Thank you for taking the time to listen to one of the recent messages from the pulpit of Wilton Baptist Church. We pray that this message is a blessing to you in your walk with Christ. answer the eight negative one and others, but there's 22 positive one and others. We're going to look at some of those positive ones here today. And you may already have that guide, but many do not. So go ahead and take that for your study today. Galatians chapter five. We are blessed to live in America. We do have a lot of freedom that I'm afraid sometimes we take for granted. And so I'm glad that we have this opportunity to meet today. Now, this evening is something very special. We have a music singing group coming, and it's a quartet. Basically, you could call it a music concert. And so there's really good piano music. There's going to be really good singing. A group will be here. So it's a music concert tonight. And then after the preaching and after the last song, there'll be ice cream. So you can't beat that. On a hot day, ice cream and good singing. And so we'll meet right in here. And then we'll go out later and have some ice cream. So bring some ice cream to share. And we'll let you know more about that tonight. the Pensacola Christian College Ensemble Group, which means basically they're going to sing to us, to God, and so they'll be here. And that's my alma mater. That's where I graduated from. And so I'm glad they're able to come and minister in song, and they'll preach to us as well. There'll be a good message delivered as well. So that's at six o'clock. At six o'clock tonight, I know what I'd like to do. I'd like to be right here to hear that. And so I hope that you'll come out and you'll enjoy the good singing. They'll sing a lot of good selections, so we'll be blessed. The happy church member part two, we're gonna look at some one another's. Look in his passage, if you would, Galatians five, verse 13, for brethren, we have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. Here's that phrase once again, one another. I'm one, you're another. I'm one person, you are another person. I'm thinking of honoring you. I'm thinking of blessing you. I want to bless your life and you're thinking of me and you're thinking of honoring and blessing me. That's the idea of one and another. The Greek word in the Bible, one and another, are actually the same word in the Bible. Another person, the other person, you all, if you would. So I'm one, you all are the others, as individuals, the others, and so I'm one, you are another. And so the Bible's telling us in these passages, as we'll continue our study, to be thinking of other people. Human nature says, think about yourself. Think about me, myself, and I. You know, that false, unholy trinity. Me, myself, and I. But God wants us to be thinking about other people. How to bless them. How to encourage them. Now, the happy church member part two is what we'll call our message, because happiness is found in obedience. If, as a child, you were disobedient to your parent, don't you have some shame connected to that? Remember, some of you probably knew that you disobeyed your parents, so you went and hid under the kitchen table. They would never find you under the kitchen table, right? I feel kind of ashamed. I don't want my parents to see me because I just disobeyed, or I lied, or I stole, or I did something I knew that would not be pleasing to them. The same is true in our relationship with God the Father. If you're saved, if you trust in Christ, if you're born again, you have a God in heaven. He's your heavenly Father. and you have a relationship with Him, and instead of going and hiding because I sinned, we are to go to God and confess and say, Lord, Father, Dad, I'm sorry for my sin, just like you'd say to your parents as you were young. Dad, I did wrong. Would you please forgive me? We do that with God. And there's some one another's in Scripture that we would be more happy people if we would obey God in thinking about other people, preferring other people over ourselves. See, happiness is not found in being critical of other people. Happiness is not found in being demanding of others. Happiness is not found in stuff. You can get all the stuff in the world and still want more stuff and not be content or satisfied. So happiness is not found in that. Happiness is found in yieldedness to God. A life that is submissive to Jesus is a life that can find true joy and real happiness. Think about it this way. no guilty conscience. I don't have anything between me and God. Nothing between me and my Heavenly Father that's sin that I would be ashamed of. No guilty conscience. Nothing weighing down my life in my walk with the Lord. In fact, the relationships with other church members then is enhanced. The other relationships that are home, our families, other relationships, all of them can benefit from this idea of one another. So we could be happy people we can be happy church members as well. Here's some positives that we need to have in our life. Notice in verses 13 through 15, for brethren ye have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. So