Pastor Robert and Mary on sabbatical. It seems that there's some confusion. They're doing just fine. This is a period to rest, reflect and be away from church things. They're doing great.
They would love for you to pray for them while they're away. They're doing well and they've got plenty of great travel plans expected.
Certain things we encounter in the day to day of life change us, don't they? Like we all have experiences or moments or events that they're kind of milestones or markers that I had this happen and it changed me. Maybe it was if you transferred schools when you were younger and somebody sat by you at the lunch table. Or maybe you're the younger brother and you hit two home runs in a game and your older brother hit none and you really remember that. Or maybe it was as a kid you went to district's youth conference.
Or maybe you had a babysitter that was really kind to you. Or maybe the first day of summer camp or a co worker that put an arm around you after a hard day. We all have moments, points in our lives that shape us. We are marked by them. We hear or experience something and then we're different going forward as a result of it.
The same is absolutely true. In fact, it must be true of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The text is going to show our hearts and minds this morning that the gospel must produce good fruit in us. The gospel produces good fruit. That's our big idea this morning.
The gospel produces good fruit. In other words, when we trust in Christ, we will start to become more like him and do things that resemble his desire for us three ways. The text is going to explain it this morning. The gospel produces the good fruit of thanksgiving. The gospel produces the good fruit of joy.
The gospel produces the good fruit of evangelism. The gospel produces the good fruit of thanksgiving. The gospel produces the good fruit of joy. And the gospel produces the good fruit of evangelism. This summer we're taking a break from the series and throughout the Book of Luke and we're going to be studying instead through the book of First Thessalonians to read our text in just a moment, I'm going to give you some background information and we'll dive into the meat of our time together.
Turn with me, please to our text for today. First Thessalonians 1:1:10. It's on page 1046 of the Pew Bibles. First Thessalonians 1 1:10.
Paul, Silvanus and Timothy. To the Church of the Thessalonians and God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace. We always thank God for all of you, making mention of you constantly in our prayers. We recall in the presence of our God and Father, your work produced by faith, your labor motivated by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
For we know, brothers and sisters, loved by God, that He has chosen you because our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power in the Holy Spirit and with full assurance. You know how we lived among you for your benefit. And you yourselves became imitators of us and of the Lord when, in spite of severe persecution, you welcomed the message with joy from the Holy Spirit. As a result, you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. For the Word of the Lord rang out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place that your faith in God has gone out.
Therefore, we don't need to say anything, for they themselves report what kind of reception we had from you, how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. This is the word of the Lord. So whenever you started reading it through a new book of the Bible, and that's, by the way, the best way to read through the Bible, not just sporadically, not just a verse here or a verse there, but read through books of the Bible, whatever sequence it is, makes sense to read Old Testament, the New Testament or all the Gospels and then the Epistles, but just read through books of the Bible. Don't just pick and choose. And so when you're approaching a new book of the Bible, it's helpful to know a few things about it, because we need to study the Bible in its context.
So on the screen, I've got just a few things that's helpful to know. So this is the genre of this book of the Bible. And you know, God's Word is a collection of different books. And so there's different kinds of genres within those books. And so this is an epistle, and that's going to read differently than poetry, which is going to read differently than a narrative, which is going to read different than moral law, and so on and so forth.
An epistle is these letters were written from different apostles to different churches, and they're often written to provide encouragement, to address concerns and offer helpful teaching. If you're familiar with the word didactic, that's how the epistles are Often written mostly direct instruction or just reminders of these things. And these epistles were often passed around from church to church. We see that especially to be true historically with the book of Ephesians. It's different than if I were to send Craig Allen a letter.
I wouldn't want him to pass around with the whole neighborhood. But that's how they treated these. The church at Thessalonica would pass around to the church at Corinth and so on and so forth. So who's writing? Who's the author?
It's helpful to know that the Apostle Paul is writing because he. Not only do we know he's an apostle, so there's some authority there, but also too because we can pick up different themes from different parts of his writing. So we'll see that here in first Thessalonians, it was written around 50 or 51 AD. It's helpful to know the happenings of the world at that point. The location was written to the church at Thessalonica, which was the capital city of Roman Providence, Macedonia.
