So I want to thank Dave for reading that portion of scripture. The reason I picked the Acts chapter 17 passage, it was because of those few words at the end where it says, and they left there and went to Corinth. And we are in our study of 1 Corinthians, but isn't it fascinating to know that just prior to Paul and his first journey to Corinth, that he was in Athens in the context of great idolatry, and he was teaching them. I love that portion of Scripture for multiple reasons. One, it's a great example for us to know how to bring a conversation to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We want to say, well, Paul is Paul, and I'm not Paul, and I would agree with you. I would stand before you each and every week, and I would gladly proclaim, I am not Paul. I am not a Paulist, right? I'm just Greg, and as we look in God's word, we can be so thankful that the spirit of God goes forth as his word goes forth, and we can say, we're not Paul. We don't have the gifting of Paul, but Paul was just faithful. And he faithfully stood in front of these intellectual people, the Areopagites of Athens. The text tells us that they came together for the sole purpose of just hearing what's new. What's on the front page? What's on the headlines? What's on all the talk shows? What's the news feeds going through? What's the hottest blog? They were those people. And Paul came in and said, and he found a common area of agreement. And he said, I see all the idols you have throughout your city, but let me tell you about this one to the unknown God. It is him whom I preach to you today. I teach you about today. The one who has created all things. So Paul was very familiar with idolatry. As a Jewish man, before he came to faith in Jesus Christ, he was aware of it. The Jews abhorred idolatry. They practiced idolatry in their history. Throughout Scripture, throughout the Old Testament, we see how God kept saying, come to me, come to me. repent, and they would repent, and then somehow, seemingly, unknowingly, they would drift into idolatry. And God would say, come, repent, come to me, come to me, and they would slip away. Come to me, come to me, they slip away. And then God wiped out the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. The Southern Kingdom, they went into an exile for 70 years, and then they came back from that exile. And ever since that time, They have really been focused upon being faithful to God. Now, they weren't faithful in the way God had wanted them to be faithful, in the sense of all the time. But they didn't fall into the objective idolatry that they had fallen into in the past. And so they still fell into a form of idolatry. They fell into unfaithfulness because they were trusting in the trappings of their religion, not in their faith in Jesus Christ. And God still said, come to me, come to me. And God continues to do that. We pray for the salvation of souls every day. We look at people and we say they do not know the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Who is going to tell them the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ? And the answer is we are ambassadors for Christ. We are the ones who are supposed to step into the intellectual arena of Athens. We are the ones that are supposed to enter into the blue collar arena of the dealership. We are supposed to be the people who are having the words of life on our lips in such a way that we can tell people not so much, we should quote scripture, don't get me wrong, but we shouldn't be so concerned that we're gonna get a word wrong here or there as much as can we just tell people what Jesus Christ did for us? That is what Paul did. Paul was a scholar. And all the followers, all the disciples that came on the scene after the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, and when he changed their lives, all they wanted to do was tell other people about him. And that's what Paul did there. And as we look into what he's doing in our study of healthy church, that's what he's continuing to do into the life of the Corinthian church. He left Athens, went to Corinth, planted a church, A church has grown to the point where he commends them in chapter one saying, you have all kinds of knowledge, you have all kinds of gifts. And Paul prays God for those things. But now Paul has been dealing with questions that have come to him in the form of a letter from the Corinthians and he's talked about relationships as Ricky filled us in, right? He's talked about relationships and now he's talking about idolatry. And so last week we looked at just the first few verses. of chapter eight. So let me just go ahead and read those verses this morning. As we're in 1 Corinthians 8, starting in verse, well, we're looking at four through six, but let's go ahead and start in verse one. Now concerning things offered to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing as yet as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, this one is known by him. And I'm not going to take the time to rehearse last week's. It's online if you want to watch it. But we gave caution statements about what we do with our knowledge. Paul continues and says, therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is no other God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, Ricky's air quotes, all right, for even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God. There is one God, the Father of whom are all things, and we for Him, we'll talk about