Transcript for:
Ephesians 4:17,24 -New Clothes- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2026-03-08

New close. Ephesians four seventeen through 24. Would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word together? Ephesians four seventeen through 24. This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that he henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind. Having their understanding dark and being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. Who being past feeling have given themselves over under lasciviousness to work all in cleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ if so be that you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. That you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man which is corrupt according to deceitful us and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man, which after God has created in righteousness and true holiness. Father, thank you for your holy word. Thank you for your word as it's a light into our path, and that Lord, we don't need to be led by the blind, leading the blind, falling into the ditch. That you've given us your holy spirit, the spirit of truth, you've given us your holy word, and Lord, you've given us pastors and teachers that, Lord, we've sat under, and Lord, we just thank you for these gifted teachers that are able to prepare the meal, prepare the word, and and to feed us, and to tend, and to help us grow in the grace and knowledge of you, Lord. We pray this morning, Father, that you would be our teacher once again, that our hearts would be pliable, that our ears would be able to hear, that we would apply these truths to our lives, that our lives would be stable, that as storms come, Lord, that we would know that our lives are built upon, our marriages are built upon the rock, upon Jesus Christ. And Lord, we just pray that you'd anoint and bless and pour out your holy spirit, fill us overflowing, and just bless this time, Edify us. In Jesus' name, amen. Would you please be seated? Have you ever went somewhere and realized you were dressed inappropriately? Maybe you went to a formal and you thought you could be invisible by wearing your camo car hearts but you weren't you weren't invisible. They they could see you. Now last week when I was, preaching here, I had a new jacket on and unbeknownst to me, I had like Ray does right now, I had a tag underneath my arm, from the store. And, Ray, why don't you show everybody that tag, you know? And, so I had two people last week that, oh, it's not there? I heard you had one. Okay. But I I had one last week underneath my arm and and so two people approached me after the service and said, hey, pastor. Hey, the sermon was okay, but hey, you still got your tag there, you know. So I took my tag off and not nobody told me about it. Somebody said they wanna run up here and do it, they didn't wanna interrupt and all. But but, you know, inappropriate. It just it just kinda you stand out when you're when you're like that. Kathy normally dresses me but for some reason last week, she missed she missed that and and and so now there was a time where we're at the Roxy years ago and missus Everest was sitting in the sanctuary there and she was there well before the service started. And I had little Judah with me, it's just a little guy, and I went to go use the restroom. And I don't know how this happened. You're the first people I've ever told, but but I I came into the sanctuary and she's sitting up toward the front, and I'm walking with Judah and I'm walking up, and and she says, hey. Hey. What's that? And I had this big long line of toilet paper behind me. And somehow somehow I had a train of toilet paper behind me. No. No. No. Praise the Lord, somebody told me. Praise the Lord, the service wasn't started and everybody there. But missus Everest was just so cute and, you know, and I thought, whew. How embarrassing. You know, I man, what if that would've happened during church? What if it happened during church now where every everything's filmed, you know, where everything's on a video and all that? Here comes pastor Rick from the back room and he's got a train of toilet paper, you know. And I'd never be able to outlive that. And so, Jesus spoke in in, Matthew 22 verse 11 about a king that was having a wedding for his son and began to invite a bunch of people to the wedding. Everybody And had excuses of why they they they couldn't come to the wedding and all. And and then toward the end of the parable there, he talked about how a guy that did come but was dressed inappropriately did not have on the right kind of clothes. This is a formal occasion and, the person stood out like a sore throne. So the king saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment and he say it unto him, friend, how came as thou hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called but few are chosen. And so Paul is still explaining the Christian walk. He has exhorted us to walk worthy of our calling as Christians to walk with the right clothes on. The new clothes for the new man or woman in Christ. What are these clothes? They're clothes of righteousness as opposed to the filthy clothes of the pagan gentiles. So Paul's exhortation here is to put off the old and put on the new. Put off the close of number one depravity. Verse 17. This I say therefore and testify in the lord that he henceforth walk not as other gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind. That word vanity speaks of emptiness. It speaks of depravity. It speaks of there's nothing there. It's just void. It speaks of what I was trying to describe before we started. The idiocy of the age. The absolute idiocy of people, they have no substance. There's nothing in their brains. We would say or Vicky would say they're can I say this, Vic? Sure. Okay. They're they're blondes. Alright? They're blondes. And she had another way to describe those blondes. Now my wife's blonde, not naturally. But she said, you know, they're they're like those big breasted blondes, you know? They're just nothing upstairs. Nothing between the ears, you know? And so I don't know where Vicki got that, but that's Vicki there. Oh, well. Airheads. Nothing there. And, that's what Paul's saying here. So don't walk in that vanity of your mind. In Ephesus, they were worshiping Diana, great as Diana of the Ephesians. And, Diana is, worshiping of Artemis, a sex fertility goddess. And and so these statues would be made and these statues were to stimulate the people centrally like pornography. And, when the gospel was coming forth, many of the people were changed within and so they're gonna throw off those old clothes, the old man, the old way of thinking, and they're converted. They're new. They're no longer living a life of depravity, of emptiness, of void. Now they have understanding. They're gaining understanding of what's right with god and why what the way they're living, why it's wrong. And, when I was before I became a Christian, I knew there was a certain degree of guilt but a lot of the ways that we do things everybody else is doing it. And it doesn't seem like you're standing out as a bad person, you know, unless you go murder somebody, but I haven't tried that one yet. But but for the most part, you know, the the partying or or whatever it is you're into, most of your friends, most college people, most, after work, you know, type of things, the promiscuity, you know, the whole thing is is it's across the board usually. And and you don't really have a understanding of what you're doing as being wrong and yet the Lord's given you a conscience and he's also allows the Holy Spirit to come alongside you and to convict you of sin eventually. John the Baptist lost his head simply because he confronted the king and said, taking your brother Philip's wife Herodias is wrong. It's illicit. And that truth