The following message was given at Emmanuel Baptist Church, Coconut Creek, Florida. If you will join me in your Bibles, Galatians chapter six. Galatians chapter six. I'll be looking at verses one through five this evening as we begin the final chapter in Paul's letter to the church in Galatia. I'm sure most of you have had the privilege at some point of buying something, either a gift or something for your home, and seeing those three magical words on the outside of the box that sends electrical shock and fear through the hearts of the most advanced and capable and even the most mechanically minded among us. Those three words, some assembly required. If you ever want to know how strong your marriage truly is, install a ceiling fan together or hang new blinds in all the windows of the house. I remember one time I bought a shelf at a store and I wheeled it out to my car and it was quite heavy and awkward and I was trying to get it in and an older gentleman walked by and he helped me to lift it up and put it in the car and I shook his hand and thanked him and he started laughing and he said, I'm happy to help you get it in your car, but you can kiss the rest of your week goodbye. That box says some assembly required. Good luck, young man. And he walked off. So we all understand it's not the easiest thing in the world. They give you instructions, but they're not always very good, are they? And you have these flimsy little throwaway tools. They hardly get the job done. The instructions never explain that piece A isn't piece AA. And they're actually two very different pieces. And if you put piece A in the place of piece AA, you won't realize it's wrong until the very last step. And then you have to take it all apart and start it all over again. Oftentimes, the thing that actually saves us in our assembly is not the instructions. It's the picture on the front of the box, or you can go on the internet and look at the picture there, or go to look at the display at the store. The instructions can be helpful, but what we need more than anything, oftentimes, is an example. We copy the things that we see, and that's also true when it comes to our life as we develop spiritually. It's a biblical principle called modeling. It's why Paul says things like, be imitators of me as I am of Christ. There's a pattern, it's laid down and it is imitated by those who come behind and see that pattern. And so we're looking at the beginning of Paul's final instructions to the Galatians as he's wrapping up his letter, and he's going to not just give instructions. He's done much of that along the way, but now he's going to give us an example of the principles that he's outlined throughout his letter, and more specifically, the principles that we saw in chapter five. And so in this he's not just saying you need to walk by the Spirit, you need to bear the fruit of the Spirit. But instead he goes on to say, let me give you an example of what that looks like. And so Paul is giving a strong exhortation about living a life of holiness. living in harmony and serving one another in love. And he's showing us what it means to walk by the spirit. And he's already laid out for us in chapter five, specifically what that is and how it's related to how we treat one another. So this isn't all it means to walk and to live by the spirit, but it's merely an example. Much more could be said than what Paul shows us in chapter six. But we have a model here. It's something that he has done, and he clearly did among the Galatians and others, and it's something he's now saying. As Christians, this is where you ought to be as well. Imitate me in this. Here's what it looks like to live out these principles day to day. His example will be focused here on serving one another in love, and particularly as we deal with the sins of others within the body of Christ. And so we're beginning chapter six. Verses one through five, and these verses really are a continuation of Paul's argument at the end of chapter five. In verse 25 of chapter five, he wrote, if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. So now, what does that look like practically? Let's look, beginning in verse one. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. but let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor, for each will have to bear his own load. Well, the first thing we see in verses one and two is that keeping in step with the Spirit means we will consider others more highly than ourselves. Now, I love theology. I love reading it. I love thinking through complex arguments. I love writing my thoughts and making a case for a specific position. I love interacting with other people's theological ideas. But there are some texts in the Bible that just shock me into a place where I am consistently reminded to be careful to remember that in the midst of all of our thoughts, and all of our musings and all of our theological pontifications, God is especially concerned with one thing when it comes to his people, that we love one another. There are many areas of theology to study and to understand and to think and to talk about and to believe and to embrace, but if we miss this one thing, The rest of it is simply useless. I think of verses like Ephesians 4.32, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God and Christ forgave you. Or John 13.34, love one another, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. or 1 Corinthians 13, one through three. This one really strikes at the heart of what I'm saying. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." Philippians 2, 3 and 4, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. So Jesus told us that next to loving God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, the most important commandment that he has given is that we love our neighbor as ourselves. And this isn't something that is one part of the Christian life, but rather something that needs to be through all of our Christian lives, every aspect of our lives. Loving God and loving our neighbors is not just foundational to the Christian life, but it's also the walls and the roof and all of the rooms and all of the furniture inside. If we do not love God and if we do not love one another, everything else we venture to know and understand and articulate is useless. And it's important that we recognize this to be true if we're going to be keeping in step with the Spirit. More specifically, if we are going to think of others more significant or more highly than ourselves. So what does this have to do with Paul's argument here in verses one and two? Notice he says in verse two, that fulfilling what he has given as an example of what it means to walk in the spirit is to fulfill the law of Christ. Well, what is the law of Christ? Now, Paul no doubt has in mind Leviticus 19, 18, which he quoted back in chapter four, excuse me, chapter five in verse 14, where he said, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Remember, he said, the whole law is fulfilled in this. So notice Paul is looking to God's law in the Old Testament, which in this case is clearly moral in nature. And he says, this is the law of Christ. So I hope you can see all the parts that come together here. When I'm walking in the spirit, I am fulfilling the law of Christ, which means I am loving my neighbor as myself. And so what does it look like to love my neighbor as myself? That's what Paul identifies in his example here. We really see three distinct things that he outlines in the first two verses. The first is this, he says, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Now, it's not clear as to whether or not Paul had a particular transgression in mind here or if he was just dealing with something specific in the Galatian church, but I don't believe he is. I think he's referring back to the statement in chapter five where, for example, he said people were biting and devouring one another. It could also be a reference back to verse 26 in the preceding verse. Maybe he's addressing a person's becoming conceited or they're provoking and envying others. Perhaps he's referring back to the list of the works of the flesh that he mentioned in verses 19 through 21. Whatever the case, Paul is getting at the idea that a person can be tempted and give into that temptation and be caught up in it. Now translators don't agree on this exactly, because it's a verse of the Bible, so of course they don't agree. But it can mean either a person is caught in that they are found out in their sin, or it can mean that they are caught up in their sin. One commentator says, the person in question is ensnared by the tempter before he fully realizes what he is doing. Martin Luther said they are taken unaware because of a lack of caution. And I think that really gets at the sense of what Paul is writing here. Now what Paul is not saying is that the one who has been taken up by this temptation is not guilty of sin. He most certainly is. Think of Adam and Eve here. They were tempted, they were ensnared, But do you really think for one minute that they knew everything that would come as a result of their sin? Do you think they realized the magnitude of evil that would be unleashed upon the entire world because of their one sin? There's no way. But their sin, even though we might look at that, in and of itself, we might classify it as being small and insignificant in substance, it was inexcusable, and it had utterly grave consequences. Why? Because they defied the God of the universe. They defied the one who created them and gave them a very clear instruction that they refused to follow. But here's something that's very important for us to recognize. Here in this passage, Paul's primary concern is not so much with the sin of the individual, it's with how the church responds to that individual. Now he doesn't downplay the sin, he doesn't say it's unimportant, but he's not highlighting their sin so much as he's highlighting how the person handles that person in sin. There's no doubt that how a person is handled in their sin might be a source of much more work of the flesh than the original transgressor. This is what Paul is addressing, and he's doing it as an application of chapter five. Remember, he's showing them the picture. They've read the instructions in chapter five, but they need to see the picture. They need to see it completed, so he's painting it for them. Now remember, gentleness was one of the graces of the fruit of the spirit that we saw previously, and it is in this spirit that one is to be restored. And Paul himself is modeling this. Think of who he's writing to. Think of how he's had to write to the Galatians, dealing with their error. And he's addressing them tenderly now and lovingly. He's calling them brothers or brethren. He's referring to them as Christians, even though many of them had fallen prey to the false teaching of the Judaizers, many of them were starting to question Paul and his ministry, his teaching, his preaching, and all that he had delivered to them, and all that they had initially believed. But now they're starting to embrace a heretical teaching. And yet, Paul is still calling them brethren. He's been very tough on them. but now he's being very gentle. So Paul says