that in a little bit, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. What we're going to do this week and next week is touch on this big idea. Selfish applications of biblical truth, will harm the body of Christ. We talked last week about issues, issues confronting the church and how we work through issues. And that was more of a step back and a focus on the application of the text to us. And I'm saying we're gonna deal with issues. We're gonna deal with issues. Paul was dealing with issues. We'll continue to deal with issues in our life and ministry. We just will as part of life. But as we go into verses four through 13, today just four through six, we're gonna get into the specific issue of what Paul was addressing the Corinthians about, and it's about idolatry. Idols, what are they, what do they mean, what impact do they have, what impact should they not have? Paul's gonna address some of those things. But as we talk about this, this selfish application will harm the body of Christ is next week's sermon. The selfish application of this week's sermon, which is about biblical truth, will harm the body of Christ next week. So the two-part message, it's just too much to deal with in one or two. It'll be three settings for us. As Ricky asked twice, don't fall asleep. Don't fall asleep. This is where our Christian life really needs to be challenged. So we look at this first verse here, and it says of our text today, verse four, therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, if you remember, if you have your Bibles, hopefully they're open to chapter eight of 1 Corinthians, and we see in verse one it says, now concerning things offered to idols, that tells us that he's gonna be addressing this issue of idolatry. Then he goes in his little parenthetical thought about what I called some cautionary statements. But now he's bringing us back into focus on what the purpose of chapter 8 is all about, which is concerning the eating of things offered to idols. There was this specific issue that Paul was dealing with in the life of the church at Corinth was the fact that people were eating Food, it's not just meats, but it's certainly primarily meats. They were eating things offered to idols, and it was an issue in the church. And we'll deal more with the issue next week. For today, what we want to look at is, what is the information behind this issue? What is the information, what's the knowledge that Paul is addressing? So he's gonna give us what I'm calling two biblical truth statements. They're in the next verse. Actually, they're in, yeah, actually the end of this verse. It's all coming out of, the majority of this is coming out of verse four in terms of the truth statements. But he makes these two biblical truth statements in the context of eating things offered to idols. The first truth statement is this. Biblical truth claim number one. We know that an idol is nothing in the world. This is straight from the text. This is biblical truth claim number one. We know that an idol is nothing in this world. And we want to all say, yeah, exactly. So why are we talking about it? We don't have idols today. We don't have carvings. Well, we don't, praise God, but there are many people who do. And throughout the world, there are those who still carve idols out of wood, out of stone, and worship them as if they are deity. But both Paul and the Corinthians are making a point here. They're saying, we know. There is a knowledge base that exists that an idol is nothing in the world. And there's two views, two possibilities, I should say, of what this means. It is the idea, is it Paul and the Corinthians know this? Or is Paul saying the Corinthians, and because of the letters back and forth, there is, as Paul has mentioned, you know, the different questions about marriage and singleness and now he's dealing with idolatry. This may be what the Corinthians are saying. And so let's just, from their perspective, let's say that's what's going on. Paul's received a letter from them. He says, now concerning eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world. That's what they're telling Paul. We know this. Well, how did they know that eating, excuse me, that an idol is nothing in the world? How did they know that? Paul taught it to them. Paul was the means of their understanding what Scripture was teaching. Paul communicated to them, they believed what Paul taught them. Then they went off kilter, so to speak. They lost their direction and they started thinking they knew more than Paul. And that was an error on their part. But we see that they had this knowledge base and that an idol is nothing in the world. So this idea of nothing is what I want to focus on in just a moment. Paul is continuing to love the Corinthians by saying, okay, so this is the knowledge base you have, I conveyed it to you, and therefore I do believe it in part. The problem with the Corinthians wasn't their lack of knowledge, it was their application of knowledge. Going back to our big idea of the day, it's selfish application of biblical truth, right? Selfish application of biblical truth will harm the body of Christ. Biblical truth edifies because it's based in the love of God. But selfish application, and that's what he's confronting today. So this word of nothing, this idea of nothing, isn't saying that there's not physical idols in the world. Paul has already said this. We saw it in, it existed in Athens in the Acts 17. We see later on in our study