Sunday Service July 12, 2026  10:30 A.M.

Good morning. It's good to see everybody here

this morning immediately following our worship service.

We do have a board meeting. So if you're involved with the

board, please attend Announcements for the week.

It's not many prayer lunch tomorrow.

No prayer lunch tomorrow. There will not be a Disciples

women's meeting Wednesday at 1:00.

So that is that is is canceled. OK.

They will deliver food boxes Wednesday at 10 AM.

So are there any other announcements that need to be

made to the church? OK.

We'll continue on. Good morning.

If you will please take a hymnal.

Turn to hymn #584 Come into his presence.

We will sing through twice. And if you would please stand

with me as we sing. Your off stage standing won't

take long. We'll read a statement to you

and go through a couple of verses in the Bible.

Worshiping is a privilege that that all Christian can

experience or not all Christian can experience openly.

We should be very thankful we can come here and gather in our

church anytime we get ready to worship God and sing praises to

His name. I'm going to read to you a few

passages. My first one is Mark 1230.

It said, love you Lord to God with all your heart, with all

your soul, with all your mind and all your strength.

The segment I'm going to read to you is is Matthew 1820.

And it says for where I am, where two or three are gathered

in, where two or three are gathered in my name, I was with

them. The last one read to you is

James 5/16. He said, therefore, confess your

sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be

healed. The prayer of a righteous person

is powerful and effective. Would you please pray with me?

Our most grace and Heavenly Father, we are thankful to be in

this your house. What we know we can worship you

openly and freely. We thank you for the many

blessings you placed upon us. But most of all, we thank you

for the gift of your Son Jesus. And we give you the prayer that

he talked to us, saying, Our Father who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name thy Kingdom come thy will be.

Done. On Earth as it.

Is in heaven. Give us this.

Day Our Daily Bread. And.

Forgive us our debts. As we forgive our debtors and

lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the.

Glory forever. I'm in.

Don't be seated, don't even start down.

Hymn #447 it is well with my soul.

We're going to do the first, second, and last verses, and I

want these windows to be rattling when we get done, all

right. Amen.

You may be seated. Let's.

Go. Let's go, let's go.

This morning as we go to the Lord in prayer, I do just want

to say how great it is to be in the House of the Lord.

The opportunity, as Randy said, that each of us have to come

together to worship, to give thanks, and simply to

acknowledge how great a God it is that we serve.

I pray that it's why we are here today and that we do bring glory

and honor to His name. So let's pray.

Heavenly Father, Lord, we come to you now just thanking you for

the gift of music, for the opportunity to sing these

wonderful hymns that you have given us, and for whatever is

going on in our lives that we may be able to sing with

confidence from our hearts. That it is well with my soul.

Lord, we understand that they are going to be problems, that

there are going to be concerns that we are going to have

sometimes where we are going to suffer.

But Lord, we also know that you walk with us through whatever

circumstances that we are in and that you encourage us and you

uphold us and you undergird us and you bring us through to the

other side. Lord, we simply pray this

morning that as we give, Lord, as we commune with you at the

your table, as we look into your word, Lord, as we continue to

sing, that our hearts are just drawn closer and closer to you.

And Lord, that as we experienced that relationship with you, as

we go forward from this place, we can't do anything other than

go out and tell who Jesus Christ is and the difference that he

makes in our lives each and every day.

We ask all this in Jesus name, Amen.

Can be used for your glory and to build your Kingdom.

We give in faith. Trust in You as our provider.

In your wonderful name we pray. Amen.

Our communion hymn this morning is hymn #405 in Remembrance and

we will sing all the way through.

This morning as we come to the table, we have the invitation of

our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In the song that we just sang, it talks about His desire for us

to love as He loved to share, as He shared to those that

sometimes that we feel may be maybe unworthy, that we invite

them. Because as we've come to this

table, we realize that without the love of Christ and without

the relationship that we have with Him, we are unworthy.

So my prayer for us today as we partake, as we give thanks for

what Christ has done for us and that we go forth from this place

ready to love as our Savior did, let's pray.

Most special Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity to

stand before this table. We do understand this only by

your invitation that we're allowed to be here.

I shall be taking this bread and then be truly reminded to

represent the Christ's broken body and forgiveness of all sins

in Christ. And we pray.

Father, thank you for the many blessings.

