Warning: The following content is an automated transcript and may not be correct.
Father, we thank you for this day that you have given us. Lord, thank you for your blessings and your mercy and your grace that you have given us. Father, thank you for bringing us together today to worship you and praise you and be in your word. Today. Father, I pray, as we are in your word, that you will be glorified.
As your word transforms us by the renewing of our minds, that we may be more like you, live more like you, and glorify you in our deeds. Father, I pray that you will hide us today from the distractions of the world, that our hearts may be on you right now. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. All right, everyone, welcome back to church.
It's wonderful to be here today. Just a quick reminder. Wednesday at 630, we will be meeting again for Bible study. We'll still be in the book or, sorry, the first chapter of Luke, for maybe another week or so. But as we get back into first corinthians today, I just want to remind everyone kind of where we are and frame it.
I don't want to lose sight of where we are in the book, because understanding where we are in the book and how it fits at the book overall is important to how we will interpret the book in the passage as well. So with that said, we are still in the moral laxity chapter of first Corinthians. We're dealing with issues of impurity ranging from sexual immorality to legal disputes and marriage that we're going to discuss. Shawnee can pull that up any second for you and you'll be able to see where we are. So we're still dealing with issues of impurity.
Last week we dealt with sexual immorality, specifically in chapter five. Today we're going to be talking about the issues of lawsuits in the church as well as fornication. Sexual immorality continued. And then next week we'll finish this section of the book out. We'll be talking about marriage and its sanctity next week, as we frame that up, where we are still within impurity and moral laxity.
I just want to mention, because I've had it pointed out to me, that people have felt like I might have targeted them him with the message. And I just want to remind everyone, we are in a chapter by chapter and verse by verse study. And I want you to keep that in mind with today's message in particular, because the message that Paul has for us tonight, that God has set aside for us tonight, is not relevant only for the church in Corinth 2000 years ago, but is very relevant within our church today. So just keep that in mind as we go. We're chapter by chapter and verse by verse.
Let's begin and read. We're going to break this down. We're going to read verses one through six. Paul says, if any of you have a dispute against another, how dare you take it to court before the unrighteous and not before the saints? Don't you know that the saints will judge the world and that the world is judged by you?
Are you unworthy to judge the trivial cases? Don't you know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? So if you have such matters, do you appoint as your judges those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame.
Can it be that there is not one wise person among you who is able to arbitrate between fellow believers? Instead, brother goes to court against brother and that before unbelievers. This is a scolding message from Paul. He is not happy and he is not right in an a pleasant tone. So he begins by saying, if any of you have a dispute against a brother, now, let's be honest.
We live in a fallen world. I'm a sinner, you're a sinner, we're all sinners. Can there be disputes that rise up among us? I think so. I think Christ anticipated disputes rising up among us when he gave us Matthew, chapter 18, that addressed how to handle such disputes among us.
Things happen, and we assume it will happen. And Paul even assumes, he says, if you have a dispute, but look what he says. He says, how dare you take it to court before the unrighteous and not before the saints.
This is strong language here. There are three strong phrases here. How dare you is a strong phrase. Unrighteous is a strong phrase, and before the saints is a strong phrase. So we're seeing Paul use a lot of strong language in here.
And this word dare, this is, I wanted to look it up before we met today, because is this dare just in the sense that we think of dare, or is there another meaning behind it? And Paul had a different thought in mind in dare here. What he meant is they are being bold about this. They are boldly acting in this way where they are taking their matters to court. This is critical when we understand it in light of chapter five.
Remember, in chapter five we have this Mandev who was sleeping with his father's wife, right? He's sleeping with his mother. And the Church of Corinth tolerated it, right? They allowed him to stay in their midst. They took no action against him.
And Paul uses the word dare here in verse one of chapter six to contrast specifically between that event and this, where there they are morally lax, with such strong impurity among them. And then here they're taking trivial matters to human courts. Now, we need to understand here. I hear myself echoing, which means, is everyone muted? Everyone's muted.
I don't know why I hear myself echoing. I think it's coming from upstairs.