of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 10, he says, therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. He's saying it's a real thing, this idolatry that's present, it's real. And in verse 20 of chapter 10, which we'll get there in a few weeks, he says, rather that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to have fellowship with deacons, demons, demons. Wow, how many deacons did I just offend, right? Every one of them, all right? All past, present, and future deacons have just been called demons, all right? That's all right, yesterday we were at, Ken, by the way, congratulations to Ken on his Navy retirement. Ken and Gwendolyn, we were at his retirement yesterday, and in some part of the statement someone said, cemetery rather than seminary, and so that was kind of funny too. So yes, what Paul is saying though here, in chapter 10, is idolatry is real. And there is an aspect of idolatry which is dangerous because the practice of idolatry is the idea has some interaction with demons. So the physical reality of idols, you can't dismiss. Idols are nothing in the sense that there is no spiritual significance to the actual idol. The physical wood or carved stone, it's there. It's objective, you can see it, but there's no spiritual power there. that would hinder a believer in Jesus Christ, certainly. But he does say, just a few chapters, a couple chapters later, but don't be involved in it, because I don't want you having fellowship with demons. And so we'll get there. So Paul is not saying, when he says that idols are nothing in the world, he's not saying they don't exist. He's just saying that they have no power, they have no significance in the life of a believer. Their physical reality, but the spiritual reality is greater he who's in us than he who is in the world. So if we were to continue this idea of idols are nothing, and Paul is saying this, if let's say it's Paul's statement. Okay, he did. I taught this to the Corinthians. You're parroting it back to me. Paul, but you taught us this. Yes, I agree. But where did Paul get his knowledge? Where do we gain our knowledge of the reality of idolatry? From the Word of God. Where all doctrine comes from, where all good theology comes from is an engagement in the text of Scripture. So we can go to the text of Scripture, that same text that Paul and the Corinthians had, the Old Testament. It doesn't mean it's old out of date. It's just saying it's older than the New Testament, but it's still the Word of God. And we see in Exodus chapter 20, you shall have no other gods before me. God is giving his law to Moses on Mount Sinai. The finger of God is writing it on tablets of stone. And we see these words, you shall have no other gods before me. Idolatry has been in existence since, certainly the time of Moses, but going even back to the garden. Genesis 3.15, the first time the gospel was spoken. Right? We know that there is going to be the seed of the woman is going to crush the head of the serpent. That's talking about Christ crushing Satan and dealing the final death blow to sin and all that's going on. And idolatry is a weapon of Satan against the people of this world. They're deceptive. They're deceived. And they draw people away from faith in Jesus Christ. So we see it from Exodus 20. We see it in Isaiah 44. This is a fabulous passage, and we're gonna walk through it. I'm gonna probably try and walk a little faster than I did in the first service. I made a lot of commentary on it, and I was pushed for time, and I don't wanna do that to you folks. Verse six, Isaiah 44. This is a familiar text of Scripture. It says, thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer. We're gonna see that played out in verse six of 1 Corinthians 8. 1 Corinthians 8, six, we're gonna see this kind of terminology of God and Lord. Here we see King and Redeemer. We see two people here. Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts. Israel has always practiced monotheistic faith. There is only one God. We're going to talk about that in a minute. But here we see in this text that both God and Son are represented. I'm just going to go ahead and give it from a New Testament perspective. He says, I am the first and I am the last besides me. There is no God. None. And who can proclaim it as I do? What he's saying is, God knows all things, and who's like me? He says, nobody. If there were, he says, then let him declare it and set it in order for me. In other words, if I have somehow forgotten something, if God is somehow ignorant, then whoever this is that you're turning to, these idols or whatever, then let them tell me, let them inform me. This is all rhetorical. This isn't possible. I told the folks in the first service that I had a theology teacher in seminary that made the statement that God is the only one who never learned anything. All right? And our brother Bruce is in the back there, and he let me pick on him first service, and he's gonna let me pick on him second service, right? So I said to Bruce, Bruce, you're the one I know that's never learned anything. What would that mean about Bruce? No one wants to say it, right? It would mean that there is a level of ignorance, right Bruce? There'd be a level of ignorance that exists in your life that didn't exist in any other life that I've ever known. Bruce, you're the only one that has never learned anything. That would be offensive. If we apply that to God, though, what does it mean? God, you