You Kevin's thank you for this day and the opportunity we have

to come together to worship and praise your man most special.

We thank you for this table and the invitation we have to come

and protect the good semblance. As we protect of this cup, we

will remind you that it represents the blood of Jesus

poured out on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins.

I pray that we may partake in a manner that's pleasing unto you.

Christ's name, I pray. The Lord Jesus, on the night he

was betrayed, took bread. When he given thanks, he broke

it and said, This is my body given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after supper he

took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me.

For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim

the Lord's death until he comes. This morning as we look into

God's word, if I, if I had a title, which I don't normally do

titles, but I'm, I'm going to give you 1 today.

It's growing in our walk with Christ, growing in our walk with

Christ. And the only way that we can

grow in our walk with Christ is as we become more like Jesus, we

do so in our speech, in our actions, and in our hearts.

If you can turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4 and verse

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

22. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

22. You were taught with regard to

your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is

being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the

attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self created to

be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak

truthfully to your neighbor. But we are all members of 1

body. In your anger, do not let the

devil, do not give the devil a foothold.

Anyone who has been stealing must still no longer, but must

work doing something useful with their hands that they may have

something to share with those in need.

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but

only what is helpful for building others up according to

their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit with whom you were sealed

for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage

and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other

just as Christ forgave you this morning.

I want to ask you if you were to kind of take, maybe a kind of

take a self evaluation this morning, and it's not for, for

you to share with anyone else, but just simply for you and the

Lord to, to take a look at our walk with him and, and we ask

ourselves the question, are we becoming more like Jesus in our

speech and in our actions and in our hearts?

Our words reveal what is in our hearts.

In Matthew 1234 it says out of the abundance of the heart the

mouth speaketh. How was your speech last week?

Was it encouraging, was it uplifting, Was it harsh, was it

cruel? I was Friday, we were out

working at the church and Craig and Charles had gone over to cut

some grass over on Hwy. 18 and I was cutting, I was trimming the

shrubs and man it, it was so hot.

And I, I was just like, where is Chris Ratliff?

And he was skipping now he was out of town.

And then when they got back, Craig said Brad and I'm going

to, I was soaking wet. I mean, sweat just dropping

everywhere. Craig walked up and he said,

Brad, I'm going to be honest with you, He said, I don't

really think these bushes even need trimming.

I said, Craig, I want to punch you in the head right now.

I just trimmed all these bushes. That's why they don't look like

they need trimming. I had nothing kind,

compassionate, loving to say to Craig at that moment.

You see, the whole time I was trimming the hedges, I was

thinking where is Craig now? Last time he helped me do this

and he's not here. He's over cutting grass

somewhere else, just riding on the zero turn lawn mower.

You see the things that happen up in our minds and in our

hearts. They come out in the words that

we say in the speech that we use.

So I will tell you this. If you feel like you're speaking

with harshness, unkindness, you need to look at what's going on

in here. Our words should encourage

rather than discourage. Let me give you a James passage

from James chapter 3. In verse 9, with the tongue we

James 3 · chapter mention

praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings

who have been made in God's likeness.

Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing.

My brothers and sisters, this should not be.

Can both freshwater and saltwater flow from the same

spring? My brothers and sisters, can a

fig tree bear olives or a Grapevine bear figs?

Neither can a salt spring produce freshwater?

Do your words bring healing or hurt?

Do we speak hope or do we speak criticism?

Do we reflect kindness in the words that we say to others?

Instead of saying, Craig, I'd like to punch you in the head

right now. I could have said something a

lot more kind. You know, I could have said

something like, well, Craig, I appreciate that you think that

the bushes don't need trimming because I just trimmed them and

just left it at that. But man, it is so easy for our

human side to just come out just like that.

It's always there. It's always there trying to take

hold again. You think about when we accept

Christ as Savior and we begin that process of, of growing to

be who Christ desires for us to be.

If we did it as a child, it's probably easier for us than for

if we were 1415, sixteen 20s later in life because we we've

had so much more time to to get ingrained those those bad habits

to get ingrained. I remember growing up, we were

taught without question, without fail, that we were going to say

yes, Sir and no Sir and yes, ma'am and no ma'am, period.

