All right, good morning. In his work, Spiritual Councils, Thomas Charles wrote the following, man's whole nature as corrupted is wholly bent on seeking happiness for and in himself, separate from God. He knows not how to deny his own will or discard his own wisdom and his own strength or purpose or oppose his worldly lusts, which wholly lead him from God. Besides, the way which God has provided for his happiness and salvation in Christ is so extremely humiliating that nothing but a total renunciation of himself in every view can ever enable him to embrace it. How can the pride an independent spirit of man stooped to this. Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Thanks for being here today to worship and study and learn and fellowship. It is the best day of the week. It always is. Sunday's just my favorite. And our study of the text this morning will continue in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. But before we turn there to read, we're going to do a warp speed recap. So Timothy rejoins Paul at Corinth during Paul's second missionary journey. And Timothy gives him the report on the new church at Thessalonica. And Paul is so moved that he writes this letter. He wrote it. kind of hastily, well I don't know about the hastily part, but he wrote it because he was run out of town before he was ready to leave. And as we will read here in a bit, although Satan hindered Paul's return to Thessalonica, God uses that hindrance for good and to provide more than just a letter of encouragement. So the letter is meant to encourage and comfort the church. It is meant to defend Paul's ministry to express joy of the church's faith, to remind of the importance of moral purity, to exhort them to be hard workers, to correct prophetic timelines, to diffuse tension within the church, and then as we'll focus on today, to exhort them in the basics of Christian living. In this epistle, we're given examples of Paul as a preacher, as a pastor, as a tender and loving mother, and as a responsible father. And so far we've seen how persecution of the church is a good thing for the church in that it causes our roots to go down deeper into Christ, drives us to our knees in prayer, purifies and sanctifies us, insists the church, and strengthens our fellowship with and love for one another. The converse of persecution being good for the church is that it's absolutely terrible for man to persecute the church. And the cost for persecuting the church and hindering the spread of the gospel, keeping God from men and men from God, is eternal hell. We've also learned what good preaching is and is not. We're given some how-to-be's, some exhortations towards Christian living. And we discussed at length what it is to be imitators of Christ. And we briefly explored the tie between humility, love, and obedience as a product of our imitation, which leads us to be able to walk in a manner worthy, as per chapter 2 verse 12. And as a reminder, every chapter in 1 Thessalonians ends with reference to the second coming of Christ. But the central theme of the letter is God's plan for His church. So with that in mind, please take your Bibles and turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. We're gonna read verses one through 12 together. Finally then, brothers, we ask and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that as you receive from us as to how you ought to walk and please God, just as you actually do walk, that you excel still more. For you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God. And that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter, because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. For God did not call us to impurity, but in sanctification. Consequently, he who sets this aside is not setting aside man, but the God who gives his Holy Spirit to you. Now, concerning the love of the brothers, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another, for indeed you do practice it toward all the believers who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to excel still more. and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands just as we commanded you so that you will walk properly towards outsiders and not be in any need. Let's pray. Oh God, help us now. Soften hearts and open our ears to your word. Help us to study well, to be attentive, to remember, and to apply your word to our lives so that you would be glorified. Amen. All right, let's look at the text. Let's look at verse one. Finally then, brothers. So here he's talking to, seems to be wrapping it up with the finally then. It's Paul though, so he's not exactly, this isn't exactly his final paragraph. But the brothers does indicate here that he is addressing specifically Christians and specifically this church. But as we talked about before, we are included in that audience. So he is addressing this church there. And then, so finally then, brothers, we ask. Some translations may have a we request. And the tone here is a gentler approach than that of a direct command. It's a bit more of a humble suggestion. So finally then, brothers, we ask and exhort. And the ESV has urge, but the word here means to bring alongside, as if to say, imitate me. And we talked about that, being