House Rules: Week 6, 1 Timothy 3:2

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Alright, so we're gonna be in 1 Timothy chapter 3 today.

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

Go ahead and open your Bibles there.

If you've got a paper Bible, that's great.

Open First Timothy chapter 3.

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

If you're on your device, also great.

Go ahead and fire that up and find 1 Timothy chapter 3.

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible app on your phone, our church app has a Bible feature.

You can use it to find 1 Timothy chapter 3.

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

And while you're getting turned there and kind of all caught up to that verse, let me just tell you what's been going on, just kind of catch you up with what's been happening.

Paul is the man who wrote this letter, Paul, an amazing leader in the church, probably the most important leader in the history of the early church.

And he's writing this letter to a young apprentice named Timothy.

He's got Timothy off in the city of Ephesus because false teachers have gone to that church and they've really kind of blown that church off course.

And so in chapter one of 1 Timothy, uh Paul confronts those false teachers.

In fact, he throws two of the worst offenders out of the church.

And then in chapter two, he sort of restores order to the church's worship structure.

And now in chapter three, he's turning his attention to the kind of men who should lead Jesus' church.

And so last week we started this chapter.

We looked at verse one and we read there that Paul says to men, men, you should aspire to be an overseer.

Overseer meaning an elder or pastor.

It just depends on which denomination you're in.

It's really the same role, the same office, and the same translation for the word overseer there.

He says, you should aspire to this.

This is something you should long to do.

And we're going to understand a little bit more about why that is today.

And we said last week that as believers, all of us should be evaluating our own sense of calling into ministry.

We should be asking ourselves these three questions all the time.

Just on the regular, we should be asking ourselves, am I called willing?

Am I ready?

And am I called?

And then we come to 1 Timothy chapter 3, and Paul in verse 2 begins to give us the qualifications that a church should look for in the man who's going to serve as an overseer.

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

And you know, I just want you to know right now, there are 16 of them, okay?

That's a lot of qualifications, isn't it?

That is a big list.

Why so many?

Well, I think the reason is because uh across the Roman Empire, Paul and others have been planting all these churches.

And these churches are now needing to find leadership, right?

And so the question is, who should we put into a position of authority?

And so Paul doesn't say, listen, you should find the oldest guy in the church and put him in.

Doesn't say that.

He doesn't say, you know what you should do?

You should find the wealthiest people.

Put them in leadership positions of the church.

Doesn't say that.

He doesn't say find the most successful or the best speakers.

He doesn't say any of that.

He says, you're to choose men whose lives display the most Christ-like character.

And that's what these 16 qualities show us.

They describe what Christ-like character looks like.

And you all, I just want you to understand this is important for every single one of us.

If you're here today and you're thinking, well, I'm not a church leader, I don't want to be a church leader, I will never be a church leader.

Therefore, today I can just think about lunch.

I'm just gonna go ahead and go there.

That's where my mind is gonna go.

I want to pull you back from that.

Because when you look at this list of 16 qualities that describe Christ-like character, every single one of them, except being able to teach and not being a new believer, every single one of them in the New Testament is commanded to us as followers of Jesus Christ.

Every single one of them.

You can find, you can trace back every one of them back to a passage in the New Testament who's, and it says, hey, you as a follower of Jesus Christ, you need to be like this.

So as we're looking at these qualifications, it's not that pastors are being held up to a different standard than everybody else.

As we look at these qualifications, what we're learning is that Paul is telling Timothy, Timothy, here are the qualities of Christian character that ought to be evident.

And a pastor is someone who is able to model those qualities for the congregation so they in turn will embrace them and follow them.

So it's not that they're called to a different standard.

These qualifications are for every single one of us.

And because they're so important, and because they apply universally to those of us who pursue Jesus, we're just really slowing down and taking a nice long look at these.

Okay.

Last week we we started in 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 3, and we learned that a pastor was to be above reproach, meaning that their character, their integrity should be like Teflon.

1 Timothy 3:3

If you throw an accusation against them, it just slides right off.

That's what it means to be above reproach.

We learned that that's sort of like the the umbrella of all the rest of the character qualities are going to fall beneath it.

All of them kind of modify what it means to be above reproach.

And then we took a real quick look at the very first qualification there.

That is that they're to be the husband of one wife.

And we didn't spend a lot of time there last week, but we learned that it means that we should be faithful to our spouses, right?

