Xamine Your Motives and Actions, Yearn for the Savior's Return, and Zealously Honor God Together

You know so many times I get asked, you know, what was my favorite sermon or what is the thing? I remember the most about preaching and you know, it's always Whatever it is. I'm preaching on that day So if you were to ask me which of the 26 points that we will eventually end up covering three tonight Which one means the most to me? it's the three of recovering this evening and it's simple because I think it's imperative that that they They become a part of my life so through the seven days that I Digest the material from one Wednesday to the next Wednesday Going over it in my mind reading through it in the scriptures trying to figure out the best way to say it But more importantly the best way to live it so that I can communicate it to the people of Christ Community Church and that others who listen by way of Radio or whatever vehicle the Word of the Lord gets out will understand the truth of the gospel And so I look at every Sunday and every Wednesday as the most important sermon Even though it might not be the most important one to you It is to me on that day simply because I never know when it's going to be my last sermon So I want it to be the best one that it can possibly be and cover as much as I possibly can Concerning the issues that we're trying to deal with in our marriage and in our family So this starting this Sunday, we're gonna have the whole church together.

You understand that right? We're gonna meet together for one service We'll have brunch afterwards. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to use the 26 points as a Foundation for the next five weeks now, I'm not gonna cover them all it's impossible But I will use them as an overview as I talk to parents and children about their Responsibility and their families so I'm gonna tie it all together for you into one lump sum in five weeks and try to cover it in such a way that That the the parents who weren't here on Sunday mornings or Wednesday nights and those who are serving in other ministries on Wednesday nights and couldn't be here Will be able to get a flavor of what you have listened to over the last 29 Weeks, this is I think week number 30 I think there's 30 weeks between that time we start in September and by the time we end in the end of end of May and so it's an opportunity for me to to Bring the whole church together and it won't be the same as we did on on Wednesday nights.

It'll be completely different Every week there'll be an introduction there'll be a there'll be a testimony from a Couple or an individual that was here on Wednesday nights to give a testimony as to what they they learned We'll have our children up on stage We'll talk to them about the ABCs of salvation and then tie that in to that mornings message So that the parents understand their responsibility in teaching their children about the gospel. This is so important You know, I was reading I got this book this past week by George Barna raising spiritual champions Excellent book.

It's filled with all kinds of statistics George Barna is I started the Barna research group way way way back when and is now a professor in Arizona and does a lot of research and The research is is incredible when you begin to realize what is happening in the church And so this Sunday I'll quote from the book and and also gonna Look at MacArthur's book on the war and children and talk to you about that and hopefully you purchased that book already Hopefully you'll purchase this book.

I think it's very interesting. He says this in the book I think it's it just just stands out so stark As to what is happening in our in our churches. He talks about Christian parents Parents who claim to know Christ who are actively participating in their church Okay, so they're participating in their church. They claim to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior they claim to be a follower of Christ and Those are the people he interviewed And he talks about the parents who have children 13 years and younger Okay So these are parents who have children under the age of 13 who claim to be Christians Who claim to be followers of Christ?

who claim to be actively participants in their church on a regular basis and This is what they say he says less than half of them 50% Believe that God is the all-knowing all-powerful perfect and just creator of the universe who still rules today and Less than half of them believe that the Bible is the true and a reliable Word of God Now these are people who claim to be Christians He goes from 50% to 33% He says just one third Contend that the purpose of life is to know love and serve God with all your heart mind strength and soul and that marriage of one man to one woman is God's only plan for humanity across all cultures of the world and That God is the basis of all moral truth as revealed in the Bible only 33% of people he interviewed who claim to be Christians who have children under the age of 13 Who actively participate in their church?

Most of them don't believe that the Word of God is absolutely true and infallible This is this 25% of the parents believe that Absolute moral truth exists that they are the same for everyone regardless of their circumstances or the humans born into sin in other words less than 75% of them don't even understand the authority of Scripture in their lives and the whole premise of his book is how do you raise children to know God and To love God to serve God so you can impact the next generation for the glory of God Now I was never a real big George Barna fan back in the in the 90s But but he's become more and more conservative over the years And it's all emphasis is on on the church and what the church is doing or church is not doing and one of the things he he harps on is the fact that that parents of children under the age of 13 are Not discipling their children nurturing their children Helping them understand a biblical worldview when it comes to living a life to impact their generation for the gospel of Christ That's unfortunate All that to say is that when we talk about marriage?

