We are continuing our studies in 1 Thessalonians, and today we're going to consider one verse, 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 14, and the title of my sermon is Living in Our Father's House Together. the title of a book from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, if you happen to know that book. But I think, you know what, this verse describes pretty well what the title of that book is about or the title of that book says. And I just wanted to start with this question. Do you remember when Adam, or no, Cain, asked God after he killed Abel, and God says, where's your brother? Cain says, am I my brother's keeper? We are our brother's keepers. That's what this verse is about. Many years ago, about 10 years ago, something terrible happened. in my family. Some of you are aware of that. And I remember that many people did different things during that time. Some people ran and stampeded. Others went telling things and some of them were lies. Thank you, Victor. You're the best brother. Others would just stop talking to us. Some completely disappeared from our lives. But many who are sitting here today offered help, comfort, friendship, remained close and stuck with us. This is why I tell even my children, my grown-up children who live away, I love you, you're my children, I pray for you, pray for your children and your children's children. But my family right now is in Miami in our local church. Because you, many of you, were an example of what the text we are going to consider this morning is about, about living in our Father's house together through thick and thin, through good things and through bad things. And that's why I've entitled the sermon today, That. living in our father's house together. First Thessalonians 5.14 is our text. It's a very brief, simple text. And again, I want us to do what we did some weeks ago. We're going to read it in English. Then we will read it in Spanish. And you say, why are you doing that? What new doctrine are you coming with? None. I just want us to read Scripture together because many times as we read together and we pronounce the words of Scripture together, they speak and remain with us. So I would like us to read together 1 Thessalonians 5.14, and the Word of God reads, Be patient with all men. If you speak Spanish, then you can read it in Spanish. Les exhortamos, hermanos, a que amonesten a los indisciplinados, animen a los desalentados, sostengan a los débiles, y sean pacientes con todos. And thus reads the word of God. Let us pray. Father, as Troy prayed, bless your word to our hearts. May it edify, encourage, teach, but especially may it point to Christ and help us to love you more, worship you more, and serve you more. Thank you for your kindness and your mercy to us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. This is a corporate exhortation. The verb is we want to exhort you, brethren. We want to call you aside and ask you to do these three things. Notice it is in plural. It is a corporate exhortation, meaning that the three things asked in this text, admonish the unruly, help the weak, encourage the faint-hearted, and be patient with all people is not the job of a few selected special ones, namely the clergy, the pastor or pastors, and perhaps the deacons, and perhaps the leaders in the church. No, Paul is not saying, and this is, by the way, something for those who are in leadership. He says, we exhort you, we ask you, plural, brethren, this is our responsibility to one another. This is living in our Father's house together. Notice that, again, it comes in the form of an earnest plea. It's a commandment. Make no mistakes. This is not an option. This is not, well, consider this. It's a commandment. We are called to do these things, but Paul presents them in the form of a plea, in the form of a request. I beseech you, brethren, do these things for one another. Why? Because we are our brother's keepers. You've heard Troy many times speak about those one-anotherisms in Scripture. There is scores of them. Do we still have that sign in the foyer? All the one-anothers in the New Testament. There's a lot of them. Well, here's a text that packages them and bundles them together. This text, in three or four simple exhortations, takes all of those one and others that we're supposed to follow and comply with as we live together. And the outline is pretty simple, in my opinion. should be the common occurrence of what happens when we gather, and even when we're not gathered together as a church in our interactions with one another, Paul says in this verse, this is my own alliteration of it, coach, comfort, cope, and care for one another. Here's a packaging of things we're supposed to do for each other. Edwin, Pastor Freddy, there he is translating. Pastor Freddy, Darren, Troy, Victor, what should I do? I want to know, what should I do in the church? How can I help you guys? There you go. Hope, comfort, care, coach. Admonish the unruly, help the weak, encourage the faint-hearted, be patient with all men. Believers are inserted into a body. We are members of one another. That's what Romans 12.5 says. That means that we have a relationship of interdependency. I'm not an expert in these definitions, maybe those of you who are trained in the medical field know exactly what they mean, but that doesn't mean codependency, that doesn't mean this psychological crutch that I have in a person and without that person I cannot exist. No, it is not that. It is