it is the responsibility of spiritual persons to restore the one who is caught in transgression. So who is the spiritual person he is referring to? Well again, remember back to verse 25 of chapter five, if we live by the spirit, let us walk by the spirit. And so he's simply referring to those who walk by the spirit. putting to death the deeds of the flesh, cultivating the fruit of the spirit in one's life. And so this isn't a pastor, this isn't a super spiritual person, this isn't a super Christian. It's everyone who seeks to live their life to the glory of God. It's a Christian. And here's what that does. It puts the responsibility on all of us to be looking out for one another. You are your brother's keeper. You're not a drug-sniffing dog. Your job isn't to root around into the lives of your brothers and sisters in Christ, looking for sin wherever you can find it. We aren't out to try and get one another, but when we do see something, we need to lovingly address it and seek to restore the one who has fallen. And remember, all of this needs to be tied back to considering others more highly than myself. And so, when that's our mindset, when that is our lifestyle, when that's how we address every circumstance in life, we recognize that the transgression that our brother or sister might have stepped into might be harmful to them and they need help. And if I'm thinking of them more highly than myself, I'm going to do the uncomfortable thing and go to them. It's really easy to just pretend like it's no big deal and overlook it, right? That's the easy thing. Maybe you hear your sister in Christ saying hurtful, degrading things about her husband. Maybe you know a brother in Christ is engaging in deceptive business practices. Or maybe someone calls you on the phone to start giving you the latest bit of gossip that they got their hands on. But brothers and sisters, if we think more highly of others than ourselves, we don't let them continue in this destructive pattern without addressing it. Listen, it's tough. It's tough. Pastors have to do this sort of thing all the time. It's never easy, but love demands it. But here's what's important and what Paul's getting at, how we do it. That's really what Paul's addressing here. How are we going to go about it? And he says that we should restore a person in a spirit of gentleness. It means that we should mend them. The word is used to refer to mending a broken bone, seeing that everything is set back into place how it should be. It should be put back in order. And sometimes that's a painful process. I broke, like, my arms seven times growing up, and that's a painful process. I have to reset the bones sometimes, you gotta wear a cast and all. I was a reckless child. I don't know what to say about that. But it's painful, but it's necessary for the restoration. And that's the word that Paul's using here. I love the proverb that says, faithful are the wounds of a friend. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. That really encapsulates it right there, doesn't it? They're a friend, they're faithful, they love me. That's all implied. But they wound me. Why? because they're working toward mending me. Now, Jesus outlines the process of how we confront transgressions in a brother's or sister's life in the church in Matthew 18. I'm not gonna go through those verses now. I encourage you to look back at that. But Paul's exhortation here is that all throughout that process, we are seeking to mend the person in a spirit of gentleness. The process, the informal aspect and the formal aspect of any discipline that takes place within the church is not to get someone, not to expose someone, but to mend them. And we want to do it in gentleness. We want to be as gentle as we possibly can, dependent upon what the sin is and what its consequences are. So instead of saying, well, here you go, you've done it again, you've completely screwed up, you've made me mad, you made my wife mad, it's really disappointing, we thought better of you, we assumed that God was working in your life, but apparently not as much as we had hoped for, what do you have to say for yourself? We have a tendency sometimes, we can come across that way as we approach one another. And then that person, if there's true repentance, it seems as though they have to jump through all kinds of hoops to prove it to you. That's not gentleness. Gentleness is giving someone the benefit of the doubt and lovingly addressing their transgression with a hope that they will be restored. Love hopes all things. You know, brother, I heard you say something and you said it about your wife and I thought it was a bit out of character for you. I may not have heard you right, so please forgive me if I'm misspeaking here, but I just want to let you know what it sounded like to me." That's quite a different approach, right? Assume the worst, but rather we assume the best and we seek to restore in gentleness. And brothers and sisters, we need to approach one another as fellow travelers on this journey. People who are likewise saved by grace. Genuinely and faithfully caring for one another as we grow road weary from time to time. True gentleness is manifest in humility before God and before men. And sometimes we want to justify a lack of gentleness by saying, well, I'm telling them the truth and they just need to hear the truth. That's the most loving thing I can do is tell them the truth. Well, that's only partly correct. Telling the truth is one thing, but we're to do it in a gentle and kind manner. We have a responsibility, not only to speak the truth, but to do so in love. That's what