imitators of Paul and being imitators of Christ at some length previously. We ask and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, So, ask and exhort you in the Lord Jesus. So this is a two-fold present active admonition. And I totally stole that because English and grammar is not my wheelhouse. But, a two-fold present active indicative shows that the action happens in the present time, so these things are currently happening, that the subject carries out the action, the people he's talking to, carrying out the action, and that it's a true statement. And then the, in the Lord Jesus, conveys by whose authority these admonitions are coming. Right? So finally then brothers, we ask and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that as you've received from us, and then this is where the NASB I feel is helpful because the NASB includes instruction. That you receive from us instruction. So he's repeating what they had already been taught. Excuse me. So they had already received this instruction, and they know what's expected. And then the question you might be asking yourself when you're reading this and studying it is, OK, what was the instruction that they received as to how you ought to walk? And you can take that as to how you ought to. You can take that, and you can put it in front of the next the next admonition, and as to how you ought to please God. So you know how you're supposed to walk, and you know how you're supposed to please God. So they were taught how to live to the glory of God. Just as you actually do walk. Oh, currently doing that. All right, good job, guys. But, and then he throws in this, right? That you excel still more. So they're doing very well, but they needed to be doing very well more often. and more frequently, and to a greater extent. So excel still more. Excel more in living for God's glory. It's Paul telling them to keep going, strive to be more holy. The idea here is a progression. It's an upward trajectory of their lives as they progress in sanctification and in their lives of faith. And it is that pursuit, the pursuit of knowing God, that is the most basic component of spiritual growth. And the power to excel still more comes from the power of the indwelling Christ via the Holy Spirit. Without the indwelling Holy Spirit, the person's not a true believer. So let's look at that real quick. Flip over to Romans 8. Romans 8, 9, and then we're also gonna read Romans 8, 11. Romans 8, 9, however, you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. If you skip ahead to 11, but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. So without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, a person is not a true believer. You all know how I like lists. So I've provided on the handout a short list of key passages discussing the spirits indwelling. For the sake of time this morning, we're not going to Bible drill and look all of these up. But you have the list, and I'll give you the rundown here. We already talked about Romans 8, 9, and 8, 11. We also got 1 Corinthians 3, 16, and 6, 19. Galatians 2, 20 tells us that Christ lives in us. Ephesians 2, 22. Ephesians 3, 17 through 19, when Christ indwells a believer's heart, they are filled up to all the fullness of God. That is extremely encouraging. Colossians 1.27, it's a mystery and a hope of glory, the indwelling. Then we got 2 Timothy 1.14 and Jude 19. And taken in context, most of these refer to believers as individuals. Ephesians 2.22, however, seems to speak of the indwelling both in an individual sense and in a collective sense. referring to the body of Christ, the church. God dwelt in a physical temple in Old Testament Jerusalem. The spirit of God dwells individually in each member of the New Testament body, as well as collectively in them altogether. And then also on your handout are the major characteristics of indwelling in the New Testament. There's a list of five of those there. The first one is that it's always at salvation. It's inclusive of all believers individually. It's permanent. It's cohesive in the collective sense of the universal church. And then most relevant to us here this morning, it is an empowerment for holy living and fruitful service. Verse two. Verse two, for you know what commandments we gave you through or by the authority of the Lord Jesus. So they had been taught well, they knew God's will. Christians who seek to know God better, to do his will, to love him more and to obey him more thoroughly and more frequently must live according to the commandments of scripture. So then I had a question for you guys. What is the first command of obedience? Anyone? What's the first command of obedience? Before that. How are you able to do that? It's belief. Believe. That you would believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Belief is a command. Belief is obedience to the commands of scripture. And what happens at belief? A true profession of belief, a repentant belief? The indwelling. An indwelling leads us to what? An empowerment for holy living. Number five on the list. I'm just setting the table here. Remember John 13 and 14 from our series in service? What did Jesus exemplify and say and teach over and over again? If you love me, you will keep my