the summary Everything the Bible tells us is right there. The law is fulfilled in one word, even this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. Here we find we are to be serving. That's the next blank there on your paper. And I think it's on the inside of your cover of your paper there as you're following along the next three verses and ideas that we'll look at. And so be serving. Think about the Christian life this way. We're not called to be Christians, and we answer that call, we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And now that I'm saved, God wants me just to sit down. No, God calls us to service. God calls us to ministry. God calls us to be proactive and thinking about helping other people, the people that are around us. And a Christian friend, Every one of you have been equipped with the spiritual gift that God has designed specifically for you, and He's called you to use that spiritual gift. In the lobby, there's a free book rack, a lot of free books and things there, and there's one of those little booklets that says, Discovering Your Spiritual Gift. I encourage you, if you don't know your spiritual gift, get it, find it, and start to use that in your service to God by serving other people. But think about your life. God has given you a life, and it's not just so that you can sit on the sidelines of Christianity. It's not so that you can watch everybody else do whatever is needed done around the church. It's not so that everyone else is reading the Bible, but you're not reading the Bible. We're all called to read the Bible. We're all called to serve the Lord in ministry, not full time like a preacher perhaps, but doing our part as part of the body of Christ. And God says here to be serving one another. You have life and opportunity, and you and I have a specific calling of God. But notice in verse 13 that liberty is not a license. Now we have such liberty in America. We have so many blessings. All of us, just considering financial things, we're more wealthy than most people around this globe. We have more benefits. We have more opportunities. We have so many tremendous things that have been afforded to us over the last couple hundred years that God has allowed our nation to have because blessed is a nation whose God is the Lord. That's how it all started out. We knew God. especially early on in the beginning of our country. So we have all this liberty. We have all this freedom. And Paul told these people who lived in a town called Galatia, he said, you have Christian liberty, but you shouldn't use your Christian liberty to do just whatever in the world you want to do. There's a reason you have liberty. There's a reason we have this freedom that God has given to us. Now, notice the word occasion. He says this word occasion, use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh. Now the flesh is talking about your old nature, your flesh, the carnal man. So a Christian is a body, soul, and spirit. He's talking about your body here, the carnal nature. And he says for you not to have liberty for an occasion to the flesh. The word occasion means a starting point. a starting point, means an opportunity. All right, now I have this liberty, so I have an opportunity that because now that I'm free, it's a good starting point to do whatever I want or to do whatever God wants. Don't just use it for me, myself, and I. You see, liberty or just because I can, just because I can doesn't mean I should. doesn't mean it's a good idea. Listen, Americans don't understand freedom today. We think, we think, and it's not right thinking. We think just because we can, it's good. But it's not. There's a lot of facets of life, a lot of areas that people make decisions, foolish decisions, harmful decisions, hurtful things to themselves and to other people just because I can because we have freedom. Because you're saved today, you have been called to liberty, Christian liberty, and it's more than just because I can. Just because I can should not be the starting point for your decisions. If you say, well, I can, therefore I will, that's a bad place to make a decision. We should look at it more, what does God want me to do with this liberty that He has given to me? Not only in America, but the Christian liberty that God has given. Notice that we're to stand in liberty. Liberty is not a license. Verses one through five, notice at the beginning of this chapter, it's all about liberty and freedom. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Here's what was happening. Some people were coming into the church of Galatia and they were telling the people, you need to believe in Jesus and you also need to be circumcised. It was part of the religious ritual of Judaism to practice circumcision. And so they said, you're not really a Christian unless you also are being circumcised in addition to believing in Jesus. And Paul said, there's something wrong with that. He said, the Bible doesn't tell us to be circumcised to be saved, to go through a religious ritual to be saved. The Bible just tells us to believe in Jesus. We believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even by the time he's writing to these people in Galatians 3, verse 1, he says, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? I mean, who's teaching you these wrong things and making your thinking all warped and wrong, and you're not thinking about Christianity the right way, and you're thinking that, I need to do good work so that I can have salvation. He says, that's not the way that you were saved. The Bible tells us that we are saved by grace through faith. Ephesians 2, verses 8 and 9, where by grace are you saved through faith, through faith. And that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast. And so how does a person get saved? It's by faith. It doesn't say in that verse, Ephesians 2, verse 8, it doesn't say by faith. by observing sacraments. It doesn't say by being baptized. It doesn't say by being a good person or loving your cat or your dog or being nice to your neighbor. It doesn't say you can become a Christian by doing any good works. Otherwise, we would get to heaven and say, look at how good I was. What did you do to get here, brother? Oh, I was really good. You know, I love my wife. I love my family. What did you do to get here, sister? I was very religious. I didn't miss a service. I was baptized 20 times. I mean, I was super religious. We're not going to be boasting about stuff like that. In fact, we'll only be there by one reason. It's by the work of Jesus Christ. And by the fact that I believe it, that's the only way that I'm allowed. We're saved by grace, the grace of God through faith and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." No one in heaven is saying, look at how awesome I was. We're looking at Jesus and saying, look at how awesome Jesus is. And so liberty is not a license. These people were to stand in liberty. They had new liberty. We don't have to do this circumcision. We don't have to do this religious ritual. We don't have to go through these hoops and motions to get salvation or to keep our salvation. Now, at the same time, the Bible tells us that Christians also are to serve God. We do not serve God to get salvation or to maintain salvation. We serve God because we're part of God's family. We serve God because we are thankful for what Jesus did when He died on the cross, serving us by paying the price for our sin. The Bible tells us in Hebrews chapter 6 verse 9, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation. There are things that accompany salvation. Now, it doesn't save you, but there's there's a lifestyle. There's a way to live. There's Bible reading and prayer and encouraging your neighbor and being kind to others. And some of these one another's that we're looking at here today, all of those are included the dues in being a Christian. Now, notice how we should share in this liberty in verse 15. He says, but if you buy and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another." Now here's that one of the eight negatives. Here's one of the eight negative one another's in Scripture. He says, if you bite and devour one another, eventually you're going to be bit by somebody and devoured by somebody else. And that's not the way the Christian should be living. That's not sharing in the liberty the right way. So let's just make this real practical, OK? So maybe I don't mind going to a baseball game. But maybe you say, oh, I hate baseball. I can't believe he goes to a baseball game. I mean, he says he's a Christian, but he goes to a baseball game, OK? Can't take anything plus or minus away from baseball. Just I'm using that as an illustration. But what if somebody said, baseball's evil. I can't believe it. He went to cheer for the Yankees! Now, if he cheered for the Boston Red Sox, or if he was a Mets fan, I'd forgive him, but... Okay, how could he do that? How could he do that? Okay, there's Christian liberty. Let's say, let's say one brother says, you know, I have a hard time going to the game because, well, there's... There's some of the fans that'll be drinking alcohol. I can't put myself in a place where others are drinking alcohol, because I used to be an alcoholic, and it's a great temptation. I feel bad. I don't want to go because of that. Maybe another, well, I was addicted to rock and roll music, and they'll put some rock and roll music on. And I feel like if I'm in that environment, then that's going to make me take steps backward in my Christian life. OK. It's okay for me to go because I don't have those temptations or those hesitations. All right. I wouldn't make fun of this guy for not wanting to go. Does that make sense? Okay. This is called Christian liberty. Christian liberty. Never, never make fun of somebody or demean someone that has a higher standard, quote standard, than what you may have. It just could mean they have a struggle in an area and you don't have a struggle. And so Paul was saying, these people, you have some liberty. But you always use your liberty, not just to do what you want, but you make sure that you use your liberty to encourage, to bless, to edify, and to help the other people. So if you say, I hate baseball and I can't stand the Yankees because of