Hebrews 10:24-25 (Pastor Jon Benzinger, Redeemer Bible Church, Gilbert, AZ)

So if you're able, please stand for the reading of God's Word. Hebrews chapter 10, drop down to verse 19. Hebrews 10, 19. These are the words of the one true and living God. Hebrews 10, 19 and following.

Therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

That is God's Word. You may be seated. Now as you're seated, let's pray together, okay? Father, it is only right to pray and to talk to you on this momentous occasion. It may not seem like, it may not feel like it, but what you're doing right now is something that you planned from all eternity and is something that we are so excited to see come to a reality.

Father, we love Kofi and we love this church. We are so grateful to you that you united our hearts even before you united our churches. So grateful to you for the work that you've been doing here in this church and through this church here in the Rogue Valley.

I pray that you will help us at Redeemer Bible Church in Gilbert, Arizona, you would help us please to be good brothers, good partners in ministry with this church. We want to be a blessing. That's it.

We want to serve. We want to help. And so please help us to do that well. Give us the wisdom that we need. Give us the insight. Give us everything that we need in order to do this well. We want to honor you.

That is most important. We want to hear well done from you when you assess this partnership. So please, please do this work in and through us, I pray. And also, Father, I come to you now recognizing that no good thing will happen right now apart from your work in our midst.

So would you please bless your word? Will you please use this word in each of our hearts to alter, to shift, to change our lives? It's why we're here. We're here to meet with you. And while everything else that we did today is us speaking to you and responding to your word, now is the time when you speak to us.

So all of us here, we commit to wanting to know you more and live for you more. So please do this for all of us, I pray, through your word, for the glory of your name. Amen. So in something that seems like another life, I was a high school track and football, or not track and football, track and field coach.

I coached high jump for nine years. And for those nine years, my job was to make the students the best high jumpers that they could be. So I developed the workouts. I would motivate them at the meets.

I do my best to help them succeed at the high jump. And every year we would have workouts, every day we would have workouts. But every year we would try to switch it up a little bit. And the workouts they loved the best were the ones that were in the pool or at the beach.

And so when they hear, hey, we're going to the beach to go do our workouts, they would get all excited until we got there. And then realize, wait a minute, this is a whole lot harder because whether it's in the water or in the sand, there is a resistance that I don't normally feel when we're just out on the field.

So jumping was harder, running was harder, exercising was harder because of the resistance. And the Christian life is very similar. Like workouts in sand or water, spiritual growth and our commitment to Jesus happens in a world of resistance.

When you want to do good, evil is right there to resist you. When you want to grow, every excuse in the book shows up and resists. When you want to do right at work or maybe at school, temptation is suddenly really strong to resist you.

And on top of that, our culture mocks holiness, our culture champions immorality. Our world full of resistance is the same world that you and I are trying to be like Jesus in. It's hard to live for him and to grow as a Christian with all of this resistance.

And the same is true for the Christians who got this letter called Hebrews. They did nothing wrong, but they were being resisted in the form of severe persecution for simply being followers of Jesus. They were suffering, worried, tormented, afflicted.

And this letter shows up with this message. I know it's hard, but Jesus is better. So stand firm. Don't give up. Don't give in. Don't go backwards. Take the next step forward in your commitment to Jesus, even though there is resistance.

And then after that, take the next step and then take the next step. Press on. If they wanted to live godly lives and if you want to live a godly life, you're going to have to do it in a place where everything is working against you.

Have you noticed that maybe in your school? You notice that at your job? Maybe it's even in your family. Here you are. You want to live for Christ. You want to do what's right. You want to you want to follow Christ.

And yet there's something or somebody saying, you don't need to do that. That's a waste of time. That's stupid. No, this is more fun. Maybe it's the inner lawyer inside of you going, hey, wait a minute.

You sure you want to do that? Hey, that's not fun. Hey, that's not cool. There is a resistance that all of us experience, and that's why God put passages like Hebrews 10, 24 and 25 in the Bible, because it says if you're going to survive, if you're going to grow and change and reach others, you're going to need a local church.

