Welcome to the Wilton Baptist Church, where we worship God, walk with others, and win people to the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm Pastor Steve, and our congregation is pleased to share this message with you today, and we pray it'll be a blessing and encouragement to you. Blessings as you listen or watch. All right, we're in the book of Titus, Titus chapter 1. And good minds is the theme for today's message. Have you ever walked by or driven by a large construction site? Maybe you've been on them yourself. And there are people, personnel out there with their hard hats on. You know, the bright yellow or maybe orange hard hats that they have on. And those are useful and very needed in cases like that where, let's say, maybe they're putting a course of bricks up on a wall or something, and it's getting higher and higher and higher. And what if one of those bricks fell off, and a guy lost, you know, he was dipping in the water, and it slipped out of his hand? And the guy below would be very thankful that he had the hard hat on. One brick fell and hit him on the head. Think about football players, baseball players. Why do we wear things like that? It's to protect the head. It's to guard the head from injuries. God recognizes the importance of protecting our head. In fact, in Ephesians 6, we're told about the helmet of salvation. And so the helmet is an important component, an important part of Christianity. And the reason is it protects our mind. It protects our head and so ball helmets for baseball or football and helmets on a construction site. Those are all important things. Satan will try to attack someone's mind. He'll put temptation and he'll put distraction in front of a person to try to enamor or to capture someone's mind or to distract a Christian from what is true. And we're going to find a great verse about how the mind is so important in the Christian life. Now, the Christian life is a good life, and I hope that you are enjoying the Christian life if you are born again. And there's going to be challenging days. There's going to be tough days, but we can still enjoy the good. It's a good life that God has called us to when he called us to salvation. And when we answered that call to respond to his grace. And so the good life includes good preaching. We learned that in verses one through four. In order to have good preaching, you need good pastors. And so we learned about that in verses five through nine. And now in verses 10 through 16, we have the idea of a good mind. A good mind. Now let's begin reading verse 10 will be where we start. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers. especially they of the circumcision. This has to do with people trying to lay down the Old Testament law in the New Testament era, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake, for money's sake, for greedy gain is what that means. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies, they're lazy gluttons is what he's saying. And these people are living on the island of Crete. Paul is writing this letter to Titus, who is a bishop, an elder, a pastor of a church on Crete. Crete has a lot of different cities, and Paul had asked Timothy, or Titus rather, to go around and help organize these churches and finish the work that was started on the missionary journeys. And he was dealing with the Cretan people. Verse 13, this witness is true. Paul said, one of their own said, one of those on the island said, they're lazy, they're gluttonous, they're on island time all the time. But he said, this is true. Wherefore, rebuke them sharply. And he's mentioning specifically these false teachers, these people adding the law to God's grace, that they may be sound or healthy in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men. These would be man-made instructions that turn from the truth Unto the pure, all things are pure. The word pure means clean. Unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience Defiled the word defiled is used twice here. It means to stain or to be defiled The word mind is our this is our key verse for the text today. The word mind is the word nuance That's where we get new static counseling the idea of counseling someone's mind And and it's I'm going to put truth into someone's mind to change their truth change their mind to help them Have their mind affected towards God and that word mind has to do with the mind and understanding and reasoning And so God wants us to have good minds. Let's continue. In verse 16, they profess. The word profess means to speak the same mind, but in this case, they're not really living that because they profess, they say the right thing, that they know God. But in works, they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work, reprobate. This is the second time we have the word good in our text. 11 times in 10 verses, we have the word good used in the book of Titus. And this second use here has to do with every good work. And he says that some are reprobates, and the word reprobate means unqualified or disqualified. They've chosen, and their mind and their life is in such a way that they're not going to choose what is good. They cannot do a good work. They refuse to do a good work. Now, think about this word reprobate. When it comes to our minds, there's a lot of descriptive terms about our minds, and one of them is reprobate. It's one of the options that we have, at any rate. In Romans 1, verse 28, we have the same word here, reprobate, about the mind. When you hear the word reprobate, think about it this way. They want to play the game of life out of bounds. They want to play out of bounds. They are disqualified. They're out of bounds, like I'm going to catch the football out of bounds