commands. Since you know these things, the things he told the disciples, since you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me. And if you love me, you'll be loved by the Father. And then in regard to him and the Father, we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Him and the Spirit, sorry. I may have left that one off the list on your handout. That's John 14, 23. So verse three, and this is where we're going to park the car for a little bit here. Verse three, for this is the will of God, your sanctification. It's not a period there. Bible doesn't have punctuation. There is a semicolon there, but for right now we're going to stop there. For this is the will of God, your sanctification. And that's it. Living in sanctification, living a sanctified life is God's will for you. That's God's will for us. It's God's will for me. That's what it is. The will of God literally is a thing willed by God. on His will being best ascertained in His word. And His word is the only place that gives His will in absolute terms. And the phrase, the will of God, has two significations in scripture. One is the determination of God, that's His decree. Those are all the things that are gonna happen. The other signification of this is his desire. And that's the things in which he delights. That is a will, however, which may be frustrated by the perversity of his creatures. And it's in this latter sense that the word here is employed. Real quick question. And I put these on the sheet. It's on your handout. Don't write it down. But there are some other things that are explicitly God's will. Jesus and the Holy Spirit's intercession for us is explicitly God's will. Romans 12.2 tells us that that which is good and acceptable and perfect is God's will. Us being grieved by our sin to the point of repentance is God's will. Being thankful for everything in every circumstance. We'll get to that next time we talk. Well, maybe not next time, but in 1 Thessalonians 5. doing the right things to silence the foolish, not living for the lust of the flesh, that sinners may be alive in the Spirit, and maybe the one that's the hardest to swallow is the suffering. Suffering is the will of God sometimes. But Here, in our context, living the sanctification, living a holy life, is God's will. And it's one of the commandments that Paul is reminding them of. And here in this morning's text, specifically, doing that by abstaining from sexual immorality. Paul is giving the believers in Thessalonica the commandments of God regarding personal purity. Verse 3b, that you abstain from sexual immorality. Abstain just means to restrain oneself from doing or enjoying something. From sexual immorality. There's a special warning in this passage against sins of impurity. In Paul's day, immorality was so common among the heathen that even Christians were apt to look on it with a measure of indifference or even complacency. And I ask you, What does that sound like? Is that really much different than what we're dealing with today? Just idolatry of a different form. J.C. Ryle said, sin never announces itself to us with its full intentions. It never says, I am your deadly enemy and I want to ruin you forever in hell. It shows its pleasure but hides its pain. It shows its sparkle, but hides its death. Greek cities like Thessalonica were wide open to all kinds of sexual looseness, including immorality associated with their pagan idol worship. And pagan religions did not demand sexual purity of their devotees and their so-called gods. And goddesses were themselves grossly immoral. So these so-called gods were half-human, half-god, and as immoral as the hearts of the vain imaginings of the men who hatched them. And then told them to go act and do whatever, and gave them license to act according to their lewd desires. And their consciences became dull and hardened, and the law of the conscience had little effect. And that's made clear in the Book of Romans. There were even priestesses, they were basically religious prostitutes in the pagan temples who were to help the men who came to worship the immoral idols. In fact, it's a bit ironic that there were a thousand priestesses, a thousand priestess prostitutes at the Temple of Aphrodite in Corinth, which is the very city from where Paul is writing this letter. A letter about walking in holiness. Roman culture had few sexual boundaries and the Greek religion considered prostitution a priestly prerogative. The sanctity of marriage was so distorted that extramarital sex was actually considered to be an act of worship. Paul is saying in this section that for believers, the will of God is holiness and that such a lifestyle excludes sexual immorality. No appeal to Christian liberty or freedom ever justifies fornication. And the connection between sexual immorality and idolatry is best understood in the context of 1 Corinthians 6.18, which says, flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. And since the bodies of believers are the temple of the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 6.19-20, when we use our physical bodies for moral purposes, We are imitating pagan worship by profaning God's holy temple with acts he calls the testable. In the New Testament, the word