that went forth convicted Herodias and you know the story, she had Salome, her daughter do a provocative dance there and, to half of the kingdom Herod said, I'll give you. And, she said, I want the head of John the Baptist on a charger, you know. And and so he lost his head because he he told the truth. He confronted evil. And so it wasn't a matter of allowing that vanity, that emptiness, that that depravity to continue. And so Jesus said that or Paul said, this I say therefore, I testify the lord that he henceforth walk not as other gentiles walk and the vanity, the emptiness, the depravity of their minds. So that's incongruous. It's an oxymoron for a Christian to say you're saved and then still wearing the old grave clothes, the still living like the world in your depravity. That would be an indicator that you're maybe not saved because Jesus said you'll know them by their fruit. And so as we observe a person's profession of faith, many professors, they profess that they know God, but in works they deny him in the sense of the fruit of their life isn't consistent with being Christ like. We're evaluating based upon Jesus. Who is Jesus? So let me give an example. On the one hand, you can demonize democrats and you can say they're they're the pedophiles, they're trafficking, you know, the whole thing, and oh, it's just they're cannibals, you know, they're just terrible. And people love that because you feel like you're good. And then you see the Epstein files, you see all the stuff, man, there's a whole lot of Republicans there too. Whole lot of people acting like they're better than somebody. They're there also. And they're not hiding it anymore. It's out in front. I mean, they got pictures of Bill Clinton in a blue dress that Epstein loved to have on the wall. A picture of Clinton in a blue dress. I've always said if I wanted this church to grow, all I'd need to do is wear a dress. I'm not gonna do it. I can handle it small here. But we make the false assumption that, hey, there's there's some on the side of good and there's others on the side of evil. Well, the bible says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So one of the ways the devil tricks us is by presenting somebody in contrast to the democrats, presenting somebody that's more noble and better cause he's certainly not involved in that kind of stuff, you know. And then we see pictures of him all over it and the history of it all over. But because we love money, we don't care. Just get the economy straightened out. I don't wanna lose my retirement. I wanna lose everything I've worked for. Now, can you picture a Christian making a huge golden statue of himself? Now, there may not be a verse. I might be thinking about Nebuchadnezzar in the 90 foot tall image. Got him in trouble, didn't it? And I can think of the antichrist, an image of the beast later on, but but I never see a 25 foot golden image of Jesus. That's not Christ like. He came to the cross. I picture the cross, his death, his burial, his resurrection, ascension, and soon return. It's men inspired by Satan in their pride that want to be worshiped and want to stand out from everybody and build golden statues. So I don't need a a verse. I just know that's not Christ like. So if somebody is telling me, hey, there's a Christian and we're heading to Armageddon and best life now and all that kind of stuff. I'm looking at it and evaluating it based upon a person, Jesus, that's inconsistent of who a Christian is. So you got all these Hollywood people and everybody's saying they're coming to Christ, but living lives that are inconsistent with Jesus of who he is. They could tell you they were baptized. They could tell you what church they go to. They could tell you their their their past experience of how they are raised, and all of a sudden, everybody's the the new world religion is forming. Everybody's a Christian now. And we're going to Armageddon. We're gonna usher in the return of Jesus. We're gonna bring in the millennium, you know? The new apostolic reformation. Kingdom now. It's just bizarre to me because it's just filled with idiocy. It's just a gravity. It's an emptiness there. Can't people think anymore? Isaiah forty seven ten says, thou has trusted in thy wickedness. Thou has said none sees me. Well, everything's naked and open before the eyes with whom we have to do. He sees everything. But we lie to ourselves. We say, hey, nobody sees me. No nobody can see what's going on. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it has perverted thee. And thou has said in thine heart, I am. Who who are you to say I am? The great I am. Jesus can say that. But who are you to say that I am and none else beside me? No. That that that's that's for God. That's the deity of Jesus. I am the good shepherd. I am the way, the truth, the life. I am the bread of life. I am the resurrection and the life. You can't posture yourself and build yourself up with a with a vanity and depravity of acting like you're some sort of a some sort of a god. So put off the clothes of depravity. Secondly, put off the clothes of darkness. Verse 18. Having the understanding darkened. Why are they living in darkness? Why are people content to live in darkness? In John three nineteen, Jesus said this is the reason. This is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because why? Because their deeds are evil. For everyone that doeth evil hates the light neither cometh to the light, lest his deed should be reproved. When the light is turned on, the cockroaches flee. They run for the corners. They run for the cracks. You expose the pedos, you expose the cannibals, you expose the evil and they will hate you. And it used to be they'll go underground for, you know, a day or two or a week or month, and then they'll come back at you again when you when you rest and wanting to just enjoy your life, enjoy the world, which is normal. You You gotta be vigilant though. You gotta be watching these crazies all the time because they're passing legislation all the time. Whereas it used to be, illicit. It used to be illegal and used to be defined by the American Psychiatric Association of two men marrying each other or homosexuality as being a mental disorder and illegal. Well, over the course of time, there's the normalization of that behavior. There's the desensitization, which we're watching with pedophilia now. You're being desensitized. You're being so invaded, so overwhelmed with the pedophilia and the cannibalism and the satanism, they're getting you ready for the tribulation period. Right? They're getting you ready for a very satanic era period of history that prophetically the bible describes. So people are overwhelmed like, well, there's nothing we can do. So in the fifties, the people in the fifties who were unbelievers were more moral than the church today. The reason we lost that morality is because we took prayer and the bible out of the schools in '61 and '63. Every single school had the 10 commandments and the word of God in the secular schools up until then. So even secular people knew the rules. They knew the boundaries of society. There wasn't the existential humanistic philosophy just yet. But then the sexual revolution that also came in the sixties, you're removing the restraint of the family and pretty soon adultery and all the different aspects of immorality. And the Sodomites are just waiting to spread like Sodom and Gomorrah, the whole thing. And and today you look back to the fifties and man, we're depraved. We're living in darkness. And how great is that darkness? And if you have the audacity to be a virgin as an adult, you're mocked and ridiculed and laughed at and and all that. There's no virtue in it. And if you have the audacity to be a virgin and wait to get married as virgins, you're laughed and mocked and people reason, how do you know it'll work and all that