with a load of care. Precious Savior, still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer. To thy precious Christ forsaken, take it to the Lord in prayer. In His arms He'll Amen. You may be seated. And we'll let the little ones run to class with Mrs. Shore. Alright, go to the creche. And the rest of us can take our Bibles and open them back up to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, and our text this morning is going to begin at verse 14, okay? It's going to begin at verse 14. And let's just pray, and ask God to bless our service, and then we'll get going here. Father, we thank you for the grace that you give. We thank you that you know our every weakness, and that we can take it to you in prayer. And Father, we thank you too that your strength is made perfect in weakness. And so this morning, Lord, we rejoice in you. Thank you that you're a God that is able to meet our needs. Father, I'm so thankful that you're not a God that's a far off. I'm thankful that you're not an idol that can't hear us, that you can't see us, don't know us, that you don't exist. Father, I thank you that you do exist, that you do know us, that you do care about us. And Father, you care about everybody that blasphemes your name. You care about everybody that murders Christ in their heart, that hates the idea of a deity, that lovingly designed them and gave them a free will with which mankind chose to rebel against you. And yet in your mercy, you sacrifice your son to buy them back. And Lord, what a privilege we have of loving you. What a privilege we have of serving you. I pray for y'all this morning. Father, I pray that the Spirit of God would speak. And Father, we do thank you again that where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst. And we welcome you to our service today. Thank you so much for being here. And pray that we walk worthy of you. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. In seminary at Bob Jones, we had a degree. Well, actually, it was an undergrad. It was called PCT, Practical Christian Training. You know, that's a good name for kind of any degree that you get with regard to seminary PCT. You wouldn't want to get a doctorate in theology and have all the head knowledge in the world, but no ability to practically apply that to just everyday living. Be like in the military. Who do you want as a general? Do you want somebody that has great knowledge as far as warfare and things, but no ability to implement it? Or would you want somebody that's right out of boot camp that can take their weapons and use them? I'd rather have somebody that can use what they've got. This morning, we don't need great theology as far as brains. We don't need people with degrees that have all these degrees behind their names saying, yeah, I've gone to seminary, I've done these things, and I've researched the Word of God, and I know it front to back. It kind of doesn't matter if you can't live it. God's more interested this morning in us living His book than us doing everything there is to know about His book, if it's just knowledge. And so how do we live the Word of God? And again, I love the Word of God. It's practical. It deals with where we live. And so the first thing that we see in this passage is to live it, we must live right with acquaintances. We must live right with acquaintances. Those that are, first of all, our brothers, brethren. When the Word of God says brethren, what does it mean? Do I need to stop and start over? Kids, what does it mean? Brethren. It's not a word we use, but in the Bible when it says brethren, what does it mean? Brothers. So, it's brothers. It speaks about affection and relationship. Now, it says in verse 14, now we exhort you, brethren. Brethren. Anytime you read that, it means brothers. You've heard the world saying, the more you are to someone, the more you despise them. But you know, that's opposite from what the Word of God says with regard to brothers, those that are family within the body of Christ. Paul said already in this book, in 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 9, You know this morning, God as a church wants us to love one another? That there ought to be, in any good church, any right church, there ought to be affection between those that attend that church. Because God's put it there, within the body of Christ, if they're born again. John 13.35, By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. John 15.12, This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. 1 Peter 1.22 Seeing ye have purified your souls, and obeying the truth through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart, fervently. 1 Peter 2.17 Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the King. 1 John 4, 7, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. Everyone that loveth is born of God, knoweth God. 1 John 4, 11, Beloved, if God so loved us, we have also to love one another. Do you get the idea from those passages? What are we supposed to do towards one another? We are to love each other. That love ought to be there. It's an important part of the body of Christ. So, practically, what is that? How do I live that? Well, it's just like a family. You can't exist within a good family without keeping the rules. The same thing within the body of Christ. How do we love one another? We love each other best when we follow God's rules in how to deal with one another. What does God's Word say here about that? Well, first of all, stand up to those who are in disobedience. Stand up to those who are in disobedience. It says, now we exhort you brethren, warn them that are unruly. Warn them that are unruly. Unruly is breaking rank. It's like a soldier that is marching out of rhythm. I mean, it'd look pretty bad if they're having their parade, military parade, and one soldier's out of step with all the other soldiers. But that's the idea of this word unruly, it's falling out of line or into disorder, failing to conform or deviating. God has certain commands for us within the body of Christ and they're not suggestions. They're not one set of rules for somebody that wants to obey them and one set of rules for somebody that doesn't want to obey them. It's not the way it is. A lot of modern ideas about religion is kind of, we can make the rules, but the reality is, who made the rules? God. So they're not things that we can change. They're called commandments. John 14, 15 says, if you love me, keep my commandments. 