How To Be A Good Minister (1 Timothy 4:6-16)

If you have your Bible, is oh that you do?

If you'll turn with me the First Timothy this morning,

one Timothy, chapter four.

This morning, we're going.

To start in verse I think six, this morning, First Timothy,

chapter four, starting verse six.

You know, I don't know about you.

One thing that you'll notice lately, it seems like in

our world that everything everywhere we go, they'll now they

have these little and you go to a restaurant that

have these little chaoses, you notice that, and you'll eat

at your little.

Table or whatever it may be. And at the end

of your day and the end of your.

Meal, they'll have this little kiosk and you'll there you

can pay for your meal. If you ever noticed that

soon as you're done paying your meal, you've already paid

to the check. And then they want to know how

was your experience? And then they'll they'll be like a

list of maybe three or four questions. They'll ask how

your food was all right, how was the restaurant, was

it clean?

How quick was your service?

And they use all those different things to measure whether

you had a good experience or not. You know, as

we come to this passage this morning, just as the

restaurants were using different metrics to measure whether you had

a good experience or not. And they're using that determine

whether something is good in ministry. A lot of times

when we think about the church and we think about

a pastor. As we come to First Timothy chapter four,

Paul was using different metrics, if you will, to measure

whether someone's a good teacher or someone's a bad teacher.

For the last few weeks, over the last months, we've

been looking at him First Timothy, how Paul was wrote

a letter to Timothy, who's Timothy is a pastor of Ephesus,

And he's writing to Timothy to get him to confront.

What does he want him to confront.

He want him to confront the bad teachers who are

in ephesis we call them false teachers.

And now I wants to confront the bad teachers.

But he also wants them him to expose their bad teaching.

And so now in turn, actually Paul shifts from focusing

so much on the bad teachers now to confront who

is the main teacher of the church at Ephesus, and

that's that's Timothy. And in this passage he's contrasting Timothy

you've seen what the bad things the bad teachers are doing.

You see the bad teaching. Now, Timothy, you need to

be a good pastor, you need to be a good minister.

And then this passage this morning, Paul was showing Timothy

what is needed from him as a pastor, for him

as a minister, what is needed for him to be

a good minister. You know, this morning, I just wonder

as we come to this passage this morning, how God

might not only use this to speak to me as

the pastor here as a minister, maybe Devin and and

our elders. But you know, all of us are called

to serve God in some way. And you may not

be a vacational pastor like me or a minister, but

God's got a calling on you to serve Him, to

be used by him. And how might you use your

service unto the Lord? And how might you be a

good servant of the Lord. And so this morning I

pray that as we think about what God's called you

to do, whether it is a teacher, whether there's a doctor,

whether it is a professional may whether it's working in

some form of service, whatever it may be, God's called

you to, how today, how might you be a good

How might you do your work unto the Lord, and

how God might be pleased with your ministry, with your

service unto him. So this morning, let's look at how

to be a good minister. This is First Timothy, starting

in chapter four, starting of verse six. Will you stand

with me, Let's read God's word together. Let's look at

the passage scripture, says Paul says to Timothy, this is

the word of the Lord, First Timothy, Chapter four, sturing

of verse six. If you put these things before the brothers,

you'll be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained

in the word of the faith and good doctrine that

you have followed and have nothing to do with it

irrelevant to stilly miss. Rather train yourself for godliness. For

why bodily training is some value. Godliness is of value

in every way, as it holds promise for the present

life and also for the life to come. The saying

is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance for this. For

to this inn we toil and strive because we have

our hopes set on the Living God, who is the

savior of all people, especially for those who believe. Verse

eleven command and teach these things. Let no one despise

you for your youth, but set the believers an example

in speech and conduct, and love and faith and impurity.

All I come, devote yourself to public reading of scripture,

to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift that

you have, which is given to you by the prophecy

when the Council of Elders laid their hands on you.

Practice these things. Immerse yourself in them so that all

might see your progress. Keep watch over yourselves and on

the teaching Persist in this, for by doing so you

will save both yourself and your ears. Let's pray together, Father, Lord,

do we thank you Lord for your word today? Lord,

do we thank you as we look at Paul's exhortation

to young Timothy this morning, and as you're encouraging him

to be a good servant, a good minister. Lord, I

pray today you might speak to our hearts, Lord, as

ministers here, as servants of you, who God you send

out to be your missionaries in the workplaces that you've

called us to.

Lord, I pray that we would evaluate how.