Now he says, before you know, you take it to the court before the unrighteous and not before the saints. Am I echoing away? Thank you, Shawnee. So what does this mean when he says, before the unrighteous and not before the saint? You need to understand the language that Paul was using.
He is not using moral language. The issue here is not an issue of morality, where the unrighteous aren't any more unrighteous, really, than we. We are sinners all the same. But it's an issue of the inside versus the outside. If you remember last chapter in verse twelve, he says, what business is it of mine to judge outsiders?
Don't you judge those who are on the inside?
Let's be honest. There's two reasons why this is critical. The first reason has to do with God. In chapter one, Paul dealt with the issue of division in the church. The people were divided and bickering and fighting.
And what image does that division portray to the unsaved world about our goddess and our Lord? But that same thing is applicable here. If I have a problem with you, and I am suing you in the human courts and taking you before the law, before people who are not believers and followers in our God, what precedent does that set? What image does that tell the world about who we are? We're Christians.
We say we're Christians, and we cannot settle issues like a Christian. We have to go before the world to settle our issues. And the second thing at play here is the fact that we're Christians. We live by a different set of standards than the world. Though we walk in this world and live in this world and interact it with a day to day, on a day to day basis, we are not citizens of this world.
We're citizens of the kingdom of God. And as such, we live differently. We have different ways of dealing with each other. We have different ways of dealing with sin and with issues than that of the world. The world which does not live by those standards and uphold those standards is not a world that we want to judge matters between you and you and I want to judge matters between each other the way that God ordained it to happen.
We'll see here. There's more that Paul will say in a little bit when we'll get to there. But he says, do you not know that the saints would judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the trivial cases? Well, take verse three with us.
He says, don't you know that we will judge angels and much more matters of this life? Or how much more matters of this life? Okay, there's something here. The word judge comes up several times. He says, we will judge the world.
We will judge the angels. The Bible is very unclear on what this means. We know that we won't participate in the judgment of where people end up eternally. That is a judgment for God alone. Right?
God alone will judge who is his and who is not, who goes to heaven, who goes to hell. So the context in which judges used here is unclear. I thought that judge might mean to rule, right? Because other passages of the Bible say, tell us that we will be co heirs with Christ. We will participate in the governing of God's creation in the new heavens and new earth.
And so I thought maybe that's what this is referring to. However, when I look at the original language and when I look at the Greek, it means exactly what we would think it means to pass judgment upon. So the context in which we will judge the world and we will judge the angels is really not clear. It's unknown. However, we do know there's going to be a certain if we're to judge the world and judge the angels, there's a certain level of authority given.
But look what Paul says in light of that. Says, are you unworthy to judge the trivial cases? If we can judge the world, can we not judge simple matters between us? And if we are not worthy to judge the trivial matters between us, how can we participate in the judgment of the world?
The things of this life are trivial. Most of the things here are of very low significance. And we have an issue here where Paul is contrasting. You'll notice that Paul doesn't talk about the offending. We have no idea who the offender is, and Paul doesn't spend a lot of time talking about the offender.
Even in chapter five, you will notice that Paul talked very little about the man engaged in incest, and his focus was heavily on the failure of the church to take action.
In chapter five, the church failed to take action and remove from itself the impurity that existed. And in chapter six, the church fails to take action and judge the trivial matters. And that is Paul. He has a lot more to say about the failure of the church than the individual sinners and defenders. So that's something to pay attention to.
To observe is Paul is telling us as a church that we need to act. We need to treat matters seriously when they arise within the church, whether it is to judge between two different believers or to remove an impurity that is a cancerous cell growing within.
So he says, if you have such matters, do you appoint as your judges those who have no standing in the church? And look what he says. He says, I say this to your shame. I have a cross reference here just to remind you of what we saw two weeks ago in chapter four, verse four, look what Paul said. This is the contrast in his language.
Chapter four, verse four. Paul says, I'm scrolling to it, sorry, he says, for I am not conscious.
Then I got the wrong verse.
I started reading it and realized I got the wrong verse.
One moment.
I don't know how I wrote down the wrong verse.
