, I don't have to pay you, one tenant told me. Seriously? Do you still owe it? Their yes isn't yes, and their no isn't no. And there's so many examples of that. I look at the man who's helped us dig this trench out here and lay this pipe. He said he would help, and guess what? He has helped. He has done it at great expense to himself. If anybody wants to know his name, it is John Myers. And I know he doesn't want me putting that out there, but he is a great guy when it comes to doing his work, keeping his word. He sent guys to help me on Monday. Nick and I tried to get through that trap. I think it was Sunday, wasn't it, Nick? We tried to get through that floor drain down in the addition of the building, and we couldn't get through. Nick broke his tool in there. We thought, oh man, now we've got to dig it up. There's no other way. Nick said he'd be here to help, and guess what? He showed up and he did it! He helped! And I don't want to call some of, there's many of you here who have done things exactly like that. I'm not going to call you out. This is the most recent thing. Eileen has helped my wife tremendously. She picked up the ball for me on Tuesday. I couldn't take Chris to the doctors and help John because John needed an extra guy doing a concrete job out in Sharon. So I took myself and put myself in that concrete job and Eileen took Chris to the doctors down in Pittsburgh. She said she would, and she did. You see, that's the example of brotherly and sisterly love. We do what we say. We don't just say it just to sell. I'm sorry, I can't. I changed my mind. You know how many times I've heard that? And the body of Christ needs to be firmed up. In these changing times, we must be people of our word. We say we're going to follow Christ wherever he leads, but when it gets tough, there's a lot of people that bail out. And there's examples of that in the Scriptures, folks. He'd go to a mountaintop and say, I'm not going for this, it's too hot. Forget that, I'm not following Him up this mountain. And sometimes He leads us into tough places, and we must go where He leads, if in fact we are people of integrity. If in fact we are followers of Christ, we follow Him whithersoever He goes. There's too many today who don't want to do that. And when the times get tough, folks, we see, as we have in the last couple of years, where church buildings were locked down and people were kept out and they weren't permitted to worship God in the house of worship. Because our yes isn't yes, and our no isn't no. Let your yes be yes, he says. Let your no be no, for whatever is more than these is from the evil one. Just plainly say yes. Just plainly say no. Simple. Because anything more than that comes from the enemy of souls. We need to be people who are committed. Committed to keeping our word. In the beginning was The Word was with God, and the Word was God. We are created in the image of God. We are given the ability to speak the truth at all times. Yet we choose not to. Anything less than absolute commitment in keeping our word is from the devil. That's what Jesus said. Those aren't my words. I'm not accusing anybody of anything here. I'm telling you what the Lord said. Anything outside of keeping our word is from the enemy of souls. When Christ was addressing those religious folks who wanted to kill him, you remember those guys. He told him this, you are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. Who's the father of lies? The devil! And when we lie, who are we speaking for? Because he's the father of it. Not having our yes mean yes and our no mean no is a camouflaged form of deceit. And it's dishonest. Straight up. That's all there is to it. If you can't do something or you don't want to do something, just say it. I don't want to do that." You might hurt somebody's feelings, but at least you'll be honest. You won't be lying. In James 5, it's written in verse 12, but above all, my brethren, do not swear. James, remember, is our Lord's brother. He was the first bishop in Jerusalem. either by heaven or by earth, or with any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no, no, lest you fall into judgment." Now, do you hear what he did there? He repeated his brother's words, but he put a little twist on it. Is it because our Lord said it comes from the enemy of souls, the evil one, and James says it's going to lead you into judgment? There's no qualifiers or caveats that are necessary or acceptable. We need to speak the truth. Instead of saying anything less than absolute commitment to keeping our word is from the devil, James warns us of judgment. And you see, there are many who preach and teach everything but the wrath of God and judgment, because after all, that doesn't feel good to people. I'm not here to make you feel good. I'm here to help you recognize the truth of God's Word so you can guide your life by it. because it matters to you. Your eternal soul hangs in the balance. And in changing times, when something comes down the pike, I say, I am not going to do what God says not to do. See, that's my no. No, I'm not going to do that. And if God says to do something, I say, yes, I'm going to do it. I won't change my mind on those things, even if it means difficulty, even if it means criticism, as it has in the last two years. Yes or no, it's all we need to say. When we come to the Father through Christ, we make a simple agreement. and it is to obediently follow Him. We follow in His footsteps. Sadly, there are many who never learn this. Instead, they accept a bill of goods from the enemy of souls. And I have met many who call themselves Christians who don't live like Christ. The enemy has many agents that are posing as believers. They're posing as ministers. They're posing as apostles, prophets, evangelists. They're posing as pastors and teachers. The enemy has them in the body of Christ. I've met some of them myself. I know what I'm speaking about here. These purveyors of falsehood lead many down the road that leads to destruction. I don't want that for anybody that sits under my preaching. I don't want that for anybody who ever receives any message from me that God gives me to deliver. And some of them are tough, folks. I like to bring messages that help you feel good, but you've got to have the truth, and sometimes it's tempered a little bit, salt and pepper. Get a little bit of both. There's that do-it-your-own-way mantra in Revelation. It's written, but the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. All liars. We're to be people of integrity. We're to be people who are committed to the truth, not liars. And those who teach that do it your own way. I did it my way. They build it from Scripture. They teach the grace of God and forgiveness, but they forget the part about God's wrath. They forget the part about God's judgment. Why would James in the New Testament say, you will bring judgment upon yourself? Was he talking to unbelievers? His epistle was written to believers. If we love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, it motivates us to keep our agreement with Him. We will follow Christ obediently. He says, don't be liars. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. And this is true even though the going might get tough, and sometimes it does. You know how tough it is to work out in single-digit temperatures in the cold? You got me a little horse. I praise God for that. You got to be committed. Oh, it's too cold out there. I can't do that today. You'll have to do it without me. And I'm not blowing my own horn, folks. I'm using it as an example to help you understand that I'm not just preaching. I'm showing you the way. I'm leading the way as Christ did. If it needs to be done, whatever it is, and you're called upon to do it, do it. If you say you're going to do it, do it. Our music team, we have had a lot of different people. Some have passed away. Some have moved away. Some have just quit. We need commitment to practice, and we've discussed that with some people. We need practice, practice, practice, practice. You say you're going to do it, do it. All through time, those who were sold out to our Creator maintained their commitments and their vows to Him, and the Scripture is full of lots of examples of that. We find written accounts of faithfulness throughout God's Word. But we also find evidence of failures, and there's too many there for comfort. It doesn't feel good to me whenever I look at the failures. I see David, the man after God's own heart, and he lusts after a woman. Then he has her husband killed. And look at the destruction it brought upon his family, and he's looking up to God like, Hey God, help me out here. He doesn't understand the connection. But I've never found anyone sinning deliberately who learned to do so by true apostles or by true prophets or true evangelists. I've never heard and learned of anybody sinning deliberately who learned how to do so by true pastors and teachers. See, there are false shepherds, there are false teachers, and we've been warned about them for the 2,000 years or so since Christ was here. I've never found any examples of God's people violating their Word without consequences, either. God's Word never shows us where somebody broke their Word, and God said, That's okay, you get a pass. Here's some more grace for you. It's not what happens. You look at the Scripture, that is not what happens. Now, this message is not a message of judgment, folks. I'm not passing judgment on you. And I'm going to refrain from reading the accounts that show us God's judgment falling on His people. There was one that came to mind, though. The ground opened up and swallowed 20,000 or so of them. They were coming out of Egypt because of their unfaithfulness, because they were not people of their word. They said they would follow Moses out, and they started grumbling, wanting to go back. God took care of it. God loves his people too much to leave us in our sin. I always hear people say, well, God loves you just the way you are, brother. God loves you just the way you are, sister. He does. But he loves you too much to leave you there. He wants to bring you out of that prison because that's what the scripture calls sin. It's a prison. He makes it clear. He loves us too much not to warn us when we're caught in sin's snare. He makes a way out. I've listened to a lot of Preachers talk about the snares of the devil. Anybody know what a snare is? It's a trap. It's a trap. And it locks on and it doesn't let go. And that's what sin is described as. It locks on to you and it doesn't let go. And Christ comes in to set you free. Why would you step back into the snare? It doesn't make sense, but people do it all the time. And then, as a pastor, I get to counsel people who have done that. I don't understand, Pastor, why is things going so bad for me? I love the Lord. Well, you step back into that sin, and that's what happens. You get the consequences of your sin. If I jump into that hole out there, I'm gonna get muddy, okay? I can say, God's grace will protect me, and I'm gonna get muddy. That's all there is to it. There's no way around it. So you can't jump into a pigsty and expect to come out smelling like roses. That's not going to happen. This is why the Lord tells us to be people of our word. We say we're not going to jump into the pigsty. That's one of those unwritten things that we say whenever we follow Christ. He didn't jump into the pigsty. And He leads us out of going into the pigsty. We say we're going to follow Him, and we're not going to go into the pigsty. We say our yes, following Him. We say our no, not going into the pigsty. What's the way out? What's the way out? How can we avoid being liars? We must boldly proclaim our love of truth and obey the one that we claim to follow. See, we all name the name of Christ, and some do it blasphemously. They say they follow Him. They say that He's their Lord. They say that He's their Savior, and yet they're not saved. They're not following Him. He said, commit yourself to only saying what you mean. Don't say yes when you have no intention of following through. That's the way out. Don't say no when you plan to go against your word. Think of those vows. I will not do anything outside of my marriage that would destroy my marriage. For example, Chris and I have been married almost 30 years. Thirty years ago, I wasn't sure that that was a good idea. I really wasn't. She knows because I told her. I don't want to be married. I swore I would never, ever, that would not happen. But it did. And here we are 30 years later, we kept our vows. See, the core of our Savior's teaching is simply to say what we mean and mean what we say. That's what it is. Guard your tongue from speaking falsehood, even or especially when camouflaged with half-hearted intention. I half-heartedly intend to shovel the sidewalk this