The end wasn't a question. It was going to happen because

you were going to show respect to those who were older than

you. And if you, if you missed it one

time, I can promise you, if my granddad was there, you were

going to get corrected for it. He wasn't going to let it slide.

He wasn't going to say, oh, they probably didn't mean that.

No, he said, I'm sorry, what'd you say?

And you're just like, yes, Sir. Today we seem to have become

more and more LAX in what we are teaching.

And our speech reflects that through what our children are

saying. There is no respect for adults.

There is no respect for authority.

You, you can watch on the news and you can hear these

interactions because we now have body cams and, and as soon as

police come up to the car, there's attitude given always.

If there was an attitude given, I, I, I, I tend to believe that

maybe that person might get off with a warning.

But I can promise you, if as soon as they come up there, you

start saying how sorry they are and that you pay their salary

and if it wasn't for them, you wouldn't even be out here.

You're getting a ticket. Whether you really deserve one

or not, you're getting one. Those words that we use, they

have an impact. They have an impact on that

officer. They have an impact on our

children. They have an impact on those

that are in the service industry.

If, and I want you to think about this, when you go up and

order a hamburger and you get whatever it is that you like on

yours and you get it and it comes out to you and and you

open it up and it's not like what you expected it to be.

And you go up there rant and Raven said, make this the way I

wanted it from the beginning. These are the things that you

should have on there and you list them off again.

You think anything good is going to happen to your hamburger

while it's in the back? I want you to really think about

that. They're behind that wall.

You don't know. They may have slapped your Patty

down on the floor and picked it up and put it back on there.

They come out, say, hey, Sir, I'm sorry.

Hope you enjoy. Be careful with what your word

say because they're going to have some consequences.

Randy and I were at Chick-fil-A the other day, and this fellow

was sitting there and they had gotten his order.

Well, his cheese wasn't melted on his chicken sandwich that he

got a Chick-fil-A. He called the little girl over

there and he said this cheese isn't even melted.

He said take that back and fix it again.

She's like, yes, Sir, we're sorry about that.

Took it back, fix it again, brought it back out.

Yeah, he was hot. I mean, he was hot.

His fries were getting cold and he, I could just see him

steaming over there. She brought it back and she said

whatever they what is, it is a pleasure to serve you.

I don't know exactly what it is, but something about my pleasure,

I think it's what they say. He got it.

He opened it up. The cheese was not melting.

I'm going to let you all know something.

At Chick-fil-A, they don't have microwaves that I know of that

they pop it in and melt the cheese for you.

It's simply they put the cheese on the chicken and the longer it

sits there, the more it melts. Just so you know, they don't

melt the cheese at Chick-fil-A. He was so mad and he was just

talking to himself over there. He was by himself.

No one's with him. And I, he was just mumbling the

whole time. This sandwich isn't any good.

And on and on and on and on it went.

And I sat there and I was watching him and I, and I began

to think about myself and my, my interactions with people.

And do I look exactly the way that this man did?

Because I looked over there and I was like, man, you're, you're,

you're almost 70 years old. Act like it.

That's what I wanted to say. How many times do I get angry

and act like I shouldn't act? And there's young people and

people watching and they're thinking, well, that guy looks

like an absolute idiot. What are our actions look like?

Not just our words. What are our actions look like?

People often see our actions before they hear our testimony.

Let me give you a four example. If you had an interaction with

me out in the public and I didn't act as you thought that a

pastor should act. And then you came into the

sanctuary and you sat down to hear the sermon and you looked

up and you saw me. And you thought, that's that guy

that I saw acting crazy at the McDonald's because they didn't

give his double cheeseburger with just mayonnaise, ketchup

and pickle. How, how much do you think

they're going to get out of that sermon that I bring that day?

It may be a good sermon. It it may be one of my best, but

the actions that they saw in me before they came into this

sanctuary, it's over. We have to be so careful and

consistent in the way that we live outside the church because

if we do get them into the church and they remember you or

they Remember Me in a not good way, it's going to have an

effect. The words that we speak, the

actions that we have. In Matthew chapter 5 and verse

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

16 it says let your light so shine before men that they may

see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

When you think about your actions this past week, did they

bring glory to God? Did people see goodness?

Did they see love? Did they see mercy?

Did they see light as they interacted with you?

