It’s good to be with you this evening. We’re going to continue on in 1 Corinthians. If you’re a guest with us, we’ve been in 1 Corinthians for some time, and we’re in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 this evening. So if you have your Bibles, I encourage you to turn there with me. 1 Corinthians chapter 9.

Here’s what Paul writes to the church in Corinth.

He says,

Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? And who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk? And do I say these things on human authority? Does not the law say the same? For it is written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain. Is it for the ox that God is concerned? Does He not certainly speak for our sake? It is written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope, and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we… endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ? Do you not know that those who are employed in temple service get their food from the temple and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. Unfortunately, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has not improved in the last few weeks that it’s been going on. I think we’re all kind of hoping it would die down and there would be some kind of resolution. It seems to be getting worse, but everyone, I think worldwide, has been so impressed with the president of Ukraine because he is not hiding and running. You remember when Afghanistan collapsed, their leader took off as quick as he could, but their president has not only stayed in the Ukraine, but he’s put on tactical gear and he’s taken up arms and he has led out front. He showed the way. That’s what a good leader does. That’s what leadership is. And it’s not just true, you know, at a national level. It’s true in any organization. No group of people can stand if they’re not led well. And Paul’s point here, much more is that true inside the walls of the local church. If local churches don’t have good guides, good leaders, well, where does that leave the people in those churches? You’ve heard the phrase running around like a chicken with your head cut off. I don’t know if a chicken can actually run around with its head cut off. I’m not familiar enough with farming to know. Some of you are shaking your heads yes, so I’m assuming then it can do that. So God is good to give leadership in the local church because it’s necessary. I want us to see from this passage,

it’s necessary for the local church to be the local church. Leonard Ravenhill, he’s an evangelist and author from the last century, and he said, a true shepherd leads the way. He doesn’t merely point the way. And that’s the kind of leader that Jesus was. Jesus never asked something of you or I as his church that he wasn’t first willing to do himself. Jesus doesn’t call you and I to suffer. For his name’s sake, had he not suffered most and first. So Paul’s writing here and he has to start out. And again, in Corinthians, you know, we’ve been saying if there’s hope for the Corinthian church, there’s hope for all churches because the Corinthian church is a mess. And all these things that Paul’s willing to work through with them on all the bad theology, all the broken relationships, all this sin. We come to this point now when the last person, on the planet, who should have to defend themselves, has to defend themselves. It’s Paul. It’s the apostle Paul. And Paul kind of has to validate his own pedigree to them, though they knew him personally, though it’s because of Paul they had come to saving faith. When we think about who Paul is, Paul was the apostle who, remember, he used to be Saul and Saul was destroying the churches. Saul was killing Christians. But Jesus, a glorified Jesus, came down. And what did Jesus do? He said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And the Spirit of God told Ananias, go and tell him he must serve me. He must suffer much for me. Paul says in his second letter to the Corinthians, did you not see the signs of a true apostle when I was with you and signs and wonders? So when we think about Paul, Paul meets all the qualifications for what it meant to be an apostle. He saw Jesus face to face. Paul performed many signs and wonders. Paul planted churches like nobody else planted churches all over the known world. At the time, Paul suffered greatly for Christ. All these things everybody knew about Paul, still the Corinthian church had got themselves to a place of not valuing the genuinely godly leadership that they needed. And that’s what leadership has to be for it to be real leadership, is genuine. Genuine. Genuine. Now, what is an apostle when we say that? In this context, an apostle was really one of very, very few men. You had Jesus’ twelve apostles. Those were the special men who were with Christ night and day. And Christ was teaching them all the things that He wanted them to know. And He was showing them with His own life what it looked like to be a part of the kingdom of heaven. And when Jesus is about to be crucified, He says, don’t worry, the Helper will come and bring to mind all that I have taught you. So the apostles was this small band of guys who had this incredible privilege and responsibility of being Jesus’ game plan for planting a viable church. Think about that. Jesus ascends into heaven. We’re one man down. Remember, Judas is gone. So they bring Matthias on to replace Judas. And then we get the apostle Paul in his own unique, special way. So really, we’ve got… We’ve got 13 guys, and this is the God of the universe. This is His plan to establish a church for all time, which is really incredible. I don’t know if they ever thought about it that way, but that’s kind of why it’s riding on these 13 guys planting churches.