and keep running because I'm going to do it my way. Or I know I stepped on the line in basketball. I was off the court, but it doesn't matter. I'm out of bounds. A reprobate doesn't care. I'm going to do it my way. He's unqualified. He's disqualified when it comes to good works. In Romans 1 28, even as when they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. Romans 1 is a great summary of the world today and of America, especially in what we're familiar with in our society. Some have a reprobate mind. Others have vain minds. The word vain means empty. You think about the word vanity, worthless. Ephesians 4, 17, This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind. They're living after their mind is fixated on things that do not matter in life, that have no eternal value or worth. And then others have an outright corrupt mind. In 1 Timothy 6, verse 5, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, from such withdraw thyself. Paul is telling Timothy, in this case, about other false teachers, similar to the ones that were on the island of Crete, and they had corrupt minds. Just pure evil was their motivation. And they've given their mind, their heart, their whole life. which results in their deeds and actions over to what is wrong. So our key verse is verse 15. He mentions purity in verse 15, unto the pure all things are pure. And by the way, this verse is such a helpful verse for understanding the orientation of your mind. and how you perceive things. Your worldview, you could discover that through understanding this verse. Unto the pure all things are pure or clean, but unto them that are defiled or stained and unbelieving is nothing pure. Aren't you glad that when you trusted Christ that the stain of sin has been cleansed? Christians, you don't have to look through a lens that's skewed by evil thinking and wrong thoughts. You don't have to jump to wrong conclusions about other people and other things and even assessing your own life because you've been cleansed by the blood of Christ. But the unbelieving, those outside of Christ, is nothing pure. And even their mind and conscience is defiled or stained. Purity is an internal matter. It's not an outside thing. We see the outside. It's an inside thing. What's in your heart? What's in your mind? Think about the disciples of Jesus. They did not perform ceremonial hand washing. I believe it's a good idea to wash your hands before you eat. I think it's a healthy thing to do because you never know what you've been touching or what you've been getting your hands in. Maybe you know what you got your hands into. I don't know. It's a good idea to wash your hands. I think we could all agree about that. When the Bible talks about the disciples not washing their hands, it wasn't that their hands were full of filth and dirt. It was a ceremonial cleansing that they're talking about. The Pharisees didn't care if they had bacteria on their hands. The Pharisees cared if they went through a ritual. That's what it was. And so, think about these verses in Luke 11. The Lord said unto him, Jesus said, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also. God made what's on the outside. He also made what's on the inside. But rather give alms of such things as you have and behold all things are clean unto you. All these guys didn't wash their hands. This is terrible. It wasn't physical hand washing they were concerned with. It was going through a specific ritual of dipping your hands in this and rubbing your hands on that and then doing some more with this special water in a special bowl. That doesn't matter to Jesus. That's an outside thing. He said it's better for you to be clean on the inside than just fake goodness on the outside. And these people have a wicked mind. these creations that are given these false teachings and he says the mind is more important. God wants us to have good minds. God wants us to have clean and healthy minds. So how do we have a good mind? I'll give you three suggestions to how to have a good mind. Beginning in verses 10 through 14, we must practice rebuking lies. Rebuking the lies. There are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision. Now, he's on a Greek island, but the idea of Hebrew circumcision had come across the Mediterranean, and some people were saying, you can't be godly unless you do some physical outside works and things such as this ritual. But whose mouths, in verse 11, must be stopped, they subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. One to themselves even a prophet said, the Cretans are always liars, slow evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true. Paul affirms that. Wherefore, rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to those Jewish fables and those commandments of men, because they turn people from the truth. He says to rebuke the lies. The word rebuke means to expose, to convict, and to reprove. so i'm going to expose it this is a lie this is not a truth this is something that's not for real in some talkers are going to talk like that they're going to talk lies and they're going to be unruly people they don't have a a governance over them they are unruly they're not going to be ruled by christ they're not going to be ruled by uh... anything other than what they want to impose perhaps on others they're unruly he says in verses 10 and 11. And they also are vain. They have these empty things that they're going after, these vain or empty talkers. They're just talking about worthless things when it comes to religious type things. And they are self deceivers. He says in verse 10 that they are deceivers. Now, they're self deceivers. How is it that a person could believe what they're believing or say what they're saying? It's because