Ephesians 4, verses 11 through 16. Let's read that. Apostle Paul writing, he says, he gave some as apostles and some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man, to the measure of the statute which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we're no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love We are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by whatever joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Let's look to the Father one more time. Fathers, we endeavor to look into your word. Lord, help us to understand what it is you'd have us to learn from this. Help us to understand why this was written, why the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said this to the Ephesian church. And Lord, just cause us, because of this, to have a deeper commitment to serving you, to loving you, to serving one another, to serving this church. We ask that would all be done to the glory of Jesus Christ, in whose name we do pray. Amen. As you know, the Apostle Paul was what they call a pastor's pastor. Pretty much almost every church he wrote to in a New Testament, he started. Or at least was involved in starting it. And the Ephesian church, he started it. He was there for many years. He brought that church into being. And Paul always had the same concern, a great concern. But in all his letters, he asked for the same thing. 2 Corinthians 11.28. Because apart from external things, Paul says, there's a daily pressure on me of the concern for all the churches. Paul, I can't imagine that. I'm just a pastor of this small church, and I find it overwhelming sometimes. Paul had 15, 20 churches he was overseeing. He wasn't their pastor. He was their pastor's pastor. He would get letters and reports and news all the time and answer questions. And it had to be quite a job for Paul. But he always has the same concern. For every church he writes to, he always says, above many things, the same thing. He says, for example, Ephesians 4, 25, he says, therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one to you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. That phrase, one another, there's over 50 times in the New Testament you read that, and almost all of them are Paul's. Paul had this big concern for what they call today body life, that we as members of this church, or any church, would learn to care for each other, pray for each other, love each other, support each other, help each other, be there for each other. Body life, as he called it. One another happens over 50 times in the New Testament, which is, by the way, why it's so important, why it's incumbent upon us as Christians to be part of a church. You can't do those one anothers at home. I know sometimes people, or shut-ins or nursing homes, I get that, but church is so important just because of all these one-anothers that we're to practice for each other. He says they're members. Paul often uses the word members, and he likens the church to a body. Jesus is the head, we're the body. And he says you're members of that body, but think of that analogy, it's genius. And he says that a hand, for example, can't say to the foot, I don't need you. And the foot can't say to the hand, I don't need you. We need each other. Not only does the church need you, you need the church. We need each other. You all have gifts and things from the Lord that I don't have, and vice versa. We need each other. And Paul, over and over again, uses this body analogy. Think of yourself not as me, but as part of a body. I belong to something. It's not me. Jesus didn't save me. He saved us. and we're a family, we're a body. 1 Corinthians 12.25 says, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have, notice, the same care one for another. In a body, hopefully, you take care of your hands as well as you take care of your foot. It's a body, you take care of one another. He said in 1 Corinthians 14.12, speaking about spiritual gifts, He said, you also, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church. He said, you guys are so enamored by these spiritual gifts. They're not for showing off. They're not for your own benefit. The reason God gave you gifts is to build each other up. Whatever you have from the Lord, you're supposed to use it for your brothers and sisters to build each other up. Paul shared that concern in all of his letters, everywhere he went. Now, as you know, Jesus is Lord of the churches. Now there's lots of apostate churches out there, but a true church that loves Jesus, that honors the scriptures, that practices New Testament, the ordinances, all that kind of thing, Jesus is Lord. He said in Matthew 16, 18, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not empower it. Jesus is doing this. Anytime you see a New Testament church, Jesus built that. Over in the Middle East, there's two or three believers meeting in a cellar. Jesus did that. I will build my church. He built this church. It's his. It's not ours. We don't own. Remember, church is not this building, by the way. It's us. I will build my church. In Revelation 1, 12 and 13, John sees a vision of the risen Lord. And of all the glorious things he sees, one thing he sees is this. I saw seven golden lampstands. And in the middle of the lampstand, in those lampstands, verse 11 says, are churches. One like a son of man. When John sees the risen Christ in all of his glory. In fact, John falls at his feet and is dead. What is Jesus doing? He's walking among these lampstands. And a lampstand in those days was a stand with a bowl on it filled with oil with a floating wick. And you'd light it. Jesus is walking around these things looking at them. And on their day, he had to pick the bugs out of it and clean the oil and trim the wick. John sees Jesus walking among the churches, observing and watching and pruning and helping them. Jesus is Lord of the church. So notice here in verse, earlier in his passage in Ephesians 4, he says in verse 8, that when Jesus ascended on high, when Jesus went back to heaven, he sent back some things. when he died on a cross and was buried, three days later he rose again, and several weeks later he went back to heaven. When he did, he sent back to us some things. It says that he gave gifts to men. Peter describes this in Acts 2.33, it's on your sheet. Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this, which you see here, when Christ went back to heaven, he and the Father sent the Holy Spirit into the church. He's building his church, he's equipping his church. It says that he gave then, our text, verse 11 says he gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, Now, apostles and prophets are gone. But evangelists, David Morris, our pastor David, he's an evangelist. He travels around every week from church to church to church to camp to camp to camp. He was over in India. He was in Africa. He's an evangelist. That's his gift. He loves doing that. We've got that last one there, the pastor-teacher. The Greeks suggest that's one phrase. It's not pastors and teachers. It's one office, the pastor-teacher. And it says that he gave the pastor-teacher as a gift to the churches. When I hear that, I can only think, I'm saved. Over 50 years now. I've been in this church, we've been here almost 40 years now, something like that. And I think back of all the pastors God has brought into my life. Pastor Paul, Pastor Fred, Pastor Dave, others. And they're responsible. God, through them, God grew me and taught me and molded me If you're hearing me now, you're hearing those guys, and other men as well. And I always got to remind myself, gladly, they're a gift to me. Pastor Paul is a gift from Jesus Christ to my soul. Pastor David is a gift from Jesus Christ to my soul. Pastor Fred and Pastor Don Theobald, I could give you a long list of names of pastors he's brought into my life, and they're a gift. Jesus sent them to me. to cause me to grow, to cause me to be more like Christ. They're a gift, and we should always see it that way. Paul said that. When Jesus ascended back to heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit back to earth, who then gave to the church its pastor-teachers. I hear so many reports these days of churches where the people languish. They're not taught much. I know people who go to other churches, other places, and when you talk to them, they may be a Christian, but they know next to nothing. That's sad. That's really sad. I've never attended one of those churches. I've always been in good churches by God's grace. But there's many churches where the pastors just don't teach the scripture. Sad thing. But the purpose of that pastor-teacher, Paul mentions here, that's one of the gifts. Notice what it says there in verse 12. The reason Jesus gave the church the pastor-teacher is for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. Well, I didn't know until I studied this this last week. James Montgomery Boyce gave me a little history lesson. There's a great heresy involved in this verse. Great heresy. The King James Version, which is a great Bible, that's a great, great Bible, and many of your Catholic Bibles to this day, put a comma after the word saints. Note that text again. Put a comma after the word saints. What it says then is, the pastor teacher's job is to equip the saints, comma, to do the work of the ministry, comma, and to build the body of Christ. The Catholic Church took that and ran with that. In the Old Testament, you remember, you had the priests, and you had the regular people. And they were totally separate. The priest did his thing, and everybody else just sit and watched. If you weren't a priest, you didn't dare make sacrifices when going to the temple. And of course, the Catholic Church Now, he continues that. You ever been to a Catholic mass or a Catholic funeral? You sit there, and the priest does everything. He's up and down preaching this, doing that, touching this, lighting this, ringing that, whatever he does. You just sit there and watch. He does the work of the ministry while the people just sit and watch. In fact, I have here a 1906 Catholic encyclopedia that says, the people must let themselves be led following their pastor as docile sheep doing nothing. The priest does it all. Well, sadly, in many Protestant churches, because of that comma, the tradition is today, and you know this, you know people like this, the whole idea in America and the West, you go to church to do what? To sit and watch. You go to church to observe. You go to church to sit there and to hear what the guy has to say, throw some money in the plate and go home. He's the minister. He's the one we pay to do the work. He's the professional. He ministers. We just sit and watch him do the thing. We go home. It becomes like a spectator sport. And many, many, many have that idea from that stupid comma. It's the pastor's job to do the work of the ministry. According to the Barna reports, the Barna surveys, Barna goes around and