Paul writes in Ephesians 4.15. And so we're not out to tell it how it is. We're out to tell the truth in love. The second way Paul shows us that we think of others more highly than ourselves in restoring a brother, he says, keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted. Now, Paul really emphasizes here the need for humility by pressing in on us all the more to look to ourselves that we not be tempted. In 1 Corinthians, he gave a similar warning, to take heed lest you fall. You see, we could come after one another with guns blazing and with an uncritical, sort of unloving judgment, but when we do that, we're not being honest about our own condition and our own proneness to sin. And then we fall into temptation. the very sin we're confronting in someone else that maybe caught them by surprise might be the very thing that catches us by surprise. It's so often, sometimes preachers are sort of known for certain hobby horses, and they preach about certain things all the time, and they sort of beat the same drum over and over, and they sort of become known for that. There's certain sins they like to point out. No matter what, if they're gonna preach, you're gonna hear them bring up that particular sin, only to find out oftentimes later that they're guilty of that very thing. And so the call, It's not that we're, again, out sniffing it out and trying to find it in everyone else. Paul's saying here, the call is that we live humbly, aware of the logs in our own eyes, seeking to have them removed, and never raising ourselves to a place of moral superiority and self-righteousness. We cannot seek the restoration of another person with an attitude of self-righteousness. But the reality is that when we're in sin ourselves, we're far less likely to see them as seriously as we would as if they were in someone else's life. Did you hear about our friend? She tried to say that she doesn't gossip. Can you believe that? Of course she gossips. She's always on the phone talking about other people. I can't believe that she would have the audacity to say otherwise. Bless her heart. When our deceptive hearts find a way to move our little tongues, we can set the whole world on fire. We must be watchful lest we too be tempted. Martin Luther wrote, if we can put up with our own sins, then let us learn to put up with those of others as well. This certainly includes our being patient with one another and not expecting change overnight. It doesn't just happen like that. Not one of us could say that the Lord hasn't been patient with us and continues to be patient with us in certain areas of sin in our lives. So how much more patient ought we to be with one another? Keep watch on yourself because sin is crouching at the door. Well, Paul shows us here, thirdly, that we are to bear one another's burdens. So Paul exhorts us to relieve those who are sinking under burdens. Going to a brother or sister who has been overtaken by temptation isn't simply a drive-by correction. But now we must come alongside them and bear responsibility with them. We love them. So yes, we want to bring correction, but when we do, the duty arises within us wherein we are responsible to bear the burden with them. The burden of prayer, the burden of accountability, maybe even the burden of some of the consequences, depending on what those might be. John Calvin writes on this, he says, nature dictates to us that those who are sinking under a burden should be relieved. Paul enjoins us to bear their burdens, not to indulge or overlook the evils by which our brethren are weighed down, but rather to unburden them. This can be done only by friendly and mild correction. Church, are we praying for one another? If you know a person who you suspect is prone to gossip, or they exhibit a lot of pride, or maybe they're overtaken by a sin like drunkenness or lust, are you praying specifically for them on those issues? And what can we be doing to help bear those burdens in other ways? Are you doing whatever is necessary to help remove temptations from your brothers or sisters that you may be responsible for? If I know someone is prone to gossip, for example, am I careful about how I engage in conversation with them as to not tempt them into telling me something that I don't need to know? What can you do as an individual to help those who are tempted to lust, both men and women? How are you utilizing your liberties in such a way that you consider the weaknesses of others? These are all practical ways in which we can love one another, and in doing so, we are thinking of others more highly than ourselves, and thus fulfilling the law of Christ, which is to love one another. This, brothers and sisters, is how the church should be known, by the love that we have for one another. How are you doing as an individual? How's your family doing in this? And of course, how are we doing in this as a church? We should all be thinking and praying about that very thing. The second part of this passage this evening, we see in verses three through five, what it means to walk by the Spirit. Paul shows us that keeping in step with the Spirit means we will realistically evaluate our own weaknesses and failures. Now in a sense, this is related to what Paul writes in verse one with regard to keeping watch on yourself. If my mindset is that I am spiritually and morally superior to the one I am called to restore in a spirit of gentleness, if I come to that situation with a lot of pride and arrogance and a sense of having something to boast about, I'm not a helpful brother. I'm a dangerous and destructive force that will do far more harm than