I'm looking for it. Sorry. It is one corinthians four, but it's verse 14. That's how I got the wrong verse. I forgot the one.
So. One corinthians 414.
Paul says that I'm not right in this to shame you, but to warn you is my dear children. So remember what he was talking about in chapter four. Still referring to humility and issues regarding human wisdom and the foolishness of humans. But here he's warning them in chapter four, he says, I'm not trying to shame you. I'm trying to warn you as a loving brother.
Contrast that here. Chapter six, verse five. He says, I say this to your shame. Paul is. His language has changed, his attitude has changed, and he is saying, I am shaming you right now because what they are doing is shameful.
For two christian brothers to take their personal issues or their disputes before a worldly court is shameful. It destroys the christian image, it destroys the testimony of Christ, and it breaks down what God started to build up. Right? To do that, and Paul will make this point later, is to act no differently than the heathen.
He says, can it be that there is not one wise person among you able to arbitrate between fellow believers? It's as if Paul is confused here. He's lost with all the wisdom. Remember chapter one. He prays that in God they have so much knowledge, and he is like, and can it possibly be that no one is able to judge between you?
No one's able to look at this and to say, this is wrong and this is right?
He's confused here again at the inaction of the church, that the church is willing to allow this stuff to happen, and instead, brother goes to court against brother before unbelievers.
Paul really, really hits home here on the issue of lawsuits within the church. To contrast that, we're not going to read it. Everyone can go there on their own. The book of Matthew, chapter 18. Christ is speaking to the disciples, and he tells us how to hand such disputes.
I will paraphrase. He says, if your brother has sinned against you, go to him alone and tell him you have sinned against me. And if he repents, praise God. You have gained a believer. So the very, very first thing, if I have an issue with, I'm going to pick on Richard because he's here and I can see him.
If I have an issue with Richard, my very first priority, my obligation, is to go to him privately with no one else and tell him what he's done against me. And if he repents, it's over. But then it says, if not, you go and you take one or two witnesses with you. Now, that's not. I go and grab my witnesses.
I don't go grab Rhonda and John and then say, hey, listen, this is what Richard has done and how he's harmed me and how he's wrong. And I need you to come back me up. That's not what it says. You are not to tell them anything about what happened. You are to just say, hey, I am dealing with an issue.
I want you to come witness. And so I drive my two witnesses back to Richard, and I'd say, hey, Richard, look, got, we've got a problem. This is what you've done. You didn't repent, and the witnesses can hear it out. Now, here's the great thing.
If I am just sticking a fork somewhere it doesn't belong, the two witnesses are able to say, hey, Matt, you're barking up the wrong tree. Right? And if not, if I really, we really do have an issue, and Richard refuses to repent, then you take it to the church and you air your dirty laundry out before the whole congregation of God. And if Richard then repents, then it's still done. We got a brother.
It's over. And if not, you treat them like a publican. You expel them from the congregation. Right? What Paul instructed us to do in chapter five.
Right? So Paul is hitting home here on how we are supposed to handle internal issues and to contrast the church in Corinth, we have what Christ taught us in Matthew 18. Let's move on. Let's look at verses twelve through 17. Here.
Paul says, as it is, to have legal disputes against one another is already a defeat for you. Why not be wronged? Why not be cheated? Instead, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do this to brothers and sisters. Don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God's kingdom?
Do not be deceived. No sexually immoral people, idolatators, adulterers, or males who have sex with males, nor thieves or greedy people or drunkards, verbally abusive people or swindlers will inherit God's kingdom. And some of you used to be like this, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God. So there's, there's stuff going on here, and we need to look at it. Paul is addressing some of the negative stuff, but he gives us hope as well.
So the first thing he says is to have a legal dispute against one another is already a defeat before you. In the heathen world, in the world of the unbelievers, going to court is a trivial matter. Richard and I go to court, the judge says, you win, you lose and you're done. And theRe's a clear winner and a clear loser. But in the Christian realm, there is no winner in a legal dispute.
