Shoes of the beach, the spider man skin on Fortnite travel pillows, and that that polish they put on the end of your teeth at like the conclusion of a dentist appointment. All these things are optional. You don't have to. Most people don't wear full on sneakers to the beach. A lot of people wear sandals.
But you don't have to. You can certainly still go to the beach and not wear shoes. People do it all the time. And then you can still play the game of Fortnite without the spider man skin. And then two, you can travel without a travel pillow.
And I just learned this recently that you don't have to get that gritty polish at the end of a dental cleaning. I just hate it. But you don't have to get it. You can just ask them not to put it on. All these things totally optional.
But one thing that is not optional for the follower of Jesus Christ is sanctification. That's a word the Bible uses to describe this process of becoming more like Jesus, becoming holy, gradually maturing more and more in our faith. Maybe is another way to say it. If we want to be followers of Jesus, our hearts and minds, we cannot stay stagnant. Our lives should.
I mean it's not going to look perfect, but it should end up trajectory over time. It's certainly not linear, but trajectory looking like following Jesus. We should be looking more and more like him if we want to be part of the game. Sanctification is not an additional add on, it's something that's required. This text is going to show us that God desires for all believers.
And it's not just desires is for all believers. And it's not just when it's convenient. Especially it applies when it's not convenient. And so our big idea this morning is simple. Sanctification isn't optional for believers.
Sanctification isn't optional for believers. Two ways the text will try to prove this to us. Sanctification isn't optional for believers in crisis situations and sanctification isn't optional for believers because it's commanded by God. Sanctification isn't optional for believers in Christ situations and it's not optional because it's commanded by God. Our text this morning we jump back in through our series.
In first Thessalonians we'll be in we'll be covering all of chapter three and then the start of chapter four one Thessalonians 3:1 4:8. It's on page 1047 of the Pew Bibles. First Thessalonians 3:1 14:8 would you turn there with me now?
God's word there says, therefore, when we can no longer stand it, we thought it was better to be left alone in Athens. And we sent Timothy, our brother and God's co worker in the Gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you concerning your faith so that no one will be shaken by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are appointed to this. In fact, when we were with you, we told you in advance that we were going to experience affliction. And as you know, it happened for this reason, when I could no longer stand it, I also sent him to find out about your faith, fearing that the tempter had tempted you and that our labor might be for nothing.
But now Timothy has come to us from you and brought us good news about your faith and love. He reported that you always have good memories of us and that you long to see us as we also long to see you. Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and affliction, we are encouraged about you through your faith, for now we live. If you stand firm in the Lord. How can we thank God for you in return for all the joy we experience before our God because of you, as we pray very earnestly night and day to see you face to face to face and to complete what is lacking in your faith.
Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you, and may the Lord cause you to increase and overflow with love for one another and for everyone, just as we do for you. May he make your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. Amen. Additionally then, brothers and sisters, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus that as you have received instruction from us on how you should live and please God as you are doing, do this even more, for you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus, for this is God's will, your sanctification, that you keep away from sexual immorality, that each of you knows how to control his own body and holiness and honor. Now with lustful passions like the Gentiles who don't know God, this means one must not transgress against and take advantage of a brother or sister in this manner, because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses, as we also previously told and warned you.
For God has not called us to impurity, but to live in holiness. Consequently, anyone who rejects this does not reject man, but God who gives you his Holy Spirit. This is the word of the Lord, sanctification isn't optional for believers, and it's certainly not optional for believers. In Christ situations. We turn our attention to chapter 31 through 8.
Paul starts with this section, kind of dealing with his thought process, working through, okay, this is why I did what I did. And it's clear here that he has a really close relationship and he has a real concern for these people. And back in those days where we couldn't send a text message, a phone call, FaceTime, whatever. And so if you want to hear from somebody, you either had to send a letter or a faster way was to send a messenger and to get there, right there and right back. And he started to become really concerned for the church at Thessalonica.
And so he said, well, they've done a lot of good. And friends, why he says in verse five that he's concerned that the tempter, that's another word for Satan or the devil. Why he's concerned that he's gotten in and infiltrated what's going on there is because this church, as we've seen especially in chapter one, has done a lot, a lot of spiritual good. This church is doing a lot for the kingdom of God. And so that's going to infuriate Satan.