surveys churches and those who say they're Christians, evangelicals. He says that the average American who calls himself a Christian, his entire service for God consists of showing up for church and putting money on the plate. He doesn't witness. He barely reads his Bible. He doesn't pray. He doesn't call anybody. He's not involved in missions. He just comes to church. Again, there's millions like this. Churches are filled with people who just show up, sit and watch, and go home. Well, this text does not allow that. This text does not say that. The Greek is here, there should be no comma after that word, saints. It should read like this, the pastor teacher's job is to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. See the difference? It's the pastor teacher's job to equip the saints to do the ministry. So technically, according to what Paul's saying here, Pastor Paul and myself and Pastor Dave, we're not the ministers, you are. I'm not the minister. You are. My job, Paul's job, is to equip you to do the work of the ministry. According to this text, that's what scripture says. You're the ministers. You are. We're just minister trainers. Now, of course, I have my own ministry. I'm supposed to be witnessing and all the rest of that myself. But our goal, the gift that Christ gave to the churches, is pastor-teachers to equip all the saints so they do the work of the ministry. See the difference there? That word equipping, verse 12, means to make adequate, to furnish completely, to cause to be qualified. You're a trainer. We're supposed to be training others to do the ministry work. So what is that ministry? What is the ministry? Or some of your Bible have the word service in verse 12. And you know, Christian ministry can involve a lot of things. Witnessing, raising your family, stewardship, holiness, being salt in life, there's many things. But in context here, and this is one thing Paul pushes all the time in the New Testament, the ministry here is what? Building up to one another, edifying one another, growing into the fullness of Christ. That's Paul's focus, that's always his focus. To what end are you supposed to be equipped? If Paul and I and David are doing our job, what are we supposed to be teaching you? According to this text, notice verse 12, 12 and 13 again. For the equipping of the saints for the work of service, here's what that service is, to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the statures belongs to the fullness of Christ. That's a mouthful. You've got a lot of work to do. If Paul and I are doing our job, this is what we're supposed to be training you to do. In other words, according to this text, your primary ministry responsibility is to build up this church. And any church you happen to be involved in. To build up the church. Note carefully all the pronouns there. Verse 13, so we all. Verse 14, we. Verse 15, we. Verse 16, the whole body. It's not me. It's not all of us together. I did a shortened version of this out at the men's camp on Friday. And I quoted another preacher I heard, I'm not supposed to come here and just suck up all the honey for myself. I'm supposed to suck up all the honey so I can smear it all over you. We're to build each other up. We're to share the wealth together. God didn't save me. He saved us. We're a body, we're a family, we're a church, we're brothers and sisters. And Paul all the time admonishes these churches he writes to, your primary ministry responsibility is to build each other up, to bless each other. It's not something I do, it's something we do together for each other. And notice the goal of this ministry. Notice what he says there in verse 13. were to do that until we all, until we all attain to the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. There's three phrases there, there's three things we're supposed to be working on. Your ministry, your ministry job should you choose to accept, they've got the choice, you're a Christian. What he says there, to the unity of the faith, We all grow together and believe the truth to the knowledge of the Son of God. Knowing Christ and also the fullness of Christ. Not only knowing Christ, knowing the fullness of Jesus Christ. He's saying here the most important thing you can know, and I believe this with all my heart, the most important thing you can know is that knowledge or the fullness of Jesus Christ. I said last time, I'm jealous of Pastor Paul being able to go through Colossians chapter 1. That long hymn that Jesus Christ is the creator, the sustainer, all things are made by him, for him, through him, and to him. He's the head of the church. He's the head of everything. He has preeminence in all things. The glory all belongs to him. Jesus Christ is everything. God the Father is glorifying Jesus Christ. God the Holy Spirit wants to glorify Jesus Christ. And our ministry is to grow into that knowledge, grow into that experience, grow into Christ. Now prophecy, marriage, finance, Christian living, they're all important Christian things. But the most important thing, if I read Paul, is that we build each other up. We grow into the knowledge of Christ, to the fullness of Christ, that I do that, and I help you do that, and we do that together as a church. When you truly know the glory and the majesty of who and what Jesus is. What Paul's telling them here, it equips you for everything else. If you really know Christ, you know all you need. He's all you need. If you know the fullness of Christ, you'll