not independency either. Well, I have my own life, and yeah, I go to Mass every Sunday to hear priest Freddie, priest Edwin, priest Darren, or priest whomever it is, the priest who's giving Mass that day, but don't mess with me. I have my life, and I don't want you to meddle with me. That's not the dynamic of the New Testament. The dynamic of the New Testament is, if we are in Christ, we are supposed to be associated with a local body of believers. And even though we are members of Christ, of the universal Church, that is manifested in a local assembly, gathered with one another, recognizable to one another, and members of one another. So we have this interdependent connection. Let me tell you one of my crazy things is we're a family. We're a family, right? So we all know the crazy things of family members. Let me tell you one. I have one of my toes, one of my big toes, that always develops this callousness. Because of the way God built me, or sin caused my DNA to deform, I have one leg that is shorter than the other one. And when I walk, I do this to the foot as I'm walking. I didn't know it. Somebody showed that to me. I sort of pivot the foot. So it always developed this callus on the right toe. And I love to cut it. Love it. There's this feeling that when it's grown, I come with my scissor, and I chop it. Comes out very soft. Three hours later, it's as hard as a rock. You're laughing. Do you really do that? Yes, I do. Probably some of you do it too. I just have the guts of admitting it. Three hours later, it's hard as a rock. And I think to myself, amazing that even this useless talus is soft when it is glued to the toe, but it becomes hard as a rock once you cut it. Beloved, we are members of one another. And we are tied to the head of the body who is Christ. But in the meantime, we are interlocked with one another. There's no such thing in the New Testament as the Lone Ranger Christian. And even the Lone Ranger had Tonto by him. There's no such a thing as, well, I know the Lord, and I am a believer, but I don't have any churches full of hypocrites. Well, welcome. One more. No such a thing. This is the dynamics of this text. So what's the first point? First, coach. Admonish one another. Nusoteo. Exhort with rebuke, with instruction. It is hortatory. It is sermonic. It is kind of lecturing. This is what exhortation implies. Sometimes it is encouraging too. Sometimes it is uplifting. But in this exhortation, it is a charge to press on, to move on, to follow Christ. Who are the unruly? Well, it's interesting, the word means those who break rank. I don't know if you were ever taught to march in school, or those of you who have military experience, you have to march and march to the same pace, to the same speed, and have everything like at unison. Some of those who break rank are a problem because they discombobulate the whole platoon, or the whole thing we're doing. The unruly in this passage, the word means those who are misaligned. those who are not marching to the same tune, those who are sort of, I don't know, they are singing out of a different hymnal, or they are playing the song in another tune, but they really distort. Their sound is cacophonous. It is not proper. What it is to be unruly? Well, every household, every institution, every organized group of people has rules. I don't like rules. That's why I'm not a church member. Well, you follow rules at home. You follow rules when you drive. Try to go off a red light with a police officer behind you and see if you don't follow rules. But we all follow rules. I don't understand this thinking. And if you're married, you know you follow the rules of your wife, right? We're just governed. So you follow rules. Everybody follows rules. I like to receive visitors, and I like to receive unbelieving visitors. And sometimes they come, and I don't even know their background. I just tell them, oh, we have some rules in the house, the same rules I have for my children. There's a time to come back. If you're not married, you cannot have intercourse in my house. These are the rules of my house. And other than that, you'll be spoiled, and you'll be treated as if you were one of my children. And I do that. And I make it a point that they really enjoy it. But I said, the rules. Well, we all have rules. What are the rules of the kingdom? Super simple. Love God with all your heart and mind and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus says that's the rule. That's the summary of the law. Paul restates that in Romans 14. Keeping the law is loving your neighbor, because whomever loves his neighbor will not cause any harm to his neighbor. Those who misalign from the conduct of loving God and loving their neighbor, Paul says, exhort them to be corrected. Now, there's a warning, right? Admonishing, exhorting people who break rank is like exercising or like physical therapy. Have you ever had physical therapy after a surgery? You know what physical therapy is. You know one rule about physical therapy, right? It has to hurt. If it doesn't hurt, it's not working. Another rule about exercising. It's not easy. Whenever I see those treadmills announced on magazines, and the person is like, you're not in a treadmill smiling. You don't jog with a smile. It hurts. It's difficult. If admonishing seems easy to you, you're doing it wrong. You have a problem. One of the hardest things to do to a fellow believer, to any person, is to admonish them. So, let me just put that at the