All right, remember marriage is not about marrying the right person. It's about being a righteous partner So many times we think that marriage is about marrying the right person It's more about being a righteous partner If you're a godly person You'll have a godly marriage You'll have a godly impact in the lives of your children Who in turn will then make a godly impact in their generation? we forget that that we are leaving a legacy behind and That legacy is being lived out in the lives of our children And so it's imperative that we as parents understand that our marriage speaks volumes To our children it speaks so much to them in terms of stability in life Security in life.

What does it mean to understand God's relationship to his church by looking at mom and dad? And so the principles that we have covered deal specifically with you as an individual Yes, some of them deal with you as couples But the majority of them deal with you and your your righteousness your holiness your growth So you might be the kind of person God wants you to be So things we cover X Y and Z We're gonna look at three points X deals with deals specifically with Your practice in life Y deals with your passion in life and Z deals with your purpose in life So your practice your passion and your purpose?

What is my practice? My practice is to examine my life All my attitudes all my actions on a regular basis Self-examination is something we don't do a lot of in fact We preached on it not too long ago Maybe a couple of years ago now and we wrote a book it called expanding self-examination Simply because we wanted you to live a life of self-examination. Let a man examine himself, right? We talked about in the scriptures Second Corinthians 13 verse number 5 to see whether or not he's into faith.

Let him improve himself Test himself to see whether or not he truly is Right with God that Jesus lives within him But the practice of our daily life is to examine our motives and Our actions. Why do we do what we do? Why do you do what you do? What is the motive behind your actions every day in? your marriage and your family Why do you act the way you act? Why do you say the things the way you say them? What why do you blow up so easily Why do you give in so easily? What is it about the motive behind what it is?

You're doing You see for the most part. We live in a marriage that's governed more by manipulation than by ministry Because we think that we can manipulate our spouse into responding to me the right way And so most of our lives are built around how can I get my wife or my husband to do what I want them to do and Do it my way with a good attitude and So we seek to manipulate the the events Manipulate the the conversation manipulate the the the entire relationship Because somehow I'm trying to gain something.

I mean, maybe I need affirmation Maybe I'm the kind of person that needs to be Affirmed over and over and over again, you know one thing about people who need affirmation They never get enough affirmation So if you're one of those who needs affirmation You have a an empty well Because you can never be affirmed enough in a marriage that's built on continual affirmation getting you as my husband to affirm me in my Relationship with you and my looks and my cooking and my actions and and everything about my life Do you defer me or for the man worse yet for a man looking for constant affirmation from his wife?

How pathetic is that? That is just so pathetic. I Need to be affirmed by you. Why? Don't you do what you do for the glory of God for the honor of God for the praise of God We do what we do because we we truly want to honor the Lord not because you're gonna respond or Respond the way I want you to respond. I do what I do because I want to honor the Lord I'm sharing with my daughter today that with Avery that Lori and I've been married for 38 years I've never asked her one time what she thought of a sermon I preached not once I Never said honey.

Would you take it today sermon? Hey, what'd you think about last night's sermon? 38 years She'd been with me hearing all these sermons, but never one time have I asked her why because I don't need her affirmation. I Don't need that I'm not preaching to her. I Am preaching for the Lord. I want to honor the Lord I want to make sure that what I say brings glory to his name whether my wife likes it or not, but it's irrelevant I'm not preaching for her. I'm Preaching for the glory and honor of the Lord You should love your wife For the glory and honor of the Lord.

You should love your children You should discipline your children for the glory and honor of the Lord we do what we do because we want to honor the Lord and magnify his name So when you come to the letter X, this is my this is my practice Psalm 139 is the verse and you know, well search me Oh God and know my heart try me and know my anxious thoughts and see if there be any hurtful way in me and Lead me in the everlasting way Search me Lord search my heart Try my thoughts Know what's on the inside of me deal with what's on the inside of me Lord if there's any hurtful way in me if there's any wicked way in me Lord make it evident to me Because I want to be led in a way that is a righteous way an Eternal way the everlasting ways of God Lord, I want to honor your name above everything else.