have a godly home and a godly marriage. If you know the fullness of Christ, you'll handle your finances, you'll be a good steward. If you know the fullness of Christ, you'll live right. And on and on and on. Let me ask a question. If you were asked to write a paragraph, who is Jesus Christ according to the scriptures, could you do it? Would it be accurate? Most of you could. I know you could. You're well taught here. If you were to write, say, a paragraph, why did Jesus die? And why did he have to die like that? Could you do it? If you were to write a paragraph, what did Jesus's death accomplish? What did he accomplish on that cross? Or what is the gospel? Could you answer that question? Who did Christ die for? And why? You know, the modern church, if I can believe all the reports, is filled with people who couldn't do that. Not a biblical answer anyway. That's sad. Bobby Bolcom has said there's many people in the modern church that were worshiping a Jesus they don't even really know. That's sad. Note how central this is to the Apostle Paul, the fullness of Christ, the knowledge of Christ. Verse 15 says, we are to grow up in all aspects into him. Get that. In every way possible, every part of your life, everything about you, you should be growing up, that's a continuous tense, into him who is the head, even Christ, notice, from whom the whole body being fitted and held together We should be growing, steadily growing more and more in our knowledge, in our love, in our loyalty, in our wonder of who Jesus is. And then when you do that, he then supplies everything the church needs to grow in unity and love and strength. You see how that works? If you could put a diagram, a pyramid. I saw a diagram. Here's the husband, here's the wife, here's Christ. The closer they get to Christ, the closer they get to each other. The same is true of a church. If we're all here, but the closer each of us gets to Christ, the more we get closer to each other, and loving each other, and being the church. He says there, in every way, in all aspects, every part of my life, I'm to be growing up into Him, into Christ, whom the whole body holds together. So as a church, As we mature and get even deeper and deeper in the knowledge and appreciation of Christ, of the gospel, of the resurrection, of the glories of the Savior, the whole church becomes mature and grows and gets strong. And one result of that is safety. Notice again there on your sheet there, number five, safety and immaturity. Verse 14, when the church grows together into the fullness of Christ, as a result, We are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men. by craftiness, by deceitful scheming. I get amazed at all the heresies that are out there. It never ends. All the foolish nonsense and childish ideas of Jesus and some of the things some of these churches are saying, it's sad. There's so much being thrown around. Paul here says, if you as a church come together, love each other, pray for each other, build each other up into the full knowledge of Christ, the full wonder of who he is, that keeps you safe. from all these other nonsense, because you know the scriptures, because you know Christ. It keeps you safe from every wind of doctrine, a trickery of men. Jesus gave the gift of the pastor-teacher to equip you guys to build each other up so that this church would be safe from all these stupid heresies and nonsense doctrines that are being thrown around the world right now. That only comes through Christ-centered expository Bible teaching, which we try to do here. Again, I don't claim to be an expert at this. I'm not. But we're only going to ever allow men to teach here who know how to teach the scriptures who are Christ-centered. We all need, I need, I've had 50 years now, by God's grace, of Christ-centered expository preaching. That's how you grow. That's how you mature. He says you'll be equipped, built up in unity, That's a beautiful thing when you think about it. But now, men, listen up. Ladies, you can take a pause here. You need to hear this too. But men, you guys, listen up. In this text, let me point out something here that our English Bibles have a hard time expressing. Greek is far more expressive than English is. Notice what it says in verse 13. To a mature man, ESV says mature manhood. Now in the scriptures, in Greek, the most common word for man is anthropos. That means man. It can also mean mankind, men and women. That's not the word Paul uses here. Paul uses the word here, anir, anir, which can only refer to men. That word, Aeneir, to a mature man in this text can only refer to men. Paul is writing to the Ephesian men. I'm not exactly sure why he chooses to use that alphabet. Paul is writing to the men of the Ephesian church and he's saying, men, take seriously your obligation to grow, to be a man of Christ, to know the fullness of Christ, to be able to help your church grow. He's talking to the men. He's specifically addressing these men and telling them, you should be setting the example for your church in godliness and Christ-centeredness. It's the men's responsibility here. Now ladies, you need to do this too. But here, Paul's talking to us guys, to us men. A mature man, a mature Christian man, a real man, a strong man. He's one who's no longer, as Paul describes here, weak and gullible to every wind of doctrine. A mature Christian man, a strong man, a real man, is someone who knows Christ and knows Him well. Someone who knows the fullness of