He's going to be there, be primary public enemy number one, that be Jesus. But they'd be really. Satan and his demons would be really concerned and really wanting to stop anything that's going on at the Church of Thessalonica because they're working actively for the kingdom of God instead of the kingdom of darkness. That's how Satan works in the lives of believers, too. He never works for our good, but the more good that we're doing for King Jesus, the more of a concern we are.
That's not to say that he totally leaves alone those who don't know him, but at the same time, those he. Because he knows that there he doesn't have to do as much work there. But for those of us who do know Jesus and are actively working for him, Satan is going to be obviously very displeased with that and want to disrupt us whatever he can. He knows he can't take our salvation, but he wants to make us as ineffective for the kingdom of God as absolutely possible. And so Paul, it's right for him to have concern here.
And he writes similar like to this in Second Corinthians 11, when he says he has anxiety for all the churches. That's not to say that he's like worried to the point that he can't function. But no, he's concerned in a way that anybody who loves, has a significant relationship with somebody is going to be concerned for them.
So Paul has these reasons to be concerned. He would have wondered how much persecution becoming their way. He would have been anxious that Satan would tempt them to depart their faith to become ineffective.
Thankfully, though, this letter doesn't stop in verse five because we read in three, six the wonderful report of Timothy. This church continues to persevere. And in seven and eight there's a reminder given to them then and us now that the only help we can have to persevere through persecution or whatever crisis may come is to stand firm in the Lord and friends. So when we read our Bible, we always need to remember a few things. We need to remember who it was written to, we remember why it was written and what's going on at the time that it was written.
It can't mean something to us now that it didn't first mean to them. We might have different applications for it certainly, but it can't mean something new to us. Every passage of Scripture has an intended meaning that God let it be in his Bible. Okay, so what's the purpose of it? Well, what's going on in the heart and mind?
I'm convinced, and I think you should be too, that God let this be in his Bible to highlight that sanctification in crisis spots is not optional. Because what's going on in the hearts and minds of these believers? Well, Paul's mentioned persecution a couple of times. And so if something's in the Bible right one time, it's important, gotta let it be in his Bible. But if it's in there repeatedly, it's circle, highlight, underline, pay attention to what's going on.
This matters a lot. And so they are facing persecution a lot. And we could describe that right in today's terms as really hard crisis situations. And they would have woken up, maybe, hypothetically, they would. I don't, I can't exactly quote their thoughts.
And they wouldn't have spoken English certainly, but they would have woken up a lot of mornings wondering like, am I going to be publicly ridiculed for my faith today? Am I going to get fired from my job? Is my bank account going to magically be disappeared? Am I going to be beaten? This wouldn't have been out there sort of ideas for these believers.
These would have been thoughts that frequented them all the time.
This isn't something they could turn off or ignore. And so it makes it all the more impressive when Paul highlights that even in these spots, they continue to become more like Jesus. He points out that they were not wavering, but instead to continue to become more and more Christlike. Let's just read the wonderful report in 3, 6, and 7 again. But now Timothy has come to us from you and brought us good news about your faith and love.
He reported that you always have good memories of us and that you long to see us as we also long to see you. Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and affliction, we were encouraged about you through your faith. And so maybe you're wondering, what's our application? What do we do with this? How should we respond?
Well, it seems this has been included in our Bibles to let us know that becoming more like Jesus doesn't take a break, regardless of circumstance or situation. Paul doesn't say, you know what, you guys, it's not been your week, your day, your month, or even your year. He says, I understand what's going on here. He doesn't say, I get it. He doesn't say, go ahead, take it easy, take a break.
Because if we're being honest, I think for a lot of us the temptation would be to say, well, God would know what I've gone through. Which is certainly true. What he's gone. He knows what you've gone through. He cares about you deeply, but he also wants what's absolute best for you.
And he knows that's becoming more like him.
You might think, well, God will understand. I've earned this. Yet, friends, following Jesus is not the same as some intense diet where we cut out this or that or the other thing and we take a break kind of sometimes on the holidays. No, following Jesus is not optional. Becoming more like him is not something to take a break from.
In fact, in those moments where we want to quit, when we want to stop, those are the spots that Christ often meets us the most. He's always with us all the time. But where we can feel his presence the most, where he hugs the hardest, where he's championing us in a way that doesn't make sense to what we might think is normal. We don't get to decide when we do or don't follow Jesus. It's a commitment all the time.