Our service is to you, and Lord, how you might

use us where you put us we might be faithful

and what you call us too. And so Lord, lead

us today, Lord, through your word. Lord, he'd pray. Lord,

I pray today, Lord, you know what I've prepared, Lord,

you know what I've written. But Lord, I pray today

that Lord, the message that would be heard would not

be my words, what would be yours.

Lord.

I pray you would feel me, that you might pour

me out. I pray you might use me today, Lord,

for not for my glory, but for your glory and

for our good.

Lord.

We love you, We thank your Lord for this word

in your name. We pray you maybe see them. So

how to be good minister? For Paul writing to Timothy

this morning, how to be a good minister? A good

minister first guards, A good minister, first guards. And again,

as I said at the beginning, Paul is reminding him.

If you remember, Paul has led the Timothy to expose

the Falts teaching that's in Ephesus and much of Chapter's one.

Through the end of chapter one all the way to

through chapter three, Paul has been exposing the fault teaching

and the false teachers. Just last week, Paul spent much

time explaining what is apostasy and how false teachers are

leading people in the church to depart from the faith.

And Paul, with all that background, of all the teaching

that Paul has done up to this point about false

teaching and how they are leading apostates away from the church. Now,

Paul says in verse six, if you put these things

before your brother, you'll be a good servant. What does

zoos thinks these things that Paul's talking about is the

teaching of the false teacher, what the false teachers are teaching,

and who the false teachers are and how they're leading

people away. Paul says, Hey, not only am I instructing

you these things, Timothy, because as you know as you

read the this is a title of the book, it's

first Timothy.

This was a letter that Paul wrote to Timothy.

But it's not supposed to end with Timothy, right, He's

not supposed to read this letter for Paul and say, Okay,

now I know what these false teachers are teaching. Now

we know what the false teachers are doing. Now I

know how they're leading people, and I'm just to keep

this in my mind as the pastor and minister. No,

Paul explains Timothy if you're going to be a good minister,

and we're going to evaluate your ministry, one way that

you are a good minister, and a good minister guards.

A good minister guards the church. It guards the church

from false teaching. It exposes to you, exposes to the

church body, what is false teaching that's happening in our

world today? Who are the false teachers? And how are

people departing from the faith today. That is one of

my roles, is one of the roles of the pastor's

staff here, the elders here, is to guard you from

false teaching of our world, where it is those, as

I said last week, who take away from scripture or

those who add to scripture. One of the callings of

a minister is to expose and to guard you from

false teaching by exposing you to what is the false

teaching of the world world. As you look at this

passage and notice what he says, if you put these

things before the church, then listen to the words there.

You will be a good servant of Christ.

It's interesting, Timothy here is not a he's not a deacon,

but the word servant here is actually deacon. Oss If

you take that word and go to chapter three. That's

actually the exact same word that Paul would use to

describe the office of a deacon, to call a deacon.

But Paul, I mean, but Timothy's not a deacon. He's

a pastor. He's a minister. He's the leader of the

church in Ephesus. But for Paul, understand that Paul sees

what Timothy does as a pastor of the church is

a servant. He may have an office of elder, or

of pastor or a minister, but at the basis of

what he's called to do, he's called to serve the church.

It's not a role of position or power or prestige,

just a role of service. It's the role of a

servant who loves the church, who serves the church, who

ministers to the church. And so he says, Timothy, you

want to be a good servant guard the church.

But not only ends there.

It doesn't, okay, You're just your role as a pastor

is just to call out what the false teaching is

in the world, the false teachers in the world, to

explain how people are departing from the faith. Right, that's

what your role is to do. No part of his

role is not only to guard the church. But listen

to what the Bible says here, what Paul says to Timothy,

He's not only to guard to church, he's the guard himself. Lo,

what Scripture says in First Timothy four or six, if

you put these things before the brothers, you'll be a

good servant in Christ Jesus being trained in the words

of faith. The word train there is is almost the

term bread. It means upbringing right, something was taught, nurtured.

He's using the metaphors of uprearing like rearing a child.

You ever heard that, right, you're rear a child up

into the ways of something. I was thinking about this

and for my girls, what did we rear them in

one thing that I would say unique to our family.

And it's not me And that doesn't sound It sounds

bad when I said that.

But what I'm about to say is you'all could tell

that God has gifted my wife to singing, right, And

so one of the things that was just a natural

kind of progression of rearing our children was there around

music like their whole life, from from the time there

were little babies to all the way up that we

just music was just who we are as part of

what we were around. Brady always let acchoir at the church.