We are to walk in love. We think about how Jesus loved

the unlovable. Jesus spoke to people that

normally those who were the Christians, the good people of

the day, the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day,

they wouldn't have been caught dead speaking to those people,

but Jesus spoke to them. Jesus cared for them.

He served those who many would have considered unworthy,

worthless, not worthy of my time.

So when we think about our walk, that's our actions.

When we think about our walk, are we walking in obedience?

Do we, do we have the love of Christ demonstrated in our

lives? Are people seeing Christ in US?

Jesus, we've use the scripture many times before in John

John 14 · chapter mention

chapter 14 and verse 15, he says if you love me, keep my

commandments. Obedience means trusting God

even when his way is difficult. We have to sometimes swallow our

pride. We have to sometimes refrain

from allowing our mouths to get going as they desire to, or our

actions to be in such a way that will hurt our relationship with

others. And when we hurt our

relationship with others, we are separating ourselves from Christ

because he was always looking to bring people in, to make them

feel wanted, to make them feel loved, to make them feel worthy.

You remember when Jesus washed his disciples feet, He taught

them about the importance that that the greatest among us,

those who think that we are of importance, we should humble

ourselves and that should we should be willing to serve

Christians who are growing. They they do this instead of how

can I be served? Their thought process is how can

I serve those who are growing in the relationship with Christ is

what can I do to make someone else's life easier instead of

what can I do to get out of the most work that I possibly can

and let someone else do it. When we walk as Jesus walked,

we're going to have to sacrifice.

Last part is growing in our heart.

We can go to Psalm 51 and verse 10. 5110 says this created me a

pure heart. O God, and renew a steadfast

spirit within me. Do not cast me from your

presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing

spirit to sustain me when our heart is far from God.

I can promise you that our speech, that our actions, that

just our overall attitude is going to be way off.

We're going to be someone that people do not want to be around,

they don't want to spend time with when our heart is where it

should be. When we have that heart that God

desires for us to have, people will be drawn to being around

us. It will be enjoyable to be with

us. I want you to think about this

for a moment. If we're having a fellowship

dinner and Lamar is cooking for that dinner and the whole time

leading up to it, Lamar saying things like, man, I'm just

getting tired of cooking for y'all.

I'm just tired of it. I don't really even want to

cook, but I'm going to do it because it's the right thing to

do. We get there on that day and

Lamar brings the food food in and he's puts it down on the

table and he says, I hope you all enjoy because I've done all

the work that I'm going to do. Does that make you want to have

Lamar cook something else for you again?

Or does it make you feel like, wow, well, I don't want to ask

Lamar to cook again. We've I think we've overworked

him and he's he's just not in a good place.

Every time that I asked Lamar to cook, every time he says, Brad,

you just tell me what you need me to do and I'm going to get it

done every time. That's the way it's supposed to

be. That's having the heart of a

servant. We are humble, we are pure, we

are compassionate, we are willing to surrender ourselves,

and we are following the example that Jesus gave us in

Philippians chapter 2. I didn't have this one.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Mark Philippians, Chapter 2. And verse 5, in your

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

relationship with one another have the same mindset as Christ

Jesus, who, being in the very nature of God, did not consider

equality with God something to be used to His own advantage.

Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a

servant being made in human likeness and being found in

appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming

obedient to death, even death on a cross.

This morning I want to ask you, do we have or are we in the

process of developing the mindset of Christ, the heart of

Christ? Do we have a heart that longs to

be kind and compassionate, to be tender hearted, to be forgiving

of one another? Philippians 432 says Be ye kind

one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as

God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Listen to this Unforgiveness hinders spiritual growth.

Listen to me one more time on that one.

Unforgiveness hinders spiritual growth.

If you have a relationship that is broken, that there is a wedge

between you and whoever it may be, a Co worker, a family

member, a friend, you cannot grow in your relationship with

Christ if you're always angry, hostile, wishing evil upon that

person. We got to go to that person and

we've got to make that relationship right.

And sometimes it wasn't even our fault.

I get that sometimes we are right, but it's up to us to be

willing to humble ourselves, to forgive and to restore that

relationship when we had developed a heart that longs for

God. We have a desire to know more

about Christ. We we have a desire, we have a

hunger for God's word, for prayer, for worship, for

fellowship with other Christians.

Have you ever noticed that that when you're in an in a not good

place that you don't want to be around Christians, that their

their goodness just kind of sets you off?