those reasons, I won't ask you to go with me, but I may ask somebody else to go. I don't want to be a stumbling block to somebody. And you can take that and use any other illustration in life. That was just a simple one and a real honest one just to throw out there as an example. So share in the liberty, but not to bite each other, not to put down one another, not to nitpick at one another. Friends, think of it this way. We are not free to do whatever we want. We are not free to hurt other people. Now, this should be basic in a civil discourse as well. but it's not. This should be basic in the American dream and the American citizenship that we are not free to hurt ourselves, but we're free to help other people. We are not free to endanger other people. We are not free to do what we want, the flesh wants, at the expense of other people. But we are free to say and do as we will, but not to the neglect and not to the abuse and not to the harm of other people. Why are many people in jail today? It's because they took their liberty too far. Just because they could, they did. And they hurt somebody, or they damaged somebody, or they killed somebody, or they stole from somebody. Well, it was there. I could. I mean, I'm free. We're free to do what we want. But we should think of it this way. I'm free to do what is wrong. Next love is a choice in verse 14. for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. So ask yourself, how do you love yourself? As thyself presumes that you love yourself. Even depressed and discouraged people love themselves. And sometimes if it's because of the way of thinking, sometimes depression is even caused by loving self more than loving God or loving others. Sometimes that's the case. How do you love yourself? Don't you give yourself the benefit of the doubt? Well, I would have. I would have. But, you know, I had all this other. I would have. And we give ourselves the benefit of the doubt. You know, we should give the benefit of the doubt to other people. We should do that. We like that when people give us the benefit of the doubt. What did he really mean? Here's what I think he really meant. Well, that's not what he meant. But now you're thinking wrong about him because you don't give him the benefit of the doubt. You feel what I'm saying? We would like that. How about good thoughts? You think good thoughts about yourself? A lot of the time, probably. You know, I'm doing okay, or we're making it, or whatever the case. Watch out for pride, by the way. Just throw that out there. But you like it whenever you think good thoughts. You want people to think good thoughts about you. Why not think good thoughts about others? How about esteeming other people? We like to be esteemed. We recognize the Betts family. We like to show esteem. And you do that as well to one another. That's good. Think of it just very simply. What makes you happy? What makes you happy? Everyone has a different love language. I understand that. Some things speak more to me than to you and vice versa. But everyone has something that they love and something that they really enjoy and really like. What makes you happy? Then show that to somebody else. How do you like to be treated? Dignity, respect. Don't you like it when somebody looks you in the eye, they shake your hand, they talk to you? They open up, they converge, they know your name? You like that? You like that? We should do that for other people. Our likes and our dislikes, other people are not that much different than you are. How do you love yourself? I think the golden rule really applies here. Verse 14, all the law, all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Write down this verse if you like, Matthew chapter 7 verse 12, this is on that great sermon on the mount. Jesus says, therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them for this is the law and the prophets. That's the golden rule. If you would like it to be done to you in a positive way, in an encouraging way, in a proactive way, then do that to others. That statement that Jesus said, the golden rule is not It's not. just like laissez-faire, like he doesn't really care. It's not like that. It's proactive. It's not sitting on the sidelines. And if they come to me, then I'll be nice to them. It's proactive. It's reaching out towards other people. That's how the golden rule is to be lived out. And that's what Paul is teaching to these Galatian believers. So you all in a church of Galatia, make sure that you love one another, that you are serving one another like this by caring and serving for those around you by love. serve. Now this is so practical, we can serve our spouse, we can teach our kids, we can share service which shows love to other people around us, and we're free to do right the other people. Dave Thomas was the founder of Wendy. Remember him from those old commercials a long time ago? He passed on many years ago now, but he said, I got my MBA long before my GED, He said, I even have a photograph of me in my MBA graduation outfit, a snazzy knee-length work apron. He said, I guarantee you that I'm the only founder among America's big