most often translated sexual immorality is pornea. The word is also translated as whoredom. fornication, and idolatry. It means a surrendering of sexual purity or illicit sexual activity. And it is primarily used of premarital or extramarital sexual relations. It is a general inclusive word for any kind of sexual immorality and occurs about 25 times in the New Testament. From this Greek word, we get the English word pornography. stemming from the concept of selling off. Sexual immorality is the selling off of sexual purity and involves any type of sexual expression outside the boundaries of a biblically defined marriage relationship. The NASB consistently translates it as fornication and the NIV translates it sexual immorality or on a few occasions simply immorality. It's often included, the word is often included in lists with other sinful activities, but without any further definition or explanation. Which tells you just how well we know what this sin is. The word itself does not specify which kinds of sexual activity are immoral. However, since the rest of scripture defines any sexual activity outside of marriage as off-limits, it would all be considered porneia. Even though pornography as we know it is not mentioned in the New Testament, it is reasonable to include it in the category of porneia. as it is essentially sexual in nature and focuses sexual energy and desire on someone other than one's spouse. Jesus did call lust adultery and adultery is a type of porneia. When sexual lust is gratified, porneia is the sin that results. The New Testament consistently warns against porneia. First Corinthians 6.13, the body is not meant for porneia, but for the Lord. 1 Corinthians 6.18 that I just read you tells you to flee from pornea, run away from. Ephesians 5.3, but among you there must not be even a hint of pornea or any kind of impurity or of greed. There's an interesting inclusion on that and we'll get to that in verse 6. But these are improper for God's holy people. Pornea on the part of a spouse is noted by Jesus as a legitimate reason for divorce. Figuratively, porneia can refer to spiritual unfaithfulness or spiritual adultery. In Revelation, Babylon the Great is pictured as a prostitute committing spiritual adultery. In Revelation 14.8, a second angel followed and said, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great, which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her porneia. Revelation 17.2, with her the kings of the earth committed pornea and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her sexual immorality. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand filled with abominable things and the filth of her sexual immorality. 17.4. And then in 18.3. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality. The kings of the earth committed pornea with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries." Paul reminded these believers that sexual immorality does not please God. There are many areas where we do not know the explicit will of God, but sexual behavior is not one of them. We have very clear instruction of how to live in this matter. To please God is to do his will and his will is us continually becoming holy in the area of sexual morality and purity. Christians daily have a choice to yield themselves to God's sovereign will or assert their own independent will. Even if what you are engaged in can only be described as an inappropriate relationship, that is sexual immorality. Anytime you go outside the boundaries, God is set. Anytime you give even a fraction of your heart to someone other than your spouse, pornia. Don't attempt to live the Christian life without reading and knowing your Bible, because if you do, you're far more likely to seek your own sinful will than his perfect will. we should be grateful that God has given believers his absolutes in this vital area of conduct so that we can make clear, decisive decisions that are pleasing to our Father. I don't need to give you helpful tips on how to avoid it. The Bible tells us in plain, clear words what to do. You run from it. You run away. You see it coming. You feel its pull, the temptation. You run. You run. You run, you run and you pray, and you ask God to help you kill that sin. Biblical prohibitions against sexual immorality are often coupled with warnings against impurity. Romans, Galatians, Ephesians. And that word, impurity, In the Greek is akatharsia, which means defiled, foul, or ceremonially unfit. And that connotes actions that render a person unfit to enter God's presence. So those who persist in unrepentant immorality and impurity cannot come into the presence of God. It is impossible to maintain a healthy intimacy with God when our bodies and souls are given over to impurities of any kind. God created sex and he has the authority to govern its use. The Bible is clear that sex was created to be enjoyed between one man and one woman who are in covenant marriage until one of them dies. Sexuality is God's sacred wedding gift to humans. And any expression of it outside of those parameters constitutes an abuse of God's gift. I'm going to repeat that. Sexuality is his sacred wedding gift to humans. And any expression of it outside of those parameters constitutes