are the only one that's never learned anything. Because he's at the other end of the spectrum, he knows all things. There's nothing for him to learn. He possesses all knowledge. And that was the point of the theology teacher, and that's our point of this text. God is saying, then let him declare it and set it in order for me. Since I appointed the ancient people and the things that are coming and shall come, I'm the ones that have appointed all things that are happening in this world. Let them, these idols, Let them show these to them. Do not fear, nor be afraid. Have I not told you from that time and declare it? You are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? And the answer is no. And we know that. But not everyone does. And we'll look at that more next week. Indeed, there is no other rock. I know not one. Those who make an image, dealing with idolatry, all of them are useless. Empty, nothing, applying this to the First Corinthians text. And their precious things shall not profit. They are their own witnesses. They neither see nor know that they may be ashamed. In other words, if they were capable of seeing and knowing, they would be ashamed that this was being said about them because God is God and they are not. Who would form a god or mold an image that profits him? Nothing. Surely all his companions would be ashamed. And the workmen, notice this, the craftsmen, the workmen, they are mere men. Let them all be gathered together, let them stand up, yet they shall fear, they shall be ashamed together. The blacksmith with his tongs works one in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with the strength of his arms. Even so, he is hungry and his strength fails. He drinks no water and is faint. This is the picture of a craftsman crafting an idol. It is arduous. It is difficult. It is producing sweat, and there's such an intensity that he's not even drinking or eating. He's faint. The craftsman stretches out his rule. He's measuring. He marks one and cuts it. He marks one out with chalk. He fashions it with a plane. He marks it out with a compass and makes it like the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in his house. I have a little statue in my house. It's about, from here to here, it's about that big. I call him Thor, all right? He's a little Viking dude, dude, all right? He's a little Viking dude I picked up when we were in Scandinavia. My parents were, my dad was stationed in Germany, and we traveled all over Europe, and I went to, we went to one of the countries in Scandinavia, and I picked this up. And we call him Thor and he's prominent. He's, you know, he's tucked away in a little corner. But I love this guy. It looks like Thor from the comic books. I was into comic books and so I got this guy Thor. It's carved in the image of a man. I do not worship him. All right? Do not. It's not an idol. It's a piece of artwork. And a true artist would be able to come in and judge whether it was genuine art or if it's some, oh whatever, you know, a kindergarten made it, you know. But we know what art is, and it's beautiful. And we know that our ability to create anything is simply working out of the knowledge that we are created in God's image, and God as creator has endowed us with the ability to create out of his creation, and it's beautiful. And we see here that this blacksmith and then the craftsman, they carved these things, and they're beautiful, and they're displayed in homes. but they're not supposed to be worshiped. And that's what these people are doing. And then it says here, he cuts down cedars for himself and takes the cypress and the oak. He secures it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a pine and the rain nourishes it. Then it shall be for a man to burn, for he will take some of it and warm himself. Yes, he kindles it and bakes bread. Indeed, he makes it God and worships it. He makes it a carved image and falls down to it. He burns half of it in the fire. With his half, he eats meat. With this half, my new glasses are messing with me, and that's why I keep misreading. It's easier for me to read it up there than on the screen. With this half, he eats meat. He roasts a roast and is satisfied. He even warms himself and says, ah, I am warm. I have seen the fire. And the rest of it he makes into a god, little G. His carved image. He falls down before it and worships it, prays to it and says, deliver me for you are my God. Actually, I'm gonna go ahead and stop there and just get to the next text because I need to move on. We'll look here. He feeds on ashes, a deceived heart has turned him aside and he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, is there not a lie in my right hand? In other words, this very person who has created this carved image is holding in his hand He has carved it out of half a log of wood, the other half he uses to burn and cook his food, and it's the same material. But it's false. It's a false god. It's not really a god. It's nothing. It's vain. And Paul is telling the Corinthians, and the Corinthians are agreeing, it's nothing. It is nothing. We see in Psalm 135, A little succinctly, a little bit more succinctly, the psalmist says, the idols of the nations are silver and gold. The work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak. Eyes, they have, but they do not see. They have ears, but they do not hear. Nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them are like them, so is everyone who trusts in him. Worship