That’s what they’re called to do. This is God’s unique leadership. This is God’s game plan for planting healthy churches. And so Paul says, here in these opening verses, he says, aren’t you my workmanship? He says, aren’t you the seal? I mean, wasn’t I with you? You guys were a mess, and they were a mess. Remember, we read about all kinds of really weird stuff in the earlier chapters. The man with his, you know, stepmother, and there’s all kinds of weird things going on in this church. Yet Paul says, you’re still standing though as a church. You might be a really messed up church, but you still have the imprint. You have the markings of what a true church is. Paul says, you’re my workmanship in the Lord. He says, you’re my workmanship in the Lord. He says, you’re the seal that I truly have been sent by God. And what a grace to you that I’m a genuine leader to establish both your saving faith by grace, as that worked through the preaching of the gospel, but also the planning of a church at Corinth.

What can you have if you don’t have genuine godly leadership in a local church? What can you have?

Well, I don’t think you can really have church. You can have quasi-church. You can call it church, and you can do churchy things. But if it’s not a church led by people who are doing this and this alone, looking at Jesus and saying, Jesus, what do you want for my life? Jesus, what does it mean to be a group of people and we live life and we obey God your way? This is the problem. The problem, I think, today in the West is we’ve got a lot of churches saying, what if we did this? And what if we did that? And what if we look like that? And what if we compromise here? I don’t know if you’re keeping up with the Methodist church, but the Methodist church is in the throes of it right now. There’s a huge group of churches inside the Methodist church getting ready to break away because there’s such a huge uprising for values that are not biblical. And a lot of the Methodist church is having to say, we can’t do this because it doesn’t honor God. It doesn’t honor His Word. When we go to the Old Testament and we see in the book of Judges, the book of Judges is this horrible cycle, right? Sin, judgment into slavery, repentance, salvation from slavery, then we sin again, back into slavery for consequence, repentance, short-lived repentance, back to salvation, oh, we sin again. And it’s this horrible cycle. Why? Because they don’t have godly leaders. They don’t have God’s man leading them. So it’s not about, let me be clear, in a local church, it’s not about the man like, wow, that guy was born special. He must be like super, super like special. Not at all. Can I tell you that I think those who really desire to be used by God are usually the least qualified? It’s those who say, Lord, here I am. I don’t think I know what’s up with a lot of stuff, but I’m just trusting on you. If you’ll teach me and you’ll lead me, Lord, I’ll do what you want me to do. Can I tell you as your pastor, I don’t have enough. I don’t have enough knowledge and insight into the word. I don’t have enough love. I don’t have enough wisdom. I need to be focusing on Jesus if I’m going to be of any worth to you as a church. So do you believe that God is good to give the genuinely godly leadership you need? Right where you are in life. Do you believe God uses imperfect vessels for his perfect purposes? And when we see faithful congregations, which perhaps are few and far between today, we should praise God because there is somewhere in that local church a man of God who’s convicted by the Spirit and he’s willing to point Jesus’ way, even if it costs some popularity, even if it costs some people. So I will say that I preach this sermon with fear and trembling because I realize the word of God says to me in Hebrews, every elder, every pastor will stand before Jesus and give account for the souls that they pastor. So it’s a really weighty thing. It’s a really weighty thing. It’s why James says, if you want to teach, you should be slow to that. Because you’re held to a higher standard.

If the apostles were God’s plan to plant a viable church, I want you to understand, pastor, elder, local churches, that’s God’s plan for the last 2,000 years to sustain the church. To sustain the church. What did Paul do when he went to Corinth or to Galatia? What did Paul do in Thessalonica? What was the church doing in Jerusalem? They were raising up elders, a few men, who, by God’s grace, were able and willing to point the way to Jesus even if it was hard and difficult. Why? So that the people would have a good God. So it all trickles down. If we started at the top of the mountain and we got dirty water, it’s just going to get dirty and dirtier as it goes down. So if you want to be