That we should should have eyes for them, hearts for them, and for them alone, and that we should just pursue Christ in the way that we handle that covenant relationship.

Okay?

So today we're kind of pressing on in verse two, and we're gonna look at the next three qualities.

As we look at these, here's what I want you to walk away with today.

This is the idea, the statement that I want you all to be able to kind of keep in your brain as you leave here today.

A mature and godly leader thinks clearly, chooses wisely, and lives honorably.

Okay?

Let me say it to you one more time.

A mature, godly leader thinks clearly, chooses wisely, and lives honorably.

So let's zoom in here on verse 2, chapter 3, 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 2, and let's see where we pull this from.

1 Timothy 3:2

Here it says, therefore, an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife.

We talked about that last week, and then here we go.

Sober-minded, self-controlled, and respectable.

Okay?

So take a look.

Let's just kind of drill into that first one, being sober-minded.

Let me just ask you a question.

When you hear the word sober, what do you think about alcohol, right?

Drinking, whatever you want to call it, right?

That's where our mind automatically goes.

And that makes sense.

We we think about somebody who is sober as being someone who no longer drinks.

And that's where this word got its start.

Okay, that's where this word really began.

But when we come here to verse three, we're not talking specifically about alcohol.

Paul or verse two, rather, I'm sorry, let me back that up.

When we come to verse three, we will talk specifically about alcohol.

You're gonna find it mentioned very prominently in that verse.

But here in verse 2, Paul's using this word in a much broader sense, okay?

If he were to use this word today, if he were to write this today, he would simply say, think clearly, okay?

A leader, a church leader, a pastor is somebody that can think clearly.

That's the idea.

So a sober-minded person is somebody who has clear judgment.

He's not being pulled around by his emotions, by impulses, by faulty thinking.

His mind is clear.

So let's apply this to some real life examples so you can get an idea of what's going on here.

Okay?

Have you ever been in a meeting, maybe at work, and and uh uh two different people make essentially the same suggestion, right?

The first person who makes the suggestion is someone that, you know, they just kind of put you off.

You know, you don't really care for them, right?

They're not getting a birthday day card or a Christmas card or anything like that from you, okay?

You just kind of like, eh, you know.

So they have this idea.

And when they have the idea, you're kind of like, eh, you know, and you just kind of let it die.

But then this other person speaks up, and you like them, and they throw out pretty much the same exact idea.

And how do you respond to that?

That is genius! That's what that is.

That is a great idea, right?

Have you ever been there?

Have you ever felt that way?

Have you ever been on the receiving end of that?

Have you ever been there going, but that was my idea just two minutes ago, and nobody cared.

Now all of a sudden he has it, and boom, it's like gold, right?

What is going on there?

Well, what is happening is that our personal preferences are clouding our judgment.

So when the first person threw out the idea, we were like, nah.

But when the second person, we were like, game on, let's go, let's get this done, right?

It's the personal preference that's clouding our judgment.

Or maybe you're so committed to uh your political viewpoint, right?

That when an issue comes up, your first instinct, your first compulsion is to say, what does my side think of this, right?

Your first instinct is not what does God say about this in his word?

You go straight to the party line, that's what you're thinking about.

And if you're allowing your politics to be the lens through which you interpret everything, well then you're not thinking as clearly as you should, right?

Do you get it?

Because a sober-minded Christian filters everything through the truth of God's word because he wants to see the world as God sees it.

That's that's clear-minded, right?

When we see the creation as the creator wants us to see it.

All right?

Here's another one.

Maybe your spouse has said something hurtful to you.

Now, this is never my experience in my home.

Pam never says anything hurtful to me.

I live a charmed life, okay?

I'm sure I never say anything hurtful to her either.

She would probably dispute that.

But I can say that here in this service because she's in the second service.

So we'll just go with that.

Okay.

But let's just say that your wife says something or your husband says something that is hurtful for you.

They don't realize it, right?

They didn't realize that that comment really cut you to the quick.

But instead of talking with them and getting that cleared up right away, as you should, you just replay that conversation over and over and over again in your head.

And later that day, when you see them, you're mad at them.

You don't even really know why anymore, right?

You just know that you're angry and that they deserve it.

Right?

That's what you know.

You've got that.

And so when they speak to you, when they relate to you, how do you treat them?

You give them I'm mad at you.

That's the way you relate to them.

Are you thinking clearly?