preface. Admonishing is not snapping when something doesn't go my way. Admonishing is not just getting angry because, well, I don't like it. It's wrong. According to who? According to my rule, it's wrong. No. Admonishing is what Jesus says in the gospel, or what Matthew records Jesus said, if your brother sins, go in private and rebuke you. But you have one intention. And Jesus says, if he listens to you, you have won your brother. If he doesn't listen, take two or three witnesses. And in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may count. If he listens to them, you won your brother. The whole purpose is to win your brother, not to snap, not to get even, not to prove your point. That's the point of admonition. And this corporate exhortation is you will go after the unruly with a purpose of winning that unruly to get back in the ranks, to get back in line, but not according to your desires, but according to what the meaning of loving God and loving your neighbor is. No more, no less. That's why love and knowledge are required to admonish. Paul states that in Romans 15, 14. Brethren, I am persuaded that you are full of love and full of knowledge, therefore you can admonish one another. Because you can be very loving and not have the right information, the right context, the right knowledge of Scripture to go and admonish and explain what is it that you're admonishing. Or you can be a pristine, fine theologian, but completely devoid of love and unable to speak the truth in love. Proverbs says that with mercy and truth, sin is corrected. By the way, if you have little children, or older children, or adult children, or wherever they are, remember that. You correct sin with mercy and with truth. Mercy and truth bind them around your neck. They have to go like both legs. One is right and one is left. You're either hopping or in a wheelchair. But if you want to walk normally, you have to put one foot in front of the other. You have to put the foot of mercy and the foot of truth in front of the other. And then you go and admonish. And that's the point Paul makes in Romans 15, 14. And we have to assume he has this in mind when he writes, admonish the unruly. The caveat of admonition is, Make sure you're dealing with sin, not with preference. I don't know how to put an example of this without offending anybody, but the adverse thing is think at home when you're dealing with your children, when you're going to admonish them or discipline them, make sure you're disciplining disobedience and rebellion, not childishness or not preference. Oh, but I want you to be a lawyer like me. I'm not a lawyer. Well, they want to be an artist. You have to live with that. Son, daughter, but you may actually have to sell shoes to make a living. That's their problem. They want to be an artist. Make sure we deal with sin, not preference. Make sure we deal with rebellion, not weakness. Some people are just weak. And in their weakness, Paul says you do something else for the weak, but not admonish them. Make sure you're dispensing grace, not vindictiveness. Not this spirit of always being vindicated. I have to vindicate the truth. I am the new Elijah of this generation. No, you're not. Make sure you're a grace dispenser. Secondly, Besides coaching, be a comforter. The text says, encourage the faint-hearted. The word is console, comfort, prod, tear up, exhort to do better, clap for them. Who? The faint-hearted. Who's the faint-hearted? I love what Robertson, the commentator, says. The little souls. Those who are ready to quit. Sometimes we feel that we are ready to quit, don't we? And sometimes we have come across people who are ready to quit. But Paul says, those, you come to their side and encourage them. You come to their side and prod them and help them. You've seen those beautiful YouTube videos of this marathon runner that comes to the end of the race, but his muscles break down, his body gives up, and the guy who's running behind gives away winning, and picks up this person, grabs them as they are limping, and when they see the line, they push them. So they win, because they were winning from the beginning, and then they cross in second place. If you've seen that, if not look for it, it's a beautiful imagery of what encouraging the faint-hearted, the little soul, the one who's ready to quit means. It could be that they are under affliction. I asked a person this morning, how are you doing? The person said, well, it's okay. I mean, it's fair, but the sky's fine. What am I going to do telling you that I'm not doing one? It's not going to change anything. You know what? That's a noble attitude. Paul said to the Corinthians, when I'm sad, I'm not going to tell you guys because I don't want to discourage the people I want to encourage me later. That's something you learn with time. I'm not going to be telling everybody all the problems I have. Some of our problems never go away. Some people say, well, maybe one day, get this clear, maybe one day in heaven, down here, that problem will never go away. God wants you to deal with that for life. Will God send my spouse to try me in holiness? Yes. Until death do you part. You get to heaven, you may run away from that person, but for now, until death do you part. Or does your park? Some problems aren't going to be there forever. Don't look at each other that way. You're supposed to love you. You're in church. But some issues you have to deal with for life. The book of Job, as parks fly upwards, so people are