Matthew 18 verses 8 through 9, let us now hear the word of the Lord. If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the everlasting fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to come and hear your word. And we ask, Lord, that you would be with us today as we consider the words of Jesus. We know that Jesus is the truth. He is the truth incarnate, the truth in living form, and whatever He says is true. And so we ask that you would give us faith that we might really believe His words today, and that we might respond to them in obedience. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Do you remember the story of Aaron Ralston? It's been quite some time ago. It's been 20 years. When I saw that this morning, I thought, wow, 20 years. But 20 years ago in April, Aaron Ralston had gone into a remote location and had become trapped. His arm was pinned under a boulder. Do you remember that? So one article summarizes it like this, quote, an experienced climber and outdoorsman, Ralston went hiking alone down Utah's Blue John Canyon on April 26, 2003. As he climbed over a boulder, it shifted, pinning his right arm against a canyon wall. Five days later, after having tried fruitlessly to budge the 800-pound rock, he broke the bones in his forearm and amputated his arm below the elbow with a dull pocket knife. The operation took about an hour. Once free, he rappelled down a 60-foot cliff and walked five miles before finding help." Now, perhaps you remember that story. I remember it in the news, but you can just imagine the horror of that. as he's trapped there with his arm under this boulder, and he's there for days, and he has to make a very difficult decision. And when you hear a story like this, you can't help but kind of put yourself in that position, right? And you think, man, what would I do? What would I do given these circumstances? Well, what he did was he had to make a choice. What's more important? What's better? Would it be better for me to die here with both arms? Or would it be better for me to cut this arm off and be free and live? Now, I'm sure that must've been an excruciating decision to make. And I can't imagine the pain and suffering involved in doing what he did, but the situation called for drastic action, right? I mean, if your arm is pinned underneath an 800 pound boulder, there's no time to, you know, do anything but drastic. You're gonna die or you're gonna cut your arm off and you're gonna be free and you're gonna live. Well, hopefully we'll never be in that circumstance. Hopefully we'll never find ourselves in such a position, God willing. But we do find ourselves in a very similar situation. And that is each and every one of us has to make a decision about how we will deal with our sin. About how we will deal with those things that cause us to stumble into sin. About how we will respond to enticements to sin. Will we continue to allow them to lead us astray and ultimately to our destruction? Or will we deal radically and seriously and even severely with our sin? We come now to this next portion of teaching from the Lord Jesus in Matthew 18. We're going to look today at verses 8 and 9, and we're going to consider this passage in three ways. First of all, Jesus talks about the cause for sin. Number two, he talks about the response that must be made. And number three, he gives us the reason for such a drastic response. Now, last week we looked at verses five through seven, where Jesus talked about receiving and stumbling. First of all, on the positive side, Jesus told us in verse five, whoever receives one little child like this in my name receives me. What was Jesus teaching his disciples? He was teaching them to embrace and welcome the humble and lowly. Christ's church is not gonna be made up primarily of the movers and the shakers, of the wise and the mighty in this world. And so the disciples are gonna have to repent of their pride and learn to embrace Christ's little ones. Christ's humble disciples. And when they do so, they are actually receiving Jesus himself. To embrace a humble disciple and welcome him, even though he has no status in the world, may have very little to no money, may be a nobody, to embrace that person in brotherly love is to embrace Jesus himself. So that was the positive side. The negative side was found in verses six and seven, where Jesus talks about those who cause his disciples to stumble. It would be better for that man who causes a disciple to stumble for a millstone to be hung around his neck, the large stone that the donkey had to turn, that the donkey had to move because it was so heavy. It would be better for that man to be drowned via millstone than cause one of the disciples of Christ to stumble. Then in verse seven, Jesus went on to pronounce woe on the world, Judgment that is terrible punishment that awaits the person that awaits the world that produces all these stumbling blocks to sin. And that is very much the world in which we live. It's around every corner, enticements to sin and to stray from the right path. Jesus says finally there in verse seven for offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes. Now we continue this week, obviously, Jesus is still speaking here. This is the same