Jacksonville Presbyterian Church
1 Corinthians 10:23-11:1 (July 14, 2024)
[MUSIC] Well, hey, good morning. If you would please stand for the reading of God's word. If you would grab your Bibles, open up to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, please stand if you're able. If you don't have a Bible, grab one of these blue hardback Bibles. They're all throughout the room. You can turn to page 1138, I believe. We're looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 10. If you're just joining us, we're going through the book of 1 Corinthians sort of passage by passage. Next week, Pastor Scott's going to be talking about head coverings, which is going to be great. And then some people have been asking me about that. The next week, the fall week after that, I'll be into the Lord's Supper. And then Lord willing, it'll be baby time for a few weeks. But today, we're going to be looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 23. And then we'll finish actually with chapter 11, 1. That's really the end of this section. Remember Bible verses were added, you know, centuries later. And so sometimes they don't get the full section totally right, but that's no big deal. So we're looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 23, through 11, 1. With end of mind, friends, hear the word of the Lord to us from the apostle Paul. Paul writes, "All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience for the earth is the hoards and the fullness thereof. If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is said before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. But if someone says to you, this has been offered in sacrifice, then don't eat it for the sake of the one who informed you and for the sake of conscience. I mean, I don't mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else's conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks? So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God. Just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many that they may be saved. Be imitators of me as I am of Christ. Friends, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord remains forever. This is the word of the Lord. Amen. Would you be seated and keep that Bible in your heart open as we pray? Holy Spirit, we ask now in Jesus' name that you would give us the mind of Christ to hear your voice and Lord that you would empower us to live these verses out, to glorify you, to build each other up and to imitate Jesus in whose name we pray. Amen. So there's this fascinating thing where when difficult things happen, we sometimes think that we need to get really clever. You know, when some kind of tragedy happens or there's a hardship in someone's life, you're like, what is this profound, insightful thing that we can share or do or say that will help them? But oftentimes, in difficult moments, people don't really need a clever response. What they need is simply the truth. Let me give you an example. When I meet with people who are on the brink of entering into eternity, they don't want a profound insight on the dual nature of Christ. What they want, most profoundly, is probably Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. I will dwell on the house of the Lord forever. So when you and I face moments like we're facing right now where the rifts in our country are so pronounced and so obvious, the tendency for you and me is to try to think of like a really clever answer. So I'm really insightful thing that we're going to read online or someone's going to say and we're going to say, aha, there it is. But what I want to suggest to you that might be more true is we don't necessarily need clever responses. What we need is simply the gospel truth. What we need is to remember what life is about and we need to remember the words of Scripture. So if you were to look down at our passage this morning, I'm going to try to make three points. But really, I'm just going to try to make the three points that I think Paul is making. The first point is right there in verse 24, which is, "Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor." So if you have a Bible, I would underline that verse and say, this is Paul's point. Don't seek your own advantage, but try to bless and love the people in your lives. That's the first thing that Paul is going to say. And then Paul is going to give some examples about how to do that when it comes to things like eating meat or eating meat sacrificed to idols or going to dinner with someone who's not a Christian. And it may be a little tricky to understand exactly what he's saying, but the nice thing is in verse 31, he gives us his second point, which is whatever you do in life, whether you eat the meat, sacrifice, or idols, or you don't. Whether you refrain, whatever you do in life, do all to the glory of God. And then lastly, he gives us this sort of final point right there in 11, verse 1, in which you can also underline, which is, "The Christian life is the imitation of Jesus." But the great thing about the Christian life is that it's not just me and Jesus. Jesus is the one I follow, but also by God's providence, he's placed me in the church. So we have other Christians and we have the apostles who can teach us what it looks like to follow Jesus. So we imitate Jesus. So what do I mean by building up? Look down at 1 Corinthians 23 through 24. And by the time you leave this morning, you're like, "Wait a second. That wasn't anything insightful. That was just the teachings of Jesus. That was just basic Christianity. And if that's how you leave this morning, I will have satisfied my goal." We'll get 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 23 and following. The Corinthians have this saying, or maybe Paul taught it to them, but now they're sort of misapplying it, which is this quote, "All things are lawful, right? We are free in Christ." But how does Paul respond to that claim that they can do whatever they want? Well, not all things are helpful. Well, all things are lawful, right? Aren't I free in Christ? But what does Paul respond with in verse 23? Well, not all things build up. And that word "build up" right there in the Greek has more of the image of building up together. The way you would build up a church or build up a community or a neighborhood. Yes, it's building up like a house, but there's also a building together, a repair work that could be thought. And then he gives us the point. Look at verse 24. Here's his point. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. So my first point this morning I want you to see is that the Christian life first for this passage is about building up our neighbors, building up our neighbors, building together, you might say. Well, what do I mean by that? Well, last year I read a pretty profound article by one of my favorite writers. You might have heard me talk about him before. His name is David Brooks. He writes for the New York Times in the Atlantic. And he's a fascinating writer because he used to be a secular Jew. And now he's become a Christian, which is fascinating to watch his progression of faith into Jesus Christ. But last year he wrote an article called How America Got Mean. And I devoured this article. It was so fascinating. He said, for two years he was trying to answer two basic questions. Why have Americans become so sad and why have Americans become so mean? First off, he says, you know, what do we do with the increase in suicide, drug abuse? He cites that the rate of people who say they have no close friends has quadrupled in the last few years. And he said 25% of all 40 year olds have never even been married and that more than half of Americans would say that no one knows them well. So maybe that's the one to keep in mind. Why are Americans sad? Well, half of them don't think anybody knows who they are. The second question Brooks wants to address is why are Americans so mean? He interviews restaurant owners who talk about having to kick patrons out at least once a week for being too mean to the wait staff. He interviews nurses who are quitting the profession because the patients are so cruel to them. And so how do we address sort of the malaise of today and what's wrong in our country? Well, you know, David Brooks says, well, if you listen to most people, they would cite technology or, you know, social media is bringing us down or maybe it's economics. Some people cite the demographic changes going on in our country. And then of course, you know, maybe it's just people are becoming more isolated. So maybe there's a sociological answer. Well, for Brooks in the article, what he essentially argues is that those might be contributing factors, but the root problem with our country, according to Brooks, is that we simply don't do any moral formation for our kids anymore. But basically, we need to go back to our schools and teach things like virtue and moral ethics. And he says the first thing I'm going to quote him, he says, first, we need to help people learn to restrain their selfishness. Basically teach people to be unselfish. And as much as I admire David Brooks, and I really do, I think he misses the mark right here. That is not what is wrong with our country. That is one of the things that's wrong with our country. But teaching people to be unselfish is not going to save us. This is not. I would, I would, if I were able to talk to David Brooks, I would say, I think you forgot your C.S. Lewis. If you read C.S. Lewis is the weight of glory, which is a wonderful essay. It's about 16 pages. You could read it this afternoon. He starts off and he says, if you asked 20 good men today, what they thought the highest of virtues, 19 of them would answer unselfishness. They would agree with David Brooks. We just got to teach the youngens to be unselfish. He says, but that's not the Christian answer. He says, but if you asked almost any of the great Christians of old, he would have replied, love. What I want to suggest to you is simply the teachings of Jesus Christ. What is the greatest commandment? What is the north star for your life? Jesus tells us in Luke chapter 10, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul, with all of your strength and with all of your mind. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The deceased pastor Tim Keller used to jokingly tell his congregation, and if you think you are loving your neighbor as yourself, he would say your moral ambition is too low because you're not trying hard enough to love your neighbor. Well, what I want to suggest to you this morning is that the answer for our times is fundamentally in the teachings of the Bible, which is the message of Jesus Christ, which most immediately right now in my first point is the solution for what ails us is not simply in moral formation. And I'm all about some moral formation. I just, I'm finishing my doctorate on virtue. I am all for moral formation, but teaching people to be unselfish is not going to solve the issue. What's going to solve the issue is the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the message that God loves this world. It's not that God is just simply unselfish. God loves you so much that he sent his son to die on a cross for you. And God continually forgives you, no matter what you do or what you will do, God promises forgiveness if you repent and turn to Christ. That relationship is the hope of the world. This is what empowers every Christian to love our neighbors. But I know, I know what a lot of people