1 John 5, 3, for this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievance. And so we're walking along, and as believers, we're together, and somebody gets out of step with the word of God. What are we supposed to do? We're to warn them. It says, warn the unruly. We're to speak to them about that. For us to properly function as a church that cares for itself, then we have that responsibility of admonishment to them. Warn them. The second thing we see here is to encourage those who are tempted to quit. Encourage those who are tempted to quit. It says, comfort the feeble-minded. You know, Christian living isn't easy. It's not easy, especially, we always could probably say this, but especially not in our day and age, it's not an easy thing to be a Christian. Somebody might be tempted, or will be tempted, to quit. And so Paul reminds us, comfort them, encourage those that are feeble-minded, that have become weary. I think about Adoniram Judson, the missionary that went to Burma, or modern-day Myanmar. He's there a couple years and they lose a baby. He's there a few more years and he's in prison. It's six years before he has his first convert, then his wife. I think it was Anne Hasseltine, passes away. He's lost his wife, he's lost his child. Is he facing any discouragement? I think so. And even though maybe in the biography I could probably go back and find times where somebody encouraged him, but surely at some point somebody came along as a fellow Christian and said, you know what, you just need to be faithful. You need to keep on keeping on, don't quit. Go quit, because it's an easy thing to quit. And so how many times did his wife, Anne Hassleton, before she died, say to her husband in a loving way, you just need to keep on. You know, praise God he did, because a lot of what's taking place in modern day Burma is because of the faithfulness of Adirondack Judson. And the Burmese Bible that they have was translated by him. Think about David Livingston. His constant fevers, separation from his family, the warfare and the dangers of the place that he was in, as far as even animals and disease. How did he do it? Well, surely somebody came along and said, you know what? You just need to be faithful. You just need to keep going. You know what? I can say that to us this morning as a church. We need to just be faithful. Just keep on. Don't quit, and certainly we need to be aware of somebody struggling around us. We need to just give them some encouragement, keep on, and God's going to see it through. So, let's encourage each other in the Lord. Galatians 6, 9, Let us not be weary, and while doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. So encourage those that are tempted to quit, and then strengthen those who are physically weak. Support the weak. You know, I can sympathize with this. This morning I got a knee brace on and I got a cough drop in my mouth. Support the weak. Everybody's going to face illnesses sometime. Everybody's going to face physical weakness. And Paul says, you know what, you need to care for those and encourage those. Paul himself, did Paul have a physical infirmity that you can remember? Do you know he did? And he asked God, three times he prayed to God and said, God, take this away. We're not sure exactly what it was. We think it had to do with his eyesight. Remember when he got saved? He's on the road to Damascus. He's blinded. And then the scales fall off his eyes, right? But it seems like after that, Paul did have problems with his eyesight. But whatever it is, he prayed and he said, God, please take this away. And in 2 Corinthians 12 9, God said to him, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Then Paul said, Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. And so Paul was willing to carry the cross of weakness. But you know what? He couldn't carry it by himself. He had others that would encourage him with carrying that. For instance, the church in Galatia. The Bible says in Galatians 4.13-15, You know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected. but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where is then this blessedness you speak of? For I bear you record that if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and have given them to me." Paul says, remember when I was with you, he said, I was there in infirmity of the flesh. I was there in weakness. And this is why we think it might have been his eyesight. He said, you love me so much. If it would have been possible, you would have taken your eyes and put them into my head so that I could see. They encouraged him in his weakness. You know, isn't that a nice thing when you're weak to have somebody come along and encourage you and strengthen you. That's what we need to do as a body of Christ. But now Paul broadens this from just brethren To those who are or are not brethren. Could be either one in these cases. Because he says to us to be patient. But he says be patient toward all men. All men. Not just brethren, but be patient toward all men. We can actuate this morning. Be patient toward all men. Even those that pull out in front of you and drive really slowly. We've all had that, right? Or those that treat our kids unfairly. You know, they don't treat our kids right. That's not an easy thing to be patient about. Or we could add to it, you know, even if they're not giving us what we feel like we deserve, whether it's a GP or whether it's somebody else, we feel like we deserve something entitled to it and we're not getting it. Be patient. We could add so many things to this. And I could ask this morning, have you ever found yourself impatient towards someone? I've not met, I don't think, I don't know, maybe there's somebody out there, but I can't think of anybody I know that's never struggled with patience. But Paul says, be patient, be patient. 