born for affliction, aren't they? Some things will not go away. Sometimes a person is fainthearted because of conviction of sin. Remember 2 Corinthians 7.10? This sadness that the Spirit of God produces in people to lead us to repentance? Keep an eye on that. Because when you're a believer who has the Spirit, many times your sadness is no more than conviction of the Spirit who is grieved within us to lead us to repent. And sometimes the faint heartedness comes from there. Sometimes it is just a habitual disposition. Those who are older, and even if you're younger, there's a book by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. It's an old book from the 60s, but I love it. Spiritual Depression, Its Causes and Its Cures. It's awesome. It means that some people are depressed just by their DNA. Even Richard Baxter, in his directory, Christian directory, says that back in the 1600s. Some people have just this chemistry, this makeup, this brain disposition, however that works. I'm not a doctor. And they are habitually inclined to faintheartedness. Sometimes it is morbidity. Sometimes it is just this, I don't know, this constitutional depression. Sometimes it is pride. Because pride is very subtle. You seem to be angry. But what happens to you? Sick and tired. What are you sick and tired of? I don't know, this job, my boss, you know, life. Always the same. Same old, same old. You know what it could be? Pride. Because deep down we think we deserve better. Why is not my job like such and such job? Why don't I have a marriage like such and such marriage? Why aren't my children like the children of such and such? I deserve better. Why was I not promoted if I work harder and been there longer and I know more? And all of a sudden, we're angry and depressed. It's just veiled pride. Don't rely on that. Now, whatever the situation, and it is hard to assess many times, why is there faintheartedness? Why is this person weak? If you see affliction, is it grief? Is it pain? Is it pride? Is it circumstances? What is it? What's the problem? Well, remember Proverbs 25, 20. I love that text. Like one who takes off a garment, on a cold day, or like vinegar on soda, is he who sings songs to a troubled heart. You kids have done the experiment in high school, right? Acid, basic, makes them puff, right? You've seen that. The magic soap, or whatever it is that it is called, the experiment. but you have been sleeping on a cold day or on a cold night or whether it is winter or whether it's the air conditioner is really hot that night and you moved or your wife or spouse moved and they pulled the sheet away from you and the cold wakes you up in the middle of the night and you just start pulling that sheet, right? You know what it feels. Okay, Proverbs says, you find a discouraged person, you find a faint-hearted person, You go, oh, but the Lord is wonderful. Isn't Jesus beautiful? God is sovereign. He's sending you that to cheer you up. You know what you're doing? You're pulling the sheet on a cold night. You're removing a jacket in a snowy storm. You're putting vinegar on soda. May I say something personal? Sometimes people ask me about Sarah, my mentally handicapped daughter. How's Sarah doing? It's okay, she's Sarah. And of course they haven't seen me weeping in the middle of the night because of my mentally handicapped daughter. They haven't seen my anxiety, thinking about when we die, who's going to care for Sarah. They don't know anything about the grief. that this providence, this dark providence God brought to our lives is. And they say, it's an angel from God. And I've learned to be a politician, and I say... Because if I say what I'm really thinking, ain't gonna be good. It's not gonna be nice. My point is, Be wise, be prudent, because some people are fainthearted. For some reason, others are just constitution. I like to think about some of the servants here in Cornerstone, how they are. For example, you have Troy. He's there with his bull, boring and plowing the ground, exerting himself. Hey, Troy, how are you? Eh, and he keeps going. That's his constitution. You see Victor with the same bull plowing the ground, but Victor is jogging. Say, hey, Victor, how are you? I am well. What are you doing there? Go grab a bull and come plow with me. Or you see Mario with two bulls. Hey, Mario, how are you? And he keeps going. People are different. They are serving. They are doing what they have. Sometimes we have time to get into their pain. Sometimes you say, well, that's Troy. Nah. And he keeps going. Leave him alone. He's serving. Pray for him. Or for me, if you find me too depressing. Point being, be wise. Seneca, quoted by Green, he said that he said, we should not warn the weak. and encourage the idol. Sometimes a marriage couple comes to your counseling session. The husband is a brutish. The wife is a victim. And somehow we treat the husband nicely and we turn to the wife and exhort her to be submissive to her husband. That's what Seneca is saying. Be careful. Not encouraging the idol. and forgetting the weak. That happens in Christianity. That's been happening even with some big names in Christianity, and I'll leave it at that. Third, hope. Hope is help the weak. Robertson says, it means support those that are easily tempted to sin. Who are the weak? Pastor Fisher, some of you remember him, would say, those who have a scrupulous conscience. Who are the people who have a scrupulous conscience? They keep existing. You preach a sermon that