discourse. We've divided it up, but same discourse here. And one of the things, one of the primary things that binds this whole section together, beginning at verse six and running down through verse nine, is this word in the Greek language. The verb is skandalizo. The noun is skandalon. And you can't quite see it in your English translation usually because they translate it different ways. Okay, so let's look at it together here. Verse six, whoever causes one of these little ones to believe in me to sin, the verb there to sin, scandalizo, to stumble, to cause to sin. Verse seven, woe to the world because of offenses. Offenses is scandalon. It's the noun form of the word, and it is the idea of a stumbling block, an enticement to sin, something that causes someone to stumble. Verse eight, if your hand or foot causes you, there it is again, to sin, what Greek verb do you think that is? Scandalizo yet again. So you see this word that's tying all of this together as Jesus is talking about stumbling blocks. He starts by talking about causing others to stumble into sin. Then he moves on to talk about how the world is, woe is pronounced on the world for producing these stumbling blocks to sin. And now in verses eight to nine, he shifts to talk about how we personally must deal with our own stumbling blocks to sin. Okay, so hopefully you see that tying all of this together. Now, the parallel to this material is found in the gospel of Mark, and I read that in scripture reading this morning. There's also a parallel back in the Sermon on the Mount. If you heard this passage this morning and you thought, that sounds familiar, that's good. Not only because we see it in Mark, but we also see it in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew chapter five, Jesus says essentially almost the same thing as what he says here in chapter 18. So this is repeat teaching from the Lord Jesus. And let's begin, number one, by thinking about the cause for sin or stumbling into sin. Jesus says in verse eight, if your hand or foot causes you to sin, And then verse nine, and if your eye causes you to sin, okay? So that's why we're talking about cause here. What is it that causes us to sin? What is it that leads us into sin? What is that the instrument by which we sin? We might say. Well, Jesus begins with hands and feet. So let's start there. Verse eight, if your hand or foot Causes you to sin Now don't misunderstand Jesus is not saying that You're like a robot and your hand is just kind of doing sinful things and you're not in control and you have no idea What's going on? That's not the idea. Obviously the Lord Jesus taught us that sin starts where and It starts in the old spiritual ticker, right? In your heart, evil thoughts, adultery, murder, all these things, they proceed from the heart. Jesus taught us back in chapter 15 of Matthew. However, what Jesus is talking about here are those things that are the vehicles, the instruments for our sin, those things that cause us to stumble. And here he focuses initially on hands and feet. Now we sin from the heart, but how do we carry out our sin? We do it via our body, right? We do it via the body that God has created and given to us. For example, the robber steals because he is covetous, but how does he complete the job? He does it with his hands. He does it with his feet. The drunkard, has drunkenness in his heart, a love for drink rather than a love for God. But how does he get to the bar in order to indulge those desires? Well, his feet take him there and he uses his hands to tip the cup. You get the point. Our bodies, which were created by God because we live in a sinful world and because we're fallen are the vehicles for sin. Have you ever thought about that? When you sin, it starts here, but inevitably, almost 100% of the time, you are using your body to carry it out. You are using the hands that God gave you to steal. You are using the feet that God gave you in order to go to sinful places and engage in sinful behavior. So our bodies become the vehicles, the instruments that facilitate our sin. Number two, Jesus mentions the eyes, verse nine. And if your eye causes you to sin, what a perfect, just going right along with the perfect illustration of the hand and the foot, Jesus adds the eye. If your eye causes you to sin, the eyes themselves can be a source of sin and a means of temptation for us. We look at things. with our eyes, obviously, and they become an occasion for stumbling into sin. The means by which we sin or we are tempted to sin. Now, Jesus taught us again, back in the Sermon on the Mount, the importance of our eyes. Remember that? Matthew chapter six, the lamp of the body is what? Is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. Now let's think about some illustrations of sin with the eyes, of our eyes being the cause of our sin, the means of our sin. Number one, think about the garden, the Garden of Eden. What did Eve do before she used her hand to reach out and take the fruit? She looked Right. She looked upon the tree of the knowledge of good and evil with her eyes Genesis 3. So when the woman saw That the tree was good for food that it was pleasant to the eyes The eyes became the means of her stumbling Or to go back to the Ten