Exalting Jesus Pt.3 | October 11, 2026 | Will Rutt

Short and sweet for the reading this morning.

If I haven't met you, my name is Will Rutt.

I get to serve as lead pastor here.

And part of what we do every time we get together is we open up God's word and we place ourselves under it, knowing that God has not just given us his word to impart information, but to produce transformation.

And we actually believe that God's word is living, active, sharp, and transformational.

It is life.

So we study it and give ourselves to it.

It is God's heart revealed for us.

And so this morning, um, it's gonna be a little bit different in that usually we're going through a set of verses and just seeing what does it say and what it's got to have to say to us.

Uh this morning, though, we're actually going to zoom out a little bit and we're going to finish the book of 1 Corinthians.

All right, we started 1 Corinthians back in January, and for me, coming to the end of a book is a lot of times it's kind of like watching a movie, and I love movies.

I love to be inspired in a movie.

And anytime that if I go to the movie theater and watch a movie with some friends, when we're walking out of the movie theater, what are we doing?

We're talking about it.

We're talking and and and to when we when we finish a book, I just want to have a chance to be able to just kind of like talk about the whole thing.

What did we see?

What did we love?

What was confusing?

What kind of stirred in you?

That's that's what I like to do at the end of a movie, and that's what I like to be able to do as a church when we finish a book, to be able to zoom out and go, okay, what did we see?

What did we love?

What stirred in us?

So that's what I hope happens this morning as we look at 1 Corinthians from a big picture perspective.

What did we see and what was God saying?

And I hope that that what we see this morning as we look at 1 Corinthians big picture is how God deals with problems in the church.

Alright?

And there's a lot that we could talk about as we're zooming out, and some of the things that I loved.

Like I loved in chapters 8 through 10, when Paul talks about, gives some personal examples of liberties or rights that he had that he laid aside to not cause hindrance to the gospel.

I love that part of the book when he says, I've become all things to all people, so that by all means I might save some, and how out of that came this passion, hope in our church to win people, to win people who don't know Jesus, knowing that winning is by his doing.

And part of what came out of that is a prayer card.

You've probably seen them around.

I hope you've seen them around.

Um thought I had one in my Bible.

Um, but it's a little card with that uh logo on it, and it's a prayer for our ones that I hope I hope we'll give ourselves to praying every day for that lost people might come to know Jesus.

And part of our strategy for that is daily prayer, monthly relationship, quarterly truth.

That's just part of what we do.

I love that part of the book.

I love how in the book he talks about how we as a church, we are one body, we are Christ's body, and we verb.

Okay, that's when we got to sit, or I got to sit on the recliner and watch Taylor try to pull the thing by himself and be able to experience as a body like the joy that it is when each member plays their role in the body.

Christ's body, one body.

And part of what came out of that that I loved from 1 Corinthians is these one-body teams, these one body teams that we we verb together.

One body repairs, one body cooks, one body visits, one body gives.

Like to be able to see things come up out of the church through God's word, go, man, that I love that part of the book.

Um I love, I loved in 1 Corinthians 14 when Paul is talking about prophecy and he's talking about the proclamation of God's word in a way that calls us to account and brings us conviction so that we will fall on our face and do you remember the word?

Fall on our face and worship.

Like that, that is the goal of any time that we're we're getting together, or anytime we're opening God's word to go, Lord, would you would you help me to see me for who I am, you for who you are, and follow my face and go, wow, wow, God.

I love that part of the book.

And as we go through this morning, I want us to see one other thing that I love.

And by the way, to help us kind of hold the book in our hands, which I helps me so much, we made this chart.

The chart has been up here for a while, uh, each week, actually.

This is a version of that that um I have to actually just keep at the beginning of 1 Corinthians, and so anytime I'm in 1 Corinthians, I can kind of orient myself to, okay, what's happening in the book.

But um my hope this morning is not just like recap the book, okay?

Uh, but to see the heart of God for his church and to learn to respond to problems.

Now you already know what these boxes say because I had them faced the wrong way earlier.

But how the learn to respond to problems in the church.

And the way Paul responds to problems in the church is by pointing them to specific actions and by continuing to make them look up to gospel truths.

This is how Paul responds to problems in the church.

And problems happen in the church.

Am I right?

Here's some of the problems that they had.