an abuse of God's gift. God created sex for both The continuance of the race, and for the pleasure of the marriage partners, Hebrews 13, 4, marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled. For the sexually immoral and adulterers, God will judge. Adultery, premarital sex, pornography, and homosexual relations are all contrary to God's design, and that makes those things sinful. God's commandments concerning sex are not for the purpose of robbing people of joy, but rather of protecting them that they might not lose their joy. Thou shalt not commit adultery builds a wall around marriage that makes the relationship not a prison, but a beautiful garden that's safe. We never have to seek to know the will of God in this matter. He's told us clearly. Abstain from it. Abstain from fornication. It's his command. That's it. No amount of liberal theology or modern philosophy can alter that. You want to make excuses for it, that's sin. That's porneia. Throughout the Bible, God warns against sexual sin, and these warnings must be heeded. It is throughout the Bible. God's will is our sanctification. God's will is our sanctification. That we might live set apart from the world in purity of mind and body. J.C. Ryle. It's a great J.C. Ryle quote. Be very sure of this. People never reject the Bible because they cannot understand it. They reject it. They understand it too well. They understand that it condemns their own behavior. They understand that it witnesses against their own sins and summons them to judgment. They try to believe it's false and useless because they don't like to believe it's true. There's no excuse, right? We studied that in Romans. We have no excuse. We've never had an excuse. We've never had an excuse all the way back to Genesis. All right, back to the text. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you know how to possess his own vessel. Okay, so here's a command, and this is just slightly tricky here. Apparently there are two good ways to interpret this verse, and quite frankly, a couple hours a night over the course of this week, the last couple weeks really, did not prepare me to solve this sufficiently. So I'm going to present both of these and kind of merge them into one, and I think it fits. And then if anyone has heartburn about that, let's have a better conversation. The word translated here as how to possess is katomai, and it's translated everywhere else as acquire, get, gain, or obtain. If you look it up in Thayer, Strong's, or Mount's Bible dictionaries, that's what you'll find. Some scholars say this is also a way to express the idea of control. So, you can either say possess equals get or obtain, or you can say it's control. Vessel is translated one of two ways, body or wife. So he's either telling them to know how to possess themselves to be able to control their bodies in such a way. And he tells us sanctification and honor later. So he's either telling them how to control themselves or to acquire a body or to acquire a wife. All right, flip over to 1 Corinthians 7. 1 Corinthians 7, verses two, we're gonna read two and nine. Verse two, but because of sexual immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband. But if they do not have self-control, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. All right. Now flip over to, we're going to go in the Wayback Machine, Old Testament, 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel 21. I lost my bookmark, so this might take me a second. 1 Samuel 21.5. David answered the priest and said that surely women have been kept from us as previously when I set out and the vessels of the young men were holy though it was an ordinary journey how much more than today will their vessels be holy so the point is this is the will of God your sanctification and As is relevant to this text, that sanctification, that conformance to the will of God is specific to two things. That you abstain from sexual immorality and either control your body or, since this is specifically addressed to but not only applicable to the brothers, get a wife. Maybe both. Probably both. Control your body and sanctification and honor. get a wife, and possess her in sanctification and honor. Both of those interpretations are consistent with the command toward living a holy life and avoiding porneia, and living out God's will for our lives. So how does verse 4 make verse 5 understandable? Well, if you know how to possess your own vessel, If you know what the right answers are in that regard, then here, reading and understanding Paul's negative instruction is pretty easy. It's not in lustful passion. Verse 5, not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God. It's just a simple contrast. Lustful passion is what the pagan idolaters do. That's the opposite of the how-to-be's, the command he just gave us in 3 and 4. verse 6, and that, and, this is where the greed comment comes in, and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. Okay, so, avoid sexual immorality, control your body, get your own wife, don't Don't defraud your brother by engaging in sexual immorality with his wife. Don't steal his wife. Ladies, don't steal your sister's husband. Don't skip over that the Lord is the Avenger in all these