Commandments the Tenth Commandment Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. With what instrument is covetousness, the sin of covetousness committed? It's the eyes, right? You use your eyes and you look at what your neighbor has, and you look at his big boat, or you look at his big house, you look at his possessions and you covet. You say, I wish I had that. That guy's a rotten bum. I should have those things that he has. Now, what became the occasion for our stumbling there? The eyes. Now, on and on we could go. We could multiply examples, right? Jesus taught us that we can commit adultery with our eyes. Thou shalt not commit adultery. The seventh commandment says, And then Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that whoever, what? Looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. What is the vehicle for the heart adultery? It's the eye. Have you ever thought about how many sins you've committed with your eyes? How many times you have used your eyes sinfully to look at things that you should not have been looking at, or to look at things in a way that you should not have been looking at them. We all are guilty. Yes, in some way, shape or form, we have sinned with our eyes. Our eyes are the occasion for our stumbling. So the question for you and me is, are we using our eyes for good? Are we careful with what we put before our eyes? Man, it's so important, is it not? You put before your eyes the wrong things and you will stumble. You will stumble in the act itself, but you will further stumble into sin. And so Jesus speaks here about hands and feet and eyes, because they are the occasion by which, or the means by which we sin. All right, how should we respond? What should we do once we recognize that something is causing us to stumble? Verse eight, if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. What should you do if your hand or foot causes you to sin? Cut it off, Jesus says. Now, can you imagine if I said that? People would be crazy. Or if some prominent person went on the news or went into the media and said, what should you do if something causes you to sin? Cut that thing off and get rid of it. What kind of extremist are you? What kind of strange religious weirdo are you? But these are the words of Jesus. This is what Jesus says. Your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, entices you to sin. Cut it off. Get rid of it. What about the eye? Verse 9. If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. You say, I don't even like to think about that. You know, you read that story in the Old Testament about Samson and they gouged his eyes out. You're like, oh, how terrible, what a horrible thing. And yet here is Jesus using this very language. If your eye causes you to sin, rip it out and throw it away. Now, what exactly does Jesus mean by this? We have seen that we do very literally sin with our bodily members, hands, feet, eyes, et cetera. Does Jesus mean that we are to literally amputate physical body parts by which we sin? No, he does not. Jesus is not giving us a surgical solution to the sin problem. You knew that, right? You say, I think I thought I knew that. I wasn't planning on cutting my hand off today. Good. Don't. Jesus is not literally telling us to pull out our eyes if we look lustfully upon a woman other than our wife. Nor is he telling us to cut off the hand that stole or what have you. You may not know Origen. Origen is a, he's a complicated figure from church history, but Origen emasculated himself. And he did so in response to this. to teaching like this from the Lord Jesus, because he took it the wrong way. And from what I understand, he later regretted that and realized that he had done the wrong thing. But Jesus doesn't mean literally to cut off a physical member. That ultimately is not going to solve the sin problem. And so what does Jesus mean then? Well, very simply, Jesus is teaching us here to deal very radically and seriously with our sin and with those things that tempt us to sin. If I can put it both ways. Deal radically and seriously with sin and with those things that cause us to stumble into sin. That's what Jesus means. Now think about it. If in your house, there was a large copperhead, how seriously would you deal with that? You would deal very seriously with that situation, would you not? Why? Because you know, this is deadly. If I just sit on the couch and I take it easy, with a copperhead loose in the house, He might crawl up the couch and bite me and I'm dead. So what you don't do when your wife says, honey, there's a copperhead in the house. You don't say, okay, well, I've got a show I'm planning on watching. I'll get to that. If your wife freaks out when you say that, she has cause to freak out because this is serious business. No, what do you do? You turn the house upside down until you find that rascal and you cut off his head. That's what you do with a copperhead when you find him. You cut off his head. You kill him. You slay him. Why? Because it's serious business. Now, most people don't do what Jesus says because why? Why don't most people deal very radically and seriously with their sin? It's because they think it's no big deal. That's the problem. No big deal for me to lie. No