2 Timothy 2.24 says, and the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach. Patient. There ought to be that patience in us. You know, I did something I shouldn't have done a couple weeks back. I had a cyclist pull around me and it was annoying because there were several cars in front of me. And he pulled, he was right behind me and he just went around me and he put his bike right in front of my car. So I beeped the horn. And my wife looked at me and said, why can't you just be kind? You know, she really convicted me. Because why can't I just be kind? I should be patient, right? And how often are we impatient with somebody when we should be patient? That's been a reminder to me. I've been tempted to blow my horn since then. And I haven't. Why? Because we need to be patient. Be kind. It's the next thing. Be kind. Verse 15 says, See that none render evil for evil. to any man. You know, if someone does you a bad turn, should I turn and do the same thing to them? Because, you know, you did that to me. That's what our world says. Our world says, it's a dog-eat-dog world. You know, if someone does something bad to you, you know, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. That's what... and they'll claim Old Testament Scripture about that and say, that's how we should live. No. That's the way the world is. I know... Donald Trump says, if someone hits you, hit them so hard they never get back up and hit you again. That's the world. That's not Christ. Now, our Lord is so different from that. 1 Peter 2.23 says, who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. Jesus on the cross, do you see him cursing those that, and he could have cursed them to hell. He could have damned them to hell right then. But on the cross, what's he do? He says, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. When he stood before the judges and they accused him of something, he answered. But even when he was hit by somebody, All he said is, you know, if I said something wrong, just tell me what it is. If I said something right, why did you hit me? He didn't rebuke him and say, you shouldn't have hit me. When he was reviled, he reviled not again. He said, I said to you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them, which is spitefully use you and persecute you. You know, God says, you know, if somebody's causing a problem with kids, think about it. Towards one another too, just because your brother or sister does something to you doesn't mean you do it back. Why? Because if we're like Christ, we pray for them, we care about them, we seek to meet their need. Within the community, as these things come up, we need to be kind to all men. And then be good, be good. It says, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men. Good. You know what good is? Good is pleasant, agreeable, enjoyable, appropriate. You know, can I get saved this morning by goodness? No. No, I can't. Being a good person doesn't save. But does that mean that God doesn't want me to be good? No. It's not going to save me, but it ought to be the way I live as a Christian. Of all people, Christians ought to be good people. And we've heard that said about people before. Have you ever heard someone say he's a good man? He's a good man. What's the Bible say about goodness? Psalm 37.23 says the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way. Now I want to be a good man. I want God to direct my steps. I want my ways to be ordered after the Lord. Matthew 12.35 says a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things. A good man. You know, if I'm good, what comes out of my life ought to be good. Can I look at somebody and say, that's a good man? And they're a person that swears, they're a person that is immoral, they're a person that does wicked things. You know, that might be a nice man, that might be a friendly man, that might be a congenial person, that might be a fun person, but they're not a good person. Goodness is from the inside out and it's right in the sight of God. Believers ought to be good. Acts 11 24 says, for he was a good man about Barnabas. He was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. And much people was added unto the Lord. You know, if I'm a helpful person, that's not a good person. If I'm a kind person, that's not a good person. A good person is right inside. You know, everyone says, but I'm a good person. No, not if your life's full of sin. No. I might like you. I might like to be around you. I might think you've got a great personality. You're a kind person. You're a helpful person. But true goodness is found by Christ cleaning our heart and making us right. And Christians, again, out of all people, ought to be good people. So how do you live? To others, we're to live right towards our brothers in Christ, right towards those that aren't believers. then how to live with the right attitude. Alright? You guys know what attitude is? Attitude is like anger or happiness or worry or... I mean, that's your attitude about