You need other brothers and sisters next to you. Here is what the church should be like. I've got to warn you, it's going to be different than what you expect it to be. So when you hear the words, what a church should be like, we tend to think of preaching and music and programs.

But look at verse 24. Here is God's plan for people living the Christian life in a world of resistance. Verse 24. Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. Notice it's not addressing the pastors.

Hey, let them, let those pastors consider how to stir all of you up to love and good works. Notice it says what? Let what? Let us, let us. That's everybody. Let us consider how to stir up what? One another, how to provoke one another.

That's all of us stirring each one of us up to love and good works. In other words, what a church should be like is not just preaching and programs. What a church should be like should be seen in each and every one of you.

What a church should be like, in other words, depends on your selfless engagement, your selfless engagement with the other people around you. And verses 24 and 25 tell us what that engagement should look like.

In other words, Redeemer Bible Fellowship will never be the church it should be, the church that God wants it to be. You will never be the church you need this church to be if you are not selflessly engaged with the other people here.

Why? Because the resistance is too strong. It'll be too hard to grow and reach lost people, care for each other, disciple the kids, disciple the grandkids, be a light in our dark world. To simply put it will be too strong.

So each one of you must be involved, must be engaged. Now, I recognize that I'm saying this to American Christians who think we can live the entire Christian life. How? By ourselves, without anybody else.

We keep people at arm length. We commit, but not too much. We give so the pastor can do the ministry. That's why they're called what? Ministers. You do the ministry here. You go do the ministry. We commit ourselves to a personal Savior, right?

We have a individual relationship with the Lord. We come to church, get some tips, and we usually think about putting those truths to work where? On ourselves. We take all that and we think about us. Not so much how I can take what I learned and help someone else with it, unless that someone else is in my immediate family, which when I put it to work, it's going to help what?

It's going to help me. It's that L shaped.

Amen.

Have you heard of that? It's the amen that really is meant. Yeah, I'm glad you heard that. I'm glad you were here to hear that. You see, if you're ever going to grow and change and advance your Christian life, you need other Christians engaged with you and you need to be engaged with other Christians.

Reject Lone Ranger Christianity

Well, let's look at verses 24 and 25. What is it that we should be doing? We should be engaging one another selflessly, being like being like Jesus in mind. Look at verse 24. Let us consider or watch out.

Let us consider how to stir up one another, how to provoke one another to love and good works. I had a professor in seminary who was known for having these sayings. One day he was talking to a seminary students and he said, you know, you guys think you all have it together.

You you know the Bible and you guys know theology. You don't you don't need to be engaged in your Christian life because you got it all. And then he started talking about a pack of wolves. He says. And wolves, they they they look out for each other, they care for each other, they protect each other.

Food is shared, location is shared, warmth is shared. And then he said, you know what happens if one of those worlds gets separated from the pack? It dies. He goes, it dies, gentlemen, because the lone wolf is the dead wolf.

Some of you have been, and you know, Christians who are lone wolves, walking alone with Jesus, engaging and being engaged by nobody. Listen, 99 of the time, the lone Christian is the dying Christian, the stagnant Christian, the not growing Christian.

So based on the words in the text, notice those words, us and one another. We see what it's like to be selflessly engaged in your church. That'll happen when you point number one, reject Lone Ranger Christianity.

If you're taking notes, point number one, reject Lone Ranger Christianity. Your flesh, your ruggedly individualized culture in the U .S., and especially in the West, where I'm from, Western United States, we will have a strong resistance to this.

But so what? We must reject it anyway. We have to discard the concept of the Christian life is just you and Jesus, and that's it. It's not. Your Christian life was meant to engage and be engaged by other Christians, starting with the people closest in your home, and then moving out from there.

Deep inside of you, you must agree with the idea that being a lone Christian is the path to becoming a dying Christian, no spiritual growth. I say this, notice the text, because this is a command. Being a Lone Ranger Christian is not an option.

It's disobedience. It's conduct unbecoming a follower of Jesus, whose entire life, even his death, was for the good of what? For the good of other people. Notice this is a command for all of us and to all of us.

Again, that's everybody here stirring up everybody else here with the goal of love and good works coming out of our lives. You're to do this together. You're to do this for each other. This is everyone here assuming responsibility for the growth.