No.

What's affecting your judgment?

Your hurt, right?

Your anger, it's affecting your judgment.

So now, do you see a pattern in all of these illustrations?

Do you kind of get it?

Influences like favoritism or politics or hurt, they distort our thinking.

And a sober-minded Christian recognizes that this is a danger.

And so he refuses to let those influences become the lens through which he interprets the world.

Instead, if you're if you're sober-minded, you're constantly asking yourself, hey, what is it that's influencing my thinking right now?

Is that the right influence?

And you're seeking to always bring yourself back under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, back under the authority of God's word, so that you're looking at life through the lens that is the lens God has for you.

Does that make sense?

Does that make sense?

Uh, Paul talks about this in Ephesians.

Remember, uh, Timothy is in Ephesus, so he's talking to the same group of people here.

Look at what he says in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 18.

Ephesians 5:18

And don't get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by what?

The spirit.

Paul is just contrasting two different controlling influences here.

And one, he's talking about alcohol, we'll get to that in a couple of weeks.

But he says, hey, compare being under the influence of something like that, having your mind dominated by that, and being controlled by the Holy Spirit.

One clouds your judgment, one gives you clarity.

That's what it means to be sober-minded.

You see, this is important for us because every single day, can we agree?

Every single day, something is competing to influence your thinking.

Can we agree to that?

Every single day.

You get on your phone, you're looking at your devices, you've got Instagram, you got all the other social medias, you got text messages, you've got the news media, you name it, there's just so much, right?

And what is all of it seeking to do?

It's seeking to influence your thinking so they can in turn influence your behavior.

So our question isn't what is influencing or is anybody influencing my behavior?

Our question is what or who is influencing my behavior.

And a sober-minded Christian says, I want God to be the one who is influencing my behavior so that I can think clearly.

So let's work on that and work on our thinking for a minute.

This week, I would assume most of us each week, we've got some decisions to make.

Some of them could be important.

And so this week, before you make that important decision, or before you respond in that difficult conversation, or before you fire off that hot text or email, I want you to just ask yourself, am I thinking clearly right now in this moment?

Or is my thinking being influenced by something else?

Is my judgment being clouded here?

Just be honest with yourself.

And if as you ask yourself that question, if you as if you the feedback to that is, yep, something's influencing my thinking, then break it down and say, Well, what is it?

Is it anger?

Is it fear?

Is it pride, hurt, greed, politics, the approval of other people?

What is it?

And then just name that.

I mean, just be honest with it.

There's no way you can confront it if you can't even identify what it is, right?

And just say, okay, right now, if I'm if I'm being candid and honest with myself, my thinking is being influenced by by that.

Okay.

And then just bring that influence before God.

Open up the Bible and see what He has to say about it, and just let scripture reshape your thinking.

So let's just say that you're you're being influenced because you're just really hurt by something, okay?

Well, go to the Bible and look at what it says to do when we're in those moments, okay?

And that's one of the great things about all the search tools that you've got on your phone.

You can just go to the go to, hey, what's the Bible say about this?

Right?

And look at what the Bible has to say in this case about being hurt and how how that can influence our thinking.

And once you understand God's take on this, then just pray about it.

Lord, I've got this decision to make, I've got this relationship that I'm in the midst of.

I don't want to make a decision here that's based on hurt.

I want to make a decision that reflects the word of God and the Holy Spirit at work in my life, right?

And just begin to pray that down.

And then, as you're doing that, then when you're thinking clearly, make the decision, send the email, and respond.

You get it?

See, that's what it means to be sober-minded.

It means to pause long enough to let the Holy Spirit, not our emotions, not some other influence to shape our responses, but it's to allow the Holy Spirit to shape our responses so that we're thinking clearly and we're thinking clearly, we're ready, prepared to kind of take the next step, right?

Which is to choose wisely.

Okay.

So let's just with that little idea in mind, choosing wisely and mind, let's come back to the text for a moment.

That's what self-control is all about.

Take a look at the verse there.

Go ahead and bring that next one up.

There it is, right there.

That's what being self-controlled is all about.

That self-control is something that is revealed in our decision making, right?

It's revealed in our big decisions, right?

If I'm making a big choice, you can tell if I'm being self-controlled.

But it's also revealed in our small, in our little everyday choices, too.

I think about think about one of the first decisions you make when you get up in the morning, right?