good. There's no possible way that any of us can be helpful to anyone with an eye toward restoration and in a spirit of gentleness if we see ourselves superior. And if we're not willing to honestly and realistically evaluate our own hearts and identify our own weaknesses and our own failures. The heart is deceitful. We are quite often very blind to our own sins and deceived with respect to our own abilities because we spend so much time justifying things and convincing ourselves of our stories and our wild ideas that we just don't see it. We may have glaringly obvious issues in our own lives that others see, but we may not recognize. So we have to be honest about that. We have to deal with the danger of self-deception. And the antidote to self-deception is self-examination. The unexamined life is a fruitless life, a self-righteous life. It's a deceived life. But how? How do we evaluate our lives? Hopefully we know that it's not by comparing ourselves to others. We can always find others. There's always someone out there that we can find, that we can rationalize in our own minds that they're spiritually inferior to us. And we can rationalize our behavior by comparing it to others, by blaming them for our sinful responses. But we must not compare ourselves and examine ourselves in light of others. Instead, we must examine our lives by the standard of God's word alone. After all, it's ultimately God's opinion of us that matters in the end, isn't it? Let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. That's what Paul writes. In other words, there is absolutely no profit in thinking that we are superior to other people, either in terms of our gifts or our sanctification. We only answer to God, and any wrong boasting is in vain. To add weight to his argument then, Paul borrows a principle out of the book of Proverbs in verse five. For each will have to bear his own load. Well, he's alluding to Proverbs nine and verse 12. If you are wise, you are wise for yourself. And if you scoff, you alone will bear it. Now, initially you might read this and think Paul is contradicting himself. He said in verse two, bear one another's burdens. And now he's saying, each one shall bear his own load. But the contrast here makes the lesson memorable. That's what he's aiming at. The law of Christ, to love your neighbor as yourself, calls you to enter into the sufferings and the weaknesses of your brothers and sisters. The law of self-examination warns you that you answer to God alone for your actions. You bear your own load before God. And so we're responsible to God for our actions. So each one of us must live our lives before God, and we are all going to give an answer for the deeds that are done by us. And consequently, we do not boast with regard to another person. We bear our own load before God. And so brothers and sisters inwardly, we all must remember and remind ourselves that we are but dust. Our flesh is deceitful, that we have many shortcomings in life. Test your heart, take inventory of your life, repent of your sins before God. And please don't compare yourself to your neighbor as if his or her failure is the source of your boasting about your own goodness. I say this often, I've been in ministry now for 17 years, been alive for over 41 years now, and here's an absolute truth that I know from my own life and from the life of those I've ministered to over the years. Each and every one of us, everyone in this room has enough baggage of our own to deal with that we don't need to be thinking of ourselves as superior to others for any reason whatsoever. One of the ways practical legalism comes out in Christians is that we realize as we come into the faith, as we become Christians, we do so on the basis of admitting that we are broken and sinful and pretty messed up in a lot of ways. Life in a fallen world without Christ is a total and complete disaster. And when we finally give up trying to do it on our own and we cast ourselves upon Christ, we say, I need a righteousness that is not my own because I don't have any. But something tends to happen a lot of times when we become Christians. And our tendency is to want to live all of a sudden like we don't have sin. or to talk like we've gotten it all together, or to portray ourselves like we would never even think of sinning in the same way that others do, or we just try to hide what we don't want others to see when everyone is around us and they'll just assume that we are the Christian that they wish they could be. And all this does is breed pride and a sense of superiority and we start boasting in ourselves and our deeds and our image and we start to want to hear gossip and we start to compare ourselves to others more and more because as long as I'm better than a few others, the eyes will be on them and not on me. What are we doing? Why can't we just be honest and real? The reality is that when we're honest and open and real about the sin that actually exists in our lives and we're willing to admit that and we're willing to be humble and say, look, I am by no means any better than any of you. I am a sinful man. and you recognize the sin in your own life, and I recognize the sin in my own life, and I'm not trying to impress anybody. I'm just being honest. The reality is that when we do that, we actually experience far more spiritual growth than when we're trying to create an image and fake our way through holiness. Honestly, who are you trying to impress? Stop comparing yourself to others and start comparing yourself to God, who is the source of all wisdom and perfection. Look upon the true source of comparison and