is somehow, someway rebuking. The last person in your mind is the scrupulous conscience person, because that person is faithful, doing what they are supposed to do, doing more than what they're supposed to do. They are laboring. And then you have the ones who are really careless, and you have them in mind in your sermon. Ceremony's over, the scrupulous conscience person comes to you weeping. That's her, but what's for me? I feel so unfaithful. I see so unable. I find myself lacking. And then the one who's really careless goes about nonchalantly smiling. Hey, good word. What's wrong with people? Well, those are the weak, those who are sensitive. Is that a good thing? I'd rather be sensitive than insensitive. I'd rather have a scrupulous conscience than a hardened conscience. But it's a problem, too, to be too weak. If it paralyzes you, it's useless. You can feel all the weak you want, but get behind your bull and plow the land. You can be all the depressed you want to be, but do what you're supposed to do and do it for the Lord. And that's my point. But some people have that sensitive conscience. Others are weak because they are weak physically, or weak economically, or weak intellectually. Sometimes people are weak spiritually. Another trick I've learned, it's so good to be old. As you start like seeing things and they repeat themselves, you say, maybe that's, there's some science behind that. People normally are or remain how they start. There's a Spanish phrase that goes like, if a tree comes out crooked, it will never straighten its stem. Spanish is, árbol que nace torcido nunca su rama endereza. And some people are just weak forever. There's a family member, not my wife, not any of my children. There's a family member that I say, I think he's a believer. I think he's a Christian. He's always going back to the Lord. He's always clinging to the Lord. But if I would tell you of how he's been clinging to the Lord, you would be scandalized. What a disaster of a life. Some people are weak. I don't know what happened in that brain. I don't know what happened in that life, but they are just weak and they remain limping for life. And Paul says, help them, help them. A note of, or a note on benevolence to the poor. Guys, in our nature, it is very easy and natural to like the beautiful, the rich, the young, the wealthy, the wise. Jesus even says, if you love those who love you, you're not doing anything different. You're doing exactly the same as sinners do. You're doing exactly the same as Pharisees do. It is really hard to reach out to the poor, to the weak, to the feeble, to the unattractive. That's the gospel. God reached out to those who would not represent anything to him. Let me remind you that Christianity is not about theorizing about theology. There's a lot of theoretical Christianity on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and all of these blogs and websites and these nice articles. Christianity is not a theoretical thing to be exercised from an office, from a computer. Christianity is real life action, getting your nails dirty because you're just there in the dirt with the sheep and with people. And you smell like people because you just mingle with them as Jesus mingled with sinners. Christianity is not about isolationism and writing from a computer. Christianity is about going after the sinner and redeeming the opportunities for the gospel. And a note. about immigrants. I saw this nice Facebook post by a beautiful Nice Christian woman. She was even part of her life raised in our church. Beautiful person. God bless her. I wish all of our adults, adult children were like her. But I see this note about her children being taught on immigration in Ellis Island. Because I'm just this old, sometimes Idiotic old dude. I just said, sweetheart, I hope they are also taught about immigration from the southern border coming from Mexico. Because immigration is not Alice Island. half a century or a century and a half ago, immigration today is about those illegal immigrants who come illegally, yes, who come hungry and thirsty, yes. And what are we going to do about it? We're going to make America great, or we're going to do what Leviticus 19.34 says. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you. You shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. I am not saying endorse illegal immigration. I am not saying it is wrong to protect our borders. I am not saying that. You know what I'm saying. You and I know better than that. It is an issue of the height. It is an issue of where is our loyalty? Are we first American, Republicans, and whatever else we are? Or are we first Christians? Whatever it takes and whatever it disturbs people when I speak about it. Help the weak. That's what the text says. If it sounds itchy and uncomfortable, I'm just a messenger. Remember that. Finally, coach, comfort, cope, and the last one is care. Care. Be patient with all men. I guess that's kind of self-explanatory, isn't it? Be patient with all. And how do I do that? That's kind of hard. I know. Be patient. Be patient with all men. Paul didn't write it, but I'm going to say it, including yourself. Be patient with yourself, too. You don't learn it from the first shot. You don't get it right on the first attempt. It takes time to deal with those things. And for some of us, we're still learning to know which is which, to do it right even when we know which is which. Be patient with all men. Patience is not condescension. No. Patience