And that matters because you understand that Thessalonica was really a place of influence in some ways, like a New York City of that time. That's place. It was a port city. A lot of trade came through there. The movers and shakers of the day, a lot of them were living in Thessalonica.
Some themes that happen throughout this letter we'll encounter. They feature sanctification, which is just the process of becoming more like Jesus. Paul touches on a number of times this idea of persecution or being harmed or damaged for your faith. And also the second coming of Christ. And perhaps arguably the most important, why is Paul writing?
What is his purpose? Anytime any communication happens, ever, we should be asking why is somebody saying that? Why is someone doing that? And why are we hearing this? Paul wrote this letter to encourage the believers there to keep persevering and to give instruction about sanctification.
And also they adhered to correct some improper end time views. And so these are things that you don't necessarily have to have memorized, but they're helpful to know because we just. We're separated by a language barrier, we're separated by an ocean. We're separated by almost a couple of millennia at this point. And if I were to send Henry and Jesse a text message, we would understand who we're talking about.
If we're talking about Alex versus if you send a text message or an email to someone else, it's going to have different context. We're going to Have a certain language or communication that we know that makes sense to us, and that's what these people would have understood. They don't have to do all this extra work of contextualization because they just lived it. They knew it. But because, like I said, we're separated by these barriers, we need to do our best to understand and to interact with what they would have known, what thoughts would have flooded their mind.
Because it can't mean something to them that it does, or it can't mean something to us that didn't mean to them. We have different applications, but the meaning of each passage is still the same. It was written primarily to them, but it still applies to us. Our applications are going to be different, but it can't mean something different to us that it didn't mean to them.
Just one more quick word before we get to the text. The simplest, best tool that you can have if you want to take your study of God's Word to the next level or more seriously. It's just a good study Bible, and we have them here at church. If you'd like recommendations on them, please let us know. But a good study Bible is going to have all that information usually before each book of the Bible, and it's going to help have different faithful biblical scholars and commentators who are going to be able to help you understand a lot of these things.
Great. Our first. Our approach. Let's get there. Our big idea of first, Thessalonians 1, 1, 10, because it's the big idea of the text is the gospel produces good fruit.
One way the text explains this is that the gospel produces thanksgiving. We'll look here at verses primarily 1 through 5. The whole first chapter is set up by these two verses. Who's writing it? Paul.
That's great. That's important to know. But then also, what's going on? Well, we always thank God for all of you and then mentions that they pray for them too. And then the next question we should ask is, why?
Why are they writing and why are they giving thanks? An important question whenever we're studying the Scriptures is, why is this particular sentence in my Bible? Why does this matter? Why do I care? Why?
What effect does this have? Why are they always giving thanks? Well, we see that they're giving thanks. And then he goes on to explain in these next couple of verses, they're always giving thanks for this church. They're always praying for this church.
And they're giving thanks to God because of what the gospel has done here. And this word thanksgiving is something we don't normally interact with. So we probably. That should perk our ears up and think, okay, what's going on? Why are they doing that?
The gospel has produced so much fruit in the church here and even beyond. And the gospel has produced this Thanksgiving because they are rightly. Because Paul, Savannas and Timothy are rightly recognizing what God is doing.
They know that only the gospel is worth celebrating this much. They know that only the gospel could produce the incredible fruit described here. Let's just look at verse three. We recall, right? So just we remember in the presence of God, your work produced by faith, right?
It's not work. It's not work to get faith, but it's work produced by faith. That's a great thing. They're understanding that, right? And labor that's motivated by love.
So they're not motivation or labor that's motivated by love is a lot different than love. That. That's. Wow. Labor that's motivated by love is a lot different than labor that's motivated by fear or greed or anything else, is it not?
The rejoicing in that wonderful work and this endurance, this wonderful endurance that's inspired by hope in Christ. Only hope that's rooted in Christ can actually last.
These are right responses to the gospel.
This gospel produces a real thanksgiving, a real praise, because sometimes we think, wrongly so that, well, so and so could never change. Well, that's how they are. Well, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Brothers and sisters, I lovingly say to you and to myself, the gospel can produce any and does produce real, lasting, real, genuine change. The moment we say someone will never change is the moment we start doubting the gospel of grace.
They're rejoicing because of what they've seen this good news of Jesus do in the hearts, minds and lives of these people. They're rejoicing. They can't contain it. Even if they're one of the frozen chosen, they're never going to show any emotion about it. They are still so ecstatic, so alive, so overjoyed by what God has done.