big deal for me to commit adultery. Not that big of a problem for me to take things that don't belong to me. These things aren't really that serious. And so therefore, serious and drastic measures are not called for. You see the problem? We don't do what Jesus says, more often than not, because we have a wrong view of sin. We look at sin as something we probably shouldn't do, like eating a brownie when we're on a diet, rather than a poisonous deadly snake loose in our home. We tend to look at it like, oh, I just messed up my diet a little bit, rather than this is deadly and it requires drastic action. But once your view of sin changes, And once you see sin the way Jesus wants you to see it, the way the Bible presents it, now you've got to deal seriously with that. Why? Because sin leads to death. For the wages of sin is what? Is death. The prophet says in Ezekiel, the soul that sins, it shall what? It shall die. James 1 15, then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin and sin when it is full grown, brings forth death. That's sin. And so we've got to deal very, very seriously with it. Are you doing that? Or is sin no big deal to you? What must we do with this sin? Jesus says you have to cut it off and get rid of it. Every and any source of stumbling must be dealt with with extreme prejudice, with a vengeance. Cut it off, get rid of it. Now, what would it look like if we did that? Let's try to illustrate. Once upon a time, I had some friends God had changed my heart and Convicted me of my sin and brought me back to himself but that had not happened with my friends and So my friends were doing the same things that they always did and I knew I could no longer do those things. I Could no longer live in that way and What had to happen was the friendship had to be cut off and thrown away You ever been there You ever realize this person is leading me astray, drastic action must be taken. The relationship must be severed. Now that's not always the case, but many times it is. When we are being unduly influenced in the wrong direction by others. To give you another illustration, should we not deal radically and seriously with what we are putting before our eyes when it comes to entertainment, TV, movies, smartphones. It is the occasion for many people to destroy themselves. Is it not? It is the means by which many people are actively sinning against God What should you do with it? If your smartphone causes you to sin, you ought to throw it away. Never use it again. If your television is the means of stumbling, you ought to disconnect it and throw it in the nearest dumpster. Now, that doesn't always need to be done. I know that. I understand that. You may be able to have a smartphone or a television and not sin. But if it continues to be a source of stumbling and an enticement over and over and over again, what must you do? You must let the words of Jesus ring in your ears. If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off. If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Here in America, we live in an entertainment culture. We have many forms of entertainment, but two of those are sports and movies. I realize more and more that I can't look at sports anymore. Why? It can be the occasion for sin. We watch movies. We try to be very careful about what we watch. And there may be a particular film that would be nice to see, but then you find out what's in it and you say, I can't do that. I can't put that before my eyes. Because to put that before my eyes may be what? It might cause me to sin. It might be the occasion of stumbling. So if that's the case for you, what should you do? You should deal very radically and seriously with it. Cut it off. But many people, including professing Christians, have excuses to offer here. They might say, well, come on, pastor. It's not my TV that's causing me to sin. It's not my smartphone that's the problem. I can get rid of that and still have an issue. Now, many excuses have an element of truth in them, which gives them the air of credibility. Right? So for someone to say, well, the source of sin is my heart, and that's what's got to be dealt with first and foremost, it's really not X, fill in the blank, whatever it is. For that person to say that, that is true. But for that person to then say that and continue to have this thing in their lives that is constantly leading them and enticing them into sin, now this is a fraud. Is it not? Is it not a fraud to say, well, it's not the TV that causes me to sin, but each week, multiple times a week, I am sinning with my television. It's an excuse. So what about you? Are you making excuses or are you dealing with sin and anything and everything that will lead you astray with the utmost severity? I pray you are. Now, why? Why should you be that extreme about it? And that's how some people would see it. Oh, you're extreme. Oh, that's too much. You've gone too far. Now you've gone into fanatical religiosity. What is the reason? Why should we deal so drastically and so seriously with sin to give you one word, hell? That's why. Jesus now explains why you have to do this. Why you don't look at that hand with sympathy and say, oh, but it's my hand. I can't let it go. Or your eye or your foot or whatever it is. No, you look at it and you say, this must be removed. Why? because of hell. So notice the way Jesus puts it. Verse eight, if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the everlasting fire. Jesus repeats it again in verse nine. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. That's a question you have to ask yourself. Do you believe Jesus? Jesus says it's better for you. It's better for you to be an amputee than to go to hell with both arms, with both feet, with both eyes. It's that serious. Now I dare say that's not most people's attitude. They would be horrified. at the prospect of their hand or their foot being cut off or their eye being gouged out. I mean, aren't you? You're like, ooh, that's terrible. Let's not talk about it anymore because it's gruesome. And it's horrific on this level, but there's something much more horrific. something much more terrible in the light of that, it's better to be blind or maimed and go into eternal life rather than not deal with your sin and go to hell. So now in closing, let us consider the teaching of Jesus on hell. Once again, the Lord Jesus puts before us the doctrine of hell. And as I'm sure you've heard before by people better than I, better than me, that Jesus is not shy about hell. And so here it is again. Number one, the place. Verse nine, end of the verse, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire, the word hell there is ge-en-na, Ge'enna was a reference, was a geographical reference on one level to the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom, which was a ravine to the south of Jerusalem. Now in the first century, apparently, it was a trash dump. And there were these fires continually burning to burn off the refuse. And so it was a picture. It was a living illustration of the horror of hell, of the corruption and the fire and the torment involved in the place of eternal punishment that we call hell. So that's number one, Gehenna or Ge'enna. Number two, what is the condition of this place? What is it like? Well, Jesus characterizes it here as a place of fire, two times, end of verse nine, to be cast into the everlasting, what, fire, end of verse, or that was end of verse eight, rather, end of verse nine, to be cast into hell fire. So Jesus speaks here in both portions of this in terms of fire. Now very vividly, the first century Jew can go look at this ravine to the south of Jerusalem and see the fires burning. And so Jesus says, he teaches us here that this is what hell is like. It is a place of fire. To illustrate this for you, remember the story of the rich man and Lazarus. What was the condition of the rich man after he opens his eyes in eternity? Well, Luke 16, 24 says, then he cried and said, father, Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame. That's what hell is like. Hell is a place of fiery torment. Now, how long does it last? Verse eight, end of the verse again, to be cast into the everlasting fire. Ionios, that which endures eternally, that which lasts forever. So this fire is not temporary. It's not for a short time and then it goes out as earthly fires are. This is an eternal fire that burns continually forever. So after 100,000 years, hell will still be burning. Now, let's think about this. Number one, it's very common to hear people say things like, I just can't believe that God would send anyone to hell. Have you heard that? Anybody told you that? And so, They might tend to be mad at you if you bring it up. They might tend to disassociate themselves from you if you talk about it. But it is a reality. Jesus says it's a reality. Therefore, that's how it is. Is there a hell? Yes, there is a hell. How do we know that? Jesus said there was. in this passage, as well as others. It is a reality. It's not a myth invented by the church to get people scared, to make people, you know, start coming to church or something or whatever, given the offering. No, the doctrine of hell comes from Jesus. There's simply no escaping it. According to the Bible, according to Jesus, hell is a reality and it's a terrifying reality. Do you believe that? Do you accept the words of Jesus? Do you believe that what he is saying here is the truth? I hope you do. I know many of you, if not most of you do. Moreover, Jesus here teaches us the nature of God's punishment in the next life. It is eternal. Now, if that doesn't sober you, I don't know what will. It sobers me. Man, can you imagine? Can you imagine if God had said to you, you fool, tonight your soul is required of you. And then he sent you to hell for all eternity. There are people for whom that is true. There are people who died a hundred years ago. They are not unconscious. They have not been annihilated. They are suffering in hell. You say, where'd you get that, Pastor Nick? Matthew 18. It is eternal. There's no way out. Man, that's terrifying. That is frightening. You had better wake up today. If you're here today and you're not a believer, now is the time. Now is the time to repent of your sins and turn to Jesus Christ. Maybe you're bored. Maybe you wish you were somewhere else, had something better to do. No, you're here because God ordained for you to be here. Will you listen? Will you listen? Will you turn? Will