First thing you do when you get up in the morning, if you're like me, you go in, you brush your teeth, and you go in, you look at your closet, and you go, okay, clothing.

What am I gonna wear today?

You make that decision.

Now that decision may seem insignificant, it may seem unimportant, but Paul doesn't think so.

Back in chapter two, Paul has applied self-control to the way that women dress.

And now here in chapter three, he's talking to men and he's telling them to be self-controlled as well.

The application may be a little bit different, okay?

But the maturity is the same because a person with self-control is gonna choose what is right day after day in big decisions and in small, right?

So let's just take this idea of being self-controlled and let's apply it to other things.

Take a look at your checking count.

Do your spending habits reflect wise choices?

Do they reflect self-control?

What about your your Netflix history?

Does what you watch there, does it reflect wise choices?

Self-control?

What about your calendar?

Open it up.

Does it reflect self-control or does it reflect self-indulgence?

Listen to your conversations, the words coming out of your mouth.

Do the words coming out of your mouth reflect self-control?

Or do they reflect something else altogether different?

What about work?

It's easy to make wise choices when everything is going your way, but the real test comes when things are falling apart.

That's where self-control really shows up at work, right?

It was when things are not going so well.

A lot of years ago, I worked with a leader who had, frankly, one of the most incredible and remarkably gifted leaders that I had ever worked with.

This lady was absolutely amazing.

She was intelligent, she was strategic, she was hardworking, diligent, you name it.

She had all of those things.

And it was just, frankly, a joy to watch her work, unless there was a crisis.

If anything went wrong in her world, if things did not go exactly according to the script that she had kind of written out in her mind, she went into a complete state of panic.

I mean, it was like another person altogether.

There was no self-control anywhere to be found.

She would just have a meltdown.

She had the intelligence to lead, she had the capacity to lead.

But did she have the self-control to consistently be a good leader?

No, she didn't.

Because every time something went wrong, she melted down.

She lacked the self-mastery to really lead well.

So Paul says, church, you're looking for a leader who can not only think clearly, but can also choose wisely even when things get difficult.

Why?

Because a mature Christian possesses the self-control to choose wisely even when circumstances are not going their way.

So what do you do with this?

If you look at this and you say, man, this is an area where I struggle.

Okay, I really struggle whether I'm making big choices or small, I really struggle to demonstrate self-control.

So this week, just say, okay, this week, I'm gonna make those small choices, wise choices.

Just choose an area in your life where it seems like your self-control tends to break down.

And then this week, just determine that this week, each decision you make in that area is gonna reflect biblical self-control.

So maybe it's your finances.

You look at your bank account, and if you're like some people, you have no idea where your money is going.

It's like, I don't know.

You know, I get paid and then it's gone.

Okay.

If you're that person who say, you know what, I gotta change that.

I'm gonna bring real self-control to my choices.

I'm gonna know where my money goes.

I'm gonna seek to honor God with every dollar I spend.

Or maybe it's in your entertainment, maybe it's your schedule, maybe it's your speech, maybe it's the way you use your phone.

You can never leave the thing alone.

You fall asleep spooning it.

I mean, it's just, it's just all you think about.

What if you just said, I'm gonna bring all of that under the Lordship of Jesus Christ?

Because spiritual maturity isn't built because we get one big heroic decision right.

It's built by thousands of ordinary decisions that constantly honor God.

Okay.

So a mature believer thinks clearly, chooses wisely, and over time that clear thinking and those wise choices begin to be evident to those around us.

And our life is one that is lived honorably.

You get it?

And go back to the verse here in verse 2.

And that's what that word respectable is all about.

Now, when I think about the word respectable, I immediately think about somebody with good manners.

And I really think about the way that I was raised, right?

I was raised under penalty of death to have good manners.

Anyone else out there like that?

I mean, it was essential.

You had to have good manners, especially when you, as a little boy, in my case, when I was talking to an adult, are you with me?

Oh, the rules were high, man.

The rules were strict.

And so when CJ came along, my son, when my son CJ came along, I wanted to give that to him as well.

And I tried to incentivize that a little bit differently.

So instead of just threatening to turn him into a pile of ashes, as was my case, I said, listen, CJ, there aren't that many kids who know how to speak to adults.

And so if you will demonstrate that you know how to speak to an adult, I promise you, it's going to amaze them and it's going to open doors for you.

You're going to be that kid who can get a job no problem when you turn 15, 16, whatever it is.