Um, remember when they were saying, I am of a Paul, I am of Apollos, I'm of Cephas, they had these divisive allegiances around their favorite church leaders.

Okay, they had we'll call that hero worship.

They had their favorite guys and they were dividing around their favorite guys.

Okay, hero worship.

In chapter five, in chapter five, there was ongoing unrepentant sin.

Energizer.

It just keeps going and going and going and going, right?

And they were proud in doing nothing about it.

Problem.

Problem when the church just kind of turns a blind eye to sin.

Problem.

Chapter 6, there's a different problem that he addresses.

And uh it's they're taking each other to court.

It's like one of those great parts of the Bible that most people don't know is in the Bible until you read 1 Corinthians 16.

They're taking each other to court.

Why?

Because uh why does anybody take anybody to court?

Because we believe we're right and we've been wronged, and then he asks this question why not rather be wronged?

But they're suing each other.

Problem.

Chapter 6 has another problem, and that there's in Corinth, there's this temple with lots of temple prostitutes.

And part of the temple prostitution is you worship by sleeping with the prostitute.

Sexual immorality is a problem in the church.

And if you have a different visual than bed sheets for that, then you can let me know later, but that's the best I can come up with.

That's chapter six.

Chapter seven, marriage.

There's just confusion.

There's a lot of confusion that he's dealing with, and that's a problem in the church.

Confusion with marriage and how should we confusion about like sex in marriage, confusion about divorce.

That's chapter seven.

There's just confusion.

Confusion about um how we operate with matters of conscience in a community where people's different conscience says different things.

And the example from chapters eight to ten, uh nope, that's eleven, was meat.

This is sardines.

Meat sacrificed to idols, to eat or not to eat, and the answer is no.

Don't eat that.

Actually, they're not as bad as as I thought they would be.

Have you ever tried sardines, like for real?

They're not bad.

Okay.

Different consciences.

That's chapters eight through ten.

And then chapter 11, uh head coverings.

This is this is chapter 11.

Isaiah 11 · chapter mention

Head coverings.

Uh how do how do we engage these old culture, these cultural norms with new beliefs?

How do we do this?

And confusion there.

Problems.

Or, chapters 12 through 14, we've got um spiritual gifts, and they got a problem in the church where they're uh they got people in the church and they're using their spiritual gifts to just kind of flex their own spirituality.

Okay, so that's that's the weight here.

Problem when the church that's intended to be one body, that is not just intended to be, that is one body, that is Christ's body, gets together so a bunch of people can just make themselves look good.

Problem.

Just trying to flex.

Problems in the church.

Chapter 16, there's confusion and questions that get answered about money.

And Adam referenced that today.

Chapter 11, communion.

They're taking communion in a way that is a problem.

And the problem is, if you remember, that some people are, um the rich people are getting together and have their little pre-party little tailgate before communion, before the Lord's Supper.

And the rich people are getting together and getting drunk, and the poor people show up in the church to remember the love of God sacrificed for them, and they have nothing to be able to engage the Lord's Supper with.

And he says, one is hungry and another is drunk.

And then he says this, what problems.

Problems in the church.

Wouldn't it be great if problems didn't exist in the church?

Um I want to think about each one of these real qu real briefly.

If you take problems out of the church and you're just left with action and gospel, what is this?

This is a fantasy.

This is a fiction.

And I do think it's good to be able to call that out for us.

Because um, not I don't want to say that problems aren't problems.

Problems are problems.

And there's a lot of corrective language that Paul gives for these legitimate real problems.

But here's what I've learned about problems is problems end up being the an opportunity to see what I actually believe.

Okay?

So um let me read a few examples of that.

And my hope in thinking about this is to maybe think, maybe problems, while there are problems, they're actually um an opportunity for us.

Interpersonal problems, conflict with people problems, um, they expose what I really believe about reconciliation.

Emotional problems, anxiety, depression, those things are going to expose what I really believe about joy in the Lord.

Habitual sin problems.

You know the problem where when we went through this chapter and you said, I'm not gonna do that again again, and I'm not gonna do that again, and you've done it again, you've done it again.

Habitual sin problems expose what I really believe about the grace of God.

Budget problems, money problems are gonna expose what I really believe about God's provision.

I could go on and on about how problems give us what they end up doing is they put an X-ray on our hearts and expose the gap between what I say I believe and what I really believe.