you believe and escape this terrifying reality of hell? It's eternal. One of the things that makes hell, hell is that it never ends. What a terrifying thought. Now, people in our culture today do not get this, but actively reject it as offensive. There are not too many more offensive things to talk about in America today than hell. I mean, say about someone who has died after living a godless life, they're in a better place. Everybody will smile, nod their heads, and you'll get along. But say that someone died and went to hell for all eternity, and you best prepare yourself for a fight. You best prepare yourself for somebody to be offended. But who cares? Who cares? Who cares if somebody is offended about the doctrine of hell? It matters not. I mean, think about how tragic it would be for me to talk to someone about the gospel and urge them to repent and believe in Christ and escape hell. And they're just so offended. I'm just so shocked that people still believe in such things. And surely we can round you kind of people up and get you off, shuffled off somewhere, or we get rid of you. And that person goes to hell for all eternity. You see, it mattered not how they felt about the doctrine. What matters is not how you feel about it. What matters is whether it's true or not. What matters is whether it's a reality or not. And it's your word against Jesus' word if you deny the doctrine of hell. Who do you think's gonna win that battle? People tend to look at doctrines or truths as many people in the world, as whether it's mean or nice. Is it mean? If it's mean, can't be true. And so I reject it. Hell sounds mean. I just can't understand how God would do that to anybody. Well, it doesn't matter whether you think it's mean or not. It doesn't matter whether the world thinks it's mean or not. It's true. According to Jesus, hell is the truth for those who reject God. And brethren, you really need to be thinking about that. Sometimes I listen to Christian people And they don't like what I'm saying because it hurts their feelings. Now, believe it or not, I do study not to be offensive unnecessarily. It doesn't matter whether it hurts your feelings or not. Is it true? If that shoe fits, put that thing on, no matter how it feels, no matter what it looks like, you wear it. You believe it. Now let's circle back to the larger and very practical point. What is Jesus telling us to do and why? Jesus is telling us not to fool around with sin, to deal with it seriously and radically. Why? Hell. That's why. Now remember who Jesus is talking to. He's talking to the disciples. You say, well, that's not appropriate. Why is he talking to the disciples about hell? They're not going to hell. Well, except for Judas. It's true. The disciples are elect chosen for the foundation of the world. They're not going to hell But Christian people professing Christian people need to hear about hell Jesus does it and so therefore we do it Why because there are many people who profess but they don't have the reality and one of the ways you know It is they don't take hell seriously, and they don't take sin seriously And so now you must look at yourself in the mirror, as I have, and ask yourself, are you dealing with sin like this? Or are you making excuses for yourself? It's okay for me to disobey in whatever area it may be. It's just a small thing. It's just a little thing. Sin is not little. Sin is not small. If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off. If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Is that what you're doing? Is that how you are living your life? I urge you, brethren, as I urge myself to answer the call of Jesus and deal seriously with sin. Let's pray. Oh, Heavenly Father, forgive us, Lord. Sometimes we're so lazy. We're so lackadaisical about spiritual things. Our Christian lives are not what they should. We're giving into temptation. We are actively allowing things and people to entice us to sin. And it's no big deal. because we presume upon your grace and your kindness. If there be one here today who's doing that, I pray that you would convict them and grant them repentance. I pray you'd change their heart today. I pray for the person here today who is unsaved, and I ask that you would awaken them. I know that my word can't do it. No matter how fervently I may speak, I can't cause anybody to be born again, but I know you can. And so I pray that you would awaken them, that you would shake them today to their very core with the doctrine of hell. and with the need they have to repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. Lord, we ask that in very practical ways, you would help us this very week to put this into practice, to be ruthless with those things that are causing us to stumble. Whatever it is, in whatever area of life, we ask, Father, that you would be with us, strengthen us this week, help us, Lord, not to be sympathetic toward those things causing us to stumble, but to see them for what they really are, to cut them off and get rid of them. We ask for your help to do that. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. As you leave today, please receive the Lord's blessing from 2 Corinthians 13, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, amen.