Christ, someone who delights in the knowledge of who Jesus is, what He did on that cross, why He did it, what it means to me. A mature man's one who knows the gospel, who loves the gospel, who can share the gospel, and more than that, in context, a real man. is one who knows how to encourage his church in Christ, to lead his church, to be an example. I love when the men get up here and pray, when I hear the men pray. That's an example of what we're talking about, leading the church, being an example to the church. A mature Christian man is one who is actively and deliberately building up the family of God, this church and whatever church. So sisters, dear sisters, This does apply to you too, certainly. There's nothing, I think, more beautiful than a woman of God. But there's also something special about a man of God who's centered on Christ, who knows Christ, who is in love with Christ. In this specific exhortation in Ephesians 4, Paul's talking to the men. He says, listen up, men. You guys need to be growing in Christ and growing and learning how to help each other and mature each other and grow each other. Philippians 3.12, Paul said, not that I have already reached the goal, or I'm already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it, because I'm also taken hold of by Christ. Paul said, I'm not there yet, but I'm working at this. I make every effort, he said, to be mature in Christ. I want to be a man who knows Christ, who loves Christ, who understands Christ, who lives for Christ, who's able to take Christ to my church, to my friends, to my family. Colossians 1.28, Paul said, we proclaim him. admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man, what? Complete in Christ. They knew Christ, but Paul says now it's time to grow up into Christ. Mature, a mature man in Christ. That's a beautiful thing to think about. The church, where would a church be without its women? This church would die without our ladies. We'd starve anyway. But a church needs its men to step up I will be a man of Christ, and I will serve this church. I will serve whatever church God puts me in. Remember, the church is alive. The church isn't like the Elks Club. This is alive. The Holy Spirit resides here. And I've been in this church almost 40 years. And some of you who are here a while, you know we're not exactly who we were 10 years ago. As the Holy Spirit works through the preaching of the word and through us hearing it and growing, he takes us from where we are to where we're going. It's progressive. It's growing. We should be maturing as a church. Again, everybody's different place. Some are newly saved. Some come along later. I get that. But all of us should be being born along by the Holy Spirit, deeper and deeper into the knowledge and the glory of Jesus Christ. This church is the creation of Christ and is being administered by the Holy Spirit. It is a God-centered church. And if the pastor-teachers are doing their job faithfully, the church is growing into maturity. more and more into a Christ-centered church, a church that loves Christ. And if the men, especially the men, but also the women, are serious about this, the whole church grows and benefits. I've seen that here. We're doing that. We can certainly do it more. So if we all work together, all of us, to encourage one another, do you pray for each other? I hope you do. Do you ever call each other up? Is there anybody in this room you guys don't know? Shame on you if that's true. We should get to know each other and love each other, care for each other, pray for each other. But of all of us together, especially the men, but also the godly sisters out there, take it seriously. My ministry is to encourage one another, to edify one another, that we can all grow up in Christ. And together, we move more and more towards what Christ wants. Christ then can use this church. He has used this church, I've seen in many neat ways. We wanna do more, we wanna get more involved in ministry. Here's some big opportunities knocking on our door right now we're talking about. We want Christ to be able to use this church as a tool in his hand. And notice there again, verse 15. But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him. By speaking truthfully in love to one another, preaching to each other, encouraging one another, fellowship is so important. We all grow up in the Christ. A faithful church is not static. Some churches can go into the same 20 years later, it's still the same. It's not supposed to be, but it should be growing and maturing. Ephesians 2, 19 to 22. You are no longer strangers and aliens. but you are fellow citizens with the saints, you are God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, that of course is the scriptures, Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into, get that phrase? Growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together. into a dwelling. When you're feeding on the apostles and the prophets, that's God's Word. And Christ is your cornerstone, your anchor, your centerpiece. So all of you are growing together in this beautiful building, getting bigger and bigger and bigger into a mature man in Christ. That's a beautiful thing. So men, and I'm speaking to myself, do you have a true biblical understanding of who Christ is? Do you know Him? Do you know Him well? When Pastor Paul is preaching this section through Colossians, do you get it? Do you see what the Bible is telling us about Him? Men, do you know why He died