things. Christians ought to have a right attitude of all people. And so Paul commands them, first of all, to smile a lot. Do you see it in your Bible? He tells them to smile a lot. He says in verse 16, rejoice evermore. From here to eternity, rejoice. That means to be happy, to have happiness in your heart. Rejoice. Solomon had a lot to say about happiness, a lot to say about joy. He said, if you have a happy spirit, it'll be seen on your face. You ever seen somebody look and go, This always looks sad. There was a man, I shouldn't say this, but I will. There was a man, when I was at college, just looked grumpy. And I thought that as a student, and he was quite a bit older than me, a lot older than me, but I was at a missions conference with his brother-in-law, and I was sitting up on the platform, and his brother-in-law leaned over to me and said, you went to Bob Jones, do you know, and he named this man. He said, yeah, I know who that is. He goes, He never smiles, does he? And I said, no. And he goes, yeah, people ask me all the time, is he saved? It's true. If you think about it a little bit, I think he's saved. I don't I'm not saying you got to walk around with a big, you know, goofy smile on your face. That may not be your personality, but you know, there ought to be joy in our lives. And if it's in our heart, it ought to come out on our face. Here's the verse that says that. proverbs 15 13 a merry heart making the cheerful countenance if I if I've got happiness in here God's made it to come out here we ought to have that right attitude smile a lot have a bright countenance you know the other thing If we're happy on the inside and it's coming out on the outside, it's also going to satisfy us. There's satisfaction to be found in happiness. Proverbs 15, 15 says, All the days of the afflicted are evil, but he that's of a merry heart hath a continual feast. Some of that's joyful, some of that's happy. They're satisfied. I feel bad for people in the world that have no joy. They don't know what joy is. They can't smile on the outside because they're not happy on the inside because they don't know Christ. The fruit of the Spirit is what? Love. Joy. If you've got the Spirit of God in your heart, He is joy. And so again, it's satisfying. And then a healthy body. I'm going to smile a lot more because I need this. A healthy body. Proverbs 17.22 says a merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dryeth the bones. Do you know even doctors know this if somebody goes into depression? with regards to like cancer or something like that, that's a lot more dangerous than somebody who's got cancer and they've got a great attitude about it. They're cheerful because it does affect us. That's what the word of God says. And so Paul commands us, hey, rejoice evermore. Be happy as believers. Let a smile be on your face. You know, your attitude, your health, all these things go hand in hand. I was at a marriage, it wasn't really a marriage conference, it was a men's conference in Pennsylvania when I was gone, last autumn. And the man that's preaching, I wish I could have him preach over here, his name's Les Ola. And he's got the gift of humor, but not, there's only certain guys that can put humor and good preaching together. He's one of them. And so he was talking about, in a marriage, laugh together. It's good for your marriage. About two weeks later, my wife came in, and we were going through a rough time a little bit, some car problems and things, New York City, and she comes in, and I had a hitchhaw mounted to the hitch on the back of my truck. It's kind of a platform with a box mounted to it made out of aluminum that locked, and you could put a lot of stuff in it. And the bar to the hitch was about that thick. And it was just solid iron. And she came in from the shop and she goes, the hitch hole fell off. And I'm glad it fell off here because if it had fallen off at the shop or something, I wouldn't have known what to do because it's cleared out at the ground. Really? I mean, I paid good money for that. I can't imagine that. I'm going to contact the company and all these things. I went out and looked at it and I'm just amazed. How did this happen? Well, I went to church that night, coming back. I'm still thinking about it. And I had the thought, you know, the pastor's house was there that has a black basketball hoop. She had to park kind of back by it. It would be really hard to see that. And somehow she backed past it with this thing. And between this thing and the bumper, there's a space about that big. Somehow it got the basketball pole in there and then pulled forward and basically ripped the hitch off the back of the truck. But she came in and said, I don't know how it happened, but it just fell off. And so the next day, or two days later, I think it was the next day, we're driving in the car. And we started talking about that. And you should have heard my wife laughing. It was close to being institutionalized type laughter. She's laughing so hard. But you know, it's good to laugh, isn't it? Don't you sometimes just need to laugh emotionally, physically? And Paul says to us, hey, rejoice. You know, it's okay at church for us to smile at each other and encourage each other. It's okay. It's part of what God's given to us. So rejoice evermore. Pray a lot. Rejoice a lot. Pray a lot. Verse 17 says, pray without ceasing. And somebody could think, pray without ceasing. I've got to go to my prayer closet and never come out. But that's not it. God wants us just to go to our knees and never get up. It's not we go to our prayer closet and lock ourselves in there and never come out. It's that we get in our hearts, on our knees before God and never get up. So that wherever I am, there's that open communication with