And I think that this is um we we would love to have a church that looks like this, but that's that's a fantasy, it's not reality, and what it becomes then when we can see that problems just expose a gap between what I actually believe and what I say I believe, and then it becomes an opportunity to say, Lord, I see this problem, and it's not just something that needs to be fixed.

It's an x-ray in my heart, Lord, grow me up here.

Grow me up here.

I that's that's a really good prayer for us as a church when we see a problem, either in your own life when you look in the mirror, when you see a problem in the church, when you have a problem with a person, Lord, I'm not saying problems aren't problems, but there's an opportunity.

Lord, grow me up here.

Expose what I believe about your grace, about your provision, about who I am because of you, and grow me up.

And then a church can see that problems are actually one of the ways that God works to bring about new maturities in the church.

You see that, Lord?

Grow us up, grow us up.

All right, what if you take this box out and you have a church full of problems and gospel, but you have no action in the church.

Where does that leave us?

If you take out problems, you have a fantasy, you take out you take specific action out of the equation.

What are we what are we left with?

We're left with a mess?

Yeah.

Uh you could say hypocrisy.

You could say, um, here's what came to my mind.

You take specific action out, and you get a church of vague sentimentalists.

Uh people who can give sort of um Adam said it well, uh, people who are just kind of gooey for God and have just kind of like flat euphemisms and uh this and uh of a theology that's so vague that it doesn't impact the way I live when I leave, and then yeah, we're just kind of vague sentimentalists, we'll just sing kumbaya, feel good about ourselves, say the gospel really loud, and then leave totally unchanged.

This is a problem.

Take action out of the equation.

What if you take this?

Take gospel out of the equation.

What are you left with?

What kind of church is this?

Yeah.

It's wow, so oh maybe we're just maybe this is easier to answer what is what happens when you take this out of a church.

Loveless, what are some other things that were said?

Legalist.

What'd you say?

Bitterness.

Yeah, lack of forgiveness.

And and to each of these, man, this is just this is why, this is like walking out of the movie, like, man, what'd we see here?

I'd love to have conversations about all these.

But because I want to go like, why?

Why is that instead of a church a church where you move, take the gospel out of it?

Because we got action, man, and we were exhorted to flee sexual immorality, and we were exhorted to um to label the the our our our leaders as this servants are exhorted to action, to give, to serve, to love.

1 Corinthians 13, man, love, baby.

Why do I need gospel?

Take, yeah, there's so many good answers.

Um I would say a church that has problems and is just going, man, we need we need to we need to act to solve the problems.

That is a church where you get a bunch of religious, tired Pharisees.

Now, all of us have our natural bent.

Um you know, my my natural bent is right here.

We got a problem, dang it, let's do something.

And some of us have a natural bent that's a little bit like um, eh, we just need to love God.

Sing kumbaya, you know?

Some of it, and we all we all have our natural bents.

But what I want to point out is this this is a reality.

And a church, what Paul does in 1 Corinthians that is such a gift, is he doesn't choose one or the other, he puts his hand on both.

Church.

We cannot be people who look in the mirror, James.

Look in the mirror and do nothing.

James would call people who are hearers of the word but not doers of it.

He'd say, You are deluded.

Can't be just this, and can't be just this, hearers of the word and doers of the word.

Both are necessary.

And I want to go into what does he say about these to address these problems?

But first, um, not only do I think that does Paul in 1 Corinthians show that we need both of these in response to our problems, not only do we are both of these necessary, but the order is necessary.

See, I put these in this order because I guess that's my natural bent.

But let's see, let's see how Paul addresses these.

Uh go with me.

I just want to look at a few verses and I want to see, let's see what order Paul puts them in.

Go to chapters, go to chapter um four with me.

This is him dealing with the problem of hero worship, these divisive allegiances around their favorite church leader.

He calls them to action in chapter 4, verse 1.

Let a man regard us in this manner as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

Okay, Paul's there.

Uh, I should say in here.

He gives the action in chapter 4, verse 1.

But let's go, let's let's rewind a little bit.

Go to chapter 3, verse 5.

Chapter 3, verse 5 says, What then is Apollos?

And what is Paul?

Answer, servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one.

I planted, Apollos watered, but oh, look at this.