Can I tell you the deepest burdens your pastors and elders have for you is to see you enjoy Jesus and just do the right thing. That is what keeps us up at night. We just want to see if you will enjoy Jesus and do the right thing. That's where we're seeing this real thanksgiving coming from, from Paul. He says, yes, they've got it.
They're doing it. They know Jesus and they're doing the right things. They're responding to him rightly.
We can be tempted to skim past and read Thanksgiving and not really savor it. But friends, like I hinted at earlier, this is a real deep praise. It's not just a yay awesome no, it's I can't believe it. I mean I can but I can't. I can't believe that God is doing this.
This is wonderful. This is incredible.
A real deep praise that wants to shout with joy. And then we keep reading in verse 4 as if this couldn't get any better. It says, we know brothers and sisters, loved by God. What a sentence there. But it says that he has chosen you.
Friends, if you know Christ it is by no mistake. That's real good news. When I was in college I started a lot to wonder. I just always had this gnawing feeling in the back of my mind that God spent patience was running thin with me. Yeah, he was going to let me into heaven, but it was only because he kind of had to.
Then I heard Ligon Duncan say. He said God will not stop loving you because he never started before the foundations of the world. God has always loved you. Ephesians 1:3:5 Again written by Paul puts it this way. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love.
He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will. I mean, how is that for good news for you that God loves you and he wanted you?
This is what the readers then are being reminded of in us today. This is what Paul was sharing them and he's reminding them and he's encouraging. This is another reason to give thanks. And if you are a follower of Christ, this is true of you too. And we could really just close our Bibles and stop there because we've explored a lot of good news already.
This is fantastic. Then we continue in verse five and we learn the gospel comes in power and with assurance. And that this assurance can only come from the Holy Spirit. And this deep rooted assurance that speaks to my faith, my gospel, my Jesus, they're not going anywhere.
In other words, what he's saying here when he says that this assurance that comes from the Spirit is a deep sordid reminder that I can't lose this thing. That's not an excuse for wild living. And those who are truly his will be kept by Him. But, brothers and sisters, if you know Jesus, your salvation is as secure as Jesus himself, because your faith is not in your works. Your faith is in Christ and Christ alone.
If you know Jesus, he would have to be pulled down and out of heaven in order for you to lose your salvation. That is how secure we are in Christ. That's the assurance he's talking about. This assurance that comes with power, this assurance that comes from the Spirit.
This is why they're rejoicing. This is how the gospel produces thanksgiving. Good news should typically do that. The application for this is kind of inferred. It's not really spelled out.
It's not given a direct command, but it's kind of inferred. They're giving Thanksgiving. Well, why are they doing that? They're giving Thanksgiving because of what God has done. And so we should do the same.
We should look to recognize what is God up to. Even the smallest thing, even the smallest little bit of change. We should praise God for. For what he's done. We should look for areas where he's working, whether it's in our own lives, in the lives of brothers and sisters here, or just the church at large.
When we see people walking in step with the gospel, we should give thanks. Well, how do we do that? We just make a point to thank God for what he's done doing and will do. I love TJ Maxx because you go there to find what you need. You don't go there with an agenda.
TJ Maxx will tell you what you need. I didn't know that I needed this scented candle. They have a lot of them, but you go there and you find things, or TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Home Goods, whatever. And there's that section of signs that they. They must be selling because they always have them.
But they always say things like, start each day with a grateful heart or have a glad heart. They. Things like that. And maybe those are kind of corny, but there's something to that. How would our hearts, how would our minds, how would our lives look different if we started a day with a heart that was grateful, a heart that remembered of who we are in Christ, a heart that was excited to see what he's up to?
What would it look like if we thank God for the way we've seen the gospel change lives? My guess is a lot of the negativity that marks our life will go away or at the very least, decrease and decrease and decrease. Probably the most joyful person I know is Leah's grandma, who I also get to claim as my grandma. Grandma Linda, she's 4 foot 11, but she might as well be 100ft tall of joy and excitement. She's the best person to share good news with because she just can't contain herself.
Like, it's arms, legs, their voice changes a couple octaves, and she's just going. And she is just through the roof, excited that. Do something, Bill. All right.