recognize that you are what you are and in Christ you are who you are because of him alone, not because of anything you've done or are doing or are trying to represent. Then when that happens, Your boasting will no longer be in yourself, but it will be in Christ. Paul writes elsewhere, by God's grace, I am what I am. And if I must boast, I will boast in the Lord. Our boasting is in Christ, not ourselves. It is in his grace and the work he has done on our behalf, not our own. It is on the basis of the daily confession of sin and assurance of pardon because of who Christ is and what he has accomplished. And when we boast in Christ, we see more of Christ and less of ourselves. And when we see more of Christ and less of ourselves, we're able to start responding to others rightly. We're able to bear one another's burdens in love. We're able to think of others more highly than ourselves with a clear conscience. Now friend, if you're not a Christian, instead of measuring yourself against other people or even the Christians around you, I hope instead what you will measure yourself against is the law of God. Measure yourself to see how you stand. We all need a measure. And for the one who does not believe on Christ, that measure you should compare yourself to is the law of God. Consider, how do you stand? Because God's standard is not me, it's not this church, it's not the people you know who are Christians. God's standard is Christ and God's standard is his law. But you know, and we all know very clearly, that not a single one of us can measure up. People say it all the time. I'm not perfect. Nobody's perfect. And you're right. That's absolutely true. But what does that mean for you? If God's standard is perfection, and it is, and you're not perfect, and you know it when you examine yourself, what then? What do you do? Your only hope is Jesus Christ. believe on Christ, repent of your sin, and trust in him alone. Only then will you be able to really and truly consider others more highly than yourself. And only then will you have a realistic evaluation of your own weaknesses and your own failures. Because only then will you have the ability to walk in the spirit. And so if you aren't walking in Christ, I commend him to you. In him, you will find peace. You will find true joy and satisfaction and hope. The Lord will give you all you need to stop comparing yourself to others, to stop trying to live up to your own flawed standard, to stop trying to justify what you know is wrong, to stop trying to make yourself to be what you will never be able to make yourself to be. to stop doing all of the destructive things in your life that promise so much but deliver so little. Turn to your creator and he will fill your heart with love and a desire for goodness and kindness and gentleness and self-control and the spirit of God will indwell you and give you the ability to live according to the fruit of the spirit instead of upon the deeds of the flesh. Look to Christ and live. And if you are a Christian, what will you do with God's word? We have an obligation, brothers and sisters, to walk with one another in love, gently correcting, restoring, bearing each other's burdens. We have a responsibility to lovingly walk alongside one another in this journey as brothers and sisters, humbly seeking to consider others more highly than ourselves. And so I pray that God will help each of us make an honest evaluation of our own hearts and our own lives and our own patterns of sin and that God would help us to rest more completely in the righteousness that only Christ provides and less and less will we think that we have to develop some kind of righteousness of our own. How freeing is it to know that we can stand upon the righteousness of Christ? We can be ourselves, we can be open, we can be honest, we can admit who we truly are because we are what we are in Christ, because He has made us to be what we are. Let's be honest, let's be open, let's live lives in the light and stop trying to be what we are not. Let us be a people who strive all the more in Christ, filled with His Spirit, driven by His grace to fulfill the law of Christ as we walk by the Spirit. Amen. Let's pray to God. Lord, we do thank you for your Spirit. who guides us, leads us, directs us, and fills our hearts with love that we might live by the law of Christ. Help us, dear God, as individuals, as families, as your church, to think of others more highly than ourselves, to always be quick to examine our own hearts, to be quick to repent of our sin, and to live honestly, to live our lives honestly before others in the light. admitting, Lord, that we still have sin in our lives. We wish it wasn't there, but we openly acknowledge that it is. And so we ask, Lord, that you help us to repent, you help us to walk in godliness and holiness, but as we do so, not by comparing ourselves to others, but by looking to you and knowing that our only hope is in Christ. A true forgiveness is found in Christ alone. And so what may it be that we depend more and more on you by faith, and less and less upon our own strength, our own finite wisdom, and our own flawed self-righteousness. And we pray you do all of this, that you would be glorified in and amongst your people, that your church would be strengthened, And we ask that you would do all of this in the name of the one who can do all things, in Jesus' name, amen. We hope you were edified by this message. For additional sermons, as well as information on giving to the ministry of Emmanuel Baptist Church, and on our current building project, you can visit us online at ebcfl.org. That's ebcfl.org.