other sort of idiocy. It's depravity. It's it's brain dead people. They've taken God's high standards and brought them down to where the animals are. And the pedophilia is just over the top and the adrenachrome and all the different wickedness and the evil, this darkness of this time in which we're living. And the people yell out Barabbas, Barabbas, Barabbas, crucify him, crucify him, let his blood be upon us and upon our children. I mean, the lightest brightest guy that's ever walked the earth. The world is crying out for him to be crucified. Because why Jesus said, they love their darkness rather than light. And they're gonna hate you if you are a whistleblower. If you expose the wickedness. I've never advocated that you and I need to, do anything except tell the truth. Ephesians five eleven, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but expose it. Just simply expose the darkness and you'll be hated. And you'll know that you're doing something good when they want your head like they did John the Baptist. Jesus said, they hated me, they're gonna hate you. And so if you wanna be liked by the world, then be like the world. Conform to the world. Live like the world. And keep your mouth shut, keep your head down, and just say, you know, I hope I hope my money's going up in the stock market. I hope I hope I'm get I hope I'm worth a million now, you know. And, you can bank on that. Right? So when the light is turned on, the roaches flee when they're exposed. Put off the clothes of depravity, put off the clothes of darkness, and thirdly, put off the clothes of death. Verse 18 b, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. So the close of depravity and darkness leads to death. Death is separation from God. You're alienated. You don't have a relationship with the true and living God because you're living contrary to who he is from the life of God. You're separated from the life of the spirit. You're living like an animal. You're living on an animal plane doing things that animals do, living like animals, and, god wants to elevate you. God wants to lift you out of that edemic nature, that old nature of living like animals. The ignorance and blindness is a result of rejecting the truth. Jesus said in Matthew thirteen fifteen, this people's heart is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes they have closed less at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their hearts and should be converted and I should heal them. Willful disobedience is the root cause of rejecting the truth. The whole Romans one chapter. Now, why do we incorporate the wisdom of the world into the church? Why is every church, almost every church on the planet over the last fifty years, like we talked about the laws changing in the fifties and the sixties, the sexual revolution and the word of God and prayer taken out of the schools, What filled that void? What filled that that spot where the word of God used to be? It's the secular humanism, humanistic philosophy. The Einsteins that came along, he never wanted to believe in God. So you're a scientist. Hey, we believe in science. We believe that e equals m c two, you know, laws of relativity. So all of a sudden, Einstein is supposed to be the smartest genius guy and everybody's supposed to listen to Einstein, but he doesn't believe in God. Well, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. You might have a few things to say about science or that I can listen to, but when it comes to the real issues of life, where am I gonna spend eternity? How do I get into heaven? How can I have my sins forgiven? Well, I don't even believe you there is sin. I don't believe there is a God. I don't even believe there is a hell. Well, it's appointed on all men once to die and then the judgment, we'll find out, won't we? Do you really wanna gamble that way? Karl Marx was an atheist. Doesn't believe there's a God. Again, a fool has said in his heart there is no God. And that word fool means he's either insane, he's lost his faculties or he's lying to himself. He's lying to everybody else. Because deep down, everybody knows there's a God. Even the demons believe in God. You say you believe in God, you do well. The demons also believe and tremble. The devil certainly believes in God. The devil believes that he wants to be God. Right? So you're gonna be the guy that says there is no God? And so in Romans one, you willingly suppress the truth, the evidence, the revelation of creation, Einstein, Karl Marx. You're gonna suppress that glory that God gets from his creation as being the creator, and you're gonna say there is no creator? So now we're gonna go to Darwin. And Darwin who is once a Christian as a child, now he's abandoned his faith, and now he's gonna bring forth a scientific thesis or theory that we call Darwinian evolution. And then the church wimps out, the modernist era at the end of the eighteen hundreds, and they start to come forth with a counter punch, which they call theistic evolution. Oh, that God got it started, theistic, and then it evolved slowly over billions of years. Because with the carbon dating and all, you see, I mean, you you go down this track. No proof, but if you wanna prosper, you gotta mimic these fallacies. You gotta mimic these things to progress through college and get good jobs. Because if you're the radical Christian that says none of that's true, you're gonna stand out like a sore thumb, aren't you? You might lose your job for telling the truth. And then you've got Freud, Sigmund Freud. He hated Christianity. Hated it. Well, why are you incorporating the rudimentary elementary philosophies of men in Colossians? The behavior of man, the study of the behavior of the brain and all. You you can't separate between the soul and the spirit and the joint and the marrow. Only the word of God can with the help of the holy spirit. The word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, dividing us under of soul and spirit and joint and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Only God can do that. And the preacher, the teacher better recognize that the word of God is doing the work. Not his ideas or what he learned from Freud. I could I could start the sermon with one little verse and then I could talk about, let's talk today about how you can have a better family. Everybody wants a better family. But what's the substance? What's where's the meat? What how what what are what tools are we gonna give you to have a better family? The word of God. That's what we would do. We'd give you the word of God. But the churches today are gonna be therapeutic. They're gonna be saying, oh, it's not your fault. And oh, hugs and drugs and and they're gonna go psycho on you. Psychology. The wisdom of men. And then they're gonna hire people that'll talk to you for seventy five dollars an hour. Christian counselors. Because the pastor's not doing his job. He's not feeding the sheep. It's idiocy. Freud hated Christians. Why do you incorporate Freud? Then you got Nietzsche, a German philosopher and thinker. Nazis, many people embraced Nietzsche. He hated God. He's a God hater. Why would any Christian, especially pastors incorporate the empty philosophies of these blind leaders of the blind that Jesus said, the blind leading the blind are gonna fall into the ditch. I don't wanna follow blind men. I wanna follow Jesus. In fact, I don't really like following men. Any man, you don't wanna follow me. You wanna follow Jesus. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the father but by me. What if I gain some powerful influence? I wrote a book and all of a sudden I get popular. You're gonna follow me? You don't wanna do that. People follow celebrity pastors. You don't wanna do that. They're gonna break your heart. It's not good for them. It's not good for you. Keep your eyes on Jesus. He's the hero. He's the one we follow. That's why I'm always I'm always transparent enough to make fun of myself. I don't want you to take me too serious. I want you to take Jesus with all your heart. When the Greeks came to Philip, they said, sir, we would see Jesus. Pastors, get out of the way so that the people can see Jesus. Too much of you in the pulpit. Too much of your I I I I I I think I think I think. I saw this week, I read an article about Rick Warren where pretty tragic. He brought it on himself, but he he changed the landscape of Christianity with his purpose driven. All these churches in our community that used to be something something Baptist or Christ this, everybody rebranded. And they came with more of a neutral name. And it wasn't going to church, it was a gathering, and they were so afraid of offending the world that, you know, we're too Christ like. We got too many crosses. We got too much this and that and the other. We gotta water it all down. We gotta make it more entertaining and more feel good and the whole thing, you know. And no more prophecy. No. Wasn't your none of your business when Jesus is gonna return. So none of these churches teach prophecy. And it's deeds, not creeds, so you gotta go out and do be a do gooder, a Catholic do gooder, a Protestant Catholic do gooder now, but no teaching. Ignorant of the word of God. Don't know your left hand from your right, the blind leading the blind falling into the ditch. And so here he is preaching on purpose driven, finding your purpose in life. And his son suicided himself with a gun. Tragic. How how terrible. Don't wanna try to capitalize on that. That could happen to any of us. Right? But how tragic? You're the guy that's treating or teaching people how to find their purpose and your son doesn't know what his purpose is. Doesn't and that could happen in any home. Any we we we our our hearts bleed, our hearts break for that what happened there. And then you you see where where he's kicked out of the Southern Baptist. They've kicked him out. They've he's no longer allowed to be part of the Southern Baptist convention and all. The church of 20,000 people, not there anymore with that many people. It's still there, Saddleback Church, he's kicked out. Well, part of it he brings on himself because he's forcing women pastors. How many churches around here are mimicking getting their orders from Rick Warren trying to put women into the pastorate now? We studied last week. It's pastors, teachers, they're men, they're masculine, not feminine. The husband of one wife. Husband. Do we know what a husband is? It's a no brainer. But he's gonna force it, twist it like he did with his purpose driven book, getting a lot of his lies from the message, a paraphrase twisting the scriptures. And so the Southern Baptist have enough gumption to kick them out. And then his own church. His own church, the board meets because he takes a four month sabbatical when his son dies, is understandable. And when it's time to come back, they don't want him. And then they bring in a guy that he recommends and that guy lasts for eight months and he's gone. And a lot of this he brought on himself because he strayed from the word of God. Should've stayed with the word of God. The pragmatism of it all, recognizing the apostasy of the church, he capitalized on the apostasy. They knocked on doors and they said, what do you want in the church? Has Jesus ever knocked on your door and asked you, what do you want in your church? It's his church. He doesn't care what you want in your church. It's his church. The Laodicean church is a people rule church. It's a lukewarm apostate church that gains control of the church and puts Jesus out of the church. He's knocking on the door. Let me in. I miss fellowship. And that's what Rick Warren lend himself toward was the lay of the scene apostate lukewarm church of the last days. Kicking Jesus, the incarnate word of God out of his own church. So we got a lot of social clubs out there, socialization, because we're better than the democrats. We're the good people. I can see through it. And I go crazy seeing through it because it's such a big lie. Because there's none righteous, no not one. Alienated from God. Willful disobedience, the root cause, the the priests, the pedophile priests, the unfaithful pastors, the immorality of the church today, all result of turning our backs upon Jesus and his word. Willful disobedience, rejecting the truth, rebellion, suppressing the truth and God says, I'll give them over in Romans one. Put off the clothes of depravity, of darkness, of death, and fourthly, put off the the clothes, the old clothes of degeneracy. Ellen degenerate, who being past failing have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all in cleanness with greediness. So this speaks of unbridled lust. And notice it it speaks of greediness. They make a lot of money off pornography. There's a lot of money being made on sex trafficking, human trafficking, enormous amounts of money. And if people during the tribulation period, if they can make slaves of people, sexual slaves and use sorcery, pharmakia, drugs and all, God help the children. Children are being cloned. Children are being, harvested presently. So Chinese billionaire that brings them back, gets them going here, takes them back to China. There's sexual toys for these degenerates. These billionaire degenerates. And you never you never see any of them prosecuted, never gonna happen. Watch your kids. Don't put your kids in the public school. Don't put your kids in a place where where you're trusting in anybody. Even churches, especially churches. Dads, you need to go to whatever events the kids wanna go to at church. Moms, you need to be there. Don't trust youth groups. They'll they'll twist in Harry Potter. They'll twist it and make it amenable. They'll make it so that we can digest Harry Potter. We can digest witchcraft because we just Christianized it. What does light have in common with darkness? What does Christ have in common with Belial? Come out from among them be separate. Don't be unequally yoked together with the unbelievers. Let there be a distinction, a line drawn. Don't emulate the world, the degeneracy of the world. You're unbridled lust, you become a degenerate, you love filth and you parade your filth, your gay pride parades, you're unashamed, you're greedily demanding more victims, more sex slaves. They're trying to legalize pornography. I mean, legalize pedophilia. Oprah said if it's done right, it's good for the kids. And then I saw a thing where in the last five years, I don't know if this is true, there's so many lies going on, but it caught my attention that they've been depleting the levels of testosterone in men. So when you see this outrage of children being preyed upon, pedophilia, you don't even have the gumption to do anything about it. Now that's a insult to many of the women because they will. They they don't need testosterone to know what's right, you know. I love that there's so many women in this church that have concealed carry and are ready to use it. The mama bear, anybody messes with her little bears, they gotta go through mama bear. Not gonna happen, is it? For many of them, the problem is they've never had a bloody nose. They've been bullies and they get away with it and they need to be knocked down. They need a bloody nose. They need someone to stand up against them. And the way that we stand up to them is truth. Unafraid, we tell the truth. We expose them with truth. And boy, the strongest opposition, the strongest opposition that I faced is from so called Christians. When I have the courage to stand up and tell the truth, it's always these lukewarm Christians that oppose me. What am I lying to you? Am I trying to hurt you? Is that what I'm in the business of? Hurting and lying to people, leading you into into greater sin? Aren't I trying to protect