for us? Do you know why He died like that? Do you know what Jesus actually accomplished on that cross, guys? I think you do. I think most of you do. Men, are you a mature Christian man? Or are you a maturing Christian man? Are you growing? Can you look back, say, 5, 10 years and think, man, I know a lot more than I did then. I love Christ a lot more now than I did then. I understand the gospel more now than I did then. I'm more eager now to be a blessing to others than I was then. Can you see that in your life? That's what we're supposed to be, guys. Or are we still that childish Christian who always needs more help in maturing taking captive all these silly doctors passing around. Men, are you actively and deliberately looking for ways to build these up around you? Do you need encouragement? Do we pray for these people? Do we talk to them? Do we get involved in their lives? Are we there for them? Are those 50 plus one another's, do I take them seriously? This church needs Christian men who are just in love with Jesus Christ. who are in love with the brothers. We have them. I'm thankful for you guys, I really am. And all of us, I'll finally let your sisters get involved in this. All of us. Are we all growing up into the fullness of Christ? More and more and more. Is that your goal? Paul said, I press on that I may know him. Paul knew him. Paul met him. But Paul says, that's not enough. I want more of Christ. I want to know more. I want to love him more. I want to serve him more. I want to make him known more. I want him to be Lord of my life in every area. Don't you want that? If you're a Christian, I know you do. The Holy Spirit's building that in your heart, isn't it? As a church, as Word of Life Baptist Church, are we encouraging and exhorting one another to this end? We are. We could do better at this. We are. I see it here. I get great encouragement from you guys. I hope you're encouraging each other like that. Are you on board with the Holy Spirit? I view the Holy Spirit has been moving this church for a long time to get more and more involved in missions, more and more involved in helping people, more and more involved in letting the world know about Christ, and more and more just helping each other and loving each other. Are you on board with that? That train's left the station. Are you on board? Or are you just a spectator? Or are those who just sit and watch? You don't want to be there. Matthew 16, 18, Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overpower it. He's right now building this church. He's right now building the church, the church university, which you're all a part of. It's growing. It's increasing. All over the world, churches are being started. Churches are being nourished. Churches are growing, whether it's, what do we have here, 35 people, or whether it's two people meeting in a basement somewhere in Saudi Arabia. Those churches are growing and building. Are you part of that project? Or are we just a spectator? That's what Paul is telling us here, specific to the men, but also to all of us. Let's close in prayer. Precious Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for this word that you've given us. Lord, we know that you could get this work done far better without us. But Lord, you said you would build your church, and you're doing it through us. So Lord, help us to take seriously our role, our obligation, our privilege to work towards a goal that you have set. that the churches would grow into the fullness of Christ, the churches would grow into the knowledge of their salvation, the deep knowledge of the gospel, that they would know their Bible, they would know how to live right before the Lord, they would have the same attitude that Jesus himself had in loving his people and loving the lost. Lord, may this church continue growing in knowledge and in unity and faithfulness. Lord, I pray especially for the men here whom this word is addressed to, for myself, Lord, you'd help us to take seriously as men to step up to the plate, to be men of Christ, to be men who know their Bibles, to take seriously their obligation to the church, to the ladies and the children who are here, to the ministry work here, to the future of this church, to working for Christ. Help us, Lord, as men to be serious. In fact, Lord, to be urgent, to encourage one another, pray for one another, be there for one another, as your word tells us. And Lord, for all of us, for these dear, precious women, and for the congregation you've built here. Lord, may this church always lift high Jesus Christ. May he always be center in our thoughts and our worship and all that we do. May Jesus Christ be, as your word says, first place in everything. May we understand why he died on that cross. May we truly understand what it means for us, the depths of the gospel, the glory of the resurrection. May we truly know the gospel that we can shed spit to the nations. Oh Lord, please just help us to mature. not to be children, not to be just spectators, but to be involved. Lord, move our hearts. Move my heart to be pleasing in your sight, to work to this end. Lord, the world is getting darker and darker and more and more godless. Father, this place should be where Christ is growing, where the knowledge of Christ is growing, where your spirit can move freely among us, exalting Christ. Lord, may it be so. We ask this all for the glory and the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior, in whose name we pray. Amen.