That's all that matters And so if you go through each and every day examining your motives Examining your actions. Why did I say it this way? Why didn't I say it this way? What is it I'm trying to get What is it? The Lord wants to teach me and And asking the Lord to try your heart to search your heart the psalmist read through the Psalms The psalmist was always asking Lord vindicate me according to the integrity of my heart Lord look at my heart See if there's anxious ways in me and lead me in a way that honors and glorifies your name So your practice in life is to examine your motives and actions on a regular basis We need to do that Just spend some time in the Word of the Lord Asking him to search you and to try you That he might reveal to you those things that are an error that are sinful that are manipulating that are controlling and That you might be able to best represent him in your marriage with your children Next is your passion in life, and that is yearn for the Savior's return Yearn for the Savior's return we are the bride He is the bridegroom He is coming again and There needs to be this yearning for his coming again And I got to tell you you need to ask yourself in the examination process, why isn't there this yearning for the coming of the King Why is that I'm not longing for this Why is it I am not?

Anticipating the return of the King. Why is it I am? Anticipating something next week more so than the coming of the King Because we tend to anticipate those things that are temporal not eternal We tend to anticipate those things that don't last But the King is coming So Paul would say in Philippians chapter 3 these words verse number 20 For our citizenship is in heaven From which also we eagerly wait for the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ Who would transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory By the exertion of the power that he has even to subject all things to him self Paul says we eagerly wait the coming of the Messiah Over in Philippians chapter 1 he says in verse 21 for to me live is Christ to die is gain But if I am to live on the in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me But I do not know which to choose But I am hard-pressed from both directions having the desire to depart and be with Christ for that is very much better Yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake Paul found himself Between a rock and a hard place.

I want to be here for you But I know something far better than being here with you. It's being in glory With my Lord seeing him face to face Anticipating his presence his coming again we as Parents need to yearn for the coming of the king As you as you instruct your children as you teach your children remember Your children pick up on your passion in life, right? So whatever you tend to be passionate about they are going to be passionate about to some degree And so if we're passionate about the coming of the king his return is coming again There they're gonna get a hold of that and they're gonna they're gonna wonder why we're so excited about Christ's coming again Why we live in anticipation of his arrival But that should be the way We are So I listed a couple of things that will help you understand.

Why it is we yearn for the return of the king Number one simply is this Yearning for Christ company coming is The inspiration for living a pure life It's my inspiration to live a pure life The biggest motivation for me to live a life of purity is that the king could come back at any moment That's what first John chapter 3 is all about When it says beloved verse 2 now, we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we will be We know that when he appears we will be like him because we will see him face We'll see him just as he is and everyone who has this hope fix on him purifies himself just as he is pure Everyone who has this hope knowing that he's going to come again.

He could come at any moment That hope is a purifying hope the inspiration for living a pure in holy life Is that Jesus could come at any moment? Number two Knowing that Christ could come at any moment.

Not only is my inspiration for living a pure and holy life. It is my motivation for assembling together with you every week What motivates us to gather together Well, you know the the verse in Hebrews chapter 10 Hebrews chapter 10 speaking of the fact that that we're not to Forsake the assembly of ourselves together as Is the habit of some but encourage you one another all the more as you see the day Drawing near what day? the day of his return Why is it we want to gather together? because there's coming a day when Christ is going to arrive and The more I'm with you the more I realize what heaven's gonna be like So I want to gather together with you You see people who don't like to gather together with the people of God on a Sunday to worship the Lord Don't have a yearning for the return of Christ Those who yearn for Christ's return don't want to forsake the assembly themselves together Because the day of his return is drawing near and they want to be together Because they know that for all eternity they're gonna be together and they're gonna stimulate one another to love and good deeds They're gonna motivate one another they're gonna move One another there's this motivation to assemble together.

There's this inspiration to live a pure in holy life there's another reason why why we yearn for the return of Christ and that is because of the liberation from the wrath to come There's a liberation from the wrath to come First Thessalonians chapter 1 verse number 9 for they themselves report about us What kind of reception we had with you and now you turn to God for my those who serve a living and true God and to?

Wait for a son from heaven whom he raised from the dead. That is Jesus who rescues us from the wrath To come in other words we have been set free From the wrath that's going to come upon the entire world Revelation 3 verse number 10. He's gonna save us from the hour of tribulation That's going to come upon the whole world We've been set free from that. We're liberated from that. We're not going through that Why? Because we've been rescued from the wrath to come there's been this liberation because we're believers in the Lord Jesus Christ We're a part of the Church of God so there's this inspiration to live a pure and holy life a motivation to assemble together with the believers in Christ a Liberation from the wrath that's to come upon the whole world and number four.