they've deceived themselves. They bought a lie that someone else projected or told to them. The word deceivers means self-deceiving. This is a self-deceived person. They picked up on an idea, or maybe they heard a truth and said, no, I don't want that. But at any rate, they have been teaching themselves and rehearsing in their mind something that is not true. Many have deceived themselves into believing lies. They talk lies to themselves, and then they talk lies to other people. We all know people. who are self-deceived. And they'll share something, and they'll say, this is the way that this is, and this is what I believe. And it's like, that's so obvious that that's not true. You know what I'm saying? And they're totally like, no, this is the way that it is. This is true. And you know people that are like that. They've deceived themselves into believing something that is not true. This is why it's so important, young people especially, and old folks as well, all of us, that we're careful who we listen to because it does affect us. Notice how they subvert whole households. They undermine whole households. People are impacted with lies on a daily basis. Individuals are led away with lies. Families are destroyed with lies. People are hurting, and they're hurting because they've listened to a lie, and they believed it, and they started to live out that lie. as well. We all know people who are living lies out, and things that are basic truth, and they've rejected those things. Now for some, their teaching is money motivated. In verse 11, they're teaching things they ought not to teach for filthy lucre's sake. Filthy lucre means shameful gain. He's talking about money here. Some are willing to do anything to get money. And this isn't meant to be funny, but this is real, but it's basically every time a politician, it seems like runs, they'll say anything that they think you want them to say to get a vote in an election year. Both parties, just about all of them. I mean, this is just the way that it is. And here these people are doing this. They're lying and trying to get gain, a filthy gain. Paul and Titus are to rebuke vain talkers. Now have you ever stereotyped someone or been stereotyped? They do that in this passage. He's talking about some Christian people here. that are liars, evil beasts, and slow bellies. Well, a person from Crete who evidently wrote poems, he was considered a mystic-type person or a religious-minded person 600 years before the Apostle Paul and before Christ, 600 to 700 years. His name was Epimenides of Knossos. Epimenides of Crete is otherwise how he's known. And Paul is evidently quoting this man. In history, everybody knows this is the guy who said this about his own people. and he was a well-known person in the city of Knossos. I don't have a map for you right now, but Knossos is on the northern side. It was one of the larger cities on the island of Crete, very well developed, and they had incredible palaces and halls, and I mentioned a couple weeks ago they had running water on this island, but check out this little Rebuild, this is a rebuild on the site. Paul and Titus probably walked around through what are ruins here today in this area. Same town, this is the same town where this guy said, they're slow bellies and evil beasts. And so this is the North Portico in Gnosis. Well, this philosopher poet, he said this about this. And sometimes we think it could be an unfair regional stereotype. But he was describing his own people. And Paul said about the false teachers, that's exactly right. This is what they're doing. They are taking advantage of religiously-minded people for their own personal gain, and they're saying anything that they want to say to try to get some money from them or to get something from these people. So to cretanize, to cretanize, that's a phrase if we spoke Greek and lived over there, to cretanize means to double deal. That's what it means, or to lie. Sometimes we stereotype people, well, he's a hillbilly. What's that mean? Well, he's from the mountains, right? He's from the mountains. He's a hillbilly. We'll say they're on island time. I mentioned that a moment ago. Well, they don't ever show up on time. They're 15 minutes late, not 15 minutes early. It's just like, chill, man. So to cretinize. to double deal, to say something and not really to follow through, to not mean it. And so he's describing some self deceived people who are taking advantage of other people to lead them astray. So when it comes to church, We ask for donations at church sometimes, we'll have a project or something, and our church is supported by tithes and offerings as you freely offer to the Lord tithes and offerings. But whenever you give to God through our church, it's not for the pastor, it's not for the staff, it's not for the deacons. I think that one of the roles of a pastor is not to be a fundraiser, but to be a faith raiser. And sometimes we do ask for special projects, but it's not for us, and it's all for the glory of God. But some will ask, or they'll twist, or they'll say things for gain. and they want to have a self-benefit, part of their self-deception. They may twist religious teachings for self-benefit. I think about faith healers today, and there's still faith healers around, and they'll say, send me some money, I'll send you a little cloth, and you're gonna be healed. Folks, if faith healers were real, there would be no hospitals. You wouldn't have to go to a clinic when you're sick. You just go to see the faith healer. It's not legit. I mean, some of them build their church buildings right outside of a hospital. That's ridiculous, if it was legit. So they're taking advantage of people who may be religious-minded, or at least God-sensitive. They're