a godly father, where do you need to look? To a healthy church. And if you want to be a healthy church, you need to do what? Look to the word. And you need to find someone who’s willing to say, here is God’s word, here we stand, and we can do no other. Because church, if you lose your authenticity, your integrity as a church, you lose the authenticity of godly mothers and fathers in the home. And when you lose that, you don’t just lose it in the now, you lose it for the future. If there’s not a godly generation today, there’s not going to be a godly generation tomorrow. And that’s why it’s so important that you and I value what it means to be under godly leadership in our churches so that we as mothers and fathers understand the great impetus, the calling to raise up children in our own homes. So Martin Luther is famous for saying, your home, is your first church. Your home is your first church. And I really believe that. We’re a church which is made up of families. So we’re little churches with our husbands and wives and our kids, and we’re honoring God in our home, but we’re coming together as the local church under men of God to say, okay, what does it look like for us together to be the body of Christ in our place, in our time? We need genuine godly leadership so we can have genuinely godly churches, so we can have genuinely godly families. There’s leadership and then there’s domineering. Do what I say, because I’m in charge. And that’s not leadership. That’s not leadership. Leadership is saying, hey, I’ll be the first one to show the way. I’ll be the first one to suffer. I’ll be the first one to get down and wash someone’s feet. Hey, I’ll be the first one to take the bullet. I’ll show the way even if it’s hard. I’ll stand on that truth even if it costs me a lot. That’s leadership. And that’s what God desires His people to see. So if you want to know how good a general is, don’t look at the general. Look at his army. If you want to know how good a coach is, look at his team. Oftentimes it doesn’t mean it always works out this way as it should, but if you want to know how good a parent is, look at his kid. And I think it can be said if you want to know if a church is healthy, look at not just the words coming out of the preacher’s mouth, but look at his life. Look at his life. And again, I say that’s weighty. That’s weighty.

But by God’s grace, I desire to stand up here every Sunday and not preach Chad. Alright? My vision, my kingdom, my fame. The only thing we should be doing is saying, hey, let’s look at Jesus together. That’s the kind of genuine leadership we need. Is this thing elevated? And lifted up so that Christ rules and reigns and leads in our hearts and minds. So let me ask you, pray. You’ve got to pray for me and you’ve got to pray for Chase who serves as an elder. And I know Chris is out of town today, but pray for us as pastor elders because we want and we desire to lead and love well so we have godly families and we can have a godly city and we can see God do His thing in our time and our place. So pray. Pray. And by grace, we’ll be good gods. By grace.

I want you to see second, if it’s so necessary that we have godly leadership and genuine godly leadership, the table has to be turned. Okay? Because as much as I could desire to be a genuinely godly leader in your life, it does no good if you don’t want it. If you don’t desire it. It’s like someone sitting by a stream of water and they’re dehydrated and they just refuse to drink. So for your part, and I think this is what Paul’s getting at, you have got to be willing to put yourself under, not some man who speaks some words, but under this person that God in His will by His timing and just the complexity of how He is just you know, crawls past. You say, this is the church you need to be at. This is the pastors you need and you need to apply yourself so that you grow up. That’s kind of a heart, a frame of heart, a frame of mind that we need to live with. Look back at verse 3. Paul says, this is my defense to those who would examine me. Do we not have the right to eat and drink? He goes to say, can we not take on a believing wife like other apostles? Like the Lord’s brothers? Even Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? Who serves as a soldier is it on expense? Plants a vineyard without eating the fruit? Who tends a flock without getting milk?

Paul’s poured his life out and they know that. Paul was with them and he gave his best to them but the affection’s not matched coming back. Paul says elsewhere, I’ve been as a father to you. I’ve been as a father to you and they’ve somehow got it in their heads like, psh, Paul. There’s these other super apostles and they’re like, hey, Paul, you know, he’s not, we’re awesome. Paul’s not awesome. And Paul says, hold on a second. Who loved you so well? Who preached the gospel to you? Who’s still praying for you? Paul says, I can eat and drink and that’s a reference to last week’s sermon. I have the freedom to eat and drink all things as one who is in Christ. He says, I have the same freedom as the apostle Peter and Jesus’ half-brothers who were apostles to have a wife to go along with me as I do ministry and to be supported by the church. He said, are you telling me you don’t think I have the right to refrain from getting a day job so I can pour my whole life and my best efforts into being a gospel minister? And I think it’s really, it’s a