There is a completion a Completion of our Redemption Romans chapter 8 verse number 23 says this and not only this But also we ourselves having the firstfruits of the Spirit even we ourselves grown within ourselves waiting eagerly for the adoption as sons the redemption of our Body in other words. There's a completion to our salvation we are Saved from sin we are being saved and one day we will ultimately be glorified in the presence of God Our bodies will be redeemed and we'll have bodies just like our Lord's body So because of that completion, there's this yearning desire to be with Christ I'm in this sinful body one day.

I won't be in it any longer. Why because I'll have a glorified body So many other things the celebration around the throne, that's another one revelation four and five How about this the acquisition of my heavenly inheritance? That's another one Why because we are partakers of the divine nature one day we will acquire our Divine inheritance everything we long for everything in eternity will be ours And the very fact that ultimately they'll be the revelation of His glory we'll see him face-to-face All those things make up the individual's yearning for the coming of Christ And I would trust that that that's the way you are that you did you wake up every day Anticipating that this might be the day.

How many times have I said it you go to bed at night Disappointed that it wasn't today, but you wake up the next day anticipating that it is the day that Christ comes again Knowing that he's going to come does so much for us we live in the realm of anticipation Knowing that our blessed. Hope the appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ is soon to happen and Z Zealously Zealously honor the Lord in his word That's Z Zealously honor the Lord and his word You know I've come to realize that we we pay lip service to honoring the Lord We really don't necessarily know what it means to really elevate the Lord above ourselves To lift him up to esteem him above us To really truly honor his blessed name I Want to share with you an illustration That I think is very very important And it deals with us as as parents and our children in honoring the Lord Because it's so important to realize that Our whole Our whole purpose in life Is to honor him if I my practice is to examine my life if my passion is to yearn for Christ Then my purpose is to honor the Christ I yearn for So turn back with me in your Bible to first Samuel chapter 2 First Samuel chapter 2 and I want to talk to you about a Priest named Eli and his sons Hophni and Phinehas Why you would name your kids Hophni and Phinehas I have no idea, but that's what the boys names were The Bible tells us in first Samuel chapter 2 that the sons of Eli were worthless men And think about this this is the scripture It's the eternal Word of God and in the eternal Word of God you have this character quality about your sons They're worthless And it says they did not know the Lord Wow what an indictment Eli a priest Has two sons That the Bible says are worthless And they do not know The Lord So not only are they infamous they are ignorant Now what Eli's doing in raising his sons.

I have no idea Obviously he wasn't imparting much truth to them. Maybe he wasn't modeling the way to them He plays a significant part in Hannah's life her son Samuel's life and God uses them in that capacity But yet he had two sons Both were worthless and Both did not know the Lord It says that in verse number 16 that They Said to those who came to offer sacrifices you shall give it to me now and if not, I will take it by force that there was a law in Israel about what part of the Sacrifice that the priests could partake in There were certain things they couldn't but they decided to take whatever they wanted and So not only were they infamous and ignorant they were intimidating To those who came to offer sacrifices Verse 17 thus the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord For the men despise the offering of the Lord So they were irreverent They were irreverent They were intimidating They were ignorant and they were infamous Read on down to verse number 22.

It says now Eli was very old And he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel And how they lay with the women who served at the doorway of the tent of meeting So not only were they infamous Not only were they ignorant Not only were they intimidating in irreverent They were immoral They were committing acts of immorality The funny thing about it is that that it says Eli was very old and he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel How is that he didn't know Was he an absentee father Was he so busy in the priestly ministry he had no idea what his sons were doing he had to hear about it second and third hand What was he doing?

Verse 23 He said to them Why do you do such things? the evil things that I hear from all these people Now I don't know about you, but I would never talk to my sons that way That's just too nice Why would you talk to your sons, why would you address your sons who were irreverent immoral Infamous Ignorant and say what is this I hear about you guys. Well, why is it you do this? That's not the way a godly father talks to his ungodly Sons, but that's what Eli did So it says verse 24 No, my sons For the report is not good Which I hear the Lord's people Circulating In other words that more accurate translation is or are making the Lord's people Transgress you see not only was their lives Filled with immorality and Irreverency it was filled with an infectiousness Because they caused other people to sin Why because they were leaders in Israel And other people's people were being affected by their sin And Eli's response is no the thing I'm hearing is not good Well, that's the father you should know what's going on with your kids I Know they're adult boys But you should know what's going on How do you not know?

and so it says Or he says if one man sins against another God will mediate for him But if a man sins against the Lord who can intercede for him But they would not listen to the voice of their father For the Lord desired to put them to death Wow Those are harsh words So along comes the man of God phrase used 70 times in the Old Testament Always referring to a spokesperson for the Lord So it says the verse 27 then a man of God came to Eli and said to him thus says the Lord did I not indeed? Reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in the Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh's house Did I choose them from all the tribes of Israel to be my priests?