Listen of everyone else here, using what you know, using what you can do to bless other people. Turn to Hebrews chapter three. See the same idea in Hebrews chapter three, starting in verse 12. Hebrews 3 .12 says, Take care, brothers.

Take care. Watch out. Be concerned, brothers. Lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. So if there's a pocket of disobedience, if there's a pocket of rebellion, if there's a pocket of unbelief inside of you, he says, watch out for that.

But then notice the remedy for that in verse 13. Go pray about it. Do you have that in verse 13? Go pray about it. Get alone by yourself. No, but exhort one another every day. What's the remedy? The remedy is other people speaking into our lives.

But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Think about that. What is the remedy that's going to keep me committed to Christ?

What's the remedy that's going to keep an unbelieving heart out of my chest? What is it that's going to help me in the midst of the resistance that I face in the Christian life? According to this, it's having people who will come alongside me and encourage me.

Come alongside me. Notice this. Who will exhort me. Who will speak truth into my life. Notice, do it as long as it is called today. Not waiting like today, now. This is how it's going to happen. For many of us, the chance of engaging other Christians once a month is impossible, let alone verse 13.

Notice today, every day. So, as a result, many aren't growing, verse 12, or falling away, verse 13. They're becoming hardened to God and hardened to his word and his love by the deceitfulness of sin because we're Lone Rangers.

I know this point goes against everything inside of you. Your flesh will be strongly resisting this. But maybe the key to spiritual change is to resist being a Lone Ranger. Most Lone Rangers do so because they're hiding something.

They don't want others engaged in their lives because of some shame of being found out or because of pride that comes from hardened disobedience. But what we're seeing in the text is that Lone Rangers are hurting themselves, number one, because nobody's speaking into their lives.

And number two, they're not being used to help other people who are hurting. And so then others are being hurt as well because they're not, they're unengaged. Unlike high jump or golf or tennis, Christianity is not an individual sport.

It's not, I'm running my race, I'm doing my Christian life, eyes on the prize, no regard for the other followers of Jesus around you. That's not, that's not the Christian life. So recently, if you watch sports, one of the Buffalo Bills defenders had a horrific internal injury, right?

You guys familiar with what I'm talking about? Guy basically has a heart attack on the field.

Almost dies.

What happened right after he went down? I wasn't even watching the game, but I know exactly what happened as soon as he went to the ground. An army of what? Of doctors and trainers and people ran out on the field to help him, right?

Now imagine that player unconscious, desperately needing help and no one coming to help him. Even though the medical team is right there on the field. What would he start to do if he didn't die? If he regained consciousness, what would he try to do?

He'd try to, try to fix himself, right? He'd try to, try to move himself off the field. He'd try to stabilize himself. No clue what he's doing because he doesn't have any idea how to do any of that. That wouldn't help.

And yet that's the kind of Christianity many of us are practicing today because we're lone rangers. We think, give me some insights, preacher boy, pass that x-ray. Give me the bandages. I'll drive the ambulance.

I'll work on myself. Thank you very much. But we weren't meant to be the players in that illustration, are we? We're meant to be who? The medical team, right? That's who we are. Not thinking about ourselves.

The very existence of that medical team is to engage others, to give them the help that they need. They all have different jobs, different specialties, but they work as a team with one goal, helping a hurting person, giving them the help that they need.

And what I'm saying is, that's how you should all be here at Redeemer. God has placed you here not to be a lone ranger, but to be engaged in the lives of others around you. You're to use your gifts, your knowledge, your passions to help the people around you know, love, and serve Jesus.

That means doing something weird for us, but it means working on other people's spiritual lives and letting other people work on yours. When the norm is live and let live and stay out of my business. Hebrews 10 24 says that our spiritual growth is all of our business.

It means rejecting the idea that we kind of have private lives. It means rejecting the kind of hypocritical, you know, there's nothing wrong with me. I don't need any help kind of lies that we allow people in church to believe about us.

Can we all just admit that Christianity starts with the admission that we have sin in our lives and we need a savior, right? That that's how you entered this whole thing. I'm a sinner and I need a savior.