show on them. It’s to their discredit that Paul has to use basic common arguments to like help them see clearly. So he says, think about a soldier, Church at Corinth. Could you imagine a soldier? And again, with the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, you can see what soldiers go through. Could you imagine a soldier giving their literal life to the service of a country and that country not want to take care of their basic needs? He said, could you imagine someone toiling out in a vineyard trying to get this vine to grow and to grow all these plants and yet he doesn’t have any of the fruit that comes from it? And he says, could you imagine someone who night and day looks after a flock and he never imagines he would get some kind of fruit from it? These are basic common arguments that Paul says I shouldn’t even have to be saying this stuff to you. That’s how low they, they sunk in their thinking. But then Paul says, don’t take it from me. He says, take it from God’s Word. He says in verse 8, do I say these things on human authority? He says, does not the law of Moses say the same thing? So he references the Old Testament and what the law is saying there is, hey, if you’re out in the fields and you’ve got an ox and you’re plowing your fields, don’t shut that ox’s mouth. So it can’t eat. It’s assisting you in your labor so that you can have a harvest. Let the ox open its mouth so it can eat as it works in labors for you. That’s Paul’s point. So if we’re supposed to be that kind to animals, Paul’s saying, God didn’t write that for the ox’s sake. He wrote it for your sake to understand the equity among people in fairness and taking care. So let me pause there and say, if you’re thinking, is this weird to preach a sermon about how pastors should be paid? Like, if that’s crossed your mind, and let me tell you why it’s not weird, okay? One, because I’ve preached weirder stuff out of the Bible. The Bible has some weird stuff in it. Two, because it’s not my thing. I could die. I don’t want to die. Or I could be called to a church on the other side of the world, and guess what? God’s going to raise up, because He’s good to you, He’s going to raise up someone else to lead you and love you, and God’s going to say, oh, hey, you know what you should do is you should so desire to be under His leadership that you want to give to the church where He serves so that He can be taken care of and that church can thrive through financial generosity. So that’s why it’s not weird. It would be weird if I was like, hey guys, I thought of something. What if, what if y’all gave me a bunch of money? That’d be cool. Like, that’s not it. Paul’s saying, I have, God has provided someone to preach and teach and love and pray for you and care for you. And help you get home to heaven. Hey, doesn’t it make sense to give material you know, support to them so that they can do that well for you? And I think what this is, and I want you to track with me, it’s a get-to versus a have-to mentality, okay? You can have a get-to or a have-to mentality. Now here’s a have-to mentality. Okay? A have-to mentality is a failure to see the great joy and blessing of being a part of the local church where I’m encouraged by brothers and sisters in Christ. I’m growing up in my faith. I’m being used by God to serve and to advance His kingdom. I’m hearing the Word of God preached weekly to me so that I can continually grow and know and love God more. A have-to mentality thinks God is arbitrary. God is not arbitrary. But we think that. God, why do you tell us to do stuff? Just give money? Because you say, give money? What’s the point? Does God ever ask you to do anything in life that’s not for your good also? Never. Never. In other words, when we start thinking like that, we start thinking about my stuff. How come God wants my stuff? Hold on a second. I think all things belong to God. And if God says, hey, I don’t want you to just give your money, I want you to give your house, and I want you to sell everything you have, give it to the poor. That sounds familiar. And I want you to move to the other side of the world to be a missionary for me. We should be like, yes, Lord, absolutely, because you have given all things to me and your son, Jesus Christ. So whatever you want me to give, let me give it with a joyful heart. God’s not arbitrary when he asks. He’s always doing it to grow and stretch our faith. Third thing, when we have a have-to mentality is there’s a dangerous independence you and I can have. Dangerous independence. When God calls us to be a part of the local church, it’s because we’ve come to salvation in Christ. And because we’ve come to salvation in Christ, we’re a part of the local church. In other words, there’s a there is no such thing as a lone ranger Christian. There is no such thing as it’s just you and Jesus against the world and you’re just biding your time until it takes you home. If we read the Bible, we read about the church at Corinth, the church at Galatia, the church at Thessalonica, the church at Philippi. God has called us, if we’ve come to Jesus, to what? Meaningfully be a part of the local church and there give our all to that church and that church give its all to us so that we all together, grow up in Christ Jesus. So don’t be a lone ranger Christian. You don’t have stuff.