One, two. Well, we'll figure it out. I guess I'm good. Okay. Yeah.
So Grandma Linda, she might as well be 100ft tall of excitement because arms, legs, her voice jumps a couple octaves, and she's just through the roof. Like, you can tell her it can even be the smallest thing. Grandma, I got a free candy bar today. And she's like, yes, I'm so. Praise the Lord for that.
But Grandma and Parker, Leah's cousin, and I were sitting there talking, and we said, even If I had 1% of Grandma Linda's joy, my life would look so much different. And Grandma Linda's joy is not rooted in circumstances or what she saw on the news or if her stock portfolio is doing well. No, Grandma Linda's joy is rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
She understands, like, what Paul will write about later in this letter in 1st Thessalonians 5, 18, right, where Paul says, give thanks in everything, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
The gospel produces good fruit. One way that's explained is that the gospel produces the good fruit of thanksgiving. Another way is that the gospel produces the good fruit of joy. Right? You're kind of saying thanksgiving and joy related to each other.
Turn our attention to verses 6 and verse 7. The gospel produces the good fruit of the. Of joy. In America, oftentimes as Christians, we fear the raised eyebrow, don't we? We don't want people to think differently of us.
We don't want to be known as those Jesus people or be joyful because of Jesus. But that's simply not the case for what's going on here for the church Thessalonica, they were facing real severe persecution. Persecution that's just, you know, being battered and damaged and broken for your faith, physically and emotionally. What they're facing now is similar to what Christians in China face, which is you're not really considered a serious Christian until you go to jail for a couple of years or in Muslim countries where they're risking their lives quite literally every day. The believers to whom this letter was addressed were familiar with persecution, yet they imitated Paul Savannas and Timothy So well that when persecution came, they responded to the Gospel with joy from the Holy Spirit.
Because they did this so well, they became examples to other believers. The Gospel had produced in them a joy that existed and flourished despite their circumstances.
If we're going to put it in different terms, the Gospel produced in them a joy that to the outside world looking in, made absolutely no sense.
Brothers and sisters, no other message, no other news, no other promises can do that for us. We're reminded here too. Think of elsewhere in the Scriptures, Nehemiah declaring that the joy of the Lord will be his strength and equally as impossible circumstances. And so my question asked for us, have we experienced that joy that really transcends all understanding? A joy that doesn't make sense to anyone else?
Like when life's unimaginable things happen? Can we have. Have you experienced joy that's so unshakable, so immovable, that it's even surprised yourself? I promise you. And the text is declaring it this morning too, that that can only come from a hope that's rooted in Christ.
That's what's being promised here. This opportunity is available to all believers. They welcome the good news that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. They enjoyed and knew the fact that he lived a perfect life, died an innocent death and rose again to make all things new for those who trust in Him.
They could face circumstances that seemed impossible because they knew a Jesus who's better than they thought possible. The same is true for us today. And we're able to do this because of Christ's perfect obedience. Hebrews 12:2 is maybe familiar to some of us. We see the example of Jesus says keeping our eyes on Jesus.
That's maybe a better way to rephrase it. Just look to Jesus. Behold this Jesus. If you ever walk out of this church thinking anything except for look to Jesus, we've done something wrong. Look to Jesus, the pioneer and the perfecter of our faith, for the joy that lay before Him.
He endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the Father, throne of God. How can we have the joy despite circumstances? Look to Jesus because He is the first one that ran the race and he did it perfectly. And he's the one who can say I didn't deserve my circumstances, but I did it for the joy set before me. Anyways, look to Jesus.
Know that he pursued this joy, though set before him as the perfect man. And this wasn't a fake it till you make it sort of thing like he was half hearted, kind of doing it. No, he was serious about the joy that was set before him, and we get to do the same. We have access to that joy because he was first.
If we're in Christ, our joy is not going anywhere. What's most deeply true of us, what matters ultimately about us, will not change because our Jesus will not change.
Neither should our joy.
In her autobiography, missionary Darlene Deiber Rose writes about something similar. In the late 1930s, Darlene was a young, newlywed American missionary who went to what was known as Papua New guinea now with her husband Russell. And not long after that, the Japanese military forces came to these deep jungles and they invaded the island. Darlene and her husband were separated and they sent to different prison camps. And eventually Russell died apart from Darlene, and she was locked away in a notorious camp run by the Japanese secret police.