morning. And so, okay, I'll shovel the walk, Lord. Now, this isn't exactly what happened, because I immediately saw there was ice out there, and I grabbed the salt bucket, and I started putting salt out there. Couldn't shovel it because it was frozen. But I could say I'm going to do it and not do it. And then what happens? Somebody comes up the ramp, slips and falls and gets hurt. There's consequences. When you agree to do anything, follow through by keeping your word. Otherwise, you become unreliable and irresponsible. That's the consequence of not following through with what you say. Build your reputation as one who does what they say, and doesn't do what they say they won't do. Remember what's written in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 6, and this is regarding love. It's referring to love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Lying is iniquity. And the Lord tells us that those who are workers of iniquity, They don't get in, and He tells them so. He says, when you read His Word and you see what He taught, He says, they're going to come to the door, you're going to be knocking, and He's going to say, I don't know you. You've got to go. My paraphrase. Keeping your Word is a demonstration of your love for Almighty God, and it's a demonstration of your love for your neighbor. If somebody asks me something and I can't do it, I will say, I cannot do that. But if I can, and I'm willing to, then I'll say, yes, I'll do that. Now, obviously, we all have had circumstances that have arisen that are outside of our control, and that's the key, outside of our control. They would stop us. Loved ones die, sickness happens, vehicles break down, roads get icy. Sometimes the bridge goes out. Not usually anymore, but it used to. I've seen some bridges go out. Flooding can be a terrible thing. But the message of Christ is not regarding those things that are beyond our control. Let your yes be yes. But if somebody dies and you can't do what you said because of that death, don't use that death as an excuse if you can do what you said. If the road gets icy and you can't do what you said, then the road is icy and everybody understands you couldn't do what you said. or whatever the circumstances are. It doesn't matter what they are. You don't use it as an excuse. Oh, the sun didn't come out today. I've got to drive in the sunshine. You know, people come up with anything. It's a matter of heart, folks. It's a matter of heart. As we go into this new year, as we are moving into changing times, we need to be people of our word. We must be people of our word, especially with God. Integrity is in short supply these days. I want you all to be women and men of integrity. Be complete, because that's what the word integrity means. We are complete. We follow through. We do what we say. Be complete. Be unswerving in everything that you say and do. Be consistently reliable regarding your word. If you say no, that's okay. Sometimes it needs to be no. You've got a schedule like mine, I have to say no. I get invited to meetings all the time and I've got to say, nope, can't do it. Or I'll say, I will hopefully be able to make it. I put the qualifier on it. I'll say, don't expect me, but if I can, I will. There are things that happen. So I'm not locking you into every time you say, I've got to, no matter what. My dad used to say, come hell or high water, because some things are out of our control. But let your word be your bond. I remember growing up, it was a handshake that made the deal real. And there are still people that do that. If I shake hands on it, that's it, it's a done deal. That's how I was raised. Now, you could have a hundred-page contract, and somebody's going to find a way out of it with some little bit of something in that contract. And they'll slip those things in there to get you locked into the contract, but they'll be able to break out of it. Be consistently reliable regarding your word. This is how you come out of that idea. When Christ calls us liars, if we don't keep our word, we can come out of that by being reliable. Let your word be your bond in all things this year and forevermore. Not just this year, not just this month, not just this week, not just this day, but always commit yourself to keeping your word. And don't be afraid to say no whenever you mean no. Just do it and you will find liberation. I'm talking from experience. I like to please people, so I was always saying, yeah, sure, yeah, I'll do that, no problem. And I find myself with more things to do than I have time to do them all. I want you to be committed to truth in all things. I want you to hunger and thirst for righteousness. Christ said that's where the blessing comes from. Be merciful when others need mercy, because there's blessing in that also. Be pure in heart and receive those blessings from the Lord. As I wrap this up, I trust that you have received the message that God has wanted you to receive today. I believe that. I believe when I prepared these notes that He would take this message and seed it in your hearts and whomever it is that needs to hear it as much as anybody else, as much as I did. He's speaking to me, too. It's not just to you. My prayer is that you'll receive His message with open arms and not reject it. not reject this place because of it. My prayer is that you will set your sights on always saying what you mean, and always meaning what you say. Our love of God and each other compels us to only say yes when we mean yes, and to only say no when we mean no. Let's move forward with Christ guiding us And let's let Him help us to be committed in everything we do in these changing times. Amen? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You. We thank You for Your Word. It is true. It alone is true. Help us, Lord, to be people of integrity. Lead us, Lord, as we go through changing times when things are so unreliable, people are unreliable. Help us to be reliable. Help us to be people of integrity. Help us to maintain commitment. Help us to establish commitment when necessary. Strengthen us, Lord, in the power of your might. Lead us, guide us, direct us when necessary. Assist us with your Spirit. I ask that You would let Your Spirit fall upon each one that's within the sound of my voice, that we would be committed to maintaining integrity in all things that we say, in all things that we do. We pray in Christ's name and all of God's people said, amen.