God was causing the growth.

So then neither the one who plants nor the ones who waters anything, but God who causes the growth.

Rewind a little bit more and go to chapter one.

Verse 26.

He says, For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many of you wise according to the flesh, not mighty, not many noble.

But God has chosen the foolish things of this world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of this world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world, and the despised, God has chosen the things that are not, so that he may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.

Hopefully, I mean we've said this a bunch of times now.

Verse 30.

But by his doing you're in Christ.

Okay, pause there.

So when it comes to the problem of hero worship, he gets to an action in chapter 4, verse 1.

But the action actually didn't stand here, did it?

It was actually this.

And this is what we see actually throughout the whole book.

A problem, and then how he dresses the problem first, is to let the gospel speak to the problem.

Let the gospel speak.

And then out of that comes the action.

Now let me tell you why this matters so much to me.

When this is the order, I see what God has called me to, and I'm gonna do it.

When this is the order, the gospel he c the gospel gets flattened to a comforting afterthought when I fail.

Fleece sexual immorality.

And then I fail.

Okay, his grace is sufficient.

The gospel gets flattened to just that.

I'm supposed to love my wife, chapter seven talks about this, and then when I fail, okay, his grace is sufficient.

And I'm not trying to put my my hope in people or put my hope in Jesus, and then I fail, but his grace is sufficient.

Now, is his grace sufficient?

Of course, yes, but is the Gospel more than that, more than forgiveness for our failures.

Yes, the gospel is more.

But when this is the order, the gospel just gets flattened to forgiveness for my failure.

But when the order is what Paul made it to be, then things really start to change.

Because what I do is not tethered mostly to problems.

It's tethered to something else.

And one of the things that I just enjoyed about going through this sort of recap in 1 Corinthians is to just go back through.

And you test me on it, the order that he goes through in the book.

But to start to just look at what when he talks about the gospel to the Corinthians, what is he saying?

And what I discovered is I just read it and wrote it out, meditating on it.

He shares the gospel with them in a way that does two things.

In a way that exalts Jesus and in a way that clarifies who we are because of Jesus.

This is the gospel that he shares.

Let me just show you what he says about who Jesus is throughout the book of 1 Corinthians.

He will confirm us to the end blameless.

Did you know the little sending that we do at the end of the service now, the worship service?

He will confirm us to the end blameless.

That's from chapter one, exalting Jesus for what he has done.

He saves those who believe.

He is our Passover who has been sacrificed.

We exist through him.

He is the head of every man.

He is the substance of the new covenant.

He died for our sins, was buried, and was raised on the third day, and he grants us victory.

See, this is, I'm not trying to hate on this sort of um, you know, his grace is sufficient.

That comes out of my failure.

That, I mean, those words have been life to me.

I just know that I'm prone to flatten the gospel to just that forgiveness.

And when Paul talks about the gospel, he talks about it, no way, no, look up to Jesus, exalting him.

This is the gospel that he shares.

And I'm really, really excited about where that's gonna lead us.

Actually, next week we're gonna start a new series that is is gonna be unlike anything that we've done since I've been here, and that is going to be uh a new chart for us.

And that's not the chart of um a book, that's a chart of 66 books.

We're gonna spend the next 14 weeks in looking at the story of God in the Bible, and what we're gonna see is how the story of God constantly is exalting who Jesus is.

And I'm super excited to be able to see this exalting Jesus and the story of God, going from Genesis through Revelation up to now, exalting Jesus in it.

I'm excited about that because that is what Paul does every time when he brings up the gospel.

I'm gonna point you back to who Jesus is.

And that's good.

The gospel that he gives exalts Jesus, but also clarifies who I am.

And this is what it says.

I'm enriched, confirmed, not lacking in anything.

I belong to Christ, a temple of God, and dwelt by his spirit, servant of Christ, a steward of the mysteries of the gospel, washed, sanctified, justified, won, a temple of the Holy Spirit, not my own, but bought with a price, and one more at the bottom that we'll get to, that we actually read in chapter 16.

The gospel exalts Jesus.

Yes, his grace is sufficient, and yes, it clarifies who I am.

I'm not my own.

I've been bought with a price.

The gospel isn't just forgiveness, the gospel um changes who I am.

So I'm gonna uh use a little Spider-Man reference.