companies whose picture in a corporate annual report shows him to be wielding a mop and plastic bucket. It wasn't a gag. He said it was the case of leading by example. He went on to say that at Wendy's, MBA does not mean a Master of Business Administration. It means have a mop bucket attitude. He said, that's how we satisfy the customer through cleanliness and quality of food and friendly service in the atmosphere. And we need to have a MBA in that regard as well, a mop bucket attitude. I'm here to serve. I'm here to bless. I'm here to help out. What can I do to help out? It should be a common saying in your home. It should be a common thing in the events of the church and in the life of the church. What can I do to help out? One of the greatest lessons, parents, one of the greatest lessons you can give your kids is to please God by loving other people because of service. You know, what can I do to help my brother or my sister? What can I do to help my parents? And chores shouldn't seem like chores, like, oh, I've got to do this. How can I help? It should be the way that that's approached. Name some ways to serve other people. What are some ways? Volunteering to clean or to mow a lawn. Just helping someone who is working. You see somebody working, step up and meet a need for somebody else. I read a news article yesterday or the day before. A little boy was out lawn mowing to raise money for something. He was lawn mowing and he mowed the wrong person's yard. Can you believe The person who owned that place called the police on that little kid. How crazy is that? When I was young, my parents would say, go mow the neighbor's lawn. And we had never talked to them about it. They'd say, go shovel their driveway. And I'd go shovel people's driveways and never even ask them, do you want your snow shoveled or do you want your lawn mowed? We would just go do it. We were trying to be good neighbors. So somebody, I think it was Michigan, they called the police on this kid. Wow, that's terrible. You don't want to be that person. That's a foolish person. They should have just went out and talked to the kid and said, thanks for mowing the lawn. We need to be thinking about other people. You could offer meals to somebody for recovery. You need to find ways to help maintain a church property. You know, people who help maintain a church property, and by the way, you're doing a great job. It looks good out there. You actually bless everybody else who comes in. You get a one shot. stop for everybody all at the same time. Authorize the people to come to church or to go to the store. Make it even more practical. Send a note of encouragement. Pray with others in the prayer meeting. Help us shut in. Take groceries with somebody. Open doors for people at church or even in a place of business. Surprise somebody with a gift. Be serving other people. Number two, be forbearing. Be forbearing. And let's keep reading Galatians chapter 6. Verse 2, Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such one in a spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Now notice verse 2. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. To bear ye. The idea of this word means removal, to lift, either literally, or figuratively, I'm going to lift the burden. I'm going to help somebody carry something that is a weight that is bearing down on them. And again, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Where have we heard that before? Well, that was in chapter 5, verse 14, where we are fulfilling in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. He's rehearsing again to the people. They didn't get it all in chapter five, so he tells them again in chapter six, here's what you need to do. It's the golden rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. You have a way You have a burden. You have something you're carrying around and it feels like I'm all alone. It feels like I'm drowning. Don't be the guy who throws an anchor to somebody drowning. Be the guy who pulls somebody up when they don't feel like they can make it anymore. That's who we're to be. That's who we're to be. Be forebearing of other people. Help bear So this sounds like the first and great commandment. When God said, here's the first commandment, love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all thy strength, and the second is likened to it, thou shalt love thy neighbor, that's the one and others, as thyself. So I encourage you with two ideas with this. Help other people carry their problems. Help other people carry their problems. A burden, no burden is too heavy when it is carried with love. One preacher made this observation that most churches have little emphasis on bearing one another's burdens. Indeed, the people do not know one another's burdens even exist, let alone be concerned enough to bear them. One of the reasons we had a really good kickoff today to our summer series in Sunday school, we're calling it the Summer Connect, is that we would know each other. And so we divided up the church into three smaller groups to have a Sunday school class. People were able to talk a little bit more and ask questions and read the verses out loud and participate in a little bit closer setting. And I loved it. For the first five or seven minutes in our class, people were just talking to each other, getting to know each other's names, things like that. How can we bear people's burdens if we don't know who they are, where they live, what they do, or anything about them? You see what I'm saying? We're to bear one another's burden. How can we bear it further? How about by being strong? By being strong to help somebody. Romans chapter 15, verse 1. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves. Remember the liberty? Chapter 5. Hey, if I'm strong in the faith, if I'm strong in one area, if I'm really like a leader in one area in life, I should be leading the way in that area. I should be serving other people in that area. If I'm strong in one way, I should be using that strength not to get what I want. I should be using that strength to help other people, to encourage them, to bless them, to help them bear their load, to carry whatever weight weighing them down, to be strong. And right along with that is we need to be humble. We need to be humble. We need to be bearing one another's burdens. But listen, sometimes you're the one that needs help. We need to be humble. And in our Christian lives, sometimes we have a problem with pride, just like anybody else. But be humble enough to accept help. Sometimes I've had people say, well, I didn't really need that note of a personal preacher. I'm doing OK. I'm like, why? Are you kidding me? A little bit of pride, a little bit of pride. You don't want to live like that. You don't want to be like that. Be humble to accept help. And even if you think, well, I may be doing okay, be blessed that somebody cares enough to reach out to you and accept it with help. I accept that help with humility. David accepted Jonathan's help. Silas helped Paul. Timothy was helped by Paul. And all these people had others in their life that encouraged them along life's way. God did not intend for us to live life all alone. We're created for Christian community. God gave Adam. He They needed one another. We have one another to encourage and help and to serve alongside with. Church is teamwork. We cheer each other. We encourage each other. We help each other in areas that we can help others in. One way to build friendships is kind of like this way that William Wordsworth wrote. He called those little nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love. That's what he used this term to describe One such act was performed on a man or for a man in a small village who had suffered the loss of his young son. After the funeral, he visited the local undertaker and said, I've come to square my account. He was trying to pay the bill for the funeral for the council. I've come to square my account. You don't owe me a penny. He said, you've already paid your bill. The undertaker replied. He said, I haven't seen the bill. I haven't paid a bill. He said, no, somebody paid the bill for you. Somebody paid the full account. The undertaker went on to say this. If you had to bear the sorrow, surely I can bear the experience. That's how we need to live. We need to consider one another and be helping bear the burdens of other people. Look at Ephesians chapter 4, we'll conclude with this passage. Ephesians chapter 4, we're actually just going to do these two points today, these two points of serving others and by forbearing, the forbearing of others. Ephesians chapter 4, look at verse 2 and verse 3, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love. endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. So the root word is the same, forbearing and then forbearing. You have other words connected on either side of that root word of bearing or of bearing. And what this passage is talking about is forbearing to help others through their problems. When we bear someone's burdens, we're helping them carry their problems. When we are forbearing with others, we're helping them go through their problems. Forbearing means to hold oneself up against, to put up with, to endure, to forbear. were to forbear with lowliness and meekness. Lowliness carries the idea of humility. Meekness connotates gentleness. Long-suffering is preserving an even temperament in the face of adversity and persecution. So God says to be persevering like this, to be forbearing. For example, 1 Corinthians 13, verse 4 says, charity suffereth long. That's the word for love. no matter what's going on, no matter what's going on in their life, I can still choose to love them. Whatever they're facing, whatever decisions are being made, I can still choose to love them. Forbearance is the practical outworking of longsuffering. Now, two more ideas. Sometimes when you're going to forbear with somebody, you've got to hold back. You've got to hold back. What I mean is, You could fix them, and you could, I can fix them. They got this problem, I can fix them. But if you try to fix somebody, you try to fix somebody, you'll do more harm than good. That's the word forbearing. And forbearing, sometimes I've got to hold back. But how