you and wake you up and get you to not go down that path? It's difficult though. It's really difficult. But as you guys mature and you grow in the word, it's easier and easier and easier for me. I don't even have to tell you. You already know. Because you're a man and woman of the word led by the holy spirit. You've extricated yourself. You've you've gotten away from the bondage of the world. And you would think a Christian would already be there, but there's so many people professing to be Christians in the church today that are not Christian. There's no transformation or change. They're just like the world. They emulate the world. They want what the world has. They have the dog going back to the vomit, the sow going to its wallowing in the mire. The nature has not been changed. They need to be born again. It's hard directing unregenerate people. It's hard pastoring unregented unregenerate goats among the sheep causing trouble for thirty years here. And then there's the beautiful wonderful people that are it's effortless because they're following Jesus. It's effortless. You don't even say anything a lot of times. Your conscience been severed with a hot iron. You're a reprobate. You're porn addicted. You're degenerate. Are these the clothes of a Christian? The characteristics of a Christian? No. Put on. So you put off those other ones. Put on the new clothes of number one relationship for your note takers. Put on the clothes of relationship. You need to be born again. You need a relationship with Jesus. He's not telling you to go out there and buy new clothes. He's not telling you to fix the old clothes. He's telling you to put them off. When Kathy and I got saved, we were brand new, six months in the Lord, a year in the Lord, and, I had my, I still had my party clothes. The clothes that I'd wear, you know, after work, at night, wherever, and I felt guilty. I felt like, you know what? These, I threw them in the dumpster. Got rid of them. Got rid of things that definitely remind me of the world. The worldly power that we have, influence that we have. Purposely get rid of them. Don't want them. So I began to dress like the Amish and I got a weird haircut and cut my nice beautiful hair and I worked real hard at being uglier and it worked. It worked. The girls left me alone because I was married now. Verse 20, but you have not so learned Christ. Do you know him? Learned Christ, Not a doctor. Do you know Christ? Do you know Jesus? You don't need a doctorate in theology. You don't need to be doctor Rick Baudry. How's that sound? Finally, I'm a doctor. I've made it. Will you respect me now? Will I get the respect now? Because I've been Rodney Dangerfield, man. I get no respect. Now I don't need that. I just wanna know Jesus. But you have not so learned Christ. That's not the Jesus you know. That's not the Jesus you know, the degenerate Jesus. I don't even wanna say that sounds so blasphemous. You don't bring that filth into the church and Christianize it. That's not the Jesus we know. It's his church. You have not so learned Christ. That's not the Jesus we know. Do you know him? Christianity is a relationship. He says, verse 21, if so be that you have heard him, can you hear him? Do you have ears to hear? Is the bible making sense to you now? Can you read his word and the lord speak to you by his spirit through the teaching of his word? It's okay to be a babe. It's okay to have milk. Do you understand John three sixteen? Do you understand that Nicodemus was a religious teacher of the law? And in John three, Jesus told him, you must be born again. You need a relationship with me, man. You're still body and soul. Do you understand that Saul of Tarsus was a doctor of theology, a rabbi, the most brilliant Jewish man of his era, and he didn't know Jesus? Who art thou lord? I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting, Paul, Saul. You need to know him. You need to know him. If so be that you have heard him and have been taught by him, are you being taught by Jesus? I want the Lord to teach you. I don't know if you've noticed it, but every time we start the service, I ask the Lord to be our teacher. Do you get that? Do you catch that? You're a disciple. I'm just a vessel. We need him to speak through me through his word. And I have confidence that if I stick with his word, he's gonna honor his word because it's not gonna come back void, and he's gonna teach you. And what do you what's he gonna teach you? Bunch of facts? No. He's gonna reveal himself to you. You're gonna get to know him better than when he came in here. You're gonna hide his word away in your heart. And when you're faced with one of these crazy lies that come in, you're gonna take that thought captive. You're gonna compare it to the word of God, and you're gonna say, I reject that thought. No matter how much that guy thinks he's a expert, whether he's Einstein or Marx or Freud or Roy or Darwin, it doesn't matter to me. If it's inconsistent with God's word, then I reject it. I spit it out. I'm not giving into it. Because as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. The way that you think affects your behavior, your character. You sow a thought, you reap an action. You sow an action, you reap a habit. You sow a habit, you reap a character. You sow a character, you reap a destiny. The fruit of your life, the actions of your life. Jesus said, by their fruit, shall know them. He says, been taught by him as that the truth is in Jesus. The truth is found in Jesus. Now, John ten twenty seven twenty eight. This is a passage that I use to comfort me when I can't get through to people. I try so hard. I try I mean, I'm not doing this to be the stupidest guy in the Peninsula to have the smallest church in the Peninsula. I know we need to grow. So I try real hard to connect with people based upon the truth of God's word, but there is no compromise. It's God's word. I will not compromise God's word, But I try real hard to get you to understand God's word. It's not me saying that. It's the word of God saying this. Well, but I think I think I don't care what you think. It's irrefutable. It's the word of God. And I try I so here's where I go. Matthew thirteen fifteen. Oh, no. Excuse me. John ten twenty seven. My sheep, and notice the personal pronouns, my sheep. When we do Sally's funeral, we're gonna use our our sermon text, Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. Mine. I shall not want. In this case here, Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice. So I'm using the word of God and I'm trying to teach the word of God and I can't connect. My job is to communicate. Your job is to take the tennis ball when it's hit there and do something with it. If you bury it or reject it or whatever, nothing I can do about that. It's it's a it's a it's a partnership we have. I'll get you the word of God. I can't make you do it. I can't make you apply it. You might wanna go do porn right after this. You might wanna go get drunk right after this. I'm gonna encourage you to not do that. I'm gonna encourage you not go down that path. As much as I can but I can't force you. I can't make you. I can try to educate you and get you to see that smoking the weed, the herb is killing you and killing your relationship with the lord. But what you do with that information is up to you. I'm not gonna compromise with you. I'm not gonna Christianize the herb and say, hey, we have the brew that Jesus brewed, and we're all gonna start drinking together. You know? No. That's not gonna happen here. And we're not gonna pull out our pipes and smoke the herb that they do or the gummies or whatever. Not gonna do it. Not gonna happen. We're gonna be weirdos. We're gonna be strangers. We're gonna be aliens compared to this world. Our citizenship is in heaven. We we don't I don't need any more friends. I don't wanna be a friend of the world. Some of you are my friends. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Are you the real deal? If you're the real deal, then you're gonna be able to hear from the Lord. You're gonna be a doer of the word not a hearer only. You're you're not gonna make the entire objective of this church to appease you so that you'll stay. You're the most important person in the room wherever you go. And boy, we better get on board or you're out of here. Well, bye. I hope they glorify you somewhere else because we only glorify Jesus. Nobody will ever pluck them out of my hands so you're secure. What clothes you're wearing? What clothes do you have on? Put on the clothes of relationship. Secondly, put on the clothes of repentance. Verse 22, this is one of the ways we know that you're a sheep is repentance. If there's no repentance, then we we have to we have to conclude or evaluate that your profession of faith is empty because there's no turning from your sin. You're still the degenerate you once were. You're still the drunk you once were. You're still addicted to porn you once were. Now it may not all go away instantly. Your old, ademic nature is gonna fight with you, but there's definitely the fruit of repentance turning from these sins. Like like I tried to illustrate to you, I got rid of my clothes. Kathy got rid of all of the horoscope stuff that was in her mom's house. It was her mom's stuff. And when Kathy got saved, she went up there and grabbed it all, all the charts, all the everything. Her it was expensive stuff. Her mom was into that. Her mom thought she was going to heaven but hey, like Nancy Reagan, let's incorporate the one nine hundred psychic numbers, you know. Kathy went up and got rid of it. Didn't ask no question. It's gone. And she's always been that way. She's gonna she's going to filter the the eye gate, made a covenant with my eyes that I wouldn't look on any unholy thing. I mean, my wife still watches leave it to beaver. And it's kinda funny. She can't tolerate the show. She just just they're just too vulgar. So she goes back to pure shows, you know, shows like leave it to beaver with Eddie Haskell. It's pretty funny. Mister Cleaver, it's pretty funny. But I mean, she's the filter. She didn't tolerate it. She won't allow it in her home. Not when the girls were growing, not with the grandkids. None of it. She's a different person. He says that you put off, put off concerning the former conversation, that word conversation is manner of life, the way that you used to live in the King James. Some of your bibles will tell you that. That you put off concerning the former manner of life, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust. So you got this old ademic nature, this old man that's warring against the spirit that's just living like an animal on an edemic fallen nature. Galatians three twenty seven says, for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. So the old life of you has gone underneath the water. It's a picture of death. That that person's gone. Some of you have had the blessing of baptizing you. And that old life of yours is down. It's gone. It's dead. You put off those old clothes. You come up out of the water in the newness of life, the new clothes of righteousness on. The clothes that Jesus gives you. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. So death to the old man throwing off the old clothes, putting on Christ. Put on the new clothes of relationship, repentance, and thirdly, renewal. Verse 23, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Colossians three ten says, you have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. And so be not conformed to this world. Don't let the world force you into its pattern. You don't wanna pattern your life after the world. Be not conformed, you're a nonconformist. Being peer pressure, peer pressure to conform, peer pressure to be like, oh, I got a lot of likes. I got a lot of likes. I discovered something a few months ago on Facebook. It's called block them. Unfriend them. I used to try so hard to debate and talk and reason. It's just a fight. It's it's so much easier. You're blocked. Can they block this person? Waste of my time. Time waster. Go torment somebody else. And then I find out they call them bots or they purposely send these guys to torment, you know, gaslight you, whatever. But you'll spend this time because pastor Chuck taught us that if somebody's looking for answers, you spend time with them to help them find the answers in the word of God. But if some somebody is just looking for an argument, you don't waste your time. You don't cast your pearls before swine. You move on to find somebody that's truly seeking, who's truly wanting to know the truth, and you invest in them to try and help them and teach them and lead and guide them and disciple them and all. And so this renewal of your mind, don't be conformed to this world but be transformed. So you've got these transhumanists. These guys wanna play God. They wanna say you're never gonna die. They wanna take a human being. They wanna use the crisper. They wanna slice the DNA of a person and, bring forth another person or a portion of a person, an animal, whatever. And we're speculating about what is that image of the beast. I don't know what the image of the beast is gonna be. Is it gonna be mechanical? Is it gonna be transhuman? Part man, part human being, part nepheline, part what? What what is it? It has breath in it. It's able to speak. Well, what kind of speak? What's it mean? It gave it life. What's that mean? It's just because it has, you know, arms waving and talking and can it think? What what do you mean? Is it demon possessed? What is it? I don't know. But I know that the Lord can transform and change you. The devil's a counterfeiter. He wants to put a chip in your head. And he wants to try and connect the soul, the center of your mind, your will, emotion with a computer and download your soul into that computer and voila, you're gonna live forever according to these guys. It's idiocy. It's like giving them a $100 to cut your head off and investing in chyrogenics that one day, they're gonna thaw your head out and put it on a body once they discover, you know, how to do it. The frozen chosen, I guess. Crazy what people do when they have no hope. Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove who is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And it's reasonable the verse before. Romans 12 verse one. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice under the Lord, holy and acceptable unto him, which is your reasonable. It's reasonable. You're a thinker now. It's reasonable. It makes sense. It's your reasonable service. It's an act of worship. It's an act of worship to present yourself to God. Here, my Lord, use me. I don't know if you can, but wherever I fit in, let me serve you. But change me Lord, transform and change me that I not think like a worldling anymore. David after he sinned in Psalm 51 verse 10. If you've ever sinned, if you've ever really blown it as a Christian, if you've ever really fallen to the depths of many of us, the depths of David. He wrote in Psalm 32 and Psalm 38 and Psalm 51, his repentant Psalms crying out to God. In Psalm 51 verse 10, he says, create in me a clean heart, oh God. His heart became filthy. He entertained filthiness. David had a lust problem that he carried with him into his relationship with God. Hit a weakness with women like Solomon and like Samson. That's why I always warn you guys about the devil with the blue dress on. Be careful. I think it's blue. But there's power. These women have power over you. Incredible power. Reduce you to a crust of bread, baby. Crust of bread and shudder at the power they have. Man, that's why I married her. That's why I married her. I gave in. It's real power. It's reasonable that we worship him, present ourselves. The renewing of our mind. We not think like a worldly person. We think biblically. Put on the new clothes of relationship, repentance, renewal, and fourthly and finally, recreation. Verse 24. And then you put on the new man, which after God has created in righteousness and true holiness. You get to put on the new man with the help of the holy spirit. It's God's idea to transform and change you. You're a demic in nature before you're born again. You're fallen in nature. It's just who you are. Can't help yourself. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God see eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And you called upon the name of the Lord, he's gonna save you from what? From yourself. Your greatest enemy is you, your fallen nature. He's gonna save you from yourself. He's gonna transform. A metamorphosis is gonna take place. Not Elon. None of these people can do this. They can't transform and change you. They can't reform prisoners. They can't change them. Can't change their response. Only god internally can go in and transform and change a sinner. A metamorphosis from death to life. And that you put on the new man which after God has created in righteousness and true holiness, not a not a false holiness of wearing the robe and the collar and forgive me father if I have sinned. Then these guys go out and pedophile everybody. They go out and tell you to say five Hail Mary's for our fathers. That's not holiness. That's religion. It's just religion. It's a system and they have control over you. It's a pyramid scheme. The potpourri is at the top in his pope mobile. I wanna drive that pope mobile. I want to crush it. And in case you need a you've got that just that desire to meet a celebrity, you can kiss my ring. I'll sign your bible. I'll I'll do that for you. If if you're into that stuff, you gotta meet the pope and I'll introduce you to Jesus. But if if you want me to sweat and give you one of my sweat rags, I'll give you a sweat rag. We can do that. I can posture myself. I can act like I'm holier than thou. If if you if you had me sign your bible, what's that gonna do for you? I got pastor Rick's autograph. That gets you to jail five years longer probably. You're associated with that guy? Shannon and Sean are praying about starting a youth group, and I you can ask them. I told them this this morning. I said, you know, you might wanna start that youth group on your on your own because a lot of people hate me. And if you tied in with us, with me, you might have a hard time getting people to let their kids attend. That's the reality. She oh, no. No. No. There's people that like you. There's people that listen to you on the radio. The people live alright. Alright. I don't see them here, but okay. Try it, but I just gotta warn you. I'm not one of those celebrities that everybody likes. My gift is emptying the church out. That's my gift. You try real hard sowing and watering and bringing an increase and and man, I seem to offend. I seem to they're gone. And some of them, they set their watches for 12:00. Their phones go off. They gotta take their pills, I guess. I don't want you to drop dead. You can take your pills. Or it's your sign to get to the casino real quick, or you got somewhere else to go. I know. I know who I am. And you put up with a lot, but you know what? You chose to be here. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things are passed away. All things have become new. So new clothes for a new creation. The devil cannot do that. They're gonna counterfeit. They're gonna try it in the tribulation period, but the devil cannot create a new person. In job twenty nine fourteen, he says, I put on righteousness and it clothed me. My judgment was as a robe and a diadem. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he said, Lazarus, come forth. And he said, loose him. He was wrapped like a mummy. Take off those old clothes. Take off those grave clothes. God wants you to put off the dead clothes, the grave clothes, and put on the new clothes of righteousness. For this corruptible, first Corinthians fifteen fifty three, for this corruptible must put on incorruption, this mortal must put on immortality. The old corrupt clothes go back to the dust, from dust to dust. And there's no cleaning of the old clothes. There's no reforming the old man. There's no making or system of making you a better sinner. You're still a sinner. You need to be changed from the inside and only God can do that. As we corrupt cooperate with the Holy Spirit, as we turn from our sins, as we cry out to God, God be merciful to me a sinner. As we look to his word and we pray and we ask God to change me. Lord, change me. Lord, I'm not trying to hide this sin. Lord, create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me like David prayed. Lord, the problems meet, the problems internal. Change me from the inside, Lord. Cause me to not lust. Cause me to not desire that filth anymore. Change my appetite. Change me, Lord. Change me from the inside. I can drink all the alcohol I want. I just have no desire for it now. That's freedom. That's real freedom. I'm not all white knuckled when I see you guys holding a drink like, oh gosh, I gotta refrain. I gotta keep from grabbing that. I'm free, and you're free to make your own decision. That's freedom. Have you put off the old, the depravity, the darkness, the death, the degeneracy? Are you ready for the wedding? Are you dressed appropriately? Revelation nineteen seven says, let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. Are you ready? And to her was granted that she should be airing fine linen clean and white for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. And there's no train of teepee behind that wedding gown. There's no price tag underneath the arm. Okay? There's no prideful rags of righteousness. There's no saying to the Lord, you know Lord, I'm pretty righteous. I'm I'm pharisaical and I'm better. I fast. I decide that. Jesus said that man prayed with himself. But the publican wouldn't so much as lift up his eyes to heaven and said, god be smote his breast, god be merciful to me a sinner. Jesus said, that man went away justified. All our righteousness are as filthy rags. They're like that toilet paper dragging behind us. We think, oh, look how cool this is. Oh, wow. I'm gonna start a new trend. I'm gonna get everybody to run around with toilet paper. And some people are stupid enough to emulate it. I mean, the stuff that they do, who comes up with all this piercing? You take a beautiful, beautiful face that God's given you. And now you're gonna put a ring right here, and somebody's gonna have a chain on it. You know? You you put it here. I mean, why you I don't get it. What what what drives you to cheapen who you are? And if you've got a near ear, nose, whatever piercing, where everybody piercing or tattoo, I don't care. I'm just saying, why? Is that is that becoming of a Christian? Is that is that I mean, go be Amish if you want. I don't care. I mean, maybe I should go get a tattoo. I don't know. I I just don't desire any tattoos. And I don't condemn people that have tattoos. I don't condemn people that smoke. But why? Why do you wanna hurt your body? All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. And I won't be brought under the power of any. I told my girls, hey, no tattoos. We went on a mission trip and Jessica, ever the rebel, she went and got a tattoo while we're on the mission trip. And her first tattoo is on one of her toes that she could hide it with her flip flop. I didn't know about till we got home. And she's still gorgeous. She's still beautiful and all that, but it just makes me wince a little bit when I see beautiful beautiful young ladies. And all of a sudden, eyes go toward this thing right there, here on the tongue or wait a minute. That's a distraction. You