Have you ever, has anyone ever noticed that?

I'll be honest with you, there are times when I can come into

contact with people who they're just so good that I'm thinking

there, there is no way that they are that nice.

There is no way. But yet every time I come in

contact with them, they're they're so nice, they're so

loving, they're so kind. And it makes me reflect back.

Where am I in my relationship with the Lord?

Where am I in my study of God's word?

Am I spending time in prayer? Am I looking forward to worship?

Do I have a desire to fellowship with other believers?

Spiritual maturity is measured not by how much we know, but by

how much we love Jesus, how much we obey Him, and how much we

love others. So this morning, as you're

taking your spiritual inventory, we're going to take a look at

our speech. We're going to really consider

the words that we say. We are going to understand that

it is important for others to see in us a heart that loves

God. We're going to consider our

actions, how we interact with other people, not just the

people that we like, but even those that we don't like.

How is our how are our actions? And finally, our heart, how are

we going about motivating? What is motivating us to do the

things that we do? If we are walking with Jesus, we

have a literal desire to love as He loved, to have compassion as

He did. Are we willing?

Are we looking forward to spending time in His Word?

Spending time in prayer? Where are we today?

As I look back over this past week and I saw several instances

where I thought you can do better.

That was not Christ like. I also saw some situations where

I encountered people who definitely this is not who I

want to be, but I also encountered some situations

where I said that's Christ in action.

That's what I want others to see in my life.

I thank Lamar for his willingness to serve, and I hope

that we appreciate it and that we don't take it for granted.

But I also hope that that we have that desire to serve as

well, that we are looking for opportunities that are going to

benefit others and not us. Do you know how much money that

I have paid Lamar for the, let's just say 200 meals that I've

asked him to prepare since I've been here?

You know how much I've said, you know what I I've said, Lamar, I

just want to give you a little something extra.

Lamar, how much extra have you gotten?

Not one red sin. He didn't do it for money.

He didn't do it even for me to stand up here and to say that I

appreciate it. He did it because he loves the

Lord and he has a desire to serve and I thank him for that.

Peggy played my favorite communion.

That's my favorite one. If I if I am not where I'm

supposed to be with the Lord as I'm standing there and she

begins to play that it just brings me into that place of

understanding how great it is the God I serve and the love

that I should have for him and I appreciate that.

Next week these two ladies are going to play their prelude.

Is it is the prelude that you're doing right Next week, Lord most

holy, you need to be here not even for the sermon.

You're going to get a sermon in that in that prelude itself.

It is absolutely glorious, folks.

We have so many opportunities to serve.

We have so many opportunities to be who Christ desires for us to

be. Are we taking them?

Are we putting that love into action?

Or are we still worried about ourself?

Take the little spiritual inventory this week.

Your speech, your actions, and your heart.

Are they in line with Christ? And when they are, people are

going to want to be around us and they're going to know why.

And we get to tell them about Jesus.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I do give

thanks to you this morning for your love for us, Lord, for the

supreme and ultimate imperfect example that we had in your Son

Jesus Christ as he came to this earth.

And Lord, this morning I simply pray that the Holy Spirit will

be in our hearts and and move us and and convict us and mould us

and to shape us to become more like you.

And Lord, that where we need to forgive, that we will forgive.

Where we need to let go of pride and we need to show humility

that we will. And Lord, sometimes we may just

need to simply sit quietly and allow you to speak.

Lord, give us the heart of a servant and as we do that, Lord,

it will grow our relationship with you in a mighty way and we

will become closer to You and we will become closer to those who

are around us because Jesus is perfect and our desires to

become more like Him. We ask all this in Jesus name,

Amen. Him of invitation.

This morning is just as I am #434 no, I'm sorry. 435I stand

corrected. You would please stand with me.

We're going to do the first, second and last verses 1-2

Heavenly Father, we pray this morning, Lord, that we will just

come to you just as we are with all our imperfections, with all

our faults, and then we lay them at your feet and more that we

humble ourselves and realize that as we give of ourselves and

and. Do our best to become more like

you Lord, that you will lift a son, that you will raise a son,

and that you will make us into who you desire for us to be and

that we will bring glory and honor to your name through our

words and our actions and our hearts.

It's in Jesus name I pray. Amen.

By those