Always. Not just in certain circumstances, not just in certain facets for life. Always. This isn't supposed to make us legalists, and maybe some of us grew up in context that were legalists, and some of us maybe don't know what that word means. Legalism is just this idea that you can earn God's favor.
That you can try really hard to keep basically the whole law and make God like you more. And that just isn't. That's not true. Romans 5:20 says that the law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more.
And so we are people of grace. We cannot out sin the cross of Jesus Christ, but we shouldn't try to either. We shouldn't make a habit of sinning though, just because there's grace to cover it, especially in hard circumstances. Think of it this way. Think about a significant relationship you have in your life.
Maybe that's a spouse, maybe that's a friend, family member, whoever. I mean, I could share. I could take several sermons to talk about how I fell in love with Leah Newton. That's a song for another time. Maybe it'll take too long.
But I can tell you about a really good friend I have and his name is Chip. That's just a practical life thing. It's just kind of a sidebar from the sermon here. You can almost always trust somebody that goes by Chip. It's never led me astray thus far, but Chip and I met when we were students in college together and we were involved in Bible studies, different evangelism projects, things like that.
And we kind of always knew each other were. But we didn't really become friends until we took geography and weather together. My least favorite class of college. But I would be lying if I said I paid a lot of attention. I was not a great student in that class.
But we became friends because I saw him the first day of class and I said, oh, that's a familiar face in a room of 250 students. I. I figured I would like to sit by someone I know. And so we became friends by sitting and probably talking too much in class, but also doing things like going to a pizza place and really critiquing the three dollar pizza we were eating and doing things like spending time together and going out of our way to just ask each other to get to know each other more and more.
But I can tell you friends, our friendship would not have grown if we paused our friendship saying, something hard's coming up. I need to take a break from being your friend. I'll get back with you when things are good or maybe when the holidays come around or if something, you know, I only want to be friends with you when it's really convenient for me. But no, instead of doing that, we made time. When it was inconvenient, we made it clear that we were a priority as much as, you know, a good, healthy friendship can and should.
And when hard things came up, we leaned into each other all the more.
And while we don't strive to become like our friends in the same way, this should highlight an aspect of if we want to grow in relationship with Christ, we should treat him similarly. Even the middle of affliction or intense persecution, or a cancer diagnosis, or a loss of a job. Or maybe it's the birth of a new child. Or maybe you're sitting and you're wondering, am I ever going to be able to afford a house? Because the cost of living just keeps going up and up.
And whatever the crisis situation, whatever the uncomfortable, whatever the unfortunate spot you may find yourself in.
For the follower of Jesus, growing in sanctification is not optional because these are the exact areas and times that he wants to help us the most. Sanctification is this process, right, of becoming more like Jesus through the help of His Holy Spirit and the people of God. It's not optional for believers. It's not optional for believers in crisis situations. Sanctification is not also optional for believers because it is commanded by God.
We should turn our attention to chapter 3, 9 through 4 8. Sanctification isn't optional for believers. One way the text proves this is because it's commanded by God. We see here right away in the start in 39 just how deeply he loves his church. Isn't that encouraging to read?
That's part of why we're studying through it, because I think this church is doing a great job and I deeply love you. He's sharing. He's just asking like a rhetorical question. How can we even thank God, essentially, is what he's saying, for everything that he's done in and through you.
They're showing fantastic growth.
They understand the mission and they're getting after it. Nobody does the Christian life perfectly, but what's clear here is this church is understanding a good portion of it, and they're walking in step with the Gospel.
And then we see a prayer offered here in 11 through 13, and it's a wonderfully deep prayer that we should pray for each other. If you are wondering how to increase or maybe enjoy your prayer life more, maybe kind of break up the rut of a prayer life. Instead of praying for the same four things, which it's good to pray for those things, pray the prayers of Scripture and line by line. Think about how those apply to your situation. Another thing we can notice, too, about what's prayed for in 11, 13, a lot of times we pray for our family, our friends, that we have a good day.
Those are great things to pray for, and we should keep praying for them. But his chief concern for this church here is that they would grow to love God, they would enjoy him more, that they'd become more like Jesus. May he make your hearts blameless in holiness. That's a wonderful prayer to ask for. His chief concern is that they become more like Christ.