In the Christian realm, to take a matter before the court is a loss for everybody because the name of Christ has been tarnished. Paul says instead, why not be wronged? Why not be cheated? It is better if I cannot settle an issue with somebody to let it go and walk away than it is for me to go before the world and to negatively mark our Lord and savior. It is better for me to be cheated, to be wrong, to be persecuted.
To whatever the case may be. It is better to say, you know what? It's nothing worth the name and reputation of christ and let it go. But instead he says, you yourselves do wrong and you cheat and you do this to brothers and sisters. He says, not only are you doing wrong and cheating, you're doing it to your fellow christians.
Now, he gives us a list here of things similar to the list we saw a couple chapters ago that will prevent somebody from entering the kingdom of God. If your life, your character, can be described as this, you need Jesus. He says, do you not know the unrighteous will not inherit God's kingdom? Don't be deceived. There are people out there, the corinthians thought this.
There are christians today who think this and deceive themselves, that it's okay to do these things because Christ has covered me. He says, don't be deceived. Sexually immoral people will not enter the kingdom of God. Idolatators and adulterers will not enter the kingdom of God. Those who practice same sex marriage or even outside of marriage marriage, same sex will not enter the kingdom of God.
Thieves and greedy people and drunkards and verbally abusive people and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God.
If you are, if your life is characterized by these traits, you will not inherit the kingdom of God. And this is, this is sad because Paul here is indicating, he's saying this sin, especially in verse eight. He says, you yourselves do wrong and cheat and do this to brothers and sisters. He says, your behavior is no different than that of the world. Instead of becoming what you are, right?
A new creation in Jesus Christ, you are behaving like you were, and that is a problem.
But there's hope. Look what he says about some of these people in verse eleven. He says, but some of you used to be like this. You know, in our world, once a murderer, always a murderer, once an adulterer, always an adulterer. Right?
Once a thief, always a thief. In God's world, we are not characterized by our past. We are characterized by whether or not Jesus has died for us or not. So he says, as such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified. You were justified.
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God, you can go from murderer to saint, from thieves to saint, from sexually immoral to a saint through the washing and sanctification of Jesus Christ, right? There is hope. However, before this hope comes through, we have to be willing to call sin what it is, and that is sin. We have to be willing to put behind us the immature works of the flesh, those things which we used to find funny, which we used to think were jokes, which we used to do with our friends and put it behind us.
Stop living like we were and live in what we become. Let's look at verses 1212.
I know we've looked at this already. We're going to look at verses twelve through 17. He says, everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. Food is for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will do away with both of them.
However, the body is nothing, not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. God raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Don't you know that your bodies are a part of Christ's body? So should I take a part of Christ's body and make it part of a prostitute? Absolutely not.
Don't you know that anyone joined to a prostitute is one body with her? For scripture says the two will become one flesh. But anyone joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.
Another tough passage, Paul is. Paul has not held back any punches in this chapter. So he begins. We're going to look at just verse twelve real quick. He says, everything is permissible for me twice, he says, and then he clarifies it.
Now everything is permissible for me is not. We don't find that in scripture. Now. We do see that Paul champions freedoms. Look with me at Galatians we're going to just look at Galatians, chapter five, verse r1.
Quick.
This is what Paul says. For freedom, Christ set us free. Stand firm, then, and don't submit again to a yoke of slavery. So Paul champions freedom, christian freedom. He champions it.
But look at the context in which he declares this freedom. It's, this freedom is under Christ. Christ said, it's free. But don't submit yourself to the yoke of slavery. Sin is slavery.
Don't submit yourself to it. Yeah, everything is permissible, right? We could say that, but not everything is beneficial. There are things that do not benefit us, things that we do not need to do or things that may still harm us or harm others or cause others to fall and to stumble. Now, the fact that he says everything is permissible for me, we need to know that Paul is not teaching, that there is a reason, that he adds a correction.
Everything is not beneficial. Everything is permissible is a phrase that originated sometime in the first century church and was championed by the church in Corinth. And we can see it. You can just look at their sexual immorality, their moral laxity, the way they saw marriage, the way they saw everything. You can see they really led by that principle.
Everything is permissible. So Paul corrects and says not everything is beneficial. Again, he says, everything is permissible, but he says, I will not be mastered by anything. Look, if anything in your life masters you. That is not Jesus Christ.