You're going to be the kid that people want to hire, that they want to bring in the organization, and that's going to follow you the rest of your life.

So I really want you to grind on this and get good at it.

And so I sought to teach CJ all the right things, right?

So I taught him to say, yes, ma'am, and yes, sir.

Not just yeah or nah or whatever, but no, yes, ma'am, yes, sir, no, ma'am, no, sir.

Are y'all tracking with me?

You know what I'm talking about?

Okay.

And CJ just he just took to this.

He really took to this.

So much so that if he said, yes, ma'am, and a woman said to him, Please don't call me ma'am.

I'm just not all old enough to do that.

CJ's response to her would be, yes, ma'am.

You know.

And she would just throw up her hands and I'd be like, yes, that is my mannerly boy.

Okay?

He's treating people with honor and respect.

Right?

So that's where I usually go when I think about being respectable.

And it's certainly true that good manners is a part of being respectable.

But respectable here in 1 Timothy 3 2 means far more than just good manners.

Here's what's crazy.

I had so much fun studying this particular word.

If you're wondering, what does my your my pastor get geeked out during with we over?

Well, this was it, okay?

The word that's used here for respectable comes from the word cosmos.

Now, when you think of the word cosmos, what do we all think of?

Space, the final frontier, right?

Okay.

That's what we all think about.

But what is going on?

Why would that word be chosen here?

Well, in the ancient world, when you looked up at the heavens, you saw the beauty, but that wasn't all that they saw.

They saw the incredible order, they saw the incredible intentionality, they saw the hand of a grand designer, a creator at work, right?

That is the cosmos.

You get it?

So you come on and you bring that into our life, right?

Paul says, hey man, your life is ordered, your life is arranged, your life is going somewhere on purpose.

That's who a respectable person is.

His outward life reflects the inward work of God.

His reflect priorities reflect God's priorities, his relationship reflects God's design, his worship reflects God's worth.

His life reflects God's rule.

And it's just so practical because when you look at the life of a respectable person, you see somebody who gets it, right?

And they understand what God is calling them to be about.

You see somebody who honors his parents because God says to honor your mother and father, and he just understands, man, that's the right way to do it.

Or you see somebody who handles their sexuality according to God's design because that's the right way to do it.

Or you see somebody who manages their finances as a steward rather than an owner because that's the way you do it.

In every area of life, they've intentionally made God's priorities their priorities.

So it isn't that this person is perfect, right?

They they still get things wrong.

But it's that their life is not just about chaos.

Their life is about intentionality.

It's about being arranged around the things of God.

That is what makes them respectable.

That's what it means to live honorably, right?

So take a look at this list for a moment.

Okay?

My relationship with God, my family, my work, my money, my time, my entertainment.

Okay.

So when you look at all of those, those are all just significant parts and chunks of our life.

Now, here's what I would encourage you to do with this list.

Take that list and this week just kind of select one where you feel like, man, that part of my life, it is out of control.

It is, it, it's lacking order, right?

I mean, it just nothing about the way that I handle that part of my life.

It's just not really reflecting God's design for me in that area.

And then just ask yourself, well, what would I need to do to change that?

I mean, what can I bring to that that would bring order, that would remove chaos?

What can I do?

And then just write that down and be specific.

And as you write that down, then go, well, how would I actually execute on that, right?

And so you might then go below that and just say, okay, I'm gonna create this little list.

And these are the five steps that I'm gonna have to take to begin to bring that piece of my life from chaos and disorder into order so that when people see that part of who I am, it's respectable, right?

I'm I'm living wisely in that area and just go to work making it happen.

It may be that your very first step, if it's appropriate, and depending on what you select, your very first step might be to say, I'm gonna go find a good friend who will help hold me accountable.

I'm gonna get them on board with me so they can look over my shoulder and just help me to take the right steps.

Okay?

Maybe that's your first step.

Hey, listen, don't try to take on every single facet of your life.

Just choose one area and seek to bring order to the chaos, alignment from misalignment, until God's priorities are clear in that area of your life, so that when you look at it, you say, now that is respectable.

I'm living honorably in that area.

Do you see how these three qualifications, in these three qualifications, Paul is doing more than just hiring the church, a checklist for pastors?

Right?

He's doing more than saying, hey, listen, before you hire somebody, make sure they got A, B, and C.

He's doing way more than that, right?