Y'all remember the Spider-Man Toby McGuire ones, like old school now?

Okay.

And that, if you don't know, here's just what happens.

Uh you have this guy, Peter Parker, and he's kind of a nerd.

And he's got problems, and then he gets bit by a spider.

And then in this version of Spider-Man, when he gets bit by the spider, it changes the very fabric of who he is.

And he all of a sudden is able to do things that he was not able to do.

Not because of decisions, not because of new resolutions, but because now he is different, radically transformed.

He's different, he's not the same.

And the rest of the first movie is him trying to figure out how to be who he is as Spider-Man.

And he it's it's just there's some growing pains for him.

And you remember the part where he's like, Go, Web, go.

You know, that part?

No?

Okay, whatever.

It's him learning to be who he is.

Not just try to solve problems, but understand who am I.

We'll see an example of that later.

But two visuals that have helped me so much and have been like so um so clarifying to me in the gospel.

They actually come out of 1 Corinthians 6, in terms of understanding who I am.

If you'll turn with me to chapter 6.

Verse 9, he says this.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Such were some of you.

But listen, this is a gospel that clarifies who I am.

Listen to this.

But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and in the Spirit of God.

See, the the visuals that have helped me in just kind of internalizing the gospel is these two, these two jars.

So that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

You were washed, you're sanctified, and you're justified.

When the guy, his name is Wayne Weisman, the guy who um first like held up these jars, and the guy awesome.

He he had he had a good beard, and when he'd get excited, he'd rub his beard and he'd say, Brethren, listen.

And when he said brethren, I was like, okay, like I'm locked in.

And he would hold, he would hold these up, and this is what he said that um just think about it all the time.

He said, the world thinks that our hypocrisy is this.

That we are this, Christians, that we are this and we pretend to be this.

We're this on Friday and Saturday, pretend to be this on Sunday, go back to the little bit of this on Monday, Tuesday life group, gotta be like this.

And he's he's going, the world says our hypocrisy is that we are this and we pretend to be this.

And then he said something that just so um impacted my view of the gospel that is bigger than forgiveness for failure.

He said, but that's not our truest hypocrisy.

Our truest hypocrisy is that we are this.

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, means declared righteous.

And then we just pretend to be this.

This is our truer hypocrisy.

This is who we are, and then he said this be who you are.

Be who you are.

See, this is the gospel that Paul continually points them to.

He's we got these problems, and he's going, I want to point you to Jesus.

Yes, his grace is sufficient.

He is the Passover, he was sacrificed for us.

By his doing, we are in Christ, and he has washed us and sanctified us and justified us.

We are different because of him.

Be who we are.

And sanctification is learning to live according to who I've been made, according to who I am.

I think I think if movies get anything right, it is it is the connection that they make between who I am and how I live.

Or at least what I believe about who I am and then how I live.

I lost my clicker, so will you go to the next will you go to the next one?

Um, okay, so this is a scene from Spider-Man, the one that I was referencing, and he comes to this um this really great moment at the end of the movie uh where the whole movie, his heart has been for the girl in the background there.

That's Mary Jane.

And he's wanted, but she hasn't really wanted him.

But now she wants him.

And he understands that because of who he is, he cannot have her.

And he walks away from the woman that he's always wanted.

And this is the last line.

He says, This is my blessing, this is my curse.

Who am I?

Who am I?

I'm Spider-Man.

See with the movie, just I think just so beautifully captured.

He's going, I because I understand who I am, that's even going to impact the the woman that I am not going to pursue.

Who am I?

I'm Spider-Man.

I'll give you another movie that just kind of helps flush it out for me a little bit.

Go to the next um slide.

That one, okay, yeah.

Okay, so this is Lion King.

And I don't mean to be cheesy here, but this has been helpful to me.

You you have Simba who's run off to um live with the boys and akuna matata, no worries, just kind of no responsibility, just live life.

And then this girl, um, is it Nala?

Shows up.

Okay.

But Namala's like Nala, she's showing up.

So um Nala.

Nala shows up, and is she reminding him who he is, or is she giving him a bunch of shoulds?

You need to come back, you need to come back, you should come back, you need to come back, bunch of shoulds, bunch of actions.

Then she's spitting all over Simba.

And Simba's like, basically, I don't want to.