of idols is empty. It's vain. It's worthless. And once again, in the 21st century, we're like, duh, of course, we don't do that. No, we have other idols in our lives. And the essence of idolatry is the idea of putting something that has authority in our life, that usurps the authority that God should have in our life. There are people literally worshiping wood and stone, probably at this very hour, and there are those who are caught up in the priorities of life that have nothing to do with God, that are in idolatrous relationship with those things. They are trusting in those things in a level, in a way that they should never trust. And they have put the hand up to God and say, you're not real, I'm gonna trust in this thing, whatever it is. So from these texts of scripture, we understand that idols are nothing. And so Paul can agree with the Corinthians, at least up to a point, but before he can confront them about their error, which is verses seven through 13, he makes a second biblical statement. So the second biblical truth claim is this, and that there is no other God but one. So when we engage in this text, maybe many of you may know already that this statement comes out of the Shema. The Shema is Deuteronomy 6.4. It says, Here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. It's the foundational principle of Judaism. It's the foundational principle of Christianity. There is only one God. Two truth claims taken straight from Old Testament Scripture. One, idols are nothing. Two, there is only one God. And as we look at this particular truth claim, we see that not only was it foundational for the Jewish faith, it was recited twice a day by faithful Jews. They would say this twice a day, morning and evening, we would make this statement and it was It was, for many, it may have been rote memory and just a practice that meant nothing because faith was not engaged. But for faithful Jews this is what they would do to, to help them understand. When they got out of bed in the morning and they walked out the door, let me remember this. Here, oh Greg, the Lord our God, the Lord my God, He is one. He is one God. I'm going to walk out into this pantheistic world that's full of idols and full of other gods, and I have to keep my bearings, I have to know this truth, I have to live this truth. And that is what we are called to do as well. But then Paul takes this to another level when we get into verse five. He says, for even if there are so-called, air quote, Ricky, all right, even though there are so-called gods, little g, whether in heaven or on earth, whatever man has carved, whatever man worships, do we not have people that worship creation today? I was a chaplain in the military, and I am called to look out, and Ken was called to look out for the religious freedom of every soldier, every sailor. And I had Wiccans that were in my unit. I'm sure you had Wiccans. And most people, Wiccans, most people think Wiccans are going out doing animal sacrifice and stuff, and there are people who do that. But the Wiccans I encountered were just nature worshipers. Listen to me. They were just. Nature worshipers. They were idolaters. According to what we know from Scripture, the knowledge that we possess from Scripture, from God's Word, says that they are idolaters. But we are called to love them and pray for open doors for the gospel. You are commanded and you are encouraged to love them and bring the gospel to them. We are not supposed to dismiss people who are in error. We're supposed to embrace them to the truth. He says, listen, there are these so-called gods and they're both heavenly and earthly manifestations of a non-reality. Because idols are nothing. But he says, listen, there are many gods and many lords. Athens is proof. Verse six, he gets to really one of the main aspects of his knowledge and what he's trying to convey and draw the Corinthians to understand. He says, yet for us, in contrast to all these idol worshipers, yet for us, there is one God, the Shema. We just talked about that. Deuteronomy 6.4. The Father, there is one God, the Father. Jews would acknowledge this. There is one God. He's the Father of whom are all things. What does this mean? Father God is Creator God. He is the one that has all power. He is God of gods, right? And so we under, capital G God of little g gods, right? That's in scripture as well. I'm just not gonna turn there. But he says here, listen, for us, Corinthians, this is the foundation upon which our knowledge is. We've drawn this from the Old Testament. Before you apply it selfishly, verse seven through 13, right, know this. We have this faith, this knowledge, that the Father, and this preposition here, of, could also be used, the word from, another preposition, all right, there's a lot of leeway here, all right, it's the idea of from God the Father, we have all things. Everything that exists is because of God the Father. Everything. He created matter out of nothing, because God existed before time and matter. He says very clearly that from the Father, we have all things from Him and we for Him. You really want to put a word in there, right? And we want for Him. And so some of the other translations actually put the word exist. And the reason they would do that is because elsewhere in Scripture, we understand that all things, when we get to Revelation, we know that all things, one day, all things will be gathered together in the person of Jesus Christ and laid at the feet of the