runs more along the lines of understanding. Knowledge brings patience. I know you've heard, knowledge brings power. Yeah, that's true. Knowledge brings patience. Patience is not passive. Patience is very active. You know what the imagery of patience in the Bible is? A weightlifter. I know that this kind of, you ladies are, what? A weightlifter? Yeah, these big Russian guys. Just get this weight in the Olympics. And they take it. A thousand pounds. And you see the weight shaking under their bodies. And they hold it, I don't know exactly how many seconds they have to hold it. And then they let go. Say, wow, what a beast. That's patience. It's enduring and withstanding under the weight. Be patient. It's hard. Hard to put up with me. Not everybody has my wife's patience of saying, it's okay, I don't pay attention to crazy people. You don't have to deal with that. She does because she's poor thing, 33 years married to me, so she learned how to deal with her crazy husband. But in the meantime, we have to deal with our craziness with one another, and that is enduring and standing under the weight of being patient with one another. When anybody has a complaint against each other, just let it go. As Jesus forgave you, you forgive others. Patience is a display of love. 1 Corinthians says that love is not easily provoked, but that love hopes all things, endures all things, believes all things. Be patient with one another. Gene Green says, this virtue, which is a fruit of the Spirit, is the opposite of the irritability that characterizes so many human relationships. We're irritable, aren't we? We are irritable driving. We are irritable at work. We're irritable... Everything bothers us. Loud music, rap. And I don't like any of that stuff. I don't like rap. I don't like... But it irritates us. We don't like it. We don't like to be disturbed. The older we get, it's worse. We don't like to be bothered. Be patient with one another. You know why? Patience is the purest manifestation of grace in the gospel. It shows we have understood something of the gospel. It shows we have understood something about God's character. The other day I'm driving, last week actually, driving through Naples on my way to my son's church, or the church he gathers with. And we're driving in Naples, and you see church after church. Presbyterian PCA, Presbyterian PCUSA, Methodist, Anglican, I mean, you name it, Baptist. Boom, and we make it to, what's the name of the church? Victor knows it because his daughter goes there. Summit. Summit University Campus Church. Orlando Cabrera is the pastor. And Orlando stands up to preach, and first thing when he prays is, Father, I pray for all the churches around us where the word is being preached. Bless them. Bring souls to you. Encourage them. Edify the saints. And he starts preaching. He pours his heart for these churches. And then he says, and please do it for us, too. And off he goes. And I was telling my wife on my way to church, he says, Mama, do you remember? when 20 years ago, and I'm sorry to be so blatant, but I will be, on purpose, especially for the young people. You remember when 20 years ago we would drive through these places? And we would think that the only true church was a Reformed Baptist church at a storefront place with 12 people. We thought all of these churches were just false. They couldn't be true believers because you cannot be a true believer using a guitar or using a bass and much less a drum set in your worship. That is not true worship. That violates the regulative principle. And we thought that from the bottom of our hearts, that in all of that area, a 12-people storefront church was the true church. And as I started getting angry at myself, and getting angry at the people who taught me that, God did it. Then God did it. Yeah. Okay, I'll take it. I'll take it. Nana, you were praying for me to finish and God answered your prayer. But anyways, my thought was how patient, how patient is the Lord. I would, what a, I was angry at myself. I was fuming at myself. And God waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, until one day He opened my eyes and says, there's 7,000 people who haven't bowed their knees to Baal. You're not the only one. And your little clan, and your little tribe of Reformed Baptists, thankfully, He's not the only one. And I said, wow, yes. But it took decades for me to open my eyes. Do you know why? Because God is patient. The patience of the gospel. He endured with us. He endured our sins. And even after we came to the Lord, our sins are greater. He keeps putting up with us. Because Christ bore the penalty of our sins on that cross. And on that, we are patient with all men. Question, do you have anyone in your life that has to be patient with you because they know you at your worst? Some people call that accountability partners. I don't know if that's the right name. But do you know those that you can call when you are at your worst? Do you have friends that you can talk to without pretense or masks because they know you? How admirable. How incorrigible and how helpable are we? Some of us just put that wall. Don't mess with me. I'm holy. You're not who to rebuke me. Is that true? May the Lord bless his word. Father, we ask that you help us as a congregation to be those who admonish each other, encourage each other, help each other, and treat each other with patience as we show the grace of the gospel. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.