And she was falsely accused of being a spy, sent to live in solitary confinement, and subjected to horrific interrogations and other things that are really uncharitable. She was starving. Her body was ridden with malaria, dysentery, and she dropped to under 80 pounds. Outside her tiny concrete, a banana tree grew, and she was so hungry, so famished, she started to pray. God, would you give me a banana?
That would just make all the difference in the world. Then she stopped. She said, there's no way that's possible. I know the guards will beat me. There's just no way.
I'm not even going to bother God with that.
She told herself, there's no way anyone can get a banana to me in the cell. And she stopped praying for it. The next morning, she heard the heavy boots of the camp commander marching down the hallway, and she thought, I'm probably going to die. Darlene braced herself for it, or at the very least, another brutal interrogation. Instead, the commander looked at her emaciated body, said something in Japanese to one of the other guards, and they came back and dropped not one, but 92 bananas.
The commander turned and left without saying a single word, and Darlene sank to the floor, her knees. And she was weeping, overwhelmed by the realization that God had heard her small, half hearted, abandoned prayer, and he'd answered it with overwhelming abundance. A few days later, the guards came back and took all of the bananas. Her health continued to fail, and she remained locked in that dark, miserable cell for months. Her external circumstances did not instantly change.
Yet Darlene wrote in her autobiography that a profound, unshakable joy flooded her cell. She realized the joy that didn't come from the bananas. It came from the certainty that the king of the universe knew her by name and was with her in that cell. She spent the rest of her imprisonment singing hymns of praise so loudly that the guards thought she had gone mad.
The gospel produces the good fruit of joy. The gospel also produces the good fruit of evangelism. Shift our attention to verses 8 through 10.
The gospel produces the good fruit of evangelism. These first century followers of Jesus didn't keep this good news to themselves. They said this is too good a news to keep to ourselves. The text says their faith in God rang out in so much so that they didn't have to ask how church Thessalonica doing. Everyone else was telling them what a great reputation they're hearing it from Christians all over.
And Paul highlights the transformation. The transformative power of the gospel in their lives. Says that you used to worship idols, used to worship things, used to worship lesser stuff and now you've turned to and trusted in Jesus. That is good news. That is the power of God's word.
The gospel has taken root in their hearts and their lives. And now they're helping others do the same. This is the right response to the good news. And what's especially neat about it is even before the Gospel of Matthew was likely written, they were helping fulfill the great commission.
They were telling others the good news of Jesus. They were sharing about this Jesus who? About who? It says in verse 10. It says about this Jesus that he rescues us from the coming wrath.
This should be how we respond to the gospel too. We should look forward to telling others about him. Telling others the good news that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. There's a few different ways we do it. In youth group we've given out bands that kind of just walk through that Jesus lived a perfect life.
That he died an innocent death and rose again. He's coming back one day. There's different ways you can do that. Maybe you're familiar with Romans Road or you can share how Jesus has changed your life. There's a number of different ways to share the gospel.
No really wrong way to do it. As long as you're presenting a biblical gospel and that Jesus is the hero. We walk through and talk about plenty here. Just these five Cs that God made everything good and we have a good creation. He made everything with good intentions.
But Adam and Eve, the first humans made a destructive choice and that left them apart from God and brought the presence of sin into the world. And that left a deadly condition in need of a gracious cure. There's no way to be made right on their own. And we need Jesus and his life and his death and his resurrection make that possible to those who trust in him by faith, they can receive a gracious cure. They can have their sins forgiven.
But brothers and sisters, sometimes we stop at having our sins forgiven. But one of the beautiful hopes of the gospel is that everything will be made new one day. For those who know Jesus, everything sad will come untrue, everything that's wrong will be made right one day. It leaves us needing to respond. And so when you approach people, and some people will say, well, I don't believe in God, and we always need to approach these conversations with prayer.
You don't need to pray about it. If you're supposed to hear the gospel, you, we're supposed to, okay, there's your answer. God's word makes that clear. But pray as you're interacting with these people. And some people might say something like, well, I don't believe in God, so it doesn't apply to me.