impatient we can be. Things don't go our way. When somebody says something or does something that irritates us, Jesus never responded with impatience. He never did. We're to be patient with the people around us, to be able to put up, to forbear, to put up with one another. Forbearing in love means to hold oneself back in the spirit of love. Years ago, I was at a different church. We were in West Virginia, and we were working on our building. We were maintaining the building. We had this two-story brick building. We had another building. It was a block building. On that day, we were trying to fix up that building, and some of the mortar between the bricks, nice brick wall, had washed away. And so we had a work day, and some different guys were there. We were using mortar that was coming out of a caulk gun. They actually make that mortar in a caulk gun. So it's like you can't mess. You can't mess it up. You just put that in, make your line, and you're done. And so this one particular man, he was trying to help out and he was doing the best that he could, but he was getting more mortar on the face of the brick than he was between the brick. I mean, there was mortar all over him. And before long, what was red was kind of turning this kind of gray look. And I thought, what should I do? What should we do about this? He's totally messing this project up. I said, brother, you're doing You're doing pretty good with this mortar. It's coming out really good, isn't it? It's coming out really good, man. Hey, why don't you work on this side over here and try it like this a little bit. Try it like that. He kept messing everything up. But every time I'd sit around and work on another project, or another part of the project, I'd clean up his mess and fix it up real quick. And then the next time we had a work day, I found something better for him to do. That's just an example of forbearance. You help people through their problems, help people carry their problems. And sometimes it's better to hold back. You know, I could have let him have it. What in the world's wrong with you? Why are you doing this, messing this all up like this? It'd be better to have a friend than to have a building. It'd be better to have love than to have something look just perfect to other people. Sometimes you also, we can do this by holding on. Verse three talks about this, holding on to unity. Unity in a church is important. He was writing to church members that needed unity. Unity with one another is important. Unity in the home, unity in direction, unity in purpose. Unity is a spiritual thing. It's not just a superficial thing. Anybody can get conformity. You know, hey, we're all robots here. Unity is in the heart. What direction are we going to go? And so we need that unity. Hold on to unity. Hold on to peace. Peace is what holds people together. Notice that phrase there, the bond of peace. The word bond means a ligament. A ligament. Two parts are joined together. Two parts are bonded together, ligamented together. And this indicates to us like a spiritual glue. Unity is a spiritual glue. It has three elements. Love. Love is a choice. And peace is founded on love. The Holy Spirit, He's the one who enables us. And then The third part of that clue is effort. Notice it says, endeavoring, endeavoring. There is a human element to having this peace and having this type of unity together. Like Romans 12 verse 8 says, it would be possible as much as life within you live peaceably with all men. And so hold on with love. And people can still love each other even when they disagree, even when things aren't going right, even when things are different. in their lives. So be serving and be forbearing. Let's just conclude with that. Let's bow our heads together and close our eyes for what we call an invitation. Lord willing, we'll pick up next week with being kind. But today, we need to consider our service to each other. When we serve one another, we serve God. When we are forbearing, when we are bearing other people's burdens, And when we can put up with other people, we can forbear through their problems and help them with their problems, that's where we're to live. That's where God says, I want you to be. Maybe God has challenged you with one of those two things that God, Lord, you're talking to me about serving you by serving others or by putting up with other people. I mean, sometimes they're difficult, but Lord, help me to be forbearing. Help me to put up with other people's problems, the issues they're going through with and I don't want to just be fixing everyone all the time, and in the process, even maybe hurting people. But Lord, help me to be that person who is forbearing, that comes along, and they're a better person because I've come along. I've encouraged them. I've helped them carry their burden. Maybe God spoke to you about one of those two things, serving others or forbearing with others. Anybody like that? Just raise your hand if you want to let me know about that. God bless. Are there others? Several are raising their hand. God spoke to you about that. Good, good. Maybe there's a friend here today who never crossed