You don’t have stuff. What you have is Jesus. And when you came to Jesus, you laid down all your rights because He is your Lord and Savior. So if Jesus says you should love and give your whole life to the local church, how we should do that with great joy and willingness. Great joy and willingness. That’s why there’s no such thing. It has the meta church. No such thing. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s become popular now for churches not to just offer their services online, but actual like virtual reality, stay in your home. It basically looks like a video game and you go to church online. Okay? That’s highly deceptive because the church literally means gathered. It means assembled. Friends, Jesus wants you and I in the same room together, looking at one another, loving one another, listening to one another’s hardships, helping one another through sin struggles, hearing the words of God together. There is no substitute. There is no substitute.

We must be with one another if we’re really going to be Jesus’ people. What’s the get-to mentality? The get-to mentality says, man, God is good to put men in my life, disciple makers in my life, who are helping me grow in the faith a little bit more. Man, God is using me both through my finances and through service in the local church to expand His eternal kingdom so that when I’m in glory with Jesus someday, I can look back and Jesus say, hey, remember when you were, you know, at that church back then and you were like faithful to give and you were serving? You know that, how much of an impact that actually made on my eternal kingdom? Because you were faithful in the small things back then?

Get-to says, man, I need godly leadership. And it says my children need godly leadership and my wife needs godly leadership and my wife needs godly friends and my children need godly friends. That’s what a get-to mentality understands. A get-to mentality understands I want to be generous with everything because God has been generous with me. Can you put a price on that? So, are we thinking in the spirit or are we thinking with the flesh when we hold on to our wallets and we ask ourselves a question, how little can I give to the local church? Friends, let’s look at Jesus, let’s look at God’s beloved son hanging crucified and see how God has given us everything and if we have Christ, we have everything and all that we have in this life, which is temporal, which you can’t hold on to, which you can’t take to the grave, it all goes away, it freezes to give it away for Jesus’ name and the glory of the gospel and the glory of God. You say, well, isn’t it true that there have been men or there are men who are charlatans, they take money and they, you know, they’re on TV with gold rings on like, hey, send your money in and God will bless you. Yeah, yeah, they’re hypocrites and they’re liars and God will judge them accordingly. But you can’t throw the baby out with the bath water. It’s like there’s hypocrites in every realm of life. We can go back to the word and say, okay, Lord, I see how this is your plan. The local church is your plan to shine your light in local communities all over the world. So let’s do your plan. Let’s do discipleship God’s way.

I don’t, I know very little about, you know, investments. Some people like love that stuff. Like they’re into like the stock market and how to invest money. And I just don’t get it at all. Like first time in my life, Jessica and I sat down with a financial planner and like, all right, this is how old you are. If you’re retired at this age, this is how much you need to put in. But then I get the return in the, you know, in the mail. And right now I’m still like, I’m getting less than I put in at this point. And I’m like, but why do I have less? Well, because you know, Jessica, the markets go up and down. They’re down right now. But I want them to go up. I want them to go up. I want inflation to go down. I want markets to go up, right? It’s not happy. It feels very shaky, right? Because it is shaky. The whole thing’s shaky. Everything in life is shaky. But let me tell you something. When you and I take our wallets and our gifts and our talents and our service and we invest it in the local church, oh, that has sure eternal returns for eternity and for the kingdom of God. So again, let me say to men here, husbands, dads, this is your job to lead your family, to love, to be a part of intricately, deeply, the local church. For your disciples, for your discipleship, and for theirs. By grace, we’re becoming together the church that God wants us to be. And I’m not preaching this sermon as someone who’s like, man, we need to get our tiles up, so I’m going to preach this sermon. Y’all have been faithful. Just on this, we’re about three and a half years old since I started here. Almost four. Oh, it’ll be four in October. So we’re getting there. But I remember seasons when it’s like, okay, we brought in, like, a dollar and we need like thousands of dollars. Like, what in the world? And God just drops money out of the sky. Like, it happened so many, didn’t it? It happened so many times. Like, God is like, just be faithful. Like, if you’re there, like, just give. And it’s not actually about you and your money. It’s about obedience to God so that God will show up and He will receive the glory in your life. And God’s shown that so many times in the finances of our church. And He will show Himself so faithful in your own family if you believe and if you obey. Let’s do that together. Ministries that we’re a part of now. Things that we can give to. Why? Because we have a bunch of money? No. I think God could do more through a little small church with a little small budget than He could through a church with, you know, millions and millions of dollars if our heart is, Lord, just here’s the might I have. Here’s my widow’s might. Take it and multiply it for your kingdom. It’s a heart desire to give everything to God.