And I encourage us to lovingly say, whether we believe or not doesn't make it true. If something is true, it will be true regardless. If I believe that the sky is green, that doesn't make it not blue. It's up to us to get, get to do the sharing. We get to tell people about Jesus.
Because the thing is, friends, we talk about things we love, don't we? All the time. We talk about our spouse. We talk about the game last night. We were eager to show people pictures of our kids.
Ah, yeah.
We're proud to tell people she's cute. We're proud to tell people about new cars or how well our company's doing. And we're proud to tell people that if we wouldn't have blown out her knee senior year of high school, we would have gone pro. We're proud to tell people about something that has two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun. We love telling people about things.
Some of you are thinking, I don't know how he's gonna bring up McDonald's today. There you go. We love telling people about things that we love. And that is not a bad thing. God loves to give good gifts to his children.
God loves to give good gifts, and we should delight in those gifts. But if we love Jesus, should we not be eager to tell people about him? That we were lost, but now we're found? That we were dead, but that now we are alive? The church Thessalonica got that the gospel should be producing in us such a deep appreciation for what Christ has done for us that we should be elated to tell others.
The gospel produces the good fruit of evangelism. The gospel produces just good fruit, period. We don't produce good fruit to get the gospel. That's what separates Christianity from every other religion. Every other religion says, do this, do this, do this, and then maybe you'll get approved and you're kind of walking this tightrope your whole life.
Is the good gonna away the bad? Christianity just paints an accurate picture of what's true. We know if we're looking at ourselves rightly, we can never, if the standard is perfection, we can never have the good outweigh the bad. And so Christianity says, you're approved of by Christ through faith. Therefore do these things.
This good work, this good fruit should be produced in you. The text explained to us this morning using the church at Thessalonica as an example. The three explanations offered were that the gospel produces the good fruit of thanksgiving, the gospel produces joy, and the gospel produces the good fruit of evangelism. We're called to remember and rehearse. We're called to give thanksgiving and encouraging and reflect on the good news.
We need to remember and rehearse that we're changed by this good news, know who we were and now who we are. See how it's affected others. This includes the fact that we are chosen by him and God won't stop loving us because he never started. He always has. The gospel produces too, the good fruit of joy that despite our circumstances we can have joy that makes no sense to the onlooking world.
We can cling to our changing hope. Our well being is not determined by anyone or anything else, but rests secure in the good news of Jesus Christ. The gospel also produces the good fruit of evangelism. When we respond rightly to this news, we should be eager to tell others about it.
The gospel produces good fruit. The book of James says that faith without works is dead. It doesn't say that faith makes or that works make you alive. But if your faith exists apart from works, you probably don't have faith. That's what the text is trying to also point out here too, that the gospel necessarily produces good fruit in the lives of those who have been changed by Jesus.
Because the one who is incapable of producing anything but good fruit took our place, we can now respond rightly to him.
We're good evangelicals here. We understand that works don't save, but a lot of times we downplay those Works to a fault. We need to emphasize, yes, this is important. You don't get to just accept Jesus and then not have to do anything about it yet. Yes, you're accepted by Jesus and that's secure.
That's right. That's good. But if it's not changing you, it's maybe a sign that you haven't actually trusted Jesus.
Works aren't what justify no, but we're justified by grace alone, through Christ alone. But we must bear in mind that the gospel does, can and should produce good fruit in the lives of those who know Jesus.
During this last song, as the worship team comes up, we're going to get the chance to respond, to just be still and respond to God. God. Just one practical application question. Maybe you can ask God something like this. God, which of these good fruits do I need your help to grow in this morning?
Which of these good fruits do I need your help with? Or maybe you already know. If you'd like to talk more about that, encourage you, invite you to find a prayer team member. They'll be in the back during the last song. Maybe it's relates to messaging, but it's not at all.
But they'd love to pray with you. They'd love to point you in the right direction. We're going to give you the space in just a moment right after I pray to do some business with God. Brothers and sisters, would you join me? And then we'll give you the chance to do that.
God, thank you for this morning and the God that you are. God who's holy, who's good, who's patient, who's kind, who's worthy of all honor and praise. We pray that you would change us through the incredible working power of your gospel. What a gift it is. What a gift you are.
And we pray that you would do in us what you need to do. We pray that our hearts will not grow hard to the working of your spirit, but rather respond with eager excitement to do what you've called us to. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.