And can we all admit that sin just doesn't magically disappear in that moment when it comes to our lives, right? It doesn't just disappear in that moment. It's just the opposite. We become more aware of it than we ever were before.

And when it comes to our sin, this text says, that when we admit that we still have sin in our lives, that what we need to grow and advance in our commitments to Jesus is other people in our lives to help us grow and other people in our lives so that we can help them grow.

May Lone Ranger Christianity always be rejected here at Redeemer. And may this selfless spiritual engagement with others be what's valued here. No more Lone Wolves, no more Lone Ranger Christianity, all right?

Arrive Praying, "God Show Me Who I Can Help"

Now, what does it look like? What does this look like practically? Take a look back at verse 24. It says there, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. Look at that word consider, or if you have the CSB, watch out.

That word means to notice, to think about, to focus, to reflect on, even to ponder, to ponder all the time how you can be spiritually engaged with the other Christians around you. This is putting away all the differences that we have with each other, all the judgment, all the distractions, to be able to think, ponder, meditate.

How can I help someone take the next step of obedience and their commitment to Christ? So in your mind's eye right now, think through that as you scan the audience and ask, how can I help him? How can I be a blessing to her?

How can I help them become more like Jesus when this preacher's done preaching? Or I put it this way, point number two, arrive praying, God show me how I can help. Arrive praying, God show me how I can help.

Show me, or better, show me who I can help. Arrive praying, show me who I can help. Selfless engagement means arriving with other people on your mind. It means eyes open, scanning the crowd, having conversations, looking at people a couple seats over and praying, God give me your eyes, God give me your ears, help me to see who I can help.

Help me to see who I can bless, who I can encourage, who I can stir up to more love and more good works in their lives. Notice the words there in the text that we're supposed to be thinking about how to stir up, how to spur somebody on.

In the CSB, in the Christian Standard Bible, it has the word provoke, how to provoke them. That word is rarely ever used positively. It's usually negative. It means to provoke, to incite. We don't usually say something like, the crowd was incited to feed the homeless.

But that word is used for us in this text. We need to incite each other towards love and good works, provoke them, spur them. This kind of involvement, this kind of engagement with others is what verse 24 says that your job is when you come together with other Christians.

Sadly, nobody in American Christianity is praying this when they get to church. A consumer mentality dominates the American church, right? We're thinking, what's in it for me? How can I get helped? How can I be blessed?

Did I get what I was looking for? And I'm going to leave if I don't get the thing that I want, which is what? I better be, starts with an F, fed. That's because we don't treat church like we're part of a medical team.

We treat church like we're going to a restaurant. A true confession time. I've never gone to the restaurant thinking like a medical team. Who can I help? How can I be a blessing here? What can I do to bless all the people around me?

I'm thinking, I want my food. Here's my money. I don't want to wait long. Better be good, right? True confession, but that's what I'm thinking. Am I the only one here? Now that's accepted behavior at a restaurant, but that's deadly when it comes to church.

Worship better be good. It better not be too soft or too loud either. I better know all the songs and I better like all the songs. That message better be biblical and profound and funny and engaging and convicting and encouraging.

Not too long and it better not be about money. Better have all the ministries I want. Men's, women's, students better be good. My kid better like their teacher. My small group better meet my expectations.

There better be home missions and world missions. Don't ask me to do too much though. I'll criticize, but I'm too busy so I can't serve. I'll give, but not that much. And if you don't have it all to my liking, I'm gone.

I'll go find somebody, another church and I'll tell all my friends too. See, church was never meant to be a spectator sport where you come in, put your Bible in your lap, you listen to a message, sing a few songs, smile, shake a few hands and then go home.

That's not how church was ever supposed to be. That's church for most people, which is why so many are stagnant and drifting and just plain immature, selfish, spiritual teenagers. And this text says, when you get together, everybody's job is to incite someone to be more like Christ, to help them know, love and serve Jesus.

Which if it feels like a spur right now in this message, that's why, because that's the text. We should see everyone else's spiritual growth as our responsibility, just like sports medical team sees the physical health of every player on the football team as their responsibility.

Just think if we were filled right now with people who all arrived thinking, how can I help somebody know, love and serve Jesus today? Who can I help? Who can I spur on to love? Who can I spur on to good works?