So our little girls would I can see them like

four years old and Chloe be the choir director.

Caroline would be the only choir member and she'll be

directing them.

But you know, their whole life, they've been reared, if

you will, in music, So music was a part of

their life, and so they have an intimate knowledge of

just being around music, vocals and all those different things. Again,

I said, they didn't get that from me, that God

that from her because she's got the talent.

I don't.

But I want you to see that because what Paul

is using that same imagery, and he's saying, Timothy, you

were taught, you were raised up on something.

And what was it? It was truth.

Your parents, your grandmother taught you. Trained you not in music,

but your parents and your grandparents trained you on truth.

And Timothy, ass if you're gonna be a good minister,

you're gonna be a good minister that guards the church.

But you're gonna be a good minister that holds on

to what your parents taught you, that holds on to

what you were trained by your family, and what is truth,

and you're gonna guard not only church, but you're gonna

guard your own heart. I tell you, one of the

saddest things I've seen the ministry, and I've been the

ministry a long time, is I've.

Seen faithful, faithful, faithful.

Church members who came into church, you were, grew up

in the church, raised their children in church. And I've

seen many of them that i've ministered to loved on,

and I tell you, faithful to the end. You'd have

a snowstorm and they'd be a blizzard, and you'd see, oh,

such and such she was going to make her way

to church and see a husband and wife. And I

think in the one right now that I served in

the church before, raised in church, was always in church,

and I did their funerals and see their children's depart

from what they saw in their parents. The children not

keep that legacy of faith that was passed on to them.

They didn't guard it.

It was reared in them what is truth and what

is faithfulness and what is godliness? And the children didn't

guard it.

And Paul says to Timothy, Timothy, you've got to not

only guard the church, butture to guard yourself.

Listen, what he says here, if you put these things

before your brothers, would be a good servant Christian. You

being trained in the words of faith. Look at what

he says in verse seven and one point. And part

of being trained is is guarding what you grew up on,

guarding the truth that your parents taught you. But also

there's some things that you have nothing to do with. Listen,

have nothing to do with irrelevant silly miss There's two

descriptions Paul gives for miss here. Silly is really the

idea in this passage, or I would say irrelevant verses

is really Maybe in the Greek a better term would

be godless godless. It's godless. It doesn't have anything really

do with God. Is impure, it's godless. He describes false

teaching as godless. You think of that I described last week.

If you weren't here last week, encourage you to go

back and listen to the description of two forms of

false teaching, those who add and those who take away.

Right false teaching is godless at its very basics of

foundation what it is. That's the way Paul described it.

It's only godless. But he also describes these falts teaching

as old wives tale. I remember, I think I told

you the story. I remember when I was a little

your stical laugh at me. But when I was little,

we had this like house, and we had this field

behind our house that people farmed, and then there was

these trees. Well, my neighbor, I think, wanted to pull

a trick on me, and he told me that in

the woods there was a half man and half horse.

And I was scared to death of that.

Every time I took out the trash and it was dark,

I'd run back to the house thinking the horseman was

going to come after me.

Now you think about that, and you say that is crazy.

What is that? That's an old wives tale, Like there's.

No such thing as half man, half horse living in

my woods, but there was some old wives tale of

someone that he made up, or if someone told him.

I have no idea.

That's the imagery that seems like, that's crazy that someone

would tell you. Crazy that you believed that, Pastor Jonathan.

But that's the imagery of what Paul is saying is

false teaching. It's silly, it's crazy, it doesn't make sense.

It's a fable, it's a wise tail, it's something made

up and that's what Paul says. But listen, Paul says

to him, you need to guard what you know is true.

But you need to have nothing to do with wise tails.

This stuff is silly, it's godless, and you you don't

need to have anything to do with it. And I

want to encourage you students, because you may look at

me and say, that's crazy, that's crazy that you believe that.

But some of the things you're watching on TikTok and

social media that you're believing, the conspiracy theories that are

in there on social media, some things that you're hearing

about the Bible, it's just as silly as me believing

and that was half man and.

Half horse living in the woods.

And at times, just as much as I have to

say I have to need to have anything to do

with with crazy theories of someone living in the wood,

you need to be so diligent in your faith that

am I holding on guarding what my parents taught me

is truth. But there's some things on my social media

feed that I need to get rid of. I need

to stop watching. I need to have nothing to do

with And that's what Paul is saying to Timothy. And

I want you to understand I'm saying that to you.

Paul is saying that to a pastor.