To go up to my father or to my author excuse me to burn incense to carry an ephod before me and did I not give To the house of your father all the fire offerings of the sons of Israel Why do you? kick at my sacrifice and at my Offering which I have commanded in my dwelling now that you there is plural Why? Because the man of God is accusing Eli of the same sins as his sons Because he did nothing Why do you do this You don't have to do this, but why do you do this? Why because he did not rebuke his sons.

He did not discipline his sons. These were adult sons But the priest of Israel had a responsibility to discipline them according to the law of God and he did not So it says and why do you honor your sons above? Me now you had the first hint of Eli's problem read on By making yourself fat with the choice of every offering of my people Israel Therefore the Lord God of Israel declares I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father should walk before me forever But now the Lord declares far be it from me for those who honor me I will honor and those who despise me will be lightly esteemed.

There you have it There you have it You've chosen to honor your sons above me You've chose to dishonor my name Because your son's Relationship to you was more important than your relationship to me And my friends that is a major problem in today's church Parents who do not rebuke their children. I don't care how old they are Parents who do not stand strong on the truth knowing their children are living in sin doing things that are sinful and Saying what is this I hear about you guys This is not good Instead of rebuking them and saying you're in error.

You transgressed the law of God and Therefore I can't participate in this with you. I'm gonna stand against it. I'm not gonna compromise the truth of the Living God I'm gonna stand firm on what God's Word says even though in my cost our relationship Appearance don't do that today Because they just so badly want to keep the relationship But you can't have a relationship without truth. You can't You can have an affinity a togetherness, but you can't have a relationship without truth And Hoffman Phineas had no relationship with their father they despised their father they would not listen to his voice They would follow his direction And that would mean that he would have to enact the law of God to discipline his sons because they were out of line They were immoral irreverent infectious infamous ignorant wicked Boys So the man of God comes along and says look what God did for you Look what God placed you Look what God gave to you and yet you decided to esteem your boys Above your relationship with the Living God you wanted them But did not honor me Why because you did not honor my word?

You compromised my word And I will say this to the day I die when you value relationship over truth. You will always compromise the truth 100% It's what always is Eli did It would cost him It would cost his sons And it would cost Israel So sad You read on and it talks about how the man of God speaks to him concerning the future and what's going to happen Talks about how there's gonna one day Come a priest speaking of the Messiah verse 20 35 Raised up for myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in my heart and in my soul And I will build him an enduring house.

He will walk before me Or before my anointed ways But then you have the conversation that takes place between Samuel and Eli in chapter 3 And Sam was asleep and the Lord calls to him and he thinks it's Eli, but it's really the Lord and most of you know the story of Samuel understand the situation that's there and Eli tells him to go back and When the you hear the voice of the Lord say, yes, Lord speak The Lord speaks to Samuel The Lord said to Samuel behold I'm about to do a thing in Israel at which both ears the ears of everyone who hears it will tingle In that day, I will carry out against Eli all that I've spoken concerning his house from beginning to end For I've told him that I'm about to judge his house forever for the iniquity Which he knew He knew it Parents if you know about the iniquity of your children and do nothing You become part and parcel to their transgression He says because his sons brought a curse on themselves and he did not rebuke them Didn't do anything He's let it go And he was a priest in Israel He was the leader of the people of God on how to communicate with God and commune with God.

That was his responsibility And yet his sons were not rebuked by him His sons were esteemed above God Now did he go around and purposely try to esteem them no But he did esteem them above God because he did not rebuke them according to the law of God He did not call them to account hold them accountable to what God's Word had said Parents that's what we do If we don't do it who's gonna do it? That's our responsibility See you think that when your kids grow older you're done parenting No, you're not you're always a parent as long as you got kids around you're a parent and You got to realize the irresponsibility to to continue to lead and guide and nurture them in the ways of God No, it's not like what it was when they were young but yet as adults you now become a voice of reason and A voice that leads them to understand the truth of the Living God.