This place would be incredible for hurting people, confused people, lonely people. We'd be talking to each other, not about superficial things either, but real life stuff. We'd be writing emails and sending text messages, mailing cards, making phone calls, visiting people, baking cookies, taking meals, meeting for coffee, calling each other in the middle of the day at work.

I know it's hard for you at your job. I'm just calling to pray with you for a couple minutes. This would be your mindset every Sunday. Who can I be a blessing to this evening? Scanning the crowd, praying, Father, who do you want me to help?

Who is it that's hurting? You're talking to friends. How can I help you grow? American Church has lost this. We're consumers. We're not contributors. But it's critical for us to get back to this. As you can see, verse 24, it's not a suggestion.

It commands all of us to consider. That's a command. Consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. And one more thing. This verse was written to a church suffering persecution for being Christians.

See, our temptation is to excuse ourselves from obeying this verse. I'm an introvert. I have a weird smile. I had a hard week. I don't know enough of the Bible. I have a mean face. And we have all kinds of excuses to get around this stuff.

But drop down to verse 32. Notice verse 32 says, but recall the former days when after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with suffering, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction publicly.

So this is public denouncing of people for being Christians in public. And sometimes being partners with those so treated for you had compassion on those in prison and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

That's not happening to anybody here for being a Christian. And this writer is saying this to this group of people, even though this was their experience. We have no excuses. Let's all of us arrive here engaged, praying, God, show me who it is you want me to help today.

To a church that was suffering, that was full of excuses. I was being tempted to disband and return to Judaism for safety from persecution. God says, notice verse 25, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

In a world full of resistance to everything that God wants for you, and everything that you want for yourself as a follower of Jesus, the Bible says we need to get together more. If you think Jesus could return at any moment because this world is going to hell in a handbasket.

I mean, how many would say that? It could happen at any moment. This place is burning down quickly. Aliens getting shot out of the sky. Like what in the world is happening?

Should build a bunker.

No, this text says that you and I need to be in environments where people can engage with one another, where you can engage others, allow them to engage you, helping each other, know, love and serve Jesus together.

In other words, you and I, we can't selfishly engage anyone unless we point number three, commit to being here regularly. Point number three, commit to being here regularly. There's a direct correlation to the strength of your Christian life and being in church under the preaching of God's word, feasting on spiritual food.

To an American church that thinks once or twice a month is highly committed. Like this is the survey say, this is what surveys say. If I go to church once or twice a month, I consider myself highly committed.

To that church, this says, do not neglect meeting together. In other words, don't make missing church a habit in your life. Make the habit of your life.

Being here,.

Not being here something that's should be abnormal for your life. If you haven't made a new year's resolution, here's a great one. Commit today to being here regularly, even weekly. Now I'm saying that to a room full of people who are here during the Superbowl.

So I get it. But what about when it's really sunny and about 70 outside?

You know, parents,.

You're showing your kids the importance of Christianity by how often you are here. And if it's not a priority for you, it's not going to be a priority for them someday. Think about Acts 2 42. It says the first Christians devoted themselves to fellowship.

They were committed, zealous, eager, passionate about being together and engaging each other spiritually. That's what biblical fellowship is. Fellowship is not watching a game or going skiing or eating with other Christians.

It's helping each other know, love and serve Jesus. It's engaging and being engaged with other Christians. So we're all about becoming more like Jesus. That's what fellowship is. So when people aren't here regularly, they don't get that.

They think church is all about them. I can miss, it's no big deal. I've got a lot going on. I read my Bible every day anyway. I can catch the video on the website. I'll listen to the podcast. The preachers I listen to on the radio are better than my local church preacher anyway.

So I'm growing deeper listening to the radio. All of that is unbiblical, selfish consumer mentality again. If the focus is others, then you not being here regularly, vastly, vastly changes everything.

Think about it. If church is about selflessly engaging others, then not being here regularly would be like the heart specialist on the medical team not being there that day when the Buffalo Bill safety was injured recently.

It's like one player not showing up for a tournament. It's like a coworker not showing up for their job that day. It's like a student not doing their part in the group project. Anybody remember that? Maybe you were that student, but I hated you.