God, whether I'm standing in the pulpit or sitting in the pew or walking down the street. There's an open channel where if I need to talk to God, I can. Because there's no sin there. And that fellowship is right with God. You know, in our modern day, we've got all this technology. I can go anywhere, at least within reason in Scotland, and I can immediately have contact with my wife. Because of my mobile. I can just, you know, pick it up, whatever. If I've got it with me, I can get in touch with her. But if I don't have this, or if I'm somewhere where there's no signal, then I can't. You know, all God wants us to do is have our spiritual phones with us in a sense, and always be somewhere where the signal can be sent. There's places we could go where we could break fellowship with God. He's not going to go there. There's things we can do that God's not going to do with us, and again, we break fellowship. He's not there. And so to pray a lot, we've got to walk with God, have that open channel of communication with Him. So rejoice a lot, pray a lot, and then thank a lot. Thank a lot. Verse 18, then everything, give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. In everything, give thanks. Paul did that again. He likes to do that. He throws in superlatives. And you gotta say, Paul, really? In everything? Yeah, in everything. No matter what it is? Yeah, no matter what it is. Thank God for everything. You know, we forget sometimes to thank God for the good things. But we ought not just thank God for the good things. We ought to thank God for everything that he's put into our lives. We've got a 19-year-old young man, Caleb Hatchett, who we're praying for. 19 years old. He's got cancer. First of all, he's a type 1 diabetic, which is a very dangerous form of diabetes. He's got a bone cancer in his shoulder, and he's got cancer in his lungs, apparently some tumors in his lungs. Do you know this young man has had a marvelous testimony on his blog of the grace of God and his determination to trust God with this. How could he do that if he's not willing to say to God, God, thank you. It's hard, but thank you for this trial that you've allowed into my life. He's got that good attitude because he knows God gives bad things and good things. Job 2, 9 and 10, that's what Job said. Then said his wife unto him, Curse God and die. But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. And let me just tell you the story. Job's lost his kids, he's lost his wealth, he's lost his herds, and he's covered in boils. And his wife says, obviously, you're out of sorts with God. God doesn't love you anymore. Just curse him and die. Get over it. Get beyond it. But you know what Job said? Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God? And shall we not receive evil? And all this did not Job sin with his lips. You know, the world stubs their toe and they curse God. Pardon me. Christians ought to be able to face a trial. Yeah, maybe there'll be tears, maybe there'll be heartache, maybe there'll be a brokenness, but still be able to say, God, God, thank you, because I know all things work together for good. Yeah, it's not easy, but God, I thank you for this. You know, we ought to be able to do that. Every situation, if we have the right attitude, we ought to thank a lot. So rejoice a lot, pray a lot, thank a lot. And then, that's living with right attitude. Let's live also with right actions. Right actions. Obey God's spirit. What's it say in verse 19? It says, quench not the spirit. Do you guys know what quench is? Quench is like a fire. You've got a fire and maybe you've been cooking on it. Maybe you've been doing, burning some rubbish up with it or getting some heat from it. You're done with the fire. What do you do? You put it out, right? How do you put it out? You either pour water on it or you pour sand on it. Right? And it puts the fire out. That's quench. God says, don't put the fire out with regard to my spirit. You know, the spirit of God is pictured in the Bible as a flame. Remember at Pentecost, when these men were filled with the spirit of God, there's a flame clothed in tongues of fire. You know, God says don't put that out. Why? Does the Spirit of God provide food for me? He does. Does He provide spiritual heat for me? He does. Does He consume up dross and burn up rubbish? He does. And I need fire to live. Don't we? Try living at your house without fire. You don't have electricity. You don't have heat. You don't have any way to cook your food. Spiritually, we can't live without the Spirit of God. We gotta have the Spirit of God. We're coming into evangelistic means. We're praying for revival. Fire! Don't quench the fire. Don't grieve God's Spirit. Don't take something contrary to God's Spirit and smother Him and put Him out. Kindle the fire and tend the fire and guard the fire. Don't quench God's Spirit. Obey God's Spirit. And then obey God's Word. Obey God's word. Verse 20 is despise, not prophesize. Despise is like a friend you don't want to play with. You know, that person that you don't ever want to be around. That's despise. And God says, don't despise, prophesize. Prophesize are God's revelations to his people through people. I have a book this morning. I can pick it up and I can hold it. And this is God's word to me through man. It's prophesize. And God says, don't Don't despise this book. So let me ask you this morning, how do you treat this book? And I'm not talking about, you know, do you set another book on top of it when you put it on the shelf or do you put it in a prominent place? I'm not speaking about that. But how often do you open it and read it? We despise it by not wanting to be around it. You think about some of the countries that are, the Bible's illegal and People there that are