think, like this message of Jesus, you know, God becoming a man dying for our sins so that he can reunite God with all of creation, you know, love your neighbor. I know you might be thinking, this is all just like platitudes, right? These are just like empty sayings that could be on a hallmark card. But if you think the message of Jesus is just a platitude and that like the answer to the problem of the world is to love your neighbor. Oh, that's too basic. I would encourage you to maybe keep an open mind. I don't think the message of Jesus is a platitude and loving our neighbor is going to be one of the things that helps us through these days. It's not a platitude. Let me give you an example of that. Several years ago, there was a man named John Perkins. He's a pastor nowadays. He's from Mississippi. He used to live in California. He felt God calling him back to Mississippi. And in the 60s, he moved back to Mississippi. And if you've read his autobiography, let justice roll down, which I'd encourage everybody to read. He starts a campaign to sort of educate his fellow black Americans in the Mississippi Delta and in the South. And eventually what happens is you could guess from the book's title. He is taken by police officers and cruelly, tortured, and beaten. But the message of the book is about how he responds to that. And if I can, I'd just like to quote him because what eventually happens is he realizes that the message of Jesus is a message of forgiveness and transformation. This is what he says in the book as he's reflecting on how they stuck forks up his nose and down his throat and beat him unconscious. He said these words, "Oh, I know man is bad, depraved." There's something built into him that makes him want to be superior. If the black man had the advantage, he'd be just as bad, just as bad. So I can't hate the white man. The problem is spiritual. Black or white, we all need to be born again. It's a profound mysterious truth. Jesus' concept of love overpowering hate. I may not see its victory in my lifetime, but I know it's true. I know it's true because it happened to me. He goes on and he says, "The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, kept working on me and in me until I could say with Jesus, I forgive them too. I promised him that I would not return good for evil, that I would return good for evil, not evil for evil. And he gave me the love I knew I would need to fulfill his command to me of love your enemy. Because of Christ, God himself met me and healed my heart and mind with his love." Friends, the message of Jesus is not a platitude. It's not a platitude. A platitude does not transforms lives like this. If you look down at our passage this morning, what Paul is having to address is selfishness in the human heart, even Christian's hearts. They're saying, "I can do all things irregardless of how it is experienced by the people around me." But Paul is appealing to them to have a higher aim in their life. Look at verse 23, "Yes, all things are lawful. Yes, Christians can eat pork. We don't have to follow the kosher laws anymore. Yes, we are free in Christ. We're not made right with God by our moral deeds, so we don't have to worry about moral deeds and earning God's salvation." But that's not the overarching purpose of our life. That's why Paul pushes back on that. He says, "Something is more important, which is being helpful to other people around us." And then, "Yes, all things are lawful, but not all things build up." The aim of the Christian life is not just to seek our own good, it's not just to be unselfish, but to seek the good of our neighbors. That is to love our neighbors. And the reason we do that is because we see Jesus loving us, even while we were the enemies of God. So what does it look like, Christian, for you and me today, to love our neighbors? I'm going to answer this sort of in two ways, because there's two groups of people I want Christians to kind of keep in mind that I think sometimes we forget about. That is, as Christians as we live today and we respond to things going on in our country, think in terms of these two groups of people. The first group I want you to think about are your lost friends and neighbors, those who don't know Jesus Christ, the heart cry of every Christian, if the Holy Spirit of God's actually within you, there's some part of you that wants to see them saved, that wants to see them meet Jesus Christ, right? That's what Paul says at the end of this. "I'm not seeking my own advantage because I want them to be saved." So all of us are missionaries, but how do you and I live today in 2024 with that in mind? Well, one of my favorite verses that I often think about is from the Old Testament. How do I operate as someone who lives in the neighborhood of Jacksonville and is trying to live the Christian life today in glory to God? And one of my favorite stories is what happens to God's people when they get sent into a pagan land where unrighteous things are happening. And if you know the story of the Old Testament, the Israelites get taken to a far off bad country, and what's the country's name? Anybody know? It's not California, it's Babylon, but it's, you know, there's some parallels. Sorry, just kidding. They get taken to a foreign land, right, where the kids aren't all right, and there's a fly in the ointment of culture. People are not glorifying God. There's anger, there's resentment, there's oppression, there's injustice, and how are Christians or believers, excuse me, in the book of Jeremiah supposed to live? Are they supposed to camp out, you know, give up hope? The prophet Jeremiah has a word, and I'll read it, I know the font small, but let me read this to you. This is God's word to believers living in exile. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Here's his advice, his command, build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce, take wives and have sons and daughters, take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage that they may bear sons and daughters, multiply there, and do not decrease, but seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf. For in its welfare you will find your welfare. What I love about that is the answer is not stop having kids because culture's bad. The answer is actually the exact opposite, which is buy a house, plan a garden, eat your produce and keep having kids and don't scare your grandkids because God is going to see us through this. And when you think about the city that has fallen all around you, what does the Lord say? Look at verse 7, seek the welfare, the good of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf. So part of our answer is Christians, part of the way we build up our neighbor, we seek the good of our neighbor as our passage in 1 Corinthians teaches us to do, is to pray for our country. And so later in the service that's exactly what we're going to do. But the other group of people that we need to think about, not just our lost neighbors that we need to be praying for and inviting to church and inviting to Alpha and inviting to do things like the word one to one. The other thing we need to think about that I'd encourage you to consider is our love for our fellow Christians. And that might be the most important thing to understand as you look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verses 23 through 11-1, which is I think it's easier for Christians to think about how do I love my lost neighbors than it is how do I love my fellow Christians. But actually what does Jesus say about our love for other Christians? He says actually by our ability to love one another, they will know that you are my disciples. If you have love for whom? Jesus says one another and what he means by that is not just simply the way you love your lost friends is going to bring him to the Lord. What he actually has in mind is the ability for Christians to love each other, to be there for each other is actually what draws the lost into the community of faith. So are you loving with everything you have your fellow Christians? I mean think about it this way. Paul puts it this way to the Galatians. He says so then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everybody and especially to those who are of the household of faith. It's not either or I either love my lost neighbors or I love my fellow Christians. It's both and but notice what Paul says. We have it especially a call to love our fellow Christians. And really that's all over 1 Corinthians chapter 10, right? If you look down at verse 24, he says let no one seek his own good but the good of his neighbor. And then if you skip down to verse 31, notice what he says. So whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. And then he says give no offense. That means don't cause them to stumble either Jews or Greek or to the church of God. That is don't make it harder for non-Christians or Christians to follow Jesus, but we should seek the advantage of the many. I guess what I'm trying to suggest to you, friend, is do you need to reinvigorate your love for your neighbors? That might be the word for you today, but maybe it's really easy for you to love non-Christians. Maybe your struggle is actually loving other Christians. And let's be honest, sometimes we give people really good reasons not to love us easily. But that is part and parcel of the Christian life, loving fellow believers, trying to seek their good. So the second thing I want you to see in this passage, after you've seen sort of building up one another is glorifying God. And it's right there in verse 31, he says, so whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Now what's happening in the middle of our passage, right, is Paul stills trying to address this issue about what should Christians do about eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols? On one hand, all things are lawful, right? We are free from the kosher laws of the Old Testament, and we can eat because we know God made the animals, but at the same time we know that we shouldn't be associated with idolatry. So Paul says earlier that it would be wrong for a Christian to go into like a temple to a God and eat meat in the temple because people would associate us with approving of what's going on. So there are certain things that Christians can do that might be permissible, but in certain circumstances would be wrong if your attendance at that event would give anyone the impression that you are approving of what they do. But let's establish first, what does it mean for you and I to glorify God? It simply means that the most important thing in our life is to bring praise and fame to God. You want your life to glorify him, you want him to be proud of you in that sense, and you want other people to also see the glory of a God who loves us, that made everything. So how does Paul want us to sort of live the glory of God? Well, look down at verse 25, and he's going to give sort of two examples and sometimes are hard to understand, but it's simply this. The first way we glorify God is right there in verse 25. He says, "Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience, for the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." His point simply right here is just what he's been saying all along. If you are a Christian, you can thank God for that. He has freed us from the Old Testament ceremonial laws that we can eat all of the food, we can eat the hamburger, we can eat the hot dog, we can eat the pulled pork. All we