That's what we do And he lies a perfect example So Samuel a down until morning verse 15 He opened the doors the house of the Lord But Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli then Eli called Samuel said Samuel my son. He said here I am He said what is the word? That he spoke to you Please do not hide it from me May God do so to you and more also if you hide anything from me of all the words that he spoke to you Said Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Here. He was what did God say?

Don't hide one word from me you he was more harsh with Samuel than he was his own boys don't Hold anything back Samuel. Tell me exactly what he said. So Samuel told him everything God said And he said it is the Lord let him do what seems good to him Wrong answer Hit the opportunity to repent Had the opportunity to get it right to turn things around Heard it from the man of God now he's from Samuel Twice he's heard it man. I wake up Do something Lila? Be a man be a father be a leader repent of your sin deal with your sons in a biblical way according to the law of God and Wait and see what God does But he didn't Israel goes to war the Philistines Israel takes the Ark of the Covenant to war with them The Ark of the Covenant was that which symbolized the presence of God among his people They took the Ark of the Covenant into war with the Philistines and the Philistines became afraid because of all the things he heard about God's presence among his people Israel, but the Philistines kept fighting won the victory I think it was 30,000 Israelites were killed and they captured the Ark Took the Ark Says in verse number 10 of chapter 4 So the Philistines fought and Israel was defeated and every man fled to his tent and the slaughter was very great for their fell of Israel 30,000 foot soldiers and the Ark of God was taken and the two sons of Eli Hophni and Phinehas died They were killed in battle God had prophesied that was going to happen.

They were going to die and they did You read on it says in verse number 18 when the mention of the Ark of God Was gone in verse number 18 Eli fell off the seat backwards beside the gate and his neck was broken and he died For he was old and heavy thus he judged Israel for 40 years Here's about a son's dying. Here's about the Ark of the God being taken. He falls over backwards and dies He's killed Now his daughter-in-law Phinehas his wife verse 19 was pregnant about to give birth When she heard the news that the Ark of God was taken and their father-in-law and her husband had died She kneeled down and gave birth For her pains came upon her About the time of her death The women who stood by her said to her do not be afraid You have given birth to a son But she said do not answer or pay attention And she called the boy Ichabod saying the glory has departed from Israel Because the Ark of God was taken Because of her father-in-law and her husband.

She said the glory has departed from Israel for the Ark of God was taken Understand this in Her death and the birth of her son Is the byproduct of Every family who honors relationship over truth The glory of the Lord departs from you The manifestation of his presence is no longer seen It can't be seen Why because you didn't honor the truth and God is the God of truth. And if you don't honor his truth, he's not seen and An Ichabod could be written across your house. The glory of the Lord has departed Why simply because you have refused to honor God above everything else?

my friends Zealously honor the Lord in his word more so than anything else you do of the 26 principles that we've given to you over the last 30 weeks This one is so incredibly important Why? Because the manifestation of the presence of God must be seen all the time in your home And it is when God is honored When God has lifted up when his word is adhered to his word is obeyed What would have happened if Eli would have repented or if Eli would have rebuked his sons What would have happened in Israel we don't know Those are all what-ifs But the lesson is clear to you and me We need to honor the Lord Zealously honor the Lord lift him up above everything else above everyone else May he and his word be so highly esteemed in our lives that the word of compromise never even enters our vocabulary Because we want to stand solely on the truth of the Living God Let me pray with you father We thank you Lord for tonight a chance that you give us to spend time in your word Our prayer father is that we would be men and women of truth Who seek to honor and glorify your name may our may our practice be that which?

looks at our lives from a biblical standpoint and examines them from the standpoint of where do we stand with Christ and May may we yearn for the return of Christ may that be our passion every single day Anticipating the return of Christ knowing that it inspires us to live a pure and holy life It motivates us to to assemble together with the people of God It is the ultimate celebration of being together with our God in heaven the revelation of his glory To be able to see your presence and see you face to face And may we always zealously seek to honor your name above everything else If we haven't done that to this day we can begin today we can start right now Saying God's Word will not be compromised God's Word will be held in high esteem because we want to honor the Lord our God above everyone and everything else We want God to be seen so that the glory of the Lord is seen All throughout our home all throughout the rooms of our home all throughout the the occupants of our home Then we might truly honor and glorify the name of our God Until you come again as you most surely will in Jesus name Amen