Father so that God is all in all. So there's theology that goes into, if your translation has, it'll say, and we exist for him, we exist for his glory, he gives us all things and all things are for him. That's the nature of this. And for the most part, the Jewish people would have understood this. But now we go a bit deeper. And a bit more accurate, it says, and one Lord, Jesus Christ. Notice, one God, the Father, one God, the Son. We have two-thirds of the Trinity represented in this text. And if you have two-thirds, you have the third-thirds, right? It's all there. This is a Trinitarian text, even though we don't see the Spirit directly referenced when we have Father and Son as described as one God. We understand that God is revealing himself in this text in two persons, Father and Son. The Father from whom we have all things, and the Son, notice this, through whom are all things. Creation came through the work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is the hands-on creator. God has given all things. Everything we see is because of God the Father, but Jesus was His avenue of creating. Not only that, we see through whom are all things, and through whom, also through Jesus Christ, we live. You live, I live. Are we talking about breath? Well, I think so, but I also think we're talking about our faith, the outworking of our faith. Corinthians, you have all this vast knowledge, all these wonderful gifts, but you're using them the wrong way. Your knowledge is puffing you up. You're not applying love. And we need to correct that Corinthians. And Paul is the one to do it. And he says, listen, I'm calling you to an understanding of who your God is. He's both father and son. And we need to understand that all that we do, all that we have is we live through Jesus Christ for the glory of God. I don't know about you and I'm going, I'm going to go along. If I don't finish here soon, we still have a song to sing. I don't know about you, but have you thought this through? The implications of your faith into your daily life. God our Father, a Jewish person wouldn't say that. They called Jesus to account when he said my Father, right? We know God as our Father because of what Jesus Christ has done. If you're here this morning and you name the name of Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then God the Father is your Father. But maybe you've prayed prayers and you've never come to a faith in Jesus Christ. You've never understood that all things were through, that we live through Him. Both our physical life as believers, but our spiritual life, we have life through the Son. He that has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. If you're here this morning and you do not, or you're watching this online and you do not have the Son of God as your Lord and Savior, come to faith. come to faith in Jesus Christ. He will renew you from the inside out. Your sins will be forgiven. You will have a life that has purpose and meaning. You will have a life that glorifies God because you will no longer be a slave to this world, to the sin that abides in it. You will have new life in Christ and you will be able to do so much that you never thought you were capable of doing. Believers, let's be those people who recognize that God is working in us and through us and let's give God the glory because it will ultimately all come to Him. So we have considered this big idea. Selfish application of biblical truth. We have focused on the biblical truth today. That idols are nothing and that there is one God. And if we can chew on that for a week, then when we come together next week, we're gonna look and see how the Corinthians were in their lack of love and lack of understanding how they were supposed to act amongst their community. We're gonna see how their selfish application was causing harm to the body of Christ. And if we, as we continue to work through whatever issues might pop up, whether they be theological or non-theological, whatever they might be, whatever issues might come up, we certainly need to do it in love, with humility, But we also need to understand if we don't deal with it, the body of Christ, the church is gonna be harmed. I wanna strengthen the body, you wanna strengthen the body. So let's do that in faith and let's not practice our faith in a selfish fashion. Untold harm can be done, let's pray. Father, I thank you for this particular challenge before us. as we come to you week after week after week. We just want to know how to live. We just want to know how we are supposed to live in this world that is so lost, so confusing. They use your name in derogatory ways. They curse you. at every opportunity. And Lord, you have called us to yourself. We're jealous for you only because you're jealous for us. Father, we need your wisdom. We need your truth. And we need your truth to impact us at the core of who we are. so that we will not fall into the trap that the Corinthians did in somehow concluding that our knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is enough. We must put our knowledge into action. so that we will continue to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ, and we will be fit vessels for you to use to lead others to faith in Jesus Christ. Lord, we need to know how to live. Your word reveals that. You have given us great knowledge. Lord, we pray for the boldness to exercise that knowledge to your glory and not our own. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.