have to do is thank God for that. So if you could sort of distill that into a principle, I guess what I would encourage you to think about is glorifying God for your life at a fundamental level just means enjoying life and the goodness of creation. That's his argument. Look at verse 25. He says, "Look, don't be overly scrupulous in life. Don't be uptight." He says, "Eat whatever is sold in the meat market. God made the cows and the pigs. You can enjoy them." And that's his point in quoting Psalm 24 right there in verse 26. "The earth is the Lord's and everything that he made in it, the fullness thereof." What I see Paul doing right here is he's harkening back to Genesis 9, after the flood God says, "I've given you all living creatures for food. I've given you everything." So God is going back to that original plan. So part of the way I would encourage you to glorify God is to enjoy life with him. Thank God for the good gifts that he's given you. But there's a second way that we're called to glorify God, which is going to sound, if the first one sounds, that's great. Just enjoy life. Okay, I can do that. The second one is going to be a little harder, which is Paul's going to argue that the other way we glorify God is by restraining our freedoms for the sake of others. We don't want other people to stumble. So this is now going to go into verses 27 through 29. Look down with me. Paul says, "If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you're disposed to go," right? If a non-Christians like, "Hey, have dinner with me." He says, "Eat. Go. Enjoy dinner. Eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. Don't pry into how they got their meat or whether or not it was sacrificed to an idol. Just love your neighbor. Get to know them, right? Seek the welfare of the city." But look at verse 28. Here's where it gets interesting. If someone else at the dinner says, "Oh, this meat has been offered in sacrifice," Paul says, "but don't eat that meat for the sake of the one who informed you and for the sake of conscience." I don't mean your conscience, but his. So essentially what Paul is saying right there is, if you're at a dinner party and someone says, "Hey, all of this meat is in honor of the Zeus gods," even though you know that God made the cow, you shouldn't do something that makes it harder for that person to follow Jesus. If you go to something that God clearly says is sinful or wrong, other people are going to stumble. It's going to be harder for them to know the truth of God's word. Can you think of any situations in life where you're invited to something that God would not approve of? And people will question, "Wait, what does God's word say about this? Are you approving of what this person is doing?" Remember, Christian, the greatest commandment is to love God and love each other. Would my attendance at these events or partaking of this make it easier or harder for my fellow Christians to follow Jesus? For Paul, he says, you know, some person has an issue with the idol meat, and so they're looking to you to know what to do. And part of what love does is love restrains us. Part of when you get married, you're vowing to not love anybody else. Love is also a restraint. You know, when I think about this commandment from Paul to not partake because of someone else's weaker conscience, they would see it as wrong. What I'm reminded of is, you know, a few years ago, someone in my family tripped over a stone and a sidewalk, and it was like smack, and it broke their wrist. And I could hear the smack of the, you know, the hand on the concrete, and I immediately realized something was broken, and it was in deep pain. And that image of stumbling, causing offense, that's the image that Paul wants you to keep in mind. We glorify God by loving somebody so much that we don't want them to trip and to fall. It's not that we're just supposed to never offend people. That's not Paul's point. He's asking you, Christian, do you love people so much that you're trying to not make them stumble? I could keep going into this, you know, these scenarios are a little hard to understand why Paul, what Paul's asking about in verses 29 and 30, but let me just finish up towards the end. Basically, if you look down at verse 33 and into 11, 1, Paul gives us sort of the third main idea, Christians we love, seek the good of our neighbor, we glorify God, that's our overarching goal. But lastly, the Christian life is an imitation of Jesus. It's imitating Jesus. Look at verse 33, Paul says, "Just as I try to please everyone and everything I do, you know, we might think he's talking about being a people pleaser, but that's not what Paul's talking about. What he's talking about is I'm trying to help people follow Jesus, just as I try to please everyone and everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many that they may be saved. And then Paul says, "Be imitators of me is I am of Christ." How do we live this life where we imitate Jesus? But the beautiful thing is that Jesus has also given us apostles and pastors and leaders that we can also imitate. And every pastor, as desires to say, imitate me as I imitate Christ. But when I read these verses, you know, I think about times where I have sinfully demanded my rights and not listened to other people, where I was not an example to people in our church or in other churches, and I'm ashamed of those moments. I mean, I know Christ has forgiven me, but it reminds me how important it is to let the ethic of love determine my decision making rather than me simply asserting, well, I can do it because Jesus says I'm free in Christ. That's self-love dictating my moral decisions, not the love of Christ. You know, the pastor Andrew Wilson is pastor in England, and I love