And then there's some instructions and reminders in the rest of this passage. Paul starts out in chapter four, giving, giving, some encouragement. He's saying, we ask and encourage you. The thing you keep doing, keep doing it. Isn't that a wonderful report to hear from someone who has authority over you?
You're doing exactly what you need to be doing. Keep doing that. And what are they doing? Well, 4, 2 tells us they're following the commands of Jesus. They're following what Christ wants for his believers.
And now let me be clear. It is possible to obey the commands of Jesus and not know him, but it's not possible to do what four, three says, and that's grow in sanctification. It is possible for someone who doesn't know Christ to be obedient. Not in the fullest sense of the term, of course, but it's possible for them to do things that Jesus wants us to do. But sanctification is a totally different thing.
Yes, it's obedience, but it's obedience rooted in a love for God.
God's will for us is to become sanctified. Only those who have trusted in Christ can do this. Only those who have trusted in Christ can be sanctified. Hebrews 10:14 captures this when the writer there says, for by one offering he has perfected those forever, those who are sanctified. In other words, we sit right now positionally, fully sanctified in front of God the Father because of our union with Christ, because we are in Christ.
That's a phrase that's repeated countless times throughout the New Testament. God the Father sees us as fully sanctified. He sees us as totally blameless, totally pure before Him. But it's also you kind of capture in verse 14 of Hebrews 10:14 that it's a progressive process. We are positionally sanctified.
We know God sees who we are in Christ, but also he's going to continue to make us more like Christ until the day of return of Christ. God views us as perfect because we're in Christ, and positionally we're blameless. But at the Same time, he's making us more and more like Jesus. And starting in 42 through 4 8, he kind of gives some really specifics. So he starts with this very high view of what we're called to do, obey Jesus.
And then he gives it really particular and he says, avoid sexual immorality and those who belong to Christ must keep away from this. And he mentions the Gentiles here not as a, as an ethnic sort of distinction, but as just a synonym for those who don't know Jesus.
It's explained that we're to control our own bodies instead of using them for sinful passions. And this goes back to the fact that we've talked about already in the series, that those who know Jesus have traded masters. And we'll come back to that in a minute. But those who know Jesus are going to look different. The commands, the passions we follow are going to look strange to an onlooking world.
As Christians, not only should we avoid these things, but actively fighting against them.
And in 6, in verse 6, it talks about something that's unfortunately still really prevalent in the world today and was prevalent then. It's this idea of exploiting or taking advantage of people, especially for sexual misconduct. It affects far too many people. And as Christians, not only should we be avoiding these things, we should be actively working against them them. In fact, we should be leading the forefront of the charge, pushing it back against the forces of evil.
We should be praying, we should be giving our time and our dollars to working against it. And then we get to 4, 7 and 4 8. Why? What's his reasoning here? Why should we do these things?
Well, because God's called us not to impurity, but to purity, to holiness, and, and to become more like Jesus. But then he says, just as a circle highlight, exclamation point. Why? Because it's a command of God. And if you deny these things, you're denying God.
And you can argue with these things, that's fine. You have the right to do so. You have the right to shake your fist and maybe even ask God, why is this in the Bible? I think if we're being honest, it's okay to ask those sorts of things. And we don't get really a clear answer.
We get God's design, a beautiful design for sexuality, but God ultimately just says, this is my command. We can ask those questions, but ultimately we're not God. You can think it's unfair, you can question, you can wrestle, you can be confused, maybe even feel hurt, but we're not God and we don't get to set the boundaries. We don't get to decide what's right versus what's wrong. God ultimately knows what's best.
And to those of you who are hurting in these areas or have questions or maybe even been called names or outcasts by the church, I just. I do want to say I'm sorry. I'm not sorry because of what God says, but I'm sorry for sometimes Christians don't handle these things in the best way because hating people is not the goal of Jesus, but loving people into what's actually best for them is. And he knows what's best for us is ultimately him and his design.
Becoming like Jesus is an important facet of the Christian life. In fact, the Bible would argue that if you're never showing signs of doing things that look like Jesus or for his glory, if you, like, genuinely can say, I don't care about becoming like Jesus, that's probably a sign that you don't actually know Him.
Or at the very least, it's a call to look under the hood. It's a check engine light flashing. Hey, something serious is going on here. If you're never showing fruit, we're not saved by our fruit, but rather we're saved. And then as a result, we show good fruit.