And then he has this moment where uh this call of vision, whatever it is, with Mufasa.

And what does Mufasa say?

You should go back, no?

He says, remember who you are and who you're meant to be, and the Lion King shouldn't make me tear up, but it's about to make me tear up.

Um the the guy who's just living bachelor life, taking whatever path was easy.

When he got to the when he's going, I understand, I remember who I am.

Then he runs back to the conflict.

He he goes back to where he's supposed to be.

Not because somebody was saying, man, you should, you should, you should, but remember who you are.

And this is what Paul is doing, and what the Bible does to he's going, okay, we got problems, and we're not just gonna go straight to solutions.

We're just gonna go, who are you?

And have you been bit, not by a spider, but but bit by the Holy Spirit?

So that so that God would pour forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts where we cry, Abba, Father, have the divine DNA, have everything I need for life and for guidelines because of his spirit who lives in me.

This is who I am.

I've been bought with a price.

So glorify God with my body.

Who do you believe that you are?

So when we go, if you go to the next slide for me.

When we studied Ephesians, Ephesians one made it really easy for us to remember who we are.

Because he said we're chosen and adopted and redeemed and forgiven and informed and sealed as heirs.

We're carfish.

Try to turn that into an acronym.

But here's what I want to give some moments of silent silence for right now, is to just be able to sense where is there a gap between who you are and how you're living.

And what part of those identity statements do you really want to cling to?

Like which of those identity statements about who you are because of Jesus really just goes, man, that's what I need?

It would take a moment of uh a minute to just well actually go to I want us to be able to see the um the yeah, thanks.

To just look over that and go, Lord, could you put your finger on the identity marker that I need?

We prayed it this morning and believed that if any good thing is gonna happen, it's gonna be by his doing.

This is the part where I just am asking that God would whisper into our hearts, hey, this is this is who I want to remind you of, who you are.

And the ones that have continued to stand out to me.

This is from chapter six, what I just read.

I am his washed and purchased servant.

Servants don't need to be special, they don't need to be awesome, they just need to do their job by the strength he supplies.

I'm his washed and purchased servant.

This is me.

I'm his washed and purchased servant.

So be who I am.

In my marriage, in my home, in this body, in private when no one's looking.

I'm his washed and purchased servant.

And the good news about all that as his washed and purchased servant is the end of the book, what we just what we read at the beginning.

1 Corinthians 16, verse 13 to 14.

1 Corinthians 16:13–14

He says in 1 Corinthians 16, 13, he says, be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men.

We talk about this in the podcast last week, if you want to get our thoughts on this.

Act like men and reread this letter and pinpoint one thing that you need to do different.

The chuckles are because I read that wrong.

He didn't say reread this letter so you can pinpoint one thing that you really need to work on.

Here's what he said: be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

Now, uh, this is where the tense of this word actually really makes a difference because it's a passive tense which would be better translated, not be strong, but be strengthened.

Be strengthened.

See, he doesn't say, hey, now that we've looked at all these problems and looked at all these um specific action points, let's just reread the letter, just kind of choose one, we're gonna work on that.

He doesn't do that.

He's he just writes it all about exalting Jesus, about who I am, about how I should respond.

Then he goes like this be strengthened.

Be strengthened.

That is so different than be strong.

Okay, I've been doing my push-ups like I'm supposed to in my New Year's resolution, but if you told me to do a thousand push-ups, um, and I get to a point where I can't go anymore, it won't help me if you go, come on, Will, be strong.

Because there's a point where I'm not strong enough.

You know what I you know what would be helpful?

To be strengthened.

And this is this is what the gospel says.

I'd add one word to the ones that have stood out to me.

Washed, purchased, strengthened servant.

This is who I am.

His washed, purchased, strengthened servant.

This is who I am, and this is who you are if you are in Christ.

And if you are not in Christ, if you've not put your faith in Jesus, then scripture would say you are a child of wrath.

And this is not who you this is only who you pretend to be.

This is who you are.

So if you'll go to the next slide, uh I just want to give us some time to reflect here.

And to ask, where is there inconsistency between who I am and how I'm living?

And to repent, because that's not who I am.

To rejoice, you are still his.

And to be strengthened.

And the best way I know to express being strengthened in a prayer to God is to say, Yes, Lord, help Lord.

Yes, Lord, help Lord.