The point is that when they don't show up, when they don't do their job, the whole team suffers. If selfless engagement is your mindset, then not being here means someone won't get the help. Listen, they won't get the help that you can give them.

It means you won't notice who's not here, so you can reach out to them. It means the student who's struggling, the couple whose marriage is crashing, the person who's sick or whose heart is breaking won't be prayed for or encouraged or blessed or loved because you're not here.

Again, this is totally different. This is the difference between being a consumer and a contributor, a spectator or a servant, a getter or a giver. When we focus on ourselves, when we miss church regularly, people who need help won't get it because you won't see it.

Church was not created so that we just sit around and get fat spiritually. We are never meant to be a cul-de-sac of truth where we just accumulate truth and accumulate and accumulate and accumulate over and over again.

We are meant to be on ramps for truth where truth comes into our lives and then it goes off of our lives into other people's lives. And when things aren't going well for you, it's you coming and allowing people to engage you, minister to you, care for you, love you, help you, bless you.

Listen, the resistance each of us faces from the world, our own sinful inclinations and spiritual wickedness in high places was never meant to be caught consistently with a message and a few songs and some prayers every week.

That cannot possibly sustain your growth through seven days of sinful resistance to your growth. But you know what does? Hearts that have rejected personal Christianity. Christians who are here regularly and arrive here in their small groups to their Bible studies with this dominating thought, who can I be a blessing to today?

Who can I serve? Who can I help? Who can I take the little bit of truth that I know and give it to somebody else and bless and help them? Turn to Philippians chapter two. As we close, a different situation in the church in Philippi.

That church is falling apart. There's fighting amongst church members. There's destruction, factions. So to motivate a church that's falling apart, full of immaturity, full of a consumer mentality. What Paul does to point these people to the solution is to point all of them to Christ.

Verse six, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.

Aren't you glad that Jesus looked out for your interests and having your sins forgiven and being right with God forever instead of his own interests? Aren't you glad he embraced being a servant to meet your deepest need for God's mercy, being obedient all the way to death on a cross?

Aren't you glad? Of course you're glad about that. Question, do you have that gladness? Do you know that you know that you are saved? See, the Christian sees this and there is a gladness and a joy and a worship that the God of the universe would become a human being and die for the sins of human beings.

Now, what should our response be to the fact that Jesus was interested in us? Look at verse three, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others, count others more important, more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind that I've been describing, have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus. In other words, consider the spiritual good of others as more important than your own, verse three.

Be a contributor, verse four, to the spiritual interests of others. Do you know what that is? That is a New Testament church. Selfless engagement for the spiritual wellbeing of everyone here is everyone's heart.

Each of us helping each other know, love and serve Jesus regularly. A church is what it should be. I'm gonna put it this way, when a church is doing what it should be doing, everybody is selflessly engaged for the spiritual wellbeing of everybody else.

Notice the text, just like our Savior was spiritually engaged for our wellbeing. I know you're only a one and a half year old church, you're toddlers. So may this kind of engagement, engagement with your time, engagement with your talents, your gifts, your abilities, your passions and engagement with your treasure.

May this be the kind of church that God continues and keeps building here at Redeemer Bible Fellowship in the days and in the decades to come. Let's pray. Jesus, you set the standard. You're the model.

Your death and resurrection is the model for us in selflessly engaging other Christians. Because you loved us, we must love one another. And so Father for some, or yeah, Jesus, for some here, it's impossible for them to be selfless because they need to be saved.

They need to come to you and turn from their rebellion and trust in you for the forgiveness of their sins. And then for the rest who we have, your spirit living inside of us. You give us the love and joy and peace and patience and kindness, goodness and faithfulness, self-control that we need, and gentleness that we need with each other in order to see you use our lives to be a blessing to others.

So for each of us here, we know the truth. We've seen it. Explained in the text. Would you please give us, give us the help that we need to resist the resistance in our hearts, to push against the consumer mentality that dominates our culture, to push against the apathy, to push against the other people will do it, to push against all of the excuses and to treat each other the way that Jesus treated us, the way that you treated us, Jesus.