Good trees produce good fruit. Jesus says in the Gospels.
Let's focus here on the ways the text gives us to apply these things, or maybe a better way to phrase it, ways we can grow in our sanctification. There's two commands highlighted. I kind of pointed them out already. One is just a general obey the commands of Jesus. It's fairly simple, fairly straightforward.
And how do we do that? How do we obey the commands of Jesus? We have to know what they are. We have to know what does he ask of us. And there's just three simple ways we can do that.
We listen to His Spirit. We listen to His Word because His Spirit will never contradict His Word. And we listen to his people. If all those things are functioning rightly, then we will know the commands of Jesus. We'll have people who can lovingly point things out.
We listen to the Spirit's leading. We know what God desires for us.
So if we want to be obedient to God, we should put ourselves in positions where we're regularly hearing the word of God from the Spirit, from His Word proclaimed, but also read, and also from other believers. The other point of application here is to avoid sin, sexual immorality, and like I mentioned earlier, a lot of people carry a Lot of weight and a lot of hurt in this area. Maybe for some of us it's a problem that we never have talked about. Or maybe you started looking at things at the Internet at a young age that now you know you're not supposed to, but you can't seem to stop. There's a whole host of other ways to struggle or sin in this area.
We don't want to minimize any struggle, especially if it's a struggle that you really do want freedom from.
We're given this passage to avoid sexual immorality, but also some examples of what that is. And I mentioned earlier that we come back to this idea of trading masters because you want to know the easiest way to stand out to an onlooking world hold and live out a traditional Christian sexual ethic. You're going to look strange, but the text here says we do these things because we no longer serve what we think is naturally right. We serve King Jesus and what he desires for us. And so the Bible outlines this idea of what is God's design very simply.
Marriage is only supposed to be between one man and one woman, and sexual intimacy is only supposed to take place within those confines. Those are the lines. Whereas the modern world would say that the peak of humanity is exploring and living your sexuality in whatever way you want to, Christianity would say the peak of humanity is knowing God and enjoying him forever. The people Paul was writing to were even more promiscuous, more whatever than you can even imagine. Monogamy would have been kind of the norm, but being married was kind of not.
It depends kind of who you read. Some scholars say those things are flipped. But regardless, this was a controversial statement then too, people don't naturally drift towards a sexual, Christian sexual ethic. I promise that. Well, how do we know then that sanctification is an optional for believers?
Because God commands it. And he even commands it that way. The way that we wouldn't naturally think of, because the way that a lot of humans, if not most, would never want to give is this one. But it's not optional. This is where we get the chance to trust him, even if it doesn't make sense, even if we don't understand.
Because I think if we're being honest, we read sometimes the Bible in. There's things in there that we don't fully get, but we trust that God knows what is good. This is where we get to the chance to trust God even when it doesn't make sense, because he's not giving these commands in a dictator sort of way. But rather to add emphasis, because if God doesn't put it this seriously, I'm guessing a lot of us will think, did he actually mean that?
Sexual sin is a real struggle for a lot of people. And actually, statistically, most people, according to Barnard Research, most Americans think that it's actually worse to not recycle than it is to view pornography. One in every three searches on the Internet is for sexually explicit material. This is not some sort of out there sort of idea, friends. Maybe you're thinking, well, that's the world.
It's in the church, too. Not just here, but evangelical churches across America. About 68% of people who attend church about twice a month view pornography at least once a month. That's not to highlight just this one sin, but that is one that is fairly prevalent. Maybe some of you are thinking like, oh, this is a great Sunday to show up.
We're talking about the thing I don't want to talk about because there is a lot of shame that people feel. I don't want someone to know this. I don't want somebody to think I do this because it is. I mean, it's wrong, but it's also. It's hurtful.
It damages us. It damages our souls. I can tell you the thing that's more shameful than leaving it in the. Sorry. The thing that's more shameful than we're actually doing is leaving in the dark and not wanting help in this area, not wanting to get healing.
And friends, I can tell you some good news. Because of Jesus, no one has to stay sucked, has to stay stuck in sin. Because where the spirit of the Lord is, there is real, genuine freedom.
But sometimes the Bible has to afflict in order to heal, has to call sin what it is in order to bring about healing.
And if you're struggling in any of these areas, please don't leave here without reaching out to us at church if you need help. I promise, you can't do this alone.