So value. Desire. Long to learn in Christ. Long to grow up in Christ. Long to be in a posture of submission and humility so that God can speak to you. To your family. To all of us.

Going on in 12.

He says, nevertheless, I have not made use of that right. We endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.

It’s really amazing when you think about that. Paul had every biblical right to say, I’m not working. I’m not working. I slave for Jesus to preach the gospel and to help you people figure this out. Like, y’all should be paying me. Y’all should like, but they’re not there. They’re not there. But Paul has such a heart for them. The heart of Christ for them. He says, you know what? I’m just going to go make tents. Paul’s a tent maker. Because I don’t even want to put an obstacle in your way of you getting confused or you thinking that I’m some charlatan. I’m not going to ask for money because I don’t want anybody to steal my right of glorying in the fact that I preach the gospel to you for free. So you would receive it. That’s how much love Paul has. Paul gives enough. Not that he needs to give more, but he says, you know, in the Old Testament, it was priests. How did they live? Well, the people gave their offerings and they lived off the offerings. But Paul says, I’m going to give it to you for free. I want to love you freely because I don’t want to do anything. I want to do anything that would keep you from loving and obeying Jesus’ gospel. But he closes that passage and says, those who labor in the gospel should be provided for by it. And again, Paul’s whole point here is this. If your faith is going to thrive, if my faith is going to thrive, if providence, if God’s faith is going to thrive, if there’s going to be a church worth standing, not just for another couple years, but hopefully for decades or until Jesus comes back, whenever that is, if we’re going to last, it’s going to require this, that you and I desire to be under genuine godly leadership so that we’re godly mothers, godly fathers, godly children, raising up a godly generation. Because when we are in a church that’s set on being godly, that church will thrive. That church will be sustained. That church is a church that God says, oh, that’s a usable church. They’re a little goofy. And, you know, they don’t have much money, but man, I could use that church. Because they just genuinely desire for Christ to be exalted.

You desire that. There’s the grace of being kept when we seek Christ. There’s the grace of being preserved. There’s the grace of being grown. There’s the grace of being used when we go according to Jesus’ plan for Jesus’ glory. And what’s Jesus’ plan? The resurrected Savior, His Spirit working through His apostles, working through local churches and local communities all over the world so that God’s people would be brought in and kept until Christ returns and then we can all together forever glory in Jesus. So that’s our great privilege as God’s people. And that’s mine and Chase’s and Chris’s high calling. You know, great privilege. Great privilege to love you and by God’s grace we’re going to keep loving you. We’re going to keep preaching. We’re going to keep praying and we’re going to keep trusting that as we follow Jesus together, Jesus is going to keep and sustain us. Amen. Let’s pray together.

Heavenly Father, I pray that

when we think about our life and the role of the gospel, the role of church, church would not be Jesus would not be something on the fringe. Something that we need to add to our life. But Lord, we would do that thing that You desire us to do. Lord, that we would have You as the very center of our life and everything else is built around You. Our family life, our schedules, our work, everything centered on Jesus. Everything going through the filter and the lens of the cross.

So Lord, I just pray You would open our eyes, open our minds, open our hearts, Lord, to seek You and You alone. Lord, give us a greater love for the truth of Your Word. Give us a greater love for righteousness. Fill our community with that. Fill our hearts with that, Lord, that we could be called faithful unto You right here where we are at Providence. And we praise You that it’s not about us. It’s not about how well we can do anything for You. It’s about trusting and believing that You will keep us when we look to You, God. So we look to You, Jesus, and we love You.

We pray all that in Christ’s name.

Amen.