You are a slave to sin. Here's what Paul tells us about that. Look at romans 616. In Romans 616, Paul says, do you not know that to who you submit yourself to obey his servant, you are, whether of sin leading unto death or of obedience unto righteousness.
Paul says, everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. We will not allow any temptation or work of the flesh or any other thing to come over us and to master us.
Now we see in verse 13, he says, food is for the stomach and stomach for food. There is this. Again. This is believed to be a corinthian saying, again, but look what Paul says. He says, God will do away with both of them, but look what he says.
And he contrasts this and the corinthian state of mind was food is for the stomach and the stomach for food. That their state of mind at this time is food just eaten. And digestion is a daily and normal function of the body. And the church of Corinth saw sexual activity the same way as just a function of the body to come and go to do at will, just like you eat. So look what he says.
He says God will do away with food in the body. However, with food in the stomach. However, the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. Paul tells us that sexual immorality is a misuse of our bodies in any way that we spin it, it is a misuse of our body.
And he says that God raised up the Lord and will raise us up by his power if we are part of the body. He will say this in verse 16. Don't you know your bodies are a part of the body of Christ? If we are a member a part of the body of Christ and God raised him up, then we too will be raised up.
And he says, should I take a part of Christ's body and make it a part of a prostitute? Just look at that language. Once you switch from this is my body, you have that crowd out there right now. My body, my choice, right? Once you switch from this is my body.
To know I am a piece of Christ's body, it has a totally different meaning. Would you take Christ and prostitute him out? I would sure hope not. But if you wouldn't do it to Christ, then you are a part of Christ. That is what you do.
You prostitute him out when you engage in sexual immorality. And he says, he says, don't you know anyone joined to a prostitute? Is one body with her? Paul is using some metaphorical language here now, and he's bringing in a scripture from Genesis. The two will become one flesh.
The prostitute that Paul refers to here in verse verse 16 is not a woman or a prostitute, but it's sin.
It's metaphorical language for sin. But he pulls in scripture to say that the two become one flesh. You become enslaved to sin. Slave, as we start getting into chapter seven next week, we're going to see some teachings about the rights over the body. In a marriage, you become a slave to sin, where it is a master over you and declares the rights to your body.
And that is not okay.
And he says, anyone joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. This is interesting. God describes the marriage between man and wife as becoming one body.
The marriage he describes between us and God is one spirit, right? The connection that exists between us and God is such that it cannot be described in bodily terms, but only within Christ. Let's look at James four four real quick before we move on. James four four. He writes, you adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God.
So whoever wants to be a friend of the world becomes the enemy of God. Church, there's no middle ground. You are either with or against God or with or against the world. But we can't have it both ways. We cannot walk that line.
And in any case, consider ourselves a Christian.
There's a little very short story. Somebody lived his life, and he lived on the fence, never made a decision toward God or toward not God, and he died. And when judgment was pronounced against him, he says, but I never made a decision. I stayed on the fence. And Satan says, yes, but the fence was squarely in my land.
There is no middle ground. Indecision is a decision in every case. Choosing to not pick between right and wrong is a choice for wrong, because there's no fence that sits on the line halfway in between. Any fence at all is squarely on the side of the wrong. And to sit on it is to sit there.
As we look at the last two verses for tonight, Paul encourages us with the only two commands in this chapter, verses 18 through 20. He says, flee sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body. But the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body. Don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God?
You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body. This passage begins with the first command. The first command is to flee sexual immorality. Now, you have to understand this word, right?
There is flee in the sense of, I'm in danger and I'm going to run, run away from it right now. And then I get far enough away from danger that I stopped fleeing, right? I'm safe now. So I'm no longer fleeing while I was fleeing. And then there's this word here in verse 18, which means a continuous practice of fleeing away.
You are never safe from sin.
Every one of us can fall into sin at any given time, especially the moment that you say, I've got it. That moment where you feel like you are safe. You've kicked your addiction free from that temptation, and you can't fall for it anymore. Watch out, because you are soon to fall. So the idea behind flee sexual immorality in verse 18 is this continual fleeing.