the cross, who never believed in the death, burial, and resurrection. We mentioned it at the very beginning. To become a Christian, to believe in what Jesus did, His finished work on the cross. He's alive today. He wants to save your soul, and you can be forgiven of your sins. Maybe there's a friend here today who wants to know for sure about salvation. He wants to know for certain, for sure, that you are saved and that Jesus has forgiven you of your sin. Is there anyone like that? No one's looking around. I just want to pray with you. Anyone like that at all? I want to know for certain about salvation. Just raise your hand very quickly right where you're at. All right. The tennis is going to begin to play. We're going to stand to our feet. We invite you to respond. You can pray at the front. You can kneel where you are. whatever the needs are in your life, let's be serving God by serving others. And let's be those who bear the burdens and forbear with other people. Let's stand. Go ahead and stand right where you are at the tennis plane. Are you showing that patience to others? Have you been serving others or have you been selfish, just serving yourself? These truths can change every relationship in your life. Heavenly Father, we thank you for these amazing one another's in Scripture. I pray you'd help each Christian here with their decisions to live in this one another mindset that they too could be serving others and also help others bear their burdens before bearing. Lord, give us wisdom, give us discernment, give us the opportunity, not just to have freedom for ourselves, give us that opportunity to freely show blessings and good things to those around us. We pray that if there's anyone here without promise, they're not sure about salvation, that today they would have that settled with you. We ask that you bless as we go from this place. Bring us again safely to worship you. Lord, thank you for this country and the great freedom that we have. We don't take it for granted. We say thank you once again. We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for your good participation today. We do need your help at the Wilton Fair, the Park Fest, and we have these really nice carabiners that we're going to hand out. We have a lot of gospel cracks. There's at least two slots where we need some people to sign up. If you would do that today, that would really help out. And all you have to do is smile and hand these things to people as they walk by. And it's a good testimony to be able to reach out to the community. So please see the bulletin board. We have a couple of other announcements. Thank you. group coming, and ice cream as well, so bring some ice cream, whatever your favorite flavor from Stewart's will be fine, and we'll enjoy some time together. Tuesday night we do have another service with another group from West Coast Baptist College, and that is the Sound Doctrine Trio, and that service, as we mentioned on Wednesday night, is going to be a little more formal. You won't see Pastor and I in a suit and tie, and the reason is because we don't want to be out roasting marshmallows in a tie, all right? So we will have an informal service, but a great time of fellowship as well, we'll roast some marshmallows Hopefully, it'll cool down a little bit by then. Be in prayer for the Burger Battle, the Summer Spectacular, coming up this Saturday for the teenagers from 11 o'clock to 3 o'clock. It'll be hard, but we'll be preaching for that, preaching twice. We'll have a lot of games, and a lot of young people from the area will be here, and surrounding churches as well. So pray that God will do a work there. Pastor mentioned the Park Fest. Are you having the meeting afterwards as well for those taking part? Okay, perfect. So in about five minutes after the service, those who are helping or if you're interested in helping, please meet pastor over here by the piano side and he'll go through some of those things with you. And then last thing, if you have not yet a chance to walk through the hallway over here where the kids life area is, you'll see on those two bulletin boards, some preliminary plans. The deacons and pastor and myself were able to meet a couple of months ago with a builder and to begin to look at some designs for this new building that we're praying for. And just this last week, we were able to sit down and kind of look at some options. And so there on those boards are a top floor and a bottom floor. You may be trying to ask me what was necessarily going on with this. Look and it'll tell you what's the top floor and the bottom floor. And then next week on the big bulletin board, we'll put kind of more of an architectural rendering. You can kind of see what it'll look like, how the buildings will be joined and that kind of thing. We'll be giving to that next week as well. praying that God would do mighty things that we might be able to build that building here very soon in the near future. Let's sing our closing song, My Desire to Be Like Jesus. My desire to be like Jesus My desire to be like Him His spirit fill me His love overwhelm me In deed and word to be like Him