believers, they get a Bible. It is precious. They'll take even just a portion of the Word of God. If they can just have that, they crave it. And they guard it. And they'll go hours to hear somebody preach. And they'll walk hours back having heard them preach. And then we look at us and think, you know, if our world here in Britain, and it could someday become this sad to think, but so anti-God that you can't have Bibles anymore, you can't worship God anymore, would it change your Bible reading schedule? If they said you can't read anymore, would that matter? Because are you reading it now? Oh, don't despise it. Obey God's word. Don't despise it. So despise and not prophesize. And then test, test everything. Verse 21 says, prove all things. Hold fast that which is good. Young people, listen up. God's got a right to tell you what you can listen to and what you cannot listen to. He's got a right to tell you what you can see and not see. He's got a right to say where you can go and not go, what you can wear and not wear. He's got a right to every area of our life. And we need to do what the Word of God says here. Prove all things. Test it. Hold fast. That which is good. When we were back in the States, my parents took us to an apple orchard. And it was a great place over in Minnesota, not far from where I live. And it was a beautiful place. Fun to go through. Fun to watch the apples go through the little thing that sorts them according to size, puts them into the right barrels and things. But you know, they would examine the fruit. And if there was a piece of bad fruit, they'd take it out and throw it away. They tested everything, got rid of the bad and kept the good. That's the way God says we're to live. We're to prove everything, test everything, and hold on to that which is good, and get rid of the rubbish. And so that's what we need to do in our lives. And then, where sin appears, it needs to be rejected. Abstain from all appearance of evil. Abstain from every appearance of evil. Avoid sin where it's found. What's that mean? Well, it's kind of like this. I've invited some people recently to something and I've had conversations with people that say, you know, I can't come if somebody else is going to be there. And that's between them and the Lord. That's fine. But can I apply it this way? Them saying that is what this verse means. If sin's going to be there, I'm not. If sin is going to make an appearance, I'm going to avoid it. I'm not going to go to that place. If sin is appearing there, no, I'm going to stay away from that. That's what the Word of God is teaching. Abstaining from all appearance of evil. Evil appears? No, not going there. Not going to do that. Practical Christian living is my message this morning. And like that course, Practical Christian Training, God's Word's practical. God doesn't want us this morning to have big heads. He wants us to have tender hearts. He doesn't want us just to know about it. He wants us to live it. So how this morning are you living it? What kind of a Christian are you? What's God's Word say again to us this morning? God would ask us, you know, are you living right with others? Those that are brothers in Christ this morning, are you rebuking them as necessary? God says, warn them. Warn them. They are unruly. Are you helping those that are discouraged? Helping them? Encouraging those that are physically weak? Patient. Kind. Good. Not just good as the world uses it, but good as God uses it. Good from the heart. How's your attitude? You smile a lot. We can be pretty somber sometimes. But God wants us to smile. Praying a lot, always depending upon the Lord, that affects our attitude. Thanking a lot. Just being able to say to God, God, it doesn't matter what's going on in my life. I thank you for today. And I thank you for the circumstances of my life. How's your attitude? Then last, again, how's your actions? Are you obeying God's Spirit or quenching God's Spirit? As God's Spirit speaks to you, are you keeping the flame going? Are you obeying God's Word, not despising it? Are you testing everything you do, saying to God, OK, what do you want me to do? And then are you avoiding sin? Avoiding sin. Let's be practical in our Christian living and live the way God wants us to live. Let's pray. Father, take your Word, apply it to our hearts. We need your help. Father, remind us when somebody is disobeying you, give us grace to kindly say a rebuke to them to help them to get back in line with you. Father, those that are physically weak, help us to encourage them. Those that are discouraged, help us to strengthen them. Father, help us to have patience, help us to be kind, help us to be truly good. Lord, we're not good people if we're not right with you. If we don't have a heart cleansed of sin, if we're not forgiven, we're not good. People might say, oh, that's a good man or that's a good woman, but it doesn't matter what man says, it matters what you say, and that's not good like you're speaking about. Then Lord, help us to have a right attitude, help us to be cheerful, and help us to be prayerful, Help us to be thankful. And then, Father, help us not to quench Your Spirit. We don't want to do that. We're coming into a week of revival meetings, and I pray a week of revival. And I pray the Spirit of God to just really give us grace not to put the fire out. And Father, help us to love Your Word. And help us to test everything. Set it in Your hands and say, God, what do You want us to do? And then, Father, to obey You. And where sin's going to be, help us not to go there. And so, Lord, we thank you for your help this morning. I thank you that your strength is made perfect in weakness. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. And 389 is you're all on the altar. 389.