If it's important for the pastor to be on guard

against teaching.

How much more important it is for you.

But for Paul, for Timothy to be a good teacher,

a good minister, he's got to be a good minister guards,

He guards the church, and he guards his own heart.

He guards his own life. Secondly, a good servant, or

not a good servant, A good minister here servants another

term that Paul would.

Use, A good minister trains. Look at the imagery.

What Paul says in verse eight, I mean that second

half of verse seven he says, have nothing to do

with irrelevant, silly miss. So you have this imagery, Okay, Timothy,

I've kind of showed you what is bad, and now

I'm showing you what is good, what you're not have

anything to do with.

And now I want to tell you what you should

have something to do with. And what is it?

He says, Listen to this, train yourself rather train yourself

for godliness.

Train yourself for godliness.

The word godliness, I mean the word train here is

actually the word where we get gymnastics it's actually means

to the term in the Hebrew means to train. It's

in reference to physical training for an athlete. So Paul

is saying, Timothy, have nothing to do with foolish teaching,

godless teaching.

But what you are to have something.

To do with You're actually to exercise yourself. You're to

train yourself. And what do you train yourself in godliness?

You need to exercise in Godliness and you I think

it's important for Paul, I mean for you and I

when we think about godliness, what is godliness?

Well, I want you to look go back with me.

If you look at verse.

Six, notice what Paul says, if you put these things

before your brothers, you'll be a good service in Christ,

of Christ Jesus being trained in the words of faith.

Right that train there is past tense Susan. Again, it's

a metaphor. It's talking about his upbringing, his rearing as

a child in truth. But then he goes into a

present tense being trained in the words of faith and

of good doctrine that you have followed. Paul explained there

that you are nurtured in truth. But then he uses

a present tense of something that you're now following today.

For Paul, being godly is two parts.

One is correct truth, being trained in truth and what

you're reared in truth. And I think it is the

important for you as parents who are here grandparents, that

you're training your children in truth. And that's not only

here at truth, but also at home. You're discipling them

what is true. But also it's it's not only for

you students to be trained in that truth, but it's

also a truth that you continue to follow. I brought

a few things here for you, and a couple of books,

and actually these are the books right now that I'm

reading with our elders and our deacons. So this is

a systematic theology book that we're using as elders. We

read this together. We're reading this together very slowly, you

might add. We're also reading a book on preaching right now.

And then our deacons are reading a book called Women,

Men and Women in the Church, and we read these together.

Why we're ministers, we're elders, we're deacons. Why are we

continuing to read and study?

Why?

Because we are supposed to guard the church and truth

in what we were nurtured in.

But it's important for us to continue to train.

It's I told our elders, I said, we're going to

be reading theology and you're going to start working out

your theological muscles. Why because if we're gonna if we're

gonna be the Minister's God called us, we've only got

to train in godliness. And part of training in godliness

is training and truth. That means continue to study, continue

to learn, continue to understand what is truth. And so

godliness is listening correct truth. But it doesn't end there.

Godliness is not only correct truth and that you know

what truth is. But godliness is correct truth with correct behavior.

See that correct truth with correct behavior. We used to

say it this way. You got to practice what you preach.

You only got to know the truth. But you've got

to live the truth, and that is godliness. Here's here's

the danger, and here's the danger for Paul talking to Timothy. Timothy,

you need to exercise, you need to train in godliness.

If you're going to be a good minister. You're a

good minister. Guards a good minister. Secondly trains you have

to train yourself. I think the danger for you and

I heard the story Paul David Tripp as a pastor.

And he was not only a pastor, but he also

was counselor of biblical counselor. He also was a professor,

and he taught in a seminary. And he was teaching

a seminary class, and it was the last class before graduation.

And there were some.

Students in his class were theologically just top they were

just brilliant in theology. They're brilliant in languages and understanding

Greek and Hebrew. But his concern was although they were

theologically excelled, behaviorally, there were some things in their life

that they may not be practicing well. They were not

living what they were what they know. So he did

a class on how important as a pastor that you

live what you preach. And what he did in his class,

he says, I tell you what, I just want to

encourage you. If you're really struggling with some things in

your life personally, my door's open. I'm a counselor. I

want you to come. I'd love to share you to

open up with me. He struggles. One day a guy

named George came in, and he said George was one

of the best students in his class, brilliant theological mind,

brilliant in the languages, was top of his class. George

came in and said he was married. He said, doctor Tripp,

I just.

Wanted you to know that I'm really afraid.