maybe seeking the Lord, and they're taking advantage of that. Preachers who water down the message are an example, maybe for those with itching ears. Teachers who avoid the hard topics are an example. hobby horse preachers harp harping on one thing or sensationalizing things like everybody's against me and I'm playing the victim here so then support us, support me. Okay, that's another example of that. Buying indulgences as a license to sin or it's paying a fee basically. Sometimes people will pay a fee to release someone from purgatory. for example the dioceses of uh... pittsburgh says this it's on their website even though confessed and forgiven sins will not send a to hell consequences remain and need to be paid on earth or in purgatory an indulgence frees the recipient from those consequences you don't find purgatory in the bible and you don't find indulgences in the bible that's a money-making scheme and people have done that for millennia of taking advantage of people, send money for this, you can't buy someone someone sends away. The price of Jesus paid it all. It was all right there at the cross. Here's another example. Baptizing people on behalf of those who've already died, this is something that the Mormons do, LDS, from their website. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, LDS, practices baptism for the dead. The Bible actually specifically calls this out as a practice to do. There's a passage that actually says it directly. Here's one of their baptistry areas here. And it's pretty fancy, isn't it? Should we upgrade? I'm totally kidding. Wow, look at that. Here's what they say. They practice baptism for the dead, which involves living people acting as proxies to be baptized on behalf of deceased people. The LDS believes that baptism for the dead is a way to give the deceased a chance to join the Mormon church and enter what they call the celestial kingdom. Okay, that's all based on false teaching. There's nowhere in the Bible, in fact, it says don't baptize on behalf of other people. It says the direct opposite of that. If you've ever followed your genealogy before, if you've ever done that, you used to have to go to cemeteries and travel and do all of this, looking for tombstones and cemetery directories and things. Well, the Mormons do that. And the top two businesses in America that follow genealogies are owned by Mormons or were started by Mormons. The Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.com, they were both started by Mormons. The Mormon Church owns the FamilySearch.com. And the reason they're so interested in that is they practice this. I've seen documentaries about this. They will go back and say, oh, was anyone ever baptized for this person 500 years ago? 2,000 years ago. They try to follow that back. And basically, they have people being baptized here all the time. I don't know if they pay them to do that or if they volunteer, but, oh, we need to baptize for their sins, and so they just keep baptizing people. That's a false teaching. And someone benefits from that financially as well. Those companies rake in a lot of money for that church, or that group, rather. So how do I rebuke lies? How do I rebuke the lies? Number one, expose the lies for what they are. What did I just do with these last five examples? Just expose some things for what they are. That's rebuking. You stop listening to lies. If it's not true, just stop listening to it. Find something else to listen to. Speak truth to replace the lies. Notice how he talks about sound or healthy faith in verse 13. He says, I'd rather that they would be sound in the faith. You want to rebuke them sharply and the result would be that they would be sound or have healthy faith instead of believing something that is a lie. Have healthy faith, believing something that is true. So speak truth to replace the lies. Number four, don't give place in your life for lies. Don't leave a place like, oh, I'm going to keep this lie here. I'm not really sure about it, but I kind of like the lie, so I'm just going to leave it there. Get rid of it altogether. Don't give a place in your life for the lies in verse 14. Rebuke that. the Jewish fables for what Titus was contending with. In addition, he contended with the Greek folklore that existed on the island of Crete. And for us, American folklore, that we could have that sidetracked us. There's so many lies. You have to discern what's right and what's wrong and what's true and what's not. And right now, let's just think very practically with social media, you got to be careful what you're looking at because people will post something and it sounds really far-fetched and maybe it didn't happen, maybe it did, maybe it didn't. I always look for other sources. If somebody says something, it's like, wow, did that really happen? When it comes to MSM, mainstream media, I still do the same thing. Man, you got to look at it. Did that really happen? Is this the way that it really happened? Is this really what's going on? Because there's so many lies out there. Lies all around. So I would verify and check, verify and check. If you post something, make sure it's really happening, because some people make up ludicrous things. And with artificial intelligence, AI, there's a lot more fake stuff happening, and pictures that aren't really real, but it looks like it is. So you just got to be aware of that. People will also use that for religious things. for religious things. Like, I can't stand it when people exaggerate archaeology discoveries or scientific discoveries and they make it say something that it's not really saying or exaggerate it because that undermines what is truth. It undermines a platform for a Christian when a Christian propagates