You are constantly running away from it.
You are actively engaged in turning your back away from sin.
He ends with this encouragement. He says, don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you and you have from God. So there's three things to see here. Our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, right? And we saw a few weeks ago, he said, don't you know that you are a temple of goddess?
And contextually, he was looking corporally at the church. Today, he looks at the individual. Don't you know you're a temple of God. You're a part of God's body. He resides in you.
He makes his home with you.
The second thing to Seeri says, whom you have from God, this reaffirms that the Holy Spirit who resides within us is a gift from God.
Finally, look at this. He says, you are not your own, for you were bought at a price.
We are owned, guys. We are owned by God. We are his people, his possession. Not only did God make us craft our spirits, form us inside of the womb from before birth, provide this earth to live on, but he died for us. Now, that's what Paul means when he says, you were bought at a price.
God came down to earth and he died for you. He gave his life and she his blood that we would live. He bought us. He paid a ransom. And this is a price so great, so indescribable and comprehendible, that we will never truly understand the cost that God paid.
Therefore, he says, glorify God with your body. This is the second and last command of the chapter. God with your body. Rather than sin, rather than bring shame to God, rather than tarnish his name, glorify him. We have this body.
We can use it for good or for bad, and we are commanded. We were bought out of praise. Use it to glorify the one who gave so much for us.
As we end tonight, I've got a couple of closing remarks for the Christian who is caught up in sexual immorality, or any sin, any sin at all. But keeping with the theme, tonight, I want to focus on sexual immorality. There is hope for you. Our tendency is to clam up, to hide because it's shameful to come out into the light and to tell people about it first. John one nine.
It is written, if you confess your sins, then God is faithful and just to forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Righteousness. Right. Come out into that light. That shame will not last for long.
God has forgiven you. We won't hold it against you, but we will walk with you to help you walk away from it. And it says that not only is God faithful and just to forgive you of your sin, that he will cleanse you from all unrighteousness. When you hide in the dark with that sin, it's hard for God to cleanse you. But when you come out into the light, not only will he forgive you, he will help remove it from you.
And for the rest of you listening tonight, who may not yet know the Lord Jesus, there is hope for you as well. Right? We, every one of us here tonight, who knows the Lord. We were once described as sexually immoral or idolatators or adulterers. We were once described as thieves or greedy people, or drunkards or abusive or swindlers.
Some of us may have been described as gay or homosexual. But we are washed, right? And we are sanctified and justified in the name of of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God. And so can you. No matter what title bestows you today, no matter what shame you have committed and carry on you, you can be washed, you can be sanctified.
That burden can disappear. But you have to admit that you are a sinner. You have to believe that Jesus Christ came into this world and died for you, that you would be saved in his death, burial and resurrection, and confess him as your God, your lord and savior. Romans ten nine says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, that you would be saved. And Christ says in Matthew 1032 and 33 that if you confess him before your fellow man, he'll confess you before the father, and he'll do the same in reverse as well.
If you deny him, he will deny you. And if you want to be washed and sanctified and justified by our Lord Jesus Christ and the spirit of our God, if you want him to be your Lord and God as well, you can do that tonight in our closing prayer, I'll help you to verbalize these things to God and ask him for this gift. Immediately after our closing prayer, we will partake of the Lord's communion. I invite everyone to stick around and partake of that with us. Following that, we will see all of you again Wednesday at 630 to continue our study in the book of Luke.
Let's pray. Father, I admit that I am a sinner and that I cannot save myself. Father, I admit that my ways are wrong and incompatible with yours. And I believe that Jesus Christ, you came down into this creation, that you lived and died and rose again for me, so that in my trust in you, I will not perish, but have everlasting life. And I confess you, Lord Jesus, as my God and king to remove my crown and submit to yours.
Father, I ask tonight that we would glorify you. That as your people, we would handle issues amongst each other in a way that will glorify you. The way that you said out. That as your temple and your people, that we would confess our sins and that we would flee from these things which would disgrace you. Father, I pray that you will help us to do that and stand firmly with you.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.