his little comment on this verse. He says, "Christians don't just follow advice. We follow people." And how beautiful is it, friends, that we have pastors and mentors that we can follow? And my hope, Christian, for each and every one of you is that you desire to be an example to the people in your family and to your coworkers and to your neighbors, that you make it easier for them to follow Jesus, because you are having an influence on them. They notice the things you do, they notice when you give up your rights, and they notice when you take full advantage of your rights, don't they? So let me just finish with this. You know, looking down at 1 Corinthians chapter 10, you know, I know it's easy to, you know, sort of exist in the realm where, you know, some of us are more comfortable in gray areas, and then some of us are more comfortable in absolutes. You know, I think the problem for many of us to sort of paraphrase into you right is when people who love absolutes try to pretend like there are no gray areas in life. And the other problem is when people love gray areas, they never want to believe in absolutes. That's the real problem. So when you approach these questions of how do we live today and respond, let me give you three absolutes. Actually, let Paul give them to you. Whatever you do, look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 24. Whatever we do, Christian, let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor, his Christian neighbor and his non-Christian neighbor. And then look at verse 31. So whether you eat or drink or you don't eat and you don't drink, really, whatever you do in this life, Christian, the prevailing ethic is the glory of God, enjoying life, but also restraining ourselves for the sake of others. That's what brings God glory. And then lastly, as much as we can imitate people and we want to imitate pastors and we want to be worthy of imitation, ultimately, the Christian life is an imitation of Christ. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word and the ways that it instructs us, Lord, the ways that it challenges us. Father, we all too often have to confess that our love is just lacking. And so Father, would you renew us by your grace? Lord, would you continue to pour out your Holy Spirit so that we love you all the more? Lord, that we would love you the way Jesus loves you? Lord, that we would love others the way that Jesus loved them. Father, we thank you for pastors and mentors who can show us what it looks like to follow Jesus. Lord, I praise you for John Perkins and for the way that he imitated Christ, who himself was tortured and abused at the hands of lawless men. And Lord, we thank you that death is not the end. Lord, that this cycle of sin and abuse is broken at the cross. And Lord Jesus, that you are creating a new humanity from every nation, tribe, language, and tongue. Father, we also pray this morning for those who are going through difficult times of suffering. And Lord, we pray that your Holy Spirit would be especially close to them even now. Father, we lift to you, Abby Lewis, Shiloh Rudd, and Jeannie Fenton. Lord, as they come out of surgery and face surgeries, Lord, would you be especially close to them and guide the medical advice that they get? Lord, we pray for Karen Applegate, Bailey Taylor, Clyde and Lorraine Hoffman, and Jim Salz. Father, would you bless each one of them with endurance and hope? And Lord, we continue to pray for Greg Fredrickson, Paul Deller, and Sean McCoy. Lord, that they would have many years in the land of the living. Father, with this morning, we pray for another sister church here in the Rogue Valley. Father, we lift to you, Applegate Community Church. And Father, we pray that you would strengthen that congregation for your glory. Lord, that you would answer every prayer that they have. Lord, that great things would happen in and through that congregation. And Father, we pray for our missionary of the month, Mike Coon. And Lord, we pray that he would continue to find new and exciting ways to equip pastors in the developing world, to go out into communities where the gospel does not yet exist. And Lord, we pray that you would equip him to do that very work to which you have called him. And Lord, we pray that the all church retreat would not just be a fun time and building up community, but Lord, it would be an experience of you. Lord, that as you guide his teachings and our discussions, Lord, that it would glorify you and we would leave different people more bonded in love, but also in knowledge. And Lord, lastly, we pray for our country. Father, our hearts are grieved by the state of affairs, by the assassination attempt yesterday. In Lord, we plead for revival, for your Holy Spirit to be poured out on the hearts and minds of the men and women of our country. Now Lord, we pray that you would preserve the lives of President Biden and President Trump. Lord, that this would be the end of any assassination attempts. Father, we pray for peace and Lord, we pray for the welfare of our country. For in its welfare, we find our welfare. Lord, so many of the people that we love and we know, all of the people that many of us know and love are in this country. And so Father, would you be at work turning hearts and minds to you? Father, we need so much more than moral formation and unselfishness. Lord, we know that the law cannot make us new. Father, we need your Holy Spirit. We need the voice of Jesus. The voice of Jesus to teach us, to forgive and to love our enemies, to stand for truth and justice. And Lord, to know what it means to shine his lights in the midst of a dark and twisted generation. So Father, we look to you for salvation and hope. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.