It's a serious thing. It's so serious that not only does God say, to reject this is to reject him. This is the only command, the only sin that we're commanded to actually flee from. Paul tells us where to flee from sexual immorality. You don't even get near it.
Sanctification is not optional for the believer because it's commanded by God, friends. And this morning we spent a lot of time looking at this concept of sanctification educationally, this process for which believers are called to become holy, to become more like Jesus. The text was trying to prove that it's not optional. We should be overall right. I said it's not going to be linear, not going to be going like this, perfectly becoming more like incrementally.
We can measure it by statistics. No, it's going to be the Christian life. By and large we should be trending towards Jesus. Sometimes we're going to be going like this, sometimes like this, and maybe even like this for a little bit. But then it should overall net we should be coming more and more like Jesus because there's no such thing as a Christian who doesn't grow in holiness.
But I love how the Puritan pastor, he's got a great last name too, and he wrote Amazing Grace. He describes the journey of sanctification like this. He says in John Newton he writes, I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I'm not what I hope to be in another world, but still I am not what I once used to be.
And by the grace of God, I am what I am.
Two ways the text sought to prove this to us. Sanctification is not optional in Christ situation. Sanctification is not optional because God commands it. If we are earnestly seeking after Jesus, we should continually want to become more and more like him. I think of that in terms of a real relationship.
We should want to become more like him, spend time with him, lean into him all the more.
And two, the fact that God commands us to be holy, it applies to everything he's commanded us generally, right? This idea of be faithful to the commands of Jesus and also our sexual ethic, but it really applies to everything. So that's why he goes with the 30,000 foot view. And then something that's incredibly personal. It's God's way of circling all of our life and saying, this is all mine.
If you are a follower of Jesus, this is all mine. Not just the big sort of idea, but something incredibly as personal is our sexuality. It's all mine. I want you to follow me in every area.
This is God's way of saying I mean what I say and I say what I mean. But let me just ask a real honest question. Maybe some of you are wondering right now, like why so what?
Why would I even want this? This sounds terribly inconvenient. It sounds terribly hard. That sounds like terribly, maybe even archaic or simplistic or they don't understand. Friends, can I share some good news with you?
God wants us to become more like him because he loves us far too much to let us settle for Something less than. He loves us far too much to let us settle for what's destructive, for what works against our souls. He loves us far too much. You taught this. There's this concept in the world that exists called hedonism.
This idea of just pursuing as much pleasure as possible. And you can probably picture what comes when you say that word, as much pleasure as possible. God. And I'd say that's still too small to cover to understand this. God loves us far too much to let us settle for simple worldly joys, because what he has for us is far, far better.
He knows that we can actually only achieve full joy in Him.
Why is this something a believer would be interested in? Why does this even matter? Because he is what is deeply best for us. God does not want us to become more like him or hold his commands because he is some cosmic killjoy. No, he wants us to become like him, especially in regards to his design for sexuality, because he knows what these things with these other things, we will be far too easily pleased.
He does not want us to settle for what's less than or what's destructive. Clive Staples Lewis puts it this way. It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition. When infinite joy is offered us.
Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. Friends. This is why God desires for us to become like Him. That's why sanctification is not optional for the believer.
As we get ready for the final psalm this morning, let us ask ourselves, what part of my life am I settling for? Less than what part of my life as I'm becoming more like Jesus. If I settle for less than, where am I leaving out? Really? Joy is the answer.
Sorry is the question, where am I settling for a lesser joy. During this last song, as the worship team comes up, we're going to get the chance to be still and to respond to God and ask him, what is it that you would have me do this morning in responding to your word? We pray that his spirit would stir in us. If there's someone you would like to talk to, whether it's me or someone you've seen on stage or prayer team members will be available in the back too. We invite you to do that, to respond to God.
This morning I'm gonna pray and we'll give you the opportunity to do just that. God, you are good, holy, righteous and wonderful. And we thank you that you love us so much that you don't want to have us settle for less than or what's destructive because you know what's ultimately best. You know what's ultimately good for us. What a gift that is to know that you care about us.
The maker of the universe not only knows us by name, but wants us to be fully satisfied in him. And we pray that your spirit would stir in our hearts and minds, challenge us where we need to be challenged, and encourage us where we need to be encouraged. We pray that our singing back to you would bring you glory and good for us. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.