He's painting a picture of what a mature Christian looks like.

He's saying to us, listen, man, a mature believer thinks clearly.

He refuses to let his mind be shaped by anger and fear and pride, politics, culture.

Instead, he allows the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to shape his thinking.

And a mature believer chooses wisely, not just in the big decisions, although that's incredibly important, but in the thousands of ordinary decisions that we make every single day.

They they bring those things in so that they honor Christ.

And a mature believer lives honorably.

His life is just increasingly built around the Lordship of Jesus.

So when people look at that person's life, they don't see chaos, they see respect.

I mean, can you imagine what would happen if the people of celebration began to live this way?

Now just imagine what it would be like if our whole church was filled with men and women who thought that way, chose that way, and lived with the way.

Not just on Sundays, but on Mondays in their homes, at work, in their finances, in their conversations, and in a thousand ordinary decisions that just quietly point people toward Jesus Christ.

Man, I gotta tell you, I want to be a part of that kind of church because that's the kind of church that God uses.

That's the kind of church that people can trust.

That's the kind of life the Holy Spirit is producing in every believer who daily yields himself to the work of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, right?

Now, it may be that you're here this morning and you've never trusted in Jesus Christ.

And if that's your situation, I'm just really glad that you're here.

Because what we've talked about today isn't just for mature Christians or for church leaders, it's it's for you too.

Maybe when we were talking about living respectably, you were thinking, man, I would love to get rid of the chaos in my life.

And maybe you were jotting down some of the action steps, you know.

But I want you to understand what we're talking about today is not just self-help.

That's not what we're talking about.

What we're talking about here today is not just behavior modification, isn't just trying harder so that you can be the best version of you.

Everything that we've talked about today, you I'm just gonna tell you, it's absolutely impossible without the work of Jesus Christ in your life.

It's absolutely impossible without the Holy Spirit moving and shaping.

You see, you can't think clearly if you're spiritually blind.

You can't consistently choose wisely if your heart has never been changed.

You can't live honorably if your life hasn't first been surrendered to the one who defines what is honorable.

And that's why Jesus came.

Christ didn't die to leave your mind at the mercy of every passing idea.

He didn't die so that your choices would be captive to every passing impulse.

He didn't die to leave your life in chaos.

He died and he rose again to set you free.

And through his death and resurrection, he offers forgiveness and reconciliation and the gift of a true heart.

And you all, that is where real freedom and real maturity comes from.

And from that heart flows a renewed mind and wise choices and an increasingly honorable life.

You all that's the stuff that you want to live for.

So if you've never trusted Jesus Christ, the invitation today isn't just try harder, you know, keep pressing, you'll eventually get the chaos under control.

The invitation is to surrender to Jesus and to receive his forgiveness and let him to begin to transform you through the power of the Holy Spirit.

And if you're here today and you're already a believer in Jesus Christ, I just want to challenge you every step of the way through this series, don't settle for immaturity.

Just don't.

Ask Jesus to renew your mind, shape your choices, and order your life until the beauty that Jesus has for you becomes unmistakably obvious to everybody.

Think clearly, choose wisely, and live honorably.

And let's see the world that Jesus wants us to see and relate to the world in that way.

So that the world in turn sees us as people who are wholly surrendered to him.

Let's take a moment, let's pray right now.

Father, man, thank you so much for your word, for the power of your word, for the truth of your word.

And I just ask, Father, that right now you just kind of convict our hearts.

For some of us, we've got all kinds of influences dominating our thinking.

For some of us, we haven't made a wise choice in a while now.

For some of us, there's nothing honorable about the way we live.

It's just chaos.

And Father, I just pray that this is a moment where for a lot of us, it's just a real time to do a gut check.

And then, Father, there are some who are here today.

And they have tried every self-help tool available.

They know that all these elements are missing in their life.

But they've yet to give their life to Jesus Christ and see just how He can transform through the power of the Holy Spirit.

So I pray, Father, for both of those two groups.

I pray that both groups make the decision to pour themselves into who you are.

Let today be a day of incredible transformation.

We love you, Father.

We pray all of this in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ.

And everyone agreed and said, Amen.

Thanks for joining us on the Celebration Baptist Church podcast.

We hope today's conversation helps you take another step in your faith journey.

For more resources, upcoming events, and to join us live, visit iCelebration.org.

Until next time, keep connecting with God, connecting with others, and living on mission.