something that's not true. If it's close to the truth, it's still not the same thing. Wait till you verify it. Verify it. So how do I rebuke the lies? Expose it, stop listening, speak truth, and don't give place to the lies. God wants us. to have good mind. So the commandments of men, many well-meaning people maybe put extra biblical demands on people and protocols, institutional rules, those things are not the same thing as truth. So rebuke the lies. Number two then, replay the right. In verse 15 he says, E. Stanley Jones stated it this way, if you don't make up your mind, then your unmade mind will unmake you. I like that. If you don't make up your mind, then your unmind, unmade mind will unmake you. Here's the place, he said, where there must be no dallying. For any dallying will be the Trojan horse that will get on the inside and open the gates to the enemy. God can do anything for the man who's made up his mind. He can do nothing or little for the double-minded man. Now, pure people see things through a lens of purity or cleanliness. Stained and defiled minds see things through a lens of evil. Obviously here, the pure are those who are pure by virtue of their faith alone. It's not like, look at my righteousness. That'd be believing a lie. But because of their faith in Christ, they have been cleansed by the Lord, something that He does. It's also clear that those who are corrupted or unclean are specifically referring to those who do not believe, because it actually says that. You know, these guys are the ones who are defiled in their mind. They do not believe therefore to those who are pure all things are pure in a sense that that ceremonial cleanliness is totally unnecessary and of no value remember how the disciples washing their hands in a ceremonial way that would do nothing and paul is describing that to titus like hey they want to do the circumcision they want to add these man-made rules they want to do this ceremony those things are not needed in our relationship with Christ. These false teachers do not see the atonement of Jesus as enough. I gotta keep doing good works, and not only that, I've gotta keep adding other good works to my good works, so that then I'll know I'm good enough for salvation. What a sad way to live. You never know when you've done enough, and you can't do enough. Anyway, now this is a spiritual war that's taking place in our minds. In Romans 7, 23, I see another law in my members, Paul writes, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. He knew the law inside and out. He could quote it to you from memory. And he said, there's a battle in my mind taking place. It's happening in our hearts and lives. Romans 12, 2, there must be a transformation. Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing, the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And then Romans 14, 5, one man is seen with one day above another. Another, esteemeth every day alike, let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." Ephesians 4, 17. This I say, therefore, in testifying the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in a vanity in the emptiness of their mind. One person wrote this, a humble, ignorant man or woman depending on the mind of God has an explanation for things that the rational man without the spirit of God never has. If we're just walking with Christ, what an amazing thing that does to our minds. So replay what is right in your mind each day. And when lies come, swat them down, swat them down. What do you swat them down with? Truth. You speak truth to that lie. You stop, hit the stop button on the lie and hit the play button on the truth. The mind is a garden that could be cultivated to produce the harvest we desire. The mind is a workshop where the important decisions of life in eternity are made. The mind is an armory where we forge the weapons of our victory or our destruction. The mind is a battlefield where all the decisive battles of life are won or lost. That's why we talked about the hard hat at the very beginning. So rebuke the lies, replay the right. Number three, realign. Realign the actions. You get your car aligned. You get your car aligned because the wheel bearings or the wheel weights are off and you're trying to make sure it can go straight. You get a realignment like that. We need to realign our actions. In verse 16, they professed to see God. The word profess means to speak the same. They said the right words, but they did not really know. It means to see and perceive, to know God. They didn't really know God. They didn't see Him. They didn't have a relationship with Him. They said the right words. There are a lot of people, even in churches, they'll say the right things, but they do not know God. Or they may come to church on Sundays. They may look the part. They may dress up really nice, dresses and suits, look really awesome, but they don't know God. The inner works, think about during the week, they deny him. Being abominable, that means detestable. Disobedience. And unto every good work, reprobate. They're not going to be living right and doing right. They can't do it. They don't know Christ. They say they do. They profess the Lord, but they don't. We must have our words and actions line up. Our works can deny Jesus when our works are abominable or detestable, when our works are disobedient or rebellious, when our works are reprobate or disqualifying. I mean, look at his works. He can't really say he's a Christian. It disqualifies him from that. He's not validating that with his life. and with his actions. Sometimes, Christians, our words and actions do not line up. Now, here's a fact. There's going to be some times in your life where you love Jesus, but what you say or do, it's sin. It's wrong. There's