things. They're in 6 either. We saw that in the Hebrews verse as well. The Lord is the Avenger in all these things. Charles Spurgeon said, Morality may keep you out of jail, but it takes the blood of Jesus to keep you out of hell. Verse seven, for God did not call us to impurity, so don't live an impure life. This is classic Paul, right? This is classic Paul. This is classic repetition, repetition. He's just telling them over and over again. He's reminding them. He wrote this letter to remind them of the things he already told them. It's great. I'm thankful that we have the Bible because you forget how to live. Don't live an impure life. We are not saved so that we can live in sin. We are saved from sin so that we can live holy lives. For God did not call us to impurity, but in sanctification. Don't do this. Do do this. So do live in holiness. For God called us to sanctification. That's another way to read verse 7. Verse 8 has a little bit of weight to it. Eternal impacts in verse 8. Consequently, he who sets this aside is not setting aside man. but the God who gives his Holy Spirit to you. So if you reject living a sanctified life, you're not rejecting man. If you reject living a sanctified life, you're rejecting God. 1 Corinthians 6, 9. Let's flip there real quick. 1 Corinthians 6, 9. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Such are some of you. Don't be that way anymore. But you were washed. Flip over to Galatians. Galatians 5. Galatians 5, 19. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident. The deeds of the flesh are evident. The deeds of the flesh, which are sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. If you reject living a sanctified life, you are rejecting God. John Flable, in his Keeping the Heart, when looking at Proverbs 15, 3 and Jeremiah 23, 23 and 24, said, the secrecy with which you may commit sin is made use of to induce compliance with the temptation. The tempter insinuates that this indulgence will never disgrace you among men, for no one will ever know it. But recall this yourself. Does not God see you? Is not the divine presence everywhere? What if you might hide your sin from the eyes of the world? You cannot hide it from God. Back to the text. Let's look at our last section, verses 9 through 12. Verses 9-12, I'm just going to read it all and then we'll go back and pull it apart a little bit. Now, concerning the love of the brothers, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. For indeed, you do practice it towards all the brothers who are in Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to excel still more. Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands just as we commended you so that you will walk properly towards outsiders and not be in any need. So as a whole, the Thessalonian brothers were loving one another, having been taught by God, and they were loving the Macedonian believers. But they needed to excel still more in loving the brethren because verse 11 tells us that some people, excuse me, some people were idle and lazy and a bunch of busy bodies. And so the sluggards among them needed an attitude adjustment and an exhortation to get to work. They needed to be reminded to mind their own business, work hard and love their brethren in the church. so as to be a witness for Christ. So by working hard and minding our own business, we serve as good witnesses to those outside the church and avoid becoming a burden to those in the church. So as you work with your hands this week, Providence, do as William Bridge says, labor to mortify your affections, and to get your will melted into the will of God. As the winds are to the sea, so are the affections to the soul of man. So long as the sea is hurried with the wind, it hath no rest or quiet. And what is the reason that our hearts are no more calmed and quieted but because we have not yet resigned up our wills to the will of God? done a little bit early, so let's pray. Father, thank you. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for your word. Thank you for salvation. Thank you for washing us. Thank you for your Holy Spirit, who is our helper. We pray that you would help us to despise our sins, help us to grow in that holy malice that makes us want to be killing sin. Help us to learn to run from it. Help us to learn to run to you. Help us in our need and desire for dependence on you and your grace. Pray that you help our work. Help us to work hard. Remind us that we work heartily as unto you. Control our tongues. We may not be gossips or busybodies. May we increase and abound in love for one another, for your church and for all people to the extent that we get to share the gospel with those you put in our paths. Pray that you save our coworkers and our friends and our family and our neighbors. so that one day when we see them, we can rejoice, and we give you glory for the fruits of the labor. Help us to be a church who, when separated from each other, longs for the Lord's day, longs to be in faithful fellowship. Worship's not just fellowship with each other. It's not at all. Worship is fellowship with you. Prepare our hearts as we head into the next hour. Help us to be good students, to be attentive. That's for our good and for your glory. Amen.