got a beautiful nose. You got beautiful lips. What do you what do you need to pierce it for? Where'd you get that? You you how I don't know. Anyway, I don't wanna be like the world. I'm afraid of what's gonna come next. You worry about what your kids are gonna get drawn into, you know. How did that happen? And you know what? If you're filled with the holy spirit, you love Jesus, I don't care how many piercings you have, how many tattoos. It's what's on the inside that matters. Shining bright for Jesus. I'm just trying to say, don't let the world influence you. If the holy spirit's telling me, hey, get that get that piercing. Open up more doors to to witness to other pierced people. I don't know if that's your thing. Hey, get some tattoos. You can you can go to Sturgis and minister to the bikers. Get a Harley. Go ahead. Well, if that's your ministry, go for it. But one thing I've learned is people in the world, they say they see through counterfeit Christians. You're not fooling anybody. If you're a hog rider, then be a real hog rider. Alright? I asked Kathy, hey, looks what if we got a motorcycle? Would you be my motorcycle mama and ride on the back? She goes, oh, no way. You'd crash it. And she says, and we wouldn't die. We'd be eaten through a straw, and I'm not gonna do that. She's willing to die but she don't wanna she doesn't wanna live through a straw. So alright. And girl's independent, independent thinker. So maybe you're embarrassed today realizing you're dressed inappropriately. The king has some new clothes for you. In Isaiah one eighteen, he says, come now and let us reason together though your sins be as scarlet, he'll make them white as snow. Though they'd be red like crimson, he'll make them as wool. He's got a clean white garment, linen garment for you to wear. The prodigal when he comes home, the the father's got a ring to put on his finger to be sealed by the holy spirit. He's got a fatted calf to celebrate with. He's got a robe of righteousness to put upon his son. God has a robe for you to wear, a robe of righteousness. Put on your new clothes for all to see. Put off the camo. Put on your clothes for all to see. Don't try to be invisible. Carhartt camos, you know. Hey, nobody can see me. I'm a I'm a secret agent Christian. No. Let your light so shine before men that they see your good works and glorify your father in heaven. Don't bury the light. Don't bury the lamp and put it under a bushel. Walk with Jesus, showing them off to the world in darkness. Let your light shine for his kingdom and glory. If you're a musician, you don't need to listen to hours and hours and hours of worldly music to make a Christian song. Why would you wanna emulate the world and Christianize your song and get into the Christian market because you're not good enough to be in the general market? And then use Christianity for all the unsuspecting idiot Christians who love the world. And then once you make it, then you try your crossover. How many times that's happened? How about how about you be a worshiper and sit at the Lord's feet and let him give you the tune and the words, the everything, and let it be a gift to the body of Christ? Why don't you be different? Why don't you bring back rock and roll? Tired of this rap stuff, you know. I'm just kidding. Just kidding. My grandkids, I say, what songs do you guys like? And I have them put them on my phone. I got Judah songs and I listen to them. I like them. They got this guy, Forrest Frank, I think it is. And just tells little stories and stuff. Can't listen a whole lot of it. I love worship music. That's me. I don't like worldly music. And I didn't take my music that was worth a million dollars and go throw it in the dumpster like I did my clothes. Yes, I did. Who cares? People, oh, I shouldn't have thrown that away. When I became a Christian, I threw those albums away. You know what they're worth right now? Get rid of it. Get rid of it. You don't need to carry it around. That's not who you are anymore. You're a new creation in Christ. Father, we thank you. We thank you for your love. We thank you for giving us new clothes to wear. Lord, we're like Adam and Eve. We covered our nakedness with fig leaves. We tried to cower and hide, and we're ashamed of who we are. But Lord, you came along and you fashioned coats of skins, and, Lord, the blood, your precious blood is washed and cleansed us of all unrighteousness. We're clothed with Christ. We put on Christ. And Lord, we thank you for that righteousness. We thank you that we don't have to work for it. We don't have to work to keep it. We just yield. We just wear it. We wear Christ wherever we go. And so, Lord, we pray that you would continue that work that you've begun in us, that we would grow, that you would transform and change us from glory to glory into the image of your dear son. We pray, Lord, that as we sit at your feet, Lord, that you administer deep within us and help us to communicate, give us ears to hear, help us to articulate and express our prayers. And as we intercede for James, we pray that you you just comfort him now, Lord. You be a bulwark. You be his rock right now. You be the one where where, Lord, he's he's broken before you, but, Lord, you've got him. He's in he's in your arms. And Lord, we thank you that Sally's safe and secure. We thank you that Joe's secure. Lord, we thank you that you're watching over the widows, Linda and others. And Lord, we thank you that we have a future and a hope. Lord, it's not over for Sally. She's more alive than we are. So father, we pray that we not be playing any games, no games, not being professors. Lord, let us all be possessors, that we all possess, that we all have the Holy Spirit living and dwelling within us, transforming us, growing in the grace and knowledge of you. Anyone here this morning, you don't have a relationship with Jesus, but you want to. You want one. The Holy Spirit's convicting you. The Holy Spirit's showing you that you've been lying to yourself, that you're living a double life, so to speak. And the Holy Spirit loves you too much. He's sending Nathan the prophet and pointing at you saying, David, you're the man. You're the one covering your sin, and you're not gonna prosper. And David, with that gift of confrontation, David cried out to God, and David received forgiveness of his sins. God wants to forgive you of your sin. God wants to transform and change you. God wants to give you the robe of righteousness. God wants to create within you a clean heart. He wants to remove the stony heart. He wants to remove the filth from your heart and mind. He wants to make you new. Anyone here this morning? You want God to transform and change you, to draw you into a deep, rich relationship with the true and living God. Just lift your hand up. We wanna pray with you. Anyone here this morning? Father, thank you. Thank you for your love. Thank you for the peace that we enjoy that surpasses all understanding that guards our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Lord, we pray that you'd equip us and strengthen us that we'd be able, Lord, empowered to be a comfort to those around us, be a comfort to those who are perishing. Lord, let us be a tool in in your arsenal, Lord, that that loves, that speaks the truth in love, that doesn't cower in fear to opposition, but stands firm uncompromisingly in these last days to be lovers of truth and proclaim the good news of your soon return. Let us be students of your word, Lord, that rightly dividing the word of truth. Help us to not be carried away with every slate of and cunning craftiness of the wicked one and the false teachers in the age in which we're living. Help us to bring clarity to those who are confused, to preach Christ, to introduce them to you, Lord, to keep it simple, that even a child could understand. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.