times like that. Here's a big difference. Instead of believing a lie and saying, well, it's okay, it don't matter. I'm going to confess that to the Lord and ask forgiveness for that. And 1 John 1, 9 says he'll forgive you. That was for Christians. It's not like I need to be saved again. Like, oh, were you really saved? You sinned. You did wrong. You said something or just thought something wrong. No, confess that to the Lord, but you want to realign your actions. Sometimes our words and actions do not line up, but our profession should be persuasive. There are some people that if they did say they were Christians, you wouldn't want them to say they're Christians, because of the life that they're living, because of the things that they're doing, the things they're stuck on, the sins that they are controlling of their life. Some Christians live in a way you wouldn't even know they were Christians. Except for maybe, well, he's always gone Sunday. His car always leaves Sunday morning, you know. That's all I know about him. But he lives like the devil the rest of the week. You've heard people say things like that. Merely having an open mind is nothing. The object of opening the mind as of opening the mouth is to shut it again on something solid. Thank you G.K. Chesterton for that. So we have these minds that God wants to have that are healthy. The life we live, because of the faith in our heart and mind, should be something solid, like James. Here's a great example. What does it profit, my brethren? Though a man say he hath faith and hath not works, can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, And one of you saying to them, depart in peace, be warmed and filled. You could just say that with a nice speech. Be warmed and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body, what does it profit? I mean, what's the big deal? Well, be blessed and warm. instead of giving a blanket away. Or here's something to warm up, here's something to eat. It'd be better to have some actions with those words. Yea, a man may say thou hast faith and I have works, show me thy faith without thy works. Because we only see the outside. You can't do it. You can't show me someone believes without showing something on the outside. And I will show thee my faith by my works. how you're living your life gives credence to the testimony of claiming Jesus is your Savior. A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one deed. And so align your works. If you say you love Jesus, then align your works with what's true, with what's right, with what's holy, with what's just, with what's kind, with what's patient, with what is gentle, with what is compassionate, with what is loving and full of grace and mercy, with what is truth. Fill your life with those things. God wants us to have good minds, so rebuke the lies, replay the right, and realign your actions. I like how someone summarized this. Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become your character. Watch your character, it becomes your destiny. What path are you on? Who are you following? Let's have good minds today. Let's take a moment and visit with the Lord. The questions are on the screen, and you can answer these yourself in the quietness of this moment. I want to rebuke or expose the lies. When I see them, there's lies all around. When I see those lies, I will rebuke those lies and expose those lies when I see them. That's my prayer today. I see some hands already. Yes, every day your mind is gonna be assaulted with lies. Watch out for those things. Number two, I need to replay what is right in my mind. Sometimes I get like this where you kind of look at that lie. Maybe I'm not replaying the right. I'm not rehearsing what's true right back at it. Lord, help me to replay what is right in my mind. Just hit it on repeat. This is true. This is true. This is true. That's my prayer today. Anybody like that? A lot of hands again. Yes, replay what is right. And then finally, God help me to align my words and my deeds. My words and deeds, my actions and what I say should line up. Lord, help those to line up more and more each day. It's not gonna line up perfectly. We're still on this earth, sinful place, a lot of temptation, a lot of wrong still. But Lord, help it to line up more and more each day, my words and my actions. Anybody like that? It's a good prayer, yes. Thank you. Maybe there's a friend here today who's not yet trusted Jesus. Believe the gospel today. Jesus died on the cross, shedding his blood for your sin. He rose again. Repent of unbelief. Repent of your sin. Choose Jesus today as your Savior. If you want salvation, talk to me afterwards. If you want to know more about Jesus and Christianity, let's talk here in just a moment. Heavenly Father, we thank you for These incredible teachings you gave to Titus and to Paul and to us. Lord help us not to be sidetracked with the lies that are around us. Let us be bold to expose truth. to speak truth into our hearts and minds, and then to line up our words and actions so that we'd be a good testimony in the midst of a world and a society that's moving so far away from you. Encourage each heart with these incredible truths today. We thank you for those baptized. We thank you for those joining the church, other decisions that have been made here this morning. We commit all of this to you. for your glory. We do pray for the teen program tonight for the Iwana program. We pray a lot of kids and young people would be discipled in this year as we seek to disciple them and share Christ. And so thank you for all those who are serving. We pray for a great start tonight. Bless us now as we go. We thank you for this time together. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.