He said, I've been really studying hard for classes in seminary.

And he said, I decided, just because of the stress

of seminary and stress of school, that I would at

night I would go to Barnes and Noble and study.

And he said, I started going Barnes and Noble and study.

And then he said, I found that Barnes and Noble

there was this really attractive lady. And he said, I

started positioning myself at the coffee shop where I could

see a direct line on her. I would over the

it would slowly progress in that I would see her,

and then this slowly progressed that I would when she

would leave, I'd get up to leave, hoping that we

would bump in together. And he said, But last night,

he said, I found myself getting in my car, following

her and following her to her house. And he said,

I went up to her door and knocked on her door,

and I got scared and her into the car. I

tell you that story because you hear that story, and

you think, how in the world could a pastor who

knows truth, who could be so literate when it comes

to knowing the Bible, knowing theology, knowing all these things,

but in his personal life he has these dark, dark things.

You see, Here's the danger for you and I. Here's

the danger for Timothy, and here's the danger for me

and for all of us. Is when we come to godliness,

we want to separate truth from behavior. And we can

say at times, well, I'm godly. I'm godly because I

grew up in church. I'm godly because I went to

Sunday School class, I'm godly because I taught in the

Bible class. I'm godly because all these things I've done

for truth. But then we separate our behavior. But there's

things in my life that I know are not right,

but it's okay. I can justify. I'm still okay with God.

I'm still godly because of what I know. You see

for Paul, Paul tells Timothy, Timothy, you can't separate what

you know and how you behave And I want you

to be godly not on just what you know, but how.

You live your life.

And you need to discipline your body. Just as you

discipline yourself for exercise.

You need to dis in yourself for godliness.

Discipline that you study truth. But not only you discipline

that you study truth, but discipline yourself that.

You behave that you live what you believe.

Can I encourage you students today, You've learned a lot

of great things. This weekend, I would say to you,

d Now was a weekend that radically changed my life

as a teenager of your age. There was a d

Now that I went to that I was never the

same again after that weekend. But you can learned a

lot of great truths today, but if you don't put

them in practices in your life after starting tomorrow, you're

separating the two. Pursue godliness not just what you learned

this week, but you're putting in practice.

That means some of you it's gonna be take discipline.

There's things that you're gonna have to say, there's things

in my life right now that are that are silly,

that are not healthy, and I'm gonna have to have

nothing to do with them. That's gonna take discipline. Can

I encourage you today? Train yourself for godliness?

Why you know.

You ever wonders I've talked about before. I'm a runner,

so I like to run. I ran four times last week,

and you know, at times you kind of think, like,

why why do I run? Why do I take time

to do that in my busy schedule? And there's certain motivations.

Of course, I don't want to stay healthy. Also, you know,

I do really like the Christopher Creme donuts. So I'm

gonna be honest. Strawberry glaze was this week I've had.

I don't want to.

Tell you how I mean I've had, but you know

it's kind of like I can eat that donut and

then maybe go running off tomorrow.

So there's different motivations for why I run.

I want to stay healthy, I want to eat maybe

what I want to eat. There's different But why what

should motivate us to training godliness? What should motivate Timothy

to train in Godliness? Well, Paul answers that question. Listen

to what he says. He says for why bodily training

is some value. Godliness is value in every way those

promises for this present life and also for the life

to come. For Paul, he's using that metaphor, using a

metaphor of child rearing earlier now uses a metaphor of exercise,

and he says, you know, exercise, physical exercise, running is good,

it's good for this life. But training in gouidliness is

good for this life and for eternal life. So why

should we train in guidliness because it's it's good for

our spiritual life and it's good for our eternal life.

But he also says this not only is it good

because it's good for our life spiritual and eternal.

This is what else he says.

He says, this saying is trustworthy and deserving a full

accept that this is this way of saying. What I'm

saying is really is good and it's true, and it's

to be held on. He's bringing attention to what he's

about to say.

He says, for this end, we toil and strive. I

like this imagery. We toil. It's toil.

It's hard work, right, Can I tell you students, adults

here today, training and godliness is hard work. It's not

easy being disciplined to read your Bible, being disined to pray,

doing this to understand more truth.

It's hard work.

And it's not only going to be hard work to

do it. But it's also and this is the fallacy.

I want you to just say this real quick. This

is not in my notes. Sometimes we think that pursuing

Godliness should be easy, and if it's not easy, then

I'm doing something wrong. Can I tell you for your

pastor toiling, it's hard work.

For me, doing my.

Devotions can seem like the hardest thing I do every day.

It seems like everything else will come in my way.

It's hard work. It's hard work, and it's something I've

got to strive to do right.

It doesn't come easy.

I have to be disciplined every day to read my Bible,

just says I have to be disciplined to go run

and endure the elements.

Right, it's hard work, strive. But why do we do it?

Well? Paul says, this is why we should do it,

because it has spiritual.

Value and it has eternal value.

But also he says, we totally strive because we have

a hope of set on believing God. Why why do

we do it? Why are you here tonight today?

Do we do it?

Because I want this service to make me feel good,

make me feel better. I want to come to this

church service and come to this dee now because maybe

God will bless me with something for a career, for

a boy or for a girl. Why do we do

it for something that we can get out of No,

Paul says the reason I toil and strive for Godliness

because Christ is my hope. There's nothing. It's not because

I want something out of it or I want to

get something in return.

No, I strive for.

Godliness because He is my hope. There's nothing in this

world that brings.

Me hope like him. It said.

Because of that, I will troll, I will strive, I

will pursue him.

Can I encourage you students today? Can I encourage you church? Today?

May we train for Godliness because Christ is our hope.

May we strive for Godliness because that's where life is,

spiritual life.

Today and eternal life tomorrow.

May we strive and torol lastly, because He's our savior.

Listen to what it says. Who is the savior of

all people?

Especially those who believe?

I wonder today.

You know I got two more points, but you know what,

I'm gonna do them next week because I believe God's

right here.

It's kind just where he wants this.

You know, I just wanted as we close here today,

why you came into the service. You know you're not

here by mistake, students.

Adults, God's brought you here for this morning.

And I wonder if the Lord had a little chaos

in heaven and he was looking at your life, and

he was going through your life?

How are they doing? They're my servants.

I gave them gifts, I gave them talents, I gave

them abilities, and they're using.

Them at their workplaces.

They're using theirs in their family, They're using them their community,

they're using they're in their school. How are they using them?

How are they doing as a servant of mine? How

would God say today? You're doing in guarding yourself from

false teaching, guarding your family from false teaching, guarding your

friends from false teaching.

How are you doing in.

Being a good servant of the Lord, in guarding all

others around you? How are you doing today in training

in godliness? I ask you today, why do you train

in Godliness today? Why do you continue to strive in

toil for the Lord? Is it because it's good for

your spiritual life and your eternal life? You do that

today because you recognize He is my hope, and do

you strive and toil for Godliness because he's your savior.

Would you pray with me today?

Lord, I thank you for this morning.

And Lord, I think of Lord that this week the

flag that the students have that it's a picture of

Jesus and him declaring, I saw that. Lord, you see

all things. You know all things, and Lord you today

you know exactly where we are with you. You know

the things in our life that we need to guard against.

Lord. You know those that we need to guard from

false teaching, maybe family, friends.

That you've put in our life. Lord, you know how

you we were raised in truth, or maybe not raised

in truth. You know the foundation of truth that we have.

And Lord today you call us to guard our hearts

in truth. So Lord, today I pray we would hear

your words, and Lord, we would respond to say, Lord,

there's some things in my life that I need to

have nothing to do with any longer.

Help me to put away those things and pursue truth. Lord.

I pray for day that there'd be those in this

room who would.

Declare, Lord, Lord, help me train. I want to train

in godliness. And Lord, it's because you're my hope.

God, it's because today, Lord, you are not only my hope.

But God, today you're my savior.

Help me have correct truth and correct behavior. Help me

live what I know is true. What I pray, they'd

be those all across this room who would just confess,

just like that pastor came before trip and confessed that

sins before you. I'd pray they'd be those in this

room who would confess some behaviors that are not correct.

And say, God, I.

Want to declare these to you and ask you to

forgive me.

Help me, Lord, live what I know is true.

Lord, I pray you'd lead us in this time of invitation.

The students need to come in here and pray.

I pray they would do that. Lord.

I pray for our church body that's here that you've

brought here. Lord, some need to come to this altar

and pray. Lord, if I can pray, or devon or

elders could pray for someone, Lord, you lead us. Or

I pray for the individual here that may not know

you as Lord and Savior. I pray today the day

would be the day that they would put their faith

in you for salvation.

Maybe that's one of these students.

Here, Lord, who whatever whoever it is, Lord, I pray

or they respond to your calling for salvation Today, Lord,

we love you. We thank you, Lord for your word,

your name. We pray.

Amen, you may be se